Search results for " Forest"
showing 10 items of 1940 documents
Global Estimation of Biophysical Variables from Google Earth Engine Platform
2018
This paper proposes a processing chain for the derivation of global Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR), Fraction Vegetation Cover (FVC), and Canopy water content (CWC) maps from 15-years of MODIS data exploiting the capabilities of the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform. The retrieval chain is based on a hybrid method inverting the PROSAIL radiative transfer model (RTM) with Random forests (RF) regression. A major feature of this work is the implementation of a retrieval chain exploiting the GEE capabilities using global and climate data records (CDR) of both MODIS surface reflectance and LAI/FAPAR datasets allowing the global estim…
Performance Dissimilarities in European Union Manufacturing: The Effect of Ownership and Technological Intensity
2021
Our paper addresses the relevance of a set of continuous and categorical variables that describe industry characteristics to differences in performance between foreign versus locally owned companies in industries with dissimilar levels of technological intensity. Including data on manufacturing sector performance from 20 European Union member countries and covering the 2009–2016 period, we used the random forests methodology to identify the best predictors of EU manufacturing industries’ a priori classification based on two main attributes: ownership (foreign versus local) and technological intensity. We found that EU foreign-owned businesses dominate locally owned ones in terms of size, wh…
Application of selected methods of black box for modelling the settleability process in wastewater treatment plant
2017
The paper described how the results of measurement s of inflow wastewater temperature in the chamber, a degree of external and internal recirculation in the biological-mechanical wastewater treatment plan t (WWTP) in Cedzyna near Kielce, Poland, were used to make predictions of settleability of activated sludge. Three methods,namely: multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), random forests (RF) and modified random forests (RF+ SOM) were employed to compute activated sludge settleability. The results of analysis indicate that modified random forests demonstrate the best predictive abilities.
Application of selected supervised classification methods to bank marketing campaign
2016
Supervised classification covers a number of data mining methods based on training data. These methods have been successfully applied to solve multi-criteria complex classification problems in many domains, including economical issues. In this paper we discuss features of some supervised classification methods based on decision trees and apply them to the direct marketing campaigns data of a Portuguese banking institution. We discuss and compare the following classification methods: decision trees, bagging, boosting, and random forests. A classification problem in our approach is defined in a scenario where a bank’s clients make decisions about the activation of their deposits. The obtained…
ENSEMBLE METHODS FOR RANKING DATA
2017
The last years have seen a remarkable flowering of works about the use of decision trees for ranking data. As a matter of fact, decision trees are useful and intuitive, but they are very unstable: small perturbations bring big changes. This is the reason why it could be necessary to use more stable procedures, as ensemble methods, in order to find which predictors are able to explain the preference structure. In this work ensemble methods as BAGGING and Random Forest are proposed, from both a theoretical and computational point of view, for deriving classification trees when ranking data are observed. The advantages of these procedures are shown through an example on the SUSHI data set.
Questing abundance of adult taiga ticks Ixodes persulcatus and their Borrelia prevalence at the north-western part of their distribution
2020
Background Because ixodid ticks are vectors of zoonotic pathogens, including Borrelia, information of their abundance, seasonal variation in questing behaviour and pathogen prevalence is important for human health. As ticks are invading new areas northwards, information from these new areas are needed. Taiga tick (Ixodes persulcatus) populations have been recently found at Bothnian Bay, Finland. We assessed seasonal variation in questing abundance of ticks and their pathogen prevalence in coastal deciduous forests near the city of Oulu (latitudes 64–65°) in 2019. Methods We sampled ticks from May until September by cloth dragging 100 meters once a month at eight study sites. We calculated a…
Balancing food, activity and the dangers of sunlit nights
2019
Living in northern latitudes poses challenges to the animals that live in those habitats. The harsh environment provides a short breeding season where the sunlit summer nights provide little reprieve from visibility to predators and increased risk. In this paper, we tested the activity and food choice patterns of bank voles Myodes glareolus in early spring season, categorized by 18 h of daylight and 6 h of dusk in every day cycle. We found that territorial females showed a less predictable pattern of activity than males that were most active during the hours of dusk. The voles also showed preference to forage on high carbohydrate foods at sunset, while switching over to a more protein and f…
STUDY CONCERNING FOREST ECOLOGIC RECONSTRUCTIUON ON DEGRADED LAND IN RANGE OCOLUL SILVIC “VALEA CIBINULUI”, SALISTE, ROMANIA
2014
The study examines the stationary conditions, determine solutions to improve degraded land, assessing the cost of ecological restoration work needed in the area of improving degraded lands at Rapa - Copăcel, estimated benefits of the project and its viability. Objectives of the paper: need to introduce in the circuit of productive forest lands within the improvement of the area "La Rapa - Copăcel" danger zone where activation of the phenomena of degradation (erosion , landslides ) predominate. Out of 102.33 ha as area for improvement, the effective area of 101.6 ha is forested, representing a difference of 0.73 ha, 1.2 m wide strip that is to be the place for hedges. Viability of the projec…
Longhorn beetles of the Ficuzza woods (W Sicily, Italy) and their relationship with plant diversity (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae
2010
The woods in Sicily are the result of centuries of anthropogenic activities that have reduced the surface of wood and changed the original composition even with the introduction of alien species to native flora. The value in terms of biodiversity of these forests remains, however, high for they are the last refuge areas for many animals and plant species. This study was conducted within the Ficuzza woods (West Sicily), extended about 5,000 hectares on the slopes of limestone-dolomite rock of Busambra (1615 m asl), within which lies the largest remaining forest area in western Sicily. It is an area with a wide diversity of vegetation, represented mainly by native forests (holm oak, cork oak,…
Rimboschimento e recupero di soprassuoli forestali artificiali degradati: due aspetti fondamentali per la salvaguardia del territorio montano - Refor…
2015
I fenomeni di dissesto del territorio che in questi ultimi anni sembrano acutizzarsi e recare ferite profonde in tutto il Paese, se da un lato sono quasi endemici data la morfologia e la natura dei terreni, certamente dall'altro sono frutto della mancanza di gestione pianificata e programmatica dell'uso del territorio. Ad esse si unisce il profondo mutamento del tessuto sociale e il conseguente abbandono di molte aree agricole e forestali divenute marginali all'attività economica, cui non ha fatto fronte una politica di salvaguardia del territorio efficace e duratura. Ai problemi di stabilità del territorio montano e collinare, spesso originati da inadeguate attività umane, si è fatto front…