A procedure for testing the quality of LANDSAT atmospheric correction algorithms

There are two basic methods for testing the quality of an algorithm to minimize atmospheric effects on LANDSAT imagery: (1) test the results a posteriori, using ground truth or control points; (2) use a method based on image data plus estimation of additional ground and/or atmospheric parameters. A procedure based on the second method is described. In order to select the parameters, initially the image contrast is examined for a series of parameter combinations. The contrast improves for better corrections. In addition the correlation coefficient between two subimages, taken at different times, of the same scene is used for parameter's selection. The regions to be correlated should not have changed considerably in time. A few examples using this proposed procedure are presented

Noise correction on LANDSAT images using a spline-like algorithm

Many applications using LANDSAT images face a dilemma: the user needs a certain scene (for example, a flooded region), but that particular image may present interference or noise in form of horizontal stripes. During automatic analysis, this interference or noise may cause false readings of the region of interest. In order to minimize this interference or noise, many solutions are used, for instane, that of using the average (simple or weighted) values of the neighboring vertical points. In the case of high interference (more than one adjacent line lost) the method of averages may not suit the desired purpose. The solution proposed is to use a spline-like algorithm (weighted splines). This type of interpolation is simple to be computer implemented, fast, uses only four points in each interval, and eliminates the necessity of solving a linear equation system. In the normal mode of operation, the first and second derivatives of the solution function are continuous and determined by data points, as in cubic splines. It is possible, however, to impose the values of the first derivatives, in order to account for shapr boundaries, without increasing the computational effort. Some examples using the proposed method are also shown

TimeTrader: Exploiting Latency Tail to Save Datacenter Energy for On-line Data-Intensive Applications

Datacenters running on-line, data-intensive applications (OLDIs) consume significant amounts of energy. However, reducing their energy is challenging due to their tight response time requirements. A key aspect of OLDIs is that each user query goes to all or many of the nodes in the cluster, so that the overall time budget is dictated by the tail of the replies' latency distribution; replies see latency variations both in the network and compute. Previous work proposes to achieve load-proportional energy by slowing down the computation at lower datacenter loads based directly on response times (i.e., at lower loads, the proposal exploits the average slack in the time budget provisioned for the peak load). In contrast, we propose TimeTrader to reduce energy by exploiting the latency slack in the sub- critical replies which arrive before the deadline (e.g., 80% of replies are 3-4x faster than the tail). This slack is present at all loads and subsumes the previous work's load-related slack. While the previous work shifts the leaves' response time distribution to consume the slack at lower loads, TimeTrader reshapes the distribution at all loads by slowing down individual sub-critical nodes without increasing missed deadlines. TimeTrader exploits slack in both the network and compute budgets. Further, TimeTrader leverages Earliest Deadline First scheduling to largely decouple critical requests from the queuing delays of sub- critical requests which can then be slowed down without hurting critical requests. A combination of real-system measurements and at-scale simulations shows that without adding to missed deadlines, TimeTrader saves 15-19% and 41-49% energy at 90% and 30% loading, respectively, in a datacenter with 512 nodes, whereas previous work saves 0% and 31-37%.Comment: 13 page

Seasonal Variation of Phytoplankton Diversity in Anchepalya Lake, Bengaluru Urban, India

Seasonal dynamics of Phytoplankton populations were studied in Anchepalya Lake for a period of one year from March 2013 to February 2014 covering three seasons. Phytoplankton sampling, collection, quantitative and qualitative population was performed using APHA (2005) Standard methods. The counting of plankton was done by using Sedgwick Rafter counting cell and phytoplankton were identified by using the identification manual on limnology by Adoni (1985). A total of 88 genera of phytoplanktons were recorded. The diversity of Phytoplankton number is of increase as in the order of Chlorophyceae >Bacillariophyceae > Cyanophyceae > Eugleanophyceae. The present study revealed that the lake water is polluted with the direct entry of sewage and effluent discharge

Classification-driven search for effective sm partitioning in multitasking GPUs

Graphics processing units (GPUs) feature an increasing number of streaming multiprocessors (SMs) with each successive generation. At the same time, GPUs are increasingly widely adopted in cloud services and data centers to accelerate general-purpose workloads. Running multiple applications on a GPU in such environments requires effective multitasking support. Spatial multitasking in which independent applications co-execute on different sets of SMs is a promising solution to share GPU resources. Unfortunately, how to effectively partition SMs is an open problem. In this paper, we observe that compared to widely-used even partitioning, dynamic SM partitioning based on the characteristics of the co-executing applications can significantly improve performance and power efficiency. Unfortunately, finding an effective SM partition is challenging because the number of possible combinations increases exponentially with the number of SMs and co-executing applications. Through offline analysis, we find that first classifying workloads, and then searching an effective SM partition based on the workload characteristics can significantly reduce the search space, making dynamic SM partitioning tractable. Based on these insights, we propose Classification-Driven search (CD-search) for low-overhead dynamic SM partitioning in multitasking GPUs. CD-search first classifies workloads using a novel off-SM bandwidth model, after which it enters the performance mode or power mode depending on the workload's characteristics. Both modes follow a specific search strategy to quickly determine the optimum SM partition. Our evaluation shows that CD-search improves system throughput by 10.4% on average (and up to 62.9%) over even partitioning for workloads that are classified for the performance mode. For workloads classified for the power mode, CD-search reduces power consumption by 25% on average (and up to 41.2%). CD-search incurs limited runtime overhead

Comparative economics of different soybean based cropping systems in North-Eastern Karnataka

The research study was conducted in Bidar and Kalaburagi Districts of Karnataka. To study the comparative economics of different soybean cropping systems. A sample size of 160 farmers was selected using multistage random sampling method. Field level data were elicited for the agricultural year 2013-14 through personal interview method. Soybean + Redgram, Soybean + Jowar, Soybean + Bajra, and sole Soybean were the major cropping systems identified. Study revealed that, the average age of the sample respondents was 43, 45, 41, 44 and 43 years, respectively in CS-I, CS-II, CS-III, CS-IV and overall cropping system. The literacy percentage was highest in CS-I followed by CS-IV, CS-II and CS-III respectively. The net returns realized in these major cropping systems were ` 54443.20, ` 34108.18, ` 21047.27 and ` 13503.06 respectively. The gross returns realized in CS-I was highest, as compared CS-II, CS-III and CS-IV respectively. Similarly, the net returns obtained in CS-I was found to be the highest followed by CS-II, CS-III and CS-IV respectively. Returns per rupee spent was found to be the highest in CS-I. Among the studied soybean based cropping systems, CS-I (soybean + redgram) and CS-II (soybean + jowar) were found to be the most profitable system under rainfed condition in the study area

Synthesis and cytotoxic studies of a new series of pyridinoxymethylcoumarins

A series of 3-​(pyridin-​3-​yloxymethyl)​-​chromen-​2-​ones were synthesized by the reaction of substituted 4-​bromomethylcoumarins with 3-​hydroxypyridines. The synthesized compds. were screened for their cytotoxic activities against Dalton's ascitic lymphoma (DAL) and Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) cell lines. The 2-​(2-​Methyl-​pyridin-​3-​yloxymethyl)​-​benzo[f]​chromen-​3-​one was found to be the most cytotoxic against DAL cell line and 6-​Isopropyl-​3-​(2-​methyl-​pyridin-​3-​yloxymethyl)​-​chromen-​2-​one was found to be the most cytotoxic against EAC cell line

Watershed Project SWOT Analysis with Special Reference to Saurashtra Region

Not availabl