Girl Connection, February 2004

A monthly newsletter for Iowa Commission on the Status of Women

Kernel-based methods for change detection in remote sensing images

Nowadays, the joint exploitation of images acquired daily by remote sensing instruments and of images available from archives allows a detailed monitoring of the transitions occurring at the surface of the Earth. These modifications of the land cover generate spectral discrepancies that can be detected via the analysis of remote sensing images. Independently from the origin of the images and of type of surface change, a correct processing of such data implies the adoption of flexible, robust and possibly nonlinear method, to correctly account for the complex statistical relationships characterizing the pixels of the images. This Thesis deals with the development and the application of advanced statistical methods for multi-temporal optical remote sensing image processing tasks. Three different families of machine learning models have been explored and fundamental solutions for change detection problems are provided. In the first part, change detection with user supervision has been considered. In a first application, a nonlinear classifier has been applied with the intent of precisely delineating flooded regions from a pair of images. In a second case study, the spatial context of each pixel has been injected into another nonlinear classifier to obtain a precise mapping of new urban structures. In both cases, the user provides the classifier with examples of what he believes has changed or not. In the second part, a completely automatic and unsupervised method for precise binary detection of changes has been proposed. The technique allows a very accurate mapping without any user intervention, resulting particularly useful when readiness and reaction times of the system are a crucial constraint. In the third, the problem of statistical distributions shifting between acquisitions is studied. Two approaches to transform the couple of bi-temporal images and reduce their differences unrelated to changes in land cover are studied. The methods align the distributions of the images, so that the pixel-wise comparison could be carried out with higher accuracy. Furthermore, the second method can deal with images from different sensors, no matter the dimensionality of the data nor the spectral information content. This opens the doors to possible solutions for a crucial problem in the field: detecting changes when the images have been acquired by two different sensors.

Girl Connection, April 2004

Bimonthly newsletter of the Iowa Gender-Specific Services Task Force. This issue discusses girls and the impact of involvement in sports and other physical activities.

Girl Connection, June 2004

Bimonthly newsletter of the Iowa Gender-Specific Services Task Force. This issue discusses girls and the impact of involvement in sports and other physical activities.

Girl Connection, Girls & Sport-Part II, June 2004

Newsletter for professionals who work with girls involved in or at risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system.

VIP Connection Newsletter, February 2004, Vol. 4, no. 1

Iowa Lottery Authority Player Information Newsletter

VIP Connection Newsletter, November 2003, Vol. 3, no. 4

Iowa Lottery Authority Player Information Newsletter

VIP Connection Newsletter, August 2003, Vol. 3, no. 3

Iowa Lottery Authority Player Information Newsletter

VIP Connection Newsletter, May 2004, Vol. 4, no. 2

Iowa Lottery Authority Player Information Newsletter

Girl Connection, August 2004

Bimonthly newsletter of the Iowa Gender-Specific Services Task Force. This issue discusses girls and the impact of involvement in sports and other physical activities.

The Smartcanula: a new tool for remote access perfusion in limited access cardiac surgery.

Devices for venous cannulation have seen significant progress over time: the original, rigid steel cannulas have evolved toward flexible plastic cannulas with wire support that prevents kinking, very thin walled wire wound cannulas allowing for percutaneous application, and all sorts of combinations. In contrast to all these rectilinear venous cannula designs, which present the same cross-sectional area over their entire intravascular path, the smartcanula concept of "collapsed insertion and expansion in situ" is the logical next step for venous access. Automatically adjusting cross-sectional area up to a pre-determined diameter or the vessel lumen provides optimal flow and ease of use for both, insertion and removal. Smartcanula performance was assessed in a small series of patients (76 +/- 17 kg) undergoing redo procedures. The calculated target pump flow (2.4 L/min/m2) was 4.42 +/- 61 L/ min. Mean pump flow achieved during cardiopulmonary bypass was 4.84 +/- 87 L/min or 110% of the target. Reduced atrial chatter, kink resistance in situ, and improved blood drainage despite smaller access orifice size, are the most striking advantages of this new device. The benefits of smart cannulation are obvious in remote cannulation for limited access cardiac surgery, but there are many other cannula applications where space is an issue, and that is where smart cannulation is most effective.

VIP Connection Newsletter, August 2004, Vol. 4, no 3.

Iowa Lottery Player Newsletter

Girl Connection, October 2004

Bimonthly newsletter of the Iowa Gender-Specific Services Task Force. This issue discusses girls and the impact of involvement in sports and other physical activities.

Girl Connection Newsletter, December 2004

Bi-monthly newsletter about gender-specific services for young women involved in or at risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system.