Annotated Checklist of the Pentatomidae (Heteroptera) of Connecticut

We provide town data for the Pentatomidae in Connecticut. Although this state has been much collected, most sampling has been limited to only a few lo- cations. Species newly recorded for Connecticut are: Halyomorpha halys (Stål), Hymenarcys nervosa (Say), Banasa euchlora Stål, B. sordida (Uhler), and Perillus bioculatus (Fabricius). Podisus neglectus (Westwood) may occur in the state. Other species found in neighboring states may eventually be found in Connecticut: Picromerus bidens (Linnaeus), Rhacognathus americanus Stål, Mcphersonarcys aequalis (Say), Thyanta custator custator (Fabricius), T. custator acerra McAtee, and Amaurochrous brevitylus (Barber and Sailer). We briefly analyze these data, recognizing some faunal elements. More collecting needs to be conducted in the state, so that distribution patterns outlined here can be more broadly understood, and so that species of potential conservation concern can be identified

Image gathering, coding, and processing: End-to-end optimization for efficient and robust acquisition of visual information

Researchers are concerned with the end-to-end performance of image gathering, coding, and processing. The applications range from high-resolution television to vision-based robotics, wherever the resolution, efficiency and robustness of visual information acquisition and processing are critical. For the presentation at this workshop, it is convenient to divide research activities into the following two overlapping areas: The first is the development of focal-plane processing techniques and technology to effectively combine image gathering with coding, with an emphasis on low-level vision processing akin to the retinal processing in human vision. The approach includes the familiar Laplacian pyramid, the new intensity-dependent spatial summation, and parallel sensing/processing networks. Three-dimensional image gathering is attained by combining laser ranging with sensor-array imaging. The second is the rigorous extension of information theory and optimal filtering to visual information acquisition and processing. The goal is to provide a comprehensive methodology for quantitatively assessing the end-to-end performance of image gathering, coding, and processing

PRIVATE INVESTMENT IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN ASIA

This study addresses the questions of future sources of technology for increasing food and agricultural production by considering the situation in Asia. This region of the world is particularly appropriate for studying these questions because of the dynamic changes in population and incomes. How much private research is there and what is it producing? Will the private sector compensate for declining public agricultural research investments in Asia? What can governments do to stimulate private research and protect farmers from harmful or defective technology? Agribusiness firm's R&D investments were evaluated in selected developing countries during 1996 and 1998 and compared with data from a similar study conducted in the mid-1980s. The largest amount of private research was in India where investment was about $55 million per year in the mid-1990s, followed by Thailand, Malaysia, and China. China's private R&D spending represents less than one one-hundredth of 1 percent of agricultural gross domestic product. In contrast, in Thailand and Malaysia, firms spent about 0.1 percent. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, private sector R&D grew in real terms in the countries in our sample. However, at this rate, private research will not fill the gap needed to support rapid growth in demand for agricultural products. Foreign firms made an important contribution to private research in all of these countries. The most important policy that helped induce this growth was liberalization of industrial policy that allowed private and foreign firms to operate and expand in agricultural input industries. A second important policy was investments in public research. Patents and tax incentives seem to have had little effect so far, but could be important in the future.Agricultural research and development (R&D), private sector R&D, technology transfer, Asian R&D, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

The genus Liatris in Indiana

In checking specimens of Liatris Schreb. from the herbaria of Dr. Chas. C. Deam and of Butler University, it was found that a considerable degree of confusion and uncertainty has existed with regard to the classification of these plants. This was to be expected, since this genus is one of unusual complexity with many variables and intergradations existing among the various species. Some attempts at classification have been somewhat superficial, placing a number of different types under one species name, while others have drawn the line too closely and made separate species and varieties out of plants which were merely mutations or impoverished individuals

An ecological study of the Klein woods, Jennings County, Indiana

The primeval forest of Indiana was without doubt representative of some of the most magnificent sections of the great eastern deciduous region. In a previous paper (9) we described briefly the fate of our hardwoods, and pointed out that only small tracts of comparatively undisturbed stands remain for observation. Since reports on the early forests are rather vague, and based on superficial observation rather than on quantitative data, it is somewhat difficult to gain from them a true picture of the phytosociology of these forests prior to time of settlement. Qualitative and quantitative studies of the remaining small stands referred to above, however, enable us to set up, or establish a fairly accurate norm with which to compare areas which have been disturbed, and see to what extent this disturbance has progressed. For detailed studies of a number of such stands, the reader is referred to the following literature references (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)

A comparative study of three Indiana bogs

The topography of the northern half of Indiana is dotted with numerous lakes and bogs. Many of the lakes located north of a line running irregularly southeast from Benton to Randolph counties still have extensive areas of open water, but no natural lakes are found south of this line

Updated Spitzer Emission Spectroscopy of Bright Transiting Hot Jupiter HD189733b

We analyze all existing secondary eclipse time series spectroscopy of hot Jupiter HD189733b acquired with the now defunct Spitzer/IRS instrument. We describe the novel approaches we develop to remove the systematic effects and extract accurate secondary eclipse depths as a function of wavelength in order to construct the emission spectrum of the exoplanet. We compare our results to a previous study by Grillmair et al. that did not examine all data sets available to us. We are able to confirm the detection of a water feature near 6{\mu}m claimed by Grillmair et al. We compare the planetary emission spectrum to three model families -- based on isothermal atmosphere, gray atmosphere, and two realizations of the complex radiative transfer model by Burrows et al., adopted in Grillmair et al.'s study. While we are able to reject the simple isothermal and gray models based on the data at the 97% level just from the IRS data, these rejections hinge on eclipses measured within relatively narrow wavelength range, between 5.5 and 7{\mu}m. This underscores the need for observational studies with broad wavelength coverage and high spectral resolution, in order to obtain robust information on exoplanet atmospheres.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures and 3 tables. Accepted for publication in Ap