Data Fusion Techniques for Processing Aerospace Remote Sensing Electro-Optical Data

This paper deals with data fusion between different resolution multispectral (MS) and panchromatic (Pan) images in order to obtain high spatial resolution MS images. A survey is provided about the state-of-the-art data fusion techniques and synthesized product's quality assessment criteria. Several fusion algorithms and quality indexes were implemented in a Toolbox with a graphical user interface developed in MATLAB environment, namely Fusion Tool Box (FTB), developed to obtain experimental results. The analysis performed through FTB on two different data sets was oriented to validate the theoretical analysis and to perform a quantitative comparison among fusion algorithms for several applications. Results allow a first level evaluation of advantages and drawbacks of the various techniques for specific applications

Lexical evolution rates by automated stability measure

Phylogenetic trees can be reconstructed from the matrix which contains the distances between all pairs of languages in a family. Recently, we proposed a new method which uses normalized Levenshtein distances among words with same meaning and averages on all the items of a given list. Decisions about the number of items in the input lists for language comparison have been debated since the beginning of glottochronology. The point is that words associated to some of the meanings have a rapid lexical evolution. Therefore, a large vocabulary comparison is only apparently more accurate then a smaller one since many of the words do not carry any useful information. In principle, one should find the optimal length of the input lists studying the stability of the different items. In this paper we tackle the problem with an automated methodology only based on our normalized Levenshtein distance. With this approach, the program of an automated reconstruction of languages relationships is completed

2d frustrated Ising model with four phases

In this paper we consider a 2d random Ising system on a square lattice with nearest neighbour interactions. The disorder is short range correlated and asymmetry between the vertical and the horizontal direction is admitted. More precisely, the vertical bonds are supposed to be non random while the horizontal bonds alternate: one row of all non random horizontal bonds is followed by one row where they are independent dichotomic random variables. We solve the model using an approximate approach that replace the quenched average with an annealed average under the constraint that the number of frustrated plaquettes is keep fixed and equals that of the true system. The surprising fact is that for some choices of the parameters of the model there are three second order phase transitions separating four different phases: antiferromagnetic, glassy-like, ferromagnetic and paramagnetic.Comment: 17 pages, Plain TeX, uses Harvmac.tex, 4 ps figures, submitted to Physical Review

Influence of Ageing Time and Method on Beef Quality and Safety

The effectiveness of dry ageing with regard to retaining meat quality is still subject to debate. At 4 d post mortem, samples of boneless strip loins were excised from young Charolais carcasses and then stored for a further 26 d in a cooler, either vacuum-packaged (VP) or dried-aged (DA). Loin samples were also dissected 7 d post mortem as a control treatment (CT). Chemical, instrumental and microbiological data (n = 18) were determined in longissimus dorsi and underwent ANOVA to estimate the differences in the ageing fixed factor split into two orthogonal contrasts: control vs. aged and VP vs. DA. Ageing loss (both surface dehydration and water purge) was greater in DA compared to VP samples, resulting in the lowest moisture content and highest crude protein and fat percentage in DA loins. The ageing method did not affect meat surface colour, except for redness, which had the lowest value in DA samples. Meat tenderness improved a similar amount following both VP and DA ageing treatments. Compared to the control, prolonged ageing raised both the peroxide value and the total microbial count, especially in DA samples, though both remained within the recommended limits. In summation, both ageing methods improved beef meat tenderisation, preserving its shelf life

Evolution of the most recent common ancestor of a population with no selection

We consider the evolution of a population of fixed size with no selection. The number of generations $G$ to reach the first common ancestor evolves in time. This evolution can be described by a simple Markov process which allows one to calculate several characteristics of the time dependence of $G$. We also study how $G$ is correlated to the genetic diversity.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, uses RevTex4 and feynmf.sty Corrections : introduction and conclusion rewritten, references adde

Statistical properties of genealogical trees

We analyse the statistical properties of genealogical trees in a neutral model of a closed population with sexual reproduction and non-overlapping generations. By reconstructing the genealogy of an individual from the population evolution, we measure the distribution of ancestors appearing more than once in a given tree. After a transient time, the probability of repetition follows, up to a rescaling, a stationary distribution which we calculate both numerically and analytically. This distribution exhibits a universal shape with a non-trivial power law which can be understood by an exact, though simple, renormalization calculation. Some real data on human genealogy illustrate the problem, which is relevant to the study of the real degree of diversity in closed interbreeding communities.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Discriminant analysis of pyrrolizidine alkaloid contamination in bee pollen based on near-infrared data from lab-stationary and portable spectrometers

Bee pollen may be contaminated with pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) and their N-oxides (PANOs), which are mainly detected by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC\u2013MS/MS), even though the use of fast near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is an ongoing alternative. Therefore, the main challenge of this study was to assess the feasibility of both a lab-stationary (Foss) and a portable (Polispec) NIR spectrometer in 60 dehydrated bee pollen samples. After an ANOVA-feature selection of the most informative NIR spectral data, canonical discriminant analysis (CDA) was performed to distinguish three quantitative PA/PANO classes (\ub5g/kg): 400, high. According to the LC\u2013MS/MS analysis, 77% of the samples were contaminated with PAs/PANOs and the sum content of the 17 target analytes was higher than 400\ua0\ub5g/kg in 28% of the samples. CDA was carried out on a pool of 18 (Foss) and 22 (Polispec) selected spectral variables and allowed accurate classification of samples from the low class as confirmed by the high values of Matthews correlation coefficient ( 65 0.91) for both NIR spectrometers. Leave-one-out cross-validation highlighted precise recognition of samples characterised by a high PA/PANO content with a low misclassification rate (0.02) as false negatives. The most informative wavelengths were within the 2400\ua0nm regions for Foss and > 1500\ua0nm for Polispec that could be associated with cyclic amines, and epoxide chemical structures of PAs/PANOs. In sum, both lab-stationary and portable NIR systems are reliable and fast techniques for detecting PA/PANO contamination in bee pollen

Quaternary capable folds and seismic hazard in Lombardia (Northern Italy): the Castenedolo structure near Brescia.

We identify evidence of late Quaternary compressive tectonics in the Northern sector of the Central Po Plain through a systematic revision of the literature, new field mapping, and a new study of seismic reflection data obtained by ENI E&P. In particular, the reinterpretation of ca. 18.000 km of seismic profiles clearly shows a belt of segmented, 10 to 20 km long, fault propagation folds, controlled by the Plio-Quaternary growth of several out-of-sequence thrusts. As an example of this active structural style, in this paper we focus on a buried fold located just south of the Castenedolo Hill, a few km SE of Brescia. Although the Castenedolo anticline has long ago been described as a young compressional structure (e.g., DESIO, 1965), no detailed structural analysis of this feature has been performed until now. We calculated the uplift rates of this fold through the analysis of its syntectonic sedimentary record as imaged by the extremely high quality ENI E&P subsurface data available in the area. The evolution of this anticline was a discontinuous process characterized by several tectonic uplift pulses (with rates of ca. 0.1 mm/yr) of different duration, separated by periods of variable extent in which no fold growth occurred. The Quaternary growth history of this anticline and the presence of faulted and folded late Pleistocene to Holocene deposits at nearby sites (Ciliverghe and Monte Netto) demonstrate that the significant seismicity of this area (e.g., the December 25, 1222, Io = IX MCS Brescia earthquake, MAGRI & MOLIN, 1986; GUIDOBONI, 1986) must be related to active compressional structures within the Brescia piedmont belt. Our regional investigations show that the structural and paleoseismic setting illustrated near Castenedolo is typical of the whole Lombardia domain of the Southern Alps. This implies that the currently accepted seismotectonic model for this region, and related seismic hazard assessment, should be thoroughly and carefully re-evaluated

Field-enlarging transformations and chiral theories

A field-enlarging transformation in the chiral electrodynamics is performed. This introduces an additional gauge symmetry to the model that is unitary and anomaly-free and allows for comparison of different models discussed in the literature. The problem of superfluous degrees of freedom and their influence on quantization is discussed. Several "mysteries" are explained from this point of view.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX-file, BI-TP 93/0

On the accuracy of language trees

Historical linguistics aims at inferring the most likely language phylogenetic tree starting from information concerning the evolutionary relatedness of languages. The available information are typically lists of homologous (lexical, phonological, syntactic) features or characters for many different languages. From this perspective the reconstruction of language trees is an example of inverse problems: starting from present, incomplete and often noisy, information, one aims at inferring the most likely past evolutionary history. A fundamental issue in inverse problems is the evaluation of the inference made. A standard way of dealing with this question is to generate data with artificial models in order to have full access to the evolutionary process one is going to infer. This procedure presents an intrinsic limitation: when dealing with real data sets, one typically does not know which model of evolution is the most suitable for them. A possible way out is to compare algorithmic inference with expert classifications. This is the point of view we take here by conducting a thorough survey of the accuracy of reconstruction methods as compared with the Ethnologue expert classifications. We focus in particular on state-of-the-art distance-based methods for phylogeny reconstruction using worldwide linguistic databases. In order to assess the accuracy of the inferred trees we introduce and characterize two generalizations of standard definitions of distances between trees. Based on these scores we quantify the relative performances of the distance-based algorithms considered. Further we quantify how the completeness and the coverage of the available databases affect the accuracy of the reconstruction. Finally we draw some conclusions about where the accuracy of the reconstructions in historical linguistics stands and about the leading directions to improve it.Comment: 36 pages, 14 figure