可视化人体的整体坐标系统

可视人数据集是人体解剖结构的基础信息数据集.为了确定人体结构在三维空间中的准确定位以及在不同个体之间便于比较,文中提出和建立了可视化人体的整体坐标系统.以通过耻骨联合上缘中点的水平横切面为标准原点平面,将人体分为上、下部:上部包括头,颈、胸、腹、上臂、前臂等重要部位;下部包括骨盆、下肢和手.人体的整体坐标系可以确定人体重要结构的每一个体元的空间绝对坐标及相对坐标,在图像的分割、匹配、重建中起重要作用.通过坐标系统的变换,人体整体坐标系统可以方便地应用于临床的定位定量诊断,手术导航,放射定位治疗以及人体运动功能等领域的研究.     

最近60年来气候变化和人类活动对山地河流入海径流、泥沙的影响——以胶东半岛南部五龙河为例

采用Mann-Kendall非参数检验法、累积距平法、有序聚类分析法及线性回归等数学方法,以胶东半岛五龙河流域为例,对最近60年来气候变化和人类活动对山地河流入海径流、泥沙的影响进行了研究。结果表明,20世纪50年代以来五龙河入海径流、泥沙量均呈现出显著的阶段性逐级减少趋势。最近60年来,五龙河年径流量和输沙量主要集中在6—9月;主要受年降水量变化影响,年径流量从1980年开始显著减少,并在1966年出现较大波动;受年降水和径流变化影响,年输沙量也分别在1966和1980年呈减少突变;总体来看,年输沙量减少的趋势性要强于径流量。除气候变化影响外,1966年以来流域内大面积坡耕地改梯田和园地、林地建设等人类活动,也是造成河流径流、泥沙减少的重要原因。整体而言,最近60年来,气候变化和人类活动因素对五龙河入海水沙总量减少的贡献率分别为70%—80%和20%—30%。     

Twenty years of land use and livelihood changes in SE-Niger: Obsolete and short-sighted adaptation to climatic and demographic pressures?

This paper explores the evolution of land use and natural resource management strategies over the past twenty to fifty years in a remote Sahelian region. The empirical example is Karagou village in SE Niger. Building on an in-depth survey from 1992 and a targeted, follow-up analysis of contemporary land use strategies in 2011, the change process is scrutinized.The analysis uses the conceptual lenses of land systems science, human–environmental timelines, and the notion of multiple exposures. Enabling and constraining conditions for local livelihoods in terms of the resource base (landscape, water, and population) are described. Results characterize how land use strategies have developed and how local people opportunistically use different landscape elements such as dune landscapes, valley bottoms (bas-fonds) and oases (cuvettes). Major concerns are rainfall variability, saturation of cropland, and perceived dwindling groundwater resources. It is concluded that the land use and livelihood strategies have remained remarkably stable in the face of the changing socio-ecological fringe conditions, but that this situation may hamper a sustainable transformation.     

Quantifying septic nitrogen loadings to receiving waters: Waquoit Bay,Massachusetts

Abstract

Waquoit Bay, a shallow bay on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is exhibiting symptoms of eutrophication, largely attributed to septic nitrogen inputs. This study assessed septic nitrogen inputs by linking a three-dimensional ground-water model, a geographic information system (GIS), and a customized spatio-temporal nitrogen loading program. Owing to the slow speed of ground-water movement, the bulk of septic nitrogen entering the bay lags behind development by nearly a decade. Even if residential development is held at 1989 levels, nitrogen input from septic systems wilt increase by 36% over the current levels. At full residential build-out (i.e., development), septic nitrogen loading will eventually increase to more than twice the current levels.     

Ranking spaces for predicting human movement in an urban environment

A city can be topologically represented as a connectivity graph, consisting of nodes representing individual spaces and links if the corresponding spaces are intersected. It turns out in the space syntax literature that some defined topological metrics can capture human movement rates in individual spaces. In other words, the topological metrics are significantly correlated to human movement rates, and individual spaces can be ranked by the metrics for predicting human movement. However, this correlation has never been well justified. In this paper, we study the same issue by applying the weighted PageRank algorithm to the connectivity graph or space–space topology for ranking the individual spaces, and find surprisingly that: (1) the PageRank scores are better correlated to human movement rates than the space syntax metrics, and (2) the underlying space–space topology demonstrates small world and scale free properties. The findings provide a novel justification as to why space syntax, or topological analysis in general, can be used to predict human movement. We further conjecture that this kind of analysis is no more than predicting a drunkard's walking on a small world and scale free network.     

Petrography of alluvial sands as a past and present environmental indicator: Case of the Loire River (France)

Four sample sets of the Upper and Middle Loire river sands were analyzed in order to study the impact of natural and anthropogenic factors on their petrographic composition in space (on an 800 km stretch) and time. Composition was determined by modal analysis of three sand-size fractions using a polarizing optical microscope and calculated for each sample (“standard sand” = Sst). The watershed is composed mainly of endogenic (Massif Central) and sedimentary (southern Parisian Basin) rocks. B-set sands collected in channels for different water flows in 1996 show that Sst compositions vary by only 5 %. Present-day sands in the Upper Loire and Middle Loire have very high petrographic immaturity comparing to others worldwide fluvial sands, although bio-climatic conditions favor sand maturation by source-rock weathering in the watershed. This shows the strong impact of the Massif Central on sediment yield due to relief rejuvenation as a consequence of the formation of the Alps during the Quaternary. Fluvial sands stored during the Weichselian and the Holocene in the Middle Loire floodplain, although partly weathered since their deposition, show higher inputs from the endogenic rocks of the Massif Central than present-day deposits. This can be explained by Weichselian periglacial conditions and the development of crop farming since the Neolithic, which favored mechanical erosion, particularly in the Massif Central which is characterized by a cold, humid climate and steep slopes. The upstream-downstream change in the composition of presently deposited sand is low in the diked area. It shows however that basalt and some heavy mineral grains are vulnerable to abrasion during transport and indicates a marked sediment yield from ancient sediment stored in the floodplain. This is in line with the high incision of the river bed over the last 150 years partly due to dam construction and aggregate mining.     

Pleistocene magnetochronology of the fauna and Paleolithic sites in the Nihewan Basin: Significance for environmental and hominin evolution in North China

The fluvio-lacustrine sequences in the Nihewan Basin of North China (known as the Nihewan Formation) are rich sources of Early Pleistocene Paleolithic sites and mammalian fossils (known as the Nihewan Fauna sensu lato), which offer an excellent opportunity to investigate the evolution of early humans and land mammals in East Asia. Also abundant mammalian fossils provide clues about the general environmental and climatic setting of early humans. Among the Nihewan Fauna (sensu lato), the Daodi Fauna is one of the most complete and oldest in the eastern Nihewan Basin: seven mammalian fossil-bearing layers in the Nihewan Formation have been described. Except for a biostratigraphy, however, precise age control on the Daodi Fauna has remained unavailable. Here we report a new magnetostratigraphic record that stringently constrains its age. The seven fossil-rich layers span an age range of ca 2.5–1.8 Ma between the Gauss–Matuyama boundary and the termination of the Olduvai polarity subchron. Combining our new and recently published paleomagnetic data, we further establish a Pleistocene magnetochronology of the fauna and Paleolithic sites in the Nihewan Basin. Age ranges of about 2.5–0.5 Ma for the faunas and 1.7–0.3 Ma for the Paleolithic sites are deduced, which span most of the Pleistocene. The chronological framework and calculated proportions of mammals that were adapted to different environments indicate that mixed settings of dominant grasslands and subordinate forests continued at least from 2.5 to 0.5 Ma for early human occupation in the basin, similar to the mixed open savannah and woodland habitats of early humans in Africa. The Nihewan hominins consistently adopted a simple Oldowan-like technology (i.e., Mode 1 core and flake technologies) from at least ca 1.7 to 0.3 Ma. A more advanced Acheulean technology (Mode 2) has not been found in the Nihewan Basin, although it started to emerge in the Bose Basin of South China at ca 0.8 Ma. This implies that multiple groups of hominins distinguished by differential stone-tool-making capabilities may have coexisted in China after 0.8 Ma.     

Tracking of facial deformations in multi-image sequences with elimination of rigid motion of the head

The paper deals with measurement of human facial deformations from synchronized image sequences taken with multiple calibrated cameras from different viewpoints. SIFT (Scale Invariant Feature Transform) keypoints are utilized as image feature points in the first place to determine spatial and temporal correspondences between images. If no temporal match is found for an image point by keypoint matching, then the tracking of the point is switched to least squares matching provided the point has one or more spatial corresponding points in the other views of the previous frame. For this purpose, a new method based on affine multi-image least squares matching is proposed where multiple spatial and temporal template images are simultaneously matched against each search image and part of the spatial template images also change during adjustment. A new method based on analyzing temporal changes in the image coordinates of the tracked points in multiple views is then presented for detecting the 3-D points which move only rigidly between consecutive frames. These points are used to eliminate the effect of rigid motion of the head and to obtain the changes in the 3-D points and in the corresponding image points due to pure deformation of the face. The methods are thoroughly tested with three multi-image sequences of four cameras including also quite large changes of facial deformations. The test results prove that the proposed affine multi-image least squares matching yields better results than another method using only fixed templates of the previous frame. The elimination of the effect of rigid motion works well and the points where the face is deforming can be correctly detected and the true deformation estimated. A method based on a novel adaptive threshold is also proposed for automated extraction and tracking of circular targets on a moving calibration object.     

Automatic techniques for 3D reconstruction of critical workplace body postures from range imaging data

The paper shows techniques for the determination of structured motion parameters from range camera image sequences. The core contribution of the work presented here is the development of an integrated least squares 3D tracking approach based on amplitude and range image sequences to calculate dense 3D motion vector fields. Geometric primitives of a human body model are fitted to time series of range camera point clouds using these vector fields as additional information. Body poses and motion information for individual body parts are derived from the model fit. On the basis of these pose and motion parameters, critical body postures are detected. The primary aim of the study is to automate ergonomic studies for risk assessments regulated by law, identifying harmful movements and awkward body postures in a workplace.     

Public concern about,and desire for research into,the human health effects of marine plastic pollution: Results from a 15-country survey across Europe and Australia

Marine plastic pollution is caused by humans and has become ubiquitous in the marine environment. Despite the widely acknowledged ecological consequences, the scientific evidence regarding detrimental human health impacts is currently debated, and there is no substantive evidence surrounding public opinion with respect to marine plastic pollution and human health. Results from a 15-country survey (n = 15,179) found that both the European and Australian public were highly concerned about the potential human health impacts of marine plastic pollution, and strongly supported the funding of research which aims to better understand its health/wellbeing implications. Multi-level modelling revealed that these perceptions varied across socio-demographic factors (e.g. gender), political orientation, marine contact factors (e.g. marine occupation and engagement in coastal recreation activities) and personality traits (e.g. openness, conscientiousness and agreeableness). Quantifying attitudes, as well as understanding how individual-level differences shape risk perception will enable policy makers and communicators to develop more targeted communications and initiatives that target a reduction in marine plastic pollution.