Aerial imagery for yield prediction

UAVs enable fast, high resolution image capture of cotton fields. These images are typically assessed manually to identify areas of stress or reduced productivity. However, these assessments are not currently linked directly with on-farm management decisions. NCEA has developed software that determines yield prediction and irrigation requirements from: (i) UAV images; (ii) automated image analysis that extract cotton growth rates; and (iii) biophysical cotton model. CottonInfo extension officers and agronomists collected imagery in three regions in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 cotton seasons. Yield predictions from the evaluations in the 2016/17 season were within 5% of the final yield

Using Decision Trees for Coreference Resolution

This paper describes RESOLVE, a system that uses decision trees to learn how to classify coreferent phrases in the domain of business joint ventures. An experiment is presented in which the performance of RESOLVE is compared to the performance of a manually engineered set of rules for the same task. The results show that decision trees achieve higher performance than the rules in two of three evaluation metrics developed for the coreference task. In addition to achieving better performance than the rules, RESOLVE provides a framework that facilitates the exploration of the types of knowledge that are useful for solving the coreference problem.Comment: 6 pages; LaTeX source; 1 uuencoded compressed EPS file (separate); uses ijcai95.sty, named.bst, epsf.tex; to appear in Proc. IJCAI '9

Flight to Quality for Large Financial Institutions

Local correlation analysis is used to investigate flight to quality among large financial institutions before, during, and after the financial crisis of 2008-2009. While standard correlation captures general overall linear association, local correlation analysis more accurately captures changes in the associations in response to changing market conditions. Using raw, market-adjusted, and industry-adjusted stock returns of individual banks, we investigate the performance of troubled banks and the change in investing behavior. Investors react to noisy information from the financial difficulties encountered by banking institutions. This reaction results in flight to quality. While the traditional Pearson correlations capture general overall linear association, local correlation analysis captures changes in the association in response to changing market conditions. Thus, local correlation analysis more accurately measures changes in correlation where it matters most: in the loss tail of the distribution of financial returns; leading to more appropriate diversification, portfolio management, and within-industry implications

The Takagi problem on the disk and bidisk

We give a new proof on the disk that a Pick problem can be solved by a rational function that is unimodular on the unit circle and for which the number of poles inside the disk is no more than the number of non-positive eigenvalues of the Pick matrix. We use this method to find rational solutions to Pick problems on the bidisk

A study of time concepts found in primary reading materials

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Searching for the Soldier Pheromone: Behavioral Effects of Soldiers and Soldier-Produced Chemicals in the Formosan Subterranean Termite, Coptotermes formosanus (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae))

The Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus, is a eusocial insect and an invasive urban pest. Colonies function through a division of labor among castes (i.e., queens and kings, workers, and soldiers). Though soldiers are energetically expensive to maintain, C. formosanus has a relatively large soldier caste (~10% of the colony). Soldiers are physically unable to collect food or build tunnels but are regularly found with foraging workers. In some species, soldiers influence the worker foraging behavior. In C. formosanus, aside from defense, the roles soldiers play remains unknown. In this study, we determined if soldiers influence the exploratory foraging of workers in C. formosanus. Groups of workers were introduced to planar foraging arenas to forage with different soldier concentrations. There was no significant difference in tunnel length, tunnel complexity, or food consumption within four days between foraging groups with 100 workers and 0, 2, 10, or 30 soldiers. Based on this study, no relationship was found between worker exploratory foraging activity and soldier presence. C. formosanus soldiers, like some other termite species, produce a defensive secretion for chemical defense. C. formosanus defensive secretion composition was previously investigated, showing lignoceric acid and hexacosanoic acid as two major components, but no behavioral influence was investigated. Choice assays showed C. formosanus workers were repelled by lignoceric acid, hexacosanoic acid, a mixture of lignoceric and hexacosanoic acids, and the crude extract of the soldier defensive secretion. Workers consumed less paper treated with the mix of lignoceric and hexacosanoic acid, indicating that the soldier defensive secretion may elicit repellant behavior in workers, allowing workers to escape from a potential threat. We additionally analyzed cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) from workers and soldiers to examine differences that may identify a soldier- or worker-specific compound. No qualitative difference was detected in CHC profiles between workers and soldiers, but of the 15 peaks identified, 13 differed significantly in relative abundance. These differences may enable colony members to distinguish between workers and soldiers, but further behavioral tests are required. By investigating the multifunctional roles of soldiers in termite colonies, this study helps better understand the complex nature of communication in social insects

Anomalous scattering of light on Triton

Researchers report here the discovery of an isolated region of anomalously forward scattering materials on the surface of Triton. The researchers' best-fit Hapke parameters indicate that regolith particles in the anomalous scattering region are not only less backward scattering, but also slightly lower in single scattering albedo than average materials on Triton's surface. While it might be possible to account for such differences in terms of differences in particle size and transparency, it is also possible that the anomalous region is compositionally distinct from other terrains. It is noteworthy that, for the anomalous region, there exists a distinctively strong spatial correlation between the photometric ratios at different phase angles, and that, relative to other terrains, the anomalous region reddens at a different rate with increasing phase angle

Letter from Senator McCarthy to Senator Langer regarding Martin Sandberger, August 2, 1949

Letter dated August 2, 1949 from Senator Joseph R. McCarthy to Senator William Langer regarding the case of Dr. Martin Sandberger. The letter references a unanimous vote by a Senate investigation committee to request that the Inspector General\u27s office provide a detailed overview of each of the death cases. The Secretary agreed to postpone all executions until the investigation was complete. An investigation of the conditions at Lansberg Prison was also referenced. See also: Letter from Senator Langer to Senator McCarthy Regarding Martin Sandberger, 1949 Letter from Senator Langer Informing T. W.Streiter of Vote to Review Death Penalty Cases, August 26, 1949https://commons.und.edu/langer-papers/1194/thumbnail.jp