Disappearing private reputations in long-run relationships

For games of public reputation with uncertainty over types and imperfect public monitoring, Cripps et al. [Imperfect monitoring and impermanent reputations, Econometrica 72 (2004) 407–432] showed that an informed player facing short-lived uninformed opponents cannot maintain a permanent reputation for playing a strategy that is not part of an equilibrium of the game without uncertainty over types. This paper extends that result to games in which the uninformed player is long-lived and has private beliefs, so that the informed player's reputation is private. The rate at which reputations disappear is uniform across equilibria and reputations also disappear in sufficiently long discounted finitely repeated games

Common learning

Consider two agents who learn the value of an unknown parameter by observing a sequence of private signals. The signals are independent and identically distributed across time but not necessarily across agents. We show that when each agent's signal space is finite, the agents will commonly learn the value of the parameter, that is, that the true value of the parameter will become approximate common knowledge. The essential step in this argument is to express the expectation of one agent's signals, conditional on those of the other agent, in terms of a Markov chain. This allows us to invoke a contraction mapping principle ensuring that if one agent's signals are close to those expected under a particular value of the parameter, then that agent expects the other agent's signals to be even closer to those expected under the parameter value. In contrast, if the agents' observations come from a countably infinite signal space, then this contraction mapping property fails. We show by example that common learning can fail in this case

Plant pathogens as biocontrol agents for Cirsium arvense : an answer to Müller and Nentwig

Recently, Müller and Nentwig (2011) reviewed the plant pathogens that have been considered for biological control of the weed Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop. (Canada thistle, Californian thistle, creeping thistle), and concluded that the prospects have been largely overestimated. The premise of their conclusion is that no bioherbicide products have achieved marketability, which they surmise is due to lack of host specificity, effectiveness, and issues with application. While it is true that no microbial products have achieved marketability for this weed, we believe their reasoning for this is erroneous, and likely due to lack of distinction between two biocontrol approaches, specifically classical biocontrol, and innundative biocontrol (often referred to as the biopesticide approach). These two different types of biocontrol have different goals, and are applied in different ways

Spatial and Temporal Considerations in Vehicle Path Tracking With an Emphasis on Spatial Robustness

This dissertation researches the task and path management of an autonomous vehicle with Ackerman-type steering. The task management problem was approached as a path training operation in which a human operator drives the desired path through an environment. A training trajectory is converted into a series of path segments that are driveable by the autonomous vehicle by first fitting a general path to the dataset. Next, transition segments are added to the general path to match the vehicle velocity and steering angle rate limit. The path management problem has been approached by first deriving a kine- matic model of the vehicle. The time domain model is expressed in the frequency domain and then converted into a spatial frequency domain. Next, a stability crite- rion is derived and used in the synthesis of a spatially-robust path controller

Apple orchards to take a new look

Results of experiments by the Department of agriculture could completely change the appearance of the apple orchard in the next decade. The normal orchard scene will become hedgerows of chemically-thinned, irrigated, red varieties on dwarfing or semi-dwarfing rootstocks receiving just the right amount of fertiliser, and areas between rows will be mown, or sprayed with herbicide. The clean cultivated, square-planted, vase-shaped tree will slowly disappear

Chemical thinning controls biennial bearing in apples

Department of Agriculture experiments have shown that biennial bearing of apples can be controlled by chemical thinning, but both winter and spring weather conditions must be taken into account when the need for spraying is assessed. BIENNIAL BEARING is a regular cycle in which each heavy crop of fruit is followed by a light crop, or, in extreme cases, no crop at all

Delayed foliation in apple trees

DELAYED foliation refers to the late leafing out and production of small leaves by fruit trees. However, the weak and protracted blossoming which precedes the appearance of the leaves has more serious consequences for it may lead to a reduced set of fruit

Summary of experimental results with sweet lupins 1971

Medina and Shenton Park. Uniharvest lupins These experiments dealt with time of application of 245TP and showed fairly conclusively that it should be .applied just before the first flowers open. All later times of application reduced flower set. Optimum time of application gave approximately the same weight of crop as the controls but the plants in both trials were illfigated and not stressed. BADGINGARR

Spray thinning of Japanese plums

THE hand thinning of Japanese plums is the most tedious work which the orchardist is called upon to undertake so that any method of crop reduction other than by hand should be welcome. Growers may, therefore, be pleased to know that in experiments conducted by the Department of Agriculture several varieties have been successfully spray thinned. The material used was D.N.B.P. (Dinitro secondary butyl phenol). Spraying with this material considerably reduces but does not eliminate hand thinning

Root growth of apple trees

IT will surprise even experienced growers to know that an apple tree in W.A. needs twice the quantity of roots the same tree would need in a more temperate climate such as England\u27s