Potential for gene-flow from cultivated Irish grasses and cereals

End of project reportThe importance of gene movement from cultivated plants has been highlighted in regard to minimising the movement of seed and/or pollen between GM and non-GM crops (i.e. gene flow). Although ryegrass covers in excess of 90% of Ireland’s agricultural area, very little is known about gene flow from ryegrass populations from an Irish context. The goal of this project was to address this lack of data by measuring the degree of pollen-mediated gene-flow between two Lolium spp. in a field environment. Ryegrass (esp. Lolium perenne) was selected because as the dominant pasture grass it is critical for the livestock industry as well as being a current target for novel improvements. The results from this research indicate that the potential for pollen-mediated gene flow from perennial ryegrass decreases exponentially with increased distance from the pollen source, with hybridisation events recorded out at 192m. In parallel to this research, a separate study was conducted to assess the degree of genetic diversity within feral and wild Lolium spp across Ireland and also within the important crop weed Avena fatua (‘wild oats’); thereby providing an insight into the degree of historic gene flow that has occurred within each species and in regard to the latter, identifying the potential for non-native A. fatua to colonise the Irish agrienvironment

Afternoon Tea by Qui Shanshan: Translated from the Chinese

Afternoon Tea by Qui Shanshan: Translated from the Chines

Dedication

Dedication for use in Journa

A Paper Bubble: The “Wealth Effect” and the Chinese Housing Market

This paper argues that, contrary to popular opinion, the Chinese housing market has not created a particularly excessive bubble, and that the ongoing correction will have a very limited effect on the Chinese economy

Training Convolutional Neural Networks Using An Automated Feedback Loop To Estimate The Population Of Avian Species

Using automated processes to detect wildlife in uncontrolled outdoor imagery in the field of wildlife ecology is challenging task. This is especially true in imagery provided by an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), where the relative size of wildlife is small and visually similar to its background. In the UAS imagery collected by the Wildlife@Home project, the data is also extremely unbalanced, with less than 1% of area in the imagery being of wildlife. To tackle these challenges, the Wildlife@Home project has employed citizen scientists and trained experts to go through collected UAS imagery and classify it. Classified data are used as inputs to convolutional neural networks (CNNs) which seek to automatically mark which areas of the imagery contain wildlife. The output of the CNN is then passed to a blob counter which returns a population estimate for the image. A feedback loop was developed to help train the CNNs to better differentiate between the wildlife and the the visually similar background and deal with the disparate amount of wildlife training images versus background training images. When using the feedback loop and citizen scientist provided data, population estimates by the CNN and blob counter are within 3.93% of the manual count by the field biologists. When expert provided data is used the estimates are within 5.24%. This is improved from 150% and 88% error in previous work which did not employ a feedback loop for the citizen science and expert data, respectively. Citizen scientist data worked better than expert data in the current work potentially because a matching algorithm was used on the citizen scientist data but not the expert data

Poetry and the Multiple Drafts Model: The Functional Similarity of Cole Swensen\u27s Verse and Human Consciousness

This project compares the operational methods of three of Cole Swensen\u27s books of poetry (Such Rich Hour, Try, and Goest) with ways in which the human mind and consciousness function. I use Daniel Dennett\u27s Multiple Drafts Model of consciousness, as described in Consciousness Explained, alongside concepts presented in several other philosophical works (from both analytic and continental traditions), to demonstrate that significant similarities exist between the operations of poetry and consciousness in general, and that these operational similarities are especially noticeable in Swensen\u27s work. This thesis examines several operational modes that are present within the human mind (intentionality, phenomenological perception, a materialist process of formation, etc.), as they are contingent upon the Multiple Drafts Model, and constructs a theory of how these same concepts and principles function within Swensen\u27s poetic texts

Ultrasound Diagnosis of Bilateral Quadriceps Tendon Rupture After Statin Use

Simultaneous bilateral quadriceps tendon rupture is a rare injury. We report the case of bilateral quadriceps tendon rupture sustained with minimal force while refereeing a football game. The injury was suspected to be associated with statin use as the patient had no other identifiable risk factors. The diagnosis was confirmed using bedside ultrasound

The causal effect of a timeout at stopping an opposing run in the NBA

In the summer of 2017, the National Basketball Association reduced the number of total timeouts, along with other rule changes, to regulate the flow of the game. With these rule changes, it becomes increasingly important for coaches to effectively manage their timeouts. Understanding the utility of a timeout under various game scenarios, e.g., during an opposing team's run, is of the utmost importance. There are two schools of thought when the opposition is on a run: (1) call a timeout and allow your team to rest and regroup, or (2) save a timeout and hope your team can make corrections during play. This paper investigates the credence of these tenets using the Rubin causal model framework to quantify the causal effect of a timeout in the presence of an opposing team's run. Too often overlooked, we carefully consider the stable unit-treatment-value assumption (SUTVA) in this context and use SUTVA to motivate our definition of units. To measure the effect of a timeout, we introduce a novel, interpretable outcome based on the score difference to describe broad changes in the scoring dynamics. This outcome is well-suited for situations where the quantity of interest fluctuates frequently, a commonality in many sports analytics applications. We conclude from our analysis that while comebacks frequently occur after a run, it is slightly disadvantageous to call a timeout during a run by the opposing team and further demonstrate that the magnitude of this effect varies by franchise

Plans for the first balloon flight of the gamma-ray polarimeter experiment (GRAPE)

We have developed a design for a hard X-ray polarimeter operating in the energy range from 50 to 500 keV. This modular design, known as GRAPE (Gamma-Ray Polarimeter Experiment), has been successfully demonstrated in the lab using partially polarized gamma-ray sources and using fully polarized photon beams at Argonne National Laboratory. In June of 2007, a GRAPE engineering model, consisting of a single detector module, was flown on a high altitude balloon flight to further demonstrate the design and to collect background data. We are currently preparing a much larger balloon payload for a flight in the fall of 2011. Using a large (16-element) array of detector modules, this payload is being designed to search for polarization from known point sources of radiation, namely the Crab and Cygnus X-1. This first flight will not only provide a scientific demonstration of the GRAPE design (by measuring polarization from the Crab nebula), it will also lay the foundation for subsequent long duration balloon flights that will be designed for studying polarization from gamma-ray bursts and solar flares. Here we shall present data from calibration of the first flight module detectors, review the latest payload design and update the predicted polarization sensitivity for both the initial continental US balloon flight and the subsequent long-duration balloon flights