The importance of cotton disease surveys in Queensland for monitoring endemic diseases and detecting new pathogens and pests

The cotton industry in Australia funds biannual disease surveys conducted by plant pathologists. The objective of these surveys is to monitor the distribution and importance of key endemic pests and record the presence or absence of new or exotic diseases. Surveys have been conducted in Queensland since 2002/03, with surveillance undertaken by experienced plant pathologists. Monitoring of endemic diseases indicates the impact of farming practices on disease incidence and severity. The information collected gives direction to cotton disease research. Routine diagnostics has provided early detection of new disease problems which include 1) the identification of Nematospora coryli, a pathogenic yeast associated with seed and internal boll rot; and 2) Rotylenchulus reniformis, a plant-parasitic nematode. This finding established the need for an intensive survey of the Theodore district revealing that reniform was prevalent across the district at populations causing up to 30% yield loss. Surveys have identified an exotic defoliating strain (VCG 1A) and non-defoliating strains of Verticillium dahliae, which cause Verticillium wilt. An intensive study of the diversity of V. dahliae and the impact these strains have on cotton are underway. Results demonstrate the necessity of general multi-pest surveillance systems in broad acre agriculture in providing (1) an ongoing evaluation of current integrated disease management practices and (2) early detection for a suite of exotic pests and previously unknown pests.

Aerial surveys to monitor bluefin tuna abundance and track efficiency of management measures

Conservation and management measures for exploited fish species rely on our ability to monitor variations in population abundance. In the case of the eastern stock of Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABFT), recent changes in management policies have strongly affected the reliability of fishery-dependent indicators due to drastic changes in fishing season/area, fisheries selectivity and strategy. However, fishery-independent indices of abundance are rare for large pelagic fish, and obtaining them is often costly and labor intensive. Here, we show that scientific aerial surveys are an appropriate tool for monitoring juvenile bluefin tuna abundance in the Mediterranean. We present an abundance index based on 62 aerial surveys conducted since 2000, using 2 statistical approaches to deal with the sampling strategy: line and strip transects. Both approaches showed a significant increase in juvenile ABFT abundance in recent years, resulting from the recovery plan established in 2007. Nonetheless, the estimates from the line transect method appear to be more robust and stable. This study provides essential information for fisheries management. Expanding the spatial coverage to other nursery grounds would further increase the reliability and representativeness of this index.

A map of North America : from the latest surveys and maps /

Relief shown pictorially.

Investigating bias in recreational fishing surveys: Fishers listed in public telephone directories fish similarly to their unlisted counterparts

Several recent offsite recreational fishing surveys have used public landline telephone directories as a sampling frame. Sampling biases inherent in this method are recognised, but are assumed to be corrected through demographic data expansion. However, the rising prevalence of mobile-only households has potentially increased these biases by skewing raw samples towards households that maintain relatively high levels of coverage in telephone directories. For biases to be corrected through demographic expansion, both the fishing participation rate and fishing activity must be similar among listed and unlisted fishers within each demographic group. In this study, we tested for a difference in the fishing activity of listed and unlisted fishers within demographic groups by comparing their avidity (number of fishing trips per year), as well as the platform used (boat or shore) and species targeted on their most recent fishing trip. 3062 recreational fishers were interviewed at 34 tackle stores across 12 residential regions of Queensland, Australia. For each fisher, data collected included their fishing avidity, the platform used and species targeted on their most recent trip, their gender, age, residential region, and whether their household had a listed telephone number. Although the most avid fishers were younger and less likely to have a listed phone number, cumulative link models revealed that avidity was not affected by an interaction of phone listing status, age group and residential region (p > 0.05). Likewise, binomial generalized linear models revealed that there was no interaction between phone listing, age group and avidity acting on platform (p > 0.05), and platform was not affected by an interaction of phone listing status, age group, and residential region (p > 0.05). Ordination of target species using Bray-Curtis dissimilarity indices found a significant but irrelevant difference (i.e. small effect size) between listed and unlisted fishers (ANOSIM R < 0.05, p < 0.05). These results suggest that, at this time, the fishing activity of listed and unlisted fishers in Queensland is similar within demographic groups. Future research seeking to validate the assumptions of recreational fishing telephone surveys should investigate fishing participation rates of listed and unlisted fishers within demographic groups.

Gillette's map of Oneida Co., New York : from actual surveys /

County cadastral wall map showing towns (townships), numbered town survey divisions, irregular rural property tracts, rural buildings, and rural householders' names.

City of Troy, N.Y. : from actual surveys /

City cadastral street map showing lot/tract lines, lot numbers, names of owners of rural tracts, building coverage, ward boundaries, and ward numbers.

Map of Newark and East Newark, N.J. from the most authentic surveys.

Scale ca. 1:48,000.

A directory of community wage surveys.

Mode of access: Internet.

[A map of the state of Virginia : constructed in conformity to law from the late surveys authorized by the legislature and other original and authentic documents /

Relief shown by hachures. Depths shown by soundings.

A map of the state of Virginia, constructed in conformity to law from the late surveys authorized by the legislature and other original and authentic documents /

Relief shown by hachures. Depths shown by soundings on Drummond's Lake only.

A map of the state of Virginia, constructed in conformity to law from the late surveys authorized by the legislature and other original and authentic documents /

Relief shown by hachures. Depths shown by soundings.

A map of the state of Virginia : constructed in conformity to law from the late surveys authorized by the legislature and other original and authentic documents /

Relief shown by hachures. Depths shown by soundings.

Breaking the curve with candels: a Bayesian approach to reveal the non-universality of the dust-attenuation law at high redshift

Dust attenuation affects nearly all observational aspects of galaxy evolution, yet very little is known about the form of the dust-attenuation law in the distant universe. Here, we model the spectral energy distributions of galaxies at z ~ 1.5–3 from CANDELS with rest-frame UV to near-IR imaging under different assumptions about the dust law, and compare the amount of inferred attenuated light with the observed infrared (IR) luminosities. Some individual galaxies show strong Bayesian evidence in preference of one dust law over another, and this preference agrees with their observed location on the plane of infrared excess (IRX, L_TIR/L_UV) and UV slope (β). We generalize the shape of the dust law with an empirical model, A_ λ,σ =E(B-V)k_ λ (λ / λ v)^ σ where k_λ is the dust law of Calzetti et al., and show that there exists a correlation between the color excess E(B-V) and tilt δ with δ =(0.62±0.05)log(E(B-V))+(0.26±0.02). Galaxies with high color excess have a shallower, starburst-like law, and those with low color excess have a steeper, SMC-like law. Surprisingly, the galaxies in our sample show no correlation between the shape of the dust law and stellar mass, star formation rate, or β. The change in the dust law with color excess is consistent with a model where attenuation is caused by scattering, a mixed star–dust geometry, and/or trends with stellar population age, metallicity, and dust grain size. This rest-frame UV-to-near-IR method shows potential to constrain the dust law at even higher redshifts (z>3).

Classi cation of new electricity customers based on surveys and smart metering data

This paper proposes a process for the classifi cation of new residential electricity customers. The current state of the art is extended by using a combination of smart metering and survey data and by using model-based feature selection for the classifi cation task. Firstly, the normalized representative consumption profi les of the population are derived through the clustering of data from households. Secondly, new customers are classifi ed using survey data and a limited amount of smart metering data. Thirdly, regression analysis and model-based feature selection results explain the importance of the variables and which are the drivers of diff erent consumption profi les, enabling the extraction of appropriate models. The results of a case study show that the use of survey data signi ficantly increases accuracy of the classifi cation task (up to 20%). Considering four consumption groups, more than half of the customers are correctly classifi ed with only one week of metering data, with more weeks the accuracy is signifi cantly improved. The use of model-based feature selection resulted in the use of a signifi cantly lower number of features allowing an easy interpretation of the derived models.