Search

With the development of science and technology, wearable electronics are increasingly widely used in medical, environmental monitoring, and other fields. Thus, the demand for flexible electrodes is increasing. The two-dimensional material Ti3C2Tx has attracted much attention in the manufacture of flexible electrodes due to its excellent mechanical and electrical properties. However, the brittleness of pure Ti3C2Tx films has become a major obstacle for their use as flexible electrodes in wearable devices. Therefore, solving the brittleness problem of flexible electrodes based on Ti3C2Tx while maintaining the excellent performance of Ti3C2Tx has become an urgent problem. To solve this problem, Ti3C2Tx was compounded with waterborne polyurethane (WPU), and a Ti3C2Tx-WPU composite film with a hierarchical structure was constructed by evaporation-assisted self-assembly. The Ti3C2Tx-WPU composite film not only retains the excellent electrical conductivity of Ti3C2Tx (100 S m−1) but also has flexibility (20 MJ m−3). Furthermore, the Ti3C2Tx-WPU composite film is applied to functional devices such as contact pressure sensors and non-contact proximity sensors. Finally, the Ti3C2Tx-WPU composite film wearable device demonstrates its practical application potential in the field of wearable devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The study aims to investigate the long-term impact of lifestyle-related factors and physical health on life satisfaction and depressive symptoms among Chinese community-dwelling older adults. Methods: Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), the analytic sample of this study included 1,068 older adults who had participated in the surveys in both 2011 and 2018. Multivariate regression was employed to analyze both cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between lifestyle-related factors, physical health, and subjective well-being – specifically depressive symptoms and life satisfaction. Additionally, the model tested how these factors correlate with life satisfaction across different groups of depressive symptom changes among older adults, categorized as not at risk of depression, intermittent depression, and chronic depression. Results: Multimorbidity was significantly related to baseline and follow-up depressive risk in older adults. Shorter sleep duration was associated with baseline depression risk. Current alcohol drinkers reported significantly more severe depressive symptoms than non-drinkers. At baseline, current smokers were more likely to have a lower degree of life satisfaction than nonsmokers. Among older adults with chronic depression at the 7-year follow-up, former smokers tended to have lower life satisfaction than nonsmokers. Conclusions: Our findings identified drinking alcohol and having a shorter sleep duration as modifiable lifestyle-related risk factors for late-life depression and smoking as a detrimental factor for life satisfaction in older Chinese adults. Multimorbidity was a significant predictor of more depressive symptoms. Our findings have implications for future psychosocial interventions that target the alleviation of depressive symptoms and the promotion of life satisfaction in older Chinese people based on their different long-term mental and physical health conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recycled rubber (RR) and recycled spiral steel fiber (RSSF) were added to plain concrete (PC) to prepare recycled spiral steel fiber rubber concrete (SSFRC) with matrix strengths of C30, C40, and C50. Strength tests on the PC, rubber concrete (RC), and SSFRC were carried out, including the cube compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and flexural strength. The effects of RSSF and RR on the mechanical properties of concrete were analyzed. Simultaneously, the stress–strain curve of the SSFRC was obtained through axial compressive testing, and the toughness of SSFRC was evaluated by three indexes: the tensile compression ratio, bending compression ratio, and toughness index. The results show that adding RR to PC results in a decrease in the mechanical properties of concrete with different matrix strengths, and the addition of RSSF can make up for the strength loss of the rubber. The mechanical strength of SSFRC with different matrix strengths increased first and then decreased with the increase in RSSF content. The cubic compressive strength reached its peak value when the content of RSSF was 1%, and the splitting tensile strength and flexural strength reach their peak values when the content of RSSF was 1.5%. RSSF works best with rubber particles at the right dosage to further increase the toughness of the concrete. When the rubber content is 10%, and the RSSF content is 1.5%, the mechanical strength enhancement effect of SSFRC is at its best, and the toughness is also at its best. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of information technology in modern military confrontation, specific emitter identification has become a hot and difficult topic in the field of electronic warfare, especially in the field of electronic reconnaissance. Specific emitter identification requires a historical reconnaissance signal as the matching template. In order to avoid being intercepted by enemy electronic reconnaissance equipment, modern radar often has multiple sets of working parameters, such as pulse width and signal bandwidth, which change when performing different tasks and training. At this time, the collected fingerprint features cannot fully match the fingerprint template in the radar database, making the traditional specific emitter identification algorithm ineffective. Therefore, when the working parameters of enemy radar change, that is, when there is no such variable working parameter signal template in our radar database, it is a bottleneck problem in the current electronic reconnaissance field to realize the specific emitter identification. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes a network model based on metric learning. By learning deep fingerprint features and learning a deep nonlinear metric between different sample signals, the same individual sample signals under different working parameters can be associated. Even if there are no samples under a certain kind of working parameter signal, it can still be associated with the original individual through this network model, so as to achieve the purpose of specific emitter identification. As opposed to the situation in which the traditional specific emitter identification algorithm cannot be associated with the original individual when the signal samples of changing working parameters are not collected, the algorithm proposed in this paper can better solve the problem of changing working parameters and zero samples.

Rapid and correct estimation of driver lane change intention plays an important role in the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), which could make the driver improve the reliability of the ADAS system and help to decrease driver workload. In this study, a method based on the long short-term memory network (LSTM) and Dempster-Shafer evidence theory is proposed. The model consists of a preliminary decision-making label and a final decision-making label. Driver visual information, head orientation, and vehicle dynamics are collected by preliminary decision-making label. Then, LSTM is used to calculate the initial probability of the driver lane change (left, right, and lane keeping) maneuver intention. The outputs of LSTM are normalized and assigned a basic probability by the Dempster-Shafer evidence theory. The final decision-making label analyzes the information and outputs the probability of each lane change intention and the decision is to identify the driver's current intention. The experimental results show that the accuracy of the model is 90.7% for the intention of changing left and 89.1% for the intention of changing right. The outcome of this work is an essential component for all levels of road vehicle automation., Author(s): Zhi-Qiang Liu [1]; Man-Cai Peng (corresponding author) [1]; Yue-Chen Sun [1] 1. Introduction Traffic crashes and collisions worldwide become increasingly complicated in terms of safety with the number of [...]

Background and Objectives Depressive symptoms are common in older adults, and often co-occur with other mental health problems. However, knowledge about depressive symptom-domains and their associations with other conditions is limited. This study examined depressive symptom-domains and associations with anxiety, cognition, and loneliness. Research Design and Methods A sample of 3,795 participants aged 60 years and older were recruited from the community in Hong Kong. They were assessed for depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 [PHQ-9]), anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item), loneliness (UCLA 3-item), and cognition (Montreal Cognitive Assessment 5-Minute Protocol). Summary descriptive statistics were calculated, followed by confirmatory factor analysis of PHQ-9. Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes analysis was used to examine the associations between mental health conditions in the general sample and subgroups based on depressive symptom severity. Results A 4-factor model based on the Research Domain Criteria showed the best model fit of PHQ-9 (χ2/ df = 10.63, Root-Mean-Square Error of Approximation = 0.05, Comparative Fit Index = 0.96, Tucker–Lewis Index = 0.93). After adjusting for demographics, 4 depressive symptom-domains were differentially associated with anxiety, loneliness, and cognition across different depression severity groups. The Negative Valance Systems and Internalizing domain (NVS-I ; guilt and self-harm) were consistently associated with anxiety (β = 0.45, 0.44) and loneliness (β = 0.11, 0.27) regardless of depression severity (at risk/mild vs moderate and more severe, respectively, all p <.001). Discussion and Implications The consistent associations between the NVS-I domain of depression with anxiety and loneliness warrant attention. Simultaneous considerations of depressive symptom-domains and symptom severity are needed for designing more personalized care. Clinical Trials Registration Number NCT03593889 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In urban thermal environment research (UTE), urban shadows formed by buildings and trees contribute to significant variations in thermal conditions, particularly during the mid-day period. This study investigated the multi-scale effects of indicators, including urban shadows, on UTE, focusing specifically on the mid-day hours. It integrated field temperature measurements and drone aerial data from multiple city blocks. Considering both urban shadows and direct solar radiation, a linear mixed-effects model was employed to study the multi-scale effects of urban morphological indicators. Results showed that: (1) UTE is a multi-scale, multi-factor phenomenon, with thermal effects manifesting at specific scales. Under shadow conditions, smaller scales (10–20 m) of landscape heterogeneity and larger scales (300–400 m) of landscape consistency better explained temperature variations mid-day. Conversely, under direct sunlight, temperature was primarily influenced by larger scales (150–300 m). (2) Trees significantly reduced temperature; 100% tree canopy cover within a 10-m radius reduced air temperatures by approximately 2 °C mid-day. However, there is no significant correlation between temperature and green spaces. (3) Building area and height were significantly correlated with temperature. Specifically, an increase in building area beyond 150 m, especially within a 300-m radius, leads to higher temperatures. Conversely, building height within a 10–20 m range exhibits significant cooling effects. These findings provide crucial reference data for micro-scale UTE investigations during mid-day hours and offer new strategies for urban planning and design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The centers of matching craters can be beneficial additions to the control point database. Crater matching on heterogeneous surfaces is helpful in testing its applicability to the entire moon. Therefore, we propose a coarse-to-fine crater matching method for heterogenous surfaces on images acquired from the narrow angle camera (NAC) of the lunar reconnaissance orbiter camera (LROC) and the Chang’e-2 (CE-2) digital orthophoto map (DOM). First, we perform coarse matching based on the Hausdorff distance using the area and coordinates of the crater. Then, the mismatched craters are removed by using the affine transform (AT) model fitted by corresponding points of mutual information (MI) matching. Finally, we use the retained matched crater centers to fit the affine transformation model between the images, predict the corresponding position, and obtain the corresponding crater around it to achieve fine matching. The results show that the proposed method obtains numerous crater matches on images covering different terrains and solar altitude angles compared to the Hausdorff distance-based crater matching method. For the five experimental scenes registered using matched craters, the mean values of the checkpoints are approximately two and three pixels for scenes with small and large differences from CE-2 solar altitude angles, respectively, and the standard deviations (STDs) for both are approximately one pixel. In addition, the highlands have lower accuracy than the maria, with a variance of less than one pixel. Furthermore, the registration accuracy is related to the diameter and number of craters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Awareness of COVID-19 infection risk and oscillation patterns ('waves') may affect older people's mental health. Empirical data from populations experiencing multiple waves of community outbreaks can inform guidance for maintaining mental health. This study aims to investigate the effects of COVID-19 infection risk and oscillations on depression among community-dwelling older people in Hong Kong. A rolling cross-sectional telephone survey method was used. Screening for depression risk was conducted among 8,163 older people (age ≥ 60) using the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) from February to August 2020. The relationships between PHQ-2, COVID-19 infection risk proxies – change in newly infected cases and effective reproductive number (Rt), and oscillations – stage of a 'wave' reported in the media, were analysed using correlation and regression. 8.4% of survey respondents screened positive for depression risk. Being female (β =.08), having a pre-existing mental health issue (β =.21), change in newly infected cases (β =.05), and screening during the latency period before the media called out new waves (β =.03), contributed to higher depression risk (R2 =.06, all p <.01). While depression risk does not appear alarming in this sample, our results highlight that older people are sensitive to reporting of infection, particularly among those with existing mental health needs. Future public health communication should balance awareness of infection risks with mental health protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the 21‐year longitudinal impacts and predictive effects of family caregiver transition and the presence of family caregiving on the clinical status of persons with schizophrenia (PwSs) in a rural area of China. Using panel data derived from the Chengdu Mental Health Project (CMHP), 250 dyads of PwSs and their family caregivers were investigated in 1994 and 2015. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) were utilized. The generalized linear model (GLM) approach was used. The results of this study showed that more severe symptoms in PwSs were found to be significantly predicted by older age and nonmarried status at baseline. Compared with "spousal caregiving in two waves," the PANSS score was significantly higher in the "transition into sibling caregiving" group. A higher degree of psychosocial functioning was found to be significantly predicted by marital status, shorter duration of illness, and better mental status. Compared with "spousal caregiving in two waves," the GAF score was significantly lower in the "transition into parental caregiving" group. The presence of family caregiving was not a significant predictor of the severity of symptoms or psychosocial functioning in the PwSs. In conclusion, this study shows the 21‐year predictive effects of family caregiver transition on the mental status of PwSs but not the presence of family caregiving. Psychosocial interventions and specific guidance should be provided to family caregivers to enhance their quality of caregiving and improve the prognosis of PwSs during long periods of home care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital elevation models (DEMs) provide fundamental data for scientific and engineering applications in lunar exploration missions. Lunar DEMs have been mainly generated by laser altimetry and stereophotogrammetry. Complementarity to stereo photogrammetry, reflection-based surface reconstruction methods, such as shape from shading (SFS), have been studied and applied in lunar DEM reconstruction from a single image. However, this method often suffers from solution ambiguity and instability. In this paper, we propose a generative adversarial network (GAN)-based method that is able to generate high-resolution pixel-scale DEMs from a single image aided by a low-resolution DEM. We have evaluated the accuracy of the reconstructed high-resolution DEMs from 25 LROC NAC images of four regions using LROC NAC DEMs (2 m/pixel) as ground truth. The experimental results demonstrate good accuracy and adaptability to changes in illumination conditions. The root mean square error (RMSE) can reach about 2 m in areas where the degree of elevation variation is less than 100 m, and the RMSE value ranges from around 3 m to 10 m without considering the degree of the elevation variation in large-area reconstruction. As high-resolution monocular images and low-resolution DEMs are available for the entire lunar surface, the proposed GAN-based method has great potential in high-resolution lunar DEM reconstruction for lunar mapping applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ginsenoside Rg1 is the active ingredient of the plant named genus Panax (ginseng), which exhibited significant bioactivities, including anti‐inflammatory, antioxidation, and anti‐diabetic effects. Herein, 4‐week treatment of ginsenoside Rg1 remarkably decreased blood glucose levels and improved the resistance of insulin, oxidative stress, and inflammation along with lipid profile in T2D rats triggered via high‐fat diet and streptozotocin (STZ). Ginsenoside Rg1 supplementation improved the intestinal microbial composition induced by type 2 diabetes (T2D), which increased the proportions of Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group and Lachnoclostridium and decreased the proportions of Lactobacillus. Additionally, Spearman's correlation test between the gut microflora and biomedical assays (|r| >.5) revealed that the Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, Roseburia, and Romboutsia greatly affect intestinal microbiota, which may play pivotal roles in preventing T2D. Our findings illustrate the use of ginsenoside Rg1 as a dietary supplement along with prospective prebiotics due to its ability to alter the gut microflora and alleviate T2D‐linked biochemical abnormalities. Practical applications: This was the first study to elucidate the influences of ginsenosides Rg1 in improving the intestinal microbiota of T2D in SD rats. The data illustrated that the ginsenosides Rg1 remarkably increased the proportions of SCFAs producing bacteria. Hence, ginsenoside Rg1 could be used as a potential prebiotic in the treatment of T2D through alteration of intestinal microbiota. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It remains unknown what the impacts of multiple dimensions of contact (e.g. level, quantity and quality) are on the stigma of mental illness. Aims: To explore the relationship between the multiple dimensions of contact and stigma of mental illness among family members (FM), mental health workers (MHW) and community residents (CR) in Hong Kong. Methods: The stigma, contact and knowledge were measured in FM, MHW and CR in Hong Kong. Multiple regression analyses were used. Results: MHW (n = 141) had higher knowledge, more contact and lower stigma of mental illness than CR (n = 95) or FM (n = 62). Knowledge and contact quality were significantly associated with lower stigma of mental illness in the three groups. However, contact level and contact quantity were not significantly associated with most stigma components. The contact level was positively associated with stigma of mental illness among FM and CR. Conclusions: The results of this study highlight the differences in knowledge, contact and stigma of mental illness among different stakeholder groups. This study suggests that positive contact (e.g. equal, supportive, voluntary and pleasant contact) reduces stigma of mental illness, while negative contact (e.g. unfriendly, unsupportive, unpleasant contact) may increase stigma. The Enhancing Contact Model (ECM) should be tested in future anti-stigma interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a planetary-rover exploration mission, stereovision-based 3D reconstruction has been widely applied to topographic mapping of the planetary surface using stereo cameras onboard the rover. In this study, we propose an enhanced topographic mapping method based on multiple stereo images taken at the same rover location with changing illumination conditions. Key steps of the method include dense matching of stereo images, 3D point-cloud generation, point-cloud co-registration, and fusion. The final point cloud has more complete coverage and more details of the terrain than that conventionally generated from a single stereo pair. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by experiments using the Yutu-2 rover, in which two data sets were acquired by the navigation cameras at two locations and under changing illumination conditions. This method, which does not involve complex operations, has great potential for application in planetary-rover and lander missions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is unknown whether and how poverty influences the long-term outcome of persons with severe mental illness (SMI). Aims: To explore the change of poverty status in persons with SMI from 1994 to 2015 and examine the impact of poverty status on patients' outcome in rural China. Method: Two mental health surveys using identical methods and International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) were conducted in 1994 and 2015 in the same six townships of Xinjin County, Chengdu, China. Results: The annual net income per person was 19.8% and 100.2% higher for the general population than for persons with SMI in 1994 and 2015 respectively. Compared with 1994 (48.2%), persons with SMI in 2015 had significantly higher rates of poor family economic status (

This paper presents a brief overview of the geospatial technologies developed and applied in Chang'e-3 and Chang'e-4 lunar rover missions. Photogrammetric mapping techniques were used to produce topographic products of the landing site with meter level resolution using orbital images before landing, and to produce centimeter-resolution topographic products in near real-time after landing. Visual positioning techniques were used to determine the locations of the two landers using descent images and orbital basemaps immediately after landing. During surface operations, visual-positioning-based rover localization was performed routinely at each waypoint using Navcam images. The topographic analysis and rover localization results directly supported waypoint-to-waypoint path planning, science target selection and scientific investigations. A GIS-based digital cartography system was also developed to support rover teleoperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chang'e‐4 (CE‐4) achieved the first farside landing in Von Kármán crater. In the landing site, linear features have been identified previously from SLDEM and considered to be ejecta from the neighboring Finsen crater. The 5 cm grid spacing digital elevation model of the landing site, generated from the rover's panoramic images, provides more details of the rugged terrain. We further interpret the superimposition of NE‐SW ejecta from Finsen crater on the underlying SE‐NW dome‐like surface relief from Alder crater. The landing site is ~70 m higher than the mare basalts within Von Kármán crater. Numerical simulations predict ~30 and ~35 m ejecta deposited at the landing site from Finsen and Alder craters, respectively. The good agreement between the digital elevation model data and ejecta predicted thickness reveals the topographic evolution of Von Kármán crater, indicating that the rover‐measured material is excavated from Finsen crater with possible contributions from Alder crater. Plain Language Summary: Chang'e‐4 probe, including a lander and a rover, achieved the first farside landing in Von Kármán crater within the South Pole‐Aitken basin (SPA). The SPA is the largest and oldest impact basin on the Moon and is thought to have exposed lunar mantle materials according to numerical simulations. The in situ explorations at the landing site by the Yutu‐2 rover can reveal information about lunar deep materials and shed light on the early impacting history of the Solar System. Here, we present a detailed topographic analysis of the landing site using a rover‐image‐derived finer grid spacing DEM, existing orbital‐data‐derived DEMs, and numerical simulations. The results reveal the topographic evolution of the SPA and demonstrate that the surface material explored by the Yutu‐2 rover is lunar deep interior material excavated from Finsen crater with possible contributions from Alder crater rather than the underlying mare basalt. Key Points: Linear ejecta features are identified and measured on a 5 cm grid spacing DEM generated from Yutu‐2's stereo images and existing DEMsNumerical impact simulations predict ~30 and ~35 m ejecta deposited at the landing site from Finsen and Alder craters, consistent with the topographic differenceThe surficial material measured by Yutu‐2 was ejecta from the floor of South Pole‐Aitken basin, not the beneath mare basalts at the landing site [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Improving patients' perception of social support is significant not only for their re-adaptation to life but also for alleviating caregivers' burden. Aim: This study aims to examine an integrated model regarding social support, psychotic symptoms and caregiver burden. Methods: Persons with schizophrenia (N 1 = 300) and their family caregivers (N 2 = 300) in Xinjin County, Chengdu, China, completed the survey to report their demographics, patients' perception of social support (Duke Social Support Index), psychotic symptoms (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) and caregiver burden (Burden Scale for Family Caregivers, Short Version). Structural equation modelling was utilised to test the proposed model. Results: The degree of caregiver burden differed significantly within subgroups of patients' gender and education, as well as caregivers' gender, education and employment. Caregiver burden was negatively related to patients' age and household income. Social interaction partially mediated the relationship between instrumental and subjective social support (total effect = 0.451, p <.01). Subjective social support fully mediated the impact of social interaction on psychotic symptoms (total effect = −0.099, p <.05). In the final model, instrumental social support was positively associated with social interaction (p <.001) and increased subjective social support (p <.05). Increased subjective social support showed correlation with a lower degree of psychotic symptoms (p <.01), which was related to a lower level of caregiver burden (p <.001). Conclusion: This study shows the associations of patients' social support with psychotic symptoms and caregiver burden. Culture-specific psychosocial interventions should be provided for both patients and caregivers to enrich external support and reduce psychotic symptoms and caregivers' burden within the health care environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little is known about the impacts of schizophrenia on different types of caregiving burden. Aim: This study aims to examine how the severity of schizophrenia, social functioning and aggressive behavior are associated with caregiving burden across different kinship types. Method: The analytic sample included 300 dyads of persons with schizophrenia and their family caregivers in Xinjin, Chengdu, China. The 10th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) was utilized to identify the patients, whose symptom severity, social functioning and aggressive behavior were measured. Caregiving burden was estimated using the Burden Scale for Family Caregivers–short (BSFC-s). Results: A higher level of burden was significantly associated with female caregivers, larger family size, lower income, worse symptoms, poorer functional status and more aggressive behaviors. Parent caregivers showed greater burden if the patients had better functioning of social interest and concern or more aggression toward property. Mother caregivers showed greater burden than fathers. Spouses tended to perceive greater burden if the patients had better marital functioning, poorer occupational functioning or more aggressive behaviors toward property. Patients attacking others or a father with schizophrenia was related to a higher burden of child caregivers. A heavier burden of other relatives was correlated with patients' more verbal aggression and self-harm. Conclusion: This study shows the distinct impacts of disease-related factors on the caregiving burden across different kinship types. Our findings have implications for health-care professionals and practitioners in terms of developing more targeted family-based or individualized intervention to ameliorate burden according to kinship types and deal with behavioral and functional problems in schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature-based methods have been developed in the past decades for the registration of optical satellite images. However, it is still a challenging problem to handle well the registration between medium and high spatial resolution images due to the large difference of the spatial structural features and local details for the same objects. In this study, an automated co-registration technique is proposed that integrates an improved SIFT (I-SIFT) and a novel matching strategy called spatial consistency constraints (SCC) to cope with the large difference in spatial resolutions between the image pair. Three constraints on angle, distance, and ratio are introduced to re the initial matching features obtained by I-SIFT. Three groups of experiments were conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The experiments used high resolution multispectral and panoramic SPOT 5/6 images and Landsat 5/8 orthorectification images. Experimental results show that the registration error lies in about 1 pixel of high-resolution images and demonstrate that the proposed I-SIFT-SCC approach is suitable for fine registration of optical satellite images from medium spatial resolution to high spatial resolution with resolution ratio up to 6. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High precision localization of Chang’e-4 lander is critical to support safe and efficient mission operations. This paper presents the lander localization techniques, including image feature matching and monoscopic image measurement, using digital orthophoto maps of Chang’e-2 and LROC NAC images, descent camera images and monitoring camera image of Chang’e-4 lander. The lander location is precisely determined to be (177.588°E, 45.457°S) using these techniques. Localization of the lander in multiple datasets is valuable for synergistic scientific investigation of the landing site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel multi-scale superpixel-based spectral–spatial classification (MS-SSC) approach is proposed for hyperspectral images in this study. Superpixels are considered as the basic processing units for spectral–spatial-based classification. The use of multiple scales allows the capturing of local spatial structures of various sizes. The proposed technique consists of three steps. In the first step, hierarchical superpixel segmentations are performed from fine to coarse scales for the original hyperspectral image and the spectral information of each superpixel is used for classification at each scale. In the second step, each single scale superpixel-based classification is improved by combining with the segmentations at a higher level. Finally, the multi-scale classification is achieved via decision fusion. Experimental results are presented for two hyperspectral images and compared with recently advanced pixel-wise and pixel-based spectral–spatial classification approaches. The experiments demonstrate that the proposed method works effectively on the homogeneous regions and is also able to preserve the small local spatial structures in the image. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The formation mechanism of layered ejecta craters on Mars has remained a topic of intense debate since their discovery. In this study, we perform a global morphological analysis of Martian layered ejecta craters using Thermal Emission Imaging System ( THEMIS) images and Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter ( MOLA) data. The study focuses on the ejecta morphologies and well-defined distal rampart characteristics associated with 9945 layered ejecta craters with a diameter greater than 1.5 km distributed across the entire Martian surface. Data analysis based on the new database provides new information on the distribution and morphological details of the three major layered ejecta morphologies (single layer ejecta [ SLE], double layer ejecta [ DLE], and multiple layer ejecta [ MLE]). Global analysis is applied to the latitudinal distribution of characteristic parameters, including the ejecta mobility, lobateness values, and onset diameter. Our survey of the distribution and characteristics of layered ejecta craters reveals that strong correlations exist between ejecta mobility and latitude, and there is a latitudinal dependence of onset diameter. Our study of Martian layered ejecta craters provides more detailed information and insights of a connection between the layered ejecta morphologies and the subsurface volatiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an attractive realization of nonlinear coupling of superconducting charge qubit coupled to a transmission-line resonator. Our scheme provides a new approach to produce the strong squeezing effect via a flexible design of the superconducting qubit and mature experimental setup of circuit QED. By properly tuning the external magnetic flux, considerable squeezing can be generated. Strong coupling strength, immunity to noises and suppression of spontaneous emission make our scheme more robust and may be realized with conservative experimental parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This letter presents a new technique for clustering hyperspectral images that exploits neighborhood-constrained spatial information. The main feature of the proposed method is the introduction of a neighborhood homogeneity index (NHI) and the use of this index to measure the spatial homogeneity in a local area. A new similarity measurement integrates NHI and spectral information using an adaptive distance norm for clustering. The performance of the proposed neighborhood-constrained-clustering algorithm was assessed through a synthetic image and a real hyperspectral image and compared with those obtained by advanced spectral–spatial clustering algorithms. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme gives better performances. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]