PERSIANN-MSA: A precipitation estimation method from satellite-based multispectral analysis

Visible and infrared data obtained from instruments onboard geostationary satellites have been extensively used for monitoring clouds and their evolution. The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) that will be launched onboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R) series in the near future will offer a larger range of spectral bands; hence, it will provide observations of cloud and rain systems at even finer spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions than are possible with the current GOES. In this paper, a new method called Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed information using Artificial Neural Networks-Multispectral Analysis (PERSIANN-MSA) is proposed to evaluate the effect of using multispectral imagery on precipitation estimation. The proposed approach uses a self-organizing feature map (SOFM) to classify multidimensional input information, extracted from each grid box and corresponding textural features of multispectral bands. In addition, principal component analysis (PCA) is used to reduce the dimensionality to a few independent input features while preserving most of the variations of all input information. The above method is applied to estimate rainfall using multiple channels of the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) onboard the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite. In comparison to the use of a single thermal infrared channel, the analysis shows that using multispectral data has the potential to improve rain detection and estimation skills with an average of more than 50% gain in equitable threat score for rain/no-rain detection, and more than 20% gain in correlation coefficient associated with rain-rate estimation. © 2009 American Meteorological Society

Apropriate Ultrasonic System Components for NDE of Thick Polymer-Composites

In certain marine applications, thick polymer-composite materials may have to endure different operating environments than those experienced in traditional aerospace applications. In particular, structures made of such materials may experience very large compressive and bending forces. To prevent in-service failure, appropriate NDE methods and instrumentation are needed to characterize the state of the material. Specifically, in addition to detecting high-contrast anomalies (cracks and delaminations) it may be of interest to determine the pore content, measure the fiber volume, assess the severity of fiber waviness, and the like [1]

Expression of CD80 and CD86 costimulatory molecules are potential markers for better survival in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>B7 Costimulatory signal is essential to trigger T-cell activation upon the recognition of tumor antigens. This study examined the expression of B7-1 (CD80) and B7-2 (CD86) costimulatory molecules along with HLA-DR and the presence of infiltrating lymphocytes and dendritic cells to assess their significance in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Expression of CD80, CD86, HLA-DR, S-100 protein and the presence of infiltrating lymphocytes and follicular dendritic reticulum cells were immunohistochemically examined on the paraffin-embedded tissue blocks from newly diagnosed NPC patients (n = 50). The results were correlated with clinical outcome of patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>CD80 and CD86 were each expressed in 10 of 50 cases in which they co-expressed in 9 cases. Univariate analysis revealed that patients with CD80/CD86 expression had significantly better overall survival than those without it (P = 0.017), but after adjustment for stage, nodal status, and treatment, the expression of CD80/CD86 did not significantly correlate with overall survival. Expression of HLA-DR and the presence of infiltrating lymphocytes and dendritic cells did not appear to have impact on the survival of patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Expression of CD80 and CD86 costimulatory molecules appears to be a marker of better survival in patient with NPC.</p

Warped Riemannian metrics for location-scale models

The present paper shows that warped Riemannian metrics, a class of Riemannian metrics which play a prominent role in Riemannian geometry, are also of fundamental importance in information geometry. Precisely, the paper features a new theorem, which states that the Rao-Fisher information metric of any location-scale model, defined on a Riemannian manifold, is a warped Riemannian metric, whenever this model is invariant under the action of some Lie group. This theorem is a valuable tool in finding the expression of the Rao-Fisher information metric of location-scale models defined on high-dimensional Riemannian manifolds. Indeed, a warped Riemannian metric is fully determined by only two functions of a single variable, irrespective of the dimension of the underlying Riemannian manifold. Starting from this theorem, several original contributions are made. The expression of the Rao-Fisher information metric of the Riemannian Gaussian model is provided, for the first time in the literature. A generalised definition of the Mahalanobis distance is introduced, which is applicable to any location-scale model defined on a Riemannian manifold. The solution of the geodesic equation is obtained, for any Rao-Fisher information metric defined in terms of warped Riemannian metrics. Finally, using a mixture of analytical and numerical computations, it is shown that the parameter space of the von Mises-Fisher model of $n$-dimensional directional data, when equipped with its Rao-Fisher information metric, becomes a Hadamard manifold, a simply-connected complete Riemannian manifold of negative sectional curvature, for $n = 2,\ldots,8$. Hopefully, in upcoming work, this will be proved for any value of $n$.Comment: first version, before submissio

Significance of Aurora B overexpression in hepatocellular carcinoma. Aurora B Overexpression in HCC

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To investigate the significance of Aurora B expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The <it>Aurora B </it>and <it>Aurora A </it>mRNA level was measured in 160 HCCs and the paired nontumorous liver tissues by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Mutations of the <it>p53 </it>and <it>β-catenin </it>genes were analyzed in 134 and 150 tumors, respectively, by direct sequencing of exon 2 to exon 11 of <it>p53 </it>and exon 3 of <it>β-catenin</it>. Anticancer effects of AZD1152-HQPA, an Aurora B kinase selective inhibitor, were examined in Huh-7 and Hep3B cell lines.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>Aurora B </it>was overexpressed in 98 (61%) of 160 HCCs and in all 7 HCC cell lines examined. The overexpression of <it>Aurora B </it>was associated with <it>Aurora A </it>overexpression (<it>P </it>= 0.0003) and <it>p53 </it>mutation (<it>P </it>= 0.002) and was inversely associated with <it>β</it>-<it>catenin </it>mutation (<it>P </it>= 0.002). <it>Aurora B </it>overexpression correlated with worse clinicopathologic characteristics. Multivariate analysis confirmed that <it>Aurora B </it>overexpression was an independent poor prognostic factor, despite its interaction with Aurora A overexpression and mutations of <it>p53 </it>and <it>β</it>-<it>catenin</it>. In Huh-7 and Hep3B cells, AZD1152-HQPA induced proliferation blockade, histone H3 (Ser10) dephosphorylation, cell cycle disturbance, and apoptosis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>Aurora B </it>overexpression is an independent molecular marker predicting tumor invasiveness and poor prognosis of HCC. Aurora B kinase selective inhibitors are potential therapeutic agents for HCC treatment.</p

Weak-Unforgeable Tags for Secure Supply Chain Management

Given the value of imported counterfeit and pirated goods, the need for secure supply chain management is pertinent. Maleki et al. (HOST 2017) propose a new management scheme based on RFID tags (with 2-3K bits NVM) which, if compared to other schemes, is competitive on several performance and security metrics. Its main idea is to have each RFID tag stores its reader events in its own NVM while moving through the supply chain. In order to bind a tag\u27s identity to each event such that an adversary is not able to impersonate the tag\u27s identity on another duplicate tag, a function with a weak form of unforgeability is needed. In this paper, we formally dene this security property, present three constructions (MULTIPLY-ADD, ADD-XOR, and S-Box-CBC) having this security property, and show how to bound the probability of successful impersonation in concrete parameter settings. Finally, we compare our constructions with the light-weight hash function PHOTON used by Maleki et al. in terms of security and circuit area needed. We conclude that our ADD-XOR and S-Box-CBC constructions have approximately 1/4 - 1/3 of PHOTON\u27s total circuit area (this also includes the control circuitry besides PHOTON) while maintaining an appropriate security level which takes care of economically motivated adversaries