• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.419-433
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• 2014

The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity investigated plains at Meridiani Planum, where laminated sedimentary rocks are present. The Opportunity rover's Athena morphological investigation showed microstructures organized in intertwined filaments of microspherules: a texture we have also found on samples of terrestrial (biogenic) stromatolites and other microbialites. We performed a quantitative image analysis to compare images (n=45) of microbialites with the images (n=30) photographed by the rover (corresponding, approximately, to 25,000/15,000 microstructures). Contours were extracted and morphometric indexes were obtained: geometric and algorithmic complexities, entropy, tortuosity, minimum and maximum diameters. Terrestrial and Martian textures present a multifractal aspect. Mean values and confidence intervals from the Martian images overlapped perfectly with those from the terrestrial samples. The probability of this occurring by chance is $1/2^8$, less than p<0.004. Terrestrial abiogenic pseudostromatolites showed a simple fractal structure and different morphometric values from those of the terrestrial biogenic stromatolite images or Martian images with a less ordered texture (p<0.001). Our work shows the presumptive evidence of microbialites in the Martian outcroppings: i.e., the presence of unicellular life on the ancient Mars.

• Journal of Communications and Networks
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.383-395
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• 2001

Recent measurement and simulation studies have revealed that wide area network traffic displays complex statistical characteristics-possibly multifractal scaling-on fine timescales, in addition to the well-known properly of self-similar scaling on coarser timescales. In this paper we investigate the performance and network engineering significance of these fine timescale features using measured TCP anti MPEG2 video traces, queueing simulations and analytical arguments. We demonstrate that the fine timescale features can affect performance substantially at low and intermediate utilizations, while the longer timescale self-similarity is important at intermediate and high utilizations. We relate the fine timescale structure in the measured TCP traces to flow controls, and show that UDP traffic-which is not flow controlled-lacks such fine timescale structure. Likewise we relate the fine timescale structure in video MPEG2 traces to sub-frame encoding. We show that it is possibly to construct a relatively parsimonious multi-fractal cascade model of fine timescale features that matches the queueing performance of both the TCP and video traces. We outline an analytical method ta estimate performance for traffic that is self-similar on coarse timescales and multi-fractal on fine timescales, and show that the engineering problem of setting safe operating points for planning or admission controls can be significantly influenced by fine timescale fluctuations in network traffic. The work reported here can be used to model the relevant characteristics of wide area traffic across a full range of engineering timescales, and can be the basis of more accurate network performance analysis and engineering.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.208-220
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• 2016

Automatic Mountain Meteorology Observation System (AMOS) is an important ingredient for several climatological and forest disaster prediction studies. In this study, we select the optimal sites for AMOS in the mountain areas of Honam and Jeju in order to prevent forest disasters such as forest fires and landslides. So, this study used spatial dataset such as national forest map, forest roads, hiking trails and 30m DEM(Digital Elevation Model) as well as forest risk map(forest fire and landslide), national AWS information to extract optimal site selection of AMOS. Technical methods for optimal site selection of the AMOS was the firstly used multifractal model, IDW interpolation, spatial redundancy for 2.5km AWS buffering analysis, and 200m buffering analysis by using ArcGIS. Secondly, optimal sites selected by spatial analysis were estimated site accessibility, observatory environment of solar power and wireless communication through field survey. The threshold score for the final selection of the sites have to be higher than 70 points in the field assessment. In the result, a total of 159 polygons in national forest map were extracted by the spatial analysis and a total of 64 secondary candidate sites were selected for the ridge and the top of the area using Google Earth. Finally, a total of 26 optimal sites were selected by quantitative assessment based on field survey. Our selection criteria will serve for the establishment of the AMOS network for the best observations of weather conditions in the national forests. The effective observation network may enhance the mountain weather observations, which leads to accurate prediction of forest disasters.