A natural language processing and geospatial clustering framework for harvesting local place names from geotagged housing advertisements

Local place names are frequently used by residents living in a geographic region. Such place names may not be recorded in existing gazetteers, due to their vernacular nature, relative insignificance to a gazetteer covering a large area (e.g. the entire world), recent establishment (e.g. the name of a newly-opened shopping center) or other reasons. While not always recorded, local place names play important roles in many applications, from supporting public participation in urban planning to locating victims in disaster response. In this paper, we propose a computational framework for harvesting local place names from geotagged housing advertisements. We make use of those advertisements posted on local-oriented websites, such as Craigslist, where local place names are often mentioned. The proposed framework consists of two stages: natural language processing (NLP) and geospatial clustering. The NLP stage examines the textual content of housing advertisements and extracts place name candidates. The geospatial stage focuses on the coordinates associated with the extracted place name candidates and performs multiscale geospatial clustering to filter out the non-place names. We evaluate our framework by comparing its performance with those of six baselines. We also compare our result with four existing gazetteers to demonstrate the not-yet-recorded local place names discovered by our framework.     

生物土壤结皮对风沙土和黄绵土膨胀特性的影响

作为重要的土壤物理性质，膨胀性在影响土壤导水性、持水性、抗蚀性以及土壤结构的形成和发育等方面发挥着重要作用。为了探讨生物土壤结皮（BSCs）土壤的膨胀特性及其主要影响因素，针对黄土高原风沙土和黄绵土两种典型土壤，利用膨胀仪测定并比较了有、无藓结皮及其在不同因素（初始含水量、干湿循环、冻融循环、温度）下膨胀率的差异，分析了BSCs对土壤膨胀性的影响及其与环境因素和BSCs性质的关系。结果显示：风沙土上藓结皮的膨胀率为1.93%，较无结皮增加了8.65倍；而黄绵土上藓结皮的膨胀率为2.05%，与无结皮相比降低了76.68%。藓结皮的生物量和厚度与其膨胀率在风沙土上均呈线性正相关关系（P < 0.05），在黄绵土上分别呈二次函数（P=0.02）和线性正相关关系（P=0.02）。初始含水量同时影响了土壤最大膨胀率和稳定膨胀时间，影响程度风沙土远大于黄绵土（包括藓结皮和无结皮）；干湿循环次数对无结皮土壤膨胀率的影响程度大于藓结皮土壤，其中风沙土和黄绵土上无结皮的膨胀率分别是50.00%~620.00%和-2.28%~10.81%，而两种土壤上藓结皮的膨胀率分别是-5.70%~10.88%和-10.24%~-21.46%；冻融循环下4种土壤的膨胀率均有不同程度的降低，降幅为0~18.54%。黄绵土无结皮的膨胀率受温度影响程度较大，50℃下黄绵土无结皮的膨胀率分别是25℃和35℃下的1.17倍和1.21倍。BSCs显著地改变了风沙土和黄绵土表层的膨胀性，其影响的程度和方向取决于土壤类型。同时，BSCs的膨胀性受含水量、温度、干湿以及冻融循环等关键因素影响。     

Multiple stellar populations in the Sextans dwarf spheroidal galaxy?

We present wide-field     multiband ( BVI ) CCD photometry (down to     of the very low surface brightness dwarf spheroidal galaxy Sextans. In the derived colour–magnitude diagrams we find evidence suggesting the presence of multiple stellar populations in this dwarf spheroidal. In particular, we discover (i) a blue horizontal branch tail that appears to lie on a brighter sequence with respect to the prominent red horizontal branch and the RR Lyrae stars, very similar to what was found by Majewski et al. for the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal, (ii) hints of a bimodal distribution in colour of the red giant branch stars, (iii) a double red giant branch bump. All of these features suggest that (at least) two components are present in the old stellar population of this galaxy: the main one with     and a minor component around     . The similarity to the Sculptor case may indicate that multiple star formation episodes are also common in the most nearby dwarf spheroidals that ceased their star formation activity at very early epochs.     

松辽盆地三肇凹陷葡萄花油层成藏模式初探

运用源控含油气系统理论与综合分析技术,按成藏“层次分析”方法,通过对生、储、盖、圈(闭)静态要素及其内生、排、运、聚、散(失)动态过程的综合研究,对松辽盆地中央坳陷的三肇凹陷葡萄花油层成藏条件进行探讨,提出了以次级凹陷为中心、不同类型的油气聚集带紧邻并围绕次级凹陷最低部位呈环带状分布的大型凹陷内成藏模式,并进一步提出永乐次级凹陷中心及其三级聚油环带及徐家围子次级凹陷以西为"网式"运聚特征;在凹陷级成藏模式的指导下,通过对大面积密井网开发区综合解剖,提出三级构造带中单个的局部构造圈闭(群)、单个的(局部构造——)岩性圈闭(群)控油和成藏规律,为认识本区基本控油单元、油水分布规律、油气勘探及扩大新探区提供重要的理论依据。     

三峡及邻区晚第三纪以来构造应力场特征探讨

用三峡及邻区（东经１０８°～１１３°，北纬２９°～３３°）地质资料，地震资料，现 场地应力测量资料论证三峡及邻区晚第三纪以来构造应力场稳定性及其分区特 征。     

Multi-scale variability of beach profiles at Duck: A wavelet analysis

Beach profiles have been observed to change over a range of spatial and temporal scales; however techniques for quantifying this variability have not been fully established. In this paper, a wavelet technique is introduced as a method to study the multi-scale variability of beach profiles. The beach profile data comprising a 22-year time series surveyed at the US Army Corps of Civil Engineers Field Research Facility (FRF) at Duck are analysed using the adapted maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform (AMODWT). The analysis successfully identifies strong local features in the variability of beach profiles in time and space separately that cannot be isolated by traditional statistical methods. The analysis of spatial wavelet variances provides a new means of investigating the depth of closure. Analysis of variances by temporal scales shows that the combined effects of several temporal scales with one or two dominant scales can be seen at particular points across profiles whilst the dominant temporal scales are different at different portions of the profiles. The method allows for the extremely nonstationary behaviour of beach profile to be analysed into separate frequency bands that can facilitate the interpretation of morphological changes in terms of physical processes.     

A data-driven approach to local gravity field modelling using spherical radial basis functions

We propose a methodology for local gravity field modelling from gravity data using spherical radial basis functions. The methodology comprises two steps: in step 1, gravity data (gravity anomalies and/or gravity disturbances) are used to estimate the disturbing potential using least-squares techniques. The latter is represented as a linear combination of spherical radial basis functions (SRBFs). A data-adaptive strategy is used to select the optimal number, location, and depths of the SRBFs using generalized cross validation. Variance component estimation is used to determine the optimal regularization parameter and to properly weight the different data sets. In the second step, the gravimetric height anomalies are combined with observed differences between global positioning system (GPS) ellipsoidal heights and normal heights. The data combination is written as the solution of a Cauchy boundary-value problem for the Laplace equation. This allows removal of the non-uniqueness of the problem of local gravity field modelling from terrestrial gravity data. At the same time, existing systematic distortions in the gravimetric and geometric height anomalies are also absorbed into the combination. The approach is used to compute a height reference surface for the Netherlands. The solution is compared with NLGEO2004, the official Dutch height reference surface, which has been computed using the same data but a Stokes-based approach with kernel modification and a geometric six-parameter “corrector surface” to fit the gravimetric solution to the GPS-levelling points. A direct comparison of both height reference surfaces shows an RMS difference of 0.6 cm; the maximum difference is 2.1 cm. A test at independent GPS-levelling control points, confirms that our solution is in no way inferior to NLGEO2004.     

Uncertainty as the overlap of alternate conditional distributions

An important task in modern geostatistics is the assessment and quantification of resource and reserve uncertainty. This uncertainty is valuable support information for many management decisions. Uncertainty at specific locations and uncertainty in the global resource is of interest. There are many different methods to build models of uncertainty, including Kriging, Cokriging, and Inverse Distance. Each method leads to different results. A method is proposed to combine local uncertainties predicted by different models to obtain a combined measure of uncertainty that combines good features of each alternative. The new estimator is the overlap of alternate conditional distributions.     

Retailing local food in the Scottish-English borders: A supply chain perspective

Local food is championed as one alternative response to industrial systems of food production and supply. While advocacy for local food is high, there is a lack of empirical evidence about the actual shape and scale of such food supply chains, especially from a retail perspective. Using supply chain diagrams, this paper presents a summary of ‘new’ agro-food geographies for five different retail types—farm shops, butchers, caterers, specialist shops, supermarkets/department stores—that all source local food from suppliers in the Scottish-English borders. Presented as five separate ‘shopping trips’, the paper examines where, how and why retailers source local food. Results reveal the complex nature of local food systems, especially in terms of intra-sector competitive dynamics (with a notable tension between direct forms of retail and established (independent) retailers), links and overlaps with ‘normal’ food retail systems and elastic notions of the ‘local’. The paper also draws a key distinction between locally produced and locally supplied food products.