Improved SMB speckle filtering of polarimetric SAR data with synergistic use of orientation angle compensation and spatial majority rule

The scattering-model-based(SMB)speckle filtering for polarimetric SAR(Pol SAR)data is reasonably effective in preserving dominant scattering mechanisms.However,the efficiency strongly depends on the accuracies of both the decomposition and classification of the scattering properties.In addition,a relatively weak speckle reduction particularly in distributed media was reported in the related literatures.In this work,an improved SMB filtering strategy is proposed considering the aforementioned deficiencies.First,the orientation angle compensation is incorporated into the SMB filtering process to remedy the overestimation of the volume scattering contribution in the Freeman-Durden decomposition.In addition,an algorithm to select the homogenous pixels is developed based on the spatial majority rule for adaptive speckle reduction.We demonstrate the superiority of the proposed methods in terms of scattering property preservation and speckle noise reduction using L-band Pol SAR data sets of San Francisco that were acquired by the NASA/JPL airborne SAR(AIRSAR)system.

Effects of average degree of network on an order-disorder transition in opinion dynamics

We have investigated the influence of the average degree （k） of network on the location of an order-disorder transition in opinion dynamics. For this purpose, a variant of majority rule （VMR） model is applied to Watts-Strogatz （WS） small-world networks and Barabasi-Albert （BA） scale-free networks which may describe some non-trivial properties of social systems. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we find that the order-disorder transition point of the VMR model is greatly affected by the average degree （k） of the networks; a larger value of （k） results in a more ordered state of the system. Comparing WS networks with BA networks, we find WS networks have better orderliness than BA networks when the average degree （k） is small. With the increase of （k）, BA networks have a more ordered state. By implementing finite-size scaling analysis, we also obtain critical exponents β/v, γ/u and 1/v for several values of average degree （k）. Our results may be helpful to understand structural effects on order-disorder phase transition in the context of the majority rule model.

Calculable Power in International Organization： A Case Study of IMF Quotas and Voting Rights Reform

Voting procedure is an important mechanism for public choice in international organizations. This paper measures and compares [MF member countries＇ voting power before the 2008 reform and after the 2010 reform on the basis of datasets on IMF quotas and voting rights distribution provided by IMF. Our study verifies that IMF＇s quotas and voting rights reforms do help to reduce the voting power gap among member countries. The 2008 and 2010 reforms produce a greater improvement in emerging members＇ voting power under the 70 percent majority rule than the 85 percent rule; the 70 percent majority rule means the United States would lose its absolute veto. Moreover, the paper disproves the underlying assumption that regards a member＇s voting power as proportional to its voting rights. Countries with different amounts of voting rights can still have the same voting power.