Potential of multisensor data and strategies for data acquisition and analysis

Registration and simultaneous analysis of multisensor images is useful because the multiple data sets can be compressed through image processing techniques to facilitate interpretation. This also allows integration of other spatial data sets. Techniques being developed to analyze multisensor images involve comparison of image data with a library of attributes based on physical properties measured by each sensor. This results in the ability to characterize geologic units based on their similarity to the library attributes, as well as discriminate among them. Several studies can provide information on ways to optimize multisensor remote sensing. Continued analyses of the Death Valley and San Rafael Swell data sets can provide insight into tradeoffs in spectral and spatial resolutions of the various sensors used to obtain the coregistered data sets. These include imagery from LANDSAT, SEASAT, HCMM, SIR-A, 11-channel VIS-NIR, thermal inertia images, and aircraft L- and X-band radar

Variations in roughness predictions (flume experiments)

Data of flume experiments with bed forms are used to analyze and compare different roughness predictors. In this study, the hydraulic roughness consists of grain roughness and form roughness. We predict the grain roughness by means of the size of the sediment. The form roughness is predicted by three approaches: Van Rijn (1984), Vanoni & Hwang (1967) and Engelund (1966). The total roughness values (friction factors) are compared with the roughness values according to the DarcyWeisbach equation. Results show that the different methods predict different friction factors. In future research uncertainties in the hydraulic roughness will be taken into account to determine their influence on the computed water levels

On modeling the variability of bedform dimensions

ABSTRACT: Bedforms are irregular features that cannot easily be described by mean values. The variations in the geometric dimensions affect the bed roughness, and they are important in the modeling of vertical sorting and in modeling the thickness of cross-strata sets. The authors analyze the variability of bedform dimensions for three sets of flume experiments, considering PDFs of bedform height, trough elevation and crest elevation divided by its mean value. It appears that the dimensionless standard deviation of the bedform height is within a narrow range for nearly all experiments. This appears to be valid for the trough elevation and crest elevation, as well. For some modeling purposes, it seems sufficient to assume that the standard deviation is a constant, so that the variation in bedform dimension can be modeled by only predicting the mean bedform dimension.

Stochastics of bedform dimensions

Often river dunes are considered as regular bed patterns, with a mean dune height and a mean dune length. In reality however, river dunes are threedimensional and irregular features that cannot be fully described by their mean values. In fact, dune dimensions can be considered as stochastic variables. Their probability distribution can be characterized by a mean value and variance. The stochastic properties of dune dimensions are relevant for (see e.g. Van der Mark et al., 2005):\ud • Shipping - highest crests\ud • Pipelines & cables - deepest troughs\ud • Modelling cross-strata sets - troughs, dune heights\ud • Modelling vertical sorting - troughs\ud • Modelling bed roughness - dune heights\ud In the present research the stochastics of crest elevation, trough elevation and dune height are investigated by analysing three sets of flume experiments

Interviewer Effects on Nonresponse

In face-to-face surveys interviewers play a crucial role in making contact with and gaining cooperation from sample units. While some analyses investigate the influence of interviewers on nonresponse, they are typically restricted to single-country studies. However, interviewer training, contacting and cooperation strategies as well as survey climates may differ across countries. Combining call-record data from the European Social Survey (ESS) with data from a detailed interviewer questionnaire on attitudes and doorstep behavior we find systematic country differences in nonresponse processes, which can in part be explained by differences in interviewer characteristics, such as contacting strategies and avowed doorstep behavior.

Angular CMA: A modified Constant Modulus Algorithm providing steering angle updates

Conventional blind beamforming algorithms have no direct notion of the physical Direction of Arrival angle of an impinging signal. These blind adaptive algorithms operate by adjusting the complex steering vector in the case of changing signal conditions and directions. This paper presents Angular CMA, a blind beamforming method that calculates steering angle updates (instead of weight vector updates) to keep track of the desired signal. Angular CMA and its respective steering angle updates are particularly useful in the context of mixed-signal hierarchical arrays as means to find and distribute steering parameters. Simulations of Angular CMA show promising convergence behaviour, while having a lower complexity than alternative methods (e.g., MUSIC)

Strain rate effect on the mechanical behaviour of a textile reinforced cement composite

The static tensile behaviour of Textile Reinforced Cement Composites is known and can be modeled adequately. However, using these static material properties under dynamic loadings such as impact and seismic loadings, can cause over- or underestimation of the material due to effects of strain rate. This work focuses on the strain rate dependency of a specific textile reinforced cement composite under tensile loadings at strain rates equivalent to quasi static applications towards low velocity impacts. It was found that the main damage mechanisms of this material stay the same. However cracking of the cement matrix is delayed to higher stress levels

A functional central limit theorem for a Markov-modulated infinite-server queue

The production of molecules in a chemical reaction network is modelled as a Poisson process with a Markov-modulated arrival rate and an exponential decay rate. We analyze the distributional properties of $M$, the number of molecules, under specific time-scaling; the background process is sped up by $N^{\alpha}$, the arrival rates are scaled by $N$, for $N$ large. A functional central limit theorem is derived for $M$, which after centering and scaling, converges to an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. A dichotomy depending on $\alpha$ is observed. For $\alpha\leq1$ the parameters of the limiting process contain the deviation matrix associated with the background process.Comment: 4 figure

Spectrally Similar Incommensurable 3-Manifolds

Reid has asked whether hyperbolic manifolds with the same geodesic length spectrum must be commensurable. Building toward a negative answer to this question, we construct examples of hyperbolic 3–manifolds that share an arbitrarily large portion of the length spectrum but are not commensurable. More precisely, for every n ≫ 0, we construct a pair of incommensurable hyperbolic 3–manifolds Nn and Nµn whose volume is approximately n and whose length spectra agree up to length n. Both Nn and Nµn are built by gluing two standard submanifolds along a complicated pseudo-Anosov map, ensuring that these manifolds have a very thick collar about an essential surface. The two gluing maps differ by a hyper-elliptic involution along this surface. Our proof also involves a new commensurability criterion based on pairs of pants

On the Nature of MeV-blazars

Broad-band spectra of the FSRQ (flat-spectrum-radio quasars) detected in the high energy gamma-ray band imply that there may be two types of such objects: those with steep gamma-ray spectra, hereafter called MeV-blazars, and those with flat gamma-ray spectra, GeV-blazars. We demonstrate that this difference can be explained in the context of the ERC (external-radiation-Compton) model using the same electron injection function. A satisfactory unification is reachable, provided that: (a) spectra of GeV-blazars are produced by internal shocks formed at the distances where cooling of relativistic electrons in a jet is dominated by Comptonization of broad emission lines, whereas spectra of MeV-blazars are produced at the distances where cooling of relativistic electrons is dominated by Comptonization of near-IR radiation from hot dust; (b) electrons are accelerated via a two step process and their injection function takes the form of a double power-law, with the break corresponding to the threshold energy for the diffusive shock acceleration. Direct predictions of our model are that, on average, variability time scales of the MeV-blazars should be longer than variability time scales of the GeV-blazars, and that both types of the blazar phenomenon can appear in the same object.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa