VGI and crowdsourced data credibility analysis using spam email detection techniques

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) can be considered a subset of crowdsourced data (CSD) and its popularity has recently increased in a number of application areas. Disaster management is one of its key application areas in which the benefits of VGI and CSD are potentially very high. However, quality issues such as credibility, reliability and relevance are limiting many of the advantages of utilising CSD. Credibility issues arise as CSD come from a variety of heterogeneous sources including both professionals and untrained citizens. VGI and CSD are also highly unstructured and the quality and metadata are often undocumented. In the 2011 Australian floods, the general public and disaster management administrators used the Ushahidi Crowd-mapping platform to extensively communicate flood-related information including hazards, evacuations, emergency services, road closures and property damage. This study assessed the credibility of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Ushahidi CrowdMap dataset using a Naïve Bayesian network approach based on models commonly used in spam email detection systems. The results of the study reveal that the spam email detection approach is potentially useful for CSD credibility detection with an accuracy of over 90% using a forced classification methodology.     

Pattern,style and timing of British–Irish Ice Sheet advance and retreat over the last 45 000 years: evidence from NW Scotland and the adjacent continental shelf

Predicting the future response of ice sheets to climate warming and rising global sea level is important but difficult. This is especially so when fast-flowing glaciers or ice streams, buffered by ice shelves, are grounded on beds below sea level. What happens when these ice shelves are removed? And how do the ice stream and the surrounding ice sheet respond to the abruptly altered boundary conditions? To address these questions and others we present new geological, geomorphological, geophysical and geochronological data from the ice-stream-dominated NW sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). The study area covers around 45 000 km² of NW Scotland and the surrounding continental shelf. Alongside seabed geomorphological mapping and Quaternary sediment analysis, we use a suite of over 100 new absolute ages (including cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages, optically stimulated luminescence ages and radiocarbon dates) collected from onshore and offshore, to build a sector-wide ice-sheet reconstruction combining all available evidence with Bayesian chronosequence modelling. Using this information we present a detailed assessment of ice-sheet advance/retreat history, and the glaciological connections between different areas of the NW BIIS sector, at different times during the last glacial cycle. The results show a highly dynamic, partly marine, partly terrestrial, ice-sheet sector undergoing large size variations in response to sub-millennial-scale climatic (Dansgaard–Oeschger) cycles over the last 45 000 years. Superimposed on these trends we identify internally driven instabilities, operating at higher frequency, conditioned by local topographic factors, tidewater dynamics and glaciological feedbacks during deglaciation. Specifically, our new evidence indicates extensive marine-terminating ice-sheet glaciation of the NW BIIS sector during Greenland Stadials 12 to 9 – prior to the main ‘Late Weichselian’ ice-sheet glaciation. After a period of restricted glaciation, in Greenland Interstadials 8 to 6, we find good evidence for rapid renewed ice-sheet build-up in NW Scotland, with the Minch ice-stream terminus reaching the continental shelf edge in Greenland Stadial 5, perhaps only briefly. Deglaciation of the NW sector took place in numerous stages. Several grounding-zone wedges and moraines on the mid- and inner continental shelf attest to significant stabilizations of the ice-sheet grounding line, or ice margin, during overall retreat in Greenland Stadials 3 and 2, and to the development of ice shelves. NW Lewis was the first substantial present-day land area to deglaciate, in the first half of Greenland Stadial 3 at a time of globally reduced sea-level c. 26 kabp , followed by Cape Wrath at c. 24 kabp. The topographic confinement of the Minch straits probably promoted ice-shelf development in early Greenland Stadial 2, providing the ice stream with additional support and buffering it somewhat from external drivers. However, c. 20–19 kabp , as the grounding-line migrated into shoreward deepening water, coinciding with a marked change in marine geology and bed strength, the ice stream became unstable. We find that, once underway, grounding-line retreat proceeded in an uninterrupted fashion with the rapid loss of fronting ice shelves – first in the west, then the east troughs – before eventual glacier stabilization at fjord mouths in NW Scotland by ~17 kabp. Around the same time, ~19–17 kabp , ice-sheet lobes readvanced into the East Minch – possibly a glaciological response to the marine-instability-triggered loss of adjacent ice stream (and/or ice shelf) support in the Minch trough. An independent ice cap on Lewis also experienced margin oscillations during mid-Greenland Stadial 2, with an ice-accumulation centre in West Lewis existing into the latter part of Heinrich Stadial 1. Final ice-sheet deglaciation of NW mainland Scotland was punctuated by at least one other coherent readvance at c. 15.5 kabp , before significant ice-mass losses thereafter. At the glacial termination, c. 14.5 kabp , glaciers fed outwash sediment to now-abandoned coastal deltas in NW mainland Scotland around the time of global Meltwater Pulse 1A. Overall, this work on the BIIS NW sector reconstructs a highly dynamic ice-sheet oscillating in extent and volume for much of the last 45 000 years. Periods of expansive ice-sheet glaciation dominated by ice-streaming were interspersed with periods of much more restricted ice-cap or tidewater/fjordic glaciation. Finally, this work indicates that the role of ice streams in ice-sheet evolution is complex but mechanistically important throughout the lifetime of an ice sheet – with ice streams contributing to the regulation of ice-sheet health but also to the acceleration of ice-sheet demise via marine ice-sheet instabilities.     

中国沿海小黄鱼种群动力学及其空间异质性研究

小黄鱼是我国近海四种最重要的经济鱼类之一,在过去的几十年中小黄鱼种群及其两个地理亚种群经历了巨大的变化。小黄鱼的种群动力学研究,对于维持这一重要渔业的可持续管理是至关重要的。目前仅有的两个小黄鱼种群动力学模型只涵盖了较短的时间,且没有关注其空间差异。本文研究了1968年至2015年间黄渤海和东海小黄鱼的种群动力学模型,包含和不包含空间分层结构的两种贝叶斯模型被用于分析其种群动力学的大尺度空间异质性。本文分析了不同的假设,来研究小黄鱼种群动力学潜在的变化趋势。研究结果表明小黄鱼种群动力学特征具有明显的时间和空间变化。种群的增长速度从20世纪八十年代开始增加,而可捕系数从1981年到2015年增加了两倍多。与黄渤海亚种群相比,东海的小黄鱼亚种群生长速度更快,遭受的捕捞压力也更大。基于最大可持续产量MSY的参考点表明,无论是整个小黄鱼种群还是两个亚种群,近年来都有非常高的过度捕捞风险。因此我国小黄鱼的渔业管理急需更加保守的管理策略,同时考虑其地域差异。本文所用的方法可以应用于其他种类的资源评估和渔业管理,尤其是具有空间异质性和数据有限的种类。     

海洋环境因子对澳洲鲐亲体补充量关系的影响——基于贝叶斯模型平均法的研究

澳洲鲐（Scomber australasicus）是西北太平洋重要的中上层经济鱼类,生命周期相对较短,资源量受补充量影响明显,了解澳洲鲐太平洋群系补充量状况对掌握其资源量及确保其可持续利用具有重要的意义。本文利用产卵场1（30°~32°N,130°~132°E）海表面温度（sea surface temperature,SST1）、产卵场2（34°~35°N,138°~141°E）海表面温度（SST2）、索饵场（35°~45°N,140°~160°E）海表面温度（SST3）、潮位差（tidal range,TR）、太平洋年代际涛动（Pacific decadal oscillation,PDO）和亲体量（spawning stock biomass,SSB）6个影响因子任意组合与补充量构建多个模型,运用贝叶斯模型平均法（Bayesian model averaging,BMA）分析各个环境因子对资源补充量的解释能力,并预测其补充量的变化。结果表明,SSB对补充量具有最长期且稳定的解释能力,其次是SST3,PDO、TR、SST2、SST1也对补充量模型具有一定的解释能力。SST3是环境因子中影响最大的因子,可能是由于补充群体在索饵场内生活时间较长,索饵场温度对仔鱼或鱼卵的生长存活有较大的影响。研究认为,基于BMA的组合预报综合考虑了各个模型的优势,优于单一模型,可用于澳洲鲐资源补充量的预测。     

基于共轭梯度搜索的病态问题处理方法

在最小二乘平差准则基础上,把病态平差问题转化为无约束的二次规划问题,并利用优化理论分析病态对平差解的影响。通过共轭梯度搜索算法在可行域中寻找最优步长因子,自动寻找最速下降方向,并给出迭代初值的设置方法。分析近似计算中病态问题与局部最优解的关系,讨论局部最优解的快速迭代方法,并通过实例验证算法的有效性,计算迭代的速度。由于整个过程没有对法方程系数矩阵进行求逆计算,该算法可用于处理大规模系数矩阵高病态的平差问题。     

长白山景区旅游安全风险动态评价研究

以长白山景区旅游安全为研究对象,以鱼骨图、动态贝叶斯、GIS技术等为基本研究方法,从研究区自然环境、社会环境及责任人为3个方面出发,筛选景区致险因子,构建景区旅游安全风险危险性评价指标体系,利用动态贝叶斯方法综合构建景区旅游安全风险动态评价模型;并以实测数据及景区统计数据为依据,划分景区旅游安全风险评价的4个动态时段,综合实现景区旅游安全风险动态风险评价。研究结果表明：① 中等以上风险区域呈条带状分布;② 高风险区域与主要景点重合;③ 长白山景区安全风险发生高概率的时段发生在第三个时段（12:00~14:00）;较高概率发生分别在第二个时段（10:00~12:00）与第四个时段（14:00~16:00）;中等概率发生较高的时段在第四个时段（14:00~16:00）;较低概率发生在第一个时段（8:00~10:00）。     

一种海洋混合层深度的智能识别方法研究

文章提出了一种识别混合层深度的人工智能方法。该方法在温度(密度)与压强(或深度)间建立线性模型, 并且将其系数和方差做成一组表征廓线特征的统计量。初始时为模型设定一个主观的先验分布, 在一个自海表向下移动的窗口内通过贝叶斯链式法则和最小描述长度原理学习新数据, 得到系数均值的最大后验概率估计。用F-检验识别系数发生突变的位置, 以此确定混合层的存在性及其深度。通过2017年2月太平洋海域的地转海洋学实时观测阵(Array for Real-time Geostrophic Oceanography, ARGO)数据进行测试, 并且以质量因子(Quality Index, QI)值作为判断识别混合层深度结果准确性的依据, 发现该方法相比于梯度法、阈值法、混合法、相对变化法、最大角度法和最优线性插值法在识别结果上具备更大的QI值。表明该方法能够准确识别混合层深度。     

一种病态EIV模型正则化的修正算法

针对解决变量中含有误差(EIV)模型参数估计算法的降正则化性导致即使模型参数初值可靠,参数估值也可能在迭代过程中发散的问题,该文分析现有EIV模型参数估计算法具有的降正则化性质,讨论EIV模型参数估计算法具有的降正则化性对模型正则化的影响,建立一种病态EIV模型的实时修正算法。通过算例验证该文所建立的算法,算例结果表明,该文建立的算法能够有效解决EIV模型参数估计存在的上述问题。该文所建立的病态EIV模型正则化算法更具普适性。     

Indoor localization for pedestrians with real-time capability using multi-sensor smartphones

ABSTRACT

The localization of persons or objects usually refers to a position determined in a spatial reference system. Outdoors, this is usually accomplished with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). However, the automatic positioning of people in GNSS-free environments, especially inside of buildings (indoors) poses a huge challenge. Indoors, satellite signals are attenuated, shielded or reflected by building components (e.g. walls or ceilings). For selected applications, the automatic indoor positioning is possible based on different technologies (e.g. WiFi, RFID, or UWB). However, a standard solution is still not available. Many indoor positioning systems are only suitable for specific applications or are deployed under certain conditions, e.g. additional infrastructures or sensor technologies. Smartphones, as popular cost-effective multi-sensor systems, is a promising indoor localization platform for the mass-market and is increasingly coming into focus. Today’s devices are equipped with a variety of sensors that can be used for indoor positioning. In this contribution, an approach to smartphone-based pedestrian indoor localization is presented. The novelty of this approach refers to a holistic, real-time pedestrian localization inside of buildings based on multi-sensor smartphones and easy-to-install local positioning systems. For this purpose, the barometric altitude is estimated in order to derive the floor on which the user is located. The 2D position is determined subsequently using the principle of pedestrian dead reckoning based on user's movements extracted from the smartphone sensors. In order to minimize the strong error accumulation in the localization caused by various sensor errors, additional information is integrated into the position estimation. The building model is used to identify permissible (e.g. rooms, passageways) and impermissible (e.g. walls) building areas for the pedestrian. Several technologies contributing to higher precision and robustness are also included. For the fusion of different linear and non-linear data, an advanced algorithm based on the Sequential Monte Carlo method is presented.