4,970 research outputs found
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL SOUTHERN RICE FARMS
The purpose of this study is to determine factors contributing to the likelihood of financial success among rice farms. The results showed that the ratio of government payments to total production value, tenure, crop diversification, cost control, education, yield, and debt-to-asset ratio were significant factors influencing at least one financial success measure. Key words: competitiveness, rice farms, farm success, farm profitability.competitiveness, rice farms, farm success, farm profitability., Crop Production/Industries,
RG inspired Machine Learning for lattice field theory
Machine learning has been a fast growing field of research in several areas
dealing with large datasets. We report recent attempts to use Renormalization
Group (RG) ideas in the context of machine learning. We examine coarse graining
procedures for perceptron models designed to identify the digits of the MNIST
data. We discuss the correspondence between principal components analysis (PCA)
and RG flows across the transition for worm configurations of the 2D Ising
model. Preliminary results regarding the logarithmic divergence of the leading
PCA eigenvalue were presented at the conference and have been improved after.
More generally, we discuss the relationship between PCA and observables in
Monte Carlo simulations and the possibility of reduction of the number of
learning parameters in supervised learning based on RG inspired hierarchical
ansatzes.Comment: Talk given by Yannick Meurice at the conference Lattice 2017,
Granada, Spai
What do gas-rich galaxies actually tell us about modified Newtonian dynamics?
It has recently been claimed that measurements of the baryonic Tully-Fisher
relation (BTFR), a power-law relationship between the observed baryonic masses
and outer rotation velocities of galaxies, support the predictions of modified
Newtonian dynamics for the slope and scatter in the relation, while challenging
the cold dark matter (CDM) paradigm. We investigate these claims, and find
that: 1) the scatter in the data used to determine the BTFR is in conflict with
observational uncertainties on the data; 2) these data do not make strong
distinctions regarding the best-fit BTFR parameters; 3) the literature contains
a wide variety of measurements of the BTFR, many of which are discrepant with
the recent results; and 4) the claimed CDM "prediction" for the BTFR is a gross
oversimplification of the complex galaxy-scale physics involved. We conclude
that the BTFR is currently untrustworthy as a test of CDM.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; minor revisions to match published versio
Splenunculi mimicking metastases in a patient with locally advanced prostate cancer
Published online: November 24, 2016A 61-year-old man with locally advanced prostate cancer was found to have multiple solid intra-abdominal solid lesions during staging investigations. While some were in the pelvis, they were not located in the common landing sites for prostate cancer metastases, and his prostate specific antigen was not significantly elevated to suggest a high burden of metastatic disease. He reported a history of a blunt abdominal trauma due to a motor vehicle accident more than forty years ago which had been conservatively managed. His staging imaging revealed a lack of a discrete spleen in his left upper abdomen and this raised the suspicion that these solid lesions may represent ectopic splenic tissue. Imaging with nuclear medicine scintigraphy confirmed the lesions in his upper abdomen and pelvis to be splenunculi. He proceeded with a combination of androgen deprivation therapy and external beam radiotherapy for locally advanced, non-metastatic prostate cancer. Although it has been described in patients with low risk prostate cancer, this is the first case report of splenunculi mimicking metastases in a patient with locally advanced prostate cancer.Darren Foreman, Sophie A Plagaki
A Search for New Physics with the BEACON Mission
The primary objective of the Beyond Einstein Advanced Coherent Optical
Network (BEACON) mission is a search for new physics beyond general relativity
by measuring the curvature of relativistic space-time around Earth. This
curvature is characterized by the Eddington parameter \gamma -- the most
fundamental relativistic gravity parameter and a direct measure for the
presence of new physical interactions. BEACON will achieve an accuracy of 1 x
10^{-9} in measuring the parameter \gamma, thereby going a factor of 30,000
beyond the present best result involving the Cassini spacecraft. Secondary
mission objectives include: (i) a direct measurement of the "frame-dragging"
and geodetic precessions in the Earth's rotational gravitomagnetic field, to
0.05% and 0.03% accuracy correspondingly, (ii) first measurement of gravity's
non-linear effects on light and corresponding 2nd order spatial metric's
effects to 0.01% accuracy. BEACON will lead to robust advances in tests of
fundamental physics -- this mission could discover a violation or extension of
general relativity and/or reveal the presence of an additional long range
interaction in physics. BEACON will provide crucial information to separate
modern scalar-tensor theories of gravity from general relativity, probe
possible ways for gravity quantization, and test modern theories of
cosmological evolution.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 2 table
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