NASA Tech Briefs, December 1991

Topics include: Electronic Components and Circuits. Electronic Systems, Physical Sciences, Materials, Computer Programs, Mechanics, Machinery, Fabrication Technology, Mathematics and Information Sciences

Analysis of FMRI Exams Through Unsupervised Learning and Evaluation Index

In the last few years, the clustering of time series has seen significant growth and has proven effective in providing useful information in various domains of use. This growing interest in time series clustering is the result of the effort made by the scientific community in the context of time data mining. For these reasons, the first phase of the thesis focused on the study of the data obtained from fMRI exams carried out in task-based and resting state mode, using and comparing different clustering algorithms: SelfOrganizing map (SOM), the Growing Neural Gas (GNG) and Neural Gas (NG) which are crisp-type algorithms, a fuzzy algorithm, the Fuzzy C algorithm, was also used (FCM). The evaluation of the results obtained by using clustering algorithms was carried out using the Davies Bouldin evaluation index (DBI or DB index). Clustering evaluation is the second topic of this thesis. To evaluate the validity of the clustering, there are specific techniques, but none of these is already consolidated for the study of fMRI exams. Furthermore, the evaluation of evaluation techniques is still an open research field. Eight clustering validation indexes (CVIs) applied to fMRI data clustering will be analysed. The validation indices that have been used are Pakhira Bandyopadhyay Maulik Index (crisp and fuzzy), Fukuyama Sugeno Index, Rezaee Lelieveldt Reider Index, Wang Sun Jiang Index, Xie Beni Index, Davies Bouldin Index, Soft Davies Bouldin Index. Furthermore, an evaluation of the evaluation indices will be carried out, which will take into account the sub-optimal performance obtained by the indices, through the introduction of new metrics. Finally, a new methodology for the evaluation of CVIs will be introduced, which will use an ANFIS model

NOAA Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP): Guidance for Regional Implementation

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Coastal Change Analysis Programl (C-CAP) is developing a nationally standardized database on landcover and habitat change in the coastal regions of the United States. C-CAP is part of the Estuarine Habitat Program (EHP) of NOAA's Coastal Ocean Program (COP). C-CAP inventories coastal submersed habitats, wetland habitats, and adjacent uplands and monitors changes in these habitats on a one- to five-year cycle. This type of information and frequency of detection are required to improve scientific understanding of the linkages of coastal and submersed wetland habitats with adjacent uplands and with the distribution, abundance, and health of living marine resources. The monitoring cycle will vary according to the rate and magnitude of change in each geographic region. Satellite imagery (primarily Landsat Thematic Mapper), aerial photography, and field data are interpreted, classified, analyzed, and integrated with other digital data in a geographic information system (GIS). The resulting landcover change databases are disseminated in digital form for use by anyone wishing to conduct geographic analysis in the completed regions. C-CAP spatial information on coastal change will be input to EHP conceptual and predictive models to support coastal resource policy planning and analysis. CCAP products will include 1) spatially registered digital databases and images, 2) tabular summaries by state, county, and hydrologic unit, and 3) documentation. Aggregations to larger areas (representing habitats, wildlife refuges, or management districts) will be provided on a case-by-case basis. Ongoing C-CAP research will continue to explore techniques for remote determination of biomass, productivity, and functional status of wetlands and will evaluate new technologies (e.g. remote sensor systems, global positioning systems, image processing algorithms) as they become available. Selected hardcopy land-cover change maps will be produced at local (1:24,000) to regional scales (1:500,000) for distribution. Digital land-cover change data will be provided to users for the cost of reproduction. Much of the guidance contained in this document was developed through a series of professional workshops and interagency meetings that focused on a) coastal wetlands and uplands; b) coastal submersed habitat including aquatic beds; c) user needs; d) regional issues; e) classification schemes; f) change detection techniques; and g) data quality. Invited participants included technical and regional experts and representatives of key State and Federal organizations. Coastal habitat managers and researchers were given an opportunity for review and comment. This document summarizes C-CAP protocols and procedures that are to be used by scientists throughout the United States to develop consistent and reliable coastal change information for input to the C-CAP nationwide database. It also provides useful guidelines for contributors working on related projects. It is considered a working document subject to periodic review and revision.(PDF file contains 104 pages.

Sourcing the Sacred: Application of Reflectance Spectroscopy and Linear Morphometrics to Hopewell Mortuary Chert Discs

ABSTRACT: Despite being one of the most intensively-studied culture phenomena of precontact North America, Hopewell peoples and their communities remain largely enigmatic outside of ceremonial earthwork sites. This research aims to examine Ohio Hopewell community by proxy of the large cache of chert bifaces disinterred from Mound 2, located at the Hopewell Mound Group (33RO27) in Ross County, Ohio. Numbering approximately 8,600 bifaces, these artifacts exhibit broadly similar macroscopic traits, and have been attributed in past archaeological literature as coming from a single source in Indiana. This research hypothesizes that this attribution is erroneous, and that the interaction of geographically disparate Hopewell communities is visible here as a function of differential contributions of chert material that was locally available to them. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that if this locally-sourced chert was knapped into bifaces prior to deposition into Mound 2, that differences in gross form may represent individual communities practicing similar knapping techniques. These hypotheses are tested by subjecting a 172 member sample of the Mound 2 cache to VNIR/FTIR spectroscopy chert sourcing techniques coupled with linear morphometrics, agglomerative hierarchical clustering, and fuzzy k-means clustering. The results conclude that the 172 member sample group Mound 2 bifacial population is comprised of a variety of chert lithic materials that exhibit affinity to chert reference material obtained from multiple geographically distant chert sources within the Midwest and South. Their physical forms show broad differences in trends in biface manufacture between groups of artifacts sharing chert sources, suggesting multiple Hopewell communities gathering to participate in the construction of Mound 2

Spatial planning in a complex unpredictable world of change:Towards a proactive co-evolutionary type of planning within the Eurodelta

This book is a message to be humble before truth and reality and to relinquish the idea of controlling them. Planners do not have that much control. In retrospect, it was easy to conclude that in conditions of constant population growth and with an economy in fairly good shape, a linear model of urban development would be relatively easy to maintain: the origin of the idea of certainty and control. The population in the Western world is no longer growing though; on the contrary, many regions and cities are facing population decline. Added to that, the economy is proving quite uncertain as well. The two together impact on spatial development. This all means that we have to consider a fundamentally different perspective on the role of spatial planning and its position in urban and rural development. Instead of planning aiming to achieve controlled development, it might get more out of the various autonomous processes affecting urban and the rural areas. In addition to planners being experts or mediators, we might appreciate planners becoming managers of change, transition managers, adaptive responders and social entrepreneurs, supporting and guiding the various parties within urban and rural areas to find the positions which suit them best.This book acknowledges these new identities and positions, with the planner acting as a manager of change. This book tries to present arguments in support of a discipline of spatial planning which adopts a different stance to the world, a more adaptive stance, and with a keen eye for self-organization processes: an eye for non-linear kinds of planning in a world of change.<br/