"I can’t be green if I’m in the red": combining precision agriculture and remote sensing technologies for sub field and regional decision making.

Balancing sustainable agricultural production with environmental, social, cultural and community objectives under the uncertainty of the impacts of climate change on rural livelihoods has become an increasing priority worldwide. This may mean land-use pattern, that have evolved over the last decades may be suboptimal. Environmental degradation but also economic opportunities for climate change mitigation from carbon sequestration may support alternative land-use scenarios. However, the majority of cost of such changes is expected to be borne by the landholder and adoption of alternative land uses will only occur if profit from traditional cropping practices is comparative to new options, namely, in areas where the economic opportunity cost is low. Precision agriculture has shown that yield variation in fields can be substantial and here lies the potential that is explored in this thesis. Precision agriculture provides data with a spatial resolution that is fine enough to reflect the spatial variably within fields. If unproductive patches can be allocated to more environmentally friendly use, both the environment and farm economy may benefit. However, inherent problems exist with the technology and these need to be addressed before the information can be used in the decision making process. A preparation step in this thesis is therefore to evaluate a suite of targeted algorithms to remove a substantial amount of yield mapping errors. This thesis examines the degree of spatial and temporal variability and estimates a potential range of economic opportunity costs that might be associated with reallocation of land to different use. Although dependent on the interplay between the spatial and temporal variability of yield and the price volatility of international commodity markets, a likely scenario shows that about 50% of the land may be taken out of production with only a 25% reduction in income. Regional land managers do not have access to precision agriculture data because yield mapping data does not exist at a scale or temporal dimension required for regional analyses. This thesis shows that it is possible to creating high resolution estimates of economic performance at a broad scale by extrapolating yield mapping data from early adopters to an entire study area using remotely sensed imagery over numerous seasons. This also has strong benefits for landholders who do not have long time series of yield data. By using satellite remote sensing they may be able to leap frog the long phase of yield map archiving giving them the ability to make management and land use decisions sooner. This thesis suggests that high resolution yield estimates combined with financial estimates of production can identify cropping areas with marginal income returns. This type of information may facilitate adoption of a mix of environmentally friendly land uses in the cropping landscape without significant financial repercussions to the grower. Additionally, the mapping of this information will act as a critical sounding board between the land holder and the catchment manager where conflicting objectives of economic and environmental outcomes can be compared.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 201

Proposal for the Initiation of General and Military Specific Benchmarking of Robotic Convoys

This paper identifies the need for a standard method of benchmarking emerging robotic systems with a focus on military, multi-robot convoys. Benchmarking is commonly used throughout academia and industry as a method of evaluating and comparing products. In this paper we propose a generic form that these benchmarks may take in the future. Classification categories, such as, obstacle avoidance, area mapping, and convoy coherence are all possible elements of this benchmark. The goal is a standard benchmark that can be used to evaluate military multi-robot convoy systems

Names and the Critique of History in Urdu Literature:From Manto’s ‘Yazid’ to Zaigham’s ‘Shakuntala’

This essay examines the ways in which two modern Urdu writers, Saadat Hasan Manto (1912–1955) and Ghazal Zaigham (b. 1964), discuss issues related to familial naming practices, religious identity, Islamic history, communalism in Indian cinema, progressivism in Urdu literature, and archetypes of gender. Translations and close readings of Manto’s essays and stories as well as Zaigham’s vignette are enriched by discussions of relevant issues in South Asian history, religion, and literary culture

Electrochemical Characterization of Precious Metal Braze Alloys Using Potentiodynamic Polarization

This study aimed to characterize the electrochemical behavior of six precious metal braze alloys by performing potentiodynamic polarization tests (ParStat 2273) based on ASTM Specifications G5 and G59. To determine the extent to which the alloys will contribute to galvanic corrosion in a marine environment (3.5 wt% NaCl), corrosion analysis software was used to produce fitted Tafel lines to determine the open circuit potential, Voc, for each alloy. The Voc values for the alloys were found to be -66.58 mV for Gold ABA, 13.01 mV for Nicoro®, -39.00 mV for Nioro®, 23.4 mV for Palniro-1®, -47.91 mV for Palniro-7®, and -205.16 mV for Silver ABA. These values were compared to industry-standard base materials typically used in brazing processes to determine their compatibility as galvanic couples. Differences in Voc greater than 250 mV within the couple are considered unsuitable for joining without additional galvanic protection. To provide coupling recommendations, 95% confidence intervals were made to estimate each alloy’s Voc

The Impact of National College Grants Evaluation

The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) commissioned a team from Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) to conduct an impact evaluation of a number of its grants in support of the development of a self-improving education system in England. The focus of this project was to assess the impact of grants over the two years from April 2012 – July 2014 and to conduct a thorough evaluation of a number of NCTL grants, focusing on the inputs, outputs and outcomes of these grants