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In this paper, we propose an intelligent contactless delivery scheme for unmanned vehicles based on multi-source sensing signals. Our objective is to address the problem of delivering items in special scenarios that require contactless delivery, such as hospital isolation areas and isolated hotels. Specifically, we apply the simultaneous localization and map construction (SLAM) algorithm to solve the localization and map construction problem when the unmanned vehicle moves in an unknown environment. Additionally, we improve the open-source Cartographer algorithm and use sensors such as LiDAR and depth camera to achieve localization, multi-terrain map construction, automatic navigation, and obstacle avoidance. We experimentally test the map construction, navigation, and obstacle avoidance capabilities of the smart cart in specific scenarios. Our results demonstrate that our proposed smart delivery solution works effectively in urban indoor and outdoor scenarios and can be applied to practical contactless delivery scenarios. This new non-contact delivery mode is expected to be a driving force for future development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces an unusual text from 17th century Iran: Āqā Raḍī's work, Qiblat al-āfāq. The treatise offers an insight into the making and use of terrestrial globes. The most interesting section of the text is a series of instructions for making terrestrial globes. The fact that no such instrument from the Ṣafavid period or earlier has survived adds to the text's significance. Another notable aspect of the text is that, unlike with other texts from earlier periods, which usually can be interpreted as depicting round or planar maps rather than globes, the Qiblat al-āfāq definitely describes a terrestrial globe, with clear instructions on its making and use. In this paper, I begin by reviewing the literature on early terrestrial globes known to the historians of Islamic cartography. I then introduce the author of the treatise, as he is described by his contemporary biographers. The treatise's structure is discussed afterwards, and I will present a visual reconstruction of the globe, step-by-step, using the instructions in the text. I elaborate on the purposes of the globe, and on the way in which the astronomer was expected to use it. Finally, I will trace the numerical data used in making the instrument. Furthermore this paper shows how the treatise develops our understanding of Ṣafavid maps and the instrument makers behind them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Examines how the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) performs as 'mapmaker'. • Illustrates how it acts a corridor maker, effectively narrowing down the range of possible climate futures to a limited range consistent with the relevant 1.5 or 2 °C temperature targets. • Explores the implicit, rarely explicated assumptions made about the feasibility of CDR technologies that justify model and policy choices. • Illustrates how these assumptions pre-empt political consideration of alternative futures. • Concludes by giving a more comprehensive understanding of what is at stake in the politics of anticipation. The article examines how the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) performs its self-proclaimed role as 'mapmaker. We seek to contribute to the emerging literature on global environmental assessments (GEA) and climate politics by reconstructing how the IPCC imagines the corridor for climate mitigation. Our particular focus is on the emergence of Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) as the preferred scientific approach to projecting mitigation pathways consistent with average global temperature target. Taking our lead from current research in science and technology studies (STS) and sociology of futures, we reconstruct the emergence of a science policy tradition of modeling in the field of climate change as a particular mode of anticipation. We summarize the main findings of this literature in order to illustrate the historical and socio-political context in which this mode of anticipation is embedded. Based on this genealogy, we demonstrate how, in its role as mapmaker, the IPCC has also functioned as a corridor maker. We highlight how the IPCC has achieved consensus on a limited set of mitigation pathways, thus effectively narrowing down the discursive space for imagining potential futures to pathways that are deemed technically feasible and cost-efficient. We conclude by discussing the political consequences of this mode of anticipation in order to give us a more comprehensive understanding of what is at stake in the politics of anticipation. We elucidate why the techno-economic framing of current mitigation pathways is highly restrictive, especially when it omits many cultural, political, and other dimensions involved in deploying CDR at scale in their 'real-world' context of application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has made possible the expansion the mapping to previously unmapped areas, thanks to technological advancements such as Web 2.0 and satellite imagery. However, more than a technical feature, VGI has brought to light the political aspects of cartography, when multiple stakeholders have access to mapping tools. This is the case of the collaborative mapping strategies used to map North Korea, one of the most, if not the most, closed countries in the world in terms of diplomatic relations, tourism and its economy. OpenStreetMap (OSM) enables "armchair mappers" to map opaque territories in which local governments control citizens' access to the internet. In this paper, we discuss the following questions: Who is mapping North Korea in OSM? Which tools and methods do contributors use to gain access to information about the country and to represent it? What are the motivations behind this mapping endeavor? We analyze technical aspects of OSM data for North Korea and structured correspondence exchanged with 889 contributors. We argue that crowdsourced efforts can make good the dearth of knowledge resulting from the physical, cultural and political barriers associated with uncharted territories and that, although the motivations for such efforts vary greatly, they all have their origin in a sense of empathy and the power technology has to penetrate geopolitical barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces an innovative technique specifically designed to effectively mitigate multibeam sonar noise in intricate scenarios where conventional denoising methods have typically faltered. These traditional methods have historically struggled to maintain a delicate balance between sensitivity, specificity, and interpretability, leading many cartographers and research professionals to resort to laborious and time-consuming manual processing techniques. In response to this prevalent challenge, we meticulously formulated a mathematical model to represent each individual step involved in the manual editing process. The approach involves parameterization of cartographers' perceptual manipulation, resulting in a novel noise rejection methodology. A notable attribute of this method is its simplicity and intuitive nature; users are required to set only a handful of fundamental parameters to obtain highly accurate processing results. Importantly, this technique spares the data from exposure to linear filters such as lowpass or average filters, enhancing the fidelity and reliability of the results. Furthermore, our proposed method retains the interpretability of the processed seafloor bathymetry as it abstains from implementing opaque methodologies such as Neural Networks. This aspect of the technique makes it an ideal choice for researchers and cartographers who prioritize understanding the underlying processes affecting their data. In the discussion segment of this paper, we present a quantitative comparison of the data processed by manual edit, the commercially mature algorithm, and our newly proposed method. This comparison underscores the superior performance and effectiveness of our technique, further reinforcing its potential applicability in real-world scenarios. • MBES denoising method, turning manual editing procedures into a mathematical model. • Using intuitive parameters, keeps high accuracy, clarity and interpretability. • Tested on various terrains, showing high universality and reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a key driver of coral reef decline, manifested in part as heatwaves causing mass bleaching events. As a result, there is increasing interest in supporting reef resilience through restoration and adaptation interventions. Different options have been developed, each with differing impacts on the social-ecological system. Choosing which, if any, option to implement requires assessment of their expected performance against a potentially wide range of objectives. We propose an objectives framework that can help decision analysts and decision makers map intervention options and their consequences to what matters for reefs and people. We present an example hierarchy of strategic and tactical fundamental and means objectives for reef restoration. We show that such an objectives hierarchy in conjunction with the modelling of option performance allows restoration choices to be identified that can meet reef management objectives and produce desired outcomes for reef-dependent communities, other stakeholders, and members of society more broadly. Example objectives are derived from government and marine park policy documents as well as a broader set of related academic literature. We show that a hierarchy of clear and well-defined objectives linked to ecological, economic and social values is central to informing multi-objective decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer treatment effectiveness could be improved if it were possible to accurately anticipate the response of the tumor to treatment. Writing in Nature , Salehi et al. combine single-cell genomics and mathematical modeling to measure cancer subclone fitness and use these measurements to accurately predict the future trajectory of cancer evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Wind resource assessment using the most complete wind speed data in China. • We examined the spatiotemporal distribution of wind resources in China. • We identify wind energy features and suitable areas for power generation in China. Abstract To achieve sustainable socioeconomic development as part of the global community, China has set ambitious goals for developing wind power within its national energy security framework. Existing wind power density maps in China present some knowledge gaps (e.g., lack of spatiotemporal resolution/characteristics and estimates at the height of a typical wind turbine). To address them, we combine the advantages of large network of wind speed observations (2430 meteorological stations; 2006–2015) and the grid-based method in order to create the spatiotemporal distributions of wind resource at the hub height. We found that the spatiotemporal variability of wind resources in China is apparent. Nationally, the annual mean wind speed and wind power density are 4.09 m s−1 and 164.1 W m−2, respectively. Spatially, Northeast China has the highest wind potential with annual mean wind speed and power density 4.64 m s−1 and 204 W m−2, while South China has the lowest wind potential annual mean wind speed and power density 3.55 m s−1 and 97.4 W m−2. Temporally, the wind resources over the entire China are higher in the cold season (spring and winter with peaks in April) than those in the warm season (summer and autumn with bottoms in August). Specifically, the wind power output in "Three North" region (including Northeast China, North China and Northwest China) in the cold season is 1.4 times higher than that in the warm season. Some coastal regions in East China have relatively high wind power density (>500 W m−2) and small seasonal variations. These findings should help decision-makers to identify the areas suitable for utilizing wind energy, and optimizing power generation and transmission across the grid for better system performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of computer systems that emulate human expertise in decision making is a common task in the automation of processes like planning, design, prediction or control. When it comes to map design, one of the problems of the cartographer is to orchestrate the elements of the map so that it clearly conveys its information to the readers. Several disciplines, such as Computational Geometry, Cartography and Operations Research have devoted diverse efforts to automate this task, commonly identified in the research domain as the Point-Feature Label Placement (PFLP). These approaches aim to avoid or minimize overlapping elements on the map, but almost no attempt to model possible ambiguities of feature and label pairs has been conducted so far. This article presents four Integer Programming formulations for the PFLP problem that incorporate ambiguity as an indicator of the solution quality. A very basic heuristic procedure is also introduced as an alternative to the exact formulations for large instances. All the proposed methods are tested on several maps of Spanish municipalities. Finally, some conclusions and recommendations are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spot heights and soundings explicitly indicate terrain elevation on cartographic maps. Cartographers have developed design principles for the manual selection, placement, labeling, and generalization of spot height locations, but these processes are work-intensive and expensive. Finding an algorithmic criterion that matches the cartographers’ judgment in ranking the significance of features on a terrain is a difficult endeavor. This article proposes a method for the automated selection of spot heights locations representing natural features such as peaks, saddles and depressions. A lifespan of critical points in a continuous scale-space model is employed as the main measure of the importance of features, and an algorithm and a data structure for its computation are described. We also introduce a method for the comparison of algorithmically computed spot height locations with manually produced reference compilations. The new method is compared with two known techniques from the literature. Results show spot height locations that are closer to reference spot heights produced manually by swisstopo cartographers, compared to previous techniques. The introduced method can be applied to elevation models for the creation of topographic and bathymetric maps. It also ranks the importance of extracted spot height locations, which allows for a variation in the size of symbols and labels according to the significance of represented features. The importance ranking could also be useful for adjusting spot height density of zoomable maps in real time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For two positive maps ϕ i : B ( K i ) → B ( H i ) , i = 1 , 2 , we construct a new linear map ϕ : B ( H ) → B ( K ) , where K = K 1 ⊕ K 2 ⊕ C , H = H 1 ⊕ H 2 ⊕ C , by means of some additional ingredients such as operators and functionals. We call it a merging of maps ϕ 1 and ϕ 2 . The properties of this construction are discussed. In particular, conditions for positivity of ϕ , as well as for 2-positivity, complete positivity, optimality and indecomposability, are provided. In particular, we show that for a pair composed of 2-positive and 2-copositive maps, there is an indecomposable merging of them. One of our main results asserts, that for a canonical merging of a pair composed of completely positive and completely copositive extremal maps, their canonical merging is an exposed positive map. This result provides a wide class of new examples of exposed positive maps. As an application, new examples of entangled PPT states are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional liquefaction hazard maps are useful tools for preliminary engineering site assessment and policy development. However, these maps should not be used for site-specific liquefaction hazard assessment. Simplified probabilistic liquefaction analysis procedures can be used instead to perform site-specific liquefaction hazard assessment, but these procedures rely on probabilistic reference parameter maps that are not yet familiar to most engineering and geological practitioners. As a result, some professionals are questioning the differences between traditional liquefaction hazard maps and the new probabilistic reference parameter maps. This paper clarifies the differences between these two types of maps, and shows how each of these maps complements the other. New probabilistic reference parameter maps for liquefaction triggering and lateral spread displacement are developed and presented for San Diego, California, and simplified probabilistic equations necessary to use the reference parameter maps are summarized. An example map-based liquefaction triggering and lateral spread displacement analysis is performed for a representative site near San Diego Bay. Results of the analysis demonstrate that the probabilistic assessment confirms and augments the information conveyed by the traditional liquefaction hazard map. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The category of Gödel spaces GS (with strongly isotone maps as morphisms), which are dually equivalent to the category of Gödel algebras, is transferred by a contravariant functor H into the category M V ( C ) G of MV -algebras generated by perfect MV -chains via the operators of direct products, subalgebras and direct limits. Conversely, the category M V ( C ) G is transferred into the category GS by means of a contravariant functor P . Moreover, it is shown that the functor H is faithful, the functor P is full and the both functors are dense. The description of finite coproduct of algebras, which are isomorphic to Chang algebra, is given. Using duality a characterization of projective algebras in M V ( C ) G is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on cartographer Mina Hubbard.

Statistically rigorous inferences in the form of confidence intervals for map-based estimates require model-based inferential methods. Model-based mean square errors (MSE) incorporate estimates of both residual variability and sampling variability, of which the latter includes population unit variance estimates and pairwise population unit covariance estimates. Bootstrapping, which can be used with any prediction technique, provides a means of estimating the required variances and covariances. The objectives of the study were to to demonstrate a method for estimating the sampling variability, Var ̂ sam μ ̂ , that can be used with all prediction techniques, to develop an efficient method that map makers can use to disseminate metadata that facilitates calculation of Var ̂ sam μ ̂ for arbitrary subregions of maps, and to estimate the individual contributions of sampling variability and residual variability to the overall standard error of the prediction of the population mean. The primary results were fourfold: (i) map makers must provide metadata that facilitate estimation of population unit variances and covariances for arbitrary map subregions, (ii) bootstrapping was demonstrated as an effective means of estimating the variances and covariances, (iii) the very large matrix of pairwise population unit covariances can be aggregated into a much smaller matrix that can be readily communicated by map makers to map users, and (iv) MSEs that include only estimates of residual variability and/or estimates of population unit variances, but not estimates of the pairwise population unit covariances, grossly under-estimate the actual MSEs. • Inferences constructed directly from maps require model-based methods. • The effects of sampling variability dominate the effects of residual variability. • Bootstrap approaches were used to estimate map unit, pairwise, sampling covariances. • Efficient methods that map-makers can use to communicate covariances were developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a space-time model is developed to support spatial planning. The temporal nature of the model allows the variables that condition land use to evolve periodically. In each time-step, land use allocation is optimized considering sustainability criteria. The model combines system dynamics techniques to simulate the evolution and interactions of economic and biophysical drivers using a multi-objective algorithm for spatial optimization that introduces bidirectional spatio-temporal feedback. It provides sets of maps for decision makers in which income and food self-sufficiency are maximized and the environmental impact of different what-if scenarios is minimized. The model has been applied in Los Llanos de San Juan (Mexico) for three scenarios: baseline, high and sustainable growth. The maps obtained by 2050 reduced water demand pressure by 1.4% and 4.7%, while crop production (in calories) was balanced with population food needs in 2035 and 2045 in the high and sustainable growth scenarios, respectively. • Time-space simulation in a single application for land use planning. • Periodic bidirectionality between drivers and land response. • Different simulation scenarios to inform discussion and decision-making. • Food self-sufficiency and protection of water availability as territorial goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and other anthropogenic threats are increasingly imperilling the diverse biomes of Central Africa, which are globally important for biodiversity, carbon storage and people's livelihoods. The objectives of this paper were to: (i) map the vulnerability of 100 socio-ecologically important priority tree species in Central Africa to climate change, fire, habitat conversion, overexploitation, overgrazing and (ii) propose a spatially explicit strategy to guide restoration and conservation actions. We performed ensemble distribution modelling to predict the present and future distributions of the 100 species, assembled other anthropogenic threat exposure layers, assessed species' sensitivities to the five threats based on their trait profiles, and constructed species-specific vulnerability maps by combining the species' exposure and sensitivity. The results show that these 100 species are vulnerable to the five threats, with an average of 34% of their distribution ranges under high to very high vulnerability and 60% under medium to high vulnerability to at least one threat. Many species identified as most vulnerable in this study are not considered as threatened by the IUCN Red List, suggesting a need to update their conservation status, potentially through integration of the vulnerability mapping methodology we used here. We generated both species-specific maps and summary maps including all 100 species identifying priority areas for a) in-situ conservation, b) ex-situ conservation, and c) active planting or assisted natural regeneration. We present an online platform to enable easy access to the vulnerability and the conservation and restoration priority maps for decision makers and support conservation and restoration planning across Central Africa. • Climate change and other anthropogenic threats menace the biomes of Central Africa. • We map the vulnerability of 100 tree species to climate change and four anthropogenic threats. • The 100 species have on average 34% of their distribution under high vulnerability. • We provide maps with priority areas for conservation and restoration in Central Africa. • Conservation planning and IUCN Red List should include vulnerability assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With the advent of GPS-enabled mobile writing devices such as smart phones and tablets, writing has become invested with a new power to express place—both through the geo-coding of one''s writing location and through the presentation of place-based research on customized digital maps. This essay argues that teachers of writing must learn to accommodate and exploit these new and developing digital modalities while also making students aware of the theoretical and lived implications of digital cartographies. The essay first reviews several digital mapping projects that force their users to reconsider standard notions of place and indexicality. The essay then outlines a curriculum for teaching digital mapping in a composition-rhetoric course and presents successful examples of student work. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The link between soil science and geology is personified in the American father and daughter: soil surveyor William Edgar Tharp (1870–1959) and oceanographic cartographer Marie Tharp (1920–2006). From 1904 to 1935, W.E. Tharp mapped soils in 14 states for the US Department of Agriculture, and campaigned during the late 1920s–early 1930s to raise awareness of the high rates of soil erosion from croplands. The lifestyle of the federal soil surveyor in the United States during the early 20th century involved frequent household moves, and it played a formative role in Marie Tharp’s childhood. Her path to a career in geology was molded by this family experience, by mentors encountered in the classroom, and by social barriers that faced women scientists of that era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An unusual silver celestial planisphere is held in the collection of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science (Wh.1762); little information about this object is recorded in the museum’s documentation. A comparison of this silver example with celestial planispheres printed on paper, coupled with the consideration of other aspects of the lives and work of the cartographers and instrument-makers involved in producing such objects, suggests some possibilities regarding its production. Through this individual case study, I aim to demonstrate that the careful examination of an individual instrument, coupled with an understanding of the class of instruments to which it belongs and the milieu in which it was produced, can result in a deeper understanding of any given artefact, its circumstances of design and manufacture, and its intended use and users. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper I discuss a cardboard dissected globe made in 1813 by Edward Mogg, a cartographer and map seller, to instruct children in the principles of astronomy. Since little is known about the maker or the specific object, I draw on evidence beyond the sphere itself to construct an account of how the object might have been used. In particular I address conversation as a key part of astronomical education and examine the way in which the cardboard plates of the sphere, the presentation slipcase and the accompanying booklet would have prepared young learners for polite astronomical discourse around large instruments in later life. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper analyses the difficulty in fulfilling the user requirements related to geo-information generalisation. Despite the fact that this is a long-standing research topic, the results are not satisfactory and therefore there is a very active research community trying to better meet the expectations of the users, both at the side of the geo-information producers and at the side of the geo-information users. It is argued that part of the difficulties are due to the fact that the generalization problem is not specified formally enough. Therefore, currently the most important benchmark for the generalization software is the work of human cartographers doing manual generalization, supported by automated tools, and includes subjective aspects such as taste, resulting into artistic solutions. So, a very important, intermediate, research goal is formalizing the generalization problem. In addition, the expectations of the users are growing over the past years and will continue to do so in the future: faster updates propagated between different scales, ever growing size of geo-information, support for vario-scale (instead of just multiple fixed scales), integration of formal semantics and computational geometry techniques, support for 3D representations, and so on. This paper identifies the current state of the art and provides descriptions of further research and development directions in generalisation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This intervention targets the much heralded demise of the map in geography and the recently proposed “rethinking” of maps. It comprises contributions from two political geographers, a military geographer, a political scientist, and two activist cartographers and argues that there is not so much a need to “rethink” maps, but to “re-engage” with the material practices of mapping, and above all to “re-make” maps. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This manuscript introduces a passive thermal-vision modality to detect splits and tears in automotive stampings in real time. This system scans 3D temperature maps of high reflective steel panels, with complex geometry in addition to the drawing die, to locate abnormal temperature readings indicative of high local wrinkling pressure (cause of metal splitting). Preprocessing utilizes a coefficient-correction map to account for the emissivity dependency on part geometries, and the stamping-die changing the thermal profile. Also, a pattern-matching algorithm is used to synchronize the thermal analysis with the die location (stamping pace) through a new concept of matching thermal histograms. A new image-processing routine named “dynamic-template” is developed to retrieve the split''s shape and identify its location. The template is computed through a region of interest (ROI) approach with a dynamic threshold, while accounting for spatial deviations (mainly press-line vibration). The developed hardware and software are implemented on an automotive press-line, and the real-time thermal acquisition is processed to illustrate the system performance and success; different split shapes and sizes are detected under actual operating conditions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The most time-consuming task of producing a map—after data collection—is that of labeling the point, line, and area features depicted on it. It is a task that has been performed by skilled human cartographers for centuries but one that has proven remarkably resistant to automation. The paper describes a research and development effort extending over nearly 25 years to develop a software system that would automate this task. The software now available embodies the cartographer’s rules and conventions and places the text for each feature according to a user-specified scenario, resolving placement conflicts and ambiguities over all feature layers in accordance with set placement priorities. Placement alternatives are automatically explored if the initial placement choice is not available because of lack of space, in a manner analogous to what a human cartographer could be expected to do under the same circumstances. The paper reviews the issues posed by the text placement problem and describes the solution for it that is now available. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper describes a prototype software application, modeling the locational relationships of cadastral objects as understood by a cadastral cartographer tasked with compiling and updating the land ownership parcel map.Cadastral cartographers have a practical problem: in implementing their conceptual model of the land parcel map, it is preferable that location updates be made in the same order in which they arrive to be recorded. However, current technology requires that more spatially accurate surveys are entered into the database before less accurate ones are fitted to them––and contemporary surveys are typically more accurate than ancient or moderately old ones. Hence, updating a cadastral database for location entails reconstructing it a section at a time, entering surveys (in general) in reverse date order.A strategy is presented that allows updating of location in date-forward order. The strategy is based on capturing locational relationships and measurements extracted from plats and deed descriptions, so that when an object''s location is updated, it sends a message to objects for which it is a spatial reference to update their own locations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents a historical account of opportunities and challenges for cartographers in the production of historical maps. Some atlases make reference to the issues involved in their production. Until the twentieth century, historical atlases' content was largely defined in terms of international relations, particularly warfare and shifts in control over territory. A normative pattern for the historical atlas was set in the first half of the nineteenth century. The article also presents an account of genealogical, chronological, historical, and geographical atlases.

In bread wheat, QTL interval mapping for four growth characters (early growth habit, days to heading, days to maturity and plant height), and association studies for two leaf characters (leaf colour and leaf waxiness) were conducted utilising the International Triticeae Mapping Initiative reference population (ITMIpop) that was used in a number of earlier studies on molecular mapping in this crop. Using QTL Cartographer, composite interval mapping (CIM) for all the four growth characters and multitrait composite interval mapping (MCIM) for three correlated traits (excluding plant height) were conducted. For growth characters, CIM suggested the presence of 16 QTL (LOD=2.0–12.7), of which only six were common with those among the 18 QTL identified by MCIM. This suggested possible presence of some false positives among QTL identified by CIM. Fourteen (14) molecular markers that were closest to the 14 QTL identified by CIM were also tested for marker–trait association using regression and t-tests. Five markers showed significant association, and therefore, are recommended for marker-assisted selection (MAS). Incidentally, the QTL associated with these five markers were identified by both CIM and MCIM thus placing higher level of confidence in these markers. Some of the QTL identified by CIM and joint MCIM also affected more than one trait each, suggesting that the observed correlation may be either due to tight linkage or due to pleiotropy. During CIM for individual traits, effects of all QTL (phenotypic variations explained or PVE) that were identified at LOD score of 2.0 or above, together accounted for approximately 17–91% of the phenotypic variation. However QTL effects, when measured irrespective of LOD score, exhibited characteristic L-shaped distribution, suggesting that there are many minor QTL, which should be taken into account during MAS. The two leaf characters exhibited 100% correlation. Consequently, the 14 markers that were identified showed significant marker–trait association with both the traits. Some of these markers are the same, which also exhibited association with some growth and yield traits, studied by us earlier, thus adding to their utility in wheat breeding through MAS. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article discusses an episode of boundary delimitation/demarcation conducted between British and German imperial powers on the central African Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau in the late 1890s. I situate vignettes on the boundary's delimitation in 1897-98 within broader processes of imperial territorialisation to note that the boundary eventually produced on the plateau represented a fabrication resolving tensions between its 'natural' and textual sources. Specifically, I argue the boundary was produced to mediate between a diplomatic nature, written in metropolitan worlds by diplomats and cartographers, and a colonial nature, a zone of phenomenal experiences, inhuman encounters and 'sensation' (Wark, 2016). I emphasise the experience of technical practice to suggest that this itself represented a form of imperial power, capable of challenging or 'deferring' (Bhabha, 2012) metropolitan circuits of governance and knowledge production, not least by revealing the liveliness of the material world undergoing imperial territorialisation. Sensation produced the form of the writings and archives of survey-exploration: often confounded by problems of their data and surroundings, commissioners made the epistemological and subjective manoeuvrings through which they appeared to rise above their inert surroundings to master them. But this does not characterise the experience of fieldwork on the plateau, which was constituted by a panoply of technical situations wherein delineations between objects, observers and their material settings were indeterminable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landslides as major geo-hazards in Sweden adversely impact on nearby environments and socio-economics. In this paper, a landslide susceptibility map using a proposed subdivision approach for a large area in southwest Sweden has been produced. The map has been generated by means of an artificial neural network (ANN) model developed using fourteen causative factors extracted from topographic and geomorphologic, geological, land use, hydrology and hydrogeology characteristics. The landslide inventory map includes 242 events identified from different validated resources and interpreted aerial photographs. The weights of the causative factors employed were analyzed and verified using accepted mathematical criteria, sensitivity analysis, previous studies, and actual landslides. The high accuracy achieved using the ANN model demonstrates a consistent criterion for future landslide susceptibility zonation. Comparisons with earlier susceptibility assessments in the area show the model to be a cost-effective and potentially vital tool for urban planners in developing cities and municipalities. • An ANN model for landslide susceptibility was developed and optimized. • A novel subdivision approach for landslide hazard assessment was introduced. • Detailed discussion comparing with previous studies and projects. • A cost-effective high-resolution map for decision makers and planners was generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented that focuses on geomatics, cartography and remote sensing in Canada.