Leasing vs. buying equipment

"Traditionally, farmers have found credit financing more advantageous than leasing farm equipment. There are, however, situations when leasing is a viable alternative. Lease plans are available for larger machinery items, irrigation systems, and semiportable buildings such as farrowing houses or calf barns. This guide sheet reviews the important factors you should consider when evaluating a long-term lease. It also shows how to compare the cost of a lease with the cost of a credit-financed purchase. The term, lessor, is used to refer to the company or firm who owns the equipment. The term, lessee, refers to the user of the leased equipment."--First page.Norlin Hein and Ronald Plain (Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture)Revised 8/83/10

NF526 Spring Millers

Biology, migration, and management of spring millers. Millers can be abundant in and around homes each year, especially in May and early June. At this time of year, the moths are most likely the adult stage of the army cutworm, a common pest of wheat and alfalfa. When millers emerge and begin to move westward in the spring, area residents have little recourse but to patiently await their departure. There are a few tactics, however, that can help lessen moth activity in and around homes: Keep outside lighting to a minimum. These night-flying moths are attracted to lights. A porch light, inadvertently left on, can attract hundreds or even thousands of these pests. Where lighting is necessary, use yellow light bulbs. Yellow light will not attract as many moths because insects do not sense this color very well. Seal cracks and crevices with caulking. Place weather stripping around doors and windows. Repair all screens in windows, doors, attic vents, etc. Consider using a landscape that minimizes flowering plants and dense vegetation near houses

The natural resources of Los Penasquitos Lagoon

The purpose of this report is to document the natural resources of Los Penasquitos Lagoon, San Diego County; to outline and evaluate proposed developments affecting those resources; and to recommend measures that will protect and enhance the lagoon and its environs. The necessity for a report of this nature has become apparent with the progressive destruction of California's coastal wetlands over the past fifty years. These wetland resources, which are virtually irreplaceable, are essential to the continued existence of many forms of resident fish and wildlife and to the preservation of migratory shorebirds and waterfowl. Approximately 60 percent of the tidal wetlands in California has already been destroyed (Speth, 1970); and, it is estimated that only 10 percent is left of the original acreage of coastal marshland in San Diego County. The future of the remaining wetland habitats continues to be threatened. There is an urgent need, therefore, for sound planning to protect these wetlands and to prevent their otherwise inevitable disappearance as a valuable natural resource. (100pp.

Robust Polynomials and Quantum Algorithms

We define and study the complexity of \emph{robust} polynomials for Boolean functions and the related fault-tolerant quantum decision trees, where input bits are perturbed by noise. We compare several different possible definitions. Our main results are \begin{itemize} \item For every $n$-bit Boolean function $f$ there is an $n$-variate polynomial $p$ of degree \bigO(n) that \emph{robustly} approximates it, in the sense that $p(x)$ remains close to $f(x)$ if we slightly vary each of the $n$ inputs of the polynomial. \item There is an \bigO(n)-query quantum algorithm that \emph{robustly} recovers $n$ noisy input bits. Hence every $n$-bit function can be quantum computed with \bigO(n) queries in the presence of noise. This contrasts with the classical model of Feige~\etal, where functions such as parity need $\Theta(n\log n)$ queries. \end{itemize} We give several extensions and applications of these results

Agent-Based Cloud Resource Management for Secure Cloud Infrastructures

The cloud offers clear benefits for computations as well as for storage for diverse application areas. Security concerns are by far the greatest barriers to the wider uptake of cloud computing, particularly for privacy-sensitive applications. The aim of this article is to propose an approach for establishing trust between users and providers of cloud infrastructures (IaaS model) based on certified trusted agents. Such approach would remove barriers that prevent security sensitive applications being moved to the cloud. The core technology encompasses a secure agent platform for providing the execution environment for agents and the secure attested software base which ensures the integrity of the host platform. In this article we describe the motivation, concept, design and initial implementation of these technologies

EC03-1568 Grasshopper Identification Guide for Rangeland and Pasture Summer Feeding Species

Many kinds of summer-feeding grasshoppers are found in Nebraska rangeland and pastures. Of these, the six species listed in this guide are most likely to be numerous during outbreak years. These species overwinter as eggs and hatch through much of May and June. When abundant they can cause severe damage to rangeland and pastures, especially when dry conditions limit grass growth. Identification of the species present is important because some have greater potential for damage than others

Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology

Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/

Computer Vision and Architectural History at Eye Level:Mixed Methods for Linking Research in the Humanities and in Information Technology

Information on the history of architecture is embedded in our daily surroundings, in vernacular and heritage buildings and in physical objects, photographs and plans. Historians study these tangible and intangible artefacts and the communities that built and used them. Thus valuableinsights are gained into the past and the present as they also provide a foundation for designing the future. Given that our understanding of the past is limited by the inadequate availability of data, the article demonstrates that advanced computer tools can help gain more and well-linked data from the past. Computer vision can make a decisive contribution to the identification of image content in historical photographs. This application is particularly interesting for architectural history, where visual sources play an essential role in understanding the built environment of the past, yet lack of reliable metadata often hinders the use of materials. The automated recognition contributes to making a variety of image sources usable forresearch.<br/