Research in remote sensing of vegetation

The research topics undertaken were primarily selected to further the understanding of fundamental relationships between electromagnetic energy measured from Earth orbiting satellites and terrestrial features, principally vegetation. Vegetation is an essential component in the soil formation process and the major factor in protecting and holding soil in place. Vegetation plays key roles in hydrological and nutrient cycles. Awareness of improvement or deterioration in the capacity of vegetation and the trends that those changes may indicate are, therefore, critical detections to make. A study of the relationships requires consideration of the various portions of the electromagnetic spectrum; characteristics of detector system; synergism that may be achieved by merging data from two or more detector systems or multiple dates of data; and vegetational characteristics. The vegetation of Oregon is sufficiently diverse as to provide ample opportunity to investigate the relationships suggested above several vegetation types

Understanding the Relationship Between Drug Overdose Death Rates and Socioeconomic Factors

Drug-overdose deaths increased rapidly recently. What are the causes? We believe socioeconomical factors play critical roles. Secondary data analyses are done on the US population, using mortality-data files from the National Vital Statistics System. Deaths are grouped by race, age, sex, education and marital status. We believe that the percentage-of-total-death (PoTD) value, which equals to the number-of-overdose-deaths divided by the total-number-of-deaths in the corresponding group, more accurately reflect the severity of overdose-deaths. Analysis of 2017 data reveals that among all age groups, PoTD is highest in the age 25-34 group, with dramatic differences between white (PoTD 24%) and black (PoTD 9%) populations, and between single (22%) and married (13%) populations. PoTD is generally higher for males than females; however, for the 15-24 age group, the PoTD for females (13%) is higher than males (10%), suggesting the need of special attention to young females in overdose prevention. PoTD is higher (~3%) for population with less-than-college education than college-or-higher education (~1%). However, the population with middle-school or less education has very low PoTD (0.6%). The PoTD vs. education relationship is similar between white and black populations. We also investigate dependencies of PoTD on factors such as day-of-week, and variations in PoTD over the past 15 years. In conclusion, large differences were revealed in the severity of overdose deaths among different socioeconomical groups by examining the PoTD values. We believe that PoTD values of individual groups should be given more considerations when developing health policies in response to the drug overdose crisis

Motor control for a brushless DC motor

This invention relates to a motor control system for a brushless DC motor having an inverter responsively coupled to the motor control system and in power transmitting relationship to the motor. The motor control system includes a motor rotor speed detecting unit that provides a pulsed waveform signal proportional to rotor speed. This pulsed waveform signal is delivered to the inverter to thereby cause an inverter fundamental current waveform output to the motor to be switched at a rate proportional to said rotor speed. In addition, the fundamental current waveform is also pulse width modulated at a rate proportional to the rotor speed. A fundamental current waveform phase advance circuit is controllingly coupled to the inverter. The phase advance circuit is coupled to receive the pulsed waveform signal from the motor rotor speed detecting unit and phase advance the pulsed waveform signal as a predetermined function of motor speed to thereby cause the fundamental current waveform to be advanced and thereby compensate for fundamental current waveform lag due to motor winding reactance which allows the motor to operate at higher speeds than the motor is rated while providing optimal torque and therefore increased efficiency

Patterns in Change of Opioid Overdose Death Rate with the Day of the Week and Their Implications

The objective of this study was to investigate the dependencies of opioid overdose death rates on the day of the week and understand the implications of the dependencies Understanding and presenting the dependencies is useful for first responders and for health care system resource planning It can provide additional insights in the opioid epidemic and should be considered in prevention effortshttps://jdc.jefferson.edu/phbposters/1002/thumbnail.jp

Effects of Using Different Death Rate Metrics on the Analysis of Drug-Overdose Death Rates and Socioeconomical Factors

Age-adjusted death rate (AADR) and raw death rate (RDD) used in drugoverdose studies typically involves death-record data and populationsurvey data. Difference can exist between the two data sources, leading to the so-called dual data-source error. Proportionate mortality avoids the error; however, no studies have been done comparing the conclusions drawn using the different metrics. The objective of this study is to evaluate the differences and merits of using different death-rate metrics in overdose analysis.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/phbposters/1003/thumbnail.jp

Effect of operating conditions on gearbox noise

Low contact ratio spur gears were tested in the NASA gear noise rig to study the noise radiated from the top of the gearbox. The measured sound power from the gearbox top was obtained from a near field acoustic intensity scan taken at 63 nodes just above the surface. The sound power was measured at a matrix of 45 operating speeds and torque levels. Results are presented in the form of a spectral speed map and as a plot of sound power versus torque (at constant speed) and as sound power versus speed (at constant torque). Because of the presence of vibration modes, operating speed was found to have more impact on noise generation than torque level. A NASA gear dynamics code was used to compute the gear tooth dynamic overload at the same 45 operating conditions used for the experiment. Similar trends were found between the analytical results for dynamic tooth overload and experimental results for sound power. Dynamic analysis may be used to design high quality gears with profile relief optimized for minimum dynamic load and noise

The potential for income and employment generation in Kenya's urban informal sector: a proposed survey

This paper is concerned with a survey of informal sector enterprises that the authors propose to carry out in Nairobi this year. The emphasis is placed on the search for more information on the operation of the sector's enterprises, particularly their constraints on expansion, so that policies of help and encouragement can be formulated from a more informed data base

Bibliography of the Monogenetic Trematode Literature of the World, 1758 to 1982

Interest in the monogenean parasites has grown markedly in the last twenty years. To enhance and speed world-wide research activity, we prepared the first edition of this bibliography in 1969. This latest effort is intended to do the same

The evolution, distribution and diversity of endogenous circoviral elements in vertebrate genomes

Circoviruses (family Circoviridae) are small, non-enveloped viruses that have short, single-stranded DNA genomes. Circovirus sequences are frequently recovered in metagenomic investigations, indicating that these viruses are widespread, yet they remain relatively poorly understood. Endogenous circoviral elements (CVe) are DNA sequences derived from circoviruses that occur in vertebrate genomes. CVe are a useful source of information about the biology and evolution of circoviruses. In this study, we screened 362 vertebrate genome assemblies in silico to generate a catalog of CVe loci. We identified a total of 179 CVe sequences, most of which have not been reported previously. We show that these CVe loci reflect at least 19 distinct germline integration events. We determine the structure of CVe loci, identifying some that show evidence of potential functionalization. We also identify orthologous copies of CVe in snakes, fish, birds, and mammals, allowing us to add new calibrations to the timeline of circovirus evolution. Finally, we observed that some ancient CVe group robustly with contemporary circoviruses in phylogenies, with all sequences within these groups being derived from the same host class or order, implying a hitherto underappreciated stability in circovirus-host relationships. The openly available dataset constructed in this investigation provides new insights into circovirus evolution, and can be used to facilitate further studies of circoviruses and CVe