Detection and identification leading to interpretation and mapping of tea gardens from satellite images is the prerequisite for application of remote sensing technology to monitor and management of tea gardens. This paper discusses the development of a fuzzy knowledge-based image interpretation system for mapping of tea gardens from satellite images. It emulates the multi-stage, multi-feature a...

Maintaining food production while sustaining productive ecosystems is among the central challenges of our time, yet, it has been for millennia. Ancient clam gardens, intertidal rock-walled terraces constructed by humans during the late Holocene, are thought to have improved the growing conditions for clams. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the beach slope, intertidal height, and biomass a...

Increased urbanization has resulted in water quality and flooding problems for many receiving waters in the United States. Bioretention, or rain gardens, is one of the most widely popular and effective best management practices in low impact development (LID), which strives to return a watershed to a predevelopment hydrologic regime. Many studies have evaluated large bioretention cells in resea...

This article discusses what is known about the economic status of the aged. Numerous complexities involved in the assessment of their status are discussed. Compared with most other recent assessments, this study finds a less favorable status for the aged relative to other age groups. The focus is on an examination of detailed age groups, rather than summary aged and nonaged groups-thus providin...

Local adaptation along steep environmental gradients likely contributes to plant diversity in the Cape Region of South Africa, yet existing analyses of trait divergence are limited to static measurements of functional traits rather than trajectories of individual development. We explore whether five taxa of evergreen shrubs (Protea section Exsertae) differ in their developmental trajectories an...

This retrospective study provides an overview on spontaneous diseases occurring in 38 captive wild felids submitted for necropsy by German zoological gardens between 2004 and 2013. Species included 18 tigers, 8 leopards, 7 lions, 3 cheetahs and 2 cougars with an age ranging from 0.5 to 22 years. Renal lesions, predominantly tubular alterations (intra-tubular concrements, tubular degeneration, n...

— I study the effect of a recent expansion in India’s National Old Age Pension Scheme on elderly well-being. Estimates suggest that public pension has a modestly negative effect on the employment of elderly/near elderly men with a primary or lower education but no effect on the employment of similar women. Pension raised family expenditures, lowering poverty, and the effect was smaller on famil...