Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Four Functions Of Statistical Significance Tests, Xinshu Zhao

Professor Xinshu ZHAO

Sequias En El Sur De La Peninsula De Yucatan: Analisis De La Variabilidad Anual Y Estacional De La Precipitacion (Droughts In The Southern Yucatan Peninsula: Analysis Of The Annual And Seasonal Precipitation Variability), Sofia Mardero, Elsa Nickl, Birgit Schmook, Laura Schneider, John Rogan, Zachary Christman, Deborah Lawrence

Zachary Christman

Paper is in Spanish. English abstract: This study analyzes the spatial and temporal variability of precipitation across the Southern Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, addressing the anomalies and trends of annual and seasonal precipitation as well as the occurrence of meteorological droughts, using rainfall data from nine weather stations during the period 1953-2007. Linear regression in the annual and seasonal rainfall were used to analyze the increase or decrease in precipitation trends over this period. Precipitation anomalies enabled the evaluation of the stability, deficit, or surplus of precipitation for each year or season, and a quintile method was used to …

Towards Decrypting Attractiveness Via Multi-Modality Cue, Tam Nguyen, Si Liu, Bingbing Ni, Jun Tan, Yong Rui, Shuicheng Yan

Tam Nguyen

Decrypting the secret of beauty or attractiveness has been the pursuit of artists and philosophers for centuries. To date, the computational model for attractiveness estimation has been actively explored in the computer vision and multimedia community, yet with the focus mainly on facial features. In this article, we conduct a comprehensive study on female attractiveness conveyed by single/multiple modalities of cues, that is, face, dressing and/or voice; the aim is to discover how different modalities individually and collectively affect the human sense of beauty. To extensively investigate the problem, we collect the Multi-Modality Beauty (M2B) dataset, which is annotated with …

Introduction, Tracy Mitrano

Tracy Mitrano

No abstract provided.

The Changing Values Of Digital Legacies: E-Books And The Challenges Of Data Mobility And The Perceived Value Of Books, Derani Nathasha Dissanayake, David M. Cook

Dr. David M Cook

Enhancing Public Engagement On Offshore Wind Energy Using Genius Loci: A Case Study From A Lake Michigan Coastal Community, Erik Edward Nordman, Daniel O'Keefe, Erika Arndt

Erik Edward Nordman

Non-Human Primates In Neuroscience Research: The Case Against Its Scientific Necessity, Jarrod Bailey, Katy Taylor

Jarrod Bailey, PhD

Public opposition to non-human primate (NHP) experiments is significant, yet those who defend them cite minimal harm to NHPs and substantial human benefit. Here we review these claims of benefit, specifically in neuroscience, and show that: a) there is a default assumption of their human relevance and benefit, rather than robust evidence; b) their human relevance and essential contribution and necessity are wholly overstated; c) the contribution and capacity of non-animal investigative methods are greatly understated; and d) confounding issues, such as species differences and the effects of stress and anaesthesia, are usually overlooked. This is the case in NHP …

An Assessment Of The Role Of Chimpanzees In Aids Vaccine Research, Jarrod Bailey

Jarrod Bailey, PhD

Prior to Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV)-infected macaques becoming the ‘model of choice’ in the 1990s, chimpanzees were widely used in AIDS vaccine research and testing. Faced with the continued failure to develop an effective human vaccine, some scientists are calling for a return to their widespread use. To assess the past and potential future contribution of chimpanzees to AIDS vaccine development, databases and published literature were systematically searched to compare the results of AIDS vaccine trials in chimpanzees with those of human clinical trials, and to determine whether the chimpanzee trials were predictive of the human response. Protective and/or therapeutic …

The Other Side Of Silence: Rachel Carson’S Views Of Animals, Marc Bekoff, Jan Nystrom

Marc Bekoff, PhD

The publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 is widely regarded as one of the major events that launched the modern environmental movement. Silent Spring is a compelling blend of stories, natural history, human values, and biological facts. In this essay we consider Carson’s attitude toward animals in Silent Spring and in other texts. Despite the facts that she was raised to love Nature and animals, little direct attention has been given to Carson’s views about our moral responsibilities to, and the moral standing of animals. Carson favored responsible stewardship, was more of an animal welfarist and environmentalist/conservation biologist …

Compassion As A Practical And Evolved Ethic For Conservation, David Ramp, Marc Bekoff

Marc Bekoff, PhD

The ethical position underpinning decisionmaking is an important concern for conservation biologists when setting priorities for interventions. The recent debate on how best to protect nature has centered on contrasting intrinsic and aesthetic values against utilitarian and economic values, driven by an inevitable global rise in conservation conflicts. These discussions have primarily been targeted at species and ecosystems for success, without explicitly expressing concern for the intrinsic value and welfare of individual animals. In part, this is because animal welfare has historically been thought of as an impediment to conservation. However, practical implementations of conservation that provide good welfare outcomes …

Prototype For Monitoring And Forecasting Fall Foliage Coloration In Real Time From Satellite Data, Xiaoyang Zhang, Mitchell D. Goldberg, Yunyue Yu

Xiaoyang Zhang

While determining vegetation phenology from the time series of historical satellite data has been widely investigated throughout the last decade, little effort has been devoted to real-time monitoring and short-term forecasting. The latter is more important for numerical weather modeling, ecosystem forecasting, forest and crop management, and health risk warning. In this study we developed a prototype approach for the real-time monitoring and short-term forecasting of fall foliage status (including low coloration, moderate coloration, near-peak coloration, peak coloration, and post-peak coloration) using temporal satellite observations. The algorithm combined the climatology of vegetation phenology and temporally available satellite observations to establish …

Interannual Variations And Trends In Global Land Surface Phenology Derived From Enhanced Vegetation Index During 1982–2010, Xiaoyang Zhang, Bin Tan, Yunyue Yu

Xiaoyang Zhang

Land surface phenology is widely retrieved from satellite observations at regional and global scales, and its long-term record has been demonstrated to be a valuable tool for reconstructing past climate variations, monitoring the dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems in response to climate impacts, and predicting biological responses to future climate scenarios. This study detected global land surface phenology from the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from 1982 to 2010. Based on daily enhanced vegetation index at a spatial resolution of 0.05 degrees, we simulated the seasonal vegetative trajectory for each individual pixel …

Estimation Of Crop Gross Primary Production (Gpp): Ii. Do Scaled Modis Vegetation Indices Improve Performance?, Qingyuan Zhang, Yen-Ben Cheng, Alexei I. Lyapustin, Yujie Wang, Xiaoyang Zhang, Andrew Suyker, Shashi Verma, Yanmin Shuai, Elizabeth M. Middleton

Xiaoyang Zhang

Satellite remote sensing estimates of gross primary production (GPP) have routinely been made using spectral vegetation indices (VIs) over the past two decades. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), the green band Wide Dynamic Range Vegetation Index (WDRVI_green), and the green band Chlorophyll Index (CI_green) have been employed to estimate GPP under the assumption that GPP is proportional to the product of VI and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) (where VI is one of four VIs: NDVI, EVI, WDRVI_green, or CI_green). However, the empirical regressions between VI*PAR and …

Daily Modis 500 M Reflectance Anisotropy Direct Broadcast (Db) Products For Monitoring Vegetation Phenology Dynamics, Yanmin Shuai, Crystal Schaaf, Xiaoyang Zhang, Alan Strahler, David P. Roy, Jeffery Morisette, Zhuosen Wang, Joanne Nightingale, Jaime Nickerson, Andrew D. Richardson, Donghui Xie, Jindi Wang, Xiaowen Li, Kathleen Strabala, James E. Davies

Xiaoyang Zhang

Land surface vegetation phenology is an efficient bio-indicator for monitoring ecosystem variation in response to changes in climatic factors. The primary objective of the current article is to examine the utility of the daily MODIS 500 m reflectance anisotropy direct broadcast (DB) product for monitoring the evolution of vegetation phenological trends over selected crop, orchard, and forest regions. Although numerous model-fitted satellite data have been widely used to assess the spatio-temporal distribution of land surface phenological patterns to understand phenological process and phenomena, current efforts to investigate the details of phenological trends, especially for natural phenological variations that occur on …

A Comparison Of Tropical Rainforest Phenology Retrieved From Geostationary (Seviri) And Polar-Orbiting (Modis) Sensors Across The Congo Basin, Dong Yan, Xiaoyang Zhang, Yunyue Yu, Wei Guo

Xiaoyang Zhang

The seasonal and interannual dynamics of tropical rainforests play a critical role in the global carbon cycle and climate change. This paper retrieved and compared land surface phenology from observations acquired by the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) onboard geostationary satellites and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on polar-orbiting satellites over the Congo Basin. To achieve this,we first retrieved canopy greenness cycles (CGCs) and their transition timing from two-band enhanced vegetation index (EVI2) derived from SEVIRI and MODIS data between 2006 and 2013.We then assessed the influences of SEVIRI and MODIS data quality on the reconstruction of …

A Cross Comparison Of Spatiotemporally Enhanced Springtime Phenological Measurements From Satellites And Ground In A Northern U.S. Mixed Forest, Liang Liang, Mark D. Schwartz, Zhuosen Wang, Feng Gao, Crystal B. Schaaf, Bin Tan, Jeffrey T. Morisette, Xiaoyang Zhang

Xiaoyang Zhang

Cross comparison of satellite-derived land surface phenology (LSP) and ground measurements is useful to ensure the relevance of detected seasonal vegetation change to the underlying biophysical processes. While standard 16-day and 250-m Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation index (VI)-based springtime LSP has been evaluated in previous studies, it remains unclear whether LSP with enhanced temporal and spatial resolutions can capture additional details of ground phenology. In this paper, we compared LSP derived from 500-m daily MODIS and 30-m MODIS-Landsat fused VI data with landscape phenology (LP) in a northern U.S. mixed forest. LP was previously developed from intensively observed …

Ignoring Nature: Why We Do It, The Dire Consequences, And The Need For A Paradigm Shift To Save Animals, Habitats, And Ourselves, Marc Bekoff, Sarah Bexell

Marc Bekoff, PhD

The article discusses the importance of biodiversity and on how people protect animals and habitats. It describes the conservation psychology and conservation social work. It suggests that there will be fewer people who will actually be able to make a positive difference in the relationships with animals and ecosystems.

Two Roads, One Destination: A Journey Of Discovery, Karen Joc, Peta J. Hopkins, Jessie Donaghey, Wendy Abbott

Peta Hopkins

The adoption of resource discovery platforms has been a growing trend in libraries. However, few libraries have reported on the transition from one discovery layer to another, and only a few institutions have discussed two discovery layers available in the same institution at the same time. Bond University Library recently implemented Alma as its library management system, and with this change a new discovery platform, Primo, was implemented to supersede the existing Summon platform. This paper presents the results of a usability study undertaken at Bond University Library in the move from one discovery layer to another.

Sensitivity Of Mesoscale Modeling Of Smoke Direct Radiative Effect To The Emission Inventory: A Case Study In Northern Sub-Saharan African Region, Feng Zhang, Jun Wang, Charles Ichoku, Edward J. Hyer, Zhifeng Yang, Cui Ge, Shenjian Su, Xiaoyang Zhang, Shobha Kondragunta, Christine Wiedinmyer, Johannes W. Kaiser, Arlindo Da Silva

Xiaoyang Zhang

An ensemble approach is used to examine the sensitivity of smoke loading and smoke direct radiative effect in the atmosphere to uncertainties in smoke emission estimates. Seven different fire emission inventories are applied independently to WRF-Chem model (v3.5) with the same model configuration (excluding dust and other emission sources) over the northern sub-Saharan African (NSSA) biomass-burning region. Results for November and February 2010 are analyzed, respectively representing the start and end of the biomass burning season in the study region. For February 2010, estimates of total smoke emission vary by a factor of 12, but only differences by factors of …

Interannual Variation In Biomass Burning And Fire Seasonality Derived From Geostationary Satellite Data Across The Contiguous United States From 1995 To 2011, Xiaoyang Zhang, Shobha Kondragunta, David Roy

Xiaoyang Zhang

Wildfires exhibit a strong seasonality that is driven by climatic factors and human activities. Although the fire seasonality is commonly determined using burned area and fire frequency, it could also be quantified using biomass consumption estimates that directly represent biomass loss (a combination of the area burned and the fuel loading). Therefore, in this study a data set of long-term biomass consumed was derived from geostationary satellite data to explore the interannual variation in the fire seasonality and the possible impacts of climate change and land management practices across the Contiguous United States (CONUS). Specifically, daily biomass consumed data were …

Near-Real-Time Global Biomass Burning Emissions Product From Geostationary Satellite Constellation, Xiaoyang Zhang, Shobha Kondragunta, Jessica Ram, Christopher Schmidt, Ho-Chung Huang

Xiaoyang Zhang

Near-real-time estimates of biomass burning emissions are crucial for air quality monitoring and forecasting. We present here the first near-real-time global biomass burning emission product from geostationary satellites (GBBEP-Geo) produced from satellite-derived fire radiative power (FRP) for individual fire pixels. Specifically, the FRP is retrieved using WF_ABBA V65 (wildfire automated biomass burning algorithm) from a network of multiple geostationary satellites. The network consists of two Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) which are operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Meteosat second-generation satellites (Meteosat-09) operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, and the Multifunctional Transport …

Environmental Efficiency Of Automobile Energy Choices, Peter V. Schwartz, Chiweng Kam, John Ross Dr

Peter V. Schwartz

Institutional Animal Care And Use Committees: A Flawed Paradigm Or Work In Progress?, John P. Gluck, F. Barbara Orlans

John P. Gluck, PhD

In his challenging article, Steneck (1997) criticized the creation of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) system established by the 1985 amendments to the Animal Welfare Act. He saw the IACUC review and approval of biomedical and behavioral research with animals as an unnecessary "reassignment" of duties from existing animal care programs to IACUC committees. He argued that the committees are unable to do the work expected of them for basically three reasons: (a) the membership lacks the expertise in matters relevant to animal research and care, (b) there exists an inherent and disabling conflict of interest, and …

Water, Growth And The Endangered Species Act, Holly Doremus

Holly Doremus

24 pages.

Water, Growth And The Endangered Species Act, Holly Doremus

Holly Doremus

24 pages.

Water, Growth And The Endangered Species Act, Holly Doremus

Holly Doremus

24 pages.

Implications Of Changes (Structural And Market) On Farm Management And Marketing Research, George R. Allen, Lester S. Kellogg, G. Edward Schuh, Vernon W. Pherson, Reynold P. Dahl, Rex F. Daly, Dale E. Hathaway, Neil E. Harl, Earl O. Heady, A. Gordon Ball, Glenn L. Johnson, Dale O. Anderson, Lowell D. Hill, John C. Redman, Robert W. Rudd, B. F. Jones, A. Allen Schmid, Karl A. Fox, George D. Irwin, R. L. Kohls, John E. Lee Jr., Thomas T. Stout

Neil E. Harl

This conference was really an outgrowth of an earlier conference on Structural Changes in Commercial Agriculture (CAED Report 24) held in Chicago, April 12-14, 1965. While the earlier conference emphasized structural changes in the agricultural industry and their implications for education and extension, the 1967 conference focused on research.

Choosing A Repository Platform: Open Source Vs. Hosted Solutions, Hillary Corbett, Jimmy Ghaphery, Lauren Work, Sam Byrd

Hillary Corbett

Discusses selection of a locally hosted, open-source system (DSpace/Fedora) versus a cloud-hosted, proprietary system (Digital Commons), it is important to note that these examples are merely illustrative. Libraries have a range of choices for repository software that includes open source and proprietary in any number of support environments, and exemplary repositories are flourishing on a variety of systems, both open source and proprietary. This chapter focuses on the differences between proprietary and open-source solutions, but also demonstrates how and why libraries choose a repository system. In writing about this process, we realized that it was important to acknowledge that there …

Choosing A Repository Platform: Open Source Vs. Hosted Solutions, Hillary Corbett, Jimmy Ghaphery, Lauren Work, Sam Byrd

Hillary Corbett

Discusses selection of a locally hosted, open-source system (DSpace/Fedora) versus a cloud-hosted, proprietary system (Digital Commons), it is important to note that these examples are merely illustrative. Libraries have a range of choices for repository software that includes open source and proprietary in any number of support environments, and exemplary repositories are flourishing on a variety of systems, both open source and proprietary. This chapter focuses on the differences between proprietary and open-source solutions, but also demonstrates how and why libraries choose a repository system. In writing about this process, we realized that it was important to acknowledge that there …

Does A Rising Biofuels Tide Raise All Boats? A Study Of Cash Rent Determinants For Iowa Farmland Under Hay And Pasture, Xiaodong Du, David A. Hennessy, William M. Edwards

William Edwards

Iowa's farmland consists of over 16% hay crops and pastureland, a significant portion of which is under cash rental contracts. This study investigates the comparative relationships between cash rental rates for cropped land and non-cropped land, where the latter includes hay and pastureland. We find that higher crop prices resulting from biofuel demand induces land use conversion from non-cropped land to crop production and thus bids up non-cropped land rents. Compared with changes in cropped land cash rents, non-cropped farmland rents could increase by a higher percentage. Non-cropped land cash rental rates are largely determined by crop and feeder cattle …