Data from farmer-managed fields have not been used previously to disentangle the impacts of daily minimum and maximum temperatures and solar radiation on rice yields in tropical/subtropical Asia. We used a multiple regression model to analyze data from 227 intensively managed irrigated rice farms in six important rice-producing countries. The farm-level detail, observed over multiple growing se...

What triggers Maud Rise polynya, a large opening in the winter Antarctic sea ice, is still debated. We show that upcoming of all polynyas can be detected early up to four months ahead, especially since 2002 expansion satellite observations. In polynya years, continuous anomalous ice thinning begins May, caused by atmospheric and oceanic forcings. Dynamically, an cyclonic circulation atmosphere ...

What constitutes audience engagement? What elements of a show produce the most social activity? Much attention has been paid to Twitter’s ability to capture real-time audience reactions and sentiment towards a television show, but little is known about what subjects drive an individual to tweet (or conversely, not to tweet). Though common sense may suggest that especially provocative, humorous,...

We propose novel smart forecasting models for Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) that combine sky image processing with Artificial Neural Network (ANN) optimization schemes. The forecasting models, which were developed for over 6 months of intra-minute imaging and irradiance measurements, are used to predict 1 min average DNI for specific time horizons of 5 and 10 min. We discuss optimal models for...

(1) Background: the cambium has seasonal activity, forming earlywood and early phloem with relatively wide conducting cells, which will function during most favorable season, latewood late narrower typically less season. However, few studies have focused on when these two contrasting tissue types are formed in relation to climatic conditions. (2) Methods: senior author of this paper made weekly...