11 pages., Online via UI electronic subscription, Authors examined ethical issues arising from the collection, management and analysis of data, as well as those faced by researchers as they formulate, fund and disseminate their research. They paid special attention to ethical issues such as data dredging or p-hacking and potential ethical issues arising from interaction with media.
17 pages, Modern agriculture is facing unique challenges in building a sustainable future for food production, in which the reliable detection of plantation threats is of critical importance. The breadth of existing information sources, and their equivalent sensors, can provide a wealth of data which, to be useful, must be transformed into actionable knowledge. Approaches based on Information Communication Technologies (ICT) have been shown to be able to help farmers and related stakeholders make decisions on problems by examining large volumes of data while assessing multiple criteria. In this paper, we address the automated identification (and count the instances) of the major threat of olive trees and their fruit, the Bactrocera Oleae (a.k.a. Dacus) based on images of the commonly used McPhail trap’s contents. Accordingly, we introduce the “Dacus Image Recognition Toolkit” (DIRT), a collection of publicly available data, programming code samples and web-services focused at supporting research aiming at the management the Dacus as well as extensive experimentation on the capability of the proposed dataset in identifying Dacuses using Deep Learning methods. Experimental results indicated performance accuracy (mAP) of 91.52% in identifying Dacuses in trap images featuring various pests. Moreover, the results also indicated a trade-off between image attributes affecting detail, file size and complexity of approaches and mAP performance that can be selectively used to better tackle the needs of each usage scenario.
13 pages, via online journal, Photography is an important competency of agricultural communications graduates and is a core skill taught in the discipline’s curriculum. The [department] at [university] offers an undergraduate photography course twice yearly in two semester formats: a traditional spring semester where photography principles are taught in the classroom and a 12-day experiential intersession semester that allows for flexibility in how and where the course is taught. Both semesters utilize the same instructor, assignments, and grading rubric. While much agricultural communications research has focused on photography as a needed skill, few studies examine photography teaching methods. The purpose of this study was to compare student performance in an agricultural communications digital photography course taught with an experiential learning approach to a traditional classroom approach during the 2016 and 2017 academic calendar years. Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning theory was used as the theoretical framework for this study. Independent-samples t-tests were conducted to compare students’ cumulative mean assignment scores, individual assignment mean scores, and rubric criteria mean scores within the two instruction formats. The results suggest instruction method has an effect on student performance in agricultural communications digital photography courses. Students in the experiential intersession course had significantly higher mean cumulative assignment scores compared to students in the traditional course. While individual assignment performance was less affected by instruction format, students’ understanding of specific photography skills (rubric criteria), especially composition and clarity was higher when in the experiential intersession format.
9 pages., Via online journal., Food labels legislated by the U.S. government have been designed to provide information to consumers. It has been asserted that the simple disclosures “produced using genetic engineering” on newly legislated U.S. food labels will send a signal that influences individual preferences rather than providing information. Vermont is the only US state to have experienced mandatory labeling of foods produced using genetic engineering (GE) via simple disclosures. Using a representative sample of adults who experienced Vermont’s mandatory GE labeling policy, we examined whether GE labels were seen by consumers and whether the labels provided information or influenced preferences. Nearly one-third of respondents reported seeing a label. Higher income, younger consumers who search for information about GE were more likely to report seeing a label. We also estimated whether labels served as information cues that helped reveal consumer preferences through purchases, or whether labels served as a signal that influenced preferences and purchases. For 50.5% of consumers who saw a label, the label served as an information cue that revealed their preferences. For 13% of those who saw the label, the label influenced preferences and behavior. Overall, for 4% of the total sample, simple GE disclosures influenced preferences. For a slight majority of consumers who used a GE label, simple disclosures were an information signal and not a preference signal. Searching for GE information, classifying as female, older age and opposing GE in food production significantly increased the probability that GE labels served as an information source. Providing such disclosures to consumers may be the least complex and most transparent option for mandatory GE labeling.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 151 Document Number: D10052
Notes:
3 pages., Correspondence via email., Recommends that agricultural communications students take course work to learn how to do statistical tests and interpret the results of others' research.
