A note on energy demand estimation

This study is concerned with the assessing the impact that inaccuracy in the measurement of the dependent variable and one or more of the independent variables has on the estimate of the price elasticity of demand for diesel fuel by farmers in the United States. Two diagnostics – the regression coefficient bounds and the bias correction factor — are introduced to assess the effect that such measurement errors have on the estimated coefficients of the diesel fuel demand relationship.     

Natural gas demand by agriculture in the USA

This study sets out to determine whether agricultural consumers of natural gas are responsive to changes in the relative prices of different types of energy. A demand model is specified and estimated. The conclusions strongly suggest that not only is the price of natural gas a factor having an impact on the quantity of natural gas demanded by agriculture, but that other types of energy are substitutes for natural gas and that income and weather (measured by heating degree days) likewise affect natural gas demand.     

Intelligent Computer Evaluation of Offender’s Previous Record

This paper considers the problem of how to evaluate an offender’s criminal record. This evaluation is part of the sentencing process carried out by a judge, and may be complicated in the case of offenders with a heavy record. We give a comprehensive overview of the approach to an offender’s past record in various (Western) countries, considering the two major approaches: desert-based and utilitarian. The paper describes the determination of the parameters involved in the evaluation, and the construction of a decision support system to be used by a judge about to pass sentence in a criminal case. The system may be used as a stand-alone system, but can also be integrated as a component of a general sentencing support system, e.g. a statistical sentencing information system. The system is a knowledge-based system. The knowledge base (in rule-form) was created primarily by eliciting knowledge from experts (judges, lawyers, academics and probation officers), but also by applying statutory law, case law and legal authoritative texts. It is flexible in the sense, that a user can introduce his¹ own preferences (expressed as numerical coefficients) and thereby apply different sentencing principles. The prototype is at present undergoing testing by some of the participating judges.     

Recognition of handwritten musical notes by a modified Neocognitron

A neural network for recognition of handwritten musical notes, based on the well-known Neocognitron model, is described. The Neocognitron has been used for the what pathway (symbol recognition), while contextual knowledge has been applied for the where (symbol placement). This way, we benefit from dividing the process for dealing with this complicated recognition task. Also, different degrees of intrusiveness in learning have been incorporated in the same network: More intrusive supervised learning has been implemented in the lower neuron layers and less intrusive in the upper one. This way, the network adapts itself to the handwriting of the user. The network consists of a 13×49 input layer and three pairs of simple and complex neuron layers. It has been trained to recognize 20 symbols of unconnected notes on a musical staff and was tested with a set of unlearned input notes. Its recognition rate for the individual unseen notes was up to 93%, averaging 80% for all categories. These preliminary results indicate that a modified Neocognitron could be a good candidate for identification of handwritten musical notes.     

Robust output‐feedback control of state‐multiplicative noisy discrete‐time systems

Linear discrete‐time systems with stochastic and deterministic polytopic type uncertainties in their state‐space model are considered. A dynamic output‐feedback controller is obtained via a new approach that allows a derivation of a controller in spite of parameter uncertainty. In the proposed approach, the system is described via a difference equation and an augmented system is then used to obtain the output‐feedback controller parameters. The controller is obtained without assuming a specific structure to the quadratic Lyapunov function, and it is the first time that an output‐feedback controller is obtained for robust state‐multiplicative systems. The controller minimizes the stochastic L₂‐gain of the closed‐loop where a cost function is defined to be the expected value of the standard performance index with respect to the stochastic uncertainty. Two examples are given where the second of which demonstrates the applicability of our theory to a robot manipulator system. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identification of Main Lipid Components of Mole Rat Harderian Gland

The Harderian gland of the mole rat has been demonstrated to have appeasement qualities on conspecifics. In this study total lipid content of the Harderian gland of the mole rat was evaluated and analyzed by means of thin-layer chromatography (TLC), densitometry, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), FAB-MS, and NMR. More than 50% of the gland's fresh weight is composed of lipids, making it the highest Harderian gland lipid content ever found in rodents. Male and female lipid components differ considerably. Both have wax esters as the main lipid component, but in females the alcohol components were usually chains of 12 carbons, while in males they were mostly chains of 16 carbons. In addition, while in females the fatty acid residues were usually saturated, in males there was a double bond in the middle of the chain. As many as 25 different esters were found in females, and only seven in males. However, in the male an unusual volatile compound identified as 1-(3)-hexenyl-benzene was found. This sexual dimorphism may show that the gland function is sex-specific, and gives support to our earlier reports that the mole rat Harderian gland may be a source of pheromones.     

All-Pairs Bottleneck Paths in Vertex Weighted Graphs

Let G=(V,E,w) be a directed graph, where w:V→ℝ is a weight function defined on its vertices. The bottleneck weight, or the capacity, of a path is the smallest weight of a vertex on the path. For two vertices u,v the capacity from u to v, denoted by c(u,v), is the maximum bottleneck weight of a path from u to v. In the All-Pairs Bottleneck Paths (APBP) problem the task is to find the capacities for all ordered pairs of vertices. Our main result is an O(n ^2.575) time algorithm for APBP. The exponent is derived from the exponent of fast matrix multiplication.     

The impact of public policy on conservation tillage use in U.S. agriculture

A number of policy tools are used to reduce soil erosion from agricultural lands in the United States, including education and technical assistance, financial assistance, land retirement, and conservation compliance requirements. Education and technical assistance by public and private sources can be effective in promoting the adoption of conservation tillage by farmers for whom that practice will be profitable. Financial incentives may be necessary to induce the voluntary adoption of conservation tillage by farmers for whom the practice would not be more profitable than conventional tillage but on whose land the use of conservation tillage would provide substantial offsite benefits.