An unusual axial–axial combination of alternating cyclic rings in the chair conformations of hexameric water and chlorine-water clusters

An alternating hexameric water (H2O)(6) cluster and a chlorine-water cluster [Cl-2(H2O)(4)](2-) in the chair forms combine axially to each other to form a 1D chain [{Cl-2(H2O)(6)}(2-)](n) in complex [FeL2]Cl center dot(H2O)(3) (L=2-[(2-methylaminoethylimino)-methyl]-phenol)]. The water molecules display extensive H-bonding interactions with monomeric iron-organic units to form a hydrogen-bonded 2D supramolecular assembly.

A very rare self-assembled ribbon of fused cyclic water pentamers encapsulated in a Cu-II based metal-organic framework

A metal organic framework of Cu-II, tartarate (tar) and 2,2'-bipyridyl (2,2'-bipy)], {[Cu(tar)(2,2'-bipy)]center dot 5H(2)O}(n)} (1) has been synthesized at the mild ambient condition and characterized by single crystal X-ray crystallography. In the compound, the Cu(2,2'-bipy) entities are bridged by tartarate ions which are coordinated to Cu-II by both hydroxyl and monodentate carboxylate oxygen to form a one-dimensional chain. The non-coordinated water molecules form ID water chains by edge-sharing cyclic water pentamers along with dangling water dimers. It shows reversible water expulsion upon heating. The water chains join the ID coordination polymeric chains to a 31) network through hydrogen-bond interactions.

Deriving global flood hazard maps of fluvial floods through a physical model cascade

Global flood hazard maps can be used in the assessment of flood risk in a number of different applications, including (re)insurance and large scale flood preparedness. Such global hazard maps can be generated using large scale physically based models of rainfall-runoff and river routing, when used in conjunction with a number of post-processing methods. In this study, the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) land surface model is coupled to ERA-Interim reanalysis meteorological forcing data, and resultant runoff is passed to a river routing algorithm which simulates floodplains and flood flow across the global land area. The global hazard map is based on a 30 yr (1979–2010) simulation period. A Gumbel distribution is fitted to the annual maxima flows to derive a number of flood return periods. The return periods are calculated initially for a 25×25 km grid, which is then reprojected onto a 1×1 km grid to derive maps of higher resolution and estimate flooded fractional area for the individual 25×25 km cells. Several global and regional maps of flood return periods ranging from 2 to 500 yr are presented. The results compare reasonably to a benchmark data set of global flood hazard. The developed methodology can be applied to other datasets on a global or regional scale.

The MaPS project: mapping teacher conceptions of musical development

The chapter starts from the premise that an historically- and institutionally-formed orientation to music education at primary level in European countries privileges a nineteenth century Western European music aesthetic, with its focus on formal characteristics such as melody and rhythm. While there is a move towards a multi-faceted understanding of musical ability, a discrete intelligence and willingness to accept musical styles or 'open-earedness', there remains a paucity of documented evidence of this in research at primary school level. To date there has been no study undertaken which has the potential to provide policy makers and practitioners with insights into the degree of homogeneity or universality in conceptions of musical ability within this educational sector. Against this background, a study was set up to explore the following research questions: 1. What conceptions of musical ability do primary teachers hold a) of themselves and; b) of their pupils? 2. To what extent are these conceptions informed by Western classical practices? A mixed methods approach was used which included survey questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Questionnaires have been sent to all classroom teachers in a random sample of primary schools in the South East of England. This was followed up with a series of semi-structured interviews with a sub-sample of respondents. The main ideas are concerned with the attitudes, beliefs and working theories held by teachers in contemporary primary school settings. By mapping the extent to which a knowledge base for teaching can be resistant to change in schools, we can problematise primary schools as sites for diversity and migration of cultural ideas. Alongside this, we can use the findings from the study undertaken in an English context as a starting point for further investigation into conceptions of music, musical ability and assessment held by practitioners in a variety of primary school contexts elsewhere in Europe; our emphasis here will be on the development of shared understanding in terms of policies and practices in music education. Within this broader framework, our study can have a significant impact internationally, with potential to inform future policy making, curriculum planning and practice.

Cyclic prefixed OQAM-OFDM and its application to single-carrier FDMA

Single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) has appeared to be a promising technique for high data rate uplink communications. Aimed at SC-FDMA applications, a cyclic prefixed version of the offset quadrature amplitude modulation based OFDM (OQAM-OFDM) is first proposed in this paper. We show that cyclic prefixed OQAMOFDM CP-OQAM-OFDM) can be realized within the framework of the standard OFDM system, and perfect recovery condition in the ideal channel is derived. We then apply CP-OQAMOFDM to SC-FDMA transmission in frequency selective fading channels. Signal model and joint widely linear minimum mean square error (WLMMSE) equalization using a prior information with low complexity are developed. Compared with the existing DFTS-OFDM based SC-FDMA, the proposed SC-FDMA can significantly reduce envelope fluctuation (EF) of the transmitted signal while maintaining the bandwidth efficiency. The inherent structure of CP-OQAM-OFDM enables low-complexity joint equalization in the frequency domain to combat both the multiple access interference and the intersymbol interference. The joint WLMMSE equalization using a prior information guarantees optimal MMSE performance and supports Turbo receiver for improved bit error rate (BER) performance. Simulation resultsconfirm the effectiveness of the proposed SC-FDMA in termsof EF (including peak-to-average power ratio, instantaneous-toaverage power ratio and cubic metric) and BER performances.

Fusion of infrared polarization and intensity images using support value transform and fuzzy combination rules

Infrared polarization and intensity imagery provide complementary and discriminative information in image understanding and interpretation. In this paper, a novel fusion method is proposed by effectively merging the information with various combination rules. It makes use of both low-frequency and highfrequency images components from support value transform (SVT), and applies fuzzy logic in the combination process. Images (both infrared polarization and intensity images) to be fused are firstly decomposed into low-frequency component images and support value image sequences by the SVT. Then the low-frequency component images are combined using a fuzzy combination rule blending three sub-combination methods of (1) region feature maximum, (2) region feature weighting average, and (3) pixel value maximum; and the support value image sequences are merged using a fuzzy combination rule fusing two sub-combination methods of (1) pixel energy maximum and (2) region feature weighting. With the variables of two newly defined features, i.e. the low-frequency difference feature for low-frequency component images and the support-value difference feature for support value image sequences, trapezoidal membership functions are proposed and developed in tuning the fuzzy fusion process. Finally the fused image is obtained by inverse SVT operations. Experimental results of visual inspection and quantitative evaluation both indicate the superiority of the proposed method to its counterparts in image fusion of infrared polarization and intensity images.

Quantifying uncertainty in remotely sensed land cover maps

Remotely sensed land cover maps are increasingly used as inputs into environmental simulation models whose outputs inform decisions and policy-making. Risks associated with these decisions are dependent on model output uncertainty, which is in turn affected by the uncertainty of land cover inputs. This article presents a method of quantifying the uncertainty that results from potential mis-classification in remotely sensed land cover maps. In addition to quantifying uncertainty in the classification of individual pixels in the map, we also address the important case where land cover maps have been upscaled to a coarser grid to suit the users’ needs and are reported as proportions of land cover type. The approach is Bayesian and incorporates several layers of modelling but is straightforward to implement. First, we incorporate data in the confusion matrix derived from an independent field survey, and discuss the appropriate way to model such data. Second, we account for spatial correlation in the true land cover map, using the remotely sensed map as a prior. Third, spatial correlation in the mis-classification characteristics is induced by modelling their variance. The result is that we are able to simulate posterior means and variances for individual sites and the entire map using a simple Monte Carlo algorithm. The method is applied to the Land Cover Map 2000 for the region of England and Wales, a map used as an input into a current dynamic carbon flux model.

Continuous sky view factor maps from high resolution urban digital elevation models

This paper presents a new method to calculate sky view factors (SVFs) from high resolution urban digital elevation models using a shadow casting algorithm. By utilizing weighted annuli to derive SVF from hemispherical images, the distance light source positions can be predefined and uniformly spread over the whole hemisphere, whereas another method applies a random set of light source positions with a cosine-weighted distribution of sun altitude angles. The 2 methods have similar results based on a large number of SVF images. However, when comparing variations at pixel level between an image generated using the new method presented in this paper with the image from the random method, anisotropic patterns occur. The absolute mean difference between the 2 methods is 0.002 ranging up to 0.040. The maximum difference can be as much as 0.122. Since SVF is a geometrically derived parameter, the anisotropic errors created by the random method must be considered as significant.

Tangeretin regulates platelet function through inhibition of phosphoinositide 3-Kinase and cyclic nucleotide signaling

OBJECTIVE: Dietary flavonoids have long been appreciated in reducing cardiovascular disease risk factors, but their mechanisms of action are complex in nature. In this study, the effects of tangeretin, a dietary flavonoid, were explored on platelet function, signaling, and hemostasis. APPROACH AND RESULTS: Tangeretin inhibited agonist-induced human platelet activation in a concentration-dependent manner. It inhibited agonist-induced integrin αIIbβ3 inside-out and outside-in signaling, intracellular calcium mobilization, and granule secretion. Tangeretin also inhibited human platelet adhesion and subsequent thrombus formation on collagen-coated surfaces under arterial flow conditions in vitro and reduced hemostasis in mice. Further characterization to explore the mechanism by which tangeretin inhibits platelet function revealed distinctive effects of platelet signaling. Tangeretin was found to inhibit phosphoinositide 3-kinase-mediated signaling and increase cGMP levels in platelets, although phosphodiesterase activity was unaffected. Consistent with increased cGMP levels, tangeretin increased the phosphorylation of vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein at S239. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides support for the ability and mechanisms of action of dietary flavonoids to modulate platelet signaling and function, which may affect the risk of thrombotic disease.

Incorporating semiotics into fuzzy logic to enhance Clinical Decision Support Systems

In order to enhance the quality of care, healthcare organisations are increasingly resorting to clinical decision support systems (CDSSs), which provide physicians with appropriate health care decisions or recommendations. However, how to explicitly represent the diverse vague medical knowledge and effectively reason in the decision-making process are still problems we are confronted. In this paper, we incorporate semiotics into fuzzy logic to enhance CDSSs with the aim of providing both the abilities of describing medical domain concepts contextually and reasoning with vague knowledge. A semiotically inspired fuzzy CDSSs framework is presented, based on which the vague knowledge representation and reasoning process are demonstrated.

On the structure of infinity-harmonic maps

Let H ∈ C 2(ℝ N×n ), H ≥ 0. The PDE system arises as the Euler-Lagrange PDE of vectorial variational problems for the functional E ∞(u, Ω) = ‖H(Du)‖ L ∞(Ω) defined on maps u: Ω ⊆ ℝ n → ℝ N . (1) first appeared in the author's recent work. The scalar case though has a long history initiated by Aronsson. Herein we study the solutions of (1) with emphasis on the case of n = 2 ≤ N with H the Euclidean norm on ℝ N×n , which we call the “∞-Laplacian”. By establishing a rigidity theorem for rank-one maps of independent interest, we analyse a phenomenon of separation of the solutions to phases with qualitatively different behaviour. As a corollary, we extend to N ≥ 2 the Aronsson-Evans-Yu theorem regarding non existence of zeros of |Du| and prove a maximum principle. We further characterise all H for which (1) is elliptic and also study the initial value problem for the ODE system arising for n = 1 but with H(·, u, u′) depending on all the arguments.

Daily thin-ice thickness maps from modis thermal infrared imagery

Accurate knowledge of ice-production rates within the marginal ice zones of the Arctic Ocean requires monitoring of the thin-ice distribution within polynyas. The thickness of the ice layer controls the heat loss and hence the new-ice formation. An established thinice algorithm using high-resolution MODIS data allows deriving the ice-thickness distribution within polynyas. The average uncertainty is ±4.7 cm for ice thicknesses below 0.2 m. In this study, the ice-thickness distributions within the Laptev Sea polynya for the two winter seasons 2007/08 and 2008/09 are calculated. Then, a new method is applied to determine a daily MODIS thin-ice product.

Anticipating future risk in social-ecological systems using fuzzy cognitive mapping: the case of wildfire in the Chiquitania, Bolivia

Understanding complex social-ecological systems, and anticipating how they may respond to rapid change, requires an approach that incorporates environmental, social, economic, and policy factors, usually in a context of fragmented data availability. We employed fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) to integrate these factors in the assessment of future wildfire risk in the Chiquitania region, Bolivia. In this region, dealing with wildfires is becoming increasingly challenging due to reinforcing feedbacks between multiple drivers. We conducted semi-structured interviews and constructed different FCMs in focus groups to understand the regional dynamics of wildfire from diverse perspectives. We used FCM modelling to evaluate possible adaptation scenarios in the context of future drier climatic conditions. Scenarios also considered possible failure to respond in time to the emergent risk. This approach proved of great potential to support decision-making for risk management. It helped identify key forcing variables and generate insights into potential risks and trade-offs of different strategies. All scenarios showed increased wildfire risk in the event of more droughts. The ‘Hands-off’ scenario resulted in amplified impacts driven by intensifying trends, affecting particularly the agricultural production. The ‘Fire management’ scenario, which adopted a bottom-up approach to improve controlled burning, showed less trade-offs between wildfire risk reduction and production compared to the ‘Fire suppression’ scenario. Findings highlighted the importance of considering strategies that involve all actors who use fire, and the need to nest these strategies for a more systemic approach to manage wildfire risk. The FCM model could be used as a decision-support tool and serve as a ‘boundary object’ to facilitate collaboration and integration of different forms of knowledge and perceptions of fire in the region. This approach has also the potential to support decisions in other dynamic frontier landscapes around the world that are facing increased risk of large wildfires.