1,722,974 research outputs found

    Advanced GPR data processing algorithms for detection of anti-personnel landmines

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    Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is seen as one of several promising technologies aimed to help mine detection. GPR is sensitive to any inhomogeneity in the ground. Therefore any APM regardless of the metal content can be detected. On the other hand, all the inhomogeneities, which do not represent mines, show up as a clutter in GPR images. Moreover, it is known that reflectivity of APM is often weaker than that of stones, pieces of shrapnel and barbed wire, etc. Altogether these factors cause GPR to produce unacceptably high false alarm rate whilst it reaches the 99.6% detection rate which is prescribed by an UN resolution as a standard for humanitarian demining. The main goal of the work presented in the thesis is reduction of the false alarm rate while keeping the 99.6% detection rate intact. To reach this goal a set of data processing algorithms is developed and organized into an unsupervised target detection scheme. These algorithms are dedicated to clutter suppression and simultaneous detection of APM signatures in both GPR raw data and images resulting from them. The developed algorithms constitute together the following achievements: - An unsupervised generalized likelihood ratio test-based feature fusion framework; - A waveform based target detection/clutter suppression; - Advanced methods for construction of GPR maps The unsupervised generalized likelihood ratio test based feature fusion framework, which has been suggested in this thesis, takes as input an arbitrary amount of confidence maps corresponding to training and testing sites. The output of the framework is a list of target locations. The framework uses training data which can come from independent and non-coincident measurements with different radars and even sensors. The data from each of the sensors are processed independently to result in several detection lists. Every detection in these lists is accompanied with one or several features each represented by a scalar number. A decision level fusion is applied to reconcile the lists i.e. to associate the detections in them with the appropriate physical locations. Then the binary hypothesis testing is executed for the reconciled locations separating them on clutter and target lists. The generalized likelihood ratio test is employed to this end. The feature pre-normalization via Johnson's transform in suggested by the author to be used prior the testing. It is shown in the thesis that such approach outperforms the direct generalized likelihood ratio testing ad. hoc. based fusion techniques. The waveform based target detection/clutter suppression algorithm, which detects disc-shaped APM in heavy clutter with low false alarm rate, has been developed by the author. The algorithm detects a class of low-metal APM with a cylindrical shape (such as PMN2, M14, and NR22 etc.) using just a single reference target return. It suppresses clutter responses from friendly objects while marking the presence of targets with sharp monopulses and preserving the spatial pattern inherent to localized objects. The algorithm is insensitive to the reflectivity and physical diameter of the target and also tolerates certain volatility in the properties of the hosting soil. This algorithm is superimposed with a focusing technique to further improve the mine detectability. A number of improved projection techniques, which allow better detection of APM in focused GPR images is also developed by the author. These utilize the prior knowledge on the character of the spatial correlation properties of target images and allow detection of the burial depth of the target. The algorithms suggested in the thesis were tested on the data acquired during two separate measurement campaigns held at the special facilities for testing of mine detection systems. It has been shown, that the fused multi-feature detection that uses the algorithms reported in this thesis, significantly decreases the false alarm rate in comparison to the previously published studies for the same minefields.Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods

    Author Index

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    Fig. 5 in Nematodes Of The Genus Trichuris (Nematoda, Trichuridae), Parasitizing Sheep In Central And South-Eastern Regions Of Ukraine

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    Fig. 5. Vulval area of ♀ Т. globulosa (a); Т. оvis (b); T. skrjabini (c); ×100, ×400.Published as part of Yevstafieva, V. A., Yuskiv, I. D., Melnychuk, V. V., Yasnolob, I. O., Kovalenko, V. A. & Horb, K. O., 2018, Nematodes Of The Genus Trichuris (Nematoda, Trichuridae), Parasitizing Sheep In Central And South-Eastern Regions Of Ukraine, pp. 193-204 in Vestnik Zoologii 52 (3) on page 196, DOI: 10.2478/vzoo-2018-0020, http://zenodo.org/record/645466

    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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