Transition Matrix Analysis Research Articles

Quantitative Analysis of Urban Expansion Using RS and GIS, A Case Study in Lanzhou

Urbanization has changed the pattern of urban landscapes and the natural landscape. Evaluations of the spatial and temporal changes of the urban landscape pattern could support the urban expansion analysis commendably. This study has two objectives: (1) to present methods to characterize the spatial behavioral features and the corridor effect of urban expansion by using geographical information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) images and (2) to apply the methods to Lanzhou as an example. In this study, ERDAS IMAGINE was used to process and prepare RS images and digital land-use maps. In addition, information on urban expansion was extracted by using the man-machine interactive interpretation method under the ArcTools model of ArcInfo. The landscape indexes were calculated by FRAGSTATS, which is a spatial pattern analysis program utilized to evaluate categorical maps. All other indexes were calculated and displayed by using the grid model, spatial analysis model, and network analysis module of ArcInfo. The landscape transition matrix, landscape index of the urban construction area, urbanization gradient, and corridor effect of urban expansion in Lanzhou were then studied. Landscape transition matrix analysis revealed that the urban construction area in Lanzhou expanded rapidly and considerably between 1986 and 2006. Analysis of the urbanization gradient revealed that there was isolated urbanization in the suburban area, amalgamated urbanization in the rural urban fringe area, and peripheral urbanization in the main built area. On the basis of the module that provides a comprehensive effect between the artificial corridors and natural corridors during the urban expansion process, Lanzhou will develop into a network city with a multicore structure, network shape, and compounded function. Overall, the results of this study demonstrated that RS integrated with GIS technique is an effective approach to the analysis of urban expansion.

Hydrological implications of land use and land cover change: Spatial analytical approach at regional scale in the closed basin of the Cuitzeo Lake, Michoacan, Mexico

A spatially distributed water balance model was used to assess the influence of regional land use and land cover change in a poorly gauged basin for the years 1975 and 2000. To carry out this study in the Cuitzeo Lake basin in Michoacan, Mexico, remote sensing and geographic information system tools were integrated in the water balance model. In addition, a transition matrix analysis was used to determine the dynamic change of categories of related hydrologic processes. The analysis of the water balance components, based on landforms and transition matrix, indicated a tendency of improvement in the regional hydrologic conditions in the basin. As a consequence of urban land use growth, however, plains and footslopes of the basin showed an increase of runoff values. In addition, in both years, the topographic lower sections of the basin exhibited a high demand for water from the increased urban land use, along with degradation of Cuitzeo Lake, particularly by pollution and reduction of water supply. The approach used here is suitable for understanding the change in quantity and spatial distribution of water available in poorly gauged basins.

Contrasting Population Dynamics of the Endemic New Caledonian Conifer Araucaria laubenfelsii in Maquis and Rain Forest

ABSTRACTThis study compares demographic parameters and population dynamics for high disturbance (maquis) and low disturbance (rain forest) environments of the montane conifer, Araucaria laubenfelsii, in New Caledonia. The establishment, growth, survival and reproduction of ca 2500 individuals were followed in permanent plots over 10 yr. Growth and survival rates for A. laubenfelsii show that it is a long‐lived, slow growing tree, with evidence of suppression in the sapling size classes in mature rain forest. Growth rates for all size classes are generally faster in maquis than rain forest. Transition matrix analyses estimated positive rates of population increase (λ values>1), with populations expanding in maquis, and stable in mature forest. Araucaria laubenfelsii is able to regenerate continuously in maquis and early successional rain forest, but recruitment is limited in older stands. Life table response experiment analyses showed that reproduction, and transitions from sapling to mature tree stage, contributed positively to λ in maquis, but negatively in forest. Araucaria laubenfelsii on Mont Do can be considered a long‐lived pioneer, with early maquis colonizers helping to drive succession from maquis to forest. While opportunities for recruitment decline with time as rain forest sites develop a closed canopy, occasional gap phase recruitment, combined with disturbance by cyclones, landslides and fire, provide opportunities to ensure species persistence. Understanding contrasting population dynamics of A. laubenfelsii in maquis and rain forest will better facilitate conservation management of this species, particularly given current high rates of land conversion and degradation in New Caledonia.Abstract in French is available at http://www.blackwell‐synergy.com/loi/btp

Inequality of Educational Opportunity in India: Changes Over Time and Across States

This paper documents the extent of inequality of educational opportunity in India spanning the period 1983-2004 using National Sample Survey (NSS) data. We build on recent developments in the literature that has operationalized concepts in the inequality of opportunity theory (including Roemer’s) and construct three indices of inequality of educational opportunity using data on an adult sample. Irrespective of the index used, the state of Kerala stands out as the least unequal in terms of educational opportunities. However, even after excluding Kerala, significant inter-state divergence remains amongst the remaining states. Transition matrix analysis confirms substantial inter-temporal mobility in inequality of opportunity across Indian states. Rajasthan and Gujarat in the West and Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the Centre experienced large-scale fall in the ranking of inequality of opportunities. However, despite being poor, Eastern states of West Bengal and Orissa made significant progress in reducing inequality of opportunity. At a region level, Southern, Northeastern and Eastern regions on average experienced upward mobility (i.e. decline in inequality of opportunity) whilst the Central region experienced downward mobility. We conclude by examining the link between progress towards equality of opportunity and poverty reduction, growth and a selection of pro-poor policies.

Simplified transition matrix analysis of the hinge model

We analyze within the hinge model the time dependence of polarization mode dispersion induced by stochastic fluctuations of the polarization rotations at the hinge sites. Our procedure employs a modified transition matrix method approach that increases modeling accuracy for unlikely system configurations.

Fluid flow history from damage zone cements near the Dent and Rawthey faults, NW England

Fault-related breccias, in Carboniferous limestone, have been well documented in the footwall damage zone to the reverse-oblique Dent Fault. This study describes breccias in the more complicated hanging wall, hosted in pre-deformed Ordovician and Silurian lithologies along the Dent Fault or one of its splays such as the Rawthey Fault. Brecciation style is shown to be influenced by lithology, with the most extensive brecciation in mechanically strong units: siliceous or calcareous mudstone, cemented sandstone and fine tuff. Most brecciation involves dilational strain in the fault damage zones. Attritional breccias are rare, even in fault cores. Dilation breccias are cemented sporadically by quartz or barite, but mostly by carbonate minerals. Transition matrix analysis shows that the sequence of hanging-wall carbonate cements matches that in the footwall: first dolomite or calcite, then ferroan dolomite, then ferroan calcite. This similarity suggests hydrological connectivity from hanging wall to footwall and through tens of cubic kilometres across the Dent–Rawthey fault system. Such connectivity is predicted across upper crustal faults that cut strong mechanical stratigraphy. It is proposed that fluid flow though the fault system was driven mainly by syntectonic topography above the hanging wall, and possibly also by thermal convection caused by a buried granite pluton in the footwall.

Characterizing spatial patterns of land ownership at the parcel level in south-central Indiana, 1928–1997

Parcelization of land ownership is a process that has dramatic implications for how landscapes are managed and how socio-economic changes ultimately affect the pattern, composition and characteristics of the landscape. For a study area in south-central Indiana, a digital spatial dataset of ownership parcels was created from historical plat maps for the period of 1928–1997. The patterns of ownership parcelization were categorized into a typology based on characteristics of the parent and child parcels using a cluster analysis. These types were then used to describe the trajectory of parcelization, or life history, of a parcel using a transition matrix approach. Results show that the most common type of parcelization is one where a parent parcel splits into two equally sized child parcels. The results from the transition matrix analysis suggest that the history of a parcel is of importance in that it does enable and constrain future parcelization types. Possible relationships between the results from the quantitative analysis and underlying household social processes are also discussed and evaluated.

Transition matrix analysis of land-cover change in the accretion area of the Lower Delta of the Paraná River (Argentina) reveals two succession pathways

Aerial photographs from 1978, 1990, and 1995 were used to measure historical land-cover changes in the accretion portion of the Lower Delta of the Parana River in Argentina. Six land-cover types were identified and mapped according to the dominant physiognomy: rushes, marshes, seibo forest, mixed prairies of woody and herbaceous plants, vegetated lagoons, and a human land-use category resulting from anthropomorphic intervention (willow and poplar plantations and tourist or recreational areas). The occurrence and magnitude of changes in cover were estimated through Kappa indices, and transition matrices were calculated in order to represent all possible changes that occur in the landscape. The study area had an increase in island surface of 11.75% from 1978 to 1995. Although the delta is in an active accretion phase, the results indicate that the landscape shows moderate to little changes in the time period analyzed (General Kappa: 1978–1990: 0.75, 1990–1995: 0.79). Rushes are pioneer colonizers of banks, which later give rise to marshes or woody and herbaceous prairies and forests. Marshes and forests are stable systems. The pattern of change in islands does not follow a one-way sequence; on the contrary, two main pathways were identified. In the time period analyzed, human activity increased substantially to the detriment of marshes and native forests. Quantification of landscape-change processes allowed us to construct a probability model of land-cover change and compare our results to the predictions formulated in previous vegetation studies based on plant community analysis.

Random and systematic land-cover transitions in northern Ghana

Abstract The objective of this paper is to detect the dominant landscape changes in a 5400 km 2 area in northern Ghana. An in-depth analysis of the conventional transition matrix was used to separate landscape transformations to random and systematic transitions. A landscape transition is random if a land-cover category gains from other categories in proportion to the availability of those other losing categories, or if a category loses to other categories in proportion to the size of those other gaining categories. Any large deviation from those proportions is referred to as systematic transition. The highest systematic transition involved the conversion of about 12% of landscape from grassland to cropland. Other systematic landscape transitions included degradation of closed woodland to open woodland (11% of landscape), gain in biomass from open woodland to closed woodland (8% of landscape), and the degradation of open woodland to grassland (6% of landscape). The vulnerability of grassland to transition to cropland probably reflects the ease of clearing grassland compared to other natural vegetation. Cropland systematically avoided gaining from woodland and woodland systematically avoided losing to cropland, suggesting that woodcutting for charcoal and firewood collection is the major proximate cause of decline in woodland. Most of the random landscape transitions occurred in areas affected by spontaneous occupation by migrants, peri-urban cropland expansion as a result of displacement of farmers, and the resettlement of households along the White Volta River after the eradication of water-borne diseases. It is essential to combine systematic and random landscape change analyses for improved understanding of the processes of land use change. This will help in linking patterns to processes and in designing policy interventions aimed at reducing the unfavorable effects of dramatic land change.

Transition matrix analysis of earthquake magnitude sequences

Estimation of complexity is a fascinating research topic in nonlinear signal and system analysis. Information theoretic functionals can be used to identify and quantify general relationships among variables; these relationships can be considered as the fingerprints of complexity. Up to now, the complexity of seismic sequences has been mostly related to the concept of self-similarity, suggesting that the earthquake dynamics can be interpreted as due to many components interacting over a wide range of time or space scales. This paper deals with a new idea of complexity of seismicity, focusing, in particular, on the transition probability between magnitudes. Using the Transition Matrix Method, a set of complexity parameters can be defined for earthquakes. Furthermore, the relationships among these parameters and those characterizing the earthquake magnitude dynamics have been analyzed in simulated and observational seismic sequences.

Finance-led divergence in the regions of Italy

The article evaluates finance-led growth as an explanation for regional divergence in Italy over the years 1890–1910. Regional banking disparities are documented and the hypothesis developed that the financial crisis of the early 1890s struck the fledgling Southern Italian banking system at a vulnerable moment, distorting its subsequent development and handicapping the region's economy. The South is revealed to have been a chronically (over the entire period) and comprehensively (on every indicator) unhealthy environment for banks. Further evidence indicates that regional divergence in bank assets was largely due to the South's failure to develop the entire range of large banks. Size-class transition matrix analysis reveals that the typical Southern bank failed to reach a large size because it was born smaller (and less frequently) than in the North, suffered a higher mortality rate, especially in the smaller classes, and had lower growth probabilities, especially in the larger categories. The salience of deposits on the liability side and government securities on the asset side suggests that they reflected more than directly caused the development of their local economies.

HOW, WHEN, AND WHERE TO PERFORM VISUAL DISPLAYS: THE CASE OF THE AMAZONIAN FROG HYLA PARVICEPS

We performed intrusion experiments and observed the course of 13 male-male agonistic interactions to gather information on the communicative role of visual signaling in the Amazonian tree frog Hyla parviceps. To obtain information on the ecological context potentially associated with visual signaling, we performed nightly censuses of calling activity and tested whether males differentially used microhabitats in relation to properties that affect both acoustic and visual communication. Among seven behaviors performed by males, two were visual displays. Foot-flagging displays and advertisement calls were used at a similar rate and at similar distances between interactants. Arm-waving displays were less common and used at a closer range than foot-flagging displays. The analysis of a dyadic transition matrix revealed that foot flagging significantly elicited foot-flagging displays by the opponent frog. Furthermore, resident males produced more arm wavings and calls than intruders, although the latter difference was not significant. We conclude that male H. parviceps respond to intruders by combining advertisement calls and visual displays, and that visual signals may serve functionally as a spacing mechanism. Comparing the properties of perches used by calling males with a random sample of available perches indicates that males prefer perches surrounded by denser and higher vegetation. Furthermore, calling activity occurred during or shortly after heavy rains and coincided with calling activity of several co-occurring species of hylid frogs, which probably decreases the locatability of calling males. We suggest that, under these conditions, the simultaneous production of auditory and visual signals may momentarily increase a sender's locatability when a conspecific receiver is detected.

Transition matrix analysis of earthquake magnitude sequences

Abstract Estimation of complexity is a fascinating research topic in nonlinear signal and system analysis. Information theoretic functionals can be used to identify and quantify general relationships among variables; these relationships can be considered as the fingerprints of complexity. Up to now, the complexity of seismic sequences has been mostly related to the concept of self-similarity, suggesting that the earthquake dynamics can be interpreted as due to many components interacting over a wide range of time or space scales. This paper deals with a new idea of complexity of seismicity, focusing, in particular, on the transition probability between magnitudes. Using the Transition Matrix Method, a set of complexity parameters can be defined for earthquakes. Furthermore, the relationships among these parameters and those characterizing the earthquake magnitude dynamics have been analyzed in simulated and observational seismic sequences.

The Role of Cloud Combing and Shading by Isolated Trees in the Succession from Maquis to Rain Forest in New Caledonia1

ABSTRACTThis study examined the role of shading and cloud combing of moisture by scattered trees of the emergent conifer Araucaria laubenfelsii (Corbass.) in montane shrubland‐maquis at Mont Do, New Caledonia, in facilitating the succession from shrubland to rain forest. Water collection experiments showed that these trees combed significant amounts of water from low clouds on days when no rainfall was recorded and deposited this moisture on the ground beneath the tree canopy. Analysis of photosystem II function in A. laubenfelsii and five other plant species using fluorometry revealed much lower photosystem stress in plants beneath scattered A. laubenfelsii than for individuals exposed to full sunlight in the open maquis. Transition matrix analyses of vegetation change based on “the most likely recruit to succeed” indicated that the transition from maquis to forest was markedly faster when emergent trees of A. laubenfelsii acted as nuclei for forest species invasion of die maquis. On the basis of these lines of evidence, it is argued that increased moisture and shading supplied to the area directly below the crown of isolated A. laubenfelsii trees in the maquis facilitates the establishment of both conifer seedlings and other rain forest tree and shrub species. In the absence of fire, rain forest can reestablish through spread in two ways: first, by expansion from remnant patches, and second, from coalescence of small rain forest patches formed around individual trees of A. laubenfelsii.

The Role of Cloud Combing and Shading by Isolated Trees in the Succession from Maquis to Rain Forest in New Caledonia1

This study examined the role of shading and cloud combing of moisture by scattered trees of the emergent conifer Araucaria laubenfelsii (Corbass.) in montane shrubland–maquis at Mont Do, New Caledonia, in facilitating the succession from shrubland to rain forest. Water collection experiments showed that these trees combed significant amounts of water from low clouds on days when no rainfall was recorded and deposited this moisture on the ground beneath the tree canopy. Analysis of photosystem II function in A. laubenfelsii and five other plant species using fluorometry revealed much lower photosystem stress in plants beneath scattered A. laubenfelsii than for individuals exposed to full sunlight in the open maquis. Transition matrix analyses of vegetation change based on “the most likely recruit to succeed” indicated that the transition from maquis to forest was markedly faster when emergent trees of A. laubenfelsii acted as nuclei for forest species invasion of the maquis. On the basis of these lines of evidence, it is argued that increased moisture and shading supplied to the area directly below the crown of isolated A. laubenfelsii trees in the maquis facilitates the establishment of both conifer seedlings and other rain forest tree and shrub species. In the absence of fire, rain forest can reestablish through spread in two ways: first, by expansion from remnant patches, and second, from coalescence of small rain forest patches formed around individual trees of A. laubenfelsii.

Searching for prosperity

Abstract Quah's [1993a] transition matrix analysis of world income distribution based on annual data suggests an ergodic distribution with twin peaks at the rich and poor end of the distribution. Since the ergodic distribution is a highly non-linear function of the underlying transition matrix, it is estimated extremely noisily. Estimates over the foreseeable future are more precise. However, the Markovian assumptions underlying the analysis are much better satisfied with an analysis based on five-year transitions than one-year transitions. Such an analysis yields an ergodic distribution with 72% of mass in the top income category, but a prolonged transition, during which some inequality measures increase. The rosy ergodic forecast and prolonged transition arise because countries' relative incomes move both up and down at moderate levels, but once countries reach the highest income category, they rarely leave it. This is consistent with a model in which countries search among policies until they reach an income level at which further experimentation is too costly. If countries can learn from each other's experience, the future may be much brighter than would be predicted based on projecting forward the historical transition matrix.

Rescaled Range and Transition Matrix Analysis of DNA Sequences**The project partially supported by China Postdoctoral Science Fundation under Grant No. 9SB632

We treat some fractal and statistical features of the DNA sequences. First, a fractal record model of DNA sequence is proposed by mapping DNA sequences to integer sequences, followed by the R/S analysis of the model and computation of the Hurst exponents. Second, we consider the transition between the four kinds of bases within DNA. The transition matrix analysis of DNA sequences shows that some measures of complexity based on transition proportion matrices are of interest. The main results are: 1) for virus. But for the species which have the shape of cell except for drosophila. 2) For virus, E. coli, yeast, drosophila, mouse and human, measure of transition proportion matrix of exon is larger than that of intron, and measures and of transition proportion matrix of intron are larger than those of exon. 3) Regarding the evolution, we End that when the species go higher in grade, the measures and of exon become larger, the measure of exon becomes less except for yeast. Hence for species of higher grade, the transition rate among the four kinds of bases deviates further from the equilibrium.

Change in the vegetation mosaic of central Arizona USA between 1940 and 1989

The landscape of central Arizona U.S.A. is characterized by a patchy distribution of three major vegetation types: chaparral, woodland and grassland. Disturbance is common in the landscape, primarily livestock grazing, fire and conversion (i.e., removal of woody plants to increase forage for livestock). The purposes of this research were to determine changes in the landscape mosaic of central Arizona between 1940 and 1989 and to predict future changes. Using aerial photographs from 1940, 1968 and 1989 and digital overlays followed by transition matrix analysis, we found that chaparral and its adjacent grassland had changed less than woodland and its grassland. However, both had nearly equal projected stabilization times. Moreover, disturbance increased time for stabilization and some results were scale-dependent.

A probability vector and transition matrix analysis of eye movements during visual search

This report describes a new method for analysing eye movement records during free viewing. The proposed new measures originate from a categorisation of saccade directions. The proportion of each categorised direction and the transition matrix of each two successive categorised directions are then calculated. These new measures are proposed as objective indicators of the strategies employed by an observer engaged in a visual search task. It is concluded that the probability vector and transition matrix analysis are particularly suitable as measures of observer strategies in relation to performance on VDU-based tasks. The relation between these measures and other measures related to search efficiency are also discussed.

移動行動の授業における精神遅滞児の数学的言語行動の解析 : Triad transition matrixの3測度(頻度;情報量;位相)による分析を通して

移動行動の授業における精神遅滞児の数学的言語行動の解析 : Triad transition matrixの3測度(頻度;情報量;位相)による分析を通して