Interpreting and Executing Recipes with a Cooking Robot

The creation of a robot chef represents a grand challenge for the field of robotics. Cooking is one of the most important activities that takes place in the home, and a robotic chef capable of following arbitrary recipes would have many applications in both household and industrial environments. The kitchen environment is a semi-structured proving ground for algorithms in robotics. It provides many computational challenges, such as accurately perceiving ingredients in cluttered environments, manipulating objects, and engaging in complex activities such as mixing and chopping. Keywords: Reward Function; Statistical Machine Translation; Human Partner; Motion Primitive; Primitive Actio

Conceptual Basis for an Index of Forest Integrity for Upland Coastal Plain Ecosystems

Following the recent trend to manage natural resources for sustainability, ecologists, resource managers and policymakers are beginning to think of the management of forest ecosystems in terms of ecosystem health or ecosystem integrity. Biologists are increasingly recognizing that use of chemical assays in assessing the condition of an ecosystem has limited value, and that biological factors, e.g., species diversity and composition, can be useful characters in the analysis of biotic integrity. An index of biotic integrity (IBI) has been developed for riverine ecosystems in the Midwest U.S., using fish species diversity, indicator population analysis, trophic structure assessment, and physiological abnormalities in fish as measurable surrogates for biotic integrity . This paper explores the development of an analogous index of forest integrity (IFI) to be applied to the upland coastal plain forests of southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana. The IFI developed here includes sampling and analysis of population trends of dominant plant taxa, plant species diversity, and horizontal and vertical vegetative structure at midstory, shrub and detritus levels

Interference Mitigation for Cognitive Radio MIMO Systems Based on Practical Precoding

In this paper, we propose two subspace-projection-based precoding schemes, namely, full-projection (FP)- and partial-projection (PP)-based precoding, for a cognitive radio multiple-input multiple-output (CR-MIMO) network to mitigate its interference to a primary time-division-duplexing (TDD) system. The proposed precoding schemes are capable of estimating interference channels between CR and primary networks, and incorporating the interference from the primary to the CR system into CR precoding via a novel sensing approach. Then, the CR performance and resulting interference of the proposed precoding schemes are analyzed and evaluated. By fully projecting the CR transmission onto a null space of the interference channels, the FP-based precoding scheme can effectively avoid interfering the primary system with boosted CR throughput. While, the PP-based scheme is able to further improve the CR throughput by partially projecting its transmission onto the null space.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the IEEE Trans. Wireless Communications in April 201

Production of Androgens by Microbial Transformation of Progesterone in Vitro: A Model for Androgen Production in Rivers Receiving Paper Mill Effluent

We have previously documented the presence of progesterone and androstenedione in the water column and bottom sediments of the Fenholloway River, Taylor County, Florida. This river receives paper mill effluent and contains masculinized female mosquitofish. We hypothesized that plant sterols (e.g., β-sitosterol) derived from the pulping of pine trees are transformed by bacteria into progesterone and subsequently into 17α-hydroxyprogesterone, androstenedione, and other androgens. In this study, we demonstrate that these same androgens can be produced in vitro from the bacterium Mycobacterium smegmatis. In a second part to this study, we reextracted and reanalyzed the sediment from the Fenholloway River and verified the presence of androstadienedione, a Δ1 steroid with androgen activity

Building the County Beef Cattle Program.

8 p

What determines the density structure of molecular clouds? A case study of Orion B with <i>Herschel</i>

A key parameter to the description of all star formation processes is the density structure of the gas. In this Letter, we make use of probability distribution functions (PDFs) of Herschel column density maps of Orion B, Aquila, and Polaris, obtained with the Herschel Gould Belt survey (HGBS). We aim to understand which physical processes influence the PDF shape, and with which signatures. The PDFs of Orion B (Aquila) show a lognormal distribution for low column densities until AV ~ 3 (6), and a power-law tail for high column densities, consistent with a ρα r-2 profile for the equivalent spherical density distribution. The PDF of Orion B is broadened by external compression due to the nearby OB stellar aggregates. The PDF of a quiescent subregion of the non-star-forming Polaris cloud is nearly lognormal, indicating that supersonic turbulence governs the density distribution. But we also observe a deviation from the lognormal shape at AV > 1 for a subregion in Polaris that includes a prominent filament. We conclude that (1) the point where the PDF deviates from the lognormal form does not trace a universal AV -threshold for star formation, (2) statistical density fluctuations, intermittency, and magnetic fields can cause excess from the lognormal PDF at an early cloud formation stage, (3) core formation and/or global collapse of filaments and a non-isothermal gas distribution lead to a power-law tail, and (4) external compression broadens the column density PDF, consistent with numerical simulations

A Prolegomenon to the Systematics of South American Cottontail Rabbits (Mammalia, Lagomorpha, Leporidae: Sylvilagus): Designation of a Neotype for S. brasiliensis (Linnaeus, 1758), and Restoration of S. andinus (Thomas, 1897) and S. tapetillus Thomas, 1913.

A critical issue with species names derived from Linnaeus’ 10th edition of the Systema Naturae is the lack of holotypes, which in many instances has led to taxonomic confusion and uncertainty, as well as an unstable taxonomy. In the particular case of the South American cottontail, currently known as Sylvilagus brasiliensis, Linnaeus listed the type locality as “America Meridionali,” or South America. As a result, S. brasiliensis was ascribed a widespread distribution in North and South America, over an area estimated as approximately 1.09 × 107 Km2, and containing upwards of 37 named subspecies.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136089/1/MP205.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136089/2/MP205_SupplementaryFigs.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136089/3/MP205_Appendix1.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136089/4/MP205_Appendix 2.xlsxDescription of MP205.pdf : Main ArticleDescription of MP205_SupplementaryFigs.pdf : Additional FiguresDescription of MP205_Appendix1.pdf : Dataset - MapsDescription of MP205_Appendix 2.xlsx : Datase