Natural Language Human-Computer Dialogue: Menu-Based Natural Language and Visual Performance

The present study was conducted to determine design principles for menu-based natural language (MBNL) interfaces and to provide evidence for the nature of visual search processes with menu-based systems. The effects of window size, window activity, and query length were investigated. Window size was manipulated as a between-subjects variable with three levels representing a sixteen-item window size, an eight-item window size, and a four-item window size. Window activity was manipulated as a within-subjects variable with two levels representing single active and multiple active windows. Query length was manipulated as a within-subjects variable with three levels representing one-, two-, and three-item query lengths. Thirty six subjects randomly assigned to three groups, based on the window size factor, performed queries with the three query lengths in both window activity conditions in counterbalanced order. It was found that two- and three-item queries were performed faster with single active windows. However, subjects rated multiple active windows as more \u27natural\u27. Query times also increased with query length and errors were most likely to occur on the longest query. Longer eye fixation durations were observed with the four-item window size. Fixation frequencies, fixation durations, dwell times, and relative dwell times all varied as a function of query length. Visual behavior also depended on which \u27area of interest\u27 subjects were viewing, and this effect interacted with window activity and query length. Finally, it was found that menus were not scanned randomly. However, scanpaths were less deterministic with multiple active windows and tended to become less constrained as query length increased. Based on the findings, human factors design principles were derived for application to MBNL interfaces

History of Grass Breeding for Grazing Lands in the Northern Great Plains of the USA and Canada

• In the early 1930s there were millions of acres of extensively degraded grazing lands and abandoned and eroded cropland in the Northern Plains of the United States and Canada. • Grass breeding and plant materials programs were established by both the US and Canadian governments and cooperating universities to develop revegetation materials. • Efforts of a small number of research locations and people resulted in grass cultivars or varieties that were used to revegetate and preserve the soil on millions of acres of land. • This is a brief history of the people, agencies, and universities that developed these cultivars that restored and increased the productivity of grasslands in the Northern Plains

Exploring Agricultural Production Systems and Their Fundamental Components with System Dynamics Modelling

Agricultural production in the United States is undergoing marked changes due to rapid shifts in consumer demands, input costs, and concerns for food safety and environmental impact. Agricultural production systems are comprised of multidimensional components and drivers that interact in complex ways to influence production sustainability. In a mixed-methods approach, we combine qualitative and quantitative data to develop and simulate a system dynamics model that explores the systemic interaction of these drivers on the economic, environmental and social sustainability of agricultural production. We then use this model to evaluate the role of each driver in determining the differences in sustainability between three distinct production systems: crops only, livestock only, and an integrated crops and livestock system. The result from these modelling efforts found that the greatest potential for sustainability existed with the crops only production system. While this study presents a stand-alone contribution to sector knowledge and practice, it encourages future research in this sector that employs similar systems-based methods to enable more sustainable practices and policies within agricultural production

Monitoring CO2 Storage at Cranfield, Mississippi with Time-Lapse Offset VSP – Using Integration and Modeling to Reduce Uncertainty

AbstractA time-lapse Offset Vertical Seismic Profile (OVSP) data set was acquired as part of a subsurface monitoring program for geologic sequestration of CO2. The storage site at Cranfield, near Natchez, Mississippi, is part of a detailed area study (DAS) site for geologic carbon sequestration operated by the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SECARB). The DAS site includes three boreholes, an injection well and two monitoring wells. The project team selected the DAS site to examine CO2 sequestration multiphase fluid flow and pressure at the interwell scale in a brine reservoir. The time-lapse (TL) OVSP was part of an integrated monitoring program that included well logs, crosswell seismic, electrical resistance tomography and 4D surface seismic. The goals of the OVSP were to detect the CO2 induced change in seismic response, give information about the spatial distribution of CO2 near the injection well and to help tie the high-resolution borehole monitoring to the 4D surface data.The VSP data were acquired in well CFU 31-F1, which is the ∼3200 m deep CO2 injection well at the DAS site. A preinjection survey was recorded in late 2009 with injection beginning in December 2009, and a post injection survey was conducted in Nov 2010 following injection of about 250 kT of CO2. The sensor array for both surveys was a 50-level, 3-component, Sercel MaxiWave system with 15 m (49ft) spacing between levels. The source for both surveys was an accelerated weight drop, with different source trucks used for the two surveys.Consistent time-lapse processing was applied to both data sets. Time-lapse processing generated difference corridor stacks to investigate CO2 induced reflection amplitude changes from each source point. Corridor stacks were used for amplitude analysis to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) for each shot point. Spatial variation in reflectivity (used to ‘map’ the plume) was similar in magnitude to the corridor stacks but, due to relatively lower S/N, the results were less consistent and more sensitive to processing and therefore are not presented. We examined the overall time-lapse repeatability of the OVSP data using three methods, the NRMS and Predictability (Pred) measures of Kragh and Christie (2002) and the signal-to-distortion ratio (SDR) method of Cantillo (2011). Because time-lapse noise was comparable to the observed change, multiple methods were used to analyze data reliability.The reflections from the top and base reservoir were identified on the corridor stacks by correlation with a synthetic response generated from the well logs. A consistent change in the corridor stack amplitudes from pre- to post-CO2 injection was found for both the top and base reservoir reflections on all ten shot locations analyzed. In addition to the well-log synthetic response, a finite-difference elastic wave propagation model was built based on rock/fluid properties obtained from well logs, with CO2 induced changes guided by time-lapse crosswell seismic tomography (Ajo-Franklin et al., 2013) acquired at the DAS site. Time-lapse seismic tomography indicated that two reservoir zones were affected by the flood. The modeling established that interpretation of the VSP trough and peak event amplitudes as reflectivity from the top and bottom of reservoir is appropriate even with possible tuning effects. Importantly, this top/base change gives confidence in an interpretation that these changes arise from within the reservoir, not from bounding lithology. The modeled time-lapse change and the observed field data change from 10 shotpoints are in agreement for both magnitude and polarity of amplitude change for top and base of reservoir. Therefore, we conclude the stored CO2 has been successfully detected and, furthermore, the observed seismic reflection change can be applied to Cranfield's 4D surface seismic for spatially delineating the CO2/brine interface

Development of the Renewal on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation Project

On the Ground•The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation comprises 2.3 million acres, primarily rangeland, straddling the North Dakota–South Dakota border.•Natural resource management is economically and culturally important to the Standing Rock community.•Respecting traditional ways of thinking and placing stakeholders and their needs at the center are key aspects of project development.•Native Americans were the original natural resource managers on our rangelands, and their thoughts and expertise can provide guidance to rangeland managers now and in the future