Large-scale View Research Articles

A Grid Feature-Point Selection Method for Large-Scale Street View Image Retrieval Based on Deep Local Features

Street view image retrieval aims to estimate the image locations by querying the nearest neighbor images with the same scene from a large-scale reference dataset. Query images usually have no location information and are represented by features to search for similar results. The deep local features (DELF) method shows great performance in the landmark retrieval task, but the method extracts many features so that the feature file is too large to load into memory when training the features index. The memory size is limited, and removing the part of features simply causes a great retrieval precision loss. Therefore, this paper proposes a grid feature-point selection method (GFS) to reduce the number of feature points in each image and minimize the precision loss. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are constructed to extract dense features, and an attention module is embedded into the network to score features. GFS divides the image into a grid and selects features with local region high scores. Product quantization and an inverted index are used to index the image features to improve retrieval efficiency. The retrieval performance of the method is tested on a large-scale Hong Kong street view dataset, and the results show that the GFS reduces feature points by 32.27–77.09% compared with the raw feature. In addition, GFS has a 5.27–23.59% higher precision than other methods.

Examining Land Use Changes to Evaluate the Effects of Land Management in a Complex, Dynamic Landscape

Anthropogenic alterations to landscapes have increased as the human population continues to rise, leading to detrimental changes in natural habitats. Ecological restoration assists in recovery by altering habitats to improve conditions and foster biodiversity. We examined land cover changes over time within a complex, dynamic region in the Midwest to assess the long-term effects of conservation. We used Landsat 8 bands for a 15-class land cover map of Oak Openings Region using supervised classification. We validated our map and achieved an overall accuracy of 71.2% from correctly classified points out of total visited points. Change over 10 years, from 2006 to 2016, was explored by comparing class statistics from FRAGSTATS between our map and original land cover map. We found that natural land, i.e., forest and early successional, covered 33%, with 10% permanently protected, while human-modified land, i.e., agricultural and developed, covered 67% of the region. Over 10 years, natural classes increased, and cultural classes decreased by 5.8%. There were decreases for the three forest communities and increases for the two early successional communities. These changes are likely the result of natural recovery and disturbance, and conservation efforts by the Green Ribbon Initiative. Changes in habitat also came with distribution changes, e.g., increased fragmentation for some classes, which was readily visible. Our useful method measured functionality by emphasizing changes in composition and configuration. Our approach provides a tool for assessing cumulative regional-scale effects from site-level management and conservation. This large-scale view for conservation is needed to effectively mitigate future changes.

Typeface Reveals Spatial Economical Patterns

Understanding the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of an urban region is vital for policy-making, urban management, and urban planning. Auditing socioeconomic and demographic patterns traditionally entails producing a large portion of data by human-participant surveys, which are usually costly and time consuming. Even with newly developed computational methods, amenity characteristics such as typeface, color, and graphic element choices are still missing at the city scale. However, they have a huge impact on personalized preferences. Currently, researchers tend to use large-scale street view imagery to uncover physical and socioeconomic patterns. In this research, we first propose a framework that uses deep convolutional neural network to recognize the typeface from street view imagery in London. Second, we analyze the relationship between 11 typefaces and the average household income in 77 wards of London. The result show that the typefaces used in the neighborhood are highly correlated with economic and demographic factors. Typeface could be an alternative metric to evaluate economic and demographic status in large-scale urban regions. More generally, typeface can also act as a key visual characteristic of a city.

Label propagation defines signaling networks associated with recurrently mutated cancer genes

Human tumors have distinct profiles of genomic alterations, and each of these alterations has the potential to cause unique changes to cellular homeostasis. Detailed analyses of these changes could reveal downstream effects of genomic alterations, contributing to our understanding of their roles in tumor development and progression. Across a range of tumor types, including bladder, lung, and endometrial carcinoma, we determined genes that are frequently altered in The Cancer Genome Atlas patient populations, then examined the effects of these alterations on signaling and regulatory pathways. To achieve this, we used a label propagation-based methodology to generate networks from gene expression signatures associated with defined mutations. Individual networks offered a large-scale view of signaling changes represented by gene signatures, which in turn reflected the scope of molecular events that are perturbed in the presence of a given genomic alteration. Comparing different networks to one another revealed common biological pathways impacted by distinct genomic alterations, highlighting the concept that tumors can dysregulate key pathways through multiple, seemingly unrelated mechanisms. Finally, altered genes inducing common changes to the signaling network were used to search for genomic markers of drug response, connecting shared perturbations to differential drug sensitivity.

Eastward extrusion and northward expansion of the Tibetan plateau—discussions for the deep processes of the plateau uplift

The weak materials beneath the Tibetan Plateau have been escaping and extruding eastward from beneath the thickened and elevated central plateau driven by continuous convergence between India and Eurasia. This paper presents a detailed shear wave velocity cross-section image of crustal and uppermost mantle structure across the Tibet-Qinling transition zone that was generated from a dense linear seismic array. Based on our inverted seismic image together with previous geological and geophysical studies, we discussed about the material extrusion of the Tibetan Plateau, unveiling the depth extent in which the Qinling belt (which could serve as a flow channel) may accommodate the extrusion of the ductile material beneath the Tibetan Plateau, and suggested that how these dynamic processes might accommodate plateau uplift and expansion in the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau; furthermore, we compared the mechanisms of crustal deformation/thickening and the behavior patterns of lithospheric mantle between the eastern and northern margins of the Tibetan Plateau. Integrating our seismic image with previous observations, we can obtain the following findings: (1) A vigorous low velocity zone (LVZ) ( V s V s<4.2 km/s) resides beneath the Tibet-Qinling/Sichuan boundary area, contrasting to the high-velocity upper mantle to the east beneath the Qinling block and Sichuan basin. A synthetic analysis based on these findings and previous geological/geophysical observations leads to the corresponding conclusions: (1) Middle to lower crustal flow accompanied by regional fault-related strike-slip/thrusts may be occurring beneath the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, and may be a significant deep seismogenic mechanism of the large earthquakes occurrence in the eastern margin of the plateau, but it has not vastly extruded farther beyond the Tibet-Qinling boundary into the lower crust of the Qinling belt. (2) The hot asthenospheric mantle material beneath the Tibetan Plateau may escape eastward driven by convergence/squeezing between India-Eurasia continents and flow to the Qinling belt, accelerating the delamination or thermal erosion of the base of the lithosphere beneath the Tibet-Qinling/Sichuan boundary area. Combination of the preceding two mechanisms, i.e., the extrusion of ductile middle to lower crustal materials accompanied by regional fault-related strike-slip/thrusts and isostatic buoyancy resulting from lithospheric detachment (triggered by asthenospheric flow), may have jointly engendered the plateau uplift and expansion in the Tibet-Qinling and Tibet-Sichuan transition zones. In contrast, uplift of the Qilian Shan in the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau significantly depends upon upper crustal shortening processes above a weak midcrustal decollement, which is subject to the North China plate underthrusting beneath the plateau. Obviously, the deep process of material extrusion in the eastern margin of the Tibet Plateau is distinguishable from the deep mechanism responsible for the northward expansion within the Tibet-Alxa transition zone in the northern margin of the plateau. The fundamental geodynamic mechanism leading to the mode discrepancy of plateau uplift between the eastern and northern margins of the Tibetan Plateau may be attributed to the lateral variation of the nature of the lithospheres from central and eastern Tibet (interior part of the plateau) to the northern margin of the plateau. A relatively hot/weak Tibetan lithosphere underlies the Songpan-Ganzi and Qiangtang blocks in the central and eastern Tibet, while a relatively cold/rigid Asian lithosphere underlies the Qaidam and Qilian blocks (as well as the northern bordering Alxa block) in the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, with the boundary extending along the Kunlun-West Qinling range on a large-scale view.

COMPUTATIONAL MODELING OF LOW DOSE HYPER-RADIOSENSITIVITY AND INDUCED RADIORESISTANCE APPLYING THE PRINCIPLE OF MINIMUM MUTATION LOAD.

Low dose hyper-radiosensitivity (HRS) and induced radioresistance (IRR) can be observed in the dose dependence of survival of many different cell lines. While surviving fraction decreases exponentially in a large-scale view, a local minimum can be found at around 0.5 Gy. Although, there is evidence that the regulation of apoptosis and DNA repair are involved in HRS and IRR, the fundamental causes of the phenomena remain unclear. The objective of the present study is to test whether the principle of minimum mutation load can provide an explanation for both low dose HRS and IRR. For this purpose, a mathematical model was elaborated considering radiation induced mutagenic DNA lesions as well as cell divisions as sources of mutations. It was presumed that cell number is in dynamic equilibrium in the tissue, the number of mutations follows Poisson distribution, and its average is proportional to absorbed dose. For each value of absorbed dose, the minimum number of mutations were computed for different surviving fractions. Then that surviving fraction was plotted that results in the lowest number of mutations. One minimum or multiple minima can be seen in the dose dependence of surviving fractions with reasonable values for the model parameters: spontaneous and radiation induced mutation rate. Although the mechanisms remain unclear, the principle of minimum mutation load provides a potential explanation for low dose HRS and IRR and for the fact that they are mostly observed in cell lines with defected DNA repair.

European land-use at 6000 BP: from on-site data to the large-scale view

European land-use at 6000 BP: from on-site data to the large-scale view

Eastward extrusion and northward expansion of the Tibetan Plateau&amp;mdash;Discussions for the deep processes of the plateau uplift

The weak materials beneath the Tibetan Plateau have been escaping and extruding eastward from beneath the thickened and elevated central plateau driven by continuous convergence between India and Eurasia. This paper presents a detailed shear wave velocity cross-section image of crustal and uppermost mantle structure across the Tibet-Qinling transition zone that was generated from a dense linear seismic array. Based on our inverted seismic image together with previous geological and geophysical studies, we discussed about the material extrusion of the Tibetan Plateau, unveiling the depth extent in which the Qinling belt (which could serve as a flow channel) may accommodate the extrusion of the ductile material beneath the Tibetan Plateau, and suggested that how these dynamic processes might accommodate plateau uplift and expansion in the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau; furthermore, we compared the mechanisms of crustal deformation/thickening and the behavior patterns of lithospheric mantle between the eastern and northern margins of the Tibetan Plateau. Integrating our seismic image with previous observations, we can obtain the following findings: (1) A vigorous low velocity zone (LVZ) ( V s V s<4.2 km/s) resides beneath the Tibet-Qinling/Sichuan boundary area, contrasting to the high-velocity upper mantle to the east beneath the Qinling block and Sichuan basin. A synthetic analysis based on these findings and previous geological/geophysical observations leads to the corresponding conclusions: (1) Middle to lower crustal flow accompanied by regional fault-related strike-slip/thrusts may be occurring beneath the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, and may be a significant deep seismogenic mechanism of the large earthquakes occurrence in the eastern margin of the plateau, but it has not vastly extruded farther beyond the Tibet-Qinling boundary into the lower crust of the Qinling belt. (2) The hot asthenospheric mantle material beneath the Tibetan Plateau may escape eastward driven by convergence/squeezing between India-Eurasia continents and flow to the Qinling belt, accelerating the delamination or thermal erosion of the base of the lithosphere beneath the Tibet-Qinling/Sichuan boundary area. Combination of the preceding two mechanisms, i.e., the extrusion of ductile middle to lower crustal materials accompanied by regional fault-related strike-slip/thrusts and isostatic buoyancy resulting from lithospheric detachment (triggered by asthenospheric flow), may have jointly engendered the plateau uplift and expansion in the Tibet-Qinling and Tibet-Sichuan transition zones. In contrast, uplift of the Qilian Shan in the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau significantly depends upon upper crustal shortening processes above a weak midcrustal decollement, which is subject to the North China plate underthrusting beneath the plateau. Obviously, the deep process of material extrusion in the eastern margin of the Tibet Plateau is distinguishable from the deep mechanism responsible for the northward expansion within the Tibet-Alxa transition zone in the northern margin of the plateau. The fundamental geodynamic mechanism leading to the mode discrepancy of plateau uplift between the eastern and northern margins of the Tibetan Plateau may be attributed to the lateral variation of the nature of the lithospheres from central and eastern Tibet (interior part of the plateau) to the northern margin of the plateau. A relatively hot/weak Tibetan lithosphere underlies the Songpan-Ganzi and Qiangtang blocks in the central and eastern Tibet, while a relatively cold/rigid Asian lithosphere underlies the Qaidam and Qilian blocks (as well as the northern bordering Alxa block) in the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, with the boundary extending along the Kunlun-West Qinling range on a large-scale view.

A large-scale view of oceanic variability from 2007 to 2015 in the global high resolution monitoring and forecasting system at Mercator Océan

Abstract The global high resolution monitoring and forecasting system PSY4 at Mercator Ocean, initialized in October 2006, has achieved 11 years of global ocean state estimation. Based on the NEMO global 1/12° configuration, PSY4 includes data assimilation of satellite and multi-instrument in situ observations. In parallel to this monitoring system, a twin-free simulation (with no assimilation) has been performed for the period 2007–2015. In this study, monthly-averaged fields of both ocean state estimates are compared with observation products for the period 2007–2015, to examine the consistency of PSY4 fields with related observations for representing large-scale variability and to provide a baseline that is mainly focused on in situ comparisons for validation/qualification of on-going system developments. Observations play a major role in correctly positioning the main energetic structures, both in space and time. In addition, data assimilation appears to overcome the other deficiencies of models by reducing SST bias in upwelling regions and by increasing the thermocline gradient in the tropics. Generally, the amplitude of the total-resolved variability in both PSY4 estimates is consistent with observation data sets. Annual cycle and longer-term variability in temperature, salinity and sea surface height are significantly improved with data assimilation, but some progress is still needed to better represent the amplitude of changes of ocean heat and freshwater contents on long timescales. Finally, the PSY4 system's ability to capture the large scale variability is further investigated by using as a case study the northward pathways of El Nino anomalies in the tropical North Pacific in 2014 and 2015 in order to illustrate how such systems can be used to answer relevant scientific questions.

Influence of Cold Fronts on Variability of Daily Surface O3 over the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria Area in Texas USA during 2003–2016

We investigated the impacts of cold fronts on area-wide peak O3 and regional backgroundO3 mixing ratios on a daily scale over the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (HGB) area of southeasternTexas during the O3 seasons (April–October) of 2003–2016. Back trajectories showed that an 18h timelag existed between arrival of cold fronts in the HGB area and onset of a predominately northerlyflow. Cold fronts showed increasing effects on both peak and background O3 over the HGB area.Compared to no front days, average peak O3 mixing ratios during the cold front 1st days, coldfront 2+ days, and post frontal days increased 0.7, 5.9, and 9.0 ppbv, respectively while averagebackground O3 increased 2.9, 6.8, and 8.6 ppbv, respectively. The change in wind direction fromsoutherly to northerly was the most important factor causing increasing O3 levels. Wind directionshifts caused variation of other meteorological factors (i.e., wind speed, precipitation, temperature,cloud cover, and relative humidity) and tended to overshadow their effects on O3 over the HGB area.On a long-term and large-scale view, cold fronts over the HGB area could be regarded as interruptionsin the cleansing effects of predominantly marine southerly flow from the Gulf of Mexico.

A fast approach for large-scale Sky View Factor estimation using street view images

Sky View Factor (SVF) is one of the most useful urban spatial indicators for radiation and thermal environmental assessment. Estimating SVF with circular fish-eye photos is straightforward and convenient and can account for obstruction of vegetation and other urban infrastructures. But for a large area with many points of interest, processing fish-eye photos is labor intensive. This paper presents a workflow of estimating SVF with large amounts of street view images obtained at sampling points along city road network at the height of about 2 m. To automatically estimate SVF with street view images, a batch processing sky region detection and SVF calculation tool was developed with the Python programming language and OpenCV. The tool can deal with various outdoor weather conditions, and the performance of sky region segmentation and SVF calculation was validated with photos taken with a fish-eye lens. The method shows reliable estimations and preferable speed, with about 1.5 s for a 1000 × 500 px image and 0.08 s for a 200 × 100 px image. The proposed workflow was further applied to estimate the SVF distributions in the downtown centers of four densely populated Chinese cities.

A Multi-sensor View of the 2012 Central Plains Drought from Space

In summer of 2012, the Central Plains of the United States experienced its most severe drought since the ground-based data record began in late 1900s. By using comprehensive satellite data from MODIS and TRMM, along with in-situ observations, this study documents the geophysical parameters associated with this drought, and thereby providing, for the first time, a large-scale observation-based view of the extent to which the land surface temperature and vegetation can likely be affected by both the severe drought and the agriculture’s response (irrigation) to the drought. Over non-irrigated area, 2012 summer daytime land surface temperature (LST) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) monthly anomalies (with respect to climate in 2002-2011) are often respectively greater than 5 K and negative, with some extreme values of 10 K and -0.2 (i.e., no green vegetation). In contrast, much smaller anomalies (< 2 K) of LST and nearly the same NDVI are found over irrigated areas. Precipitation received an average of 5.2 cm less, while both fire counts and fire radiative power were doubled, thus contributing in part to a nearly 100% increase of aerosol optical depth in many forested areas (close to intermountain west). Water vapor amount, while decreased over the southern part, indeed slightly increased in the northern part of Central Plains. As expected, cloud fraction anomaly is negative in the entire Central Plains; however, the greatest reduction of cloud fraction is found over the irrigated areas, which is in contrast to past modeling studies showing more irrigation, because of its impact on LST, may lead to increase of cloud fraction.

Variability and evolution of global land surface phenology over the past three decades (1982–2012)

Monitoring land surface phenology (LSP) is important for understanding both the responses and feedbacks of ecosystems to the climate system, and for representing these accurately in terrestrial biosphere models. Moreover, by shedding light on phenological trends at a variety of scales, LSP provides the potential to fill the gap between traditional phenological (field) observations and the large-scale view of global models. In this study, we review and evaluate the variability and evolution of satellite-derived growing season length (GSL) globally and over the past three decades. We used the longest continuous record of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index data available to date at global scale to derive LSP metrics consistently over all vegetated land areas and for the period 1982-2012. We tested GSL, start- and end-of-season metrics (SOS and EOS, respectively) for linear trends as well as for significant trend shifts over the study period. We evaluated trends using global environmental stratification information in place of commonly used land cover maps to avoid circular findings. Our results confirmed an average lengthening of the growing season globally during 1982-2012 - averaging 0.22-0.34 days yr(-1), but with spatially heterogeneous trends. About 13-19% of global land areas displayed significant GSL change, and over 30% of trends occurred in the boreal/alpine biome of the Northern Hemisphere, which showed diverging GSL evolution over the past three decades. Within this biome, the 'Cold and Mesic' environmental zone appeared as an LSP change hotspot. We also examined the relative contribution of SOS and EOS to the overall changes, finding that EOS trends were generally stronger and more prevalent than SOS trends. These findings constitute a step towards the identification of large-scale phenological drivers of vegetated land surfaces, necessary for improving phenological representation in terrestrial biosphere models.

Mapping the physico-chemical properties of mineral dust in western Africa: mineralogical composition

Abstract. In the last few years, several ground-based and airborne field campaigns have allowed the exploration of the properties and impacts of mineral dust in western Africa, one of the major emission and transport areas worldwide. In this paper, we explore the synthesis of these observations to provide a large-scale quantitative view of the mineralogical composition and its variability according to source region and time after transport. This work reveals that mineral dust in western Africa is a mixture of clays, quartz, iron and titanium oxides, representing at least 92% of the dust mass. Calcite ranged between 0.3 and 8.4% of the dust mass, depending on the origin. Our data do not show a systematic dependence of the dust mineralogical composition on origin; this is to be the case as, in most of the instances, the data represent the composition of the atmospheric burden after 1–2 days after emission, when air masses mix and give rise to a more uniform dust load. This has implications for the representation of the mineral dust composition in regional and global circulation models and in satellite retrievals. Iron oxides account for 58 ± 7% of the mass of elemental Fe and for between 2 and 5% of the dust mass. Most of them are composed of goethite, representing between 52 and 78% of the iron oxide mass. We estimate that titanium oxides account for 1–2% of the dust mass, depending on whether the dust is of Saharan or Sahelian origin. The mineralogical composition is a critical parameter for estimating the radiative and biogeochemical impact of mineral dust. The results regarding dust composition have been used to estimate the optical properties as well as the iron fractional solubility of Saharan and Sahelian dust. Data presented in this paper are provided in numerical form upon email request while they are being turned into a public database, the Dust-Mapped Archived Properties (DUST-MAP), which is an open repository for compositional data from other source regions in Africa and worldwide.

Recent developments in VSD imaging of small neuronal networks.

Voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) imaging is a powerful technique that can provide, in single experiments, a large-scale view of network activity unobtainable with traditional sharp electrode recording methods. Here we review recent work using VSDs to study small networks and highlight several results from this approach. Topics covered include circuit mapping, network multifunctionality, the network basis of decision making, and the presence of variably participating neurons in networks. Analytical tools being developed and applied to large-scale VSD imaging data sets are discussed, and the future prospects for this exciting field are considered.

Spatial proteomic and phospho-proteomic organization in three prototypical cell migration modes.

BackgroundTight spatio-temporal signaling of cytoskeletal and adhesion dynamics is required for localized membrane protrusion that drives directed cell migration. Different ensembles of proteins are therefore likely to get recruited and phosphorylated in membrane protrusions in response to specific cues.ResultsHere, we use an assay that allows to biochemically purify extending protrusions of cells migrating in response to three prototypical receptors: integrins, recepor tyrosine kinases and G-coupled protein receptors. Using quantitative proteomics and phospho-proteomics approaches, we provide evidence for the existence of cue-specific, spatially distinct protein networks in the different cell migration modes.ConclusionsThe integrated analysis of the large-scale experimental data with protein information from databases allows us to understand some emergent properties of spatial regulation of signaling during cell migration. This provides the cell migration community with a large-scale view of the distribution of proteins and phospho-proteins regulating directed cell migration.

The Microbiome in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Current Status and the Future Ahead

Studies of the roles of microbial communities in the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have reached an important milestone. A decade of genome-wide association studies and other genetic analyses have linked IBD with loci that implicate an aberrant immune response to the intestinal microbiota. More recently, profiling studies of the intestinal microbiome have associated the pathogenesis of IBD with characteristic shifts in the composition of the intestinal microbiota, reinforcing the view that IBD results from altered interactions between intestinal microbes and the mucosal immune system. Enhanced technologies can increase our understanding of the interactions between the host and its resident microbiota and their respective roles in IBD from both a large-scale pathway view and at the metabolic level. We review important microbiome studies of patients with IBD and describe what we have learned about the mechanisms of intestinal microbiota dysfunction. We describe the recent progress in microbiome research from exploratory 16S-based studies, reporting associations of specific organisms with a disease, to more recent studies that have taken a more nuanced view, addressing the function of the microbiota by metagenomic and metabolomic methods. Finally, we propose study designs and methodologies for future investigations of the microbiome in patients with inflammatory gut and autoimmune diseases in general.

The contribution of the strength and structure of extratropical cyclones to observed cloud–aerosol relationships

Abstract. Meteorological conditions may drive relationships between aerosol and cloud-related properties. It is important to account for the meteorological contribution to observed cloud–aerosol relationships in order to improve understanding of aerosol–cloud–climate interactions. A new method of investigating the contribution of meteorological covariation to observed cloud–aerosol relationships is introduced. Other studies have investigated the contribution of local meteorology to cloud–aerosol relationships. In this paper, a complimentary large-scale view is presented. Extratropical cyclones have been previously shown to affect satellite-retrieved aerosol optical depth (τ), due to enhanced emission of sea salt and sea surface brightness artefacts in regions of higher wind speed. Extratropical cyclones have also been shown to affect cloud-related properties such as cloud fraction (fc) and cloud top temperature (Ttop). Therefore, it seems plausible to hypothesise that extratropical cyclones may drive relationships between cloud-related properties and τ. In this paper, this hypothesis is investigated for extratropical cyclones, henceforth referred to as storms, over the Atlantic Ocean. MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) retrieved τ, fc and Ttop data are analysed using a storm-centric coordinate system centred on extratropical cyclones which have been tracked using European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis 850 hPa relative vorticity data. The tracked relative vorticity (ω) is used as a measure of storm strength, while position in the storm-centric domain is used to account for storm structure. Relationships between the cloud-related properties and τ are measured by calculating regression slopes and correlations. The fc–τ relationships are positive, while the Ttop–τ relationships are negative. By shuffling the pairing of the cloud and τ data at each location in the storm-centric domain and within narrow ω bins, the contribution of storm strength and storm structure to the observed relationships can be investigated. It is found that storm strength and storm structure can explain only a small component of the relationships observed in the MODIS data. The primary causes for observed cloud–aerosol relationships are likely to be other factors such as retrieval errors, local meteorology or aerosol–cloud interactions.

An Institutionwide Approach to Redesigning Management of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Despite widespread training in basic life support (BLS) and advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS) among hospital personnel, the likelihood of survival from in-hospital cardiac arrests remains low. In 2006 a university-affiliated tertiary medical center initiated a cardiopulmonary (CPR) resuscitation redesign project. REDESIGNING THE HOSPITAL'S RESUSCITATION SYSTEM: The CPR Committee developed the interventions on the basis of a large-scale view of the process of delivering BLS and ACLS, identification of key decision nodes and actions, and compartmentalization of specific functions. It was proposed that arrest management follow a steady progression in a two-layer scheme from BLS to ACLS. Handouts describing team structure and specific roles were given to all code team providers and house staff at the start of their month-long rotations. To further increase role clarity and team organization, daily morning and evening meetings of the arrest team were instituted. Site-specific BLS training, on-site ACLS refresher training, and defibrillator training were initiated. Project elements also included use of unannounced mock codes to provide system oversight; preparation and distribution of cognitive aids (printed algorithms, dosing guides, and other checklists to ensure compliance with ACLS protocols), identification of patients who may be unstable or a source of concern, event review and analysis of arrests and other critical events, and a CPR website. A mature hospital-based resuscitation system should include definition of arrest trends and resuscitation needs, development of local methods for approaching the arresting patient, an emphasis on prevention, establishment of training programs tailored to meet specific hospital needs, system examination and oversight, and administrative processes that maximize interaction between all components.

Geomorphologic map of the Biferno River valley floor system (Molise, Southern Italy)

A 1:20,000-scale geomorphologic map of the valley floor system of the Biferno River (Molise Region, Italy) is presented in this paper. Map analysis and aerial photography interpretation, in addition to field surveys, have allowed digital mapping of fluvial landforms and associated coastal, slope and anthropogenic forms which have characterised the valley floor in different periods. Comparative multi-temporal analysis performed in a GIS for the time-period 1869–2010 allowed the reconstruction of spatial-temporal relationships between most of the mapped landforms and acquisition of quantitative data on channel adjustments. The geomorphologic map provides an overall large-scale view of major channel adjustments over the past 150 years as well as the current morphological setting and dynamics of the Biferno valley floor. It provides a basic map for land planning policy with the observed distribution of active geomorphic processes to be used for landslide and erosion susceptibility assessment and the data obtained on channel adjustments essential in investigating land cover change over the same period. As the Biferno valley floor system is characteristic of major river systems in Central-Southern Italy, the reconstructed framework of valley floor transformations turns out to be useful when assessing a representative channel evolution model and potential scenarios concerning near future dynamics of similar river systems.