THE USE OF NEAR INFRARED REFLECTANCE FOR EVALUATING COTTON FINENESS AND MATURITY

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed to develop Ii new high speed, high volume technique to assess cotton quality. This goal has led us to investigate the feasibility of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy as a technique for evaluating cotton fiber perimeter size and wall thickness, two of the physical characteristics used in the evaluation of cotton fineness and maturity. In order to isolate the effects of perimeter size and wall thickness, nineteen cotton samples were selected on the basis of their having a nonsignificant correlation between these 2 measurements. The reflectance spectra from 1100 to 2500 nanometers was recorded at every other wavelength. The 700 independent variables were transformed by log (1/ reflectance). Due to the multicollinearity of the independent variables, the principle components were used in a multiple regression with data obtained from the reference method (arealometer) for the two dependent variables, perimeter size and wall thickness. The regression analysis of perimeter size and wall thickness on the principle components gave R2\u27S of 0.229 and 0.943 respectively

Leveraging U.S. Army Administrative Data for Individual and Team Performance

The Army possesses vast amounts of administrative (archival) data about Soldiers. These data sources include screening tests, personnel action codes, training scores, global assessments,  physical fitness scores, and more. However, the Army has yet to integrate these data to create a holistic operating picture. Our research focuses on repurposing Army administrative data to (1) operationalize social constructs of interest to the Army (e.g., Army Values, Warrior Ethos) and (2) model the predictive relationship between these constructs and individual (i.e., Soldier) and team (i.e., unit) performance and readiness. The goal of the project is to provide people analytics models to Army leadership for the purposes of optimizing human capital management decisions. Our talk will describe the theoretical underpinnings of our human performance model, drawing on disciplines such as social and industrial/organizational psychology, as well as our experience gaining access to and working with Army administrative data sources. Access to the archival administrative data is provided through the Army Analytics Group (AAG), Person-event Data Environment (PDE). The PDE is a business intelligence platform that has two central functions: (1) to provide a secure repository for data sources on U.S. military personnel; and (2) to provide a secure collaborative work environment where researchers can access unclassified but sensitive military data

MORPHOMETRIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SOUTH AMERICAN AFRICANIZED AND SOUTH AFRICAN (APIS MELLIFERA SCUTELLATA) HONEY BEES

International audienc

FIELD AND SIMPLIFIED TECHNIQUES FOR IDENTIFYING AFRICANIZED AND EUROPEAN HONEY BEES

International audienc

IMPROVED SIMPLE TECHNIQUES FOR IDENTIFYING AFRICANIZED AND EUROPEAN HONEY BEES

International audienc

Changes in Cerebral Blood Flow during an Alteration in Glycemic State in a Large Non-human Primate (Papio hamadryas sp.)

Changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) during a hyperglycemic challenge were mapped, using perfusion-weighted MRI, in a group of non-human primates. Seven female baboons were fasted for 16 h prior to 1-h imaging experiment, performed under general anesthesia, that consisted of a 20-min baseline, followed by a bolus infusion of glucose (500 mg/kg). CBF maps were collected every 7 s and blood glucose and insulin levels were sampled at regular intervals. Blood glucose levels rose from 51.3 ± 10.9 to 203.9 ± 38.9 mg/dL and declined to 133.4 ± 22.0 mg/dL, at the end of the experiment. Regional CBF changes consisted of four clusters: cerebral cortex, thalamus, hypothalamus, and mesencephalon. Increases in the hypothalamic blood flow occurred concurrently with the regulatory response to systemic glucose change, whereas CBF declined for other clusters. The return to baseline of hypothalamic blood flow was observed while CBF was still increasing in other brain regions. The spatial pattern of extra-hypothalamic CBF changes was correlated with the patterns of several cerebral networks including the default mode network. These findings suggest that hypothalamic blood flow response to systemic glucose levels can potentially be explained by regulatory activity. The response of extra-hypothalamic clusters followed a different time course and its spatial pattern resembled that of the default-mode network