The methodology used to construct tree structured rules is the focus of this monograph. Unlike many other statistical procedures, which moved from pencil and paper to calculators, this text's use of trees was unthinkable before computers. Both the practical and theoretical sides have been developed in the authors' study of tree methods. Classification and Regression Trees reflects these two sides, covering the use of trees as a data analysis method, and in a more mathematical framework, proving some of their fundamental properties.

Classification and regression trees

A doubling in global food demand projected for the next 50 years poses huge challenges for the sustainability both of food production and of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the services they provide to society. Agriculturalists are the principal managers of global useable lands and will shape, perhaps irreversibly, the surface of the Earth in the coming decades. New incentives and policies for ensuring the sustainability of agriculture and ecosystem services will be crucial if we are to meet the demands of improving yields without compromising environmental integrity or public health.

/pdf/agricultural-sustainability-and-intensive-production-1h98l920tu.pdf

Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices

http://abe.ufl.edu/Faculty/jjones/ABE_5646/Xtra%20files/The%20DSSAT%20Cropping%20System%20Model.pdf

The DSSAT cropping system model

ASREML user guide release 3.0

Global climate change impacts can already be tracked in many physical and biological systems; in particular, terrestrial ecosystems provide a consistent picture of observed changes. One of the preferred indicators is phenology, the science of natural recurring events, as their recorded dates provide a high-temporal resolution of ongoing changes. Thus, numerous analyses have demonstrated an earlier onset of spring events for mid and higher latitudes and a lengthening of the growing season. However, published single-site or single-species studies are particularly open to suspicion of being biased towards predominantly reporting climate change-induced impacts. No comprehensive study or meta-analysis has so far examined the possible lack of evidence for changes or shifts at sites where no temperature change is observed. We used an enormous systematic phenological network data set of more than 125 000 observational series of 542 plant and 19 animal species in 21 European countries (1971–2000). Our results showed that 78% of all leafing, flowering and fruiting records advanced (30% significantly) and only 3% were significantly delayed, whereas the signal of leaf colouring/fall is ambiguous. We conclude that previously published results of phenological changes were not biased by reporting or publication predisposition: the average advance of spring/summer was 2.5 days decade � 1 in Europe. Our analysis of 254 mean national time series undoubtedly demonstrates that species’ phenology is responsive to temperature of the preceding

/pdf/european-phenological-response-to-climate-change-matches-the-3dr30qvjfp.pdf

European phenological response to climate change matches the warming pattern

Printing of Bit Patterns

Hierarchical generalized linear models allow non-Normal data to be modelled in situations when there are several sources of error variation. They extend the familiar generalized linear models to include additional random terms in the linear predictor. However, they do not constrain these terms to follow a Normal distribution nor to have an identity link, as is the case in the more usual generalized linear mixed model. They thus provide a much richer set of models, that may seem more intuitively appealing. Another extension to generalized linear models allows nonlinear parameters to be included in the linear predictor. The fitting algorithm for these generalized nonlinear models operates by performing a nested optimization, in which a generalized linear model is fitted for each evaluation in an optimization over the nonlinear parameters. The optimization search thus operates only over the (usually relatively few) nonlinear parameters, and this should be much more efficient than a global optimization over the whole parameter space. This paper reviews the generalized nonlinear model algorithm, and explains how similar principles can be used to include nonlinear fixed parameters in the mean model of a hierarchical generalized linear model, thus defining a hierarchical generalized nonlinear model.

Hierarchical Generalized Nonlinear Models

Editorial: Special issue on algorithms for design of experiments

Genstat for Windows. Release 3.2 manual supplement

Summary
The ability to produce computer files containing keys, together with the commands necessary to typeset them directly from the program that constructs them, greatly simplifies the production of high quality identification keys.

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-8137.1984.tb03597.x

R. W. Payne

Papers

Printing of Bit Patterns

Hierarchical Generalized Nonlinear Models

Editorial: Special issue on algorithms for design of experiments

Genstat for Windows. Release 3.2 manual supplement

Computer construction and typesetting of identification keys