Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relating X-band SAR Backscattering to Leaf Area Index of Rice in Different Phenological Phases

The objective of this study is to provide complete information on the dynamic relationship between X-band (3.11 cm) backscattering intensity (σ°) and rice crop’s leaf area index (LAI) at all growth phases. Though the relationship between X-band σ° and LAI has been previously explored, details on the relationship at the reproductive phase remain unstudied. LAI at the reproductive phase is important particularly at the heading stage where LAI reaches its maximum as it is closely related to grain yield, and at flowering stage where the total leaf area affects the amount of photosynthates. Therefore, this study examined the relationship of increasing LAI (vegetative to reproductive phase) and decreasing LAI (ripening phase) with TerraSAR-X (TSX) ScanSAR (3.11 cm) σ° at HH polarisation and 45° incidence angle. The results showed a statistically significant (R2 = 0.51, p value < 0.001) non-linear relationship of LAI with σ° at the vegetative to reproductive phase while no significant linear relationship was found at the ripening phase. This study completes the response curve of X-band σ° to LAI by filling in the information on the reproductive phase which more accurately characterises the dynamic relationship between the rice crop’s LAI and X-band’s σ°. This contributes to improved knowledge on the use of X-band data for estimating LAI for the whole crop cycle which is essential for the modelling of crop growth and estimation of yield.
Is the future of aquaculture certified? : an economic and environmental comparison between ASC certified and non-certified shrimp farms in the Mekong Delta

Aquaculture is the fastest growing market in the food sector when compared to other much older terrestrial farming practices, which are a very unexperienced farming technique. Knowledge and technology for aquaculture are developing fast but are lagging behind in implementation in developing countries which have the biggest farming output. A promising tool to create globally a sustainable growth of this sector are international certificates. In this research, one of these certificates is analyzed for its environmental and social sustainability, as well as for its economic aspects. Certified farms and non-certified farms were tested for their sustainability by analyzing the responses to questionnaires that were handed out to farmers. The economic aspect was examined by conducting a cost benefit analysis for certified and non-certified farms. In the end, it became clear that there are no significant economic advantages or disadvantages from getting certified, but the environmental impact as well as the social responsibility for employees and the local area are increased.
Temporal and spatial variation of broadleaf forest flammability in boreal Alaska

The boreal forest is a carbon reservoir containing roughly 40% of the world’s reactive soil carbon, which is mainly cycled by wildland fires. Climate warming in boreal Alaska has changed the wildfire regime such that an increase in broadleaf forest relative to conifer forest is likely, which may reduce landscape flammability. However, the current and future flammability of broadleaf forest in a warming climate is not well understood. We used pre-fire and post-fire geospatial data to investigate the flammability of upland boreal forest patches in Interior Alaska in relation to summer weather conditions. Our objectives were to assess burning of broadleaf forest patches during “Normal” vs. “Large Fire Years”, by week within a fire season, and by topographic position. Using 30-meter land-cover and fire-severity grids, we estimated the flammability of upland broadleaf forest patches during Large and Normal Fire Years. We then tested for topographic effects using a solar radiation index to eliminate potential deviations within the vegetation. Finally, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) hotspots were used to track the spatial extent of burns during the fire season by examining the periods of fire activity and intensity. Flammability of broadleaf forest patches varied both in time and space. Even during Normal Fire Years, broadleaf forest patches exhibited substantial flammability, with a mean of over 50% patch area burned. Patch flammability was significantly higher during Large Fire Years. Burning of broadleaf patches varied with topographic position and correlated with potential insolation. Broadleaf forest patches burned most frequently in late June-early July. Contrary to “conventional wisdom’”, broadleaf forest patches in boreal Alaska are susceptible to burning even during Normal Fire Years. With climate warming, the flammability of broadleaf forest is likely to increase due to more extreme fire weather events. Thus, although the frequency of broadleaf forest patches on the landscape is likely to increase
Classifying Music-Related Actions

Our research on music-related actions is based on the conviction that sensations of both sound and body motion are inseparable in the production and perception of music. The expression "musicrelated actions" is here used to refer to chunks of combined sound and body motion, typically in the duration range of approximately 0.5 to 5 seconds. We believe that chunk-level music-related actions are highly significant for the experience of music, and we are presently working on establishing a database of music-related actions in order to facilitate access to, and research on, our fast growing collection of motion capture data and related material. In this work, we are confronted with a number of perceptual, conceptual and technological issues regarding classification of musicrelated actions, issues that will be presented and discussed in this
A Penalization Method for 2D Ice Accretion Simulations

Numerical tools for 3D in-flight icing simulations are not straightforward to automate when seeking robustness and quality of the results. Difficulties arise from the geometry and mesh updates which need to be treated with care to avoid folding of the geometry, negative volumes or poor mesh quality. This paper aims at solving the mesh update issue by avoiding the re-meshing of the iced geometry. An immersed boundary method (here, penalization) is applied to a 2D ice accretion suite for multi-step icing simulations. The suggested approach starts from a standard body-fitted mesh, thus keeping the same solution for the first icing layer. Then, instead of updating the mesh, a penalization method is applied including: the detection of the immersed boundary, the penalization of the volume solvers to impose the boundary condition and the extraction of the surface data from the field solution. Although the current work is intended for 3D simulations, the content of this paper is limited to 2D applications to show the feasibility of the method. Tests are performed on multi-step rime and glaze ice cases where it is observed that the penalization method is able to produce sensible ice shapes compared to a body-fitted approach. However, accurate results are only achieved if the mesh is a priori refined in the zone where ice accretion is expected. The paper will further discuss the computational time, mesh refinement requirements, accuracy, limitations and recommendations for improvement of the penalization method applied to icing.
Shale gas production: its trade as LNG and prospects for Finland and its industries

Shale gas production has increased rapidly during last years because of advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies. Almost all shale gas is produced in the U.S. but many other countries may follow suit in following years or at least in the coming decades. The global technically recoverable shale gas resources are about 220 tcm that corresponds to 2.2 million TWh in primary energy, being almost 15 times the global annual primary energy consumption. Shale gas resources are wide-spread globally even though over 90% of the technically recoverable shale gas resources are located in 10 countries. There is continuous debate on the environmental effects of shale gas production. The discussion has been focused mainly on greenhouse gas emissions and impact on water resources, and to lesser extent on induced seismicity. New technologies are being developed to decrease consumption of water and chemicals in fracking. The increased shale gas production since 2005 has had an impact on the natural gas markets, especially in the United States. It has also led to increases in coal consumption elsewhere. Shale gas delivered as LNG may offer one alternative energy source for Finland and its industry. Several Finnish companies may benefit from increasing global shale gas and LNG use such as equipment manufacturers, contractors and subcontractors for shale gas and LNG-related projects. ISBN, ISSN ISBN 978-951-38-8224-2 (Soft back ed.) ISBN 978-951-38-8225-9 (URL: http://www.vtt.fi/publications/index.jsp)
State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2019

Carbon pricing plays an important role in tackling climate change as it requires the cost of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to be considered in financial decisions. This levels the playing field between emission-intensive and low-carbon economic activities, triggering more investments in low carbon technologies. Carbon pricing is therefore key to mobilizing the United States (U.S.) 700 billion dollars of incremental investments needed annually by 2030 to transition to a low-carbon economy. The current level of carbon prices is substantially lower than the level that the high-level commission on carbon prices found to be consistent with the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. The report takes stock of the latest trends and developments in carbon pricing initiatives. It covers initiatives that explicitly apply a price on a unit of GHG emission, including emissions trading system (ETSs) - both cap-and-trade and baseline-and-credit systems, carbon taxes, offset mechanisms, and results-based climate finance (RBCF).
Global 3‐D Simulations of the Triple Oxygen Isotope Signature Δ17O in Atmospheric CO2

The triple oxygen isotope signature Δ17O in atmospheric CO2, also known as its “17O excess,” has been proposed as a tracer for gross primary production (the gross uptake of CO2 by vegetation through photosynthesis). We present the first global 3‐D model simulations for Δ17O in atmospheric CO2 together with a detailed model description and sensitivity analyses. In our 3‐D model framework we include the stratospheric source of Δ17O in CO2 and the surface sinks from vegetation, soils, ocean, biomass burning, and fossil fuel combustion. The effect of oxidation of atmospheric CO on Δ17O in CO2 is also included in our model. We estimate that the global mean Δ17O (defined as Δ17O=ln(δ17O+1)−λRL·ln(δ18O+1) with λRL = 0.5229) of CO2 in the lowest 500 m of the atmosphere is 39.6 per meg, which is ∼20 per meg lower than estimates from existing box models. We compare our model results with a measured stratospheric Δ17O in CO2 profile from Sodankylä (Finland), which shows good agreement. In addition, we compare our model results with tropospheric measurements of Δ17O in CO2 from Göttingen (Germany) and Taipei (Taiwan), which shows some agreement but we also find substantial discrepancies that are subsequently discussed. Finally, we show model results for Zotino (Russia), Mauna Loa (United States), Manaus (Brazil), and South Pole, which we propose as possible locations for future measurements of Δ17O in tropospheric CO2 that can help to further increase our understanding of the global budget of Δ17O in atmospheric CO2.
Inter-Satellite Link Enhanced Orbit Determination for BeiDou-3

The third generation of the BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS-3) is a global navigation system, and is expected to be in full operation by 2020. High-precision orbits are a precondition for BDS-3 to provide a highly accurate service, which needs a global tracking and monitoring capability for the operational satellites. However, it is difficult for BDS to construct global ground monitoring stations. Fortunately, Ka-band Inter-Satellite Link (ISL) antennae fitted to the BDS-3 satellites can be used to extend the visible arc of the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites and to enhance the ground stations for orbit determination. This paper analyses the ISL-enhanced orbit determination for eight BDS-3 satellites, using the data from ten Chinese domestic stations and 13 international Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Monitoring and Assessment System (iGMAS) overseas stations. The results show that the Three-Dimensional (3D) position Root Mean Square (RMS) error of the Overlapping Orbit Differences (OODs) is approximately 1 m when only ten regional stations are used. When the ISL measurements are added, the 3D position RMS error is decreased to 0·5 m, and the accuracy of the 24-hour orbit prediction can also be improved from 2 m to 0·7 m, which is even better than that of the orbits determined using globally distributed stations. It can be expected that with the subsequent launch of BDS-3 satellites and the increasing number of ISLs, the advantage of the ISL enhanced orbit determination will become more significant.
Quantifying mean grades and uncertainties from the ratio of service variables: accumulation to thickness. Applied to a phosphate deposit in Southern Mato Grosso, Brazil

Estimating mineral resources of a stratiform mineral deposit is not always a simple activity. Some difficulties can arise in mineral deposits where the thickness is relatively much smaller than the dimensions in the horizontal plane, or because these deposits have suffered events after their genesis, such as thrusts and folds. Usually, in these cases, we use a new variable named accumulation as a product between the average grade and thickness. Then, from these service variables, accumulation and thickness are estimated in a regular grid. Dividing accumulation by thickness, we have the mean grade. However, the mean grade is just an approach because the uncertainties of variables are not considered in this division. This calls for applying the Taylor series to computing, not only the mean grade, but also the associated uncertainty. In this article, we present the satisfactory results of this method applied to quantify the mean grades and uncertainties of the blocks to a stratiform phosphate deposit located in southern Mato Grosso, Brazil.
Access and use of digitised special collections at Midlands State University Library

Abstracts have been used by academic libraries as access tools. These are brief summaries of the most crucial and important parts of an article or a document. Abstracts have been assigned by academic libraries online and within different search engines and websites to enable researchers to have a preview of the research paper or the article before they read or go through the whole document (Cooke, 2001). Abstracts as access tools help users to deduce whether the whole document is relevant to his or her research. Abstracts help users to identify information that pertains specifically to their researches or interests. Apart from integrating abstracts to popular internet search engines, academic libraries have used abstracting services such as CAB Abstracts (Liyana, Shuib and Abdullah, 2010). s have been used by academic libraries as access tools. These are brief summaries of the most crucial and important parts of an article or a document. Abstracts have been assigned by academic libraries online and within different search engines and websites to enable researchers to have a preview of the research paper or the article before they read or go through the whole document (Cooke, 2001). Abstracts as access tools help users to deduce whether the whole document is relevant to his or her research. Abstracts help users to identify information that pertains specifically to their researches or interests. Apart from integrating abstracts to popular internet search engines, academic libraries have used abstracting services such as CAB Abstracts (Liyana, Shuib and Abdullah, 2010).
A 3-D point clouds scanning and registration methodology for automatic object digitization

Abstract The article presents a robot 3-D scanning system for generation of 3-D point clouds of an object by using multi-view 3-D scanning and novel data registration. Our approach mainly comprises two important elements in the determination of next best probe pose and multiple-view point clouds registration. A novel technique is proposed to register 3-D object scene with overlapped or stacked condition. Under this scenario, conventional registration methods such as the iterative closest point algorithm usually fail to converge to a global minimum when a good initial estimate for image registration does not exist. Our proposed technique uses a 3-D scanner to be mounted on a six degree of freedom-articulated industrial robot. It keeps moving probe continuously in the working range against the object and autonomously varying the probe with various gestures required for complete object scanning and for achieving best 3-D sensing accuracy. The robot scanning path is determined through a proposed algorithm using information from the latest scanning data and registered result of the object. The developed method has been verified through experimental tests for its feasibility test. It confirms that the registration accuracy with one standard deviation can be controlled within 0.323 mm when the objects underlying reconstruction are in range of hundreds of millimeters.
Concevoir et partager des workflows d’analyse de données : application aux traitements intensifs en bioinformatique

Dans le cadre d'une demarche d'Open science, nous nous interessons aux systemes de gestion de workflows (WfMS) scientifiques et a leurs applications pour l'analyse de donnees intensive en bioinformatique. Nous partons de l'hypothese que les WfMS peuvent evoluer pour devenir des plates-formes pivots capables d'accelerer la mise au point et la diffusion de methodes d'analyses innovantes. Elles pourraient capter et federer autour d'une thematique disciplinaire non seulement le public actuel des consommateurs de services mais aussi celui des producteurs de services. Pour cela, nous considerons que ces environnements doivent a la fois etre adaptes aux pratiques des scientifiques concepteurs de methodes et fournir un gain de productivite durant la conception et le traitement. Ces contraintes nous amenent a etudier la capture rapide des workflows, la simplification de l'integration des tâches techniques, comme le parallelisme necessaire au haut-debit, et la personnalisation du deploiement. Tout d'abord, nous avons defini un langage graphique DataFlow expressif, adapte a la capture rapide des workflows. Celui-ci est interpretable par un moteur de workflows base sur un nouveau modele de calcul dote de performances elevees, obtenues par l'exploitation des multiples niveaux de parallelisme. Nous presentons ensuite une approche de conception orientee modele qui facilite la generation du parallelisme de donnees et la production d'implementations adaptees a differents contextes d'execution. Nous decrivons notamment l'integration d'un metamodele des composants et des plates-formes, employe pour automatiser la configuration des dependances des workflows. Enfin, dans le cas du modele Container as a Service (CaaS), nous avons elabore une specification de workflows intrinsequement diffusable et re-executable. L'adoption de ce type de modele pourrait deboucher sur une acceleration des echanges et de la mise a disposition des chaines de traitements d'analyse de donnees.
Developing System Dynamics Model for Assessing Restoration Plans in Water Management; Case study Urmia Lake, Iran

Finding management practices to achieve sustainable ecological status of the Urmia Lake is necessary. In this study, impact of different plans under climate change were assessed using system dynamics. Therefore firstly GCM models were downscaled by using LARS-WG model. The results indicated that the basin would get warmer from 2011-2030 and there will be an increasing trend in rainfall in autumn and winter, and a decreasing trend in spring and summer. Four restoration plans were considered separately and then simultaneously in VENSIM environment. The simulation results revealed that none of the single plans are suitable. Among the hybrid plans, increasing the efficiency of irrigation, changing crop patterns and reducing cultivated areas, was the most sustainable one. The results indicated that after 47 months from applying this plan, lake level will achieve the ecological level. This SD model can help watershed managers to take necessary measures to restore this ecosystem.
Urban landslide monitoring by combined use of multiple methodologies - a case study on Sv. Anton town, Slovakia

ABSTRACT We employed integrated methods to assess the landslide movement in Sv. Anton town in the Western Carpathians Neogene Volcanic Field (Central Slovakia). The integrated diagnostics required study of the landslide kinematic activity by a combination of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) imaging from November 2013 to March 2015. A topographic model with 2-cm accuracy was constructed from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) photogrammetry. Continuous spatial datasets of movement and displacement field vectors were interpolated from the measured movements over the entire study period. Although deformation studies in Slovakia have a long-term tradition, complex interdisciplinary studies in urbanized areas are still lacking. This inspired our main objectives: to identify landslide kinematics and to reconstruct and define the rates of annual landslide movement obtained from geodetic measurement at the monitoring points. Our results demonstrate how landslide integrated diagnostics contribute to the detection of slope instability, with a maximum velocity of 60.82 mm/yr during the summer period. The precipitation effects are consistent with the Sv. Anton landslide displacement acceleration, and the following increases in total monthly precipitations are staggering compared to long-term monthly averages: July precipitation increased by 175.3%, August by 203.3%, and September by 198.1%.
An Introduction To Survey Research Polling And Data Analysis

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