3-D Shoreline Extraction from IKONOS Satellite Imagery

Shorelines are recognized as unique features on Earth. They have valuable properties for a diverse user community. At present, photogrammetry is the most popular technique used to capture a shoreline. With improved resolution and accuracy, commercial high-resolution satellite imagery is demonstrating a great potential in the photogrammetry application domain. One example is the utilization of IKONOS satellite imagery in shoreline extraction. IKONOS panchromatic imagery has a resolution of approximately one meter as well as the capabilities of stereo imaging. This article presents the results of an experiment in which we attempted to improve IKONOS Rational Functions (RF) for a better ground accuracy and to employ the improved RF for 3-D shoreline extraction using 1-meter panchromatic stereo images in a Lake Erie coastal area. Two approaches were investigated. One was to rectify the ground coordinates derived from vendor-provided RF coefficients using ground control points (GCPs). The other was to refine the RF coefficients using the GCPs. We compare the results from these two approaches. An assessment of the shoreline extracted from IKONOS images compared with the existing shoreline is also conducted to demonstrate the potential of the IKONOS imagery for shoreline mapping.     

Cypermethrin induces glutathione S-transferase activity in the shore crab,Carcinus maenas

Cypermethrin is a synthetic pyrethroid that is particularly toxic to crustacea. It is therefore applied as a chemotherapeutant in the salmonid aquaculture industry for the treatment of sea lice infestations. After use, cypermethrin is released directly into the marine environment, to be diluted by fresh seawater. The shore crab, Carcinus maenas is found in the vicinity of fish farms, and may come into contact with released cypermethrin. The detoxification enzyme, glutathione S-transferase (GST) has been implicated in cypermethrin metabolism in terrestrial arthropods, but this has not yet been demonstrated in crustacea. In this paper we investigate the response of GST activity in Carcinus to cypermethrin exposure, and also the time course of the induction process. GST activity is significantly increased in Carcinus exposed to nominal concentrations of 50 and 500 ng/l of water-borne cypermethrin. Carcinus demonstrate a significant elevation in GST activity following intra-cephalothoracic injection with 10 ng of cypermethrin. GST activity returns to basal levels after 36 h. The potential application of GST activity in Carcinus as a biomarker of cypermethrin exposure is discussed.     

A frequency analysis of a newδ Scuti star HR 7439

HR 7439 (HD 184705) is an F0V star which we have discovered to be a low amplitude Scuti star. This star is multi-periodic with frequencies in the range of 17 to 22 d^–1 (periods in the range 65 to 85 min). These periods are relatively short for such a cool star. Calculation of the pulsation constant Q and comparison with models indicates pulsation in the fourth and fifth overtones. Interestingly, an appropriate model calculated by Stellingwerf shows highest growth rates for the fourth and fifth overtones.     

Linearly Organized Turbulence Structures Observed Over a Suburban Area by Dual-Doppler Lidar

Dual-Doppler lidar observations are used to investigate the structure and evolution of surface-layer flow over a suburban area. The observations were made during the Joint Urban 2003 (JU2003) field experiment in Oklahoma City, U.S.A. in the summer of 2003. This study focuses specifically on a 10-h sequence of scan data beginning shortly after noon local time on 7 July 2003. During this period two coherent Doppler lidars performed overlapping low elevation angle sector scans upwind and south of Oklahoma City’s central business district. Radial velocity data from the two lidars are processed to reveal the structure and evolution of the horizontal velocity field in the surface layer throughout the afternoon and during the evening transition period. The retrieved velocity fields clearly show a tendency for turbulence structures to be elongated in the direction of the mean flow throughout the entire 10-h study period. In order to quantify the observed anisotropy and its dependence on stability, integral length scales are estimated directly from the spatially resolved velocity retrievals. As the flow became more stably stratified the characteristic cross-stream dimension of the linear structures decreased. The streamwise component was consistently more anisotropic than the cross-stream component, and both velocity components exhibited maximum anisotropy under neutral conditions. The ratio of the streamwise to cross-stream length scale was estimated to be about eight for the streamwise component, and four for the cross-stream component under neutral conditions.     

Reflections on the iconography of environmental justice activism

The United States environmental justice movement has grown in the last 20 years from tactical cooperation between civil rights and environmental activists on hazardous waste issues into a broad-based movement for social change. As dozens of organizations invest resources in an environmental justice agenda, it is important to examine how such organizations portray their stance toward the goals of the larger movement in order to better understand tensions within the movement between social justice and environmental protection, diversity and commonality, and localized and broader movement agendas. This paper explores what contemporary environmental justice imagery tells us about this social movement through a critical discourse analysis of environmental justice organizations' logos. The conceptual approach used here links a tradition of critical discourse analysis of textual materials with elements of a critical visual methodology. The paper examines how the social grievance of environmental injustice is constructed in relation to the social and natural world, and considers what these images tell us about the identities, relationships and modes of authority that constitute the contemporary environmental justice movement.