What is the meaning of the statistical hadronization model?

The statistical model of hadronization succeeds in reproducing particle abundances and transverse momentum spectra in high energy collisions of elementary particles as well as of heavy ions. Despite its apparent success, the interpretation of these results is controversial and the validity of the approach very often questioned. In this paper, we would like to summarize the whole issue by first outlining a basic formulation of the model and then comment on the main criticisms and different kinds of interpretations, with special emphasis on the so-called "phase space dominance". While the ultimate answer to the question why the statistical model works should certainly be pursued, we stress that it is a priority to confirm or disprove the fundamental scheme of the statistical model by performing some detailed tests on the rates of exclusive channels at lower energy.Comment: 14 pages, to be published in the Proceedings of the International workshop "Focus on multiplicity", Bari (Italy) June 17-19 200

Remy: AR Assisted Cooking

Our project introduces the concept of “detached monitoring” in a context-adaptive cooking system. The system has two parts: the Rat, a device mounted above the stove and the Hat, an augmented reality (AR) headset worn by the user. The Rat provides information about the user\u27s actions and the food being cooked. This information, combined with information from the Hat, is used to determine the user\u27s context. Instructions and status information are then embedded in the user\u27s environment via the Hat. The system was piloted with 7 participants in a kitchen setting. The results indicated that users found the tasks easier the more detached monitoring it incorporated, and, overall, found detached monitoring to be intuitive

FoodFab: Creating Food Perception Illusions using Food 3D Printing

Personalization of eating such that everyone consumes only what they need allows improving our management of food waste. In this paper, we explore the use of food 3D printing to create perceptual illusions for controlling the level of perceived satiety given a defined amount of calories. We present FoodFab, a system that allows users to control their food intake through modifying a food's internal structure via two 3D printing parameters: infill pattern and infill density. In two experiments with a total of 30 participants, we studied the effect of these parameters on users' chewing time that is known to affect people's feeling of satiety. Our results show that we can indeed modify the chewing time by varying infill pattern and density, and thus control perceived satiety. Based on the results, we propose two computational models and integrate them into a user interface that simplifies the creation of personalized food structures

FoodFab: creating food perception illusions using food 3D printing

Food 3D printing enables the creation of customized food structures based on a person’s individual needs. In this paper, we explore the use of food 3D printing to create perceptual illusions for controlling the level of perceived satiety given a defined amount of calories. We present FoodFab, a system that allows users to control their food intake through modifying a food’s internal structure via two 3D printing parameters: infill pattern and infill density. In two experiments with a total of 30 participants, we studied the effect of these parameters on users’ chewing time that is known to affect people’s feeling of satiety. Our results show that we can indeed modify the chewing time by varying infill pattern and density, and thus control perceived satiety. Based on the results, we propose two computational models and integrate them into a user interface that simplifies the creation of personalized food structures

Evaluating the Potential of Methyl Jasmonate Application as an Agricultural Practice on Phytochemicals in Brassica Vegetables: Sensory Quality, Cooking, and Cost-Benefit Analysis

In the United States, Brassica vegetables, including broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) and kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala or Brassicae napus var. pabularia), are widely consumed and are easily accessible in farmer’s market or grocery stores with increasing interest of their health-promoting properties. For example, the consumption of broccoli has been associated with anti-cancer activity in in vitro and in vivo trails due to the high content of phytochemicals, minerals, vitamins, and fibers. Application of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) has been reported to enhance the potential health-promoting compounds in Brassica vegetables, glucosinolates (GS), especially indolyl GS neoglucobrassicin are induced by mimicking insect damage because MeJA activates herbivory defense system. Although exogenous MeJA application has been recognized as a method to simulate insect herbivory and to invoke downstream defense mechanisms (inducing GS accumulation), only limited studies investigating the difference in metabolite changes or transcription level changes between two treatments in Brassica species. In Chapter 2, the metabolomic and transcriptomic changes between insect damage (4 days treatment of cabbage looper caterpillars) were compared. The primary result indicated levels of gene expression changes are slightly different between two treatments while the metabolite changes were similar but in different levels. For example, significantly increased indolyl GS was found in both treatments but higher in insect feeding groups. GS loss during the cooking process has been intensively reported in Brassica vegetables; however, there is limited research on whether MeJA application affects GS retention after different cooking methods while MeJA application significantly increases inducible GS in Brassica vegetables. In Chapter 3, the phytochemical profile change after three different cooking methods (boiling, steaming, and microwaving) and two cooking times (2 and 5 minutes) on control and MeJA-treated broccoli. Among six cooking treatments (methods x times), 5 minutes boiling led to the most significant loss in total aliphatic (22%) and indole GS (62%) in control while it caused 47% total aliphatic and 54% indole GS loss in MeJA-treated broccoli; however, MeJA-treated broccoli contained 1.9-fold higher GS than the untreated broccoli after 5 min of boiling, which was considered the most drastic treatment in this study. These changes by exogenous MeJA application, including GS level, GS hydrolysis products level, and primary metabolites, may alter the sensorial attributes of Brassica vegetables. Therefore, MeJA application may impact consumer acceptance and sensorial quality of Brassica vegetables, and the degree of impact may depend on level of myrosinase activation during cooking. In Chapter 4, an untrained consumer panel detected the differences between raw control and 250 µM MeJA treated broccoli; however, four minutes of steaming eliminated the detectable bitterness in MeJA-treated broccoli and the consumer panel could not detect the difference between control and MeJA-treated broccoli. Neoglucobrassicin-derived hydrolysis products, N-methoxyindole-3-carbinol, N-methoxyindolyl-3-carboxaldehyde, and N-methoxyindole-3-acetonitrile, were the most important metabolites in determining the overall liking and the taste of broccoli samples using partial least square regression model. After 4 min steaming, MeJA-treated broccoli still contained 7.8-fold more neoglucobrassicin and 50% more total GS than untreated broccoli Despite all the positive results of exogenous MeJA application on Brassica vegetables, the applicability of this practice is limited without further evaluations on the feasibility from the consumers as well as from the growers. In Chapter 5, the consumer survey suggested that consumers who considered “anticancer broccoli” as the most attractive trait may be the potential customers who were willing to pay higher price ($1.00 or$1.50 more per broccoli head) for MeJA-treated broccoli; however, recruited growers from the local farmer’s market were concerned about the detectable bitterness in raw MeJA-treated broccoli would deter consumers from buying their broccoli in the future. Exogenous MeJA application may bring extra gross income for growers with small-scale broccoli production when we hypothesized a scenario from a very small farm (acre) when the elasticity of vegetable was set at -0.58 or-0.79. Collectively, the results from this project implied that exogenous MeJA treatment (mimicking insect herbivory) on Brassica vegetables has its potential for use in the food industry and in the right market’s niche. For example, MeJA-treated broccoli can be used as an ingredient to boost the nutrition quality and/or as a value-added ingredient in precooked meals because cooked MeJA-treated broccoli contained a higher level of GS comparing to cooked untreated broccoli. Therefore, exogenous MeJA application may be more suitable to the farms providing Brassica vegetables directly to the food processing industry instead of the farms selling fresh produce directly to the consumers

Experiential Education: Teaching Elementary Mathematics With a Deweyan Framework

In the current educational climate in America, standardization is the driving force. Across the United States school districts are facing severe budget cuts which, when paired with legislature such as the No Child Left Behind Act, are creating a learning environment void of creativity and spontaneity. John Dewey, the father of progressive education, believed that learning should not be marked by rote memorization, but rather should aspire to actively engage students in experience and learning that erased boundaries between subject areas and integrated daily life practices. This thesis addresses the question of whether or not it is possible for a typical classroom teacher in the public elementary school setting to implement an experiential education framework into academic curriculum through the administration of a mathematics unit. Using the backdrop of art, music, and cooking, students will develop the necessary skills and knowledge to authentically use fractions

Food Printing: Evolving Technologies, Challenges, Opportunities, and Best adoption Strategies

3D printing is a process of making three-dimensional objects using additive processes where layers are laid down in succession to create a complete object. Companies across the globe are actively piloting and leveraging the inherent benefits of 3D printing technology. Today, 3D printing can revolutionize food innovation and production through better creativity, customizability, and sustainability. This article highlights 3D printing evolving technologies and trends and identifies its applications and implementation challenges. In this paper, we conducted a literature review to explore 3D printing\u27s current technologies and applications in the food industry, including its advantages, its potential implications, and its obstacles to rapid growth. Finally, the article investigates the future of 3D printing in the food industry. Our discussions bring new insight into the application transformative potentials of 3D food printing of 3D printing techniques and provide practitioners decision-makers a way to discover more effective strategies to adopt 3D food printing technology

Envisioning the qualitative effects of robot manipulation actions using simulation-based projections

Autonomous robots that are to perform complex everyday tasks such as making pancakes have to understand how the effects of an action depend on the way the action is executed. Within Artificial Intelligence, classical planning reasons about whether actions are executable, but makes the assumption that the actions will succeed (with some probability). In this work, we have designed, implemented, and analyzed a framework that allows us to envision the physical effects of robot manipulation actions. We consider envisioning to be a qualitative reasoning method that reasons about actions and their effects based on simulation-based projections. Thereby it allows a robot to infer what could happen when it performs a task in a certain way. This is achieved by translating a qualitative physics problem into a parameterized simulation problem; performing a detailed physics-based simulation of a robot plan; logging the state evolution into appropriate data structures; and then translating these sub-symbolic data structures into interval-based first-order symbolic, qualitative representations, called timelines. The result of the envisioning is a set of detailed narratives represented by timelines which are then used to infer answers to qualitative reasoning problems. By envisioning the outcome of actions before committing to them, a robot is able to reason about physical phenomena and can therefore prevent itself from ending up in unwanted situations. Using this approach, robots can perform manipulation tasks more efficiently, robustly, and flexibly, and they can even successfully accomplish previously unknown variations of tasks