Identifying Smokestacks in Remotely Sensed Imagery via Deep Learning Algorithms

Locating smokestacks in remote sensing imagery is a crucial first step to calculating smokestack heights, which allows for the accurate modeling of dioxin pollution spread and the study of resulting health impacts. In the interest of automating this process, this thesis examines deep learning networks and how changes in input datasets and network architecture affect image detection accuracy. This initial image detection serves as the first step in automated object recognition and height calculation. While this is applicable to general land use classification, this study specifically addresses detecting smokestack images. Different dataset scenarios are generated from the massive Functional Map of the World dataset, ranging from two to sixty-two classes, and network architectures from recent studies are used. Each dataset and network is analyzed in their performance by way of F-measure. Image characteristics are also analyzed from images that were correctly/incorrectly labeled by the algorithms, providing answers on what images the algorithms best predict and what qualities the algorithms cannot discern. The smokestack’s accuracy is reported at its highest through a five class training dataset, using an Adam Optimizer over six epochs. More or less classes returned lower scores, as did using the Stochastic Gradient Descent optimizer. Extended epochs did not return significantly higher or lower scores. The study concludes that while using more data can be effective in creating more accurate algorithms, using less data which is better structured for the problem at hand can have a greater effect

Photographic and Cinematographic Applications in Lucid Dream Control

Through the application of photographic and cinematographic principles the lucid dreamer can be the director of various visual phenomena, thereby synthesizing creative dreaming and photography within the dream. A photographer needs to utilize certain techniques to either replicate a given scene or to create an altered scene. I found that these techniques could be simulated to achieve certain visual effects in the dream. They were accessible to dream control due to the perceptual nature of lucidity and the visual elements represented in the dream. The lucid dreamer may use a “dream camera” as a prop to facilitate the usage of the through-the-lens viewing techniques. However, it may be easier to use only the essential factor, such as a filter. Alternately one may visualize the process without using specific aids. Although the resulting visual phenomena can occur independently in dreams the usage of these photographic applications may increase their frequency and quality

Farm Income, Population, and Farmland Prices: A Relative Information Approach

This paper uses an entropy-based information approach to determine if farmland values are more closely associated with urban pressure or farm income. The basic question is: how much information on changes in farm real estate values is contained in changes in population versus changes in returns to production agriculture? Results suggest population is informative, but changes in farmland values are more strongly associated with changes in the distribution of returns. However, this relationship is not true for every region nor does it hold over time, as for some regions changes in population are more informative. Results have policy implications for both equity and efficiency.entropy; land values; information theory; population growth.

Profit Patterns Across American Agriculture

To remain viable, agriculture in each location must offer returns that are competitive with those from alternative investments and sufficient to cover producers' financial obligations. Economic theory says that rates of return converge over time as resources flow into more-profitable industries and out of less-profitable industries, causing factor price changes. Both traditional growth and trade theories say factor markets will adjust to equalize commodity returns over time. This study examines spatial relationships in agriculture's profitability over time. Results show temporal and spatial convergence of returns consistent with trade and development theories. However, there are profit patterns unique to state/regional agriculture, raising policy implications.convergence, return on assets, "risk of ruin", Agribusiness,

RATES OF RETURN IN THE FARM AND NON-FARM SECTORS: A TIME SERIES COMPARISON

Financial Economics,

NEXT YEAR ON THE U.S. FARMLAND MARKET: AN INFORMATIONAL APPROACH

This paper formulates an information measure for changes in asset values and applies the formulation to farmland values in the United States for 1960-99. The results indicate that changes in asset values contained significant information following the Russian wheat sale in the early 1970s and the financial crisis in agriculture in the mid 1980s. Further, information about preceding year's asset value largely explains the regional distribution of current year's farmland values.Land Economics/Use,

THE MEASUREMENT OF INEQUALITY IN CANADIAN AND U.S. AGRICULTURAL INCOME BY COMPONENTS OF NET VALUE ADDED

This paper examines changes in net value added generated through Canadian and U.S. farm production, 1970-2000. We consider how the structural changes in Canadian and U.S. agriculture have affected the size and distribution of net value added and its components: rent, capital, labor, and to net farm income. We use the Theil Measure of Inequality (TMI) to compare and explain changes in 1) the between and within-region distribution of net value added, and 2) changes in the distribution of factor shares of net value added in Canada and in the U.S. Results show that in Canada (1960-2000), net value added has become somewhat more equally distributed relative to the number of farms per province, but has varied widely from 1972-1988. Between-region inequality in net value added accounted for from 0.5 to 85.5 percent of this inequality from 1960-2000. In the U.S. (1949-2000), net value added has become more unequally distributed. About half of the variation in net value added in the U.S. is due to between-region variation and about half to within-region variation in net value added. We find that most of the variation in the components of net value added (returns to capital, labor, nonoperator landlords, and to farm operators) in Canada and the United States is due to variations across regions, rather than to variations in the components of net value added themselves. These variations have generally been due to macroeconomic differences in regions, such as shifts in enterprise specialization, urbanization, changes in government programs, and to other structural changes in agriculture.Agricultural Finance,

REGIONAL CHANGES IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF NET VALUE ADDED IN U.S. AGRICULTURE, 1960-2002

This paper examines the effects of structural changes on the distribution of net value added and the difference between net value added and agricultural income over time. We present and discuss the changes in the distribution of net value added (land, labor, capital, and farm operator income) over time. Net value added by U.S. agriculture grew significantly from $18 billion to 1960 to$95 billion in 1996. We examine regional differences in net value added using the Theil entropy measure. The inequality (dispersion) of net value added increased over time. The increased inequality represented both increases in regional dispersion in net value added and increases in the average inequality in net value added in each region. Thus, the net value added is becoming less alike across the U.S. We also examined the inequality in the components of net value added. The greatest dispersion occurred in returns to land followed by returns to capital. Therefore, changes in the dispersion of net value added by agriculture are explained by differences in the payments to non-operator landlords and to capital.Agricultural Finance,

A TRANSLOG COST FUNCTION ANALYSIS OF U.S. AGRICULTURE: A DYNAMIC SPECIFICATION

This study has used an empirical approach developed by Urga and Walters (2003) to examine the implications of the short-run specification of the standard translog cost specification along with the possible implications of non-stationarity. We have estimated a dynamic translog cost specification complete with dynamic share equations for U.S. agriculture and compared it to the static, long-run specification. We found that the dynamic translog specification yielded more significant parameter estimates, and yielded results that are consistent with economic theory. In particular, the coefficient m (the adjustment cost parameter) determines the overall autoregressive structure of the model. The fact that its estimated value (0.36) is statistically different from zero at any conventional level of confidence indicates that the dynamic structure of the model is important. This finding illustrates the superiority of the short-run, dynamic specification over the static, long-run model.Agribusiness,

A Translog Cost Function Analysis of U.S. Agriculture: 1948-1999

This study examines the implications of the short-run specification of the standard, static translog cost function along with the possible implications of non-stationarity by estimating a dynamic translog cost specification complete with dynamic share equations for the U.S. using an empirical approach developed by Urga and Walters (2003). We compare the results of the static, long-run model with those of a dynamic, short-run error-correction model in terms of 1) significance of the parameter estimates, and 2) consistency with economic theory.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,