Controlled ecological life support systems: Development of a plant growth module

An effort was made to begin defining the scientific and technical requirements for the design and construction of a ground-based plant growth facility. In particular, science design criteria for the Plant Growth Module (PGM) of the Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) were determined in the following areas: (1) irradiation parameters and associated equipment affecting plant growth; (2) air flow; (3) planting, culture, and harvest techniques; (4) carbon dioxide; (5) temperature and relative humidity; (6) oxygen; (7) construction materials and access; (8) volatile compounds; (9) bacteria, sterilization, and filtration; (10) nutrient application systems; (11) nutrient monitoring; and (12) nutrient pH and conductivity

Me-ow : song

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/2097/thumbnail.jp

Taxi

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/6765/thumbnail.jp

Virtual Embodiment of White People in a Black Virtual Body Leads to a Sustained Reduction in Their Implicit Racial Bias

Virtual reality can be used to visually substitute a person’s body by a life-sized virtual one. Such embodiment results in a perceptual illusion of body ownership over the virtual body (VB). Previous research has shown that the form of the VB can influence implicit attitudes. In particular, embodying White people in a Black virtual body is associated with an immediate decrease in their implicit racial bias against Black people. We tested whether the reduction in implicit bias lasts for at least 1 week and whether it is enhanced by multiple exposures. Two experiments were carried out with a total of 90 female participants where the virtual body was either Black or White. Participants were required to follow a virtual Tai Chi teacher who was either Asian or European Caucasian. Each participant had 1, 2, or 3 exposures separated by days. Implicit racial bias was measured 1 week before their first exposure and 1 week after their last. The results show that implicit bias decreased more for those with the Black virtual body than the White. There was also some evidence of a general decrease in bias independently of body type for which possible explanations are put forward

Singular Vectors of Sums of Rectangular Random Matrices and Optimal Estimators of High-Rank Signals: The Extensive Spike Model

Across many disciplines from neuroscience and genomics to machine learning, atmospheric science and finance, the problems of denoising large data matrices to recover signals obscured by noise, and of estimating the structure of these signals, is of fundamental importance. A theoretical keystone to solving these problems is understanding how the singular value structure of a signal is deformed in the presence of noise. This question has been thoroughly studied in the well-known spiked matrix model, in which data matrices originate from low-rank signals perturbed by additive noise, in an asymptotic limit where the size of these matrices tends to infinity but the signal rank remains finite. We first show, strikingly, that the singular value structure of large finite matrices (of size $O(1000)$) with even moderate-rank signals, as low as $10$, is not accurately predicted by the finite-rank theory, thereby limiting the application of this theory real data. To address these deficiencies, we analytically compute how the singular values and vectors of an arbitrary signal matrix are deformed by additive noise. We apply these analytical results to study a different asymptotic limit corresponding to an $\textit{extensive}$ spike model, in which the rank of the hidden signal is proportional to the size of the data matrix, while both tend to infinity. We map out the phase diagram of the singular value structure of the extensive spike model as a joint function of signal strength and rank. We further exploit these analytics to derive optimal rotationally invariant denoisers to recover the hidden high-rank signal from the data, as well as optimal invariant estimators of the signal covariance structure. Overall, our results provide fundamental theory governing how high-dimensional signals are deformed by additive noise, together with practical formulas for optimal denoising and covariance estimation.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figure

Engineering and Engineering Education as Spiritual Vocations

Spirituality and engineering (education) are often kept in separate compartments in our lives. They may slip out occasionally for conversations during ethics classes or service learning projects, but speaking -- and living -- our spiritual/religious values as engineers and engineering educators/researchers is still uneasy territory for many. The spirit of free inquiry and reflection that permeates the liberal arts urges us to integrate our spirituality into the human and natural worlds we inhabit. How do we bring such thinking into the technical realms?In this session, we will describe our personal journeys toward engineering education and how we actively and reflectively integrate our core values and spiritual/religious beliefs and practices into unexpected aspects of our work as engineers, engineering educators, and engineering education researchers. Each facilitator comes from a different faith tradition and technical background. Mel is an open source software hacker rediscovering feminist Catholicism. Julia is a Quaker-Buddhist with a degree in Chemical engineering who worked as a energy consultant for two years. And Cole is a Christian with a degree in industrial engineering who spent over ten years as a minister

The Effects of Texture and Temperature on Disgust Ratings for a Common Fruit

Researchers were interested in whether feelings of disgust towards food were impacted by specific textures and temperatures. Using apple products, participants were given puree, sauce, and slices served at a warm or cold temperature. 73 students (8 males and 65 females) with a mean age of 19 participated. A 3X2 mixed-subjects design was used, with texture as the within-subject factor and temperature as between. Results showed a main effect of texture F(2,138) = 24.802, p \u3c .001, η2= .264. A post hoc test showed a significant difference between puree and slices, with puree being more disgusting, and between sauce and slices, with sauce being more disgusting. Additionally, there was a main effect of temperature F(1,69) = 6.444, p=.013, η2= .085, with warm products rated as more disgusting. Finally, there was a significant interaction between texture and temperature F(2,138) = 8.203, p \u3c .001, η2=.106, such that, for both puree and slices, disgust ratings were higher in the warm condition. However, temperature did not significantly impact ratings of the sauce. Overall, findings show that participants’ disgust ratings when consuming foods are impacted by both the texture and the temperature of the food. This knowledge could help individuals incorporate healthier foods into their diets

Precision Medicine in Lifestyle Medicine: The Way of the Future?

Precision medicine has captured the imagination of the medical community with visions of therapies precisely targeted to the specific individual’s genetic, biological, social, and environmental profile. However, in practice it has become synonymous with genomic medicine. As such its successes have been limited, with poor predictive or clinical value for the majority of people. It adds little to lifestyle medicine, other than in establishing why a healthy lifestyle is effective in combatting chronic disease. The challenge of lifestyle medicine remains getting people to actually adopt, sustain, and naturalize a healthy lifestyle, and this will require an approach that treats the patient as a person with individual needs and providing them with suitable types of support. The future of lifestyle medicine is holistic and person-centered rather than technological

Comparative study of the performance and economic value of a small engine fueled with B20 and B20-LPG as an effort to reduce the operating cost of diesel engines in remote areas

Indonesia is an archipelagic country that has remote locations. In such areas, the price of diesel fuel might be very costly. Hence, it is very burdensome for the community because this type of fuel is needed by diesel engines to drive generator sets, agricultural and production purposes. The utilization of dual-fuel diesel-gas engine is expected as a solution to this problem. This experimental study was carried out to compare the performance and economic value of operating a small diesel engine both with B20 biodiesel fuel and B20-LPG dual-fuel, with a variation of engine operating parameters, namely engine speed, LPG fraction and engine throttle opening. The performance parameters observed were torque, power, brake specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency. Experiments were carried out in the laboratory at throttle openings of 50% and 100% with an LPG fraction of 10% to 70%. It was found that the best performance of the dual-fuel engine occurred at the throttle opening of 100% and an LPG fraction of 70%. In this condition, there was a 20% reduction in BSFC maximum, and a maximum power increase of 12%, compared to a single-fuel engine. The BTE increased by 9%, and the engine torque increased by nearly 5%. It is concluded that the performance of the dualfuel engine generally increases compared to the single file mode. Another exciting conclusion is that the use of dual-fuel B20-LPG engines reduces operating costs by up to 40%