Mississippi State University

About: Mississippi State University is a education organization based out in Starkville, Mississippi, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catfish. The organization has 14115 authors who have published 28594 publications receiving 700030 citations. The organization is also known as: The Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science & Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science.

Feature Extraction for Classification of Hyperspectral and LiDAR Data Using Patch-to-Patch CNN

Abstract: Multisensor fusion is of great importance in Earth observation related applications For instance, hyperspectral images (HSIs) provide wealthy spectral information while light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data provide elevation information, and using HSI and LiDAR data together can achieve better classification performance In this paper, an unsupervised feature extraction framework, named as patch-to-patch convolutional neural network (PToP CNN), is proposed for collaborative classification of hyperspectral and LiDAR data More specific, a three-tower PToP mapping is first developed to seek an accurate representation from HSI to LiDAR data, aiming at merging multiscale features between two different sources Then, by integrating hidden layers of the designed PToP CNN, extracted features are expected to possess deeply fused characteristics Accordingly, features from different hidden layers are concatenated into a stacked vector and fed into three fully connected layers To verify the effectiveness of the proposed classification framework, experiments are executed on two benchmark remote sensing data sets The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method provides superior performance when compared with some state-of-the-art classifiers, such as two-branch CNN and context CNN

Consumer Demand For and Attitudes Toward Alternative Beef Labeling Strategies in France, Germany, and the UK

Abstract: A wide array of food safety scares and breakdowns have led to loss of consumer confidence in the quality and safety of beef products. To counteract such concerns, firms and regulators have the ability to utilize brands or labels to signal quality. Utilizing a mail survey in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, we analyzed consumer preferences for alternative beef labeling strategies. Using an ordered probit model and a double bounded logit model, we estimate consumer preferences for alternative beef labeling programs. In general, results suggest that consumers have more confidence in government mandated labels as opposed to private brands. French and German consumers place a higher level of importance on brands and labels than do UK consumers. Results also suggest that more than 90% of surveyed consumers desire a mandatory labeling program for beef produced from cattle fed genetically modified crops. Keywords : beef, double bounded logit, genetically modified feed, labels, ordered probit.

Accumulation of genome-specific transcripts, transcription factors and phytohormonal regulators during early stages of fiber cell development in allotetraploid cotton.

Abstract: Gene expression during the early stages of fiber cell development and in allopolyploid crops is poorly understood. Here we report computational and expression analyses of 32 789 high-quality ESTs derived from Gossypium hirsutum L. Texas Marker-1 (TM-1) immature ovules (GH_TMO). The ESTs were assembled into 8540 unique sequences including 4036 tentative consensus sequences (TCs) and 4504 singletons, representing approximately 15% of the unique sequences in the cotton EST collection. Compared with approximately 178 000 existing ESTs derived from elongating fibers and non-fiber tissues, GH_TMO ESTs showed a significant increase in the percentage of genes encoding putative transcription factors such as MYB and WRKY and genes encoding predicted proteins involved in auxin, brassinosteroid (BR), gibberellic acid (GA), abscisic acid (ABA) and ethylene signaling pathways. Cotton homologs related to MIXTA, MYB5, GL2 and eight genes in the auxin, BR, GA and ethylene pathways were induced during fiber cell initiation but repressed in the naked seed mutant (N1N1) that is impaired in fiber formation. The data agree with the known roles of MYB and WRKY transcription factors in Arabidopsis leaf trichome development and the well-documented phytohormonal effects on fiber cell development in immature cotton ovules cultured in vitro. Moreover, the phytohormonal pathway-related genes were induced prior to the activation of MYB-like genes, suggesting an important role of phytohormones in cell fate determination. Significantly, AA sub-genome ESTs of all functional classifications including cell-cycle control and transcription factor activity were selectively enriched in G. hirsutum L., an allotetraploid derived from polyploidization between AA and DD genome species, a result consistent with the production of long lint fibers in AA genome species. These results suggest general roles for genome-specific, phytohormonal and transcriptional gene regulation during the early stages of fiber cell development in cotton allopolyploids.