Soil moisture, especially surface soil moisture (SSM), plays an important role in the development of various natural hazards that result from extreme weather events such as drought, flooding, and landslides. There have been many remote sensing methods for soil moisture retrieval based on microwave or optical thermal infrared (TIR) measurements. TIR remote sensing has been popular for SSM retrie...

Two new remotely sensed leaf area index (LAI) and surface soil moisture (SSM) satellite-derived products are compared with two sets of simulations of the ORganizing Carbon and Hydrology In Dynamic EcosystEms (ORCHIDEE) and Interactions between Soil, Biosphere and Atmosphere, CO2-reactive (ISBA-A-gs) land surface models. We analyse the interannual variability over the period 1991– 2008. The leaf...

BACKGROUND We aimed to investigate the early changes in liver and spleen stiffness measurement (LSM, SSM) in hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients with compensated advanced chronic liver disease (cACLD) treated with new antivirals (DAA) to elucidate factors determining the initial change in stiffness and its implications for the long-term follow up of HCV-cured patients. METHODS A total of 41 pati...

A method is proposed to increase the accuracy of satellite sensorderived near-surface humidity estimates. The method uses an operational atmospheric circulation model to correct the satellite sensor estimates of humidity from their regional bias. The method was applied to twelve orbits of the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) selected between 1997 and 1998. The SSM/I-derived humidity esti...

There has been a growing interest in the use of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) in helping solve information systems problems. This paper applies the SSM methodology within the context of action research in solving a knowledge management problem in a real world situation. The level of success in implementation of knowledge management initiatives is significantly dependent on the right balance of...

Multicast data delivery carries distinct importance in mobile wireless environments, where bandwidth is limited and transmission channels are shared between users. The development of mobile multicast protocols consequently exhibits emerging interest. As the common approach of Any Source Multicast distribution is burdened with intricate routing procedures, the spread of multicast–enabled network...

This paper reports on an innovative combination of hard and soft methods—soft systems methodology (SSM) with data envelopment analysis (DEA). Problems in defining and agreeing appropriate inputs and outputs for DEA led to the use of SSM as a way or producing a comprehensive and systemic database of performance indicators. The contributions of the paper are: the use of SSM to improve DEA specifi...

Women who require or desire mastectomy for breast cancer one option should be immediate breast reconstruction. Skin-sparing mastectomy (SSM) describes the surgery that maximises breast skin and infra- mammary fold preservation, significantly improves the symmetry and natural appearance and a more satisfied patient. In multiple studies, SSM seems to be oncologically safe in patients undergoing m...

Spectral self-interference microscopy (SSM) relies on the balanced collection of light traveling two different paths from the sample to the detector, one direct and the other indirect from a reflecting substrate. The resulting spectral interference effects allow nanometer-scale axial localization of isolated emitters. To produce spectral fringes the difference between the two optical paths must...

In this paper, we present a new image indexing and retrieval method for image database applications. We introduce a novel image content description feature termed Scene Structural Matrix (SSM). The SSM captures the overall structural information of the scene by indexing the geometric features of the image. In this work, we also introduce a constraint adaptive image segmentation method termed Mi...