178 research outputs found
Ecuador Flash Flood Susceptibility Index (FFSI) based on catchment hypsometry, drainage and surface characteristics
No full textThe flash-flood susceptibility index (FFSI) represents the relative potential of Ecuador catchments to generate a flash flood when significant local rainfall occurs. The FFSI is calculated for each HydroSHEDS level 12 catchment units (Lehner et al. 2008, Yamazaki et al. 2014) of Ecuador, using a weighted mean of 7 commonly used flash flood drivers related to the hypsometry, drainage network, and surface properties of catchments.
- Hypsometry characteristics : 1-catchment mean slope and 2- mean curvature. Derived from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 90 m Digital Elevation Model (DEM) v4.1 (Jarvis et al. 2008), and cleaned using the Zevenbergen and Thorne (1987) 2nd-degree polynomial adjustment algorithm.
- Drainage network characteristics : 1- Upslope contributing area of a basin, 2- Cumulative drainage density and 3- mean drainage strahler order. Extracted from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) HydroSHEDS v1 global data, at a resolution of 15 arc-seconds, level-12 hydrological basins (Lehner et al. 2008, Yamazaki et al. 2014) and river routing networks (Lehner and Grill 2013).
- Surface properties: 1- mean Land Use Land Cover (LULC) Index calculated from Copernicus Global Land Operation products (Buchhorn et al., 2020) and 2- the mean ISRIC SoilGrid Sand Fraction to account for the infiltration potential of soils (Hengl et al. 2017).
The weights of each indicators have been estimated from PCA analysis after normalization of the indicators For more details on the methods, see Kruczkiewicz et al. 2021.
The final normalized FFSI results is available, as well as the discretized FFSI into an index (1-10) computed for this case study using a rule-based approach specific to the context of Ecuador and the normalized FFSI spatial distribution.
The data are downloadable as ESRI Shapefile format. For each of the 1903 HydroSHED (level12) catchment of Ecuador, it contains the HydroSHED unique ID field, the 7 raw indicators, the final normalized FFSI and the reclassified FFSI (1-10).This research was funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, grant number 80NSSC18K0342 and 80NSSC18K1693.
Kruczkiewicz, A., Bucherie, A., Ayala, F., Hultquist, C., Vergara, H., Mason, S., … de Sherbinin, A. (2021). Development of a flash flood confidence index from disaster reports and geophysical susceptibility. Remote Sensing, 13(14). https://doi.org/10.3390/rs1314276
Smooth Stream Surfaces of Fourth Order Precision
No full textWe introduce a novel technique for the construction of smooth stream surfaces of 4th order precision. While common stream surface techniques use linear interpolation for generating seed points for new streamlines in the refinement phase, we use Hermite interpolation. The derivatives needed for Hermite interpolation are obtained by integration along the streamlines. This yields stream surfaces of 4th order precision. Additionally, we analyse the accuracy of the well known Hultquist approach and our new algorithm and proof that Hultquist s method is exact for linear vector fields. We compare both methods using the well known distance based and a novel error based refinement strategy. Our resulting surface is C1-continuous, enabling improved rendering among other benefits.Computer Graphics Forum28
An Adjectival Interface for Procedural Content Generation
No full textThis paper presents a novel interface for generating procedural models, textures, and other content, motivated by the need for interfaces that are simpler to understand and more rapidly utilize. Instead of directly manipulating procedural parameters, users specify adjectives that describe the content to be generated. By making use of a training corpus and semantic information from the WordNet database, our system is able to map from the set of all possible descriptions, adjective space, to the set of all combinations of procedural parameters, parameter space. This is achieved through a modification to radial basis function networks, and the application of particle swarm optimization to search for suitable solutions. By testing with three very different procedural generation systems, we demonstrate the wide applicability of this approach. Our results show that non-technical users not only prefer an adjectival interface to one offering direct control over the procedural parameters, but also produce content that more closely matches a given target
Why copper may be able to corrode in pure water
No full textIn exposure of copper to water molecules there will be relatively strong bonds (reversible traps) between copper and hydrogen. One copper-hydrogen bond corresponds to the thermal energy of a temperature of approximately 250 degrees C and this explains an unusual temperature influence on hydrogen uptake in the metal and in corrosion of copper in pure water-vapour without O-2. This unusual temperature influence is exemplified in exposure of copper at 180 degrees C and 500 degrees C where Cu corrodes more at 180 degrees C than at 500 degrees C.</p
Efficacy and safety of budesonide/formoterol single inhaler therapy versus a higher dose of budesonide in moderate to severe asthma
No full textObjectives:This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of a novel asthma management strategy - budesonide/formoterol for both maintenance and symptom relief (Symbicort Single Inhaler Therapy*) - compared with a higher maintenance dose of budesonide in patients with moderate to severe asthma. Methods:This was a 12-month, randomised, double-blind, parallel-group study. Symptomatic patients with asthma (n = 1890; mean age 43 years [range 11 years-80 years], mean baseline forced expiratory volume in 1 s [FEV1] 70% of predicted, mean inhaled corticosteroid [ICS] dose 746mug/day) received either budesonide (160mug, 2 inhalations twice daily) plus terbutaline 0.4 mg as needed or a daily maintenance dose of budesonide/formoterol (160/4.5 mug, 2 inhalations once daily) with additional inhalations of budesonide/formoterol 160/4.5 mug as needed. Time to first severe exacerbation (hospitalisation/emergency room [ER] treatment or systemic steroids due to asthma worsening or a fall in morning peak expiratory flow [PEF] to less than or equal to 70% of baseline on 2 consecutive days) was the primary outcome variable. Results: A total of 1890 patients were randomised, of whom 1563 (83%) had severe asthma. The time to first severe exacerbation was prolonged by budesonide/formoterol single inhaler therapy (p <0.001) compared with a higher dose of budesonide. The risk of having a severe exacerbation was 39% lower with budesonide/formoterol single inhaler therapy compared with budesonide (p <0.001). The number needed to treat to prevent one severe exacerbation per year with budesonide/formoterol compared with budesonide was 5. The budesonide/formoterol group had 45% fewer severe exacerbations requiring medical intervention per patient compared with the budesonide group (p <0.001). Budesonide/formoterol patients had fewer hospitalisations/ER treatments (15 vs 25 events, respectively [descriptive statistics]) and fewer treatment days with systemic steroids (1776 days vs 3177 days, respectively [descriptive statistics]) compared with budesonide patients. Budesonide/formoterol single inhaler therapy patients used less as-needed medication compared with budesonide patients (0.90 vs 1.42 inhalations/day; p <0.001). The mean daily ICS dose was lower in the budesonide/formoterol group than in the budesonide group (466 mug/day vs 640 mug/day). Over the 12-month study period, the budesonide/formoterol group achieved asthma control sufficient to not require any additional as-needed medication on 60% of days. Overall, budesonide/formoterol single inhaler therapy gave 31 more asthma control days (a night and day with no asthma symptoms and no as-needed medication use) per patient-year and 12 additional undisturbed nights per patient-year compared with a higher dose of budesonide. Both treatments were well tolerated. Conclusion: Budesonide/formoterol single inhaler therapy has the potential to provide a complete asthma management approach with one inhaler, demonstrating a high level of efficacy in patients with moderate to severe asthma
Appendix C to GRRIEn analysis: a data science cheat sheet for earth scientists learning from global earth observations
No full text<p>These two jupyter notebooks are intended to introduce the reader to methods for managing feature and observation dependence in spatiotemporal data, and represent Supplemental Appendix C to the following manuscript:</p>
<p>Carter, E., Hultquist, C., Wen. T. GRRIEn analysis: a data-science cheat sheet for earth scientists interested in working at large spatial scalls.</p>
<p>Please cite this manuscript, and all contributors detailed within, when adapting this code in any form.</p>
<p>Both documents were initially developed for CEE/EAR 609: Environmental Data Science at Syracuse University. All assignments for CEE/EAR 609 are available at https://github.com/LizCarter492/EnvDatSci22 </p>
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Flavin reductase: Structural studies and tissue distribution.
No full textFlavin reductase is a soluble enzyme that catalyzes electron transfer from pyridine nucleotides to flavins and a variety of other electron acceptors including methylene blue, 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol, and pyrroloquinoline quinone. This catalysis is the basis of the therapeutic use of riboflavin and methylene blue in the treatment of congenital and acquired methemoglobinemia. Although a clinical role of flavin reductase has been established, the physiological role of the enzyme is not known. To obtain a better understanding of the structure and function of flavin reductase, studies were undertaken to determine its primary structure and tissue distribution. The protein component of bovine erythrocyte flavin reductase was found to be identical to that of bovine erythrocyte green heme-binding protein based on amino acid analysis and N-terminal amino acid sequence analysis. Moreover, the two proteins were immunochemically cross-reactive and were indistinguishable when compared by sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and by immuno-double diffusion. Flavin reductase was immunochemically detected in the soluble fractions of bovine, rat, rabbit and human erythrocytes, in cytosolic fractions of bovine, rat and rabbit liver, and in cytosolic fractions of rat and rabbit heart. By immunoblot analysis, the concentration of flavin reductase in bovine erythrocyte was estimated to be 10 M. Two peptides derived from a partial acid hydrolysis of bovine erythrocyte flavin reductase, and three peptides derived from a Lys-C digest were isolated and partially or completely sequenced. Degenerate oligonucleotides, based on amino acid sequences of erythrocyte reductase peptides, were used as primers in PCR to selectively amplify a partial cDNA that encodes the reductase. A PCR product was used as a specific probe to screen a bovine liver cDNA library. The sequence determined from two overlapping clones contains an open reading frame of 621 nucleotides and encodes 206 amino acids. The amino acid sequence deduced from the bovine liver flavin reductase cDNA matches the amino acid sequences determined for erythrocyte reductase-derived peptides, and the predicted molecular mass of 22,001 daltons for the liver reductase agrees well with the molecular mass of 21,994 daltons determined for the erythrocyte reductase by electrospray mass spectrometry. The amino acid sequence at the N-terminus of the reductase has homology to sequences of pyridine nucleotide-dependent enzymes, and the predicted secondary structure, , resembles the common nucleotide-binding structural motif. RNA blot analysis detected a single 1-kilobase reductase transcript in human heart, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas, placenta and skeletal muscle, indicating that flavin reductase is expressed in a wide variety of tissues.PhDBiological ChemistryUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/103831/1/9409788.pdfDescription of 9409788.pdf : Restricted to UM users only
Minimal Sufficient Statistics for Incomplete Block Designs With Interaction Under an Eisenhart Model III
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to derive minimal sufficient statistics for the balanced incomplete block design and the group divisible partially balanced incomplete block design when the Eisenhart Model III (mixed model) is assumed. The results are identical to Hultquist and Graybill\u27s (1965) and Hirotsu\u27s (1965) for the same model without interaction, except for the addition of a statistic, ∑ijY2ij•
Bringing order to the passions: Eliza Haywood’s fiction, 1719 and 1748
No full textThe conversation surrounding the importance, significance, and use of the passions reached a kind of fevered pitch in the eighteenth century, the supposed Age of Reason. By the early eighteenth century, the passions were generally understood as something to be governed by reason. Another philosophy of thought on controlling the passions existed: ordering the emotions through emotional organization rather than “reasonable” control. The work of Eliza Haywood—a prolific eighteenth-century author, actress, playwright, translator, and publisher—is a particularly fertile place to examine feeling in fictional form. Haywood provides a different framework for understanding the passions—that the passions themselves, rather than reason, bring order to the passions. This understanding of the passions places reason and feeling in slightly different terms, terms that are far less hierarchical than has been assumed. This chapter argues that Eliza Haywood’s discussions of emotion in her fiction theorizes a particular mode of ordering the passions, not through reason, but through emotion, a dialogue that is in conversation with the sustained emotional discourse of how to shape emotion in the eighteenth century
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