Information extraction and transmission techniques for spaceborne synthetic aperture radar images

Information extraction and transmission techniques for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery were investigated. Four interrelated problems were addressed. An optimal tonal SAR image classification algorithm was developed and evaluated. A data compression technique was developed for SAR imagery which is simple and provides a 5:1 compression with acceptable image quality. An optimal textural edge detector was developed. Several SAR image enhancement algorithms have been proposed. The effectiveness of each algorithm was compared quantitatively

GPU implementation of Krylov solvers for block-tridiagonal eigenvalue problems

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32149-3_18In an eigenvalue problem defined by one or two matrices with block-tridiagonal structure, if only a few eigenpairs are required it is interesting to consider iterative methods based on Krylov subspaces, even if matrix blocks are dense. In this context, using the GPU for the associated dense linear algebra may provide high performance. We analyze this in an implementation done in the context of SLEPc, the Scalable Library for Eigenvalue Problem Computations. In the case of a generalized eigenproblem or when interior eigenvalues are computed with shift-and-invert, the main computational kernel is the solution of linear systems with a block-tridiagonal matrix. We explore possible implementations of this operation on the GPU, including a block cyclic reduction algorithm.This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under grant TIN2013-41049-P. Alejandro Lamas was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport through grant FPU13-06655.Lamas Daviña, A.; Román Moltó, JE. (2016). GPU implementation of Krylov solvers for block-tridiagonal eigenvalue problems. En Parallel Processing and Applied Mathematics. Springer. 182-191. https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-319-32149-3_18S182191Baghapour, B., Esfahanian, V., Torabzadeh, M., Darian, H.M.: A discontinuous Galerkin method with block cyclic reduction solver for simulating compressible flows on GPUs. Int. J. Comput. Math. 92(1), 110–131 (2014)Bientinesi, P., Igual, F.D., Kressner, D., Petschow, M., Quintana-Ortí, E.S.: Condensed forms for the symmetric eigenvalue problem on multi-threaded architectures. Concur. Comput. Pract. Exp. 23, 694–707 (2011)Haidar, A., Ltaief, H., Dongarra, J.: Toward a high performance tile divide and conquer algorithm for the dense symmetric eigenvalue problem. SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 34(6), C249–C274 (2012)Heller, D.: Some aspects of the cyclic reduction algorithm for block tridiagonal linear systems. SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 13(4), 484–496 (1976)Hernandez, V., Roman, J.E., Vidal, V.: SLEPc: a scalable and flexible toolkit for the solution of eigenvalue problems. ACM Trans. Math. Softw. 31(3), 351–362 (2005)Hirshman, S.P., Perumalla, K.S., Lynch, V.E., Sanchez, R.: BCYCLIC: a parallel block tridiagonal matrix cyclic solver. J. Comput. Phys. 229(18), 6392–6404 (2010)Minden, V., Smith, B., Knepley, M.G.: Preliminary implementation of PETSc using GPUs. In: Yuen, D.A., Wang, L., Chi, X., Johnsson, L., Ge, W., Shi, Y. (eds.) GPU Solutions to Multi-scale Problems in Science and Engineering. Lecture Notes in Earth System Sciences, pp. 131–140. Springer, Heidelberg (2013)NVIDIA: CUBLAS Library V7.0. Technical report, DU-06702-001 $$\_$$ v7.0, NVIDIA Corporation (2015)Park, A.J., Perumalla, K.S.: Efficient heterogeneous execution on large multicore and accelerator platforms: case study using a block tridiagonal solver. J. Parallel and Distrib. Comput. 73(12), 1578–1591 (2013)Reguly, I., Giles, M.: Efficient sparse matrix-vector multiplication on cache-based GPUs. In: Innovative Parallel Computing (InPar), pp. 1–12 (2012)Roman, J.E., Vasconcelos, P.B.: Harnessing GPU power from high-level libraries: eigenvalues of integral operators with SLEPc. In: International Conference on Computational Science. Procedia Computer Science, vol. 18, pp. 2591–2594. Elsevier (2013)Seal, S.K., Perumalla, K.S., Hirshman, S.P.: Revisiting parallel cyclic reduction and parallel prefix-based algorithms for block tridiagonal systems of equations. J. Parallel Distrib. Comput. 73(2), 273–280 (2013)Stewart, G.W.: A Krylov-Schur algorithm for large eigenproblems. SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 23(3), 601–614 (2001)Tomov, S., Nath, R., Dongarra, J.: Accelerating the reduction to upper Hessenberg, tridiagonal, and bidiagonal forms through hybrid GPU-based computing. Parallel Comput. 36(12), 645–654 (2010)Vomel, C., Tomov, S., Dongarra, J.: Divide and conquer on hybrid GPU-accelerated multicore systems. SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 34(2), C70–C82 (2012)Zhang, Y., Cohen, J., Owens, J.D.: Fast tridiagonal solvers on the GPU. In: Proceedings of the 15th ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming. PPopp 2010, pp. 127–136 (2010

Findley Lake lysimeter leachate, precipitation inflow, outflow, and throughfall data, June 1973-January 1974

Data on soil leachate at three sites and four depths, throughfall, precipitation, and lake inflow and outflow are presented in this report

The functional trait spectrum of European temperate grasslands

Questions: What is the functional trait variation of European temperate grasslands and how does this reflect global patterns of plant form and function? Do habitat specialists show trait differentiation across habitat types?. Location: Europe. Methods: We compiled 18 regeneration and non-regeneration traits for a continental species pool consisting of 645 species frequent in five grassland types. These grassland types are widely distributed in Europe but differentiated by altitude, soil bedrock and traditional long-term management and disturbance regimes. We evaluated the multivariate trait space of this entire species pool and compared multi-trait variation and mean trait values of habitat specialists grouped by grassland type. Results: The first dimension of the trait space accounted for 23% of variation and reflected a gradient between fast-growing and slow-growing plants. Plant height and SLA contributed to both the first and second ordination axes. Regeneration traits mainly contributed to the second and following dimensions to explain 56% of variation across the first five axes. Habitat specialists showed functional differences between grassland types mainly through non-regeneration traits. Conclusions: The trait spectrum of plants dominating European temperate grasslands is primarily explained by growth strategies which are analogous to the trait variation observed at the global scale, and secondly by regeneration strategies. Functional differentiation of habitat specialists across grassland types is mainly related to environmental filtering linked with altitude and disturbance. This filtering pattern is mainly observed in non-regeneration traits, while most regeneration traits demonstrate multiple strategies within the same habitat type.EL, BJA, MTI, AM, PI and CB acknowledge the research leading to these results has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007–2013 under REA grant agreement no. 607785, as a part of the NAtive Seed Science TEchnology and Conservation (NASSTEC) Initial Training Network (ITN). BJA was further funded by the Marie Curie Clarín‐COFUND program of the Principality of Asturias and the European Union (ACB17‐26). BJA and HB acknowledge support from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle–Jena–Leipzig funded by the German Research Foundation (DFTG FZT 118) through the sPlot research platform. PI acknowledges support from the Rural & Environment Science & Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government. KÖ thanks RO1567‐IBB03/2018 for financial support

Blockade of T-cell activation by dithiocarbamates involves novel mechanisms of inhibition of nuclear factor of activated T cells.

Dithiocarbamates (DTCs) have recently been reported as powerful inhibitors of NF-kappaB activation in a number of cell types. Given the role of this transcription factor in the regulation of gene expression in the inflammatory response, NF-kappaB inhibitors have been suggested as potential therapeutic drugs for inflammatory diseases. We show here that DTCs inhibited both interleukin 2 (IL-2) synthesis and membrane expression of antigens which are induced during T-cell activation. This inhibition, which occurred with a parallel activation of c-Jun transactivating functions and expression, was reflected by transfection experiments at the IL-2 promoter level, and involved not only the inhibition of NF-kappaB-driven reporter activation but also that of nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT). Accordingly, electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) indicated that pyrrolidine DTC (PDTC) prevented NF-kappaB, and NFAT DNA-binding activity in T cells stimulated with either phorbol myristate acetate plus ionophore or antibodies against the CD3-T-cell receptor complex and simultaneously activated the binding of AP-1. Furthermore, PDTC differentially targeted both NFATp and NFATc family members, inhibiting the transactivation functions of NFATp and mRNA induction of NFATc. Strikingly, Western blotting and immunocytochemical experiments indicated that PDTC promoted a transient and rapid shuttling of NFATp and NFATc, leading to their accelerated export from the nucleus of activated T cells. We propose that the activation of an NFAT kinase by PDTC could be responsible for the rapid shuttling of the NFAT, therefore transiently converting the sustained transactivation of this transcription factor that occurs during lymphocyte activation, and show that c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) can act by directly phosphorylating NFATp. In addition, the combined inhibitory effects on NFAT and NF-KB support a potential use of DTCs as immunosuppressants

Does the leaf economic spectrum hold within plant functional types? A Bayesian multivariate trait meta-analysis

The leaf economic spectrum is a widely studied axis of plant trait variability that defines a trade-off between leaf longevity and productivity. While this has been investigated at the global scale, where it is robust, and at local scales, where deviations from it are common, it has received less attention at the intermediate scale of plant functional types (PFTs). We investigated whether global leaf economic relationships are also present within the scale of plant functional types (PFTs) commonly used by Earth System models, and the extent to which this global-PFT hierarchy can be used to constrain trait estimates. We developed a hierarchical multivariate Bayesian model that assumes separate means and covariance structures within and across PFTs and fit this model to seven leaf traits from the TRY database related to leaf longevity, morphology, biochemistry, and photosynthetic metabolism. Although patterns of trait covariation were generally consistent with the leaf economic spectrum, we found three approximate tiers to this consistency. Relationships among morphological and biochemical traits (specific leaf area [SLA], N, P) were the most robust within and across PFTs, suggesting that covariation in these traits is driven by universal leaf construction trade-offs and stoichiometry. Relationships among metabolic traits (dark respiration [R-d], maximum RuBisCo carboxylation rate [V-c,V-max], maximum electron transport rate [J(max)]) were slightly less consistent, reflecting in part their much sparser sampling (especially for high-latitude PFTs), but also pointing to more flexible plasticity in plant metabolistm. Finally, relationships involving leaf lifespan were the least consistent, indicating that leaf economic relationships related to leaf lifespan are dominated by across-PFT differences and that within-PFT variation in leaf lifespan is more complex and idiosyncratic. Across all traits, this covariance was an important source of information, as evidenced by the improved imputation accuracy and reduced predictive uncertainty in multivariate models compared to univariate models. Ultimately, our study reaffirms the value of studying not just individual traits but the multivariate trait space and the utility of hierarchical modeling for studying the scale dependence of trait relationships.Environmental Biolog

Breast feeding in Australia: A comparative study of Aboriginal and non Aboriginal women

The superiority of breast feeding over bottle feeding is universally acknowledged, and its crucial contribution to infant health is accepted by health authorities. Australia in recognition of the importance of breast feeding to infant health, aims to increase the prevalence of breast feeding. Breast feeding provides benefits for all children, however the health advantage that is gained by breast feeding in comparison to artificial feeding is more apparent among disadvantaged groups. Aboriginal Australians are identified as one such disadvantaged group. This study compares the available literature regarding the prevalence of breast feeding in Aboriginal and non Aboriginal women. It is apparent that breast feeding prevalence differs, between population groups within Australia. Aboriginal children are less likely to have been breast fed than non Aboriginal children. The comparison, indicates that there are deficiencies in the research regarding breast feeding prevalence in both population groups. Many factors affect a woman's decision to breast feed, and the duration of her breast feeding. These factors include, socioeconomic status, age, marital status, educational attainment, occupation and smoking status. These factors are clearly associated with breast feeding in non Aboriginal women. For Aboriginal women, the factors influencing breast feeding are more complex. It is recommended therefore, that it is essential for future research to examine the attitudinal and socialdeterminants of infant feeding practices in Aboriginal women. This is necessary, if educational or interventional strategies are to be effective for this population

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives