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.     

Muon density measurements with the KASCADE central detector

Frequency distributions of local muon densities in high-energy extensive air showers (EAS) are presented as signature of the primary cosmic ray energy spectrum in the knee region. Together with the gross shower variables like shower core position, angle of incidence, and the shower sizes, the KASCADE experiment is able to measure local muon densities for two different muon energy thresholds. The spectra have been reconstructed for various core distances, as well as for particular subsamples, classified on the basis of the shower size ratio N_μ/N_e. The measured density spectra of the total sample exhibit clear kinks reflecting the knee of the primary energy spectrum. While relatively sharp changes of the slopes are observed in the spectrum of EAS with small values of the shower size ratio, no such feature is detected at EAS of large N_μ/N_e ratio in the energy range of 1–10 PeV. Comparing the spectra for various thresholds and core distances with detailed Monte Carlo simulations the validity of EAS simulations is discussed.     

Gamma-Hadron Separation using Čerenkov Photon Density Fluctuations

In the atmospheric Čerenkov technique γ-rays are detected against the abundant background produced by hadronic showers. In order to improve the signal to noise ratio of theexperiment, it is necessary to reject a significant fraction of hadronic showers. Traditional background rejection methods based on image shape parameters have been extensively used for the data from imaging telescopes. However, non-imaging Čerenkov telescopes have to develop very different means of statistically identifying and removing cosmic ray events. Some of the parameters, which could be potentially important for non-imaging arrays, are the temporal and spectral differences, the lateral distributions and density fluctuations of Čerenkov photons generated by γ-ray and hadron primaries. Here we study the differences in fluctuations of Čerenkov photon density in the light pool at the observation level from showers initiated by photons and those initiated by protons or heavier nuclei. The database of simulated events for the PACT array has been used to evaluate the efficiency of the new technique. Various types of density fluctuations like the short range and medium range fluctuations as well as flatness parameter are studied. The estimated quality factors reflect the efficiencies with which the hadrons can be rejected from the data. Since some of these parameters are independent, the cuts may be applied in tandem and we demonstrate that the proton rejection efficiency of ∼90% can be achieved. Use of density fluctuations is particularly suited for wavefront sampling observations and it seems to be a good technique to improve the signal to noise ratio. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

关于高速滑坡的几个问题

高速滑坡问题是当前工程地质和环境地质学界极为关注的问题。本文对诸如滑体高速滑动所对应的时空界限、滑体滑动过程所产生的热效应以及空气浮托力等高速滑坡产生机制问题进行了初步探讨。     

EUV and coronagraphic observations of coronal mass ejections

The Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) and Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) onboard Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) provide us with unprecedented multi-wavelength observations helping us to understand different dynamic phenomena on the Sun and in the corona. In this paper we discuss the association between post-eruptive arcades (PEAs) detected by EIT and white-light coronal mass ejections (CMEs) detected by LASCO/C2 telescope.     

The Roche Limit

The role of tides in deforming and possibly disrupting a secondary body orbiting about a primary body has been known for a considerable time. This was first inspired by the observations of ocean tides on Earth and then seen as playing an important role in the formation and evolution of the Earth–Moon system. Finally, in the beginning of the 20th century it was generally thought to have a significant role in the formation of the solar system through the tidal disruption of the Sun. Here, an overview of the historical developments of the ideas concerned with tidal disruption of a secondary body that can lead to mass loss is given. Some discussion of possible extensions to consider more realistic situations where the secondary body may not be moving on a circular orbit and may not rotate so as to maintain the phase-on configuration to the primary body is also given.     

Evolution of the luminosity function and colours of galaxies in a Λ cold dark matter universe

The luminosity function of galaxies is derived from a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation of a Λ cold dark matter universe with the aid of a stellar population synthesis model. At     , the resulting B -band luminosity function has a flat faint-end slope of     with the characteristic luminosity and the normalization in fair agreement with observations, while the dark matter halo mass function is steep with a slope of     . The colour distribution of galaxies also agrees well with local observations. We also discuss the evolution of the luminosity function, and the colour distribution of galaxies from     to 5. A large evolution of the characteristic mass in the stellar mass function as a result of number evolution is compensated by luminosity evolution; the characteristic luminosity increases only by 0.8 mag from     to 2, and then declines towards higher redshift, while the B -band luminosity density continues to increase from     to 5 (but only slowly at     .     

褶皱岩层初始挠曲的分叉特性

基于拖带坐标法建立了岩层大变形的一维非线性微分方程，然后用解析与数值方法研究了变刚度、可伸缩岩层在侧向压力及自重作用下的分叉特性，初步揭示了褶皱岩层初始挠曲的形成机理。