An evaluation of Guided Regularized Random Forest for classification and regression tasks in remote sensing

New Earth observation missions and technologies are delivering large amounts of data. Processing this data requires developing and evaluating novel dimensionality reduction approaches to identify the most informative features for classification and regression tasks. Here we present an exhaustive evaluation of Guided Regularized Random Forest (GRRF), a feature selection method based on Random Forest. GRRF does not require fixing a priori the number of features to be selected or setting a threshold of the feature importance. Moreover, the use of regularization ensures that features selected by GRRF are non-redundant and representative. Our experiments based on various kinds of remote sensing images, show that GRRF selected features provides similar results to those obtained when using all the available features. However, the comparison between GRRF and standard random forest features shows substantial differences: in classification, the mean overall accuracy increases by almost 6% and, in regression, the decrease in RMSE almost reaches 2%. These results demonstrate the potential of GRRF for remote sensing image classification and regression. Especially in the context of increasingly large geodatabases that challenge the application of traditional methods.     

固定式海洋平台利用TLD的减震研究

本文研究固定式海洋平台利用调谐液体阻尼器（ＴｕｎｅｄＬｉｑｕｉｄＤａｍｐｅｒ，简称ＴＬＤ）减小地震反应的方法。首先探讨了调谐频率比、激磁频率比对减震效果的影响，在此基础上建立了ＴＬＤ——平台系统的力学模型和运动方程，通过数值计算验证了该方法的有效性     

Benthic mineralization rates at two locations in the southern North Sea

Benthic oxygen uptake, sulphate reduction and benthic bacterial production were measured at two contrasting locations in the southern North Sea: the shallow and turbulent Broad Fourteens area in the Southern Bight, and the deeper Oyster Grounds, a deposition area, where thermohaline stratification occurs during summer. Oxygen uptake and sulphate reduction showed a clear seasonal pattern in the Broad Fourteens area, indicating a supply of carbon to the benthic system that is closely related to the standing stock of carbon in the water column. This close benthic-pelagic coupling is probably due to the influence of the tide in this part of the North Sea, which keeps the water column permanently mixed. At the Oyster Grounds, no seasonal pattern was observed. Peaks in oxygen uptake and sulphate reduction were found in winter. Irregularly occurring events, such as storms and fishery-related activities, are likely to affect the benthic mineralization patterns in this area. Annual benthic carbon mineralization rates estimated from oxygen uptake rates were 44 gC·m⁻² at the Broad Fourteens, and 131 gC·m⁻² at the Oyster Grounds, of which 26 and 28%, respectively, could be attributed to sulphate reduction (assuming an annual sulphide reoxidation rate of 100%). Although sulphate reduction rates in the southern North Sea are higher than previously suggested, aerobic respiration is the most important pathway for benthic carbon mineralization at the stations visited. Production rates of benthic bacterial carbon measured with labelled leucine were much higher than carbon mineralization rates based on oxygen uptake or sulphate reduction. This may either imply a very high bacterial carbon conversion efficiency, or point to shortcomings in the accuracy of the techniques. A critical evaluation of the techniques is recommended.     

海水中砷标准物质的研制

本文介绍了海水中砷标准物质的研制过程，其中包括溶液的配制、均匀性和稳定性检验，标样的分析方法。并对标准物质的定值数据进行统计处理，两种浓度的定值结果分别为：１．００μｇ／ｃｍ３±０．０４μｇ／ｃｍ３和５１．０μｇ／ｄｍ３±２．６μｇ／ｄｍ３。两种浓度砷标准物质的稳定期均为一年     

Reducing fishing vessel fuel consumption and NOX emissions

There is a growing concern with the impact of marine operations on the environment. This requires reducing fuel consumption and vessel pollution during operation. On-board computers and satellite communications will enable the operator to reduce fuel consumption and NO_X emissions during vessel operations.This paper presents the results of a study on this problem and how such an on-board system could be implemented to reduce fuel consumption and engine NO_X emissions.     

Northward transport of pacific summer water along the Northwind Ridge in the Western Arctic Ocean

The recent sea-ice reduction in the Arctic Ocean is not spatially uniform, but is disproportionally large around the Northwind Ridge and Chukchi Plateau compared to elsewhere in the Canada Basin. In the Northwind Ridge region, Pacific Summer Water (PSW) delivered from the Bering Sea occupies the subsurface layer. The spatial distribution of warm PSW shows a quite similar pattern to the recent ice retreat, suggesting the influence of PSW on the sea-ice reduction. To understand the regionality of the recent ice retreat, we examine the dynamics and timing of the delivery of the PSW into this region. Here, we adopt a two-layer linearized potential vorticity equation to investigate the behavior of Rossby waves in the presence of a topographic discontinuity in the high latitude ocean. The analytical results show a quite different structure from those of mid-latitude basins due to the small value of β. Incident barotropic waves excited by the sea-ice motion with large annual variation can be scattered into both barotropic and baroclinic modes at the discontinuity. Since the scattered baroclinic Rossby wave with annual frequency cannot propagate freely, a strong baroclinic current near the topographic discontinuity is established. The seasonal variation of current near the topographic discontinuity would cause a kind of selective switching system for shelf water transport into the basin. In our simple analytical model, the enhanced northward transport of summer water and reduced northward transport of winter water are well demonstrated. The present study indicates that these basic dynamics imply that a strengthening of the surface forcing during winter in the Canada Basin could cause sea-ice reduction in the Western Arctic through the changes of underlying Pacific Summer Water.     

Low temperature volatile production at the Lost City Hydrothermal Field, evidence from a hydrogen stable isotope geothermometer

Although commonly utilized in continental geothermal work, the water-hydrogen and methane-hydrogen isotope geothermometers have been neglected in hydrothermal studies. Here we report δD-CH₄ and δD-H₂ values from high-temperature, black smoker-type hydrothermal vents and low-temperature carbonate-hosted samples from the recently discovered Lost City Hydrothermal Field. Methane deuterium content is uniform across the dataset at − 120 ± 12‰. Hydrogen δD values vary from − 420‰ to − 330‰ at high-temperature vents to − 700‰ to − 600‰ at Lost City. The application of several geothermometer equations to a suite of hydrothermal vent volatile samples reveals that predicted temperatures are similar to measured vent temperatures at high-temperature vents, and 20-60 °C higher than those measured at the Lost City vents. We conclude that the overestimation of temperature at Lost City reflects 1) that methane and hydrogen are produced by serpentinization at > 110 °C, and 2) that isotopic equilibrium at temperatures < 70 °C is mediated by microbial sulfate reduction. The successful application of hydrogen isotope geothermometers to low-temperature Lost City hydrothermal samples encourages its employment with low-temperature diffuse hydrothermal fluids.     

Impact of Changes in Redox Conditions on Leaching of Some Elements from MSW Fly Ash

Abstract. Oxidation and reduction processes can influence extent of leaching of elements from solid waste. Three samples of municipal solid waste combustion fly ash were subjected to oxidizing and reducing conditions in order to evaluate leaching of elements in the Milli-Q water and fly ash (liquid to solid ratio, 100) mixtures. Although the oxidizing and reducing conditions were applied for 6 hours only, elements like Cs, Li, Mg, Sb, Tl and V leached more under oxidizing condition than under reducing condition in the case of all three ash samples. Cadmium, Pb and Zn leached more from all samples under reducing condition than under oxidizing condition. Leaching of other elements like Al, Ba, Cr, Cu, Ni and Rb was inconsistent with oxidizing or reducing conditions and varied from sample to sample, suggesting that factors other than redox may be more important in controlling leaching of these elements. Strong acid neutralization capacity of the fly ash samples let the pH vary within a narrow range, and thus severely limited the extent of leaching during the course of the experiment. Lead and Zn were the most sensitive while K and Na were the least sensitive to changes in redox conditions.     

城市地区抗御地震灾害风险评估项目综述

城市地区抗御地震灾害风险评估项目系联合国在上世纪末为减轻地震灾害所实施的规模宏大，影响甚远的国际性研究项目，其宗旨是为了提高社会公众防灾意识，有效地减轻城市地区的地震灾害。这一历时2年的项目在有限的经费支持下，取得了令人瞩目的成绩。结合自贡市开展这个项目的实践。综合介绍和总结了该项目的情况及经验。     

Evapotranspiration from citrus trees growing in sandy soilunder drip irrigation with saline water

An experiment on evapotranspiration from citrus trees under irrigation with saline waterwas carried out for 4 months. Two lysimeters planted with a citrus tree in the green house wereused. One lysimeter was irrigated with saline water (NaCl and CaCl2 of 2000 mg/L equivalence,EC = 3.8 dS/m, SAR = 5.9) and the other was irrigated with freshwater using drip irrigation. Theapplied irrigation water was 1.2 times that of the evapotranspiration on the previous day.Evapotranspiration was calculated as the change in lysimeter weight recorded every 30 minutes.The lysimeters were filled with soil with 95.8% sand. The results of the experiment were as follows.(i) The evapotranspiration from citrus tree was reduced after irrigation with saline water. Theevapotranspiration returns to normal after leaching. However it takes months to exhaust the saltfrom the tree. ( ii ) To estimate the impact of irrigation with saline water on the evapotranspirationfrom citrus trees, the reduction coefficient due to salt stress (Ks) was used in this experiment.Evapotranspiration under irrigation with saline water (ETs) can be calculated from evapotranspira-tion under irrigation with freshwater (ET) by the equation ETs = Ks× ET. Ks can be expressed as afunction of ECsw. (iii) The critical soil-water electrical conductivity (ECsw) is 9.5 dS/m, beyondwhich adverse effects on evapotranspiration begin to appear. If ECsw can be controlled at below9.5 dS/m, saline water can be safely used for irrigation.