Applying Online: Technological Innovation for Income Support Programs in Four States

A study examining the development, implementation, and best practices for online applications for public benefits programs in California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Washington based on interviews with state agencies and community-based organizations

Image metadata estimation using independent component analysis and regression

In this paper, we describe an approach to camera metadata estimation using regression based on Independent Component Analysis (ICA). Semantic scene classification of images using camera metadata related to capture conditions has had some success in the past. However, different makes and models of camera capture different types of metadata and this severely hampers the application of this kind of approach in real systems that consist of photos captured by many different users. We propose to address this issue by using regression to predict the missing metadata from observed data, thereby providing more complete (and hence more useful) metadata for the entire image corpus. The proposed approach uses an ICA based approach to regression

Measuring Volatility in Dairy Commodity Prices

The policy environment facing the EU dairy industry continues to undergo considerable change under WTO and CAP reform. Movement away from supply management by the EU and a more liberal global agricultural trading system will involve greater price volatility for dairy commodities. It is anticipated that EU dairy prices will more closely align with world prices. World prices are both lower and more volatile than EU prices and it is further assumed that this increased volatility will be transmitted to EU prices. Price volatility is a concern for a number of reasons as it adds challenges for business planning, debt repayment, and, in some cases, solvency. Representative EU and world butter and SMP (Skim Milk Powder) prices are considered and using the ARMA and GARCH framework their volatility is quantified.Price Volatility, ARMA, GARCH, Butter, SMP, Dairy Policy, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Managing Price Risk in a Changing Policy Environment: The Case of the EU Dairy Industry

The EU dairy industry faces an unprecedented level of change. The anticipated removal of milk quotas and the move to a less restricted global trade environment will provide the industry with both opportunities and challenges. The primary challenge will be the need for the industry to deal with more volatile prices. Active management of the risks associated with these more volatile prices will help to place the industry in a more competitive position. However this will require the industry and policy makers to embrace a new set of tools. For example the US dairy industry has been much more active in the management of risk and lessons from their experience provide a valuable insight into which tools may be more appropriate in an EU context.Dairy, Risk Management, EU, US,

The population and range expansion of the Egyptian Goose (Alopachen aegyptiacus) across the UK 1993-2014

Non-native waterbird populations are increasing through much of Europe with some species showing conspicuously successful invasions. Much uncertainty surrounds the potential impacts of invasive waterbirds on native waterbird communities and wetlands. Understanding the processes and phases of population and range expansion of non-native waterbirds, and their environmental drivers, is an important research topic to inform management of these species. This study investigates the trajectories of population and range expansion of the Egyptian Goose (Alopachen aegypticus) across the UK between 1993 and 2014, and the environmental and spatial drivers of population density and site occupancy for three representative time periods, using the British Trust for Ornithology’s Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) data. Egyptian Goose showed an accelerating rate of occupancy of new grid cells (at 20-km resolution) over the time period of the study. There is no apparent reduction in the rate of spread of this species, insofar as through time there is an increase of both grid cell occupancy and of wetland area occupancy, although in the latter stages of expansion (post-2003) it appears that there is more of a filling out effect going on, at the same time as the increased rate of expansion. Environmental models supported the a priori hypothesis that waterbodies have a negative association with densities of Egyptian Goose, which was born out in the results. Environmental models also showed that rainfall was consistently negatively associated with density and presence/absence, whilst stately homes were shown to be consistently positively associated