Synthetic aperture radar (L band) and optical vegetation indices for discriminating the Brazilian savanna physiognomies: A comparative analysis

The all-weather capability, signal independence to the solar illumination angle, and response to 3D vegetation structures are the highlights of active radar systems for natural vegetation mapping and monitoring. However, they may present significant soil background effects. This study addresses a comparative analysis of the performance of L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data and optical vegetation indices (VIs) for discriminating the Brazilian cerrado physiognomies. The study area was the Brasilia National Park, Brazil, one of the test sites of the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere (LBA) experiment in Amazonia. Seasonal Japanese Earth Resources Satellite-1 (JERS-1) SAR backscatter coefficients (σ°) were compared with two vegetation indices [normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI)] over the five most dominant cerrados' physiognomies plus gallery forest. In contrast to the VIs, σ° from dry and wet seasons did not change significantly, indicating primary response to vegetation structures. Discriminant analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed an overall higher performance of radar data. However, when both SAR and VIs are combined, the discrimination capability increased significantly, indicating that the fusion of the optical and radar backscatter observations provides overall improved classifications of the cerrado types. In addition, VIs showed good performance for monitoring the cerrado dynamics

CRYSTALLINE CLUSTER MODEL FOR IONIC SOLIDS - NACL

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WAVEGUIDING IN A DIELECTRIC MEDIUM VARYING SLOWLY IN ONE TRANSVERSE DIRECTION

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Electronic excitation of XH4 (X = C,Si,Ge,Sn,Pb) by electron impact

We calculate integral cross sections for the electronic excitation to the T-3(2) states of XH4 (X= C,Si,Ge,Sn,Pb) by electron impact. This is the lowest-lying excited state of these molecules. Our results were obtained with the Schwinger multichannel method with pseudopotentials at the two-state level of approximation. In the case of CH4 we compare our results with previous results of an all-electron calculation obtained at the same level of approximation, in which case we found an excellent agreement between the two calculations. Though these molecules are very similar, after discarding the cores, as the pseudopotential technique does, the inelastic cross sections are very distinctive and do not have a monotonic behavior with increasing proton number Z of the central atom.5764987499

Cross sections for collisions of low-energy electrons with the hydrides PH3, AsH3, SbH3, SnH4, TeH2, and HI

We calculated integral and differential cross sections for scattering of low-energy electrons by two groups of hydrides from 10 to 30 eV. The first group is composed by the hydrides of elements in the same column of the Periodic Table and includes PH3, AsH3, and SbH3. The second group is formed by hydrides in the same row and includes SnH4, SbH3, TeH2, and HI. The calculations employed the Schwinger multichannel method with norm-conserving pseudopotentials [M.H.F. Bettega, L.G. Ferreira, and M.A.P. Lima, Phys. Rev. A 47, 1111 (1993)]. Our goal is to find similarities and differences in the cross sections in these two groups. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.10531029103

Monte Carlo simulations applied to AlxGayIn(1-x-y)X quaternary alloys (X=As,P,N): A comparative study

We develop a different Monte Carlo approach applied to the A(x)B(y)C(1-x-y)D quaternary alloys. Combined with first-principles total-energy calculations, the thermodynamic properties of the (AI,Ga,In)X (X=As, P, or N) systems are obtained and a comparative study is developed in order to understand the roles of As, P, and N atoms as the anion X in the system AlxGayIn1-x-yX. Also, we study the thermodynamics of specific compositions in which AlGaInN, AlGaInP, and AlGaInAs are lattice matched, respectively, to the GaN, GaAs, and InP substrates. We verify that the tendency for phase separation is always towards the formation of an In-rich phase. For arsenides and phosphides this occurs in general for lower temperatures than for their usual growth temperatures. This makes these alloys very stable against phase separation. However, for nitrides the In and/or Al concentrations have to be limited in order to avoid the formation of In-rich clusters and, even for low concentrations of In and/or Al, we observe a tendency of composition fluctuations towards the clustering of the ternary GaInN. We suggest that this latter behavior can explain the formation of the InGaN-like nanoclusters recently observed in the AlGaInN quaternary alloys.712

Genetic diversity of Bursaphelenchus cocophilus in South America

Molecular characterisation of Bursaphelenchus cocophilus, the causal agent of ‘red ring disease’, is imperative for efficient identification procedures in Brazil and Colombia, because quarantine species such as B. xylophilus and B. mucronatus are already listed in both countries. ITS-1/2 region and D2-D3 segment of LSU rDNA were used to characterise isolates of B. cocophilus obtained from coconut plantations in Brazil and Colombia. Results from ITS-1/2 and LSU rDNA regions showed that all isolates of B. cocophilus from Brazil and Colombia formed a monophyletic group. The LSU rDNA region indicated that all isolates formed a single monophyletic group with high Bayesian posterior probability (100%). This is the first study on ITS-1/2 for the characterisation of B. cocophilus populations. A species-specific primer was designed for identification of B. cocophilus

Low-energy electron collisions with C4H6 isomers

We report integral, differential, and momentum-transfer cross sections for elastic scattering of low-energy electrons by C4H6 isomers, namely, 1,3-butadiene, 2-butyne, and cyclobutene. We use the Schwinger multichannel method with pseudopotentials [M. H. F. Bettega, L. G. Ferreira, and M. A. P. Lima, Phys. Rev. A-47, 1111 (1993)] at the static-exchange approximation to compute the cross sections for energies from 10 to 60 eV. In particular, we discuss the isomer effect, reported by experimental studies for isomers Of C3H4 and C4H6. We also calculate the total ionization cross section using the binary-encounter-Bethe model for 2-butyne and 1,3-butadiene, and estimate the inelastic cross section for these two isomers.69

A comparative study of elastic scattering of low-energy electrons by boron, aluminum and gallium trihalides

In this paper we present integral, differential and momentum transfer cross sections for elastic scattering of low-energy electrons by some metal-halogen molecular compounds, namely, BF3, BCl3, BBr3, BI3, AlF3, AlCl3, AlBr3, AlI3, GaF3, GaCl3, GaBr3, and GaI3. The pseudopotential based calculations were carried out with the Schwinger multichannel method at the static-exchange level of approximation. It is the purpose of this work to make a comparative study of the scattering processes involving aluminum and gallium trihalides with previous results for the boron ones [M. H. F. Bettega, Phys. Rev. A 61, 042703 (2000)]. We find through direct comparison of the elastic cross sections that, at low energies, the scattering processes are mainly dominated by the halogen atoms. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.1181758

Effect of band anisotropy on electronic structure of PbS, PbSe, and PbTe quantum dots

We have calculated the electronic structure of spherical PbS, PbSe, and PbTe quantum dots using a four-band envelope-function formalism that accounts for band anisotropy. By comparing our results with an analytical calculation that assumes a spherical approximation of the (k) over right arrow.(p) over right arrow Hamiltonian, we show that the effects of band anisotropy are more pronounced for the excited states and increase with the confinement. We also show how the same technique can be applied to ellipsoidal quantum dots.62117357736