Unsupervised multi-scale change detection from SAR imagery for monitoring natural and anthropogenic disasters

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017Radar remote sensing can play a critical role in operational monitoring of natural and anthropogenic disasters. Despite its all-weather capabilities, and its high performance in mapping, and monitoring of change, the application of radar remote sensing in operational monitoring activities has been limited. This has largely been due to: (1) the historically high costs associated with obtaining radar data; (2) slow data processing, and delivery procedures; and (3) the limited temporal sampling that was provided by spaceborne radar-based satellites. Recent advances in the capabilities of spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors have developed an environment that now allows for SAR to make significant contributions to disaster monitoring. New SAR processing strategies that can take full advantage of these new sensor capabilities are currently being developed. Hence, with this PhD dissertation, I aim to: (i) investigate unsupervised change detection techniques that can reliably extract signatures from time series of SAR images, and provide the necessary flexibility for application to a variety of natural, and anthropogenic hazard situations; (ii) investigate effective methods to reduce the effects of speckle and other noise on change detection performance; (iii) automate change detection algorithms using probabilistic Bayesian inferencing; and (iv) ensure that the developed technology is applicable to current, and future SAR sensors to maximize temporal sampling of a hazardous event. This is achieved by developing new algorithms that rely on image amplitude information only, the sole image parameter that is available for every single SAR acquisition. The motivation and implementation of the change detection concept are described in detail in Chapter 3. In the same chapter, I demonstrated the technique's performance using synthetic data as well as a real-data application to map wildfire progression. I applied Radiometric Terrain Correction (RTC) to the data to increase the sampling frequency, while the developed multiscaledriven approach reliably identified changes embedded in largely stationary background scenes. With this technique, I was able to identify the extent of burn scars with high accuracy. I further applied the application of the change detection technology to oil spill mapping. The analysis highlights that the approach described in Chapter 3 can be applied to this drastically different change detection problem with only little modification. While the core of the change detection technique remained unchanged, I made modifications to the pre-processing step to enable change detection from scenes of continuously varying background. I introduced the Lipschitz regularity (LR) transformation as a technique to normalize the typically dynamic ocean surface, facilitating high performance oil spill detection independent of environmental conditions during image acquisition. For instance, I showed that LR processing reduces the sensitivity of change detection performance to variations in surface winds, which is a known limitation in oil spill detection from SAR. Finally, I applied the change detection technique to aufeis flood mapping along the Sagavanirktok River. Due to the complex nature of aufeis flooded areas, I substituted the resolution-preserving speckle filter used in Chapter 3 with curvelet filters. In addition to validating the performance of the change detection results, I also provide evidence of the wealth of information that can be extracted about aufeis flooding events once a time series of change detection information was extracted from SAR imagery. A summary of the developed change detection techniques is conducted and suggested future work is presented in Chapter 6

Impact of Total Quality Control Measures on Secondary School Students’ Academic Performance In Ogun State

The pride of educational system depends not just on the quantity but more importantly, on the quality of its products at all levels. The quality of the products in turn depends largely on the quality of the education diet that students receive in Secondary Schools and which is also dependent upon the standard of control that teachers and students enjoy. It has been observed that, the problem of adequate and effective quality control has been responsible for producing students who remain half-baked and could not assist the society in which they find themselves (Erinle & Abioye, 2003). The problem of quality in Nigeria Public Secondary Schools has been in recurring one, more so after the introduction of both Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1976, Free Education Policy in certain parts of Nigeria in 1979 and Universal Basic Education of 1999

Exploring the Potentials of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) for Zero-waste Construction in Akure Nigeria

Construction and demolition wastes (CDW) pose serious challenges to the environment and as such creates so much concern in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. The challenges and impacts of construction in AEC activities are obviously avoidable. Practitioners in the industry have been slow to recognize that modern methods of construction (MMC) such as the use of Industrialized Building System (IBS) have the potentials to minimize wastes on job sites compared to the traditional methods of construction which are pointedly wasteful. This study reports a survey conducted in two residential estates where Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) – an Industrialized Building System (IBS) and conventional building materials and techniques were used. Stratified random sampling was adopted because of the different types of housing units within the two selected housing estates. It was found that the Industrial prefabrication of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) wall panels, floor ribs, blocks and fascias enables components to be produced to exact specification thus significantly reducing waste on job sites. Also, the light weight nature of EPS facilitates easier handling and reduces labour and saves time for the installation. The study therefore seeks for the adoption of prefabricated building components such as standardized EPS as a modern methods of construction (MMC) in Nigeria

Improving Nutritional quality of Millet (Pennisetum americanum) by solid state fermentation and the effects on the growth performance of African Cat Fish.

Millet is becoming prominent in fish feed formulation as energy source but there is need to increase its protein level and remove the antinutrient for its maximum utilization to be effected. The objective  of this study to determine the level of improving the nutritive value, removing the antinutrient of millet by solid state fermentation process using Aspergillus niger and effect of the product on the growth performance of African catfish fingerlings. Millet seeds were sterilized for 30 minutes, inoculated with Ammonium sulphate and urea at 10gNKg-1 substrate, spores of Aspergillus niger and sulphuric acid to obtain initial pH of 3.5-40. The mixture was fermented for 84h at 350C and 90-95% RH in the laboratory, then sundried for 48hrs, five diets(40% Crude protein) were formulated, containing 0, 4, 8, 12 and 16% inclusion levels of fermented millet . The diets were fed to 225 fingerlings (two week old) weighing 1.28+0.2, stocked at density of 15 fingerlings per tank in triplicate. Millet protein increased from 10.9% to 17.0%, phytic acid reduced significantly from 0.02mg/100g to 0.014mg/100g. fingerlings fed 4% inclusion has the highest value of Percentage weight gain (PWG) 110.2%, Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER) 1.4 and lowest value of Feed conversion ratio (FCR) 1.8 while fingerlings fed diet containing 8% and 12% inclusion levels had the lowest value of PWG 26.7%, 37.5% and PER 0.66, 0.68 respectively with highest FCR 3.6.  Therefore,4% of  fermented millet could be included in the nutrition of African cat fish fingerlings  any adverse eefect. Keywords: Pennisetum americanum, Fermentation, Haematology, Feed conversion ratio and percentage inclusion leve

Assessment of Municipal Waste Disposal Methods: A Case Study of Ibadan, Nigeria.

In order to prevent health hazards that can occur as a result of inappropriate waste disposal, this study was carried out to identify the various municipal waste disposal methods practiced, and present the methods that are mostly adopted in the South Sahara region. It also analyzed the effects of these methods practiced on individuals and environment, and proffered solutions to the problems facing the populace as a result of these inappropriate methods of waste disposal. The third largest city of Africa located in Nigeria, called Ibadan was used as a case study. Questionnaires of population size 5000 were administered to households in all Local Government Areas of Ibadan. 4500 questionnaires were completely filled and returned. The rating results derived from the survey revealed that the most practiced municipal waste disposal method is open burning. Keywords: Environmental Assessment, Health, Waste Disposal, Open Burning

FANET optimization: a destination path flow model

Closed-loop routing in flying ad hoc networks (FANET) arises as a result of the quick changes of communication links and topology. As such, causing link breakage during information dissemination. This paper proposed a destination path flow model to improve the communication link in FANET. The models utilized Smell Agent Optimization and Particle Swarm Optimization algorithms in managing link establishment between communicating nodes. The modeled scenario depicts the practical application of FANET in media and sports coverage where only one vendor is given the license for live coverage and must relay to other vendors. Three different scenarios using both optimization Algorithms were presented. From the result obtained, the SAO optimizes the bandwidth costs much better than PSO with a percentage improvement of 10.46%, 4.04% and 3.66% with respect to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd scenarios respectively. In the case of communication delay between the FANET nodes, the PSO has a much better communication delay over SAO with percentage improvement of 40.89%, 50.26% and 68.85% in the first, second and third scenarios respectively

Mass Media as Means of Initiating Community Developmental Programmes in Akoko North West Local Government Area, Ondo State, Nigeria

The study examined the mass media as means of initiating community developmental programmes in Akoko North West Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive research design of the survey type.The sample for the study consisted of 120 respondents in Akoko North West Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria.  The study raised four research questions which the data were collected through questionnaire and also tested and analyzed with descriptive statistics. The findings showed that the mass media was the best platform for mobilizing people of the community for participation and also attracts government attention to communities for developmental programmes. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that residents’ collaboration and empowerment form of participation is encouraged by NGOs and development agencies

Knowledge Management and the Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria

Existing studies in the knowledge management domain has shown little empirical linkages with performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector of developing economies, especially from the competency and innovation perspectives. Yet, these aspects are critical to sustaining SMEs’ competitiveness in these economies. This study, therefore, seeks to examine the link between knowledge management and performance of SMEs in Nigeria. A sample size of 286 respondents was determined for this research. The regression results revealed that knowledge management dimensions significantly influenced SMEs’ performance. Consequently, the study recommends that Mangers should ensure that the firm has a knowledge management policy and or strategy for acquiring knowledge about customers, competitors, intermediaries via reading and searching for new information on the internet/in newspapers/books. In addition, training programs and conferences should be organized for employees where qualified members and external experts are invited to speak about their beliefs, values and culture at various organizational functions which will lead to improved processes in the organization

Improved Colorimetric Determination of Reserpine in Tablets Using 4-Caboxyl-2,6-dintrobenzene diazonium ion (CDNBD)

Purpose: To develop a simple, rapid and improved colorimetric method for the assay of reserpine in tablets Method: The method is based on the aromatic ring coupling of reserpine with 4-carboxyl-2,6-dinitrobenzene diazonium ion with the consequent formation of an azo adduct. Optimization of reaction conditions and validation were carried out and the method applied to assay of reserpine in tablets. Result: Reserpine coupled readily with CDNBD and optimization of experimental conditions showed the reaction to be completed in 10 min at room temperature. A 1:1 drug to reagent stoichiometric ratio was obtained for the azo adduct formed. The adduct exhibited a bathochromic shift with respect to the drug and pronounced hyperchromic shift with respect to the reagent. Sample analyses were done using a colorimeter at 470 nm. The assays were linear and reproducible over the concentration range of 2.25 -24 µg/mL. The new method was successfully applied in the assay of reserpine in tablets with a performance similar to the official (USP) spectrophotometric method (p > 0.05). This method represents a profound improvement on the previously reported colorimetric method for reserpine. Conclusion: The method developed is rapid and could find application in in-process quality control of reserpine. Keywords: Reserpine, colorimetry, 4-Caboxyl-2,6-dintrobenzene diazonium ion (CDNBD), diazo coupling > Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research Vol. 6 (2) 2007: pp. 695-70