High Intensity Values Research Articles

Comparison of Climatology of Precipitation Diurnal Cycle in Kalimantan Deduced from Rain Gauge and IMERG Data

Abstract The diurnal cycle is repetitive pattern of changes in weather factors on land and oceans due to the Earth rotation. Kalimantan Island as the largest island in the Maritime Islands region has a complex rainfall pattern that is influenced by local factors and global circulation. The research was conducted to find out the climatological comparison of the diurnal cycle of rain in Kalimantan based on rain gauge data and Integrated Multi-SatellitE Retrievals for GPM Version 07 (IMERG V07) data for the period 2016 - 2022. Data validation using rain gauge data to validate and calibrate IMERG satellite data, improving the accuracy and reliability of satellite rainfall estimates. The diurnal cycle is evaluated through a Precipitation Amount (PA), Precipitation Frequency (PF), and Precipitation Intensity (PI) every hour. The results show that the maximum rainfall occurs in the afternoon and evening along the coast, and in the middle of the night and morning on the Kalimantan plains. Kalimantan has high rainfall intensity values at short rainfall durations, i.e. rain lasting less than 3 hours. This is expected to improve the quality of hydrometeorological disaster mitigation in Kalimantan.

Assessment of dental hard tissues and periodontium in children with hemophilia

Relevance. Children suffering from hemophilia primarily receive dental care when they present with acute tooth pain or exacerbation of an existing condition. Due to the rarity (orphan nature) of hereditary coagulopathies, dentists often lack the experience and knowledge to utilize modern methods of prevention and treatment for this patient category. Additionally, the lack of regular dental check-ups for children with hemophilia often leads to a high level of oral morbidity and a need for specific treatments, as indicated by literature data.Materials and methods. The primary methods used to assess oral health in children with hemophilia included detailed questioning, detection of carious lesions in dental hard tissues, assessment of oral hygiene, and the condition of periodontal tissues.Results. Among pediatric patients with hemophilia, poor oral hygiene was associated with a high prevalence of carious lesions (100%) and very high caries intensity values (8.8, ranging from 7 to 11). Additionally, there was a relatively high prevalence of gingival inflammation, accompanied by pronounced gingival bleeding. A direct correlation was identified between the level of oral hygiene and the degree of gingival bleeding in children aged 6-17 years with hemophilia. The deterioration of dental indicators corresponded to the severity of hemophilia, the primary disease in these children.Conclusion. The study demonstrated that pediatric patients with hemophilia, particularly those with moderate to severe forms, had significantly worse indicators of oral hygiene, dental hard tissues, and gingival health compared to generally healthy children. The results indicate the necessity for dental monitoring and rehabilitation for children with hemophilia to detect and effectively treat oral diseases at early stages.

A network analysis of the interrelationships between depression, anxiety, insomnia and quality of life among fire service recruits.

Research on the mental health and quality of life (hereafter QOL) among fire service recruits after the end of the COVID-19 restrictions is lacking. This study explored the network structure of depression, anxiety and insomnia, and their interconnections with QOL among fire service recruits in the post-COVID-19 era. This cross-sectional study used a consecutive sampling of fire service recruits across China. We measured the severity of depression, anxiety and insomnia symptoms, and overall QOL using the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), seven-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) questionnaire, and World Health Organization Quality of Life-brief version (WHOQOL-BREF), respectively. We estimated the most central symptoms using the centrality index of expected influence (EI), and the symptoms connecting depression, anxiety and insomnia symptoms using bridge EI. In total, 1,560 fire service recruits participated in the study. The prevalence of depression (PHQ-9 ≥ 5) was 15.2% (95% CI: 13.5-17.1%), while the prevalence of anxiety (GAD-7 ≥ 5) was 11.2% (95% CI: 9.6-12.8%). GAD4 ("Trouble relaxing") had the highest EI in the whole network model, followed by ISI5 ("Interference with daytime functioning") and GAD6 ("Irritability"). In contrast, PHQ4 ("Fatigue") had the highest bridge EI values in the network, followed by GAD4 ("Trouble relaxing") and ISI5 ("Interference with daytime functioning"). Additionally, ISI4 "Sleep dissatisfaction" (average edge weight = -1.335), which was the central symptom with the highest intensity value, had the strongest negative correlation with QOL. Depression and anxiety were important mental health issues to address among fire service recruits in the post-COVID-19 era in China. Targeting central and bridge symptoms identified in network analysis could help address depression and anxiety among fire service recruits in the post-COVID-19 era.

Depth of focus and intensity distribution of a lensacon illuminated by a partially coherent Gaussian Schell vortex beam

Using the extended Huygens–Fresnel principle, a cross-spectral density formula was developed for a Gaussian Schell model vortex (PCGSMV) beam diffracted through a lensacon (lens with an axicon). The intensity and depth of focus (DOF) shaped by the lensacon were calculated. Our numerical results show the relationship between the intensity distribution and depth of focus with the beam waist width as well as the spatial correlation of the coherence length. Furthermore, the relationship between the beam spot size and propagation distance was investigated. In the case of the lensacon tandem, the maximum intensity was greater than that attained by the axicon alone for the same beam parameters, and the DOF was smaller than that of the axicon alone. The vortex structure canceled out the low value of the spatial degree of coherence length. Our numerical model exhibited high-intensity values and high-quality Bessel rings along the DOF, which are critical for various applications.

Global impacts of fire regimes on wildland bird diversity

BackgroundFire is a natural disturbance that significantly impacts ecosystems and plays a crucial role in the distribution and preservation of biota worldwide. The effects of fires on bird diversity can be both positive, as they can create new habitats, and negative, as they can reduce nesting success. To fully understand the ecological implications of wildfires, we need to understand the spatial distribution of wildland bird diversity and fire regimes and how fire regimes affect wildland bird diversity ecosystems. Using data collected at a global scale, we examined effects of time-averaged fire regimes on the spatial diversity of wildland bird species. Initially, we used the MaxEnt algorithm to model the potential distribution of 1,115 wildland bird species over a 20-year period. We also processed satellite observations of burned areas (FIRECCI51) during the same period to estimate fire regime characteristics, including the average proportion of burnt vegetation, interannual variability in the burnt area, and fire intensity. Finally, the association between wild bird diversity and fire variables in each biome was determined through Spearman, Bonferroni, and Kruskal-Wallis statistics.ResultsOur findings revealed that (I) the most affected wildland bird communities are those found in tropical ecosystems, where the majority of fires occur; (II) high fire intensity values and a substantial proportion of burned vegetation have a positive impact on maintaining a diverse population of wildland birds in biomes characterized by savannah or grassland covers, as seen in temperate or tropical zones. Conversely, low fire intensity values and a smaller proportion of burned vegetation also promote greater diversity of wildland birds in boreal or temperate zones, and (III) in Mediterranean ecosystems, a clear association between wildland bird diversity and wildfires could not be established.ConclusionsThis research could help identify areas that are ecologically vulnerable to wildfires. It could also be useful in guiding regional studies aligned with developing sustainable landscape management practices and conserving priority ecological zones in tropical ecosystems.

Prediction of future research trends in bladder urothelial carcinoma: Bibliometric analysis.

Bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA) is a prevalent malignant tumor of the urinary system and, ranks 13th worldwide. Its incidence and mortality rates are consistently increasing, posing a significant threat to the physical and mental well-being of patients. We conducted a literature search in the field of BLCA from 2010 to 2023 using the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. CiteSpace 6.2.R4 and VOSviewer 1.6.19 were utilized to visually represent the annual publications, countries, institutions, authors, journals, keywords, and references in the literature. A total of 10,378 articles were included in this study. Since 2010, the number of published articles has been increasing. The countries and institutions that contributed the most were the USA and Medical University Vienna. The most frequently cited author was Bellmunt J, with 2551 citations. Shariat Shahrokh F holds the record for most published articles with 445. The journal "Urologic Oncology-Seminars and Original Investigations" had the largest number of publications, while "Eur Urol" was the most frequently cited journal. "survival" and "radical cystectomy" were identified as the most frequent keywords in recent years. Burst detection analysis revealed that the keyword with the highest intensity value was "Transitional-Cell Carcinoma," and the reference with the highest intensity value was Babjuk M, 2013. This study aimed to analyze and predict the research hotspots and trends in BLCA to provide reference value for further research in this field. The findings of this study can contribute to the research progress in BLCA.

Acrylic yarns pre-treated with different mordants and their dyeing potential with annatto dye

The study aimed to identify the best conditions for dyeing acrylic fiber with natural annatto dye, considering the presence of metallic mordants such as alum and ferrous sulfate, and evaluating the influence of soy milk or the absence of a mordant. Exhaust dyeing tests were conducted with the extract at different pH ranges to understand the behavior of the carotenoids bixin and norbixin in annatto seeds. Color intensity was measured by spectrophotometry, while colorfastness tests were performed to assess color transfer. The alum mordant showed less colorfastness than dyeing without a mordant, suggesting interference in dye fixation despite high color intensity values. On the other hand, the ferrous sulfate mordant exhibited limited leveling but high colorfastness. The natural pH range of the extract with soy milk mordant demonstrated good colorfastness and moderate intensity, resulting in a light-yellow shade. These findings underscore the complexity of interactions between natural dyes, synthetic fibers, and different mordants, emphasizing the importance of considering various factors to optimize desired outcomes in acrylic fiber dyeing.

Computer Vision-Based Method for Digitizing the Surface of the Dial Instrument and Tracking the Pointer’s Movement

Using the dial instrument for reading the oxygen pressure in the medical environment demands monitoring the pointer’s movement and keeping track of its readings. Usually, the monitoring task is done by the administrator in the medical facilities. To ensure real time and accurate monitoring, the administrator must be supported by vision-based advanced methods to digitize the surface of the dial instrument and to track the pointer’s movement. In this paper, a method is proposed to localize the three main references in the dial instrument, namely Pointer, FULL indicator, and EMPTY indicator. Once these references have been precisely determined, the proposed method records the status of the dial instrument. An emergency alert must be triggered while the pointer is moved toward the EMPTY area. Different computer vision techniques have been developed to implement the digitizing and monitoring in terms of real time constraint. The proposed method has been experimentally verified over 750 frames while the dial instrument was run and monitored the oxygen pressure. The obtained result unveil that the average running time is 0.316 s. The detection accuracy of the proposed method for these reference indicators varied from 88.5% to 100% over the first 30 frames of the tested video streams. Since the proposed method has been developed to keep track for the pointer’s movement, it can recover the detection failure while dial instrument is running. Moreover, the proposed method can overcome the reading error of the pointer’s centre point compared to the Hough transform method. Compared with the development of the Hough transform, the proposed method distinguishes itself by successfully employing morphological operations and color space processing to highlight region of interest, regardless of its high intensity values. In context of the applications of the pointer extraction of the dial instrument, another comparison has been conducted for the proposed method. The latter distinguished itself by digitizing the surface of the dial instrument without using the neural network mechanism; offering a recovery of the failure detection, and employing the idea of the black-white mask to concentrate the proposed method’s developments.

ОЦЕНКА ИНТЕНСИВНОСТИ СЕЙСМИЧЕСКИХ КОЛЕБАНИЙ НА БАЙКАЛО-ОЛЁКМИНСКОМ УЧАСТКЕ БАЙКАЛО-АМУРСКОЙ ЖЕЛЕЗНОДОРОЖНОЙ МАГИСТРАЛИ

In this study, we calculated seismic intensity for the Baikal-Olekma section of the Baikal-Amur railway based on the data on seismicity at the northeastern flank of the Baikal rift zone in 1985–2021. During the analysis of earthquakes with intensity at the epicenter higher than 4 (1 484 events), we selected from the total number of the recorded seismic events (more than 150 thousands of earthquakes with M ≥ 1.0) 270 earthquakes with MS = 2.1–6.6 whose calculated intensity exceeded 4 directly on the railway track. The highest intensity values (8–9) were obtained for the large earthquakes close to the Baikal-Olekma section of the Baikal-Amur railway (∆ < 10 km, MS = 6.1–6.2). Along the considered section of the railway, a recurrence interval of such seismic events is 20 to 60 years. The data obtained through calculations are in good agreement with the available macroseismic data which confirms the correctness of the results. At the same time, macroseismic effects from strong (МS ≥ 6.6) but remote earthquakes (∆ = 360–1000 km) were found to have no significant impact on the Baikal-Olekma section of the Baikal-Amur railway. The calculated values of intensity and recurrence intervals of earthquakes must be taken into account when designing, constructing and operating industrial and civil facilities within the study area.

Analysis of forest fires in arid landscapes of the Orenburg region

At the present stage of economic development of the forestry complex of the Russian Federation, solving problems with forest fires is key and fundamental. The inevitability of forest fires and the impossibility of preventing the loss of forest resources have led to the need to conduct analytical work to assess the fire rate of forests, which is an indicator of the conditionally permissible area of forest fires for a certain area or forestry for a certain period. The article presents the results of a review of forest fires in the Orenburg region in the context of 27 forest districts for the analyzed period from 2010-2020. Assessing the results of forest fires is necessary to solve current applied problems when planning work in subsequent fire seasons. The study found that for the period (2005-2023), the most fire-dangerous years in terms of the number of fires were 2010 and 2021. An assessment of the relative fire rate in forest districts of the region made it possible to establish that low fire rate is typical for 6 forest districts (22%), moderate and medium fire rate is established in 8 forest districts (30%), and strong (high) fire rate is found in 13 forest districts - 48%. High values of relative fire intensity with values of 0.9, 0.5 and 0.6 were established, respectively, in the Dombarovsky, Orenburgsky and Kvarkensky forest districts, the main reason for their occurrence is the anthropogenic factor. Depending on the geographical location of forestry areas, the number of fires increases; the reliability of the approximation was R2=0.83.

Comprehensive Environmental and Economic Assessment of Low-Carbon Energy Sources

The article presents the results of a study of various low-carbon energy sources based on a multi-criteria analysis for the purpose of a comprehensive environmental and economic assessment of the effectiveness of their use. The peculiarity of the study is that it analyzed both renewable energy sources and traditional fossil fuel based ones using innovative technologies for carbon dioxide capture and storage, as well as nuclear energy. The purpose of this work is to conduct a comprehensive assessment based on three criteria: normalized cost of electricity LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy)/LEC (Levelized Energy Cost), specific value of carbon dioxide emissions and material intensity expressed in total MI (Material Input) numbers. The hypothesis of the study is as follows: the introduction of the criterion of material intensity in MI numbers into a comprehensive assessment will allow one to identify low-carbon energy sources with the greatest ecological and economic effect. As a result, it was found that in 2023, the global energy capacity of low-carbon energy sources reached 51.8%, but the share of energy produced by them is significantly lower, amounting to only 39.4%. The multi-criteria analysis made it possible to identify low-carbon energy sources that, at the lowest cost, provide the greatest reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, and at the same time reduce the overall environmental impact by reducing the disturbance of biospheric material flows. Wind farms have high ecological and economic efficiency, while solar energy sources and bioelectric power plants – slightly less so. Geothermal and hydroelectric power plants have a low normalized cost of electricity, but they have relatively high values of material intensity. The environmental and economic efficiency of nuclear power is higher than that of gas and coal-fired power plants using carbon dioxide capture technologies; it occupies an intermediate position between renewable and traditional energy sources. An unexpected established fact is that gas and coal-fired power plants with carbon dioxide capture technologies have the same environmental and economic efficiency. The results obtained can be useful in making decisions about the possibility of prioritizing the development of individual low-carbon energy sources.

Identification, prevalence and intensity of ectoparasite in sand lobster (Panulirus homarus) cultivated in floating cages (floating net cage) and bottom cage (bottom cage)

Lobster (Panulirus homarus) is one of the marine fishery commodities that is gaining popularity and has been widely cultivated in Indonesia. This is because lobster has great business prospects and is one of the important commodities and has high economic value. Lobster cultivation can now be done in various systems including floating net cages, bottom cages and ponds. The problem that is often faced by cultivators is the emergence of diseases in the lobster cultivation cycle caused by an unbalanced interaction between lobster conditions, the environment, and pathogens. This is one of the main problems in lobster cultivation that can interfere with the survival of lobsters and can also cause death. Research on ectoparasite infection in Sand Lobster (Panulirus homarus) cultured in floating net cages and bottom cages aims to identify the types of ectoparasites and calculate the prevalence and intensity of ectoparasites infecting sand lobster (Panulirus homarus). The method used in this study is a survey method. The sampling method was carried out by random sampling method and the method of analysis and presentation of data using descriptive methods. The main parameters observed in this study were the type of ectoparasites, prevalence and intensity values of sand lobster (Panulirus homarus) infected with ectoparasites, while the supporting parameter was lobster size. The ectoparasite found to infest the sand lobster (Panulirus homarus) was Octolamis angulata. The highest prevalence value was obtained in cultivation using floating net cages of 53,3% which belonged to the Frequently category (commonly) and the highest intensity value was obtained in cultivation using floating net cages of 30,1 which belonged to the Medium category (currently). It is necessary to conduct further studies on Octolasmis species based on the DNA chain arrangement and description of tissue damage due to Octolasmis infestation

A topology-based approach to identifying urban centers in America using multi-source geospatial big data

Urban structure can be better comprehended through analyzing its cores. Geospatial big data facilitate the identification of urban centers in terms of high accuracy and accessibility. However, previous studies seldom leverage multi-source geospatial big data to identify urban centers from a topological perspective. This study attempts to identify urban centers through the spatial integration of multi-source geospatial big data, including nighttime light imagery (NTL), building footprints (BFP) and street nodes of OpenStreetMap (OSM). We use a novel topological approach to construct complex networks from intra-urban hotspots based on the theory of centers by Christopher Alexander. We compute the degree of wholeness value for each hotspot as the centric index. The overlapped hotspots with the highest centric indices are regarded as urban centers. The identified urban centers in New York, Los Angeles, and Houston are consistent with their downtown areas, with overall accuracy of 90.23%. In Chicago, a new urban center is identified considering a larger spatial extent. The proposed approach can effectively and objectively prevent counting those hotspots with high intensity values but few neighbors into the result. This study proposes a topological approach for urban center identification and a bottom-up perspective for sustainable urban design.

Changes in the Thermal and Stress-Strain State of the HPC Rotor of a Powerful NPP Turbine after the Blades Damage

In practice, during the operation of steam turbines, accidental damage to the blades of the rotors and stators of powerful steam turbines occurs. The main causes of emergency stops of steam turbines were vibration fatigue of the blades material, erosive damage to the blades body, and resonance problems during the power equipment operation. Based on this study, the assessment of changes in the thermal and stress-strain state of power equipment elements, which at nuclear power plants significantly affect the continued operation of the turbine after its damage, are quite relevant. Changes in the thermal and stress-strain state, which may occur after damage to the rotor of high-pressure cylinder (HPC rotor) of the K-1000-60/3000 turbine power unit of the LMZ in the station conditions, have been considered and analyzed and will provide an opportunity to assess the individual resource and continue the power unit operation. In the calculated assessment of changes in the thermal and stress-strain state of the HPC rotor, taking into account the data of the technical audit regarding damage, a geometric model of the rotor was created. Studies were conducted for three options of designs: the original option (five stages of the HPC rotor), the option without the blades of the last stage and the option without the fifth stage (with four first stages). For the project design, when working at the nominal parameters of the steam, the most stressed areas are the unloading holes of the 5th stage (σi=202.8 MPa), axial hole of the rotor in the area of the 5th stage (σi=195.2 MPa), as well as the 5th-degree welding fillet from the side of the end seals (σi=200.3 MPa) and unloading holes of the 4th and 3rd stages with a stress intensity of about 170–185 MPa. The high values of the stress intensity in the area of the 5th stage can be explained by the significant concentration of the mass of both the stage itself and its blades, which provoke significant centrifugal forces when working at the nominal rotation frequency. For a HPC rotor without blades of the 5th stage, there is a shift of the maximum stress intensity to the area of the unloading holes of the 4th and 3rd stages, as well as the axial hole of the shaft under the same stages. The maximum stress value is σi max=184.8 MPa. At the same time, the intensity of stresses in the area of unloading holes of the 5th degree decreased almost by half, to the level of 124 MPa.

Wind Direction Extraction from X-Band Marine Radar Images Based on the Attenuation Horizontal Component

This paper presents a novel algorithm based on the attenuation horizontal component for wind direction retrieval from X-band marine radar images. The range dependence of radar return on the ocean surface can be presented in radar images, and the radar return decreases with the increase in range. The traditional curve-fitting method averages the radar return of the whole range to retrieve the wind direction, but it is vulnerable to the interference of fixed objects and long-range low-intensity pixel points. For the pixels with the same range in the polar coordinates of the radar image, the ideal range attenuation model is derived by selecting the pixels with the highest intensity value. The ideal attenuation model is used to fit the attenuation data and calculate the attenuation horizontal component at each azimuth direction. To eliminate the effect of outliers, the iterative optimization method is used in the estimation of the attenuation horizontal component and the weights of the data are continuously updated. Finally, the wind direction is determined based on the azimuthal dependence of the attenuation horizontal component. This algorithm was tested using shipboard radar images and anemometer data collected in the East China Sea. The results show that, compared with the single curve-fitting method, the proposed algorithm can improve the wind direction retrieval accuracy in the case of more fixed targets. Under the condition of more fixed targets, the deviation and root mean square error are reduced by 16.3° and 16.2°, respectively.

안면부 CT 영상에서 U-Net 구조의 개선된 스킵 연결을 사용한 안와 분할

Orbital bones are composed of thick cortical bone with high intensity values and thin bones with low intensity values, making consistent segmentation difficult. In addition, the medial wall and the orbital floor are composed of thin bones, making it difficult to distinguish the intensity values from surrounding tissues due to the partial volume effect. In this paper, we propose MSDA-Net to improve segmentation performance by considering the anatomical structure of orbital bones with various thickness and the characteristics of thin bones with low intensity values and small areas in facial CT images. By applying a multi-scale module and a dual attention module that performs channel and spatial attention sequentially to the skip connection of U-Net, a feature map emphasizing the features to be paid attention to is delivered to the decoder. The paper presents the results of experiments that evaluate the effect of the multi-scale hierarchical module, single attention, and dual attention on segmentation performance. When using the proposed method, the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) of the global and regional evaluation regions shows excellent performance with 92%, 86%, and 87%, respectively.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SEMI-AUTOMATED ROAD SURFACE MARKINGS EXTRACTION SCHEMES UTILIZING MOBILE LASER SCANNED POINT CLOUDS FOR HD MAPS PRODUCTION

Abstract. As research on autonomous driving deepens, High-definition Maps (HD Maps) have gradually become an auxiliary information for the new generation of autonomous driving technology. Compared to traditional electronic navigation maps, HD Maps have higher accuracy requirements and more information. Multi-road environment information and road elements are included. In the production of HD Maps, the on-board Mobile Laser Scanning (MLS) system has the ability to quickly collect environmental information, with high precision, thus making the system a widely used data collection method today. However, subsequent map building, digitization, and other mapping work still rely on manual operation, which is time-consuming and laborious. Therefore, this research is dedicated to developing a semi-automatic algorithm to generate HD Maps from the acquired point cloud data. This research focuses on the extraction of road surface markings, using the Cloth Simulation Filter (CSF) to obtain the road surface point cloud to improve the extraction efficiency. The road markings are extracted using the characteristic of high intensity values, and the commonly used Otsu threshold filter in image processing is used to extract point clouds with high reflectance intensity, eliminating the need for manual setting of point clouds. And based on geometric conditions, the objects are classified, such as arrow lines, pedestrian crossings, stop lines, and lane lines, which are convenient for further mapping HD Maps.

Lineament mapping of structural-trend analysis over the Niger-Benue River-confluence and its environs, a case study of North-Central Nigeria

Evaluation, analysis and interpretation of aeromagnetic and satellite imagery data acquired over the Nigeria confluence and environs; Northcentral Nigeria were carried out in order to characterise the structural framework of the study area. Fourier domain of digital filtering tools and reduction to magnetic equator (RTE) operations were achieved to enhance the available data’s results. The geomagnetic field of the earth was removed from the aeromagnetic data using the IGRF- 12 model. Results from the 2D radially average power spectrum of the enhanced magnetic data estimate the depth of the magnetic sources as 20m. Several digital image enhancement techniques such as edge enhancement and general contrast stretching were applied to the satellite imagery after which the lineaments extracted from the magnetic data and images were mapped out on-screen using ArcMap 10.8. The RTE map showed a high magnetic intensity values ranging from 33051. 93 nT to 33165.3 nT and trend approximately E -W direction at the eastern and northwestern parts. The digital elevation model (DEM) of the confluence and environs was used to enhance geomorphic features. The structural lineaments orientation obtained from the analysis showed that the primary structural lineaments bearing is NE – SW, ENE -WSW and NNW – SSE and the structural directions derived from the 2D maps are aligned along NE – SW and NW – SE. This conforms to the general trend of structures produced by the Pan African events.

On the relation between rain, clouds, and cosmic rays

ABSTRACT We investigate the correlation between precipitation, clouds and cosmic rays based on field observations to develop a new short-term forecasting tool for their extremely high values. The results show that the cosmic ray intensity appears to be highly correlated with the one-year time-lagged rainfall amount with the cosmic rays leading. A plausible explanation is given for this, based on the modulation of cosmic rays by the solar cycle and an earlier finding of a strong correlation between the stratospheric - lower mesospheric temperature fluctuations and the sunspot number cycle with a time lag of one year (sun leading). This suggests that cosmic rays are not the trigger, but rather signals sunspot activity that with a delay of one year may affect cloud formation and therefore rainfall. In addition, high rates of rainfall exhibit a power-law behavior, such as the Gutenberg-Richter law characterizing the large area and perimeter size of rainfall and clouds, which have been proposed recently. Finally, the new tool for the nowcasting the extremely high cosmic ray intensity values can be used for nowcasting the extremely high rainfall values. Their combination can be used to study the modulation of cosmic ray properties by climate change parameters.

An Acoustic Investigation of Primary and Secondary Lexical Stress of Urdu

This paper investigated acoustic correlates of primary and secondary stress in Urdu language. Urdu is not a sufficiently researched language in the context of lexical stress. A few researches (Mehrotra, 1965; Hussain, 1997; Nair, 1999; Mumtaz, 2014, and Qurrat-Ul-Ain & Mahmood (2017) discussed stress in Urdu/Hindi language. Perhaps, Qurrat-Ul-Ain & Mahmood (2017) study is the first to phonetically document the presence of secondary stress in Urdu using the cue of duration. The present study focused on the four popular acoustic cues of lexical stress to see how Urdu lexical stress (primary as well as secondary) behaves against these cues. The stimuli of the study consist of six tri-syllabic words (embedded with low-back-long vowel /a:/ in all syllables) uttered by nine female Urdu speakers from Lahore. Four popular stress cues (duration, vowel quality, pitch, and intensity) have been analyzed to see their correlation with Urdu lexical stress. The analysis reveals three levels of lexical stress: primary, secondary, and unstressed. Vowel duration is the strongest cue to correlate with the levels of stress in Urdu while stressed segments prone to have higher values of intensity. Overall, a trend of lower F0 and higher formant values could be seen against stressed syllables. The study, however, needs to be expanded further by using words having other vowel sounds. Moreover, the phenomenon of word final lengthening can be taken into account in the potential researches.