Application of remote sensing technology to land evaluation, planning utilization of land resources, and assessment of westland habitat in eastern South Dakota, parts 1 and 2

The author has identified the following significant results. LANDSAT fulfilled the requirements for general soils and land use information. RB-57 imagery was required to provide the information and detail needed for mapping soils for land evaluation. Soils maps for land evaluation were provided on clear mylar at the scale of the county highway map to aid users in locating mapping units. Resulting mapped data were computer processed to provided a series of interpretive maps (land value, limitations to development, etc.) and area summaries for the users

Sharp transition towards shared vocabularies in multi-agent systems

What processes can explain how very large populations are able to converge on the use of a particular word or grammatical construction without global coordination? Answering this question helps to understand why new language constructs usually propagate along an S-shaped curve with a rather sudden transition towards global agreement. It also helps to analyze and design new technologies that support or orchestrate self-organizing communication systems, such as recent social tagging systems for the web. The article introduces and studies a microscopic model of communicating autonomous agents performing language games without any central control. We show that the system undergoes a disorder/order transition, going trough a sharp symmetry breaking process to reach a shared set of conventions. Before the transition, the system builds up non-trivial scale-invariant correlations, for instance in the distribution of competing synonyms, which display a Zipf-like law. These correlations make the system ready for the transition towards shared conventions, which, observed on the time-scale of collective behaviors, becomes sharper and sharper with system size. This surprising result not only explains why human language can scale up to very large populations but also suggests ways to optimize artificial semiotic dynamics.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Conventions spreading in open-ended systems

We introduce a simple open-ended model that describes the emergence of a shared vocabulary. The ordering transition toward consensus is generated only by an agreement mechanism. This interaction defines a finite and small number of states, despite each individual having the ability to invent an unlimited number of new words. The existence of a phase transition is studied by analyzing the convergence times, the cognitive efforts of the agents and the scaling behavior in memory and timeComment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Public perceptions of diabetes, healthy living and conversational agents in Singapore: a needs assessment

Background: The incidence of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes is on the rise in countries worldwide, including Singapore. Health professional-delivered healthy lifestyle interventions have been shown to prevent type 2 diabetes. Yet ongoing personalised guidance from health professionals is not feasible or affordable at the population level. Novel digital interventions delivered using mobile technology such as conversational agents are a potential alternative for delivery of healthy lifestyle change behavioural interventions to the public. Objective: We explored Singaporeans’ perceptions on and experience of healthy living, diabetes and mobile health interventions (apps and conversational agents). This survey was done to help inform the design and development of a conversational agent focusing on healthy lifestyle change. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted over Aug and Sept 2019. 20 participants were recruited from relevant healthy living Facebook pages and groups. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in person or over the telephone using an interview guide. Interviews were transcribed and analysed in parallel by two researchers using Burnard’s method, a structured approach for thematic content analysis. Results: The collected data was organised into four main themes: (1) use of conversational agents, (2) ubiquity of smartphone applications, (3) understanding of diabetes and (4) barriers and facilitators to a healthy living in Singapore. Most participants used health-related mobile applications as well as conversational agents unrelated to healthcare. They provided diverse suggestions for future conversational agent-delivered interventions. Participants also highlighted several knowledge gaps in relation to diabetes and healthy living. In terms of barriers to healthy living, frequent dining out, high stress levels, lack of work-life balance and dearth of free time to engage in physical activity were mentioned. In contrast, discipline, pre-planning and sticking to a routine were important for enabling a healthy lifestyle. Conclusions: Participants in our study commonly used mobile health interventions and provided important insights into their knowledge gaps and needs in relation to healthy lifestyle behaviour change. Future digital interventions like conversational agents focusing on healthy lifestyle and diabetes prevention should aim to address the barriers highlighted in our study and motivate individuals to adopt habits for healthy living

Large-eddy simulation of two-dimensional dunes in a steady, unidirectional flow

We performed large-eddy simulations of the flow over a typical two-dimensional dune geometry at laboratory scale (the Reynolds number based on the average channel height andmean velocity is 18,900) using the Lagrangian dynamic eddy-viscosity subgrid-scale model. The results are validated by comparison with simulations and experiments in the literature. The flowseparates at the dune crest, generating a shear layer that plays a crucial role in the transport of momentum and energy, and the generation of coherent structures. The turbulent kinetic energy budgets show the importance of the turbulent transport and mean-flow advection in the bulk flow above the shear layer. In the recirculation zone and in the attached boundary layers production and dissipation are the most important terms. Large, coherent structures of various types can be observed. Spanwise vortices are generated in the separated shear layer due to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability; as they are advected, they undergo lateral instabilities and develop into horseshoe-like structures, are tilted downward, and finally reach the surface. The ejection that occurs between the legs of the vortex creates the upwelling and downdrafting events on the free surface known as "boils." Near-wall turbulence, after the reattachment point, is affected by large streamwise Taylor-Görtler vortices generated on the concave part of the stoss side, which affect the distribution of the near-wall streaks

Motivation in Honors Advising

Section headings: Honors advising and student motivation Scenarios Implications for Honors Advising Conclusion Equipping advisors with a motivation toolbox to be used in regular interactions with prospective and current students, including formal office visits, open houses, and sidewalk conversations, makes our advising interactions more purposeful and relevant. Introducing honors motivation in advising encounters and first-year experience courses will help students gain a better sense of who they are both individually and as a group. This approach also helps students to be curious about finding their purpose, vocation, ideas, and curricula. The EVC model allows honors advisors to understand and help students more quickly. It also promotes self-assessment, reflection, and action planning by the students. Future directions for our work involve program-level changes that can be pursued in honors advising, curriculum planning, and assessment. By observing advising trends through the EVC framework, we can better understand common characteristics among the honors students enrolled in our universities, diagnose structural impediments in honors, and then make data-driven improvements. Advising is a prime way to navigate diffuse interests and coordinate values across program elements. We can help high-performing students develop optimal motivation while simultaneously developing maps and tools to measure learning outcomes and student success. We can help students better see the value we are providing to them today and in the future. Moreover, advising may ultimately drive grassroots efforts at program-level innovation

Anomalous Expansion of Attractively Interacting Fermionic Atoms in an Optical Lattice

Strong correlations can dramatically modify the thermodynamics of a quantum many-particle system. Especially intriguing behaviour can appear when the system adiabatically enters a strongly correlated regime, for the interplay between entropy and strong interactions can lead to counterintuitive effects. A well known example is the so-called Pomeranchuk effect, occurring when liquid 3He is adiabatically compressed towards its crystalline phase. Here, we report on a novel anomalous, isentropic effect in a spin mixture of attractively interacting fermionic atoms in an optical lattice. As we adiabatically increase the attraction between the atoms we observe that the gas, instead of contracting, anomalously expands. This expansion results from the combination of two effects induced by pair formation in a lattice potential: the suppression of quantum fluctuations as the attraction increases, which leads to a dominant role of entropy, and the progressive loss of the spin degree of freedom, which forces the gas to excite additional orbital degrees of freedom and expand to outer regions of the trap in order to maintain the entropy. The unexpected thermodynamics we observe reveal fundamentally distinctive features of pairing in the fermionic Hubbard model.Comment: 6 pages (plus appendix), 6 figure

Perception of nonnative tonal contrasts by Mandarin-English and English-Mandarin sequential bilinguals

This study examined the role of acquisition order and crosslinguistic similarity in influencing transfer at the initial stage of perceptually acquiring a tonal third language (L3). Perception of tones in Yoruba and Thai was tested in adult sequential bilinguals representing three different first (L1) and second language (L2) backgrounds: L1 Mandarin-L2 English (MEBs), L1 English-L2 Mandarin (EMBs), and L1 English-L2 intonational/non-tonal (EIBs). MEBs outperformed EMBs and EIBs in discriminating L3 tonal contrasts in both languages, while EMBs showed a small advantage over EIBs on Yoruba. All groups showed better overall discrimination in Thai than Yoruba, but group differences were more robust in Yoruba. MEBs’ and EMBs’ poor discrimination of certain L3 contrasts was further reflected in the L3 tones being perceived as similar to the same Mandarin tone; however, EIBs, with no knowledge of Mandarin, showed many of the same similarity judgments. These findings thus suggest that L1 tonal experience has a particularly facilitative effect in L3 tone perception, but there is also a facilitative effect of L2 tonal experience. Further, crosslinguistic perceptual similarity between L1/L2 and L3 tones, as well as acoustic similarity between different L3 tones, play a significant role at this early stage of L3 tone acquisition.Published versio

The Active Nucleus of IC4970: A Nearby Example of Merger-Induced Cold-Gas Accretion

We present results from Chandra X-ray and Spitzer mid-infrared observations of the interacting galaxy pair NGC6872/IC4970 in the Pavo galaxy group and show that the smaller companion galaxy IC4970 hosts a highly obscured active galactic nucleus (AGN). The 0.5-10 keV X-ray luminosity of the nucleus is variable, increasing by a factor 2.9 to 1.7 x 10^{42} erg/s (bright state) on ~100 ks timescales. The X-ray spectrum of the is heavily absorbed (N_H = 3 x 10^{23} cm^{-2}) for power law models with Gamma = 1.5-2.0 and shows a clear 6.4 keV Fe Kalpha line with equivalent width of 144-195 eV. Limits on the diffuse emission in IC4970 from Chandra X-ray data suggest that the available power from Bondi accretion of hot interstellar gas may be an order of magnitude too small to power the AGN. Spitzer images show that 8 micron nonstellar emission is concentrated in the central 1 kpc of IC4970, consistent with high obscuration in this region. The mid-infrared colors of the nucleus are consistent with those expected for a highly obscured AGN. Taken together these data suggest that the nucleus of IC4970 is a Seyfert 2, triggered and fueled by cold material supplied to the central supermassive black hole as a result of the off-axis collision of IC4970 with the cold-gas rich spiral galaxy NGC6872.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, submitted to ApJ, MIR flux conversion error corrected in Table 4, MIR colors and paper text unchange

A sequential-access three-microsecond core memory

Includes: introduction, principle of operation, register selection switch, and figures.A proposed core memory is described that has sequential access to 256 registers (word storage locations), can read out a new word every 3 microsecond and has word length of 58 bits. A read-rewrite cycle for a given storage location requires 6 microseconds; the rewrite (or write), is accomplished during the 3 microsecond period that the next storage location is being read. Direct storage location selection provides a 3-to-1 selection ratio. Small, low-coercive-force cores are used (0.047 in. O.D., F398, DCL-5-19S-1). Since currents required are small, transistors can be used instead of tubes