VARIETAL SALES AND QUALITY DIFFERENTIATION: THE CASE OF CERTIFIED SOYBEAN SEED IN THE SOUTHEASTERN U.S.

Variation in annual soybean plantings contributes to uncertainty in supplies of and demand for soybean seed in the southeastern U.S. This study used an expenditure valuation approach in an hedonic analysis framework to estimate returns to soybean seed quality differentiation. Analysis of pooled cross-sectional and time series observations narrowed important quality characteristics to yield and disease resistance attributes. In general, unexpected environmental factors affect seed crops over time, and the demand for other performance attributes is less predictable than for expected yield attributes. The results also suggest that geographical location is not significantly related to sales of varietal soybean seed in the study area.Crop Production/Industries,

Fast Predictive Simple Geodesic Regression

Deformable image registration and regression are important tasks in medical image analysis. However, they are computationally expensive, especially when analyzing large-scale datasets that contain thousands of images. Hence, cluster computing is typically used, making the approaches dependent on such computational infrastructure. Even larger computational resources are required as study sizes increase. This limits the use of deformable image registration and regression for clinical applications and as component algorithms for other image analysis approaches. We therefore propose using a fast predictive approach to perform image registrations. In particular, we employ these fast registration predictions to approximate a simplified geodesic regression model to capture longitudinal brain changes. The resulting method is orders of magnitude faster than the standard optimization-based regression model and hence facilitates large-scale analysis on a single graphics processing unit (GPU). We evaluate our results on 3D brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) from the ADNI datasets.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, 13 table

Mehodological Issues in the Classification of Attention-Related Disorders

The classification and identification of children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and related disorders involving learning and behavior are only rudimentarily developed. A major problem is the substantial overlap among children with attention, learning, and behavioral problems. The science of classification provides conceptual and methodological approaches addressing these problems. For successful classification of these children, major issues include (a) the need to provide explicit studies of identification criteria, (b) the need for systematic sampling strategies, (c) development of hypothetical classifications, and (d) systematic assessment of reliability and validity of hypothetical classifications. With the methodological advances provided by classification-oriented research, investigators and practitioners may be able to address issues involving definition and identification of children with attention and related disorders

Typical and aberrant functional brain flexibility: lifespan development and aberrant organization in traumatic brain injury and dyslexia

Intrinsic functional connectivity networks derived from different neuroimaging methods and connectivity estimators have revealed robust developmental trends linked to behavioural and cognitive maturation. The present study employed a dynamic functional connectivity approach to determine dominant intrinsic coupling modes in resting-state neuromagnetic data from 178 healthy participants aged 8–60 years. Results revealed significant developmental trends in three types of dominant intra- and inter-hemispheric neuronal population interactions (amplitude envelope, phase coupling, and phase-amplitude synchronization) involving frontal, temporal, and parieto-occipital regions. Multi-class support vector machines achieved 89% correct classification of participants according to their chronological age using dynamic functional connectivity indices. Moreover, systematic temporal variability in functional connectivity profiles, which was used to empirically derive a composite flexibility index, displayed an inverse U-shaped curve among healthy participants. Lower flexibility values were found among age-matched children with reading disability and adults who had suffered mild traumatic brain injury. The importance of these results for normal and abnormal brain development are discussed in light of the recently proposed role of cross-frequency interactions in the fine-grained coordination of neuronal population activity

Greater repertoire and temporal variability of cross-frequency coupling (CFC) modes in resting-state neuromagnetic recordings among children with reading difficulties

Cross-frequency, phase-to-amplitude coupling (PAC) between neuronal oscillations at rest may serve as the substrate that supports information exchange between functionally specialized neuronal populations both within and between cortical regions. The study utilizes novel algorithms to identify prominent instantaneous modes of cross-frequency coupling and their temporal stability in resting state magnetoencephalography (MEG) data from 25 students experiencing severe reading difficulties (RD) and 27 age-matched non-impaired readers (NI). Phase coherence estimates were computed in order to identify the prominent mode of PAC interaction for each sensor, sensor pair, and pair of frequency bands (from δ to γ) at successive time windows of the continuous MEG record. The degree of variability in the characteristic frequency-pair PACf1−f2 modes over time was also estimated. Results revealed a wider repertoire of prominent PAC interactions in RD as compared to NI students, suggesting an altered functional substrate for information exchange between neuronal assemblies in the former group. Moreover, RD students showed significant variability in PAC modes over time. This temporal instability of PAC values was particularly prominent: (a) within and between right hemisphere temporo-parietal and occipito-temporal sensors and, (b) between left hemisphere frontal, temporal, and occipito-temporal sensors and corresponding right hemisphere sites. Altered modes of neuronal population coupling may help account for extant data revealing reduced, task-related neurophysiological and hemodynamic activation in left hemisphere regions involved in the reading network in RD. Moreover, the spatial distribution of pronounced instability of cross-frequency coupling modes in this group may provide an explanation for previous reports suggesting the presence of inefficient compensatory mechanisms to support reading

Quantification of the spatiotemporal microstructural organization of the human brain association, projection and commissural pathways across the lifespan using diffusion tensor tractography.

Using diffusion tensor tractography, we quantified the microstructural changes in the association, projection, and commissural compact white matter pathways of the human brain over the lifespan in a cohort of healthy right-handed children and adults aged 6-68 years. In both males and females, the diffusion tensor radial diffusivity of the bilateral arcuate fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, uncinate fasciculus, corticospinal, somatosensory tracts, and the corpus callosum followed a U-curve with advancing age; fractional anisotropy in the same pathways followed an inverted U-curve. Our study provides useful baseline data for the interpretation of data collected from patients

Genes in glucose metabolism and association with spina bifida.

The authors test single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in coding sequences of 12 candidate genes involved in glucose metabolism and obesity for associations with spina bifida. Genotyping was performed on 507 children with spina bifida and their parents plus anonymous control DNAs from Hispanic and Caucasian individuals. The transmission disequilibrium test was performed to test for genetic associations between transmission of alleles and spina bifida in the offspring (P \u3c .05). A statistically significant association between Lys481 of HK1 (G allele), Arg109Lys of LEPR (G allele), and Pro196 of GLUT1 (A allele) was found ( P = .019, .039, and .040, respectively). Three SNPs on 3 genes involved with glucose metabolism and obesity may be associated with increased susceptibility to spina bifida

Lights, Camera...Citizen Science: Assessing the Effectiveness of Smartphone-Based Video Training in Invasive Plant Indentification

The rapid growth and increasing popularity of smartphone technology is putting sophisticated data-collection tools in the hands of more and more citizens. This has exciting implications for the expanding field of citizen science. With smartphonebased applications (apps), it is now increasingly practical to remotely acquire high quality citizen-submitted data at a fraction of the cost of a traditional study. Yet, one impediment to citizen science projects is the question of how to train participants. The traditional ‘‘in-person’’ training model, while effective, can be cost prohibitive as the spatial scale of a project increases. To explore possible solutions, we analyze three training models: 1) in-person, 2) app-based video, and 3) app-based text/images in the context of invasive plant identification in Massachusetts. Encouragingly, we find that participants who received video training were as successful at invasive plant identification as those trained in-person, while those receiving just text/images were less successful. This finding has implications for a variety of citizen science projects that need alternative methods to effectively train participants when in-person training is impractical

Anatomical and diffusion MRI of deep gray matter in pediatric spina bifida

AbstractIndividuals with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) exhibit brain abnormalities in cortical thickness, white matter integrity, and cerebellar structure. Little is known about deep gray matter macro- and microstructure in this population. The current study utilized volumetric and diffusion-weighted MRI techniques to examine gray matter volume and microstructure in several subcortical structures: basal ganglia nuclei, thalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala. Sixty-six children and adolescents (ages 8–18; M = 12.0, SD = 2.73) with SBM and typically developing (TD) controls underwent T1- and diffusion-weighted neuroimaging. Microstructural results indicated that hippocampal volume was disproportionately reduced, whereas the putamen volume was enlarged in the group with SBM. Microstructural analyses indicated increased mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) in the gray matter of most examined structures (i.e., thalamus, caudate, hippocampus), with the putamen exhibiting a unique pattern of decreased MD and increased FA. These results provide further support that SBM differentially disrupts brain regions whereby some structures are volumetrically normal whereas others are reduced or enlarged. In the hippocampus, volumetric reduction coupled with increased MD may imply reduced cellular density and aberrant organization. Alternatively, the enlarged volume and significantly reduced MD in the putamen suggest increased density

Sustained attention in children with two etiologies of early hydrocephalus.

Several studies have shown that children with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) and hydrocephalus have attention problems on parent ratings and difficulties in stimulus orienting associated with a posterior brain attention system. Less is known about response control and inhibition associated with an anterior brain attention system. Using the Gordon Vigilance Task (Gordon, 1983), we studied error rate, reaction time, and performance over time for sustained attention, a key anterior attention function, in 101 children with SBM, 17 with aqueductal stenosis (AS; another condition involving congenital hydrocephalus), and 40 typically developing controls (NC). In SBM, we investigated the relation between cognitive attention and parent ratings of inattention and hyperactivity and explored the impact of medical variables. Children with SBM did not differ from AS or NC groups on measures of sustained attention, but they committed more errors and responded more slowly. Approximately one-third of the SBM group had attention symptoms, although parent attention ratings were not associated with task performance. Hydrocephalus does not account for the attention profile of children with SBM, which also reflects the distinctive brain dysmorphologies associated with this condition