Analysis of Sampling Error Uncertainties and Trends in Maximum and Minimum Temperatures in China

In this paper we report an analysis of sampling error uncertainties in mean maximum and minimum temperatures （Tmax and Tmin） carried out on monthly,seasonal and annual scales,including an examination of homogenized and original data collected at 731 meteorological stations across China for the period 1951-2004.Uncertainties of the gridded data and national average,linear trends and their uncertainties,as well as the homogenization effect on uncertainties are assessed.It is shown that the sampling error variances of homogenized Tmax and Tmin,which are larger in winter than in summer,have a marked northwest-southeast gradient distribution,while the sampling error variances of the original data are found to be larger and irregular.Tmax and Tmin increase in all months of the year in the study period 1951-2004,with the largest warming and uncertainties being 0.400℃ （10 yr）-1 ＋ 0.269℃ （10 yr）-1 and 0.578℃ （10 yr）-1 ＋ 0.211℃ （10 yr）-1 in February,and the least being 0.022℃ （10 yr）-1 ＋ 0.085℃ （10 yr）-1 and 0.104℃ （10 yr）-1 ＋0.070℃ （10 yr）-1 in August.Homogenization can remove large uncertainties in the original records resulting from various non-natural changes in China.

Gas diffusion in a cylindrical coal sample – A general solution,approximation and error analyses

The analytical mathematical solutions of gas concentration and fractional gas loss for the diffusion of gas in a cylindrical coal sample were given with detailed mathematical derivations by assuming that the diffusion of gas through the coal matrix is concentration gradient-driven and obeys the Fick’s Second Law of Diffusion.The analytical solutions were approximated in case of small values of time and the error analyses associated with the approximation were also undertaken.The results indicate that the square root relationship of gas release in the early stage of desorption,which is widely used to provide a simple and fast estimation of the lost gas,is the first term of the approximation,and care must be taken in using the square root relationship as a significant error might be introduced with increase in the lost time and decrease in effective diameter of a cylindrical coal sample.

Probability and Statistical Error of Soil Sampling on Patches Assimilated during Delineation of Precision Farming Management Zones

When precision fanning management zones （MZs） are delineated in an agricultural field for precision nutrient management, unsupervised classification and cluster analysis procedures using remote sensing image analysis software are performed. These unsupervised classification and cluster analysis procedures are performed on the basis of the assumption that grouping of data points into naturally occurring clusters reduces within zone variability. The problem is that, there are small patches of different soil types within each management zone that are regarded as insignificant by the farmer, and are assimilated within larger MZs. These will consequently make soils within a management zone to be inhomogeneous. The objective of this study was to determine the probability of soil sampling occurrences on patches assimilated during delineation of MZs after a cluster analysis was performed. The study was conducted on a 5.0 ha （25°05′34.46″ S and 28°18′30.01″ E） and a 24.4 ha （23°59′04.61″ S and 28°52′29.43″ E） fields in the Waterberg District of the Limpopo Province in South Africa. A bare-soil high resolution Quickbird satellite imagery of a conventionally tilled agricultural field was used to develop MZs in the field. Soils were sampled using systematic unaligned sampling on a 35.0 m and 30.0 m grids for the 24.4 ha and 5.0 ha fields, respectively. Probabilities were calculated based on percentage area assimilated during the cluster analysis procedure that was performed using remote sensing image analysis software. The results indicated that in the 24.4 ha field there were 2.5 ha patches of high and medium zones that were assimilated within the low zone, and thus making low zones non-homogeneous. After cluster analysis and assimilation of patches, the low zone in the 24.4 ha field increased by 45.5% （2.5 ha） while the high zone was 16.4% （2.4 ha） smaller in size. In the smaller field of 5.0 ha, the high zone, which was originally 3.20 ha, lost 0.37 ha （11.6%）, which was assimilated in either low or medium zone. The study indicates that unequal probability proportional to size sampling could be used to minimize error when sampling across precision farming MZs because typically the low, medium and high MZs are not of equal size and do not contribute equally towards the mean values of soil samples.

On Error Analysis and Refinement of the Measurement of Plane-to-Plane Perpendicularity

The principle of planc-to-plane perpendicularity measuring with coordinate measuring machine （CMM） is described and the main factors that influence the measuring precision are analyzed. The minimum condition method is adopted to eliminate the fitting error of the datum plane. In order to diminish the length error of the object plane, the tactics of measuring some part of the plane and then scale to the whole plane is employed. With large quantity of measuring experiments on fiat plates, the most appropriate number of points in measuring a plane is determined to reduce the sampling error.

Interrupt CW Approach for IF Video Signal Real Time Simulating and Its Validity

To determine the feasibility and practicability of interrupt continuous wave (CW) approach proposed for real time simulating radar intermediate frequency(IF) video signal, theoretical analysis and computer simulation were used. Phases at two linked points between the end and beginning of adjoined frames are always consistent; the bias Doppler frequency for the time delay of A/D sampling start responds to that for target acceleration. No digital phase compensation is required at continuous points, and the interrupt CW approach has apparently practical values.

Value of macrobiopsies and transanal endoscopic microsurgery in the histological work-up of rectal neoplasms:A retrospective study

To evaluate a step up approach: Taking macrobiopsies and performing excision biopsies in patients with suspected rectal cancer in which biopsies taken though the flexible endoscope showed benign histology. METHODSPatients with a rectal neoplasm who underwent flexible endoscopy and biopsies were included. In case of benign biopsies rigid rectoscopy and macrobiopsies were employed. If this failed to prove malignancy, transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM) was used in a final effort to establish a certain preoperative diagnosis. The preoperative results were compared with the findings after surgical excision and follow up to calculate the reliability of this algorithm. RESULTSOne hundred and thirty-two patients were included. One hundred and ten patients with a carcinoma and 22 with an adenoma. Seventy-five of 110 carcinomas were proven malignant after flexible endoscopy. With the addition of rigid endoscopy and taking of macrobiopsies, this number increased to 89. Performing TEM excision biopsies further enlarged the number of proven malignancies to 100. CONCLUSIONThe step-up approach includes taking macrobiopsies through the rigid rectoscope and performing excision biopsies using transanal endoscopic microsurgery in addition to flexible endoscopy. This approach, reduced the number of missed preoperative malignant diagnoses from 32% to 9%.

Non-sampling errors in questionnaire surveys: findings from a National Fertility Survey

Non-sampling errors can generally be divided into three types:sampling frame errors,non-response errors and measurement errors.Missing target units in the sam-pling frame,improper handling of non-responses,and misreporting or underreport-ing of key variables in the questionnaire can all cause deviations in a survey’s results.The widespread application of Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing(CAPI)systems and the inclusion of administrative records from government sources in sur-veys has strengthened the ability to control non-sampling errors.Taking a national fertility sampling survey as an example,this study summarizes the sources of var-ious non-sampling errors and explains how to harness big data resources such as administrative records to control non-sampling errors throughout the survey.The study analyzes the impact of three types of non-sampling errors on the results of the fertility survey and examines the strategies used to address the problems caused by these non-sampling errors.The findings indicate that non-sampling errors were the main source of total error in the survey,and that the errors found came mainly from sampling frame errors;non-response errors and measurement errors were controlled and had little impact on the survey results.

Limited Spatial Transferability of the Relationships Between Kriging Variance and Soil Sampling Spacing in Some Grasslands of Ireland:Implications for Sampling Design

Sampling plays an important role in acquiring precise soil information required in modern agricultural production worldwide, which determines both the cost and quality of final soil mapping products. For sampling design, it has been proposed possibile to transfer the relationships between kriging variance and sampling grid spacing from an area with existing information to other areas with similar soil-forming environments. However, this approach is challenged in practice because of two problems: i) different population vaxiograms among similar areas and ii) sampling errors in estimated variograms. This study evaluated the effects of these two problems on the transferability of the relationships between kriging variance and sampling grid spacing, by using spatial data simulated with three variograms and soil samples collected from four grasslands in Ireland with similar soil-forming environments. Results showed that the variograms suggested by different samples collected with the same grid spacing in the same or similar areas were different, leading to a range of mean kriging variance (MKV) for each grid spacing. With increasing grid spacing, the variation of MKV for a specific grid spacing increased and deviated more from the MKV generated using the population variograms. As a result, the spatial transferability of the relationships between kriging variance and grid spacing for sampling design was limited.

Multi-Scaling Sampling： An Adaptive Sampling Method for Discovering Approximate Association Rules

One of the obstacles of the efficient association rule mining is theexplosive expansion of data sets since it is costly or impossible to scan large databases, esp., formultiple times. A popular solution to improve the speed and scalability of the association rulemining is to do the algorithm on a random sample instead of the entire database. But how toeffectively define and efficiently estimate the degree of error with respect to the outcome of thealgorithm, and how to determine the sample size needed are entangling researches until now. In thispaper, an effective and efficient algorithm is given based on the PAC (Probably Approximate Correct)learning theory to measure and estimate sample error. Then, a new adaptive, on-line, fast samplingstrategy - multi-scaling sampling - is presented inspired by MRA (Multi-Resolution Analysis) andShannon sampling theorem, for quickly obtaining acceptably approximate association rules atappropriate sample size. Both theoretical analysis and empirical study have showed that the Samplingstrategy can achieve a very good speed-accuracy trade-off.

The convergence rates of Shannon sampling learning algorithms

In the present paper,we provide an error bound for the learning rates of the regularized Shannon sampling learning scheme when the hypothesis space is a reproducing kernel Hilbert space(RKHS) derived by a Mercer kernel and a determined net.We show that if the sample is taken according to the determined set,then,the sample error can be bounded by the Mercer matrix with respect to the samples and the determined net.The regularization error may be bounded by the approximation order of the reproducing kernel Hilbert space interpolation operator.The paper is an investigation on a remark provided by Smale and Zhou.