不同起源沙地樟子松林结构与生长比较研究(英文)

樟子松已成为三北沙区防护林主要乔木造林树种,但是,最早于20世纪50年代在科尔沁沙地引种的沙地樟子松却出现了生长衰退、枯梢直至死亡的现象,而天然状态的樟子松在该阶段却正处于旺盛生长期。为了比较沙地人工樟子松林与天然林的林分结构、生长特点及所处立地的生态因子的异同,对辽宁省彰武县章古台(最早引种沙地樟子松区)和内蒙古自治区红花尔基(天然樟子松分布区)的樟子松林进行了综合调查。结果表明,Weibull分布函数可较好地模拟人工林树木直径分布,正态分布函数可用于模拟天然林树木直径分布。基于树干解析的树木生长模型(Chapman-Richards)分析,人工林胸径、树高与材积的相对生长率与平均生长率的最大值比天然林分别提早11、22年,6、18年和35、59年。人工林材积的生长加速度高峰值出现在14年,而天然林则出现在33年;人工林的数量成熟龄为43年,天然林为102年;因此,可以推断天然林的寿命比人工林要长近60年。这一结果可以归纳为以下综合作用:1)两种起源地生态因子的巨大的差异,主要包括:人工林区的纬度、平均气温、降水量、蒸发量、海拨高度等较天然林区高;2)人工林的林分密度较天然林大;3)人工林区的干扰强度较天然林强。图4表6参23。

The effects of sediment transport on grain-size distributions

Changes in statistics (mean, sorting, and skewness) describing grain-size distributions have long been used to speculate on the direction of sediment transport. We present a simple model whereby the distributions of sediment in transport are related to their source by a sediment transfer function which defines the relative probability that a grain within each particular class interval will be eroded and transported. A variety of empirically derived transfer functions exhibit negatively skewed distributions (on a phi scale). Thus, when a sediment is being eroded, the probability of any grain going into transport increases with diminishing grain size throughout more than half of its size range. This causes the sediment in transport to be finer and more negatively skewed than its source, whereas the remaining sediment (a lag) must become relatively coarser and more positively skewed. Flume experiments show that the distributions of transfer functions change from having a highly negative skewness to being nearly symmetrical (although still negatively skewed) as the energy of the transporting process increases. We call the two extremes low-energy and high-energy transfer functions , respectively. In an expanded sediment-transport model, successive deposits in the direction of transport are related by a combination of two transfer functions. If energy is decreasing and the transfer functions have low-energy distributions, successive deposits will become finer and more negatively skewed. If, however, energy is decreasing, but the initial transfer function has a high-energy distribution, successive deposits will become coarser and more positively skewed. The variance of the distributions of lags, sediment in transport, and successive deposits in the down-current direction must eventually decrease (i.e., the sediments will become better sorted). We demonstrate that it is possible for variance first to increase, but suggest that, in reality, an increasing variance in the direction of transport will seldom be observed, particularly when grain-size distributions are described in phi units. This model describing changes in sediment distributions was tested in a variety of environments where the transport direction was known. The results indicate that the model has real-world validity and can provide a method to predict the directions of sediment transport

The Early Diagenetic Formation of Organic Sulfur in the Sediments of Mangrove Lake, Bermuda

Due to a low mineral content, the sapropelic sediments depositing in Mangrove Lake, Bermuda, provide an excellent opportunity to explore for possible additions of sulfur to organic matter during the early stages of diagenesis. We evaluated early diagenetic organic sulfur transformations by monitoring the concentrations and stable isotopic compositions of a number of inorganic and organic sulfur pools, thereby accounting for all of the sulfur in the sediments. We have identified and quantified the following sulfur pools: porewater sulfate, porewater sulfide, elemental sulfur, pyrite sulfur, hydrolyzable organic sulfur (HYOS), chromium-reducible organic sulfur (CROS), and nonchromium-reducible organic sulfur (Non-CROS). Of the organic sulfur pools, the Non-CROS pool is by far the largest, followed by CROS, and finally HYOS. By 60 cm depth these pools contribute, respectively, to 85, 7.9, and 3.6% of the total solid phase sulfur. The HYOS pool is probably of biological origin and shows no interaction with the sulfur compounds produced during diagenesis. By contrast, CROS is produced, most likely, from the diagenetic addition of polysulfides to functionalized lipids in the upper, H2S-poor, elemental sulfur-rich, region of the sediment. A portion of this sulfur pool is unstable and decomposes on contact with the H2S-rich porewaters. The portion of CROS that remains in the sulfidic waters appears to readily exchange sulfur isotopes with H2S. While some of the Non-CROS pool is of biological origin, some is also formed by the diagenetic addition of sulfur to organic compounds in the upper H2S-poor region of the sediment. By contrast with CROS, Non-CROS is not diagenetically active in the H2S-rich porewaters. Overall, somewhere between 27 and 53 % of the organic sulfur buried in Mangrove Lake sediments is of diagenetic origin, with the remaining organic sulfur derived from biosynthesis. We extrapolate our Mangrove Lake results and calculate that in typical coastal marine sediments between 11 and 29 μmol g−1 of organic sulfur will form during early diagenesis, of which 2–5 μmol g−1 will be chromium reducible.

THE APPLICATION OF THE MPB4 THEORY TO THE INTERFACE BETWEEN 2 IMMISCIBLE ELECTROLYTE-SOLUTIONS .2. THE DIFFERENTIAL CAPACITANCE OF THE WATER 1,2-DICHLOROETHANE INTERFACE

The MPB4 theory is used to calculate the differential capacitance of the interface between LiCl in water and TBATPB in 1,2-dichloroethane at electrolyte concentrations of 0.005, 0.01 and 0.02 M. The effects of the ion size and the image force, and the influence of the electrolyte concentration, the surface charge density and the solvent effect on the inner layer potential drop are considered simultaneously. These effects can be ascribed to the ionic penetration into the opposite solution and ion-ion correlations across the interface. Our results are in better agreement with experimental data than those obtained using Gouy-Chapman theory. This indicates that the MPB4 theory may also describe the structure of the water \1,2-dichloroethane interface provided that the influence of the electrolyte concentration, the surface charge density and the solvent effect on the inner layer potential distribution are included in the calculation. Comparison of the theoretical results with those of the water \nitrobenzene interface shows that the structure of the water \1,2-dichloroethane interface is similar to that of the water \nitrobenzene interface, except that in the former case the inner-layer potential drop is much higher and the effects of the image force and the ion size are more pronounced.

Ocean urea fertilization for carbon credits poses high ecological risks

The proposed plan for enrichment of the Sulu Sea, Philippines, a region of rich marine biodiversity, with thousands of tonnes of urea in order to stimulate algal blooms and sequester carbon is flawed for multiple reasons. Urea is preferentially used as a nitrogen source by some cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates, many of which are neutrally or positively buoyant. Biological pumps to the deep sea are classically leaky, and the inefficient burial of new biomass makes the estimation of a net loss of carbon from the atmosphere questionable at best. The potential for growth of toxic dinoflagellates is also high, as many grow well on urea and some even increase their toxicity when grown on urea. Many toxic dinoflagellates form cysts which can settle to the sediment and germinate in subsequent years, forming new blooms even without further fertilization. If large-scale blooms do occur, it is likely that they will contribute to hypoxia in the bottom waters upon decomposition. Lastly, urea production requires fossil fuel usage, further limiting the potential for net carbon sequestration. The environmental and economic impacts are potentially great and need to be rigorously assessed. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

中低纬度变化磁场的暴时特征研究

Magnetic storm is a kind of severe disturbances in the whole solar-earth electromagnetic space. It has significant effects on communication, electric power, oil transport pipe and human activities in space. Therefore, magnetic storms are worth for applications systems, not only being a favorable issue for scientists. In this paper, the spatial and temporal distributions of the magnetic fields produced by the magnetosphere-ionosphere current systems during storms are studied. Four parts are included in this paper decomposion of different disturbances with different origins, topological structure of the ring current, the asymmetric characteristics of the ring current, and the statistic peculiarities of the day-to-day variability (DTD) of Sq. 1 The decomposition of magnetic disturbances at mid-low latitudes and its evolutions during storms Transient variations in the geomagnetic field recorded at mid-low latitudes mainly include the storm-time variation (Dst), solar quiet daily variation (Sq) and disturbance daily variation (SD). With the data of the geomagnetic meridian chain observatories in China, 25 storms during the period of 1997 to 1999 have been analyzed. According to the features of different variations, a method of “three-steps decomposition” is developed by using the method of Natural Orthogonal Components (NOC), Correlation Analysis and Fourier Analysis to separate those three components in turn. The results show that, the first eigenmode by the MNOC clearly describing the special distribution and temporal evolution of storm-time variation, in addition, Correlation Analysis and Fourier Analysis offer a useful method to extract the Sq and SD variations. The latitudinal shift of the Sq current focus seems to be the principal reason of the day-to-day variaitons in the daily range of Sq. The magnitude of SD reaches a maximum during the main phase, and then gradually decreases. 2 The topology structure of the ring current during storms Both the mechanism of the ring current and the geomagnetic data suggest that the central plane of the ring current is declining to the geomagnetic equator plane with a tilt angle δ. Using the H and Z component data at two stations in a meridian chain, we deduce a new parameter describing the invariable peculiarity of different storms. Then the δ angle is calculated by using the data from a meridian chain and tested with the ERC model. Finally the deduced tilt angles are used to modify Dst index. 3 The asymmetric characteristics of the ring current during storms The variations of the geomagnetic field at mid-low latitudes show a significant dawn-dusk asymmetry, resulting from the superposition of the fields from the symmetric ring current and the partial ring current. On the basis of the data from the 20°E, 30°E meridian chains and 30°N latitudinal chain, the dawn-dusk asymmetry is investigated by using three methods, namely, statistic analysis, ring current model calculation and typical event analysis. This characteristic implies the asymmetry of the spatial distribution of the ring current. In addition, during the main phase after the sudden commencement (SC), H field increases and reaches maximum around noontime, implying the effect of the Chapman-Ferraro current. 4 The statistic characteristics of the day-to-day variability and its mechanism The day-to-day variability of the geomagnetic Sq field is studied by using the magnetic data from a meridian chain of magnetometers along 120° E longitude. The method of NOC is applied to separate the Sq variation from complicated disturbances. The first eigenmode with the largest eigenvalue represents fairly well the Sq variation with a conspicuous day-to-day variability in the daily range. For the stations on the same north- or south-side of the Sq current system focus, the day-to-day variations show a positive correlation. In contrast, for the stations on the different sides of the Sq focus, they show a negative correlation, suggesting an important role of latitudinal shift of the Sq current system focus to the day-to-day variability of the Sq daily range. The Sq daily range is correlated with the magnetic indices Ap and Dst in a peculiar way: on some severe disturbed days, noticeably enhancements of the Sq are observed, implying increases of the ionospheric conductivities and/or tidal wind velocities; on other severe disturbed days, however, dramatically reduced Sq variations occur, suggesting dominant effects of the ‘disturbance dynamo’ process.

太阳活动变化对中低纬电离层的影响

With the variations of solar activity, solar EUV and X-ray radiations change over different timescales (e.g., from solar cycle variation to solar flare burst). Since solar EUV and X-ray radiations are the primary energy sources for the ionosphere, theirs variations undoubtedly produce significant and complicated effects on the ionosphere. So the variations of solar activity significantly affect the ionosphere. It is essential for both ionospheric theory and applications to study solar activity effects on the ionosphere. The study about solar activity variations of the ionosphere is an important part of the ionospheric climatology. It can enhance the understanding for the basic processes in the ionosphere, ionospheric structure and its change, ionosphere/thermosphere coupling, and so on. As for applications, people need sufficient knowledges about solar activity variations of the ionosphere in order to improve ionospheric models so that more accurate forecast for the ionospheric environments can be made. Presently, the whole image about the modalities of ionospheric solar activity variations is still unknown, and related mechanisms still cannot be well understood. This paper is about the effects of the 11-year change in solar activity to the low- and mid-latitude ionosphere. We use multi-type ionospheric observations and model to investigate solar activity effects on the electron density and ionospheric spatial structure, and we focus on discussing some related mechanisms. The main works are as follows: Firstly, solar activity variations of ionospheric peak electron density (NmF2) around 1400 LT were investigated using ionosonde observations in the 120°E sector. The result shows that the variation trend of NmF2 with F107 depends on latitudes and seasons. There is obvious saturation trend in low latitudes in all seasons; while in middle latitudes, NmF2 increases linearly with F107 in winter but saturates with F107 at higher solar activity levels in the other seasons. We calculated the photochemical equilibrium electron density to discuss the effects induced by the changes of neutral atmosphere and dynamics processes on the solar activity variations of NmF2. We found that: (1) Seasonal variation of neutral atmosphere plays an important role in the seasonal difference of the solar activity variations of NmF2 in middle latitudes. (2) Less [O]/[N2] and higher neutral temperature are important for the saturation effect in summer, and the increase of vibrational excited N2 is also important for the saturation effect. (3) Dynamics processes can significantly weaken the increase of NmF2 when solar activity enhances, which is also a necessary factor for the saturation effect. Secondly, solar activity variations of nighttime NmF2 were investigated using ionosonde observations in the 120°E sector. The result shows that the variation trends of NmF2 with F107 in nighttime are different from that in daytime in some cases, and the nighttime variation trends depend on seasons. There is linear increase trend in equinox nighttime, and saturation trend in summer nighttime, while the increase rate of NmF2 with F107 increases when solar activity enhances in winter nighttime (we term it with “amplification trend”). We discussed the possible mechanisms which affect the solar activity variations of nighttime NmF2. The primary conclusions are as follows: (1) In the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) crest region, the plasma influx induced by the pre-reversal enhancement (PRE) results in the change of the variation trend between NmF2 and F107 from “saturation” to “linear” after sunset in equinoxes and winter; while the recombination process at the F2-peak is the primary factor that affects the variation trend of NmF2 with F107 in middle latitudes. (2) The recombination coefficient at the F2-peak height reaches its maximum at moderate solar activity level in winter nighttime, which induces NmF2 attenuates more quickly at moderate solar activity level. This is the main reason for the amplification trend. (3) The change of the recombination process at the F2-peak with solar activity depends on the increases of neutral parameters (temperature, density et al.) and the F2-peak height (hmF2). The seasonal differences in the changes of neutral atmosphere and hmF2 with solar activity are the primary reasons for the seasonal difference in the variation trend of nighttime NmF2 with F107. Finally, we investigated the solar activity dependence of the topside ionosphere in low latitudes using ROCSAT-1 satellite (at 600 km altitude) observations. The primary results and conclusions are as follows: (1) Latitudinal distribution of the plasma density is local time, seasonal, and solar activity dependent. In daytime, there is a plasma density peak at the dip equator. The peak is obviously enhanced at high solar activity level, and the strength of the peak strongly depends on seasons. While at sunset, two profound plasma density peaks (double-peak structure) are found in solar maximum equinox months. (2) Local time dependence of the latitudinal distribution is due to the local time variation of the equatorial dynamics processes. Double-peak structure is attributed to the fountain effect induced by strong PRE. Daytime peak enhances with solar activity since the plasma density increases with solar activity more strongly at the dip equator due to the equatorial vertical drift, and its seasonal dependence is mainly due to the seasonal variations of neutral density and the equatorial vertical drift. In the sunset sector, seasonal and solar activity dependences of the latitudinal distribution are related to the seasonal and solar activity variations of PRE. (3) The variation trend of the plasma density with solar activity shows local time, seasonal, and latitudinal differences. That is different from the changeless amplification trend at the DMSP altitude (840 km). Profound saturation effect is found in the dip equator region at equinox sunset. This saturation effect in the topside ionosphere is realated to the increase of PRE with solar activity. Solar activity variation trend of the topside plasma density was discussed quantitatively by Chapman-α function. The result shows that the effect induced by the change of the scale height is dominant at high altitudes; while the variation trend of ROCSAT-1 plasma density with solar activity is suggested to be related to the changes of the peak height, the scale height, and the peak electron density with solar activity.

电离层垂直TEC映射函数的实验观测与统计特性

When used in the determining the total electron content (TEC), which may be the most important ionospheric parameter, the worldwide GPS observation brings a revolutionary change in the ionospheric science. There are three steps in the data processing to retrieve GPS TEC: (1) to estimate slant TEC from the measurements of GPS signals; (2) to map the slant TEC into vertical; and (3) to interpolate the vertical TEC into grid points. In this scientific dissertation we focus our attention on the second step, the mapping theory and method to convert slant TEC into vertical. This is conventionally done by multiplying on the slant TEC a mapping function which is usually determined by certain models of electron density profile. Study of the vertical TEC mapping function is of significance in GPS TEC measurement. This paper first reviews briefly the three steps in GPS TEC mapping process. Then we compare the vertical TEC mapping function which were respectively calculated from the electron density profiles of the ionospheric model and retrieved from the observation of worldwide GPS TEC. We also perform the statistical analysis on the observational mapping functions. The main works and results are as follows: 1. We calculated the vertical TEC mapping functions for both SLM and Chapman models, and discussed the modulation of the ionosphere height to the mapping functions. We use two simple models, single layer model (SLM) and Chapman models, of the ionospheric electron density profiles to calculate the vertical TEC mapping function. In the case of the SLM, we discuss the control of the ionospheric altitude, i.e., the layer height hipp, to the mapping function. We find that the mapping function decreases rapidly as hipp increases. For the Chapman model we study also the control mapping function by both ionospheric altitude indicated by the peak electron density height hmF2, and the scale height, H, which present the thickness of the ionosphere. It is also found that the mapping function decreases rapidly as hmF2 increases. and it also decreases as H increases. 2. Then we estimate the mapping functions from the GPS observations and compare them with those calculated from the electron density models. We first, proposed a new method to estimate the mapping functions from GPS TEC data. This method is then used to retrieve the observational mapping function from both the slant TEC (TECS) provided by International GPS Service (IGS）and vertical TEC provide by JPL Global Ionospheric Maps (GIMs). Then we compare the observational mapping function with those calculated from the electron density models, SLM and Chapman. We find that the values of the observational mapping functions are much smaller than that from the model mapping functions, when the zenith angle is large enough. We attribute this to the effect of the plasmasphere which is above about 1000 km. 3. We statistically analyze the observational mapping functions and reveal their climatological changes. Observational mapping functions during 1999-2007 are used in our statistics. The main results are as follows. (1) The observational mapping functions decrease obviously with the decrement of the solar activity which is represented by the F10.7 index; (2) In annual variations of the observational mapping functions, the semiannual component is found at low-latitudes, and the remarkable seasonal variations at mid- and high-latitudes. (3) The diurnal variation of the observational mapping functions is that they are large in daytime and small at night, they become extremely small in the early morning before sunrise. (4) The observational mapping functions change with latitudes that they are smaller at lower latitudes and larger at higher. All of the above variations of the observational mapping functions are explained by the existence of the plasmasphere, which changes more slowly with time and more rapidly with latitude than the ionosphere does . In summary, our study on the vertical TEC mapping function imply that the ionosphere height has a modulative effect on the mapping function. We first propose the concept of the 'observational mapping functions' , and provide a new method to calculate them. This is important in improving the TEC mapping. It may also possible to retrieving the plasmaspheric information from GPS observations.

红枫湖有机氯污染物的生物地球化学

本研究以红枫湖为主要研究对象，对环境各介质中PCBs和OCPs进行了研究，讨论了理化因素TOC、粒度、SPM、微生物等对于PCBs和OCPs的影响，对各介质中PCBs和OCPs的组成进行了分析，讨论了红枫湖地区PCBs和OCPs的来源，并对其污染水平进行了评价，得到以下几点认识： 1、对红枫湖水体和沉积物的理化性质进行了分析，和洱海进行了对比。湖泊沉积物有机质含量和C/N比值表明红枫湖沉积物有机质主要来源于河流输入和湖泊内部，洱海主要以湖泊内源为主，与后面PCBs和OCPs分析结果相符。湖泊沉积物有机质及DNA呈现同一规律，表层是有机质和DNA的含量较高的区域，表层至底层整体呈逐渐降低的趋势，表明表层是微生物量和活性最高的层段，有机质的降解主要发生在此区域。湖泊沉积物粒度与有机质和DNA变化趋势一致，暗示了有机质的降解过程主要发生在表层，SRI和SRB的分析表明微生物在有机质降解过程中起着至关重要的作用。 2、红枫湖沉积物中7种PCBs的含量范围在3.2～31.6ng/g之间，主要以PCB28和PCB52为主。其中PCB28的含量范围在0.5～4.6ng/g，平均为1.8ng/g， PCB52含量在0.4～28.1ng/g。PCB28和PCB52低氯取代的PCBs占PCBs总量的60%以上。各点沉积物中PCBs的组成基本一致，其含量的变化主要与其输入来源和环境条件相关。沉积物中PCBs随深度整体呈现降低的趋势，但表层含量比次表层低，表明近年PCBs的输入降低。PCBs与TOC和粒径呈现较显著的正相关关系，与其自身的理化性质相关，PCBs具有较高的憎水性，倾向于在颗粒态中分布，也暗示了其来源。 3、红枫湖沉积物中13种OCPs的组成主要以HCHs和DDTs为主。其中HCHs的含量范围1.6～8.9ng/g，平均值为3.2ng/g，沉积物柱均值表现为HW>DB>HE>JJD；DDTs的含量范围在0.9～25.7ng/g，平均值为7.8ng/g，沉积物柱均值表现为HW>HE>DB>JJD。HCHs按其组成来看，以β-HCH和γ-HCH为主，DDTs以p,p’-DDE和p,p’-DDT为主。α-HCH/γ-HCH的比值在范围在0.1~3.0之间，表明HCH在环境中发生了改变，而且林丹的用量高于混合HCHs。DDT/DDE+DDD的比值基本都小于1，暗示DDTs在环境中发生了较长期的变化，β-HCH和p,p’-DDE的高含量也暗示了大气来源可能也是红枫湖地区OCPs的主要来源之一。 4、红枫湖湖水、汇入汇出河流及其周边土壤中PCBs和OCPs的分析，显示PCBs和OCPS在过滤后水中含量较低，主要分配在悬浮颗粒物中，悬浮颗粒物中的PCBs和OCPs组成与周边土壤中的组成基本一致。HCHs和DDTs的组成和α-HCH/γ-HCH、DDT/DDE+DDD的比值暗示水中悬浮颗粒物及其PCBs和OCPs主要来源于周边土壤和大气沉降。 5、 红枫湖后五鱼体内PCBs主要以4～6氯取代的PCBs的同系物为主，OCPs以HCHs和DDTs为主。鱼体内PCBs和OCPs对于水体的富集系数达到102～105。PCBs富集系数随氯取代数目的增加而增加，表明其生物有效性随氯取代数目的增加而增加，高氯取代的PCBs更容易通过食物链在高营养级生物体内富集，对人体造成危害。 6、 大气总悬浮颗粒物TSP中及背景区土壤中PCBs和OCPs的分析，与其它环境介质中结果基本一致。红枫湖地区大气、水、沉积物、生物和土壤各环境介质中PCBs和OCPs的组成基本一致，表明其来源具有一致性。α-HCH/γ-HCH和 DDT/DDE+DDD的值，及β-HCH、p,p’-DDE的高的比例，暗示红枫湖地区OCPs在环境中经历了较长时间的变化，而且大气长距离传输对于该区OCPs和PCBs的来源具有一定的贡献。从各因子的分析可以得出，红枫湖为该地区PCBs和OCPs的汇。 7、我国PCBs和DDTs、HCHs的含量除了典型区外，在国内外都处于较低和中等污染水平，红枫湖地区整体处于较低污染水平。根据Long和Chapman等对沉积物中POPs的评价方法，红枫湖沉积物中PCBs只有一个样品处于ERL和ERM之间，其它都低于ERL值，表明PCBs对生物造成不利影响的可能性较低；DDTs的值大部分处于ERL和ERM值之间，对生物造成不利影响的可能性较大；γ-HCH的值都低于TEC值，对生物的潜在影响较小。

Systematic Nonlinear Planning

This paper presents a simple, sound, complete, and systematic algorithm for domain independent STRIPS planning. Simplicity is achieved by starting with a ground procedure and then applying a general and independently verifiable, lifting transformation. Previous planners have been designed directly as lifted procedures. Our ground procedure is a ground version of Tate's NONLIN procedure. In Tate's procedure one is not required to determine whether a prerequisite of a step in an unfinished plan is guarnateed to hold in all linearizations. This allows Tate"s procedure to avoid the use of Chapman"s modal truth criterion. Systematicity is the property that the same plan, or partial plan, is never examined more than once. Systematicity is achieved through a simple modification of Tate's procedure.

Rede de adaptação de cultivares de aipim e mandioca para o nordeste brasileiro: safra 2006/2007.

2008

Cultivares de milho, feijão, girassol e mandioca para o agreste sergipano com foco na agricultura familiar e no agronegócio.

2008

Vision, Instruction, and Action

This thesis describes Sonja, a system which uses instructions in the course of visually-guided activity. The thesis explores an integration of research in vision, activity, and natural language pragmatics. Sonja's visual system demonstrates the use of several intermediate visual processes, particularly visual search and routines, previously proposed on psychophysical grounds. The computations Sonja performs are compatible with the constraints imposed by neuroscientifically plausible hardware. Although Sonja can operate autonomously, it can also make flexible use of instructions provided by a human advisor. The system grounds its understanding of these instructions in perception and action.