Trajectory reconstruction from mobile positioning data using cell-to-cell travel time information

This paper proposes a technique for improving the accuracy of mobile device movement trajectory reconstruction using passive mobile positioning data. The major sources of uncertainty in trajectory reconstruction are imprecise cell shape data and ‘ping-pong’ effects caused by cell handovers. We used a novel technique for improved ‘ping-pong’ effect suppression by compensating for some cell shape distortions based on temporal cell-to-cell transit statistics. The results were evaluated by estimating traffic flow using trajectory reconstruction. The proposed technique improved the accuracy of results compared to ‘ping-pong’ suppression algorithms found in the literature.     

Central holes in disks of spiral galaxies

On the basis of the solutions obtained in the previous paper, the changes in the scenario of the standard model of the Big Bang are found. The chaos degree (constrainst on fluctuation spectra) is obtained, which could be still preserved by the initially completely chaotic Universe at the time of light elements nucleosynthesist _es. The time boundaries of hadron and lepton eras and the time the electron neutrinos and neutrons become frozen in reactions of weak interaction may be shifted up to 1.4 times. The corresponding temperatures may shift off from the standard ones 0.88 times if the mean-square level of fluctuations is close to unity. If the density of the energy of fluctuations concentrated in the short-wave region of the spectrum is less than 1.5 ^– , the nucleosynthesis leads to a helium abundance coinciding with the observe one. If at the timet _es the maximum of the spectral density of the energy is in the long-wave region, that is _max ct _es the level of the chaos during the period of nucleosynthesis is restricted to 1.76 (where |C _K |² d³ K,C _K is Fourier component of the amplitude of metric fluctuations). In particular, the protogalactic vortical disturbances with a wide spectrum 4 × 10^{3 -1}( = K/K, = /_crit) are compatible with the observed helium abundance.     

TanDEM-X multiparametric data features in sea ice classification over the Baltic sea

In this study, we assess the potential of X-band Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery for automated classification of sea ice over the Baltic Sea. A bistatic SAR scene acquired by the TanDEM-X mission over the Bothnian Bay in March of 2012 was used in the analysis. Backscatter intensity, interferometric coherence magnitude, and interferometric phase have been used as informative features in several classification experiments. Various combinations of classification features were evaluated using Maximum likelihood (ML), Random Forests (RF) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers to achieve the best possible discrimination between open water and several sea ice types (undeformed ice, ridged ice, moderately deformed ice, brash ice, thick level ice, and new ice). Adding interferometric phase and coherence-magnitude to backscatter-intensity resulted in improved overall classification per- formance compared to using only backscatter-intensity. The RF algorithm appeared to be slightly superior to SVM and ML due to higher overall accuracies, however, at the expense of somewhat longer processing time. The best overall accuracy (OA) for three methodologies were achieved using combination of all tested features were 71.56, 72.93, and 72.91％ for ML, RF and SVM classifiers, respectively. Compared to OAs of 62.28, 66.51, and 63.05％ using only backscatter intensity, this indicates strong benefit of SAR interferometry in discriminating different types of sea ice. In contrast to several earlier studies, we were particularly able to successfully discriminate open water and new ice classes.     

Numerical modeling of the Sakuma Dam reservoir sedimentation

The present study attempts to predict the reservoir sedimentation in 32 km region of the Tenryu River between the Hiraoka and Sakuma Dams in Japan. For numerical simulations of the reservoir sedimentation, the one-dimensional model of the Hydrologic Engineering Centre-River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) is used together with the inclusion of channel geometry, bed gradation curve, Exner-5 bed sorting mechanisms, fall velocity of the particle, and flow and sediment boundary conditions pertaining to modeling region. The modeling region of the Tenryu River is divided into 48 river stations with 47 reaches in the numerical simulations. The numerical model is calibrated using the available data for 48 years from 1957 to 2004. The formulae of sediment transport function, Manning’s roughness coefficient, computational increment and fall velocity have been identified for getting the best estimation of the Sakuma Dam reservoir sedimentation. Combination of obtained sensitive parameters and erodible limits of 2 m gave the best comparison with the measured bed profile. The computed results follow the trend of measured data with a small underestimation. Although Manning’s roughness coefficient has an effect on the sedimentation, no direct relation is found between the Manning’s roughness coefficient and reservoir sedimentation. It is found that the temperature of water has no effect on the reservoir sedimentation.     

The correlation function of galaxies in the direction of the Coma cluster

The observational data on the amplitude of the correlation function of galaxies in the direction of the Coma cluster are confronted with an analytic formula derived for a self-similar observer-homogeneous structure.     

Evidence for high water levels in the Erie basin during the Younger Dryas chronozone

A high water phase in the Lake Erie basin is identified from a variety of evidence for the period 11.0 ka to 10.5 ka. It is believed to correspond to the first Agassiz inflow to the upper Great Lakes (Main Lake Algonquin phase) when Agassiz waters discharged in both catastrophic and equilibrium modes to Lake Superior. After allowing for differential isostatic rebound, a computational model is used to estimate the lake levels in the Erie basin needed to generate Agassiz-equivalent discharges out of the basin into Lake Ontario. Computations suggest that Lake Tonawanda spillways would be re-activated by the high lake levels needed to sustain Agassiz-equivalent discharges. Existing published evidence from the Erie basin, Niagara River, and western New York (including ¹⁴C dates), is consistent with this interpretation. Additional evidence from the Niagara Peninsula (pollen spectra and geomorphology) supports the inference that extensive flooding of the southern Niagara Peninsula (Lake Wainfleet) occurred due to high water levels in the Erie basin. In the Niagara Peninsula, very shallow washover spillways would only operate when standard hydrologic variations of lake level in the Erie basin coincided with short term high levels driven by catastrophic inflows to the Great Lakes from Lake Agassiz. We support the view of Lewis & Anderson (1992) that a meltwater flux from Agassiz inflows reached Lake Erie.     

Voids in the Las Campanas Redshift Survey versus cold dark matter models

We analysed the distribution of void sizes in the two-dimensional slices of the Las Campanas Redshift Survey (LCRS). Fourteen volume-limited subsamples were extracted from the six slices to cover a large part of the survey and to test the robustness of the results against cosmic variance. Thirteen samples were randomly culled to produce homogeneously selected samples. We then studied the relationship between the cumulative area covered by voids and the void size as a property of the void hierarchy. We found that the distribution of void sizes scaled with the mean galaxy separation, λ . In particular, we found that the size of voids covering half of the area is given by D _med≈ λ +(12±3)  h ⁻¹ Mpc. Next, by employing an environmental density threshold criterion to identify mock galaxies, we were able to extend this analysis to mock samples from dynamical N -body simulations of cold dark matter (CDM) models. To reproduce the observed void statistics, overdensity thresholds of δ _th≈0,…,1 are necessary. We compared standard (SCDM), open (OCDM), vacuum energy dominated (ΛCDM) and broken scale invariant CDM models (BCDM): we found that both the void size distribution and the two-point correlation function provided important and complementary information on the large-scale matter distribution. The dependence of the void statistics on the threshold criterion for the mock galaxy identification showed that the galaxy biasing was more crucial for the void size distribution than were differences between the cosmological models.