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Regular Grid (regular + grid)
Selected AbstractsRange Scan Registration Using Reduced Deformable ModelsCOMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM, Issue 2 2009W. Chang Abstract We present an unsupervised method for registering range scans of deforming, articulated shapes. The key idea is to model the motion of the underlying object using a reduced deformable model. We use a linear skinning model for its simplicity and represent the weight functions on a regular grid localized to the surface geometry. This decouples the deformation model from the surface representation and allows us to deal with the severe occlusion and missing data that is inherent in range scan data. We formulate the registration problem using an objective function that enforces close alignment of the 3D data and includes an intuitive notion of joints. This leads to an optimization problem that we solve using an efficient EM-type algorithm. With our algorithm we obtain smooth deformations that accurately register pairs of range scans with significant motion and occlusion. The main advantages of our approach are that it does not require user specified markers, a template, nor manual segmentation of the surface geometry into rigid parts. [source] Using geostatistics to elucidate temporal change in the spatial variation of aeolian sediment transportEARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 6 2003Adrian Chappell Abstract Little is known about the spatial and temporal scales of variation in aeolian processes. Studies that aim to investigate surface erodibility often sample aeolian sediment transport at the nodes of a regular grid of arbitrary size. Few aeolian transport investigations have the resources to obtain sufficient samples to produce reliable models for mapping the spatial variation of transport. This study reports the use of an innovative nested strategy for sampling multiple spatial scales simultaneously using 40 sediment samplers. Reliable models of the spatial variation in aeolian sediment transport were produced and used for ordinary punctual kriging and stochastic simulated annealing to produce maps for several wind erosion events over a 25 km2 playa in western Queensland, Australia. The results support the existence of a highly dynamic wind erosion system that was responding to possibly cyclic variation in the availability of material and fluctuations in wind energy. The spatial scale of transport was considerably larger than the small scale expected of the factors controlling surface erodibility. Thus, it appears that transport cannot be used as a surrogate of erodibility at the scale of this investigation. Simulation maps of transport provided considerably more information than those from kriging about the variability in aeolian sediment transport and its possible controlling factors. The proposed optimal sampling strategy involves a nested approach using ca 50 samplers. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Grid-induced biases in connectivity metric implementations that use regular gridsECOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2010Adam G. Dunn Graph-theoretic connectivity analyses provide opportunities to solve problems related to the management, design and maintenance of fragmented landscapes. However, several modern connectivity metrics are implemented using algorithms that are affected by a grid-induced bias. When paths through a regular grid are calculated, distance errors are introduced into the metric outputs, with patterns based on the shape and orientation of the underlying grid structure. The bias is significant in the proposed implementations of the conditional minimum transit cost method introduced by Pinto and Keitt, and the effective resistance method introduced by McRae, Dickson, Keitt and Shah. One solution for ameliorating the bias that affects regular grids is to use an irregular lattice to represent the landscape. The purpose of this paper is to serve as a timely reminder of the grid-induced bias and to provide a demonstration of the irregular grid as a simple solution to the problem. [source] A practical grid-based method for tracking multiple refraction and reflection phases in three-dimensional heterogeneous mediaGEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2006M. De Kool SUMMARY We present a practical grid-based method in 3-D spherical coordinates for computing multiple phases comprising any number of reflection and transmission branches in heterogeneous layered media. The new scheme is based on a multistage approach which treats each layer that the wave front enters as a separate computational domain. A finite-difference eikonal solver known as the fast-marching method (FMM) is reinitialized at each interface to track the evolving wave front as either a reflection back into the incident layer or a transmission through to the adjacent layer. Unlike the standard FMM, which only finds first arrivals, this multistage approach can track those later arriving phases explicitly caused by the presence of discontinuities. Notably, the method does not require an irregular mesh to be constructed in order to connect interface nodes to neighbouring velocity nodes which lie on a regular grid. To improve accuracy, local grid refinement is used in the neighbourhood of a source point where wave front curvature is high. The method also provides a way to trace reflections from an interface that are not the first arrival (e.g. the global PP phase). These are computed by initializing the multistage FMM from both the source and receiver, propagating the two wave fronts to the reflecting interface, and finding stationary points of the sum of the two traveltime fields on the reflecting interface. A series of examples are presented to test the efficiency, accuracy and robustness of the new scheme. As well as efficiently computing various global phases to an acceptable accuracy through the ak135 model, we also demonstrate the ability of the scheme to track complex crustal phases that may be encountered in coincident reflection, wide-angle reflection/refraction or local earthquake surveys. In one example, a variety of phases are computed in the presence of a realistic subduction zone, which includes several layer pinch-outs and a subducting slab. Our numerical tests show that the new scheme is a practical and robust alternative to conventional ray tracing for finding various phases in layered media at a variety of scales. [source] The high-resolution gravimetric geoid of Iberia: IGG2005GEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2005V. Corchete SUMMARY It is well known that orthometric heights can be obtained without levelling by using ellipsoidal and geoidal heights. For engineering purposes, these orthometric heights must be determined with high accuracy. For this reason, the determination of a high-resolution geoid is necessary. In Iberia, since the publication of the most recent geoid (IBERGEO95), a new geopotential model has become available (EIGEN-CG01C, released on 2004 October 29) and a new high-resolution digital terrain model (SRTM 90M obtained from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) has been developed for the Earth. Logically, these new data represent improvements that must be included in a new geoid of Iberia. With this goal in mind, we have carried out a new gravimetric geoid determination in which these new data are included. The computation of the geoid uses the Stokes integral in convolution form, which has been shown as an efficient method to reach the proposed objective. The terrain correction has been applied to the gridded gravity anomalies to obtain the corresponding reduced anomalies. The indirect effect has also been taken into account. Thus, a new geoid is provided as grid data distributed for Iberia from 35° to 44° latitude and ,10° to 4° longitude (extending to 9°× 14°) in a 361 × 561 regular grid with a mesh size of 1.5,× 1.5, and 202 521 points in the GRS80 reference system. This calculated geoid and previous geoids that exist for this study area (IBERGEO95, EGM96, EGG97 and EIGEN-CG01C) are compared to the geoid undulations corresponding to 16 points of the European Vertical Reference Network (EUVN) on Iberia. The new geoid shows an improvement in precision and reliability, fitting the geoidal heights of these EUVN points with more accuracy than the other previous geoids. [source] A deterministic seismic hazard map of India and adjacent areasGEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2003Imtiyaz A. Parvez SUMMARY A seismic hazard map of the territory of India and adjacent areas has been prepared using a deterministic approach based on the computation of synthetic seismograms complete with all main phases. The input data set consists of structural models, seismogenic zones, focal mechanisms and earthquake catalogues. There are few probabilistic hazard maps available for the Indian subcontinent, however, this is the first study aimed at producing a deterministic seismic hazard map for the Indian region using realistic strong ground motion modelling with the knowledge of the physical process of earthquake generation, the level of seismicity and wave propagation in anelastic media. Synthetic seismograms at a frequency of 1 Hz have been generated at a regular grid of 0.2°× 0.2° by the modal summation technique. The seismic hazard, expressed in terms of maximum displacement (Dmax), maximum velocity (Vmax), and design ground acceleration (DGA), has been extracted from the synthetic signals and mapped on a regular grid over the studied territory. The estimated values of the peak ground acceleration are compared with the observed data available for the Himalayan region and are found to be in agreement. Many parts of the Himalayan region have DGA values exceeding 0.6 g. The epicentral areas of the great Assam earthquakes of 1897 and 1950 in northeast India represent the maximum hazard with DGA values reaching 1.2,1.3 g. The peak velocity and displacement in the same region is estimated as 120,177 cm s,1 and 60,90 cm, respectively. [source] Numerical estimation of REV and permeability tensor for fractured rock masses by composite element methodINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 12 2008S.-H. Chen Abstract The Monte Carlo method is used to generate parent stochastic discrete fracture network, from which a series of fractured rock samples of different sizes and orientations are extracted. The fracture network combined with a regular grid forms composite element mesh of the fractured rock sample, in which each composite element is composed of sub-elements incised by fracture segments. The composite element method (CEM) for the seepage is implemented to obtain the nodal hydraulic potential as well as the seepage flow rates through the fractured rock samples. The application of CEM enables a large quantity of stochastic tests for the fractured rock samples because the pre-process is facilitated greatly. By changing the sizes and orientations of the samples, the analysis of the seepage characteristics is realized to evaluate the variation of the permeability components, the existence of the permeability tensor and the representative element volume. The feasibility and effectiveness are illustrated in a numerical example. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] An adaptive multiresolution method for parabolic PDEs with time-step controlINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 6 2009M. O. Domingues Abstract We present an efficient adaptive numerical scheme for parabolic partial differential equations based on a finite volume (FV) discretization with explicit time discretization using embedded Runge,Kutta (RK) schemes. A multiresolution strategy allows local grid refinement while controlling the approximation error in space. The costly fluxes are evaluated on the adaptive grid only. Compact RK methods of second and third order are then used to choose automatically the new time step while controlling the approximation error in time. Non-admissible choices of the time step are avoided by limiting its variation. The implementation of the multiresolution representation uses a dynamic tree data structure, which allows memory compression and CPU time reduction. This new numerical scheme is validated using different classical test problems in one, two and three space dimensions. The gain in memory and CPU time with respect to the FV scheme on a regular grid is reported, which demonstrates the efficiency of the new method. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Trends in daily precipitation and temperature extremes across western Germany in the second half of the 20th centuryINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 9 2005Yeshewatesfa Hundecha Abstract The evolution of daily extreme precipitation and temperature from 1958 to 2001 was investigated within the German side of the Rhine basin. Trends of a set of extreme precipitation and temperature indices defined on daily time series of precipitation and temperature were calculated at 611 precipitation and 232 temperature stations located within the study area and their corresponding significances were tested using the non-parametric Kendall- tau test. The results obtained indicated that both the daily minimum and maximum extreme temperatures have increased over the investigation period, with the degree of change showing seasonal variability. On an annual basis, the change in the daily minimum extreme temperature was found to be greater than that of the daily maximum extreme temperature. The daily extreme heavy precipitation has shown increasing trends both in magnitude and frequency of occurrence in all seasons except summer, where it showed the opposite trend. The station values of the daily precipitation were also interpolated on a regular grid of 5 km × 5 km so that the changes in the indices could be investigated on areal precipitation by aggregating the interpolated precipitation to any desired scale. This enables assessment of the hydrological consequences of the changes in the extreme precipitation. Although the spatial pattern remained more or less similar with that of the point-scale trends for all indices, the average trend magnitude showed an increase with the scale of the area on which precipitation was aggregated. Copyright © 2005 Royal Meteorological Society [source] Spatial variability of sequentially extracted P fractions in a silty loamJOURNAL OF PLANT NUTRITION AND SOIL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2005Elena Heilmann Abstract Knowledge of the spatial distribution of soil P forms in agricultural fields is important for evaluating the risk of P transfer to waterways. The objective of this study was to characterize the spatial variation of total P (Pt) and sequentially extracted P forms in the Ap horizon of arable soils at the field scale. Soil samples were taken on a regular grid of 50 m × 50 m with 40 sampling points. Chemical analyses included basic soil properties, Pt, sequentially extracted P forms, and acid phosphomonoesterase activity. The spatial variability was analyzed by geostatistics and descriptive statistics. The concentrations of Pt ranged from 521 to 1020 mg,kg,1 with lower values observed for Gleysols and Stagnic Phaeozems and higher values for Luvisols and Cambisols. For the sequentially extracted P fractions, the largest coefficients of variation (c.v.) were found for NaHCO3 -Po (41%), NaHCO3 -Pi (36%), NaOH-Po (34%), and resin-P (33%). Despite this great spatial variability, no spatial dependence could be proved by geostatistics because the calculated range of P forms (<10 m) was below the smallest sampling distance (50 m). A clear trend of increasing concentrations and proportions of organic NaHCO3 - and NaOH-P fractions and phosphomonoesterase activity towards lower slope positions and the discharging brook indicated that Gleysols were a particular source of P losses to waterways in this catchment. It was concluded that these soils require a specific management with reduced P inputs and, perhaps, chemical treatment to fix leachable P. Räumliche Variabilität sequenziell extrahierter P-Fraktionen in einem Schlufflehm Kenntnisse über die räumliche Verteilung der P-Formen in landwirtschaftlichen Flächen sind notwendig für die Abschätzung des Risikos von P-Austrägen. Gegenstand dieser Untersuchung war die räumliche Verteilung von Gesamt-P (Pt) und P-Formen im Ap-Horizont von landwirtschaftlich genutzten Böden im Feldmaßstab. Dazu wurden Proben auf einem Raster von 50 m × 50 m an 40 Punkten entnommen. Die chemischen Analysen umfassten Grundeigenschaften sowie Pt, sequenziell extrahierte P-Formen und die Aktivität der sauren Phosphomonoesterase. Die räumliche Variabilität wurde mit räumlicher und deskriptiver Statistik untersucht. Die Pt -Gehalte lagen im Bereich von 521 bis 1020 mg,kg,1, wobei Gleye und Pseudogleye die niedrigsten Werte hatten. Bei den sequenziell extrahierten P-Fraktionen wurden die größten Variationskoeffizienten für NaHCO3 -Po (41%), NaHCO3 -Pi (36 %), NaOH-Po (34 %) und Harz-P (33 %) festgestellt. Trotz dieser großen räumlichen Variabilität konnte mit Geostatistik keine räumliche Abhängigkeit nachgewiesen werden, möglicherweise weil die geschätzte Reichweite der P-Formen mit <10 m unterhalb der kleinsten Beprobungsdistanz von 50 m lag. Deutliche gerichtete Trends steigender Gehalte und Anteile organischer NaHCO3 - und NaOH-P-Fraktionen und Phosphomonoesterase-Aktivitäten hin zu niedrigeren Geländepositionen und zur Nachbarschaft zu dem entwässernden Bach deuteten darauf hin, dass insbesondere Gleye eine Quelle der P-Einträge in Oberflächengewässer des Einzugsgebietes sein können. Es ergibt sich daher die Schlussfolgerung, dass diese Böden einer teilschlagspezifischen Bewirtschaftung mit reduzierten P-Zufuhren und eventuell P-fixierenden Behandlungen bedürfen. [source] Technical note: A stereological analysis of the cross-sectional variability of the femoral osteon populationAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2010Chiara Villa Abstract Unbiased selection of regions of interest (ROIs) and unbiased definition of histological structures are needed to improve the repeatability of microscopic methods for age at death determination and to reduce operator subjectivity. We present results obtained by selecting ROIs according to stereological principles on a sample of 28 femoral cross sections of Caucasoid males aged 20,89 years. A regular grid was overlaid on the cross section, and the ROIs were selected as close as possible to the periosteum in the anterior, lateral, and medial regions. The areas consisting of all intact secondary osteons plus fragments were outlined and osteon population density, percent osteon population, area, and perimeter were calculated using stereological methods and software. Overall, the analyses of intra- and inter-section variability showed no significant difference between the ROIs, i.e., the location within the cross section of the ROIs does not affect the outcome of the analyses. The individual variability was found to be higher in adults aged 30,55 years than in other age ranges. ranges. Am J Phys Anthropol 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Testing for Spatial Correlation in Nonstationary Binary Data, with Application to Aberrant Crypt Foci in Colon CarcinogenesisBIOMETRICS, Issue 4 2003Tatiyana V. Apanasovich Summary. In an experiment to understand colon carcinogenesis, all animals were exposed to a carcinogen, with half the animals also being exposed to radiation. Spatially, we measured the existence of what are referred to as aberrant crypt foci (ACF), namely, morphologically changed colonic crypts that are known to be precursors of colon cancer development. The biological question of interest is whether the locations of these ACFs are spatially correlated: if so, this indicates that damage to the colon due to carcinogens and radiation is localized. Statistically, the data take the form of binary outcomes (corresponding to the existence of an ACF) on a regular grid. We develop score-type methods based upon the Matern and conditionally autoregressive (CAR) correlation models to test for the spatial correlation in such data, while allowing for nonstationarity. Because of a technical peculiarity of the score-type test, we also develop robust versions of the method. The methods are compared to a generalization of Moran's test for continuous outcomes, and are shown via simulation to have the potential for increased power. When applied to our data, the methods indicate the existence of spatial correlation, and hence indicate localization of damage. [source] Spectral color reproduction minimizing spectral and perceptual color differencesCOLOR RESEARCH & APPLICATION, Issue 6 2008Jérémie Gerhardt Abstract In this article, we are combining minimization criteria in the colorant separation process for spectral color reproduction. The colorant separation is performed by inverting a spectral printer model: the spectral Yule-Nielsen modified Neugebauer model. The inversion of the spectral printer model is an optimization operation in which a criterion is minimized at each iteration. The approach we proposed minimizes a criterion defined by the weighted sum of a spectral difference and a perceptual color difference. The weights can be tuned with a parameter , , [0, 1]. Our goal is to decrease the spectral difference between the original data and its reproduction and also to consider perceptual color difference under different illuminant conditions. In order to find the best , value, we initially compare a pure colorimetric criterion and a pure spectral criterion for the reproduction, then we combine them. We perform four colorant separations: the first separation will minimize the 1976 CIELAB color difference where four illuminants are tested, the second separation will minimize an equally weighted summation of 1976 CIELAB color difference with the four illuminants tested independently, the third colorant separation will minimize a spectral difference, and the fourth colorant separation will combine a weighted sum of a spectral difference and one of the two first colorimetric differences previously introduced. This last colorant separation can be tuned with a parameter in order to emphasize on spectral or colorimetric difference. We use a six colorants printer with artificial inks for our experiments. The prints are simulated by the spectral Yule-Nielsen modified Neugebauer model. Two groups of data are used for our experiments. The first group describes the data printed by our printing system, which is represented by a regular grid in colorant space of the printer and the second group describes the data which is not originally produced by our printing system but mapped to the spectral printer gamut. The Esser test chart and the Macbeth Color Checker test chart have been selected for the second group. Spectral gamut mapping of this data is carried out before performing colorant separation. Our results show improvement for the colorant separations combining a sum of 1976 CIELAB color difference for a set of illuminants and for the colorant separation combining a sum of 1976 CIELAB color difference and spectral difference, especially in the case of spectral data originally produced by the printer. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 33, 494,504, 2008 [source] Influence of reed stem density on foredune developmentEARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 11 2001S. M. Arens Abstract Vegetation density on foredunes exerts an important control on aeolian sediment transport and deposition, and therefore on profile development. In a long-term monitoring field experiment, three plots were planted with regular grids of reed bundles in three different densities: 4, 2 and 1 bundles per m2. This study reports on the differences in profile development under the range of vegetation densities. Topographic profiles were measured between May 1996 and April 1997. Results indicate important differences in profile development for the three reed bundle densities: in the highest density plot a distinct, steep dune developed, while in the lowest density a more gradual and smooth sand ramp was deposited. When the stems had been completely buried, differences in profile evolution vanished. After a second planting of reed stems in January 1997 the process was repeated. In May 1997, all plots had gained a sand volume ranging from 11·5 to 12·3 m3 m,1, indicating that the sediment budget is relatively constant, regardless of the particular profile evolution. The field evidence is compared with simulations of profile development, generated by the foredune development model SAFE. The model successfully reproduces the overall profile development, but in general, the equations used for vegetation,transport interaction overestimate the effect of vegetation. This causes some deviations between field and model results. Several reasons for this are discussed. Based on the experiments reported here, recommendations are given for further research. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Grid-induced biases in connectivity metric implementations that use regular gridsECOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2010Adam G. Dunn Graph-theoretic connectivity analyses provide opportunities to solve problems related to the management, design and maintenance of fragmented landscapes. However, several modern connectivity metrics are implemented using algorithms that are affected by a grid-induced bias. When paths through a regular grid are calculated, distance errors are introduced into the metric outputs, with patterns based on the shape and orientation of the underlying grid structure. The bias is significant in the proposed implementations of the conditional minimum transit cost method introduced by Pinto and Keitt, and the effective resistance method introduced by McRae, Dickson, Keitt and Shah. One solution for ameliorating the bias that affects regular grids is to use an irregular lattice to represent the landscape. The purpose of this paper is to serve as a timely reminder of the grid-induced bias and to provide a demonstration of the irregular grid as a simple solution to the problem. [source] Evaluation of three unstructured multigrid methods on 3D finite element problems in solid mechanics,INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 5 2002Mark Adams Abstract Multigrid has been a popular solver method for finite element and finite difference problems with regular grids for over 20 years. The application of multigrid to unstructured grid problems, in which it is often difficult or impossible for the application to provide coarse grids, is not as well understood. In particular, methods that are designed to require only data that are easily available in most finite element applications (i.e. fine grid data), constructing the grid transfer operators and coarse grid operators internally, are of practical interest. We investigate three unstructured multigrid methods that show promise for challenging problems in 3D elasticity: (1) non-nested geometric multigrid, (2) smoothed aggregation, and (3) plain aggregation algebraic multigrid. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of these three methods on several unstructured grid problems in 3D elasticity with up to 76 million degrees of freedom. Published in 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Finite volume method with zonal-embedded grids for cylindrical coordinatesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN FLUIDS, Issue 3 2006Yong Kweon Suh Abstract A zonal-embedded-grid technique has been developed for computation of the two-dimensional Navier,Stokes equations with cylindrical coordinates. As is well known, the conventional regular grid system gives very small grid spacings in the azimuthal direction so it requires a very small time step for a stable numerical solution when the explicit method is used. The fundamental idea of the zonal-embedded-grid technique is that the number of azimuthal grids can be made small near the origin of the coordinates so that the grid size is more uniformly distributed over the domain than with the conventional regular-grid system. The code developed using this technique combined with the explicit, finite-volume method was then applied to calculation of the asymmetric swirl flows and Lamb's multi-polar vortex flows within a full circle and the spin-up flows within a semi-circle. It was shown that the zonal-embedded grids allow a time step far larger than the conventional regular grids. For the case of the Lamb's multi-polar vortex flows, the code was validated by comparing the calculated results with the exact solutions. For the case of the semi-circle spin-up flows, the experimental results were used for the verification. It was seen that the numerical results were in good agreement with the experimental results both qualitatively and quantitatively. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The design of improved smoothing operators for finite volume flow solvers on unstructured meshesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN FLUIDS, Issue 8 2001Benjamin de Foy Abstract Spatial operators used in unstructured finite volume flow solvers are analysed for accuracy using Taylor series expansion and Fourier analysis. While approaching second-order accuracy on very regular grids, operators in common use are shown to have errors resulting in accuracy of only first-, zeroth- or even negative-order on three-dimensional tetrahedral meshes. A technique using least-squares optimization is developed to design improved operators on arbitrary meshes. This is applied to the fourth-order edge sum smoothing operator. The improved numerical dissipation leads to a much more accurate prediction of the Strouhal number for two-dimensional flow around a cylinder and a reduction of a factor of three in the loss coefficient for inviscid flow over a three-dimensional hump. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Spatial distribution of populations of solitarious adult desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria Forsk.) on the coastal plain of SudanAGRICULTURAL AND FOREST ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 3 2004Gebremedhin Woldewahid Abstract 1,Densities of solitarious adult desert locusts were measured on regular grids of up to 126 sample sites in the southern part of the coastal plain of Sudan during the winters of 1999/2000 and 2000/2001. Geostatistical procedures were used to characterize spatial dependence of locust density, to evaluate the possibility of estimating locust densities at unvisited sites, based on information obtained at surveyed sites, and to create density maps. 2,Sample variograms indicate that population densities were spatially correlated over ranges from 5 to 24 km. The range of spatial correlation decreased as dry conditions towards the end of the rainy season concentrated the locusts in contracting areas of sufficient humidity and availability of green vegetation. The rather small ranges of spatial correlation indicate that sampling needs to be conducted at a refined scale (< 24 km between sample points) to avoid missing hot spots of desert locust. 3,Locust densities were highly correlated with cover abundance of the wild plant Heliotropium arbainense and cultivated millet, Pennisetum typhoidum. The association of locusts with these host plants can be used to target sampling and enhance detection chance. 4,The relationship between sampling intensity and kriging variance was explored. Implications for monitoring of desert locust are discussed. [source] A new class of stabilized mesh-free finite elements for the approximation of the Stokes problemNUMERICAL METHODS FOR PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS, Issue 5 2004V. V. K. Srinivas Kumar Abstract Previously, we solved the Stokes problem using a new linear - constant stabilized mesh-free finite element based on linear Weighted Extended B - splines (WEB-splines) as shape functions for the velocity approximation and constant extended B-splines for the pressure (Kumar et al., 2002). In this article we derive another linear-constant element that uses the Haar wavelets for the pressure approximation and a quadratic - linear element that uses quadrilateral bubble functions for the enrichment of the velocity approximation space. The inf-sup condition or Ladyshenskaya-Babus,ka-Brezzi (LBB) condition is verified for both the elements. The main advantage of these new elements over standard finite elements is that they use regular grids instead of irregular partitions of domain, thus eliminating the difficult and time consuming pre-processing step. Convergence and condition number estimates are derived. Numerical experiments in two space dimensions confirm the theoretical predictions. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2004. [source] |