Role of frugivorous birds in promoting succession in montane forests of the Talamanca Mountain Range: A case study in Piedra Alta, Costa Rica

Honors (Bachelor's)School of Natural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107733/1/mrjaco.pd

Interview with Basil Clunie

Length: 73 minutes Oral history interview of Basil Clunie by Juston Or

Investigating The Relationship between Event-Related Potentials and Response Kinematics

Movement is one of the most important functions of our nervous system. Recent research has shown that cognitive and perceptual functions ranging from our perception of others’ emotions to the planning of goal-directed behaviors depends critically on brain areas once thought to be primarily motor in nature. Given the important role our motor system plays in understanding and interacting with the world around us, it is surprising that the majority of cognitive neuroscience research using electroencephalogram (EEG) has focused primarily on perception and cognition irrespective of its relationship(s) to the execution of movement. One possible explanation for this is that EEG and event-related potential (ERP) studies typically rely on simplistic motor responses and ERP averaging techniques that do not afford an analysis of these dynamic relationships. Combining a novel method for tracking dynamic cursor movement and single-trial EEG analysis, the current study addressed this limitation in the field via assessment of younger and older adults’ goal-directed movements during a task-set switching procedure. Our results demonstrate that ERPs conventionally interpreted with respect to cognition and perception are in fact related to the kinematics of motor responses

The Sustainability of Hunger Relief: Analysis of Emergency Food Providers in Low Access Counties of West Virginia

Hunger in West Virginia has long been considered a problem that stems from high poverty rates and rural low access communities. The purpose of this study is to assess the stability of emergency food providers in economically distressed counties in West Virginia. Data was collected from Clay and Webster counties, of which Clay is considered low access and Webster is severely low access or a food desert. Administrators of emergency food providers were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding basic information about their program, changes in client usage, and possible threats to the existence of their program. The questionnaires were followed up with in-person interviews to collect more information and expand on the results of the questionnaires.;The results showed that 83% of programs in Clay County and 100% of programs in Webster County face one or more problems that could threaten their existence. This compares to a national average of 67%. The two largest concerns for programs include access to food and funding for the operations. Overall, this study has provided important information that can be used towards further projects on food access gaps. The research can be used as an outline for creating strategic partnerships between various agents of the food sector in West Virginia to address the root causes of hunger and develop new solutions

Factors Community College Faculty Consider Important to Academic Leadership

Although many of the pressures leaders face come from external sources, the expertise of the faculty should not be ignored when preparing community college leaders. The current study analyzed survey data from community college faculty across the state of Kentucky to determine which attributes they considered important to academic leadership. The faculty members who responded to an online survey regarded most highly factors pertaining to communication, character, decision-making, teamwork, work ethic, and personal relationships

Human vs. Computer Slot Car Racing using an Event and Frame-Based DAVIS Vision Sensor

This paper describes an open-source implementation of an event-based dynamic and active pixel vision sensor (DAVIS) for racing human vs. computer on a slot car track. The DAVIS is mounted in "eye-of-god" view. The DAVIS image frames are only used for setup and are subsequently turned off because they are not needed. The dynamic vision sensor (DVS) events are then used to track both the human and computer controlled cars. The precise control of throttle and braking afforded by the low latency of the sensor output enables consistent outperformance of human drivers at a laptop CPU load of <3% and update rate of 666Hz. The sparse output of the DVS event stream results in a data rate that is about 1000 times smaller than from a frame-based camera with the same resolution and update rate. The scaled average lap speed of the 1/64 scale cars is about 450km/h which is twice as fast as the fastest Formula 1 lap speed. A feedbackcontroller mode allows competitive racing by slowing the computer controlled car when it is ahead of the human. In tests of human vs. computer racing the computer still won more than 80% of the races.Unión Europea FP7-ICT-270324Unión Europea FP7-ICT-60095

Decoupling the Eye: A Key toward a Robust Hovering for Sighted Aerial Robots

International audienceInspired by natural visual systems where gaze stabilization is at a premium, we simulated an aerial robot with a decoupled eye to achieve more robust hovering above a ground target despite strong lateral and rotational disturbances. In this paper, two different robots are compared for the same disturbances and displacements. The first robot is equipped with a fixed eye featuring a large field-of-view (FOV) and the second robot is endowed with a decoupled eye featuring a small FOV (about ±5°). Even if this mechanical decoupling increases the mechanical complexity of the robot, this study demonstrates that disturbances are rejected faster and the computational complexity is clearly decreased. Thanks to bio-inspired visuo-motor reflexes, the decoupled eye robot is able to hold its gaze locked onto a distant target and to reject strong disturbances by profiting of the small inertia of the decoupled eye

[Compte-rendu] Pascal Marichalar, Qui a tué les verriers de Givors ? Une enquête de sciences sociales

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