California\u27s Human Corps: New Legislation Boosts an Old Idea

It has been a year since California lawmakers launched the Human Corps, an exhortation to all students in four-year colleges to perform an average of 30 hours of community service each year. Signed by the governor after overwhelming support in both the Senate and the Assembly, bill AB1820 instructs the two large university systems to tell their students that they are expected, but not required, to give service to their communities. By Operation Civic Service\u27s definition­ but by no means everyone\u27s- community service is that service which educates the provider about a persistent social issue while bringing benefits to someone in need. Led by imaginative thinkers, California campuses are currently figuring out how to implement this ethic while doing their everyday work

Cougar Dispersal and Natal Homing in a Desert Environment

We present a review of cougar dispersal literature and the first evidence of natural (i.e., unmanipulated) homing behavior by a dispersing male cougar (Puma concolor) that sustained severe injuries crossing the northern Mojave Desert. Based on Global Positioning System and ground tracking data, the male traveled a total distance of 981.1 km at 5.03 km/d, including 170.31 km from the Desert National Wildlife Refuge to the northwestern Grand Canyon, where he sustained severe injuries. The interkill interval increased from 7.1 ± 2.7 d while he was in his natal range to 17.5 ± 4.9 d during dispersal. While homing, the male appeared to consume only reptiles until he died, 33.7 km from his capture site. In desert environments where prey availability is low, homing behavior may be an important strategy for dispersing cougars, providing a mechanism for persistence when the best quality habitats they encounter are already occupied by adult residents. Therefore, managing for habitat connectivity can ensure successful homing as well as dispersal on a greater scale than has been previously suggested. Elucidating the mechanisms that trigger homing during dispersal may provide critical insight into animal movements often overlooked as mundane behavior

A review on cement degradation under CO2-rich environment of sequestration projects

Global warming arising from the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere is one of the biggest issues attracting a lot of attention. One of the conventional problems in sequestration projects is the degradation of Portland cement due to its exposure to supercritical CO2. This paper gives a review on the laboratory work performed to understand changes in the mechanical and transport properties of cement when it is in a CO2 rich environment. The results obtained indicated that pozzolanic material could be useful in enhancing the cement resistance against CO2, although more studies are still required to confirm this conclusion

Blarina brevicauda

Blarina Gray, 1838 Blarina Gray, 1838: 124. Type species Corsira (Blarina) talpoides Gray (=Sorex talpoides Gapper = Sorex brevicaudus Say), by original designation. Elevated to generic rank by Lesson, 1842:89. Brachysorex Duvernoy, 1842:37-41. Type species Brachysorex brevicaudus Duvernoy (=Sorex brevicaudus Say), by original designation. Talposorex Pomel, 1848:248. Type species Talposorex platyurus Pomel (=Sorex brevicaudus Say), by original designation. Anotus Wagner, 1855:550-55 1. Type species Sorex carolinensis Bachman, by original designation

Distribution and Taxonomic Status of \u3ci\u3eBlarina hylophaga\u3c/i\u3e Elliot (Insectivora: Soricidae)

Systematic relationships of southern populations of short-tailed shrews (genus Blarina) are assessed on the basis of univariate and multivariate statistics. Populations are separated into two phena; southwestern short-tailed shrews are significantly larger morphometrically than southeastern forms. The two phena apparently represent distinct species. The name Blarina hylophaga is available for southwestern populations, and the name Blarina carolinensis is here restricted to short-tailed shrews in the southeastern United States

Relative Vectoring using Dual Object Detection for Autonomous Aerial Refueling

Once realized, autonomous aerial refueling will revolutionize unmanned aviation by removing current range and endurance limitations. Previous attempts at establishing vision-based solutions have come close but rely heavily on near perfect extrinsic camera calibrations that often change midflight. In this paper, we propose dual object detection, a technique that overcomes such requirement by transforming aerial refueling imagery directly into receiver aircraft reference frame probe-to-drogue vectors regardless of camera position and orientation. These vectors are precisely what autonomous agents need to successfully maneuver the tanker and receiver aircraft in synchronous flight during refueling operations. Our method follows a common 4-stage process of capturing an image, finding 2D points in the image, matching those points to 3D object features, and analytically solving for the object pose. However, we extend this pipeline by simultaneously performing these operations across two objects instead of one using machine learning and add a fifth stage that transforms the two pose estimates into a relative vector. Furthermore, we propose a novel supervised learning method using bounding box corrections such that our trained artificial neural networks can accurately predict 2D image points corresponding to known 3D object points. Simulation results show that this method is reliable, accurate (within 3 cm at contact), and fast (45.5 fps)

Guidelines for Community‐Based Partners for Reviewing Research Grant Applications: Lessons from the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR) Community Engagement Research Core (CERC)

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102046/1/cts12126.pd