Effect of Implementing Ecosystem Functional Type Data in a Mesoscale Climate Model

In this paper, we introduce a new concept of land-surface state representation for southern South America, which is based on ＂functional＂ attributes of vegetation, and implement a new land-cover （Ecosystem Functional Type, hereafter EFT） dataset in the Weather and Research Forecasting （WRF） model. We found that the EFT data enabled us to deal with functional attributes of vegetation and time-variant features more easily than the default land-cover data in the WRF. In order to explore the usefulness of the EFT data in simulations of surface and atmospheric variables, numerical simulations of the WRF model, using both the US Geological Survey （USGS） and the EFT data, were conducted over the La Plata Basin in South America for the austral spring of 1998 and compared with observations. Results showed that the model simulations were sensitive to the lower boundary conditions and that the use of the EFT data improved the climate simulation of 2-m temperature and precipitation, implying the need for this type of information to be included in numerical climate models.

ProSync： A protective synchronization scheme for NC-OFDM based opportunistic spectrum sharing system

A protective synchronization scheme （ProSync） for the non-contiguous orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing （NC-OFDM） system is proposed in this paper, aiming to minimize the impact of cross-band interference in opportunistic dynamic spectrum sharing networks. ProSync partly shrinks the preamble at the transmitter and exploits two multi-band filters at the receiver. By doing so, the potential interference suffered by NC-OFDM users, including both the cross-band interference and self interference, can be greatly reduced. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of ProSync, which is able to lower the carrier frequency offset （CFO） estimation error by up to 50%, compared with the traditional method.

On the Physical Basis of Self-Organization

Experiments performed with the aim to explain pattern formation in plasma devices offer, as I will show in this survey, a new insight into the mechanism by which locally matter transits spontaneously from a disordered state into an ordered one. The essential news revealed by these experiments is the identification of a population of electrons that, driven at a critical distance from thermal equilibrium, is able to act as the organizer of the emergence and the survival of a complexity starting from chaos, i.e., from electric sparks the appearance of which is controlled by deterministic chaos. Supplied at a constant rate with thermal energy extracted by electrons from plasma, the complexity survives in a dynamical state performing operations in agreement with a code directly related to electrons thermal energy distribution function. Acting as a constituent of the matter, the population of electrons intrinsically controls the emergence and the survival of the complexity. Performing operations directly related to electron’s thermal energy distribution function, the complexity evolves stepwise in more advanced self-organized dynamical states, when this function is changed by an additional injection of energy. A set of nonlinear phenomena, not explainable by classical processes is involved in the mechanism by which the complexity emerges, survives and evolves. Thus, phenomena like Bose-Einstein condensation, macroscopic quantum coherence, direct and alternate Josephson effects, electron tunneling, negative differential impedance and others, potentially explain the emergence, functionality and vitality, i.e., the dynamical state of the complexity.

New progress in geometric computing for image and video processing

In recent years, geometry-based image and video processing methods have aroused significant interest. This paper considers progress from four aspects： geometric characteristics and shape, geometric transformations, embedded geometric structure, and differential geometry methods. Current research trends are also pointed out.