Crop Identification Technology Assessment for Remote Sensing (CITARS)

The results of classifications and experiments performed for the Crop Identification Technology Assessment for Remote Sensing (CITARS) project are summarized. Fifteen data sets were classified using two analysis procedures. One procedure used class weights while the other assumed equal probabilities of occurrence for all classes. In addition, 20 data sets were classified using training statistics from another segment or date. The results of both the local and non-local classifications in terms of classification and proportion estimation are presented. Several additional experiments are described which were performed to provide additional understanding of the CITARS results. These experiments investigated alternative analysis procedures, training set selection and size, effects of multitemporal registration, the spectral discriminability of corn, soybeans, and other, and analysis of aircraft multispectral data

Crop identification technology assessment for remote sensing (CITARS). Volume 6: Data processing at the laboratory for applications of remote sensing

The results of classifications and experiments for the crop identification technology assessment for remote sensing are summarized. Using two analysis procedures, 15 data sets were classified. One procedure used class weights while the other assumed equal probabilities of occurrence for all classes. Additionally, 20 data sets were classified using training statistics from another segment or date. The classification and proportion estimation results of the local and nonlocal classifications are reported. Data also describe several other experiments to provide additional understanding of the results of the crop identification technology assessment for remote sensing. These experiments investigated alternative analysis procedures, training set selection and size, effects of multitemporal registration, spectral discriminability of corn, soybeans, and other, and analyses of aircraft multispectral data

Phase transition in the collisionless regime for wave-particle interaction

Gibbs statistical mechanics is derived for the Hamiltonian system coupling self-consistently a wave to N particles. This identifies Landau damping with a regime where a second order phase transition occurs. For nonequilibrium initial data with warm particles, a critical initial wave intensity is found: above it, thermodynamics predicts a finite wave amplitude in the limit of infinite N; below it, the equilibrium amplitude vanishes. Simulations support these predictions providing new insight on the long-time nonlinear fate of the wave due to Landau damping in plasmas.Comment: 12 pages (RevTeX), 2 figures (PostScript

A Comparison of Print and Cursive Handwriting in Fifth and Sixth Grade Students: A Pilot Study

Background: Handwriting is an important skill to master because handwriting demands take up a significant portion of the school day. Pediatric occupational therapists evaluate and treat children who are experiencing challenges with handwriting; therefore, it is important for practitioners to understand the performance of children using both of these writing styles. Method: A convenience sample of 36 fifth and sixth grade students participated in the study. Print and cursive handwriting samples were collected on two separate occasions, and a Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test was used to examine speed and legibility differences in these writing styles. Results: Speed in print writing did not differ significantly for gender between the fifth and sixth graders. Cursive writing speed improved significantly for the sixth grade female students compared to the fifth grade female students. Female print legibility scores decreased from the fifth to the sixth grade. Regardless of grade level, the female students were faster with cursive than the male students. Conclusion: The female students consistently used cursive, and their writing speed increased from one year to the next, as compared to the male students, who did not use a consistent writing style. It is important for occupational therapists to educate teachers and parents on the importance of consistent handwriting instruction and practice

Relativistic ponderomotive force, uphill acceleration, and transition to chaos

Starting from a covariant cycle-averaged Lagrangian the relativistic oscillation center equation of motion of a point charge is deduced and analytical formulae for the ponderomotive force in a travelling wave of arbitrary strength are presented. It is further shown that the ponderomotive forces for transverse and longitudinal waves are different; in the latter, uphill acceleration can occur. In a standing wave there exists a threshold intensity above which, owing to transition to chaos, the secular motion can no longer be described by a regular ponderomotive force. PACS number(s): 52.20.Dq,05.45.+b,52.35.Mw,52.60.+hComment: 8 pages, RevTeX, 3 figures in PostScript, see also http://www.physik.th-darmstadt.de/tqe

Adiabatic motion of a neutral spinning particle in an inhomogeneous magnetic field

The motion of a neutral particle with a magnetic moment in an inhomogeneous magnetic field is considered. This situation, occurring, for example, in a Stern-Gerlach experiment, is investigated from classical and semiclassical points of view. It is assumed that the magnetic field is strong or slowly varying in space, i.e., that adiabatic conditions hold. To the classical model, a systematic Lie-transform perturbation technique is applied up to second order in the adiabatic-expansion parameter. The averaged classical Hamiltonian contains not only terms representing fictitious electric and magnetic fields but also an additional velocity-dependent potential. The Hamiltonian of the quantum-mechanical system is diagonalized by means of a systematic WKB analysis for coupled wave equations up to second order in the adiabaticity parameter, which is coupled to Planck’s constant. An exact term-by-term correspondence with the averaged classical Hamiltonian is established, thus confirming the relevance of the additional velocity-dependent second-order contribution

Stochastic Budget Optimization in Internet Advertising

Internet advertising is a sophisticated game in which the many advertisers "play" to optimize their return on investment. There are many "targets" for the advertisements, and each "target" has a collection of games with a potentially different set of players involved. In this paper, we study the problem of how advertisers allocate their budget across these "targets". In particular, we focus on formulating their best response strategy as an optimization problem. Advertisers have a set of keywords ("targets") and some stochastic information about the future, namely a probability distribution over scenarios of cost vs click combinations. This summarizes the potential states of the world assuming that the strategies of other players are fixed. Then, the best response can be abstracted as stochastic budget optimization problems to figure out how to spread a given budget across these keywords to maximize the expected number of clicks. We present the first known non-trivial poly-logarithmic approximation for these problems as well as the first known hardness results of getting better than logarithmic approximation ratios in the various parameters involved. We also identify several special cases of these problems of practical interest, such as with fixed number of scenarios or with polynomial-sized parameters related to cost, which are solvable either in polynomial time or with improved approximation ratios. Stochastic budget optimization with scenarios has sophisticated technical structure. Our approximation and hardness results come from relating these problems to a special type of (0/1, bipartite) quadratic programs inherent in them. Our research answers some open problems raised by the authors in (Stochastic Models for Budget Optimization in Search-Based Advertising, Algorithmica, 58 (4), 1022-1044, 2010).Comment: FINAL versio

Review of Nuclear Physics Experiments for Space Radiation

Human space flight requires protecting astronauts from the harmful effects of space radiation. The availability of measured nuclear cross section data needed for these studies is reviewed in the present paper. The energy range of interest for radiation protection is approximately 100 MeV/n to 10 GeV/n. The majority of data are for projectile fragmentation partial and total cross sections, including both charge changing and isotopic cross sections. The cross section data are organized into categories which include charge changing, elemental, isotopic for total, single and double differential with respect to momentum, energy and angle. Gaps in the data relevant to space radiation protection are discussed and recommendations for future experiments are made

Computational and Mathematical Modelling of the EGF Receptor System

This chapter gives an overview of computational and mathematical modelling of the EGF receptor system. It begins with a survey of motivations for producing such models, then describes the main approaches that are taken to carrying out such modelling, viz. differential equations and individual-based modelling. Finally, a number of projects that applying modelling and simulation techniques to various aspects of the EGF receptor system are described

Long-time discrete particle effects versus kinetic theory in the self-consistent single-wave model

The influence of the finite number N of particles coupled to a monochromatic wave in a collisionless plasma is investigated. For growth as well as damping of the wave, discrete particle numerical simulations show an N-dependent long time behavior resulting from the dynamics of individual particles. This behavior differs from the one due to the numerical errors incurred by Vlasov approaches. Trapping oscillations are crucial to long time dynamics, as the wave oscillations are controlled by the particle distribution inhomogeneities and the pulsating separatrix crossings drive the relaxation towards thermal equilibrium.Comment: 11 pages incl. 13 figs. Phys. Rev. E, in pres