The Economic Evaluation of Input Use Prescription Maps: Are You Paying to Make Less Profit?

Variable Rate Prescriptions used by farmers to apply agricultural inputs are largely privatized and are normally seen only by the farmer that applies the prescription and the consultants whom create the prescription maps. Farmers need a way to evaluate the prescriptions that are being applied to fields. This paper explores modeling techniques which could be applied by farmers to determine the profitability of a particular consultant. Regression modeling is used on field trials which have been divided into site-specific management zones (SSMZ) based on a consultant’s variable rate prescriptions. Production functions are created for each management zone. The production functions are used to find the economically optimum rates or the rates which maximize profit. The consultant’s rates are also explored to determine how close this particular consultant is to the economically optimum rates. The consultant that is evaluated in this paper produces a profit that is $11 less than the economically optimum rates. Advisor: Taro Mien

Corn and oats experiments, 1893.

Caption title.Experiments with corn / G.E. Morrow, F.D. Gardner -- Rate of growth and chemical composition of the corn plant / E.H. Farrington -- Experiments with oats, 1893 / G.E. Morrow, F.D. Gardner

A Latent Profile Analysis of Suicidal and Self-Injurious Behavior, Other Dysregulated Behaviors, and Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms

Those with borderline personality disorder (BPD) exhibit many dysregulated behaviors, such as non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), dysregulated eating, and substance use. The purpose of this study was to examine BPD symptoms and levels of these dysregulated behaviors with latent profile analysis, which allows for the empirical investigation of distinct behaviors patterns among those with BPD. A non-clinical student sample was screened for elevated BPD symptoms (N=128, age =18.75 years [SD=1.05], 76.8% female) and used in mixture modeling analyses. Results supported five profiles from the sample, primarily distinguished by suicidality and NSSI: a low BPD-low dysregulated behavior profile, a low BPD profile with elevated suicidality, a low BPD profile with elevated NSSI, a high-BPD with low NSSI and somewhat elevated suicidality, and a high-BPD profile with high NSSI and low suicidality. Follow-up analyses indicated that other dysregulated behaviors did little to distinguish between those with high BPD symptoms. There were also important difference in motivational functions for NSSI between two of the profiles: those with high or low BPD symptoms who self-injured frequently. These findings are relevant to the ongoing debate about the existence of a NSSI disorder distinct from BPD

Geometric and Radiometric Correction of Multibeam Backscatter Derived from Reson 8101 Systems

A common by-product of multibeam surveys is a measure of the backscattered acoustic intensity from the seafloor. These data are of immense interest to geologists and geoscientists since maps of the acoustic backscatter strength can be used to infer physical properties of the sea bottom, such as impedance, roughness and volume inhomogeneity. Before such maps can be created from multibeam acoustic backscatter data, however, two tasks must be performed. 1. The data must be geographically registered using the bathymetric profile collected by the multibeam (which accounts for full orientation and refraction), as opposed to using the traditional flat-seafloor assumption. This allows us to additionally calculate the true grazing angle. 2. The signal intensities must be reduced to as close a measure of the backscatter strength of the seafloor as possible by radiometrically correcting the data on a ping-by-ping basis for variables such as transmission power, beam pattern, receiver gain, and pulse length. The purpose of this research project is to develop software tools to perform the above corrections for a massive backlog of RESON SeaBat 8101 multibeam data, as collected by the NOAA ship Rainier. While the backscatter logged by the multibeam systems is not of prime importance to NOAA’s hydrographic charting mandate, they recognize the potential value of this data to the work of other sister agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey (who is funding this project). The particular problems encountered with these data are that. Up to the end of 2001 field season, the backscatter data acquired by this system were collected from dedicated receiver beams, separate from those used for bathymetry. This receive beam is broad in the elevation plane (similar to a sidescan sonar) so that the variation in elevation angle with time must be indirectly inferred from the corresponding bathymetric profile. As some backscatter data are collected from slant-ranges beyond which bathymetric data are acquired, for that case the imaging geometry must be either inferred using a simple slope model, or derived from neighbouring swaths. Results of the application of full geometric and radiometric corrections will be presented

In vivo dose measurement using TLDs and MOSFET dosimeters for cardiac radiosurgery.

In vivo measurements were made of the dose delivered to animal models in an effort to develop a method for treating cardiac arrhythmia using radiation. This treatment would replace RF energy (currently used to create cardiac scar) with ionizing radiation. In the current study, the pulmonary vein ostia of animal models were irradiated with 6 MV X-rays in order to produce a scar that would block aberrant signals characteristic of atrial fibrillation. The CyberKnife radiosurgery system was used to deliver planned treatments of 20-35 Gy in a single fraction to four animals. The Synchrony system was used to track respiratory motion of the heart, while the contractile motion of the heart was untracked. The dose was measured on the epicardial surface near the right pulmonary vein and on the esophagus using surgically implanted TLD dosimeters, or in the coronary sinus using a MOSFET dosimeter placed using a catheter. The doses measured on the epicardium with TLDs averaged 5% less than predicted for those locations, while doses measured in the coronary sinus with the MOSFET sensor nearest the target averaged 6% less than the predicted dose. The measurements on the esophagus averaged 25% less than predicted. These results provide an indication of the accuracy with which the treatment planning methods accounted for the motion of the target, with its respiratory and cardiac components. This is the first report on the accuracy of CyberKnife dose delivery to cardiac targets

Safety and Efficacy of Continuous Flush Systems for Arterial and Pulmonary Artery Catheters

journal articleBiomedical Informatic

Paper Tricks

Prefabricated post disaster housin

Comparison of clinical and radiological outcomes for the anterior and medial approaches to open reduction in the treatment of bilateral developmental dysplasia of the hip:a systematic review protocol

Background: Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) affects 1–3% of newborns and 20% of cases are bilateral. The optimal surgical management strategy for patients with bilateral DDH who fail bracing, closed reduction or present too late for these methods to be used is unclear. There are proponents of both medial approach open reduction (MAOR) and anterior approach open reduction (AOR); however, there is little evidence to inform this debate. Methods: We will perform a systematic review designed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocol. We will search the medical and scientific databases including the grey and difficult to locate literature. The Medical Subject Headings “developmental dysplasia of the hip”, “congenital dysplasia of the hip”, “congenital hip dislocation”, “developmental hip dislocation”, and their abbreviations, “DDH” and “CDH” will be used, along with the qualifier “bilateral”. Reviewers will independently screen records for inclusion and then independently extract data on study design, population characteristics, details of operative intervention and outcomes from the selected records. Data will be synthesised and a meta-analysis performed if possible. If not possible we will analyse data according to Systematic Review without Meta-Analysis guidance. All studies will be assessed for risk of bias. For each outcome measure a summary of findings will be presented in a table with the overall quality of the recommendation assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment Development and Evaluation approach. Discussion: The decision to perform MAOR or AOR in patients with bilateral DDH who have failed conservative management is not well informed by the current literature. High-quality, comparative studies are exceptionally challenging to perform for this patient population and likely to be extremely uncommon. A systematic review provides the best opportunity to deliver the highest possible quality of evidence for bilateral DDH surgical management. Systematic review registration: The protocol has been registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO ID CRD42022362325)

Distributed Social Multi-Agent Negotiation Framework For Incomplete Information Games

In this paper, we propose a social negotiation system in which agents can communicate and interact with each other socially throughout a Sheriff of Nottingham game. We address issues with the number of options available while negotiating, particularly when bluffing is involved. Experiments are proposed that would allow us to validate how closely this framework mirrors real social interaction in the game, and the possibility of generalising multi-agent negotiation beyond this framework is raised