Methane emissions inventory verification in southern California

Methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO) mixing ratios were measured at an air quality monitoring station near the Mt. Wilson (MW) Observatory in southern California starting in the spring of 2007. Diurnal variation and mixing ratio correlation (R2 = 0.81) were observed. The correlation results observed agree with previous aircraft measurements collected over the greater Los Angeles (LA) metropolitan area. The consistent agreement between CH4 and CO indicates these gases are well-mixed before reaching the sampling site and the emission source contributions of both compounds are reasonably constant. Since CH4 and CO are considered non-reactive on the time scale of dispersion within the LA urban area and their emission sources are likely to be similarly distributed (e.g., associated with human activities) they are subject to similar scales of atmospheric transport and dilution. This behavior allows the relationship of CH4 and CO to be applied for estimation of CH4 emissions using well-documented CO emissions. Applying this relationship a "top-down" CH4 inventory was calculated for LA County based on the measurements observed at MW and compared with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) "bottom-up" CH4 emissions inventory based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommended methodologies. The "top-down" CH4 emissions inventory is approximately one-third greater than CARB's "bottom-up" inventory for LA County. Considering the uncertainties in both methodologies, the different CH4 emissions inventory approaches are in good agreement, although some under and/or uninventoried CH4 sources may exist

Projective Bundle Adjustment from Arbitrary Initialization Using the Variable Projection Method

Bundle adjustment is used in structure-from-motion pipelines as final refinement stage requiring a sufficiently good initialization to reach a useful local mininum. Starting from an arbitrary initialization almost always gets trapped in a poor minimum. In this work we aim to obtain an initialization-free approach which returns global minima from a large proportion of purely random starting points. Our key inspiration lies in the success of the Variable Projection (VarPro) method for affine factorization problems, which have close to 100% chance of reaching a global minimum from random initialization. We find empirically that this desirable behaviour does not directly carry over to the projective case, and we consequently design and evaluate strategies to overcome this limitation. Also, by unifying the affine and the projective camera settings, we obtain numerically better conditioned reformulations of original bundle adjustment algorithms

Estado e resistência cultural: o caso do Neorrealismo português

No início do século XX, Portugal passou por uma transformação sociopolítica, marcada predominantemente por guerras, depressões e uma política nacionalista, contrastando a séculos de um patriotismo desmedido de seu destemido passado. O movimento do Neorrealismo surge em meio a este tumulto, com um pragmatismo que revelou ser um poderoso objeto de observação de classes, denunciando não só a postura negligente do Estado à realidade de seu povo, mas também a situação de caos e desesperança em que se encontrava. Através de uma retrospectiva histórica, este trabalho revisita os principais documentos da época, assim como a avaliação de críticos contemporâneos ao movimento e atuais, que apontam para principais momentos, autores e obras que ajudaram com que o movimento tomasse bases universais e atemporais

Detection of elliptical shapes via cross-entropy clustering

The problem of finding elliptical shapes in an image will be considered. We discuss the solution which uses cross-entropy clustering. The proposed method allows the search for ellipses with predefined sizes and position in the space. Moreover, it works well for search of ellipsoids in higher dimensions

Comparison of view-based and reconstruction-based models of human navigational strategy

There is good evidence that simple animals such as bees use view-based strategies to return to a familiar location but humans could use a 3D reconstruction to achieve the same goal. Assuming some noise in the storage and retrieval process, these two types of strategy give rise to different patterns of predicted errors in homing. We describe an experiment that can help distinguish between these models. Participants wore a head mounted display to carry out a homing task in immersive virtual reality. They viewed three long thin vertical poles and had to remember where they were in relation to the poles before being transported (virtually) to a new location in the scene from where they had to walk back to the original location. The experiment was conducted in both a rich-cue scene (a furnished room) and a sparse scene (no background and no floor or ceiling). As one would expect, in a rich-cue environment the overall error was smaller and in this case the ability to separate the models was reduced. However, for the sparse-cue environment the view-based model outperforms the reconstruction-based model. Specifically, the likelihood of the experimental data is similar to the likelihood of samples drawn from the view-based model (but assessed under both models) while this is not true for samples drawn from the reconstruction-based model

Dietary and physical activity adaptations to alternate day modified fasting: implications for optimal weight loss

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Alternate day modified fasting (ADMF) is an effective strategy for weight loss in obese adults.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>The objective of this study was to examine the dietary and physical activity adaptations that occur during short-term ADMF, and to determine how these modulations affect rate of weight loss.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Sixteen obese subjects (12 women/4 men) completed a 10-week trial consisting of 3 phases: 1) 2-week control phase, 2) 4-week ADMF controlled feeding phase, and 3) 4-week ADMF self-selected feeding phase.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Body weight decreased (<it>P </it>< 0.001) by 5.6 ± 1.0 kg post-treatment. Energy intake on the fast day was 26 ± 3% of baseline needs (501 ± 28 kcal/d). No hyperphagic response occurred on the feed day (95 ± 6% of baseline needs consumed, 1801 ± 226 kcal/d). Daily energy restriction (37 ± 7%) was correlated to rate of weight loss (<it>r </it>= 0.42, <it>P </it>= 0.01). Dietary fat intake decreased (36% to 33% of kcal, <it>P </it>< 0.05) with dietary counseling, and was related to rate of weight loss (<it>r </it>= 0.38, <it>P </it>= 0.03). Hunger on the fast day decreased (<it>P </it>< 0.05) by week 2, and remained low. Habitual physical activity was maintained throughout the study (fast day: 6416 ± 851 steps/d; feed day: 6569 ± 910 steps/d).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings indicate that obese subjects quickly adapt to ADMF, and that changes in energy/macronutrient intake, hunger, and maintenance of physical activity play a role in influencing rate of weight loss by ADMF.</p

Nutrition risk among an ethnically diverse sample of community-dwelling older adults

Objective To assess the prevalence of nutritional risk among an ethnically diverse group of urban community-dwelling older adults and to explore if risk varied by race/ethnicity. Design Demographic characteristics, Katz’s activities of daily living and health-care resource utilization were ascertained cross-sectionally via telephone surveys with trained interviewers. Nutrition risk and nutrition symptomology were assessed via the abridged Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment (abPG-SGA); scores of ≥6 points delineated ‘high’ nutrition risk. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were conducted. Setting Urban. Participants White, Black or Hispanic community-dwelling adults, ≥55 years of age, fluent in English or Spanish, residing in the city limits of Chicago, IL, USA. Results A total of 1001 participants (37 % white, 37 % Black, 26 % Hispanic) were surveyed. On average, participants were 66·9 years old, predominantly female and overweight/obese. Twenty-six per cent (n 263) of participants were classified as ‘high’ nutrition risk with 24, 14 and 31 % endorsing decreased oral intake, weight loss and compromised functioning, respectively. Black respondents constituted the greatest proportion of those with high risk scores, yet Hispanic participants displayed the most concerning nutrition risk profiles. Younger age, female sex, Black or Hispanic race/ethnicity, emergency room visits, eating alone and taking three or more different prescribed or over-the-counter drugs daily were significantly associated with high risk scores (P\u3c0·05). Conclusions One in four older adults living in an urban community prone to health disparities was classified as ‘high’ nutrition risk. Targeted interventions to promote healthy ageing are needed, especially for overweight/obese and minority community members

Visual Experiences during Paralysis

Rationale: Paralyzed human volunteers (n = 6) participated in several studies the primary one of which required full neuromuscular paralysis while awake. After the primary experiment, while still paralyzed and awake, subjects undertook studies of humor and of attempted eye-movement. The attempted eye-movements tested a central, intentional component to one’s internal visual model and are the subject of this report. Methods: Subjects reclined in a supportive chair and were ventilated after paralysis (cisatracurium, 20 mg intravenously). In illumination, subjects were requested to focus alternately on the faces of investigators standing on the left and the right within peripheral vision. In darkness, subjects were instructed to look away from a point source of light. Subjects were to report their experiences after reversal of paralysis. Results: During attempted eye-movement in illumination, one subject had an illusion of environmental movement but four subjects perceived faces as clearly as if they were in central vision. In darkness, four subjects reported movement of the target light in the direction of attempted eye-movements and three could control the movement of the light at will. Conclusion: The hypothesis that internal visual models receive intended ocular-movement-information directly from oculomotor centers is strengthened by this evidence

Visual Experiences during Paralysis

Rationale: Paralyzed human volunteers (n = 6) participated in several studies the primary one of which required full neuromuscular paralysis while awake. After the primary experiment, while still paralyzed and awake, subjects undertook studies of humor and of attempted eye-movement. The attempted eye-movements tested a central, intentional component to one’s internal visual model and are the subject of this report. Methods: Subjects reclined in a supportive chair and were ventilated after paralysis (cisatracurium, 20 mg intravenously). In illumination, subjects were requested to focus alternately on the faces of investigators standing on the left and the right within peripheral vision. In darkness, subjects were instructed to look away from a point source of light. Subjects were to report their experiences after reversal of paralysis. Results: During attempted eye-movement in illumination, one subject had an illusion of environmental movement but four subjects perceived faces as clearly as if they were in central vision. In darkness, four subjects reported movement of the target light in the direction of attempted eye-movements and three could control the movement of the light at will. Conclusion: The hypothesis that internal visual models receive intended ocular-movement-information directly from oculomotor centers is strengthened by this evidence