Exploitation of Intra-Spectral Band Correlation for Rapid Feacture Selection and Target Identification in Hyperspectral Imagery

This research extends the work produced by Capt. Robert Johnson for detecting target pixels within hyperspectral imagery (HSI). The methodology replaces Principle Components Analysis for dimensionality reduction with a clustering algorithm which seeks to associate spectral rather than spatial dimensions. By seeking similar spectral dimensions, the assumption of no a priori knowledge of the relationship between clustered members can be eliminated and clusters are formed by seeking high correlated adjacent spectral bands. Following dimensionality reduction Independent Components Analysis (ICA) is used to perform feature extraction. Kurtosis and Potential Target Fraction are added to Maximum Component Score and Potential Target Signal to Noise Ratio as mechanisms for discriminating between target and non-target maps. A new methodology exploiting Johnson’s Maximum Distance Secant Line method replaces the first zero bin method for identifying the breakpoint between signal and noise. A parameter known as Left Partial Kurtosis is defined and applied to determine when target pixels are likely to be found in the left tail of each signal histogram. A variable control over the number of iterations of Adaptive Iterative Noise filtering is introduced. Results of this modified algorithm are compared to those of Johnson’s AutoGAD [2007]

VALUING WATER QUALITY MONITORING: A CONTINGENT VALUATION EXPERIMENT INVOLVING HYPOTHETICAL AND REAL PAYMENTS

This paper studies the preferences and willingness-to-pay for individuals for volunteer water quality monitoring programs. The study involves supporting water quality monitoring at two ponds in the state of Rhode Island. The paper uses both a hypothetical and a real-payment contingent valuation survey to directly measure individual preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for volunteer water quality monitoring at the two ponds. The overall results of the study suggest that hypothetical WTP is not statistically greater than real WTP, and that the average survey respondent is willing to support water quality monitoring on one of the two ponds. The study also finds that the specified purpose of water quality monitoring and certain socioeconomic characteristics of a respondent significantly affect the respondent's decision to support volunteer water quality monitoring.Environmental Economics and Policy,

DHEA action is mediated by multiple receptors and metabolites.

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a C-19 adrenal steroid and the most abundant circulating hormone in humans. Since circulating levels decline in late adulthood, treatment of humans with DHEA has been suggested to have beneficial health effects. Although the mechanism of action is unknown, DHEA may be metabolized to active metabolites that exert their physiological effects by receptor-mediated processes and cell signaling pathways. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanistic processes of DHEA action. Since DHEA may exert its pleotropic effects by being metabolized to biologically active species, a GC/MS method was developed to quantify the liver microsomal metabolism of DHEA of various species and identify the P450 enzymes responsible for metabolism. 16alpha-hydroxy-DHEA and 7alpha-hydroxy-DHEA were formed in rat, hamster, pig and human. CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 formed 7alpha-hydroxy-DHEA, 16alpha-hydroxy-DHEA, and the unique human metabolite, 7beta-hydroxy-DHEA, while the fetal enzyme CYP3A7 formed only 16alpha-hydroxy and 7beta-hydroxy-DHEA. By using this method to examine the metabolite profiles of various P450s, the developmental expression patterns of the human cytochrome P4503A forms could be classified and therefore have significant clinical relevance. Nuclear receptors transduce the effects of hormones into transcriptional responses. DHEA and metabolites were screened in a cell-based assay to determine the interaction with estrogen receptors alpha and beta (ERalpha and ERbeta). DHEA, DHEA-S, and androstendiol activated ERalpha, while DHEA, 7-oxo-DHEA, androstenedione and androstenediol activated ERbeta demonstrating ER is activated directly by DHEA and some metabolites. These and other studies from our laboratory demonstrate that DHEA is metabolized into various monohydroxylated metabolites. DHEA and metabolites directly activate ER as well as the pregnane X receptor (PXR). Additionally, DHEA has been shown to activate another nuclear receptor, peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) in vivo. This research suggests that DHEA action is mediated by multiple receptors and metabolites with various biological activities, comprising of a complex mode of action of DHEA

Vocabulary and Main Idea Reading Intervention Using Text Choice to Improve Content Knowledge and Reading Comprehension of Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

This simultaneous replication single-case design study investigated a vocabulary and main idea intervention with an aspect of text choice provided to students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Five middle school students with ASD participated in two instructional groups taught by school-based personnel. Results were initially mixed. These results were followed by upward and stable trends, indicating a functional relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Social validity measures indicated that students appreciated the opportunity to make choices on text selection

Reduction of Calcofluor in Solithane Conformal Coatings of Printed Wiring Boards

An investigation on the outgassing of a pigment employed as a fluorescent medium in conformal coatings has been performed. The conformal coatings in question are used to protect printed wiring boards from environmental hazards such as dust and moisture. The pigment is included in the coating at low concentration to allow visual inspection of the conformal coating for flaw detection. Calcofluor, the fluorescent pigment has been found to be a significant outgasser under vacuum conditions and a potential source of contamination to flight hardware. A minimum acceptable concentration of Calcofluor for flaw detection is desirable. Tests have been carried out using a series of Solithane(TM) conformal coating samples, with progressively lower Calcofluor concentrations, to determine the minimum required concentration of Calcofluor. It was found that the concentration of Calcofluor could be reduced from 0.115% to 0.0135% without significant loss in the ability to detect flaws, while at the same time significant reductions in Calcofluor outgassing and possible contamination of systems could be realized

Storytelling as Narrativity: Rural Life Through the Prism of Social Tensions

This introductory article provides purpose and rationale for this special issue of Southern Rural Sociology. The remaining six essays represent stories based on the authors’ farm experiences, crafted to explicate the tensions that underlie all of social life. Illustrating the connection between rural life and the world of ideas, the work makes explicit how the often unrecognized contradictions of everyday society are balanced through choices that typically exist at an unconscious, taken-for-granted level. Each author describes a particular dialectic. Collectively, the writers have transformed their narrative to narrativity, the formal imposition of moral purpose on storied form. Although our purpose is primarily pedagogical (making the implicit explicit), the personal essays incorporate the pleasure of narrative and the insight of narrativit

Biased estimation in policy research: an illustrative example of ridge regression in a health system model

Journal ArticleThe paper develops an argument for the necessity of examining individual coefficients in policy models. As a result of this need, it is posited that something other than OLS estimators should be used since they are inflated and have extremely large variances when multicollinearity is present. Further, it is argued that policy models are by definition theoretically nonorthogonal. Ridge regression as one of a class of biased estimators is offered as one possible approach to dealing with the nonorthogonality problem in policy research. The logic of the approach is articulated and an empirical model of a health system is estimated with ordinary least squares and ridge estimators. The models are compared and implications discussed