State-of-the-art approaches in interactive image segmentation often fail for objects exhibiting complex color variability, similar colors or difficult lighting conditions. The reason is that they treat the given user information as independent and identically distributed in the input space yielding a single color distribution per region. Due to their strong overlap segmentation often fails. By ...

The effect of the location of particles within the plasma volume on the LIBS signal for single-particle measurements is investigated. Three methods of collecting plasma emission are compared to determine the influence of plasma imaging on particle hit detection rates and signal precision. Imaging larger regions of the plasma volume improves particle detection rates. Spatial integration of the s...

Stochastic resonance has recently received considerable attention demonstrating that noise can play a constructive role in signal processing. We investigate the effects of input noise on sensory processing via numerical simulation when they are independent of each other or spatially correlated in a globally coupled neuronal network. The network exhibits a coherent behavior in the absence of sti...

The stable hydrogen (delta(2)H) and oxygen (delta(18)O) isotope ratios of organic and inorganic materials record biological and physical processes through the effects of substrate isotopic composition and fractionations that occur as reactions proceed. At large scales, these processes can exhibit spatial predictability because of the effects of coherent climatic patterns over the Earth's surfac...

BACKGROUND Most hospitals have a hierarchical design with beds positioned within cubicles and cubicles positioned within wards. Transmission of MRSA may be facilitated by patient proximity and thus the spatial arrangements of beds, cubicles and wards could be important in understanding MRSA transmission risk. Identifying high-risk areas of transmission may be useful in the design of more effect...

ABSTRACT The extent of spatial and temporal variability of sugarcane rust (Puccinia melanocephala) infestation was related to variation in soil properties in five commercial fields of sugarcane (interspecific hybrids of Saccharum spp., cv. LCP 85-384) in southern Louisiana. Sugarcane fields were grid-soil sampled at several intensities and rust ratings were collected at each point over 6 to 7 w...

Modeling rainfall-runoff processes is a very challenging task due to data collection, time, money, and technology constraints. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are modeling tools that can quickly adapt and learn input-output relationships for many different engineering problems. An Elman-type recurrent ANN was trained to simulate observed streamflow for Fountain Creek at Pueblo, CO, using vary...

An analysis of Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program hydrographic dataset shows that the bay responds coherently to variability in freshwater flux. Mean salinity and salinity stratification both respond to variability in freshwater flux on time scales of roughly 90 days. Stratification is also influenced by local wind forcing but on much shorter (4e5 day) time scales. The vol...

In the preceding chapters we discussed the central role that spatial and temporal variability play in ecological systems, the importance of addressing these explicitly within ecological analyses and the resulting need to carefully consider spatial and temporal scale and scaling. Landscape ecology is the science of linking patterns and processes across scale in both space and time. Thus landscap...