Analyzing the discharge regime of a large tropical river through remote sensing, ground-based climatic data, and modeling

This study demonstrates the potential for applying passive microwave satellite sensor data to infer the discharge dynamics of large river systems using the main stem Amazon as a test case. The methodology combines (1) interpolated ground-based meteorological station data, (2) horizontally and vertically polarized temperature differences (HVPTD) from the 37-GHz scanning multichannel microwave radiometer (SMMR) aboard the Nimbus 7 satellite, and (3) a calibrated water balance/water transport model (WBM/WTM). Monthly HVPTD values at 0.25° (latitude by longitude) resolution were resampled spatially and temporally to produce an enhanced HVPTD time series at 0.5° resolution for the period May 1979 through February 1985. Enhanced HVPTD values were regressed against monthly discharge derived from the WBM/WTM for each of 40 grid cells along the main stem over a calibration period from May 1979 to February 1983 to provide a spatially contiguous estimate of time-varying discharge. HVPTD-estimated flows generated for a validation period from March 1983 to February 1985 were found to be in good agreement with both observed arid modeled discharges over a 1400-km section of the main stem Amazon. This span of river is bounded downstream by a region of tidal influence and upstream by low sensor response associated with dense forest canopy. Both the WBM/WTM and HVPTD-derived flow rates reflect the significant impact of the 1982–1983 El Niño-;Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event on water balances within the drainage basin

Ontology Mapping: The State of the Art

Ontology mapping is seen as a solution provider in today\u27s landscape of ontology research. As the number of ontologies that are made publicly available and accessible on the Web increases steadily, so does the need for applications to use them. A single ontology is no longer enough to support the tasks envisaged by a distributed environment like the Semantic Web. Multiple ontologies need to be accessed from several applications. Mapping could provide a common layer from which several ontologies could be accessed and hence could exchange information in semantically sound manners. Developing such mapping has beeb the focus of a variety of works originating from diverse communities over a number of years. In this article we comprehensively review and present these works. We also provide insights on the pragmatics of ontology mapping and elaborate on a theoretical approach for defining ontology mapping

Ontology Alignment: An annotated Bibliography

Ontology mapping, alignment, and translation has been an active research component of the general research on semantic integration and interoperability. In our talk, we gave our own classification of different topics in this research. We talked about types of heterogeneity between ontologies, various mapping representations, classified methods for discovering methods both between ontology concepts and data, and talked about various tasks where mappings are used. In this extended abstract of our talk, we provide an annotated bibliography for this area of research, giving readers brief pointers on representative papers in each of the topics mentioned above. We did not attempt to compile a comprehensive bibliography and hence the list in this abstract is necessarily incomplete. Rather, we tried to sketch a map of the field, with some specific reference to help interested readers in their exploration of the work to-date

The CIDOC CRM, an Ontological Approach to Schema Heterogeneity

The CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM), now ISO/CD21127, is a core ontology that aims at enabling information exchange and integration between heterogeneous sources of cultural heritage information, archives and libraries. It provides semantic definitions and clarifications needed to transform disparate, heterogeneous information sources into a coherent global resource, be it within a larger institution, in intranets or on the Internet. It is argued that such an ontology is property-centric, compact and highly generic, in contrast to terminological systems. The presentation will demonstrate how such a well-crafted core ontology can help to achieve a very high precision of schema integration at reasonable cost in a huge, diverse domain. It is further argued that such ontologies are widely reusable and adaptable to other domains which makes their development cost effective

Geology of Tindfjallajökull volcano, Iceland

The geology of Tindfjallajökull volcano, southern Iceland, is presented as a 1:50,000 scale map. Field mapping was carried out with a focus on indicators of past environments. A broad stratocone of interbedded fragmental rocks and lavas was constructed during Tindfjallajökull’s early development. This stratocone has been dissected by glacial erosion and overlain by a variety of mafic to silicic volcanic landforms. Eruption of silicic magma, which probably occurred subglacially, constructed a thick pile of breccia and lava lobes in the summit area. Mafic to intermediate flank eruptions continued through to the end of the last glacial period, producing lavas, hyaloclastite-dominated units and tuyas that preserve evidence of volcano-ice interactions. The Thórsmörk Ignimbrite, a regionally important chronostratigraphic marker, is present on the SE flank of the volcano. The geological mapping of Tindfjallajökull gives insights into the evolution of stratovolcanoes in glaciated regions and the influence of ice in their development

Mapping maternity care facilities in England

Objective. To describe the organisation of maternity care at trust and unit level in England. Methods. All NHS trusts providing maternity care participated in a survey as part of the Healthcare Commission review of maternity care in England in 2007. Data on trusts and numbers of units were also collected in 2009 as part of the Birthplace in England programme. Results. Models of care provision are limited: in 2007 two-thirds of trusts provided choice between home birth and birth in an obstetric unit only. Geographical variation is substantial, with approximately 70% of trusts in the North-West, Yorkshire and Humberside and London Strategic Health Authority regions having only obstetric units, compared with 50% or less in the South-West and East Midlands. Availability and proximity of specialist facilities for women and babies within trusts varies and is linked with obstetric units. Changes in trust configuration, identified in 2009, have largely resulted from opening alongside midwifery units, then available in a quarter of trusts. Freestanding midwifery units continue to provide care for small numbers of women, commonly in more rural areas. Conclusions. In 2007, 66% of trusts had no midwifery-led units and this is likely to have limited the choices that women were able to make about their planned place of birth and the possibility of having midwife-led care in nonobstetric unit settings. Recent data suggest that women’s options for care may have increased, although capacity and staffing issues, reflected in closures to admissions, may affect these

S-Match: an algorithm and an implementation of semantic matching

We think of Match as an operator which takes two graph-like structures and produces a mapping between those nodes of the two graphs that correspond semantically to each other. Semantic matching is a novel approach where semantic correspondences are discovered by computing and returning as a result, the semantic information implicitly or explicitly codified in the labels of nodes and arcs. In this paper we present an algorithm implementing semantic matching, and we discuss its implementation within the S-Match system. We also test S-Match against three state of the art matching systems. The results, though preliminary, look promising, in particular for what concerns precision and recall

Improving Low-Relief Coastal LiDAR DEMs with Hydro-Conditioning of Fine-Scale and Artificial Drainages

Improvements in Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology and spatial analysis of high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) have advanced the accuracy and diversity of applications for coastal hazards and natural resources management. This article presents a concise synthesis of LiDAR analysis for coastal flooding and management applications in low-relief coastal plains and a case study demonstration of a new, efficient drainage mapping algorithm. The impetus for these LiDAR applications follows historic flooding from Hurricane Floyd in 1999, after which the State of North Carolina and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) undertook extensive LiDAR data acquisition and technological developments for high-resolution floodplain mapping. An efficient algorithm is outlined for hydro-conditioning bare earth (BE) LiDAR DEMs using available US Geological Survey1 National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) canal and ditch vectors. The methodology is illustrated in Moyock, North Carolina, for refinement of hydro-conditioning by combining pre-existing BE DEMs with spatial analysis of LiDAR point clouds in segmented and buffered ditch and canal networks. The methodology produces improved maps of fine-scale drainage, reduced omission of areal flood inundation, and subwatershed delineations that typify heavily ditched and canalled drainage areas. These preliminary results illustrate the capability of the technique to improve the representation of ditches in DEMs as well as subsequent flow and inundation modeling that could spur further research on low-relief coastal LiDAR applications.ECU Open Access Publishing Support Fun