Search results for " difference"

Landsat TM/ETM+ and tree-ring based assessment of spatiotemporal patterns of the autumnal moth (Epirrita autumnata) in northernmost Fennoscandia

2010

Abstract We used fine-spatial resolution remotely sensed data combined with tree-ring parameters in order to assess and reconstruct disturbances in mountain birch ( Betula pubescens ) forests caused by Epirrita autumnata (autumnal moth). Research was conducted in the area of Lake Tornetrask in northern Sweden where we utilized five proxy parameters to detect insect outbreak events over the 19th and 20th centuries. Digital change detection was applied on three pairs of multi-temporal NDVI images from Landsat TM/ETM+ to detect significant reductions in the photosynthetic activity of forested areas during disturbed growing seasons. An image segmentation gap-fill procedure was developed in orde…

Observation of an Excited $B^{\pm}_c$ Meson State with the ATLAS Detector

2014

A search for excited states of the B±c meson is performed using 4.9 fb-1 of 7 TeV and 19.2 fb-1 of 8 TeV pp collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. A new state is observed through its hadronic transition to the ground state, with the latter detected in the decay B±c→J/ψπ±. The state appears in the m(Bc±π+π-)-m(Bc±)-2m(π±) mass difference distribution with a significance of 5.2 standard deviations. The mass of the observed state is 6842±4±5 MeV, where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. The mass and decay of this state are consistent with expectations for the second S-wave state of the B±c meson, B±c(2S).

Influence of culture on consumer behavior in the fashion industry

2014

Masteroppgave i økonomi og administrasjon – Universitetet i Agder 2014 Wearing clothes is one of the main factors that differentiate us from animals. Human beings began wearing clothes more than 170,000 years ago after the second-to-the-last-ice age. The historical invention of weaving machine changed the way fabrics were made and thus our garments; from being tailor made to being mass-produced. We may now dress differently depending on the time, the occasions, the environment, as well as based on culture. People all over the world can make different choices based on different preferences. Consumers buy the items with which they feel familiar and comfortable. An individual’s preferences and…

Is diet partly responsible for differences in COVID-19 death rates between and within countries?

2020

Abstract Reported COVID-19 deaths in Germany are relatively low as compared to many European countries. Among the several explanations proposed, an early and large testing of the population was put forward. Most current debates on COVID-19 focus on the differences among countries, but little attention has been given to regional differences and diet. The low-death rate European countries (e.g. Austria, Baltic States, Czech Republic, Finland, Norway, Poland, Slovakia) have used different quarantine and/or confinement times and methods and none have performed as many early tests as Germany. Among other factors that may be significant are the dietary habits. It seems that some foods largely use…

Effect of Bacillus thuringiensis toxins on the midgut of the nun moth Lymantria monacha.

2000

Three steps of the proposed mode of action of Bacillus thuringiensis toxins have been studied in Lymantria monacha. We demonstrated that only the toxins that caused typical pathological changes in midgut epithelial cells and bound to the midgut brush border membrane were able to drastically reduce the midgut transepithelial voltage of the nun moth.

Operator splitting methods for American option pricing

2004

Abstract We propose operator splitting methods for solving the linear complementarity problems arising from the pricing of American options. The space discretization of the underlying Black-Scholes Scholes equation is done using a central finite-difference scheme. The time discretization as well as the operator splittings are based on the Crank-Nicolson method and the two-step backward differentiation formula. Numerical experiments show that the operator splitting methodology is much more efficient than the projected SOR, while the accuracy of both methods are similar.

Politics of the Idea: (Anti-)Platonic Politics in Arendt and Badiou

2020

This paper compares two influential but conflicting contemporary models of politics as an activity: those of Hannah Arendt and Alain Badiou. It discovers the fundamental difference between their approaches to politics in their opposing evaluations of the contemporary political significance of the legacy of Plato, Platonism, and the Platonic Idea. Karl Popper’s and Arendt’s analyses of the inherently ideological nature of totalitarianism are contrasted with Badiou’s vindication of an ideological “politics of the Idea.” Arendt and Badiou are shown to share an understanding of politics as a realm for the human deployment of novelty and world-transformation. Their key disagreement concerns the …

Women’s empowerment and child mortality: the case of Bangladesh

2018

Spatial Distribution of Ethylene Production by Individual Needles Along a Shoot ofPinus sylvestrisL.: Relationship with Peroxidase Activity

1998

Spatial distribution of ethylene production by individual current year needles and the relationship with peroxidase activity was studied along a shoot of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestrisL.). Much variation in ethylene production between and within individual seedlings was found. There was a significant difference in mean intensity of ethylene production between orthostichies within individual seedlings. The capacity of individual needles to convert 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) to ethylene did not correlate with the basal rate of ethylene production. Mean ethylene production intensity by orthostichies correlated positively with mean peroxidase activity. A positive correlation betw…

An adaptive-PCA algorithm for reflectance estimation from color images

2008

This paper deals with the problem of spectral reflectance estimation from color camera outputs. Because the reconstruction of such functions is an inverse problem, stabilizing the reconstruction process is highly desirable. One way to do this is to decompose reflectance function on a basis functions like PCA. The present work proposes an algorithm making PCA adaptive in reflectance estimation from a color camera output. We propose to adapt the PCA basis derivation by selecting, for each sample, the more relevant elements from the training set elements. The adaptivity criterion is achieved by a likelihood measurement. Finally, the spectral reflectance estimation results are evaluated with th…