Delineation Scheme Research Articles

Exploring urban and agricultural land use planning

Socio-economic development has accelerated urban expansion, leading to the encroachment of urban space into agricultural space land and seriously undermining the stability of ecosystems. Scientifically optimizing the layout of urban-agricultural space can guarantee China's food security, promote urban development and maintain ecological stability. In this study, we focused on the rapidly growing city of Nankang. We used land, ecological and geographic location data to calculate land suitability, predicted future urban space through the GeoSOS-FLUS model, and finally optimized the agricultural-urban space conflict. The results show that: the areas of farmland with quality evaluation results for grades 1-4 were 7783.13 hm2, 9411.01 hm2, 8738.99 hm2 and 3032.73 hm2, and the areas suitable for construction, more suitable for construction, unsuitable for construction and prohibited from construction accounted for 12.19%, 16.23%, 41.34% and 30.24%, respectively. Combining the FLUS model with the land suitability evaluation results, we found that there is a conflict area of 1841.96 hm2 in the delineation scheme. Adjusting their layout according to the principle of conflict coordination, the optimized area of agricultural-urban space is 28429.34 hm2 and 8968.23 hm2 respectively, accounting for 16.32% and 5.15% of the study area. The result of spatial contradiction optimization satisfies the balance between production and residential space, promotes urban development, protects ecological security, and can provide scientific reference for regional urban ecological environment construction.

A multifaceted architectural framework of the mouse claustrum complex.

Accurate anatomical characterizations are necessary to investigate neural circuitry on a fine scale, but for the rodent claustrum complex (CLCX), this has yet to be fully accomplished. The CLCX is generally considered to comprise two major subdivisions, the claustrum (CL) and the dorsal endopiriform nucleus (DEn), but regional boundaries to these areas are debated. To address this, we conducted a multifaceted analysis of fiber- and cytoarchitecture, genetic marker expression, and connectivity using mice of both sexes, to create a comprehensive guide for identifying and delineating borders to CLCX, including an online reference atlas. Our data indicated four distinct subregions within CLCX, subdividing both CL and DEn into two. Additionally, we conducted brain-wide tracing of inputs to CLCX using a transgenic mouse line. Immunohistochemical staining against myelin basic protein (MBP), parvalbumin (PV), and calbindin (CB) revealed intricate fiber-architectural patterns enabling precise delineations of CLCX and its subregions. Myelinated fibers were abundant dorsally in CL but absent ventrally, whereas PV expressing fibers occupied the entire CL. CB staining revealed a central gap within CL, also visible anterior to the striatum. The Nr2f2, Npsr1, and Cplx3 genes expressed specifically within different subregions of the CLCX, and Rprm helped delineate the CL-insular border. Furthermore, cells in CL projecting to the retrosplenial cortex were located within the myelin sparse area. By combining own experimental data with digitally available datasets of gene expression and input connectivity, we could demonstrate that the proposed delineation scheme allows anchoring of datasets from different origins to a common reference framework.

Semi-automatic fine delineation scheme for pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer fine delineation in medical images by physicians is a major challenge due to the vast volume of medical images and the variability of patients. A semi-automatic fine delineation scheme was designed to assist doctors in accurately and quickly delineating the cancer target region to improve the delineation accuracy of pancreatic cancer in computed tomography (CT) images and effectively reduce the workload of doctors. A target delineation scheme in image blocks was also designed to provide more information for the deep learning delineation model. The start and end slices of the image block were manually delineated by physicians, and the cancer in the middle slices were accurately segmented using a three-dimensional Res U-Net model. Specifically, the input of the network is the CT image of the image block and the delineation of the cancer in the start and end slices, while the output of the network is the cancer area in the middle slices of the image block. Meanwhile, the model performance of pancreatic cancer delineation and the workload of doctors in different image block sizes were studied. We used 37 3D CT volumes for training, 11 volumes for validating and 11 volumes for testing. The influence of different image block sizes on doctors' workload was compared quantitatively. Experimental results showed that the physician's workload was minimal when the image block size was 5, and all cancer could be accurately delineated. The Dice similarity coefficient was 0.894±0.029, the 95% Hausdorff distance was 3.465±0.710mm, the normalized surface Dice was 0.969±0.019. By completing the accurate delineation of all the CT images, the speed of the new method is 2.16 times faster than that of manual sketching. Our proposed 3D semi-automatic delineative method based on the idea of block prediction could accurately delineate CT images of pancreatic cancer and effectively deal with the challenges of class imbalance, background distractions, and non-rigid geometrical features. This study had a significant advantage in reducing doctors' workload, and was expected to help doctors improve their work efficiency in clinical application.

Involved site radiation therapy in stage I-III nasopharyngeal carcinoma with limited lymph node burden (ISRT-NPC) or elective region irradiation: a study protocol for a multicenter non-inferiority randomized controlled phase III clinical trial

BackgroundCurrent radiotherapy guidelines and consensus statements uniformly recommend elective region irradiation (ERI) as the standard strategy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, given the scarcity of skip-metastasis, the improved assessment accuracy of nodal involvement, and the striking advancements in chemotherapy for NPC, a one-fits-all delineation scheme for clinical target volumes of the nodal region (CTVn) may not be appropriate anymore, and modifications of the CTVn delineation strategy may be warranted. Involved site irradiation (ISI) covering merely the initially involved nodal site and potential extranodal extension has been confirmed to be as effective as ERI with decreased radiation-related toxicities in some malignancies, but has not yet been investigated in NPC. This study aims to compare the regional control, survival outcomes, radiation-related toxicities, and quality of life (QoL) of ISI with conventional ERI in NPC patients with a limited nodal burden.MethodsISRT-NPC is a prospective, multicenter, open-label, noninferiority, phase III randomized controlled trial. A total of 414 patients will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive ISI or ERI. Randomization will be stratified by institution scale and N stage. Generally, in the ISI group, the high-risk CTV1 (dose: 60 Gy) includes a 1-cm expansion of the positive LN as well as the VIIa and the retrostyloid space above the bilateral transverse process of the atlantoaxial spine (C1), regardless of N status. The low-risk CTV2 (dose: 50 Gy) covers the cervical nodal region with a 3-cm caudal expansion below the transverse process of C1 for N0 disease and a 3-cm expansion below the positive LN for positive LNs.DiscussionThe results of this trial are expected to confirm that ISI is a non-inferior strategy to ERI in stage I-III patients with low LN burden, enabling the minimization of treatment-related toxicity and improvement of long-term QoL without compromising regional control.Trial registrationClinicalTrails.gov, NCT05145660. Registered December 6, 2021.

Relationships between lightning occurrence and summer precipitation characteristics over china observed by GPM core observatory

The relationships between lightning occurrence and precipitation properties observed from the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar and the Microwave Imager onboard the core observatory of the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission over China are investigated. The results indicate that lightning precipitation features (LPFs) typically account for <11% of the total precipitation features (PFs) over China, with the convective rain types accounting for ∼40%. The LPFs are more organized with wider spanning areas over Eastern China than Western China, and embedded with wider areas of convective cores than the non-lightning PFs. The probability of lightning (POL) increases linearly with the near-surface rain rate, liquid water path (LWP), and non-liquid water path (NLWP), while increases exponentially with the equivalent reflectivity factor (Ze). The precipitation profiles reveal that the maximum Ze values at higher altitudes are more sensitive to lightning occurrence than the ones at lower altitudes. The POL reaching above 80% mainly occurs when the areas of Ze above 20 dBZ or 30 dBZ exceed specific thresholds above the melting layer, while also occurs below the melting layer for the areas of Ze above 40 dBZ. The established precipitation parameter threshold-based lightning delineation scheme reveals that the maximum or minimum precipitation properties within PFs perform better than the mean ones in discriminating lightning. Furthermore, there is a great regional variance in the optimum thresholds of lightning delineation by precipitation properties over four typical regions of China. Overall, the present study may be helpful in the future prediction and nowcasting of lightning storms in numerical models.

Precipitation Retrieval over the Tibetan Plateau from the Geostationary Orbit—Part 1: Precipitation Area Delineation with Elektro-L2 and Insat-3D

The lack of long term and well distributed precipitation observations on the Tibetan Plateau (TiP) with its complex terrain raises the need for other sources of precipitation data for this area. Satellite-based precipitation retrievals can fill those data gaps. Before precipitation rates can be retrieved from satellite imagery, the precipitating area needs to be classified properly. Here, we present a feasibility study of a precipitation area delineation scheme for the TiP based on multispectral data with data fusion from the geostationary orbit (GEO, Insat-3D and Elektro-L2) and a machine learning approach (Random Forest, RF). The GEO data are used as predictors for the RF model, extensively validated by independent GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement Mission) IMERG (Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM) gauge calibrated microwave (MW) best-quality precipitation estimates. To improve the RF model performance, we tested different optimization schemes. Here, we find that (1) using more precipitating pixels and reducing the amount of non-precipitating pixels during training greatly improved the classification results. The accuracy of the precipitation area delineation also benefits from (2) changing the temporal resolution into smaller segments. We particularly compared our results to the Infrared (IR) only precipitation product from GPM IMERG and found a markedly improved performance of the new multispectral product (Heidke Skill Score (HSS) of 0.19 (IR only) compared to 0.57 (new multispectral product)). Other studies with a precipitation area delineation obtained a probability of detection (POD) of 0.61, whereas our POD is comparable, with 0.56 on average. The new multispectral product performs best (worse) for precipitation rates above the 90th percentile (below the 10th percentile). Our results point to a clear strategy to improve the IMERG product in the absence of MW radiances.

Precipitation Clouds Delineation Scheme in Tropical Cyclones and Its Validation Using Precipitation and Cloud Parameter Datasets from TRMM

AbstractUtilizing the cloud parameters derived from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Visible and Infrared Scanner and the near-surface rainfall detected by the TRMM Precipitation Radar, the differences of cloud parameters for precipitating clouds (PCs) and nonprecipitating clouds (NPCs) are examined in tropical cyclones (TCs) during daytime from June to September 1998–2010. A precipitation delineation scheme that is based on cloud parameter thresholds is proposed and validated using the independent TC datasets in 2011 and observational datasets from Terra/MODIS. Statistical analysis of these results shows that the differences in the effective radius of cloud particles Re are small for PCs and NPCs, while thick clouds with large cloud optical thickness (COT) and liquid water path (LWP) can be considered as candidates for PCs. The probability of precipitation increases rapidly as the LWP and COT increase, reaching ~90%, whereas the probability of precipitation reaches a peak value of only 30% as Re increases. The combined threshold of a brightness temperature at 10.8 μm (BT4) of 270 K and an LWP of 750 g m−2 shows the best performance for precipitation discrimination at the pixel levels, with the probability of detection (POD) reaching 68.2% and false-alarm ratio (FAR) reaching 31.54%. From MODIS observations, the composite scheme utilizing BT4 and LWP also proves to be a good index, with POD reaching 77.39% and FAR reaching 24.2%. The results from this study demonstrate a potential application of real-time precipitation monitoring in TCs utilizing cloud parameters from visible and infrared measurements on board geostationary weather satellites.

Latitudinal concordance between biogeographic regionalization, community structure, and richness patterns: a study on the reptiles of China.

Latitudinal patterns in species richness may be affected by both continuous variations in macroecological factors as well as discrete change between biogeographic regions. We examined whether latitudinal reptilian richness and community structure in China were best explained by three macroecological patterns (mid-domain effects, Rapoport's rule effects, or environmental correlates) within or across the ranges of biogeographic realms. The results showed that (1) there was a weak mid-domain effect within the Oriental Realm. However, the mid-domain effect was detected neither at the overall regional scale nor in the Palaearctic Realm. (2) Rapoport's rule was only weakly supported for reptilian fauna in China at lower latitudinal areas. (3) Environmental variables were more strongly correlated with species' latitudinal community structure and richness patterns at the scale of biogeographic realms. Based on the faunal similarity of reptilian community across latitudinal bands, we proposed a latitudinal delineation scheme at 34° N for dividing East Asia into Oriental and Palaearctic biogeographic realms. At last, at the functional group level, we also evaluated the relevant ecological patterns for lizard and snake species across different latitudinal bins, showing that the distributions of lizards presented strong mid-domain effects at the latitudinal ranges within the Oriental Realm and over the whole range but did not support Rapoport's rule. In comparison, snake species supported Rapoport's rule at low latitudinal zones but did not present any remarkable mid-domain effects at any spatial extents. In conclusion, biogeographic realms are an appropriate scale for studying macroecological patterns. Reptilian latitudinal richness patterns of China were explained by a combination of environmental factors and geometric constraints, while the latitudinal community structure patterns were greatly affected by environmental gradients. Functional guilds present differentiated macroecological patterns along the latitudinal gradients.

A real‐time automated convective and stratiform precipitation segregation algorithm in native radar coordinates

AbstractA new convective/stratiform (C/S) precipitation segregation algorithm was developed for applications with single radar volume scan data and in its native (spherical) coordinates. The new algorithm consists of two parts: the first is to find convective rainfall cores based on physical characteristics of different rainfall types, and the second is to delineate the full convective area through seeded region growing. The new scheme takes into account radar sampling characteristics and a variety of precipitation scenarios where the C/S delineation was relatively challenging. The new C/S delineation scheme has two impacts on radar quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE): (i) correctly separate convective and stratiform regions such that appropriate Ze–R relationships can be applied; (ii) correctly define the stratiform area such that a vertical profile of reflectivity (VPR) correction can be applied. The VPR correction is very important to reduce overestimation errors in radar QPEs associated with bright band. The new algorithm was tested on many events and showed improved performance over previous schemes, especially when handling strong bright band and melting graupels in stratiform precipitation. The new scheme was also tested in radar quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) and it consistently reduced the root mean square error and mean absolute bias in the radar QPE when compared with gauges.

Weather type dependent quality assessment of a satellite-based rainfall detection scheme for the mid-latitudes

The sensitivity of a recently published satellite-based rainfall detection scheme with differing frontal weather regimes is investigated for 676 precipitation scenes between January and August 2004. For this purpose, the rain area classified by the recent Rain Area Delineation Scheme during Night time (RADS-N) was compared to the rain area detected by the radar network of the German Weather Service. The validation results indicate that the rain area detected by RADS-N is highly consistent with the radar network (mean POD: 0.62; mean FAR: 0.52; mean ETS: 0.22). However, the bias indicates a mean overestimation of 42%. The classification results show that the satellite technique performs better in cold frontal situations and thunderstorms. Therefore, further investigations are needed to address the overall performance as well as the dependency on different weather situations and in order to allow reliable rain area detection during night-time, independent of the prevailing weather situation.

Effect of Watershed Subdivision on SWAT Modeling with Consideration of Parameter Uncertainty

Parameterization is crucial for the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) before applying it to simulate hydrology, soil erosion, and nonpoint source pollution. Accordingly, parameter uncertainty should be considered during watershed delineation. In this study, the Upper Daning River Watershed was delineated into different numbers of subwatersheds under various delineation schemes by changing the threshold drainage area (TDA). All schemes were then parameterized and SWAT was run to determine which scheme had the highest modeling efficiency. Results indicate that the simulation under the finest delineation scheme was not the most accurate but moderate level delineation scheme with TDA of 5,000 ha was. Then the parameter uncertainty introduced by model calibration was explained by the coverage of observed data and the width of the 95% prediction band ( P -factor and R -factor). To further investigate the effect of changing the TDA on SWAT modeling, the best fit set of parameter values of the delineation sch...

First results on a process-oriented rain area classification technique using Meteosat Second Generation SEVIRI nighttime data

Abstract. A new technique for process-oriented rain area classification using Meteosat Second Generation SEVIRI nighttime data is introduced. It is based on a combination of the Advective Convective Technique (ACT) which focuses on precipitation areas connected to convective processes and the Rain Area Delineation Scheme during Nighttime (RADS-N) a new technique for the improved detection of stratiform precipitation areas (e.g. in connection with mid-latitude frontal systems). The ACT which uses positive brightness temperature differences between the water vapour (WV) and the infrared (IR) channels (ΔTWV-IR) for the detection of convective clouds and connected precipitating clouds has been transferred from Meteosat First Generation (MFG) Metesoat Visible and Infra-Red Imager radiometer (MVIRI) to Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI). RADS-N is based on the new conceptual model that precipitating cloud areas are characterised by a large cloud water path (cwp) and the presence of ice particles in the upper part of the cloud. The technique considers information about both parameters inherent in the channel differences ΔT3.9-10.8, ΔT3.9-7.3, ΔT8.7-10.8, and ΔT10.8-12.1, to detect potentially precipitating cloud areas. All four channel differences are used to gain implicit knowledge about the cwp. ΔT8.7-10.8 and ΔT10.8-12.1 are additionally considered to gain information about the cloud phase. First results of a comparison study between the classified rain areas and corresponding ground based radar data for precipitation events in connection with a cold front occlusion show encouraging performance of the new proposed process-oriented rain area classification scheme.

Area-based breeding zones to minimize maladaptation

A new breeding zone delineation scheme identifies for a given number of zones the zone-boundary placement that minimizes regional maladaptation in breeding programs. First, an adaptive map is created by using conventional genetic test data. Then, the large array of predicted adaptive values is subjected to cluster analysis, which assigns each grid cell of the region to one of a predetermined number of clusters (breeding zones) such that the sum of the squared distances between each cell's adaptive value and its cluster mean is minimized. This approach minimizes the average adaptive distance between the origin of a breeding program's selected trees and planting locations throughout the region of focus. The procedure is illustrated by the use of adaptive values of 69 interior spruce (Picea engelmannii Parry ex Engelm. × Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) open-pollinated families (sources) from southeast British Columbia, Canada. Adaptive values of each 1.5 km × 1.5 km grid cell in the 80 000-km2 region were predicted using a geneco logical model (R2 = 0.64), and the values were subjected to cluster analysis to identify breeding zone boundaries that were then mapped using a geographic information system. Regardless of the number of zones created, a regional maladaptation index was consistently smaller when zones were devised with area-based cluster (ABC) analysis than when zones were created by dividing the region into bands of equal elevational or adaptive-value widths. Application of the ABC procedure should assist in identifying the optimum breeding-zone alignment for a given number of zones.

Determination of fluidization quality of beds of spherical particles

In a continuing effort to develop a regime delineation scheme and diagnostic tools to predict the quality of bed fluidization, experimental data have been taken for beds of three different sizes of spherical glass beads at ambient operating conditions. The bed is 0.153 m square and average diameters of the bed materials are 1260, 2093, and 3243 μm. A heat-transfer thermocouple and a pressure-measuring transducer probe were employed to record temperature- and pressure-fluctuation data as functions of time. These have been successfully utilized to obtain bubble or emulsion phase frequencies visiting the probe sites and hence the hydrodynamic activity in the bed interior and on its wall. It is also shown that the gross bed voidage data are somewhat inadequate for regime delineation, whereas local heat-transfer coefficient data are good indicators of the bed-fluidization quality.

A model-based approach to QRS delineation

QRS delineation is considered to be a problem of finding changes in the spectral behavior of an ECG. Based on statistical models for the “low-frequency” and “high-frequency” segments of the ECG, the points for QRS onset and end are obtained from a maximum-like-lihood procedure. This procedure is based on the properties of the prediction errors obtained from two different Kalman filters. The accuracy of the delineation scheme is studied on a QRS complex material in terms of agreement with manually obtained delineations. The material was independently delineated by three different readers. The sensitivity to noise is studied by adding white noise to the QRS complexes. The performance is compared to those of envelope-based delineation and template waveform delineation.

Study of planarized sputter-deposited SiO2

A theoretical model is proposed to explain the mechanism of the formation of sputter-deposited ’’planarized glass’’; a phenomenon which describes the topography change during sputter glass deposition on top of a metal strip when sufficient bias is applied to the substrate target, and the sputter-deposited ’’standard glass’’ when little or not bias is applied to the substrate target. By assuming that the deposition rate is independent of the substrate topology, and that the removal rate is a function of the slope angle of the substrate surface, it is able to explain the various experimental phenomena observed for both ’’planarized glass’’ and ’’standard glass’’. A delineation scheme is adopted to support the model by displaying the glass contour step-by-step in formation of both kinds of sputter-deposited glass.

Flow of slurries in pipelines

AbstractPressure drop correlations for flow of slurries in pipelines were developed for each of the following four flow regimes: flow with a stationary bed, saltation flow, heterogeneous flow, and homogeneous flow. A total number of 2 848 data points, comprised of 1 912 collected from the published literature together with 936 taken using our own test pipelines and relating to ranges of the pertinent variables extensive enough to span all four flow regimes were used as the basis of these correlations. Also, these data were used in developing an associated quantitative regime delineation scheme. The correlations provide an improved predictive capability over previously available procedures and are also broader in scope. The delineation procedure developed here permits straightforward classification of the data according to the flow regime prevailing, and it is moreover inclusive of all the data and is self‐consistent.