An efficient representation of spatial information for expert reasoning in robotic vehicles

The previous generation of robotic vehicles and drones was designed for a specific task, with limited flexibility in executing their mission. This limited flexibility arises because the robotic vehicles do not possess the intelligence and knowledge upon which to make significant tactical decisions. Current development of robotic vehicles is toward increased intelligence and capabilities, adapting to a changing environment and altering mission objectives. The latest techniques in artificial intelligence (AI) are being employed to increase the robotic vehicle's intelligent decision-making capabilities. This document describes the design of the SARA spatial database tool, which is composed of request parser, reasoning, computations, and database modules that collectively manage and derive information useful for robotic vehicles

Grazing Termination Dates of Summer-Dormant Flecha Tall Fescue

Summer-dormant, Mediterranean-type tall fescue (Festuca arundiancea Schreb.) has potential to replace summer-active, Continental-type tall fescue and trad-itional, annual small grain graze-out systems in the Southern Great Plains region of the USA. This region is characterized by severe water deficits accompanied by extreme heat in summer, and by relatively mild, rainy winters (Malinowski et al. 2009). Although the climate of the southern Great Plains is different from the Mediterranean climate, the temperature and precipitation patterns during summer are historically similar. However, in the past decade, the bimodal precipitation pattern with peaks in May and September has become highly unpredictable, resulting in delayed planting of small grains in autumn and lack of winter forage for grazing livestock (Malinowski et al. 2009). As a perennial forage crop, summer-dormant tall fescue provides a source of forage during the winter months when warm-season grasses are dormant, reducing pasture establishment costs, soil erosion, and the time and labor associated with annual forage systems (Kindiger and Conley 2002; Beck et al. 2008; Islam et al. 2011). Replacing summer-active with summer-dormant cool-season grasses can provide some resilience in the forage systems to extreme seasonal precipitation and temperature patterns (Clark and Harris 2009; Malinowski et al. 2005). These conditions, combined with relatively mild winters, allow summer-dormant tall fescue to be better adapted and more persistent in the southern Great Plains than traditional, summer-active types of tall fescue and other cool-season perennial grasses (Hopkins and Bhamidimarri, 2009; Malinowski et al. 2009). However there are no best-management practices that address the timing of grazing cessation as it relates to summer-dormant tall fescue stand persistence and animal production. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of four grazing termination dates on endophyte-free ‘Flecha’ summer-dormant tall fescue forage production, animal production (average daily gain [ADG], gain, and grazing days), and tall fescue persistence (% stand and root mass)

Effects of various herbicides and application timing on broadleaf weed control

Last updated: 10/22/201

A Multisensory Approach to Virtual Reality Stress Reduction

Forest bathing is a nature immersion practice that reduces stress, restores mental resources, and has a wide variety of use cases in the treatment of mental illnesses. Since many people who need the benefits of forest bathing have little access to nature, virtual reality (VR) is being explored as a tool for delivering accessible immersive nature experiences via virtual nature environments (VNE's). Research on VNE's mainly utilizes the audiovisual capabilities of VR, but since forest bathing is a fully multisensory experience, further investigations into the integration of other sensory technologies, namely smell and temperature, are essential for the future of VNE research.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Extracting Features from 3D Unstructured Meshes for Interactive Visualization

This paper describes techniques, based on the extraction of geometric features, for facilitating the visualization and interactive manipulation of the typically very large and dense threedimensional unstructured grids used in aerodynamics calculations. We discuss the difficulties that scientists currently face in efficiently and effectively displaying these meshes and propose methods for using geometric feature lines to clearly and concisely indicate the essential structural detail of the model while eliminating much of the unnecessary visual clutter. We describe the perceptual importance of specific viewpoint-dependent and view-independent features, discuss the practical implementation of simple but effective algorithms for identifying these features (taking into consideration both local and global criteria), and demonstrate the performance of each proposed technique on various types of data sets. y This research was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration unde..

Effect of various herbicides on yield of established 'Coastal' bermudagrass

Last updated: 10/22/201

Tolerance of ten seeded perennial grasses during establishment to Plateau, Cimarron, and Amber

Last updated: 10/22/201

Investigating the Correlation Between Presence and Reaction Time in Mixed Reality

Measuring presence is critical to improving user involvement and performance in Mixed Reality (MR). \emph{Presence}, a crucial aspect of MR, is traditionally gauged using subjective questionnaires, leading to a lack of time-varying responses and susceptibility to user bias. Inspired by the existing literature on the relationship between presence and human performance, the proposed methodology systematically measures a user's reaction time to a visual stimulus as they interact within a manipulated MR environment. We explore the user reaction time as a quantity that can be easily measured using the systemic tools available in modern MR devices. We conducted an exploratory study (N=40) with two experiments designed to alter the users' sense of presence by manipulating \emph{place illusion} and \emph{plausibility illusion}. We found a significant correlation between presence scores and reaction times with a correlation coefficient -0.65, suggesting that users with a higher sense of presence responded more swiftly to stimuli. We develop a model that estimates a user's presence level using the reaction time values with high accuracy of up to 80\%. While our study suggests that reaction time can be used as a measure of presence, further investigation is needed to improve the accuracy of the model

L'incremento della sostenibilità ambientale attraverso la diminuzione del rischio erosivo.

Riassunto: Lo scopo di questo lavoro è quello di mettere a punto, a partire dalle informazioni territoriali quali caratteristiche meteorologiche e pedologiche,uno studio capace di evidenziare la sostenibilità della gestione attuale di due ipoteticheparcelle sperimentali individuate nel territorio del sottobacino Iudeo-Bucari (Trapani). Si tratta di due vigneti che rappresentano per caratteristiche morfologiche e gestionali la collina del sottobacino ovvero una delle aree maggiormente vitate della Sicilia. Il fine è valutare la sostenibilità della gestione del suolo in termini di controllo dell’erosione (perdita di suolo), attraversol'applicazione del modello USLE (Universal Soil Loss Equation; Whismeier e Smith, 1961). Questo tipo di studio pone le basiper la redazione di piani d’intervento atti ad invertire andamenti negativi di gestione delle risorse ambientali, che risultano sensibili ai processi di degrado