4,434 research outputs found
Unmanned Aerial Systems for Wildland and Forest Fires
Wildfires represent an important natural risk causing economic losses, human
death and important environmental damage. In recent years, we witness an
increase in fire intensity and frequency. Research has been conducted towards
the development of dedicated solutions for wildland and forest fire assistance
and fighting. Systems were proposed for the remote detection and tracking of
fires. These systems have shown improvements in the area of efficient data
collection and fire characterization within small scale environments. However,
wildfires cover large areas making some of the proposed ground-based systems
unsuitable for optimal coverage. To tackle this limitation, Unmanned Aerial
Systems (UAS) were proposed. UAS have proven to be useful due to their
maneuverability, allowing for the implementation of remote sensing, allocation
strategies and task planning. They can provide a low-cost alternative for the
prevention, detection and real-time support of firefighting. In this paper we
review previous work related to the use of UAS in wildfires. Onboard sensor
instruments, fire perception algorithms and coordination strategies are
considered. In addition, we present some of the recent frameworks proposing the
use of both aerial vehicles and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UV) for a more
efficient wildland firefighting strategy at a larger scale.Comment: A recent published version of this paper is available at:
https://doi.org/10.3390/drones501001
Role of Nlrp6 and Nlrp12 in the maintenance of intestinal homeostasis
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102624/1/eji2871.pd
Probe of Lorentz Invariance Violation effects and determination of the distance of PG 1553+113
The high frequency peaked BL Lac object PG 1553+113 underwent a flaring event
in 2012. The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) observed this source
for two consecutive nights at very high energies (VHE, 100~GeV). The data
show an increase of a factor of three of the flux with respect to archival
measurements with the same instrument and hints of intra-night variability. The
data set has been used to put constraints on possible Lorentz invariance
violation (LIV), manifesting itself as an energy dependence of the velocity of
light in vacuum, and to set limits on the energy scale at which Quantum Gravity
effects causing LIV may arise. With a new method to combine H.E.S.S. and Fermi
large area telescope data, the previously poorly known redshift of PG 1555+113
has been determined to be close to the value derived from optical measurements.Comment: 2014 Fermi Symposium proceedings - eConf C14102.
Trophic relationships between palms and bruchids (Coleoptera: Bruchidae: Pachymerini) in Peruvian Amazonia
Qualitative and quantitative host plant data are provided for palm bruchids in a part of Amazonia from where previously few or no data were available. The host range and geographical distribution of several species are extended. The role of fruit structure on susceptibility to bruchid infestation and fruit maturity on oviposition site selection is discussed. The importance of mesologic conditions, particularly in areas subjected to flooding, on population dynamics of palm seed beetles is stressed. A specialist parasitoid of Caryoborus serripes, which is a specific predator of Astrocaryum nuts, is recorded for the first time; a trichogrammatid parasitic on the eggs of the same bruchid is also identified
Constraints on Lorentz Invariance Violation from Fermi-Large Area Telescope Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts
We analyze the MeV/GeV emission from four bright Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs)
observed by the Fermi-Large Area Telescope to produce robust, stringent
constraints on a dependence of the speed of light in vacuo on the photon energy
(vacuum dispersion), a form of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) allowed by
some Quantum Gravity (QG) theories. First, we use three different and
complementary techniques to constrain the total degree of dispersion observed
in the data. Additionally, using a maximally conservative set of assumptions on
possible source-intrinsic spectral-evolution effects, we constrain any vacuum
dispersion solely attributed to LIV. We then derive limits on the "QG energy
scale" (the energy scale that LIV-inducing QG effects become important, E_QG)
and the coefficients of the Standard Model Extension. For the subluminal case
(where high energy photons propagate more slowly than lower energy photons) and
without taking into account any source-intrinsic dispersion, our most stringent
limits (at 95% CL) are obtained from GRB090510 and are E_{QG,1}>7.6 times the
Planck energy (E_Pl) and E_{QG,2}>1.3 x 10^11 GeV for linear and quadratic
leading order LIV-induced vacuum dispersion, respectively. These limits improve
the latest constraints by Fermi and H.E.S.S. by a factor of ~2. Our results
disfavor any class of models requiring E_{QG,1} \lesssim E_Pl.Comment: Accepted for publication by Physical Review
Datasets for online controlled experiments
Online Controlled Experiments (OCE) are the gold standard to measure impact and guide decisions for digital products and services. Despite many methodological advances in this area, the scarcity of public datasets and the lack of a systematic review and categorization hinder its development. We present the first survey and taxonomy for OCE datasets, which highlight the lack of a public dataset to support the design and running of experiments with adaptive stopping, an increasingly popular approach to enable quickly deploying improvements or rolling back degrading changes. We release the first such dataset, containing daily checkpoints of decision metrics from multiple, real experiments run on a global e-commerce platform. The dataset design is guided by a broader discussion on data requirements for common statistical tests used in digital experimentation. We demonstrate how to use the dataset in the adaptive stopping scenario using sequential and Bayesian hypothesis tests and learn the relevant parameters for each approach
Trophic relationships between palms and bruchids (Coleoptera: Bruchidae: Pachymerini) in Peruvian Amazonia
Qualitative and quantitative host plant data are provided for palm bruchids in a part of Amazonia from where previously few or no data were available. The host range and geographical distribution of several species are extended. The role of fruit structure on susceptibility to bruchid infestation and fruit maturity on oviposition site selection is discussed. The importance of mesologic conditions, particularly in areas subjected to flooding, on population dynamics of palm seed beetles is stressed. A specialist parasitoid of Caryoborus serripes, which is a specific predator of Astrocaryum nuts, is recorded for the first time; a trichogrammatid parasitic on the eggs of the same bruchid is also identified
- …