bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Impact of E-Readers and E-Books on the Library of Congress and the US Copyright Office
Authors: Artiles Michael , Beaulieu Christian , Carey Samantha , Danza Madeline , Gatian Andrew , Gavin Alexa , Greco Albert N. , Jameson Alexandra , McWilliams Adam , Samuelson Kristen , Wharton Robert M.
Published: September 2013

Consumer acceptance of e-readers, tablets, and e-books has been covered extensively by the press. These trends have been a significant business opportunity for some authors, publishers, e-reader or tablet manufacturers, or distributors because a new market has emerged and ‘new’ readers have been attracted to the portability and the price of e-readers and e-books. But there is a ‘dark side of the moon.’ E-readers and e-books have emerged as ‘disruptive technologies,’ resulting in a reduction in the number of book outlets and printed books sold in the United States. In this research paper, we investigate the current and potential impact of e-books on the Library of Congress and the US Copyright Office, including the budgets, staffing, and operations of the Library of Congress and the US Copyright Office, and the need to digitize the vast book collection of the Library of Congress. This paper presents a series of recommendations for both the Library of Congress and the US Copyright Office.
‘Little Story Books’ and ‘Small Pamphlets’ in Edinburgh, 1680–1760: The Making of the Scottish Chapbook
Authors: Fox Adam
Published: September 2013

This article considers the development of the ‘chapbook’ in Scotland between 1680 and 1760. Chapbook is here defined as a publication using a single sheet of paper, printed on both sides, and folded into octavo size or smaller. The discussion focuses on production in Edinburgh which at this time was the centre of the Scottish book trade. While very few works were produced in these small formats in the city before the last quarter of the seventeenth century, the three generations thereafter witnessed their emergence as an important part of the market. This chapbook literature included ‘penny godlies’ and ‘story books’, poems and songs, which had long been staples of the London trade. Indeed, much output north of the border comprised titles pirated from the south. It is suggested, however, that an independent repertoire of distinctively Scottish material also began to flourish during this period which paved the way for the heyday of the nation's chapbook in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Edinburgh trade is shown to be much more extensive than has been appreciated hitherto. Discovery of the testament of Robert Drummond, the Edinburgh printer who died in 1752, reveals that he produced many such works that are no longer extant. It demonstrates not only that a number of classic English chapbooks were being reprinted in Scotland much earlier than otherwise known, but also that an indigenous Scottish output was well established before the reign of George III.
Hell-Raising and Hair-Razing: Violent Robbery in Nineteenth-Century Scotland
Authors: Kilday Anne-Marie
Published: September 2013

This piece investigates trends in criminal prosecutions in nineteenth-century Scotland and considers whether fears of a crime epidemic which were prevalent in England at that time were also relevant in the northern context. Using legal prosecutions for robbery more specifically, the article offers an analysis of indictment trends which suggests the existence of a paradox in Scottish criminality, where in a context of heightened awareness and intensified concern about criminality (especially in relation to violent offences) the incidence of this type of criminality declined after the mid-point of the century. The piece also offers an investigation of the nature and incidence of robbery in Scotland during the nineteenth century and determines how the crime was carried out, by whom, and for what purpose. Comparisons are drawn between the Scottish and English experience of violent theft in order to establish certain distinctive characteristics about how robbery was committed north of the Tweed and to reason why a wider and more detailed analysis of crime in nineteenth-century Scotland is warranted. Finally, the article offers some explanations for the decline in robbery and other violent offences in Scotland after 1850, including reference to the ‘civilising process’ hypothesis which merits closer attention in the context of Scottish criminal history.
Framing the Sun and Buildings as Commons
Authors: Brownson Jeffrey
Published: September 2013

This study frames integration of Solar Energy Conversion Systems (SECS) with the built environment, addressing on-site limitations for resource allocation in the urban context. The Sun, buildings, and solar technologies are investigated as resource systems within Ostrom’s framework of the commons and shared governance, with associated goods (as resource units) appropriated from light conversion (products of daylight, heat, power, shade, money). Light is transient and unevenly distributed across the hours of the day across the year. Building surfaces utilized to convert light into useful products such as electricity are often “area-constrained” and cannot provide total power to all occupants in urban structures. Being unevenly distributed over time and being area-constrained makes the appropriated goods from the solar resource system scarce to commercial buildings and multi-family residences. Scarce commodities require management strategies to distribute the variable returns derived from technologies such as PV and solar hot water. The balance between sustainable urban communities and limited surface area to deliver solar products to all occupants will soon drive communities to consider how the solar goods are managed and allocated. Examples demonstrate management of solar resource and associated goods through collective actions of local communities via utility sponsored models, solar gardens, and crowd-sourced investment.
Evolving Black Hole Horizons in General Relativity and Alternative Gravity
Authors: Faraoni Valerio
Published: September 2013

From the microscopic point of view, realistic black holes are time-dependent and the teleological concept of the event horizon fails. At present, the apparent or trapping horizon seem to be its best replacements in various areas of black hole physics. We discuss the known phenomenology of apparent and trapping horizons for analytical solutions of General Relativity and alternative theories of gravity. These specific examples (we focus on spherically symmetric inhomogeneities in a background cosmological spacetime) are useful as toy models for research on various aspects of black hole physics.
Disparities and Menthol Marketing: Additional Evidence in Support of Point of Sale Policies
Authors: Moreland-Russell Sarah , Harris Jenine , Snider Doneisha , Walsh Heidi , Cyr Julianne , Barnoya Joaquin
Published: September 2013

This study examined factors associated with point-of-sale tobacco marketing in St. Louis, an urban city in the United States. Using spatial analysis, descriptive statistics, and multilevel modeling, we examined point-of-sale data and the proportion of mentholated cigarette and total cigarette marketing from 342 individual tobacco retail stores within St. Louis census tracts characterized by the percent of black adults and children. Menthol and total tobacco product marketing was highest in areas with the highest percentages of black residents. When examining menthol marketing to children, we did not find as strong of a relationship, however results of multilevel modeling indicate that as the proportion of black children in a census tract increased, the proportion of menthol marketing near candy also increased. These results indicate the need for communities globally to counter this targeted marketing by taking policy action specifically through the enactment of marketing restrictions provided by the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act and the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control.
Mechanisms of Chemical Carcinogenesis in the Kidneys
Authors: Radford Robert , Frain Helena , Ryan Michael , Slattery Craig , McMorrow Tara
Published: September 2013

Chemical carcinogens are substances which induce malignant tumours, increase their incidence or decrease the time taken for tumour formation. Often, exposure to chemical carcinogens results in tissue specific patterns of tumorigenicity. The very same anatomical, biochemical and physiological specialisations which permit the kidney to perform its vital roles in maintaining tissue homeostasis may in fact increase the risk of carcinogen exposure and contribute to the organ specific carcinogenicity observed with numerous kidney carcinogens. This review will address the numerous mechanisms which play a role in the concentration, bioactivation, and uptake of substances from both the urine and blood which significantly increase the risk of cancer in the kidney.
Addressing the Complexities of Boundary Work in Sustainability Science through Communication
Authors: McGreavy Bridie , Hutchins Karen , Smith Hollie , Lindenfeld Laura , Silka Linda
Published: September 2013

Sustainability science seeks to identify and implement workable solutions to complex problems. This transdisciplinary approach advances a commitment to work across boundaries that occur among individuals, disciplines, and institutions to build capacities for informed and innovative decision making in the face of uncertainty and change. The concept of boundary work and related discussions of boundary objects and organizations are important, expanding focal areas within sustainability science. While communication is described as central to boundary work, insights from the field of communication have largely yet to inform theorizing about boundaries within sustainability science. In this paper, we highlight three communication perspectives, namely media studies, collaboration and partnerships, and systems theories, which are particularly relevant for understanding how boundaries form, the social context in which boundary work occurs, and informed strategies for enhanced boundary spanning and management. We use three case studies to illustrate how communication theories and methods provide dynamic and strategic lenses within transdisciplinary processes to enable collaborators to build capacity for change, sustain critical and reflective inquiry, and approach difference as generative in collective efforts to produce sustainability.
A Clinical Study Shows Safety and Efficacy of Autologous Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cell Therapy to Improve Quality of Life in Muscular Dystrophy Patients
Authors: Sharma Alok , Sane Hemangi , Badhe Prerna , Gokulchandran Nandini , Kulkarni Pooja , Lohiya Mamta , Biju Hema , Jacob V. C.
Published: September 2013

Muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder with no definite cure. A study was carried out on 150 patients diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. These included Duchenne muscular dystrophy, limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, and Becker muscular dystrophy variants. They were administered autologous bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells intrathecally and intramuscularly at the motor points of the antigravity weak muscles followed by vigorous rehabilitation therapy. No significant adverse events were noted. Assessment after transplantation showed neurological improvements in trunk muscle strength, limb strength on manual muscle testing, gait improvements, and a favorable shift on assessment scales such as the Functional Independence Measure and the Brooke and Vignos Scales. Furthermore, imaging and electrophysiological studies also showed significant changes in selective cases. On a mean follow-up of 12 ± 1 months, overall 86.67% cases showed symptomatic and functional improvements, with six patients showing changes with respect to muscle regeneration and a decrease in fatty infiltration on musculoskeletal magnetic resonance imaging and nine showing improved muscle electrical activity on electromyography. Fifty-three percent of the cases showed an increase in trunk muscle strength, 48% showed an increase in upper limb strength, 59% showed an increase in lower limb strength, and approximately 10% showed improved gait. These data were statistically analyzed using Student's paired t test and found to be significant. The results show that this treatment is safe and efficacious and also improves the quality of life of patients having muscular dystrophy. This manuscript is published as part of the International Association of Neurorestoratology (IANR) supplement issue of Cell Transplantation.
Stereoselective synthesis of the C79–C97 fragment of symbiodinolide
Authors: Takamura Hiroyoshi , Fujiwara Takayuki , Kadota Isao , Uemura Daisuke
Published: September 2013

Symbiodinolide is a polyol marine natural product with a molecular weight of 2860. Herein, a streamlined synthesis of the C79–C97 fragment of symbiodinolide is described. In the synthetic route, a spiroacetalization, a Julia–Kocienski olefination, and a Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation were utilized as the key transformations.
An approach towards azafuranomycin analogs by gold-catalyzed cycloisomerization of allenes: synthesis of (αS,2R)-(2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrol-2-yl)glycine
Authors: Erdsack Jörg , Krause Norbert
Published: September 2013

The synthesis of (αS,2R)-(2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrol-2-yl)glycine (22, normethylazafuranomycin) by the gold-catalyzed cycloisomerization of α-aminoallene 17 is described. The target molecule was synthesized in 13 linear steps from Cbz-protected Garner aldehyde (R)-2 in an overall yield of 2.4%. The approach was first examined in model studies, which afforded the alkylated azafuranomycin derivative 13a in 2.9% yield over 12 steps.
Improving Interaction with TV-Based Applications through Adaptive Multimodal Fission
Authors: Costa David , Duarte Carlos
Published: September 2013

In this chapter, the authors describe the design and implementation of an adaptive multimodal fission component integrated in the multimodal GUIDE framework. This component is able to adapt any HTML-based application’s UI to a specific user’s characteristics, making it possible for elderly and impaired users to interact by offering several output modalities that try to overcome possible interaction difficulties. They also present an evaluation of the proposed solution, conducted with more than 50 participants, that shows the efficiency of multimodal adaptation in increasing task perception and task execution.
Developing Emotion-Libras 2.0
Authors: Prietch Soraia Silva , Filgueiras Lucia Vilela Leite
Published: September 2013

An important issue in the capture of the real user experience while interacting with technology is the ability to assess emotional quality. There are several methods for emotional quality evaluation in the literature. However, when the target users are deaf participants, communication problems arise. A substantial part of the deaf community communicates in sign language. Because user experience researchers are seldom fluent in sign language, they require the assistance of an interpreter whenever users are deaf signers. Evaluation of emotional quality may lose accuracy because of the mediation of an interpreter; consequently, emotional quality evaluation requires a special instrument that can be used in an intuitive and independent way by researchers and their deaf subjects. The authors present the process of creation and improvement of Emotion-Libras, an instrument for assessing the emotional quality of people with hearing disabilities when interacting with technology.
Enhancing the Acquisition of Social Skills through the Interactivity of Multimedia
Authors: Mandasari Vivi , Theng Lau Bee
Published: September 2013

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a group of neuro-developmental disorders caused by brain abnormalities which result in impaired social story. Research on treatment in helping children with ASD to improve social story is growing as the cases of children diagnosed with ASD are on the rise. Social story is one of the proven methods of treatment in helping children with ASD to acquire social story through scenarios written in the form of stories. However, the current approaches to present the social story lack interactivity, consuming more intensive efforts to acquire the social story. Learning is most effectual when motivated; thus, the purpose of this study is to discover a learning tool that children with ASD will be motivated to learn independently, and it is achievable by combining elements that they are interested in. This research utilizes the interactivity of multimedia as a medium to present an interactive pedagogical tool for children with ASD to acquire social story. This combination is anticipated to be an effective tool in teaching social story to children with ASD, as they are naturally drawn to computers and visual cues, combined with the fact that Social Story™ has been effective in changing the social behavior of children with ASD. Thus, this study has contributed to the emergent research of treatment for children with ASD in social story acquisition. The result of this study is important as it presents a novel assistance that can be used effectively in assisting children with ASD to improve their main deficit, social story.
Players’ Experience in a Sport Geocaching Game
Authors: Ihamäki Pirita , Luimula Mika
Published: September 2013

Geocaching is a multiplayer outdoor sports game. There is a lack of extensive research on this game, and there is a need for more academic research on this game and its application to other contexts worldwide. There are about 5 million people participating in the geocaching game in 220 different countries worldwide. The geocaching game is interesting because the players create it. The players’ role in game design increases its value in human-centred design research. Digital games are a prevalent form of entertainment in which the purpose of the design is to engage the players. This case study was carried out with 52 Finnish geocachers as an Internet survey. The purpose of this conceptual analysis is to investigate how the geocaching sports game might inform game design by looking at player experiences, devices, and techniques that support problem solving within complex environments. Specifically, this analysis presents a brief overview of the geocaching sports game, its role in popular adventure game design, and an analysis of the underlying players’ experiences and enjoyment as a structure to be used in game design.
Seamless Interfacing
Authors: Puls Stephan , Wörn Heinz
Published: September 2013

Intuitive means of human-machine interaction are needed in order to facilitate seamless human-robot cooperation. Knowledge about human posture, whereabouts, and performed actions allows interpretation of the situation. Thus, expectations towards system behavior can be inferred. This work demonstrates a system in an industrial setting that combines all this information in order to achieve situation awareness. The continuous human action recognition is based on hierarchical Hidden Markov Models. For identifying and predicting human location, an approach based on potential functions is presented. The recognition results and spatial information are used in combination with a Description Logics-based reasoning system for modeling semantic interrelations, dependencies, and situations.
Experience Prototyping
Authors: Keane Ken , Nisi Valentina
Published: September 2013

In this chapter, the authors discuss Experience Prototyping as an appropriate research tool for capturing people’s stories related to physical places. It is difficult to explore subjective experiences through strict conventional prototyping methods within a lab; therefore, the authors argue the need for innovative research techniques especially when designing interactive systems where mobility, context, and people play a fundamental role. They discuss the methodology of “Experience Prototyping,” which is used to gather insight in a research project, and also what advantages such method brings to a user-centered process. The authors present some reflections and themes that emerged from using experience prototypes, and how they contribute to our understanding of the relationship between spatial narrative and place, and in particular how they may be used as an interaction resource towards discovery and sharing of “place.” In doing so, they offer a basis for discussion on how to co-design technologically mediated experiences together with users of such spaces. Finally, the authors discuss how this method informed the design of “The Breadcrumbs” application.
Strategy to Support the Memorization of Iconic Passwords
Authors: Ávila Ismael , Menezes Ewerton , Braga Alexandre Melo
Published: September 2013

In this chapter, the authors discuss the application of iconic passwords in authentication solutions aimed at the use of smartphones as payment devices. They seek a trade-off between security and usability by means of memorization strategies based on human memory skills. The authors present a first approach to the authentication solution, which was tested with users and compared with a previous scheme that lacked the strategies. The advantages and limitations of the proposed solution, along with future research directions, are then discussed.
Anticipation Dialogue Method in Participatory Design
Authors: Laarni Jari , Aaltonen Iina
Published: September 2013

In the design of complex information systems and social practices for different domains a balance between theory-driven and practice-driven approaches is at best developed in a collaborative communication process between designers, researchers, and other actors. The authors have developed the Anticipation Design Dialogue method within the context of participatory design, which is based on dialogic communication between different stakeholders. A dialogic relationship between them takes place in future workshops in which experiences of different stakeholders are integrated in a way that makes it possible to illustrate the situation from different perspectives. The workshop participants develop in small groups a vision of the future state in which the situation is imagined from the future perspective by considering which kind of problems they have at the moment and by which way the problems could be managed in the future. Secondly, reflective thinking is promoted by letting each group at the time present their ideas while others are listening. The authors have found that the development of mutual understanding between different stakeholders in these kinds of workshops is a complex process that needs time, and therefore, an iterative series of workshops is recommended.
Transportation Cost Inequalities for Neutral Functional Stochastic Equations
Authors: Bao Jianhai , Wang Feng-Yu , Yuan Chenggui
Published: September 2013

By using Girsanov transformation and martingale representation, transportation cost inequalities with respect to both the uniform and the

L^2

-distances on the global free path space are established for the segment process associated to a class of neutral functional stochastic differential equations. Neutral functional stochastic partial differential equations are also investigated.
SUPERVISED CLASSIFICATION OF POLARIMETRIC SAR IMAGERY USING TEMPORAL AND CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION
Authors: Dargahi A. , Maghsoudi Y. , Abkar A. A.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. Using the context as a source of ancillary information in classification process provides a powerful tool to obtain better class discrimination. Modelling context using Markov Random Fields (MRFs) and combining with Bayesian approach, a context-based supervised classification method is proposed. In this framework, to have a full use of the statistical a priori knowledge of the data, the spatial relation of the neighbouring pixels was used. The proposed context-based algorithm combines a Gaussian-based wishart distribution of PolSAR images with temporal and contextual information. This combination was done through the Bayes decision theory: the class-conditional probability density function and the prior probability are modelled by the wishart distribution and the MRF model. Given the complexity and similarity of classes, in order to enhance the class separation, simultaneously two PolSAR images from two different seasons (leaf-on and leaf-off) were used. According to the achieved results, the maximum improvement in the overall accuracy of classification using WMRF (Combining Wishart and MRF) compared to the wishart classifier when the leaf-on image was used. The highest accuracy obtained was when using the combined datasets. In this case, the overall accuracy of the wishart and WMRF methods were 72.66% and 78.95% respectively.
Application of radar polarimetry techniques for retrieval snow and rain characteristics in remote sensing
Authors: Darvishi M. , Ahmadi Gh. R.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. The presence of snow cover has significant impacts on the both global and regional climate and water balance on earth. The accurate estimation of snow cover area can be used for forecasting runoff due to snow melt and output of hydroelectric power. With development of remote sensing techniques at different scopes in earth science, enormous algorithms for retrieval hydrometeor parameters have been developed. Some of these algorithms are used to provide snow cover map such as NLR with AVHRR/MODIS sensor for Norway, Finnish with AVHRR sensor for Finland and NASA with MODIS sensor for global maps. Monitoring snow cover at different parts of spectral electromagnetic is detectable (visible, near and thermal infrared, passive and active microwave). Recently, specific capabilities of active microwave remote sensing such as snow extent map, snow depth, snow water equivalent (SWE), snow state (wet/dry) and discrimination between rain and snow region were given a strong impetus for using this technology in snow monitoring, hydrology, climatology, avalanche research and etc. This paper evaluates the potentials and feasibility of polarimetric ground microwave measurements of snow in active remote sensing field. We will consider the behavior co- and cross-polarized backscattering coefficients of snowpack response with polarimetric scatterometer in Ku and L band at the different incident angles. Then we will show how to retrieve snow cover depth, snow permittivity and density parameters at the local scale with ground-based SAR (GB-SAR). Finally, for the sake of remarkable significant the transition region between rain and snow; the variables role of horizontal reflectivity (ZHH) and differential reflectivity (ZDR) in delineation boundary between snow and rain and some others important variables at polarimetric weather radar are presented.
SEPERATION OF IKONOS SENSOR’S ELECTRONIC NOISE FROM ATMOSPHERIC INDUCED EFFECTS
Authors: Mobashery M. R. , Dastfard M.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. The quality of satellite images has always been of particular importance in remote sensing. Signals received from satellite sensors include some signals other than those of target signal that may be classified totally as the atmospheric effect and the sensor induced noise. Separating non-target signals and attempting in removing them from images is essential. One method for measuring and removing non-target signals is that of atmospheric correction by Dark Object Subtraction (DOS). This method is based on the sensor’s output for the targets that should have almost zero reflectance in a given band. Next, the obtained value will be deducted from the remaining pixels values; regardless of the type of the sensors. Each Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) has its own noise behavior; therefore, the amount deducted values from each pixel can be different for each CCD unit and type. Among the various noises of the CCD and their related electronic circuits, dark current noise, non-uniform pixels noise and read noise were selected to be studied in this paper. The data were obtained from multispectral sensor images of IKONOS. This sensor can provide images in two forms of Panchromatic (PAN) and Multispectral (MS). The results of this study showed that the amount of dark object pixels and the total amount of CCD noises in each band are different. Separation of the noises introduced in this paper from the amount of dark object pixel values can result in an upgraded method for image atmosphere corrections.
CANOPY DENSITY MAPPING ON ULTRACAM-D AERIAL IMAGERY IN ZAGROS WOODLANDS, IRAN
Authors: Erfanifard Y. , Khodaee Z.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. Canopy density maps express different characteristics of forest stands, especially in woodlands. Obtaining such maps by field measurements is so expensive and time-consuming. It seems necessary to find suitable techniques to produce these maps to be used in sustainable management of woodland ecosystems. In this research, a robust procedure was suggested to obtain these maps by very high spatial resolution aerial imagery. It was aimed to produce canopy density maps by UltraCam-D aerial imagery, newly taken in Zagros woodlands by Iran National Geographic Organization (NGO), in this study. A 30 ha plot of Persian oak (Quercus persica) coppice trees was selected in Zagros woodlands, Iran. The very high spatial resolution aerial imagery of the plot purchased from NGO, was classified by kNN technique and the tree crowns were extracted precisely. The canopy density was determined in each cell of different meshes with different sizes overlaid on the study area map. The accuracy of the final maps was investigated by the ground truth obtained by complete field measurements. The results showed that the proposed method of obtaining canopy density maps was efficient enough in the study area. The final canopy density map obtained by a mesh with 30 Ar (3000 m2) cell size had 80% overall accuracy and 0.61 KHAT coefficient of agreement which shows a great agreement with the observed samples. This method can also be tested in other case studies to reveal its capability in canopy density map production in woodlands.
MONITORING OF SNOW COVER VARIATION USING MODIS SNOW PRODUCT
Authors: Fayaz N. , Vazifedoust M. , Araghinejad S.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. Snow is one of the integral components of hydrological and climatic systems. Needless to say, snow cover areas (SCA) are considered as indispensable input of hydrological and general circulation models. Studying the spatial and temporal variability of SCA is of the paramount importance for tremendous variety of research such as climate change, water supply and properly managing water resources. In this study by means of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow cover product, the variation of snow cover extent (SCE) in Karoun basin located in western part of Iran is evaluated for twelve years' duration; since 2000 to 2012. The results show that the paramount occurrence of SCE is observed during February months of 2003, 2010 and 2011 as well as during December months of 2006 and 2009.The utmost occurrence of SCE is considered during January months of the other remaining years. Annual average shows that SCE varies from 11% in 2011 to 22% in 2006. According to Mann-Kendal trend test, throughout twelve years; 2000 to 2012, a majority of the pixels in the study area have no considerable trend although there is a decreasing trend on a small portion of the pixels located in the eastern part the study domain.
KERNEL-BASED UNSUPERVISED CHANGE DETECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS USING MULTI-TEMPORAL POLARIMETRIC SAR DATA
Authors: Fazel M. A. , Homayouni S. , Amini J.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. Unsupervised change detection of agricultural lands in seasonal and annual periods is necessary for farming activities and yield estimation. Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) data due to their special characteristics are a powerful source to study temporal behaviour of land cover types. PolSAR data allows building up the powerful observations sensitive to the shape, orientation and dielectric properties of scatterers and allows the development of physical models for identification and separation of scattering mechanisms occurring inside the same region of observed lands. In this paper an unsupervised kernel-based method is introduced for agricultural change detection by PolSAR data. This method works by transforming data into higher dimensional space by kernel functions and clustering them in this space. Kernel based c-means clustering algorithm is employed to separate the changes classes from the no-changes. This method is a non-linear algorithm which considers the contextual information of observations. Using the kernel functions helps to make the non-linear features more separable in a linear space. In addition, use of eigenvectors' parameters as a polarimetric target decomposition technique helps us to consider and benefit physical properties of targets in the PolSAR change detection. Using kernel based c-means clustering with proper initialization of the algorithm makes this approach lead to great results in change detection paradigm.
USING MULTI RESOLUTION CENSUS AND RANKLET TRANSFORMATION IN LONG BASE LINE SAR IMAGE MATCHING
Authors: Ghannadi M. A. , Saadat Seresht M. , Motagh M. , Eftekhari A.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. Stereo radargrammetry is a mature technique for deriving height information from SAR image pairs. Generally height derived method by Radargrammetry consists of two stages: Images matching and space intersection. In this paper we propose a multi-step image matching algorithm founded on feature based matching. In this multi step algorithm, a SAR image is firstly filtered by a speckle suppression algorithm. a SIFT (Scale invariant feature transform) is used to extract feature points. Then we use non parametric Transformation as discriptor for the points extracted. Matching is sometimes more efficient when operating on image signals that have been transformed in some way, rather than operating on the pure intensity values themselves; In this article we use a pair of spotlight long base line TerraSAR-X images from JAM (IRAN). In a part with 700 × 700 pixels of these images 90 points are matched with using Ranklet algorithm. The mean absolute error of the corresponding points is 0.9 pixel. This match points number is 49 points with using multi resolution Census. The result shows that our proposed multi step image matching is superior to the Most FBM methods in terms of accuracy and number of matched points.
Fusion of ALS Point Cloud and Optical Imagery for 3D Reconstruction of Building's Roof
Authors: Hujebri B. , Samadzadegan F. , Arefi H.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. Three-dimensional building models are important in various applications such as disaster management and urban planning. In this paper a method based on fusion of LiDAR point cloud and aerial image data sources has been proposed. Firstly using 2D map, the point set relevant to each building separated from the overall LiDAR point cloud. In the next step, the mean shift clustering algorithm applied to the points of different buildings in the feature space. Finally the segmentation stage ended with the separation of parallel and coplanar segments. Then using the adjacency matrix, adjacent segments are intersected and inner vertices are determined. In the other space, the area of any building cropped in the image space and the mean shift algorithm applied to it. Then, the lines of roof’s outline edge extracted by the Hough transform algorithm and the points obtained from the intersection of these lines transformed to the ground space. Finally, by integration of structural points of intersected adjacent facets and the transformed points from image space, reconstruction performed. In order to evaluate the efficiency of proposed method, buildings with different shapes and different level of complexity selected and the results of the 3D model reconstruction evaluated. The results showed credible efficiency of method for different buildings.
TRAFFIC FLOW ESTIMATION FROM SINGLE SATELLITE IMAGES
Authors: Krauß T. , Stätter R. , Philipp R. , Bräuninger S.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. Exploiting a special focal plane assembly of most satellites allows for the extraction of moving objects from only one multispectral satellite image. Push broom scanners as used on most earth observation satellites are composed of usually more than one CCD line – mostly one for multispectral and one for panchromatic acquisistion. Some sensors even have clearly separated CCD lines for different multispectral channels. Such satellites are for example WorldView-2 or RapidEye. During the Level-0-processing of the satellite data these bands get coregistered on the same ground level which leads to correct multispectral and exactly fitting pan images. But if objects are very high above the coregistering plane or are moving significantly in between the short acquisition time gap these objects get registered on different points in different channels. Measuring relative distances of these objects between these channels and knowing the acquisition time gap allows retrieving the speed of the objects or the height above the coregistering plane. In this paper we present our developed method in general for different satellite systems – namely RapidEye, WorldView-2 and the new Pl´eiades system. The main challenge in most cases is nevertheless the missing knowledge of the acquisition time gap between the different CCD lines and often even of the focal plane assembly. So we also present our approach to receive a coarse focal plane assembly model together with a most likely estimation of the acqusition time gaps for the different systems.
FUSION OF MULTI-RESOLUTION DIGITAL SURFACE MODELS
Authors: Kuschk G. , d'Angelo P.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. This paper proposes an algorithm for fusing digital surface models (DSM) obtained by heterogenous sensors. Based upon prior confidence knowledge, each DSM can be weighted locally adaptively and therefore strengthen or lessen its influence on the fused result. The proposed algorithm is based on variational methods of first and second order, minimizing a global energy functional comprising of a data term forcing the resulting DSM being similar to all of the input height information and incorporating additional local smoothness constraints. By applying these additional constraints in the form of favoring low gradients in the spatial direction, the surface model is forced to be locally smooth and in contrast to simple mean or median based fusion of the height information, this global formulation of context-awareness reduced the noise level of the result significantly. Minimization of the global energy functional is done with respect to the L1 norm and therefore is robust to large height differences in the data, which preserves sharp edges and fine details in the fused surface model, which again simple mean- and median-based methods are not able to do in comparable quality. Due to the convexity of the framed energy functional, the solution furthermore is guaranteed to converge towards the global energy minimum. The accuracy of the algorithms and the quality of the resulting fused surface models is evaluated using synthetic datasets and real world spaceborne datasets from different optical satellite sensors.
AGRICULTURAL LAND CLASSIFICATION BASED ON STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF FULL POLARIMETRIC SAR DATA
Authors: Mahdian M. , Homayouni S. , Fazel M. A. , Mohammadimanesh F.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. The discrimination capability of Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) data makes them a unique source of information with a significant contribution in tackling problems concerning environmental applications. One of the most important applications of these data is land cover classification of the earth surface. These data type, make more detailed classification of phenomena by using the physical parameters and scattering mechanisms. In this paper, we have proposed a contextual unsupervised classification approach for full PolSAR data, which allows the use of multiple sources of statistical evidence. Expectation-Maximization (EM) classification algorithm is basically performed to estimate land cover classes. The EM algorithm is an iterative algorithm that formalizes the problem of parameters estimation of a mixture distribution. To represent the statistical properties and integrate contextual information of the associated image data in the analysis process we used Markov random field (MRF) modelling technique. This model is developed by formulating the maximum posteriori decision rule as the minimization of suitable energy functions. For select optimum distribution which adapts the data more efficiently we used Mellin transform which is a natural analytical tool to study the distribution of products and quotients of independent random variables. Our proposed classification method is applied to a full polarimetric L-band dataset acquired from an agricultural region in Winnipeg, Canada. We evaluate the classification performance based on kappa and overall accuracies of the proposed approach and compared with other well-known classic methods.
CORRECTION OF ATMOSPHERIC HAZE IN RESOURCESAT-1 LISS-4 MX DATA FOR URBAN ANALYSIS: AN IMPROVED DARK OBJECT SUBTRACTION APPROACH
Authors: Mustak S.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. The correction of atmospheric effects is very essential because visible bands of shorter wavelength are highly affected by atmospheric scattering especially of Rayleigh scattering. The objectives of the paper is to find out the haze values present in the all spectral bands and to correct the haze values for urban analysis. In this paper, Improved Dark Object Subtraction method of P. Chavez (1988) is applied for the correction of atmospheric haze in the Resoucesat-1 LISS-4 multispectral satellite image. Dark object Subtraction is a very simple image-based method of atmospheric haze which assumes that there are at least a few pixels within an image which should be black (% reflectance) and such black reflectance termed as dark object which are clear water body and shadows whose DN values zero (0) or Close to zero in the image. Simple Dark Object Subtraction method is a first order atmospheric correction but Improved Dark Object Subtraction method which tends to correct the Haze in terms of atmospheric scattering and path radiance based on the power law of relative scattering effect of atmosphere. The haze values extracted using Simple Dark Object Subtraction method for Green band (Band2), Red band (Band3) and NIR band (band4) are 40, 34 and 18 but the haze values extracted using Improved Dark Object Subtraction method are 40, 18.02 and 11.80 for aforesaid bands. Here it is concluded that the haze values extracted by Improved Dark Object Subtraction method provides more realistic results than Simple Dark Object Subtraction method.
IDENTIFICATION OF ACTIVE AREAS OF EARTHQUAKE BY THERMAL REMOTE SENSING
Authors: Nezammahalleh M. A. , Noori A. A. , Afsharmanesh H. , Pourhosseini Z. , Rastegar A. , Rezai H. S. S. , Alavipanah S. K.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. The study investigates the ability of thermal remote sensing in identification of seismic active areas. The thermal characteristics of Land Surface Temperature (LST) represent changes before strong earthquakes. The objective of this research is to find the relationship between earthquake active areas and thermal properties of earth surface. Landsat ETM+ images and earthquake points from USGS have been used as the material of the study. LST have been calculated by the image data and magnitudes of earthquake activity have been interpolated by the seismic point data. The study has found that the areas with higher LST values in long period have more seismic activity on central Alborz Mountain Range in Iran and that the areas along the major faults also have higher LST values.
A NOVEL CRITERION FOR EARTHQUAKE RISK ASSESSMENT, THE CASE OF BUSHEHR CATASTROPHE IN APRIL 9, 2013
Authors: Nezammahalleh M. A. , Yamani M. , Talebi A. , Pourhosseini Z. , Alavipanah S. K.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. Human population growth and consequent spatial distribution of human society requires application of new technologies for safety issues. Risk assessment is necessary to mitigate harmful consequences of possible devastating earthquakes on the human societies. A novel method is presented in this study to be applied as a criterion for the assessment. The criterion has been used to make a seismic zonation of Bushehr Province before the catastrophic earthquake of April 9, 2013, happened in the area. The objective of this study is to explore the factors effective in seismic zonation. Fault locations and seismic records have been used as the material. Four criteria of distance to faults, distance to seismic points, interpolation of earthquake magnitudes, and interpolation of the earthquake dates have been analyzed using a methodology to classify the province in terms of earthquake susceptibility. The results indicate that the devised method of date frequency interpolation have been able to find accurately the areas prone to strong earthquakes. This is concluded that the criterion can be recommended for use in multi-layers analysis of site selection studies.
AUTOMATIC MODEL SELECTION FOR 3D RECONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS FROM SATELLITE IMAGARY
Authors: Partovi T. , Arefi H. , Krauß T. , Reinartz P.
Published: September 2013

Abstract. Through the improvements of satellite sensor and matching technology, the derivation of 3D models from space borne stereo data obtained a lot of interest for various applications such as mobile navigation, urban planning, telecommunication, and tourism. The automatic reconstruction of 3D building models from space borne point cloud data is still an active research topic. The challenging problem in this field is the relatively low quality of the Digital Surface Model (DSM) generated by stereo matching of satellite data comparing to airborne LiDAR data. In order to establish an efficient method to achieve high quality models and complete automation from the mentioned DSM, in this paper a new method based on a model-driven strategy is proposed. For improving the results, refined orthorectified panchromatic images are introduced into the process as additional data. The idea of this method is based on ridge line extraction and analysing height values in direction of and perpendicular to the ridgeline direction. After applying pre-processing to the orthorectified data, some feature descriptors are extracted from the DSM, to improve the automatic ridge line detection. Applying RANSAC a line is fitted to each group of ridge points. Finally these ridge lines are refined by matching them or closing gaps. In order to select the type of roof model the heights of point in extension of the ridge line and height differences perpendicular to the ridge line are analysed. After roof model selection, building edge information is extracted from canny edge detection and parameters derived from the roof parts. Then the best model is fitted to extracted façade roofs based on detected type of model. Each roof is modelled independently and final 3D buildings are reconstructed by merging the roof models with the corresponding walls.