California Almond Yield Prediction at the Orchard Level With a Machine Learning Approach.

California's almond growers face challenges with nitrogen management as new legislatively mandated nitrogen management strategies for almond have been implemented. These regulations require that growers apply nitrogen to meet, but not exceed, the annual N demand for crop and tree growth and nut production. To accurately predict seasonal nitrogen demand, therefore, growers need to estimate block-level almond yield early in the growing season so that timely N management decisions can be made. However, methods to predict almond yield are not currently available. To fill this gap, we have developed statistical models using the Stochastic Gradient Boosting, a machine learning approach, for early season yield projection and mid-season yield update over individual orchard blocks. We collected yield records of 185 orchards, dating back to 2005, from the major almond growers in the Central Valley of California. A large set of variables were extracted as predictors, including weather and orchard characteristics from remote sensing imagery. Our results showed that the predicted orchard-level yield agreed well with the independent yield records. For both the early season (March) and mid-season (June) predictions, a coefficient of determination (R 2) of 0.71, and a ratio of performance to interquartile distance (RPIQ) of 2.6 were found on average. We also identified several key determinants of yield based on the modeling results. Almond yield increased dramatically with the orchard age until about 7 years old in general, and the higher long-term mean maximum temperature during April-June enhanced the yield in the southern orchards, while a larger amount of precipitation in March reduced the yield, especially in northern orchards. Remote sensing metrics such as annual maximum vegetation indices were also dominant variables for predicting the yield potential. While these results are promising, further refinement is needed; the availability of larger data sets and incorporation of additional variables and methodologies will be required for the model to be used as a fertilization decision support tool for growers. Our study has demonstrated the potential of automatic almond yield prediction to assist growers to manage N adaptively, comply with mandated requirements, and ensure industry sustainability

Association of KCNB1 to rheumatoid arthritis via interaction with HLA-DRB1

With the rapid development of large-scale high-throughput genotyping technology, genome-wide association studies have become a popular approach to mapping genes underlying common human disorders. Some genes are discovered, but many more have not been. Because these genes were not initially identified, it is reasonable to assume that their main effect is weak. We propose a method to accommodate such a situation. It is applied to the Genetic Analysis Workshop 16 Problem 1 case-control data in which shared-epitope alleles of HLA-DRB1 show very strong association with rheumatoid arthritis. Because some previous functional studies have reported association of gene KCNB1 to rheumatoid arthritis, we evaluate whether the gene KCNB1 contributes to the genetics of rheumatoid arthritis in this data set. Fifteen single-nucleotide polymorphisms from this gene were chosen. The association of KCNB1 gene to rheumatoid arthritis seems to be moderate

Accommodating population stratification in case-control association analysis: a new test and its application to genome-wide study on rheumatoid arthritis

It is well known that conventional association tests can lead to excessive false positives when there is population stratification. We propose a new test for detecting genetic association with a case-control study design. Unlike some other methods for handling population stratification, we treat the cases as a population and the controls as another one even though each of them may be a mixture of several sub-populations. A likelihood-ratio test is used to test whether the allele frequency of a testing single-nucleotide polymorphism in the case population is the same as that in the control population. This new test is applied to the Genetic Analysis Workshop 16 Problem 1 data on rheumatoid arthritis. Compared with the Pearson chi-square genotype test, the association strength of many single-nucleotide polymorphisms is decreased while the signal at the HLA region on 6p21 is maintained

The social impacts of a stop-start transnational university campus:How the impact history and changing plans of projects affect local communities

Transnational higher education, in all its varied forms including offshore campuses, is a huge business, especially in relation to China. As at 2019, nine foreign universities had established campuses in China. Although generally this might be desirable, the social impacts of these campuses on local communities are overlooked. Transnational campuses take a long time to establish, and they experience delays and changes in participating parties, which creates anxiety and uncertainty for host communities. We consider the social impacts, as perceived or experienced by local residents, that arose from the attempted establishment of a transnational university campus in Yantai, Shandong Province, China. We consider how impact history and changing project plans affected residents. A major impact was prolonged uncertainty, especially now that the University of Groningen has cancelled its plans for a campus in Yantai. People felt confused about their future and some had lost trust in news about the project. Excessive expectations, impact history, changing plans, and impacts from urbanization processes generally have led to mixed feelings about the proposed campus. However, most people were willing to have a university campus nearby because they thought there would be benefits, even though they also considered they would experience negative impacts

Speeding up a single-molecule DNA motor with a simple catalyst

We demonstrate a catalytic control method for speeding up the single-molecule DNA motor introduced by Li and Tan [Nano Lett. {\bf 2}, 315 (2002)]. A key rate-limiting barrier in the reaction part of the cycle is the tendency for the second fuel strand $B$ to fold into the chair-like configuration of the original motor strand $M$. This seriously impedes the restoration reaction. We have designed a catalytic strand to inhibit the folding of $B$. Introduction of the catalyst speeds up the restoration reaction by roughly a factor of 2. The catalyst shows robust behavior for more than one cycle. The experimental data can be understood with a model with intermediate products. This technique provides dynamic control of the restoration rate of the motor without affecting the straightening rate.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures New figure (Fig. 6) and appendix added. Text revise

Green place rather than green space as a health determinant:A 20-year scoping review

Numerous scientific studies, applying different approaches, have provided evidence of the links between the environment and people's health. Green spaces have been the subject of research aimed at exploring their benefits as components of the urban environment. We investigated possible causal relationships between green spaces and health, with the aim of addressing the following question. Does the mere material presence of green spaces contribute to the health of people who live in its vicinity, or are the health-promoting qualities of green spaces attributed to the ability of people to actually see, access, and enjoy them? The latter view highlights the relational dimension of places, and it entails personal relationships with places which are imbued with psychological meaning and significance for those who visit and experience them. We reviewed relevant literature, comprising a total of 189 papers on thi

Analysis of the Properties of Adjoint Equations and Accuracy Verification of Adjoint Model Based on FVM

There are two different approaches on how to formulate adjoint numerical model (ANM). Aiming at the disputes arising from the construction methods of ANM, the differences between nonlinear shallow water equation and its adjoint equation are analyzed; the hyperbolicity and homogeneity of the adjoint equation are discussed. Then, based on unstructured meshes and finite volume method, a new adjoint model was advanced by getting numerical model of the adjoint equations directly. Using a gradient check, the correctness of the adjoint model was verified. The results of twin experiments to invert the bottom friction coefficient (Manning’s roughness coefficient) indicate that the adjoint model can extract the observation information and produce good quality inversion. The reason of disputes about construction methods of ANM is also discussed in the paper

The Effects of Shape-taste Congruence on Product Evaluations

The background design of a product presented online is important to attract consumers’ attention and further help them make proper judgments about the product. Although many studies have investigated factors of advertising background design, few focus on the effect of shape feature in the background on product evaluations. The present research investigates the influence of congruency between the shape in the background design and product taste perception on consumer product evaluations by using a pretest and three experiments. The results show that shape-taste congruency intensifies product evaluations with an increase evaluation of sweet-taste products and a decreases evaluation of sour-taste products (study1a & 1b). We explain the effect of shape-taste congruency through positive affect (study 2). In addition, an individual’s design sensitivity moderates the effect of shape-taste congruency on product evaluations, which means the effect of shape-taste congruency will disappear for people with low design sensitivity (study 3). The research provides important implications for online retailers in product display design