A Lens-Calibrated Active Marker Metrology System

This paper presents a prototypical marker tracking system, MT, which is capable of recording multiple mobile robot trajectories in parallel for offline analysis. The system is also capable of providing trajectory data in realtime to agents (such as robots in an arena) and implements several multi-agent operators to simplify agent-based perception. The latter characteristic provides an ability to minimise the normally expensive process of implementing agent-centric perceptual mechanisms and provides a means for multiagent "global knowledge" (Parker 1993)

TRANSITION AND REFORM OF CHINA'S AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM TOWARD A MARKET-ORIENTED ECONOMY: LESSONS FROM THE TAIWAN EXPERIENCE

As China proceeds through the process of economic development to an industrialized economy, its agriculture will undergo substantial stress and structural change. China may be able to effectively utilize the experiences of Taiwan agriculture and its policies in adjusting to change. These policies and their impacts are explained in this working paper.Agricultural and Food Policy,

In time rice irrigation water management under limited water supply

In-time water distribution of canal water to the farmers has been a major concern of managers, planners and researchers involved in irrigation. This study analyzed the ways for water distribution and timely water release in a rice growing area during the pre-saturation period and the normal irrigation supply periods. The analyses were carried out using field data collected at the Besut Irrigation Scheme located in the northeastern corner of Peninsular Malaysia in the state of Terengganu. The scheme comprises two sub-schemes, giving a total irrigation area of 5, 164 ha for the overall Besut Irrigation Scheme. Based on field water requirements and available flows at the intake gates, canal simulations were performed and results show that land preparation should not be done continuously unless flow rates are at least 9.00 m3/s and 3.00 m3/s at the Besut Barrage and Angga Barrage respectively. If the respective flow rates fall below these values, then land preparation should be done in two phases. However, when the flow rate is between 5.00 and 5.50 m3/s at the Besut Barrage, land preparation is recommended to be carried out over three phases. During the normal irrigation supply period, flow rates of 6.00 m3/s and 1.75 m3/s for the Besut and Angga Barrage respectively, are to be maintained for the entire irrigation scheme, otherwise selective irrigation or irrigation on a rotational basis has to be enforced. When flow rates are 7.20 - 9.00 m3/s and 1.70 - 3.00 m3/s at the Besut and Angga Barrage respectively, then water should be released two days before the beginning of the pre-saturation period for the filling main and secondary canals. However, water should be released three days before the beginning of the pre-saturation period when flow rates are between 5.00 and 7.00 m3Is at the Besut Barrage. But irrigation water should release 5.00 hours before beginning the normal supply period in order to maintain the in-time irrigation schedule

Petrography and Geochemistry of Metals in Almahata Sitta Ureilites

Ureilites are ultramafic achondrites, predominantly composed of olivine and pyroxenes with accessory carbon, metal and sulfide. The majority of ureilites are believed to represent the mantle of the ureilite parent body (UPB) [1]. Although ureilites have lost much of their original metal [2], the metal that remains retains a record of the formative processes. Almahata Sitta is predominantly composed of unbrecciated ureilites with a wide range of silicate compositions [3,4]. As a fall it presents a rare opportunity to examine fresh ureilite metal in-situ, and analyzing their highly siderophile element (HSE) ratios gives clues to their formation. Bulk siderophile element analyses of Almahata Sitta fall within the range observed in other ureilites [5]. We have examined the metals in seven ureilitic samples of Almahata Sitta (AS) and one associated chondrite fragment (AS#25)

Practical SVBRDF Acquisition of 3D Objects with Unstructured Flash Photography

Capturing spatially-varying bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (SVBRDFs) of 3D objects with just a single, hand-held camera (such as an off-the-shelf smartphone or a DSLR camera) is a difficult, open problem. Previous works are either limited to planar geometry, or rely on previously scanned 3D geometry, thus limiting their practicality. There are several technical challenges that need to be overcome: First, the built-in flash of a camera is almost colocated with the lens, and at a fixed position; this severely hampers sampling procedures in the light-view space. Moreover, the near-field flash lights the object partially and unevenly. In terms of geometry, existing multiview stereo techniques assume diffuse reflectance only, which leads to overly smoothed 3D reconstructions, as we show in this paper. We present a simple yet powerful framework that removes the need for expensive, dedicated hardware, enabling practical acquisition of SVBRDF information from real-world, 3D objects with a single, off-the-shelf camera with a built-in flash. In addition, by removing the diffuse reflection assumption and leveraging instead such SVBRDF information, our method outputs high-quality 3D geometry reconstructions, including more accurate high-frequency details than state-of-the-art multiview stereo techniques. We formulate the joint reconstruction of SVBRDFs, shading normals, and 3D geometry as a multi-stage, iterative inverse-rendering reconstruction pipeline. Our method is also directly applicable to any existing multiview 3D reconstruction technique. We present results of captured objects with complex geometry and reflectance; we also validate our method numerically against other existing approaches that rely on dedicated hardware, additional sources of information, or both

Modeling of changes in evapotranspiration for an area in Peninsular Malaysia,

A study was carried out to check the sensitivity of evapotranspiration estimation due to changes in climate. The study used 30 years of data from the meteorological station in the FELCRA paddy estate, Seberang Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. The effect of changes in the climatic variables, temperature, solar radiation, relative humidity and wind speed on evapotranspiration were analyzed. Results showed that the mean temperature, mean relative humidity, mean wind speed, and net global radiation have changed by + 0.182 oC, -0.73%, -0.0365 mis, and +0.146 MJ/m2 respectively per decade, while the short wave radiation received has decreased by 0.0037 MJ/m2 per decade. The statistical analysis of the evapotranspiration estimations using selected methods showed that the Penman-Monteith, Blaney-Criddle and Pan evaporation methods give similar estimations (P = 0.05) and are suitable for the study area. When changes to the present climate are imposed for future decades, the over-estimation rate is linear with the Blaney-Criddle and Penman methods whereas for the PenmanMonteith method it is exponential. The overall increment expected after 5 decades is 5.3% and 6.9% with Penman and Blaney-Criddle methods respectively. The Penman-Monteith shows a 74.4% increment in the evapotranspiration over the next five decades.The authors wish to expressive their sincere gratitude to the staff of the FELCRA Seberang Perak Paddy Estate Irrigation Scheme, the Drainage and Irrigation Department, the Malaysian Meteorological Service. The authors would also like to thank The Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment for the funding of the Project IRPA 01-02-04-0422

Epitope recognition of peptide-imprinted polymers for Regenerating protein 1 (REG1)

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were developed to replace natural antibodies with a cost-effective and durable synthetic material. Molecular imprinting of proteins conventionally utilizes the whole protein as the template, which is complex (as many different epitopes may be imprinted) and expensive. In this work, seven peptides (13–18 amino acids) were synthesized and used as templates for the imprinting and recognition of Regenerating Protein 1 (REG1). REG1 is involved in the proliferation and differentiation of diverse cell types, and was recently described as a urinary biomarker for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Peptide-imprinted poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol)s (PIPs), containing four different mole fractions of ethylene were cast on screen-printed electrodes to find the optimum composition for both the sensing and the extraction of REG1 in an E. coli culture medium. Peptides with fewer than 16 amino acids and two or three aromatic and hydrophobic groups have a higher affinity for MIPs of poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol) (EVAL) with 27 mol% of ethylene, while those with four aromatic and hydrophobic groups have a higher affinity for MIPs with EVALs that contain 32 mol% of ethylene. The peptide / EVAL combination that maximized both imprinting effectiveness and response to REG1B was the sequence NEDRETWVDADLY imprinted into 32 mol% EVAL. This EVAL composition and template peptide were then modified by incorporation of magnetic nanoparticles, thus extending applications for PIPs to include extraction of REG1 protein from E. coli culture medium

Bayesian Forecasting for Financial Risk Management, Pre and Post the Global Financial Crisis

Value-at-Risk (VaR) forecasting via a computational Bayesian framework is considered. A range of parametric models are compared, including standard, threshold nonlinear and Markov switching GARCH specifications, plus standard and nonlinear stochastic volatility models, most considering four error probability distributions: Gaussian, Student-t, skewed-t and generalized error distribution. Adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are employed in estimation and forecasting. A portfolio of four Asia-Pacific stock markets is considered. Two forecasting periods are evaluated in light of the recent global financial crisis. Results reveal that: (i) GARCH models out-performed stochastic volatility models in almost all cases; (ii) asymmetric volatility models were clearly favoured pre-crisis; while at the 1% level during and post-crisis, for a 1 day horizon, models with skewed-t errors ranked best, while IGARCH models were favoured at the 5% level; (iii) all models forecasted VaR less accurately and anti-conservatively post-crisi

Optimal prediction in molecular dynamics

Optimal prediction approximates the average solution of a large system of ordinary differential equations by a smaller system. We present how optimal prediction can be applied to a typical problem in the field of molecular dynamics, in order to reduce the number of particles to be tracked in the computations. We consider a model problem, which describes a surface coating process, and show how asymptotic methods can be employed to approximate the high dimensional conditional expectations, which arise in optimal prediction. The thus derived smaller system is compared to the original system in terms of statistical quantities, such as diffusion constants. The comparison is carried out by Monte-Carlo simulations, and it is shown under which conditions optimal prediction yields a valid approximation to the original system.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figure