The turn of the new millennium was accompanied by a particularly diverse group of burned area datasets from different sensors in the Canadian boreal forests, brought together in a year of low global fire activity. This paper provides an assessment of spatial and temporal accuracy, by means of a fire-by-fire comparison of the following: two burned area datasets obtained from SPOT-VEGETATION (VGT...

OBJECTIVE To determine the present status of plant communities and their possible association with the habitat in Malam Jabba, Swat, Pakistan. METHODS A study on the phytoecology was conducted in various ecologically important sites of Malam Jabba, Swat, Pakistan from 2002 to 2004. The altitude of these sites ranged from 1 200 m to 3 200 m. Quadrat method was used for evaluation of plants com...

There is a public perception that large high-severity wildfires decrease biodiversity and increase fire hazard by homogenizing vegetation composition and increasing the cover of mid-story vegetation. But a growing literature suggests that vegetation responses are nuanced. LiDAR technology provides a promising remote sensing tool to test hypotheses about post-fire vegetation regrowth because veg...

We present results of opinion dynamics simulations based on the emotion/information/opinion (E/I/O) model, applied to a strongly polarized society. Under certain conditions the model leads to metastable coexistence of two subcommunities (supporting each of the opinions) of comparable size – which corresponds to bipartisan split found in many real world communities. Spurred by the recent breakdo...

The purpose of this paper is to present two agents’ societies responsible for group formation (sub-communities) in CV-Muzar (Augusto Ruschi Zoobotanical Museum Virtual Community of the University of Passo Fundo). The first is a static society that intends to investigate the groups in the CV-Muzar. The second is a dynamical society that will analyze the existing groups and look for participants ...

As first steps towards establishing software engineering as an engineering discipline, we need to create explicit models of its building blocks, i.e., projects, processes, products, and various quality perspectives; organize these models for effective reuse across project boundaries; and establish measurable criteria for project guidance. This paper investigates the possibilities of providing m...

A survey was conducted from March to September 2012 along the altitudinal gradient of the Jomokungkhar trail in the Merak Himalaya of Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary to study the floristic compositions and the patterns of alpine vegetation of Eastern Bhutan. The vegetation of the sampled plots is classified into five types of communities based on the hierarchical cluster analysis at similarity index...

In this paper, we discuss some key aspects for the maintenance of biological diversity in grassland–forest mosaics in southern Brazil (Campos Sulinos) not explored yet. Campos Sulinos are grasslands distributed throughout the Pampa and the Atlantic Forest biomes. Since these grasslands remain from past dryer and colder climatic conditions, they are acknowledged as native rather than anthropogen...

Experimental study of the recording processes in patterned magnetic media is presented. The reading of patterned media using spin-valve elements is compared to the signal levels from magneto-resistive sensors. Writing and reading of patterned columnar media at high areal densities is demonstrated. A new experimental technique has been developed that allows precise determination of the location ...