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.     

GDJ人卫目视观测数据采集和处理系统的研制

本文介绍了ＧＤＪ跟踪打印经纬仪在人造卫星的观测中如何应用计算机对多圈卫星的目视观测资料进行实时采集、处理等工作过程的原理和方法。     

Heat-shock protein 70 expression in shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis during thermal and immune-challenged stress

Using western immunoblotting, we obtained heat-shock protein 70 (HSP70) induction data and distribution in different tissues from shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis during thermal and immune-challenged stresses. This is probably the first report of the effects of various stressors on the expression of HSP70 in shrimp.HSP70 was prominently induced in hepatopancreas and gills, but not in muscle, eyestalk and hemolymph, when the shrimp were exposed to heat shock and Vibrio anguillavium-challenged stresses. Cold shock and WSSV treatment had no significant effects on the levels of HSP70 expression in all tissues examined. HSP70 induction was greatest after 2 h exposure to heat shock stress, which was elevated after acute heat shock exposure of 10℃ above ambient temperature.     

Revisiting Sustainable Development of Dry Valleys in Hengduan Mountains Region

Dry valleys are a striking geographic landscape in Hengduan Mountains Region and are characterized by low rainfall, desert type of vegetation and fragile environment. Past efforts and resources have been concentrated mainly on rehabilitation of degraded ecosystem and fragile environment, particularly reforestation, while socio-economic development has been largely overlooked. Despite successes in pocket areas, the overall trend of unsustainability and environmental deterioration are continuing. It is important to understand that uplift of the Tibetan Plateau is the root cause of development of dry valleys, and development and formation of dry valleys is a natural process. Human intervention has played a secondary role in development of dry valleys and degradation of dry valleys though human intervention in many cases has speeded up environmental degradation of the dry valleys. It is important to understand that dry valleys are climatic enclaves and an integrated approach that combines rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems and socio-economic development should be adopted if the overall goal of sustainable development of dry valleys is to be achieved. Promotion of niche-based cash crops, rural energy including hydropower, solar energy, biogas and fuelwood plantation is recommended as the priority activities.     

Towards a free–free template for CMB foregrounds

A full-sky template map of the Galactic free–free foreground emission component is increasingly important for high-sensitivity cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. We use the recently published Hα data of both the northern and southern skies as the basis for such a template.
The first step is to correct the Hα maps for dust absorption using the 100-μm dust maps of Schlegel, Finkbeiner & Davis. We show that for a range of longitudes, the Galactic latitude distribution of absorption suggests that it is 33 per cent of the full extragalactic absorption. A reliable absorption-corrected Hα map can be produced for ∼95 per cent of the sky; the area for which a template cannot be recovered is the Galactic plane area  | b | < 5°, l = 260°–0°–160°  and some isolated dense dust clouds at intermediate latitudes.
The second step is to convert the dust-corrected Hα data into a predicted radio surface brightness. The free–free emission formula is revised to give an accurate expression (1 per cent) for the radio emission covering the frequency range 100 MHz–100 GHz and the electron temperature range 3000–20 000 K. The main uncertainty when applying this expression is the variation of electron temperature across the sky. The emission formula is verified in several extended H  ii regions using data in the range 408–2326 MHz.
A full-sky free–free template map is presented at 30 GHz; the scaling to other frequencies is given. The Haslam et al. all-sky 408-MHz map of the sky can be corrected for this free–free component, which amounts to a  ≈6  per cent correction at intermediate and high latitudes, to provide a pure synchrotron all-sky template. The implications for CMB experiments are discussed.     

Identification of physical processes inherent in artificial neural network rainfall runoff models

The emergence of artificial neural network (ANN) technology has provided many promising results in the field of hydrology and water resources simulation. However, one of the major criticisms of ANN hydrologic models is that they do not consider/explain the underlying physical processes in a watershed, resulting in them being labelled as black‐box models. This paper discusses a research study conducted in order to examine whether or not the physical processes in a watershed are inherent in a trained ANN rainfall‐runoff model. The investigation is based on analysing definite statistical measures of strength of relationship between the disintegrated hidden neuron responses of an ANN model and its input variables, as well as various deterministic components of a conceptual rainfall‐runoff model. The approach is illustrated by presenting a case study for the Kentucky River watershed. The results suggest that the distributed structure of the ANN is able to capture certain physical behaviour of the rainfall‐runoff process. The results demonstrate that the hidden neurons in the ANN rainfall‐runoff model approximate various components of the hydrologic system, such as infiltration, base flow, and delayed and quick surface flow, etc., and represent the rising limb and different portions of the falling limb of a flow hydrograph. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Silicon limitation on primary production and its destiny in Jiaozhou Bay, China——Ⅳ：Study on cross-bay transect from estuary to ocean

The authors analyzed the data collected in the Ecological Station Jiaozhou Bay from May 1991 to November 1994, including 12 seasonal investigations, to determine the characteristics, dynamic cycles and variation trends of the silicate in the bay. The results indicated that the rivers around Jiaozhou Bay provided abundant supply of silicate to the bay. The silicate concentration there depended on river flow variation. The horizontal variation of silicate concentration on the transect showed that the silicate concentration decreased with distance from shorelines. The vertical variation of it showed that silicate sank and deposited on the sea bottom by phytoplankton uptake and death, and zooplankton excretion. In this way, silicon would endlessly be transferred from terrestrial sources to the sea bottom. The silicon took up by phytoplankton and by other biogeochemical processes led to insufficient silicon supply for phytoplankton growth. In this paper, a 2D dynamic model of river flow versus silicate concentration was established by which silicate concentrations of 0.028–0.062 μmol/L in seawater was yielded by inputting certain seasonal unit river flows (m³/s), or in other words, the silicate supply rate; and when the unit river flow was set to zero, meaning no river input, the silicate concentrations were between 0.05–0.69 μmol/L in the bay. In terms of the silicate supply rate, Jiaozhou Bay was divided into three parts. The division shows a given river flow could generate several different silicon levels in corresponding regions, so as to the silicon-limitation levels to the phytoplankton in these regions. Another dynamic model of river flow versus primary production was set up by which the phytoplankton primary production of 5.21–15.55 (mgC/m²·d)/(m³/s) were obtained in our case at unit river flow values via silicate concentration or primary production conversion rate. Similarly, the values of primary production of 121.98–195.33 (mgC/m²·d) were achieved at zero unit river flow condition. A primary production conversion rate reflects the sensitivity to silicon depletion so as to different phytoplankton primary production and silicon requirements by different phytoplankton assemblages in different marine areas. In addition, the authors differentiated two equations (Eqs. 1 and 2) in the models to obtain the river flow variation that determines the silicate concentration variation, and in turn, the variation of primary production. These results proved further that nutrient silicon is a limiting factor for phytoplankton growth. This study was funded by NSFC (No. 40036010), and the Director's Fund of the Beihai Sea Monitoring Center, the State Oceanic Administration.     

黑洞吸积盘的演化及温度分布的热不稳定性

本文在Ｔｈｏｒｎｅ工作的基础上讨论了吸积盘中黑洞的有关参量的演化，以及由Ｓｃｈｗａｒｚｓｃｈｉｌｄ黑洞吸积盘向Ｋｅｒｒ黑洞吸积盘演化过程中对吸积盘辐射通量的影响，最后针对几个典型的辐射过程，分别讨论了黑洞吸积盘在牛顿框架中的温度分布方程与广义相对论的温度分布方程的热不稳定性，并给出此类问题的热不稳定性的判据。