Application of LANDSAT and Skylab data for land use mapping in Italy

Utilizing LANDSAT and Skylab multispectral imagery of 1972 and 1973, a land use map of the mountainous regions of Italy was evaluated at a scale of 1:250,000. Seven level I categories were identified by conventional methods of photointerpretation. Images of multispectral scanner (MSS) bands 5 and 7, or equivalents were mainly used. Areas of less than 200 by 200 m were classified and standard procedures were established for interpretation of multispectral satellite imagery. Land use maps were produced for central and southern Europe indicating that the existing land use maps could be updated and optimized. The complexity of European land use patterns, the intensive morphology of young mountain ranges, and time-cost calculations are the reasons that the applied conventional techniques are superior to automatic evaluation

Application of LANDSAT data and digital image processing

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Unity between God and mind? A study on the relationship between panpsychism and pantheism

The author thanks the John Templeton Foundation and The Pantheism and Panentheism Project for sponsoring this paperA number of contemporary philosophers have suggested that the recent revival of interest in panpsychism within philosophy of mind could reinvigorate a pantheistic philosophy of religion. This project explores whether the combination and individuation problems, which have dominated recent scholarship within panpsychism, can aid the pantheist’s articulation a God/Universe Unity. Constitutive holistic panpsychism is seen to be the only type of panpsychism suited to aid pantheism in articulating this type of unity. There are currently no well-developed solutions to the individuation problem for this type of panpsychism. Moreover, the gestures towards a solution appear costly to the religious significance of pantheism. This article concludes that any hope that the contemporary panpsychism might aid pantheists in articulating Unity is premature and possibly misplaced.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

New possibilities for non-destructive testing of pipelines with intelligent pigs

Pipelines are considered to be the safest way for transportation of large amounts of liquid and gas over large distances. In the course of the lifetime of a pipeline, however, many effects can lead to damages affecting the integrity of the line, e.g. manufacturing-related anomalies, operationally induced anomalies or third-party damage. In order to avoid pipeline failures with potentially catastrophic consequences so-called intelligent pigs (or smart pigs) were developed during the last decades: These tools allow for the internal inspection (In-Line Inspection, ILI) of pipelines using non-destructive testing technologies for the early detection and sizing of defects. Most common are magnetic flux leakage (MFL) and ultrasonic techniques for corrosion inspection and the latter also for crack inspection. While the ultrasonic techniques offer superior sizing capabilities they are limited to the inspection of liquid pipelines where the medium itself provides the necessary coupling between the (piezoelectric) ultrasonic transducers and the pipe wall. However, this limitation can be overcome by recent developments using EMAT (Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Transducer) technology. By a special sensor design, the EMAT inspection is combined with eddy current (EC) inspection and MFL inspection at the same time. As a result, this new multi-technology approach offers improved sizing as well as enhanced feature identification for wall thickness inspection of gas pipelines

Ein neues Prüfsystem für die Korrosionsprüfung von Gaspipelines mit kombinierter Ultraschall-, Wirbelstrom- und Streuflussmessung

Für die Innenprüfung von Fernrohrleitungen werden automatisierte Prüfsysteme (sogenannte Prüfmolche) eingesetzt. Zur Erkennung und Vermessung von Materialverlusten (insbesondere Korrosionen) haben sich das Streuflussverfahren und das Ultraschallverfahren bewährt, wobei Letzteres aufgrund der direkten Messung der Restwanddicke eine genauere Tiefenaussage und damit eine zuverlässigere Fehlerbewertung ermöglicht. Während in Flüssigkeitsleitungen das Transportmedium selbst als Ankoppelmedium dient, ist der Einsatz des mit konventionellen, piezoelektrischen Prüfköpfen arbeitenden Ultraschallverfahrens in Gasleitungen nicht ohne weiteres möglich. Um die Vorteile des Ultraschallverfahrens auch für die Prüfung von Gasleitungen nutzbar zu machen, wurde ein Prüfsystem auf EMUS-Basis entwickelt, mit dem Ultraschall über elektromagnetische Wechselwirkungen direkt in der Werkstoffoberfläche erzeugt wird (EMUS-elektromagnetisch angeregter Ultraschall). Da die EMUS-Technik auf der Verwendung von Spulen basiert, wurde ein Sensorsystem entwickelt, das neben der koppelmittelfreien Ultraschallanregung gleichzeitig auch die Erfassung von Streufluss- und Wirbelstromsignalen erlaubt. Durch die synchrone Messung dreier unabhängiger, physikalischer Messgrößen lassen sich deutliche Verbesserungen sowohl bei der Fehlervermessung als auch bei der Anzeigendiskriminierung erzielen. In dem Beitrag wird das neue Sensorkonzept und dessen Realisierung sowie der Aufbau des Prüfsystems beschrieben. Erste Ergebnisse werden vorgestellt und diskutiert

PASTA. Pilotprojekt zur Anwendung der SAR-Technik fuer die Agrarstatistik und die Inventur der Landnutzung Schlussbericht

Satellite remote sensing allows the survey of agricultural practice for large areas and the inspection of land use for the purpose of the agricultural policy of the European Community. The existing techniques are based on optical remote sensing data, which in Europe are often disturbed by clouds. SAR-data of the ERS-satellites however are operationally available without these limitations caused by clouds or sun illumination. They provide additional information related with the physical properties of the illuminated objects. It was the main goal to analyse how ERS-SAR data in combination with optical data and official GIS basis data could be used for a common landuse classification and which improvements could be achieved. Several different classification methods were used for a multisensoral and multitemporal approach. The main cultivated crops could be identified with a higher accuracy of roughly 10% compared to pure optical classification. A further substantial improvement (up to 20%) could be achieved by the application of a majority filter on the classification results. The methods are suited for a fast acquisition of land use and for the control of the EC-policy of financial compensation related with acgricultural land use. It is however necessary to improve the classification accuracy if, as it is the case in Baden-Wuerttemberg, the agricultural fields are of very small size. Higer resolution satellite data and additional GIS information could lead to these improvements. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F97B1403 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany); Deutsche Agentur fuer Raumfahrtangelegenheiten (DARA) GmbH, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

PASTA. Pilotprojekt zur Anwendung der SAR-Technik fuer die Agrarstatistik und die Inventur der Landnutzung Schlussbericht

Satellite remote sensing allows the survey of agricultural practice for large areas and the inspection of land use for the purpose of the agricultural policy of the European Community. The existing techniques are based on optical remote sensing data, which in Europe are often disturbed by clouds. SAR-data of the ERS-satellites however are operationally available without these limitations caused by clouds or sun illumination. They provide additional information related with the physical properties of the illuminated objects. It was the main goal to analyse how ERS-SAR data in combination with optical data and official GIS basis data could be used for a common landuse classification and which improvements could be achieved. Several different classification methods were used for a multisensoral and multitemporal approach. The main cultivated crops could be identified with a higher accuracy of roughly 10% compared to pure optical classification. A further substantial improvement (up to 20%) could be achieved by the application of a majority filter on the classification results. The methods are suited for a fast acquisition of land use and for the control of the EC-policy of financial compensation related with acgricultural land use. It is however necessary to improve the classification accuracy if, as it is the case in Baden-Wuerttemberg, the agricultural fields are of very small size. Higer resolution satellite data and additional GIS information could lead to these improvements. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F97B1403 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany); Deutsche Agentur fuer Raumfahrtangelegenheiten (DARA) GmbH, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

Improving peptide relative quantification in MALDI-TOF MS for biomarker assessment

Proteomic profiling by MALDI-TOF MS presents various advantages (speed of analysis, ease of use, relatively low cost, sensitivity, tolerance against detergents and contaminants, and possibility of automation) and is being currently used in many applications (e.g. peptide/protein identification and quantification, biomarker discovery, and imaging MS). Earlier studies by many groups indicated that moderate reproducibility in relative peptide quantification is a major limitation of MALDI-TOF MS. In the present work, we examined and demonstrate a clear effect, in cases apparently random, of sample dilution in complex samples (urine) on the relative quantification of peptides by MALDI-TOF MS. Results indicate that in urine relative abundance of peptides cannot be assessed with confidence based on a single MALDI-TOF MS spectrum. To account for this issue, we developed and propose a novel method of determining the relative abundance of peptides, taking into account that peptides have individual linear quantification ranges in relation to sample dilution. We developed an algorithm that calculates the range of dilutions at which each peptide responds in a linear manner and normalizes the received peptide intensity values accordingly. This concept was successfully applied to a set of urine samples from patients diagnosed with diabetes presenting normoalbuminuria (controls) and macroalbuminuria (cases)