A Spatial Planning Support System for Managing Bangalore's Urban Sprawl

Urban sprawl is the outgrowth along the periphery of cities and along highways. Although an accurate definition of urban sprawl may be debated, a consensus is that urban sprawl is characterized by an unplanned and uneven pattern of growth, driven by multitude of processes and leading to inefficient resource utilization. Urbanization in India has never been as rapid as it is in recent times. As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, India faces stiff challenges in managing the urban sprawl, while ensuring effective delivery of basic services in urban areas. The urban areas contribute significantly to the national economy (more than 50% of GDP), while facing critical challenges in accessing basic services and necessary infrastructure, both social and economic. The overall rise in the population of the urban poor or the increase in travel times due to congestion along road networks are indicators of the effectiveness of planning and governance in assessing and catering for this demand. Agencies of governance at all levels: local bodies, state government and federal government, are facing the brunt of this rapid urban growth. It is imperative for planning and governance to facilitate, augment and service the requisite infrastructure over time systematically. Provision of infrastructure and assurance of the delivery of basic services cannot happen overnight and hence planning has to facilitate forecasting and service provision with appropriate financial mechanisms.

Spatial correlation in grain misorientation distribution

Grain misorientation was studied in relation to the nearest neighbor's mutual distance using electron back-scattered diffraction measurements. The misorientation correlation function was defined as the probability density for the occurrence of a certain misorientation between pairs of grains separated by a certain distance. Scale-invariant spatial correlation between neighbor grains was manifested by a power law dependence of the preferred misorientation vs. inter-granular distance in various materials after diverse strain paths. The obtained negative scaling exponents were in the range of -2 +/- 0.3 for high-angle grain boundaries. The exponent decreased in the presence of low-angle grain boundaries or dynamic recrystallization, indicating faster decay of correlations. The correlations vanished in annealed materials. The results were interpreted in terms of lattice incompatibility and continuity conditions at the interface between neighboring grains. Grain-size effects on texture development, as well as the implications of such spatial correlations on texture modeling, were discussed.

Spatial and vertical heterogeneities in aerosol properties over oceanic regions around India: Implications for radiative forcing

The influence of atmospheric aerosols on Earth's radiation budget and hence climate, though well recognized and extensively investigated in recent years, remains largely uncertain mainly because of the large spatio-temporal heterogeneity and the lack of data with adequate resolution. To characterize this diversity, a major multi-platform field campaign ICARB (Integrated Campaign for Aerosols, gases and Radiation Budget) was carried out during the pre-monsoon period of 2006 over the Indian landmass and surrounding oceans, which was the biggest such campaign ever conducted over this region. Based on the extensive and concurrent measurements of the optical and physical properties of atmospheric aerosols during ICARB, the spatial distribution of aerosol radiative forcing was estimated over the entire Bay of Bengal (BoB), northern Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea (AS) as well as large spatial variations within these regions. Besides being considerably lower than the mean values reported earlier for this region, our studies have revealed large differences in the forcing components between the BoB and the AS. While the regionally averaged aerosol-induced atmospheric forcing efficiency was 31 +/- 6 W m(-2) tau(-1) for the BoB, it was only similar to 18 +/- 7 W m(-2) tau(-1) for the AS. Airborne measurements revealed the presence of strong, elevated aerosol layers even over the oceans, leading to vertical structures in the atmospheric forcing, resulting in significant warming in the lower troposphere. These observations suggest serious climate implications and raise issues ranging from the impact of aerosols on vertical thermal structure of the atmospheric and hence cloud formation processes to monsoon circulation.

Influence of spatial variability of permeability property on steady state seepage flow and slope stability analysis

In recent years, spatial variability modeling of soil parameters using random field theory has gained distinct importance in geotechnical analysis. In the present Study, commercially available finite difference numerical code FLAC 5.0 is used for modeling the permeability parameter as spatially correlated log-normally distributed random variable and its influence on the steady state seepage flow and on the slope stability analysis are studied. Considering the case of a 5.0 m high cohesive-frictional soil slope of 30 degrees, a range of coefficients of variation (CoV%) from 60 to 90% in the permeability Values, and taking different values of correlation distance in the range of 0.5-15 m, parametric studies, using Monte Carlo simulations, are performed to study the following three aspects, i.e., (i) effect ostochastic soil permeability on the statistics of seepage flow in comparison to the analytic (Dupuit's) solution available for the uniformly constant permeability property; (ii) strain and deformation pattern, and (iii) stability of the given slope assessed in terms of factor of safety (FS). The results obtained in this study are useful to understand the role of permeability variations in slope stability analysis under different slope conditions and material properties. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Kernel-based spatial-color modeling for fast moving object tracking

Visual tracking has been a challenging problem in computer vision over the decades. The applications of Visual Tracking are far-reaching, ranging from surveillance and monitoring to smart rooms. Mean-shift (MS) tracker, which gained more attention recently, is known for tracking objects in a cluttered environment and its low computational complexity. The major problem encountered in histogram-based MS is its inability to track rapidly moving objects. In order to track fast moving objects, we propose a new robust mean-shift tracker that uses both spatial similarity measure and color histogram-based similarity measure. The inability of MS tracker to handle large displacements is circumvented by the spatial similarity-based tracking module, which lacks robustness to object's appearance change. The performance of the proposed tracker is better than the individual trackers for tracking fast-moving objects with better accuracy.

False Error Study of On-line Soft Error Detection Mechanisms

With technology scaling, vulnerability to soft errors in random logic is increasing. There is a need for on-line error detection and protection for logic gates even at sea level. The error checker is the key element for an on-line detection mechanism. We compare three different checkers for error detection from the point of view of area, power and false error detection rates. We find that the double sampling checker (used in Razor), is the simplest and most area and power efficient, but suffers from very high false detection rates of 1.15 times the actual error rates. We also find that the alternate approaches of triple sampling and integrate and sample method (I&S) can be designed to have zero false detection rates, but at an increased area, power and implementation complexity. The triple sampling method has about 1.74 times the area and twice the power as compared to the Double Sampling method and also needs a complex clock generation scheme. The I&S method needs about 16% more power with 0.58 times the area as double sampling, but comes with more stringent implementation constraints as it requires detection of small voltage swings.

Glycosphingolipids in microdomain formation and their spatial organization

Plasma membranes regulate the influx and efflux of molecules across themselves and are also responsible for primary signal transduction between cells or within the same cell. Presence of lateral heterogeneity and the ability of reorganization are essential requirements for effective functioning of biomembranes. Lipid rafts are small, heterogeneous, dynamic domains enriched in glycosphingolipids, sphingomyelin and cholesterol, and profoundly influence membrane organization. Glycosphingolipids are inclined towards formation of liquid-ordered phases in membranes, both with and without cholesterol; they are therefore prime players in domain formation. Here, we discuss the role of glycosphingolipids in microdomain formation and their spatial organization within these rafts.

Improved switching frequency variation control of hysteresis controlled voltage source inverter-fed IM drives using current error space vector

A constant switching frequency current error space vector-based hysteresis controller for two-level voltage source inverter-fed induction motor (IM) drives is proposed in this study. The proposed controller is capable of driving the IM in the entire speed range extending to the six-step mode. The proposed controller uses the parabolic boundary, reported earlier, for vector selection in a sector, but uses simple, fast and self-adaptive sector identification logic for sector change detection in the entire modulation range. This new scheme detects the sector change using the change in direction of current error along the axes jA, jB and jC. Most of the previous schemes use an outer boundary for sector change detection. So the current error goes outside the boundary six times during sector change, in one cycle,, introducing additional fifth and seventh harmonic components in phase current. This may cause sixth harmonic torque pulsations in the motor and spread in the harmonic spectrum of phase voltage. The proposed new scheme detects the sector change fast and accurately eliminating the chance of introducing additional fifth and seventh harmonic components in phase current and provides harmonic spectrum of phase voltage, which exactly matches with that of constant switching frequency voltage-controlled space vector pulse width modulation (VC-SVPWM)-based two-level inverter-fed drives.

Applicability of Statistical Learning Algorithms for Spatial Variability of Rock Depth

Two algorithms are outlined, each of which has interesting features for modeling of spatial variability of rock depth. In this paper, reduced level of rock at Bangalore, India, is arrived from the 652 boreholes data in the area covering 220 sqa <.km. Support vector machine (SVM) and relevance vector machine (RVM) have been utilized to predict the reduced level of rock in the subsurface of Bangalore and to study the spatial variability of the rock depth. The support vector machine (SVM) that is firmly based on the theory of statistical learning theory uses regression technique by introducing epsilon-insensitive loss function has been adopted. RVM is a probabilistic model similar to the widespread SVM, but where the training takes place in a Bayesian framework. Prediction results show the ability of learning machine to build accurate models for spatial variability of rock depth with strong predictive capabilities. The paper also highlights the capability ofRVM over the SVM model.

Error Checking Digit for Nonconventional Chemical Codes

In handling large volumes of data such as chemical notations, serial numbers for books, etc., it is always advisable to provide checking methods which would indicate the presence of errors. The entire new discipline of coding theory is devoted to the study of the construction of codes which provide such error-detecting and correcting means.l Although these codes are very powerful, they are highly sophisticated from the point of view of practical implementation

Anomalous behavior of hydrodynamic modes in the two dimensional shear flow of a granular material

The growth rates of the hydrodynamic modes in the homogeneous sheared state of a granular material are determined by solving the Boltzmann equation. The steady velocity distribution is considered to be the product of the Maxwell Boltzmann distribution and a Hermite polynomial expansion in the velocity components; this form is inserted into them Boltzmann equation and solved to obtain the coeificients of the terms in the expansion. The solution is obtained using an expansion in the parameter epsilon =(1 - e)(1/2), and terms correct to epsilon(4) are retained to obtain an approximate solution; the error due to the neglect of higher terms is estimated at about 5% for e = 0.7. A small perturbation is placed on the distribution function in the form of a Hermite polynomial expansion for the velocity variations and a Fourier expansion in the spatial coordinates: this is inserted into the Boltzmann equation and the growth rate of the Fourier modes is determined. It is found that in the hydrodynamic limit, the growth rates of the hydrodynamic modes in the flow direction have unusual characteristics. The growth rate of the momentum diffusion mode is positive, indicating that density variations are unstable in the limit k--> 0, and the growth rate increases proportional to kslash} k kslash}(2/3) in the limit k --> 0 (in contrast to the k(2) increase in elastic systems), where k is the wave vector in the flow direction. The real and imaginary parts of the growth rate corresponding to the propagating also increase proportional to kslash k kslash(2/3) (in contrast to the k(2) and k increase in elastic systems). The energy mode is damped due to inelastic collisions between particles. The scaling of the growth rates of the hydrodynamic modes with the wave vector I in the gradient direction is similar to that in elastic systems. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Analysis of Dynamic Heterogeneity in a Glass Former from the Spatial Correlations of Mobility

The growth of characteristic length scales associated with dynamic heterogeneity in glass-forming liquids is investigated in an extensive computational study of a four-point, time-dependent structure factor defined from spatial correlations of mobility, for a model liquid for system sizes extending up to 351 232 particles, in constant-energy and constant-temperature ensembles. Our estimates for dynamic correlation lengths and susceptibilities are consistent with previous results from finite size scaling. We find scaling exponents that are inconsistent with predictions from inhomogeneous mode coupling theory and a recent simulation confirmation of these predictions.

Wavelet transform based error concealment approach for image denoising

Denoising of images in compressed wavelet domain has potential application in transmission technology such as mobile communication. In this paper, we present a new image denoising scheme based on restoration of bit-planes of wavelet coefficients in compressed domain. It exploits the fundamental property of wavelet transform - its ability to analyze the image at different resolution levels and the edge information associated with each band. The proposed scheme relies on the fact that noise commonly manifests itself as a fine-grained structure in image and wavelet transform allows the restoration strategy to adapt itself according to directional features of edges. The proposed approach shows promising results when compared with conventional unrestored scheme, in context of error reduction and has capability to adapt to situations where noise level in the image varies. The applicability of the proposed approach has implications in restoration of images due to noisy channels. This scheme, in addition, to being very flexible, tries to retain all the features, including edges of the image. The proposed scheme is computationally efficient.

Image reconstruction by inhomogeneous diffusion for positron emission tomography

In positron emission tomography (PET), image reconstruction is a demanding problem. Since, PET image reconstruction is an ill-posed inverse problem, new methodologies need to be developed. Although previous studies show that incorporation of spatial and median priors improves the image quality, the image artifacts such as over-smoothing and streaking are evident in the reconstructed image. In this work, we use a simple, yet powerful technique to tackle the PET image reconstruction problem. Proposed technique is based on the integration of Bayesian approach with that of finite impulse response (FIR) filter. A FIR filter is designed whose coefficients are determined based on the surface diffusion model. The resulting reconstructed image is iteratively filtered and fed back to obtain the new estimate. Experiments are performed on a simulated PET system. The results show that the proposed approach is better than recently proposed MRP algorithm in terms of image quality and normalized mean square error.

Switching frequency variation control in hysteresis PWM controller for IM drives using variable parabolic bands for current error space phasor

Variation of switching frequency over the entire operating speed range of an induction motor (M drive is the major problem associated with conventional two-level three-phase hysteresis controller as well as the space phasor based PWM hysteresis controller. This paper describes a simple hysteresis current controller for controlling the switching frequency variation in the two-level PWM inverter fed IM drives for various operating speeds. A novel concept of continuously variable hysteresis boundary of current error space phasor with the varying speed of the IM drive is proposed in the present work. The variable parabolic boundary for the current error space phasor is suggested for the first time in this paper for getting the switching frequency pattern with the hysteresis controller, similar to that of the constant switching frequency voltage-controlled space vector PWM (VC-SVPWM) based inverter fed IM drive. A generalized algorithm is also developed to determine parabolic boundary for controlling the switching frequency variation, for any IM load. Only the adjacent inverter voltage vectors forming a triangular sector, in which tip of the machine voltage vector ties, are switched to keep current error space vector within the parabolic boundary. The controller uses a self-adaptive sector identification logic, which provides smooth transition between the sectors and is capable of taldng the inverter up to six-step mode of operation, if demanded by drive system. The proposed scheme is simulated and experimentally verified on a 3.7 kW IM drive.