Automated Motion Synthesis for Virtual Choreography

In this paper, we present a technique to automati-cally synthesize dancing moves for arbitrary songs. Our current implementation is for virtual characters, but it is easy to use the same algorithms for entertainer robots, such as robotic dancers, which fits very well to this year’s conference theme. Our technique is based on analyzing a musical tune (can be a song or melody) and synthesizing a motion for the virtual character where the character’s movement synchronizes to the musical beats. In order to analyze beats of the tune, we developed a fast and novel algorithm. Our motion synthesis algorithm analyze library of stock motions and generates new sequences of movements that were not described in the library. We present two algorithms to synchronize dance moves and musical beats: a fast greedy algorithm, and a genetic algorithm. Our experimental results show that we can generate new sequences of dance figures in which the dancer reacts to music and dances in synchronization with the music

Union Leadership and Member Attitudes: A Multi-Level Analysis

[Excerpt] Analyses of union leadership roles show that union presidents should have both a within-union focus and an external focus. The authors combined multi-level survey data from 3,871 union members in 248 local teachers’ unions with archival and field staff data to examine relationships between leadership and members’ perceptions of union instrumentality and justice, union commitment, and participation. The results showed significant union-level effects on members’ beliefs about, and attitudes toward, their unions, attributable to the presidents’ internal and external leadership, wage outcomes, and union characteristics. Relationships between internally focused leadership and members’ loyalty and willingness to work for the union were partially mediated by perceptions of union instrumentality and justice. These perceptions fully mediated the relationship between externally focused leadership and union loyalty

Synthesis and Properties of Chemically Modified Carbon Nanotubes

Since their discovery single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have gained the interest of many scientists and engineers due to their prominent structural, mechanical and electronic properties which make them applicable in various areas including electronics, chemical and biological sensing and reinforced composite materials. Although SWNTs have many application areas their use can be limited since they are synthesised as a mixture of metallic and semiconducting species with different diameters and helicities and they have limited solubility in aqueous and non-aqueous solvents. Covalent modification of SWNTs is an important tool to introduce new functional groups onto the surface of nanotubes to improve their solubility and processability. It can also be used to separate metallic from semiconducting nanotubes. The work presented here has concentrated on the non-disruptive covalent modification of SWNTs using pyridine diazonium salt addition, 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition and reductive alkylation. The selectivitiy of the addition was probed by UV-vis-NIR and Raman spectroscopy where the metallic were found to be more selective than semiconducting SWNTs. The location and distribution of the functional groups was determined by AFM using electrostatic interactions with gold nanoparticles. Rheological data showed that the pyridine modified SWNTs were able to act as crosslinkers and hydrogen bond to poly(acrylic acid) to form SWNT hydrogels. The indolizine modified SWNTs, emitted blue light when excited ca. 330 nm, were capable of sensing 4-nitrophenol, 3-nitrophenol, 2-nitrophenol, 2-nitrosotoluene and 2,4-dinitrotoluene with a detection limit of ca. 10-8 M. The modified SWNTs were further characterised using FTIR, XPS, TGA-MS and optical microscopy

Nitric Oxide: Implications for Vascular and Endovascular Surgery

AbstractNitric oxide has a key role in vascular homeostasis. It plays a protective role by suppressing abnormal proliferation of vascular smooth muscle following various pathological situations including atherosclerosis and restenosis after vascular interventions such as balloon angioplasty, stent deployment and bypass grafting. It also has strong antiplatelet and anti-thrombogenic properties. In this review, possible applications to daily vascular and endovascular surgery practice, including systemic use of NO donors, enhancing endogenous production of NO by L-arginine and gene therapy, local delivery strategies and coating stents and grafts with NO-delivering/enhancing chemicals are reviewed

Mixed-Integer Linear Programming Solution to Multi-Robot Task Allocation Problem

Multi-robot systems require efficient and accurate planning in order to perform mission-critical tasks. This paper introduces a mixed-integer linear programming solution to coordinate multiple heterogenenous robots for detecting and controlling multiple regions of interest in an unknown environment. The objective function contains four basic requirements of a multi-robot system serving this purpose: control regions of interest, provide communication between robots, control maximum area and detect regions of interest. Our solution defines optimum locations of robots in order to maximize the objective function while efficiently satisfying some constraints such as avoiding obstacles and staying within the speed capabilities of the robots. We implemented and tested our approach under realistic scenarios. We showed various extensions to objective function and constraints to show the flexibility of mixed-integer linear programming formulation

A Motion Planning Processor on Reconfigurable Hardware

Motion planning algorithms enable us to find feasible paths for moving objects. These algorithms utilize feasibility checks to differentiate valid paths from invalid ones. Unfortunately, the computationally expensive nature of such checks reduces the effectiveness of motion planning algorithms. However, by using hardware acceleration to speed up the feasibility checks, we can greatly enhance the performance of the motion planning algorithms. Of course, such acceleration is not limited to feasibility checks; other components of motion planning algorithms can also be accelerated using specially designed hardware. A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is a great platform to support such an acceleration. An FPGA is a collection of digital gates which can be reprogrammed at run time, i.e., it can be used as a CPU that reconfigures itself for a given task. In this paper, we study the feasibility of an FPGA based motion planning processor and evaluate its performance. In order to leverage its highly parallel nature and its modular structure, our processor utilizes the probabilistic roadmap method at its core. The modularity enables us to replace the feasibility criteria with other ones. The reconfigurability lets us run our processor in different roles, such as a motion planning co-processor, an autonomous motion planning processor or dedicated collision detection chip. Our experiments show that such a processor is not only feasible but also can greatly increase the performance of current algorithms

PHENOTYPING OF STRAWBERRY BREEDED FROM TURKEY BREEDING PROGRAM

The standardized phenotyping protocol for strawberries was agreed upon by the breeding team in Oregon, Michigan, New Hampshire, California and Florida and includes four trait categories: phenolgy and other flower-related traits, plant characteristics, fruit characteristics, and fruit chemistry traits. This study aims to introduce this category to the breeding programs in our country to characterize 15 cultivars of strawberries that are breeded in our country. In this context, 25 properties are evaluated. As a result, our cultivars is globose conic in respect of external fruit properties, apperance is above average, achene colour is dark, achene position is even, external colour is red, gloss is average, skin strength is soft, calyx size is above equal, calyx position is flat. In terms of fruit internal properties, firmness is soft, internal colour is light red, depth of internal coloris at 51.8% level and average level, aroma is at high level

POMOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF SOME WALNUT GENOTYPES IN CENTRAL ANATOLIA

This study was conducted to determine some pomological and chemical characteristics of Bilecik, Yavuz, Şebin walnut cultivars and Yerli genotype grown in Kırşehir, Turkey. Characteristics of walnut such as nut weight, kernel weight, nut width, nut hight and nut diameter and some kernel features were investigated. The results indicated that the average fruit weight ranged from 17.33 g (Yavuz) to 12.83 g (Şebin), the nut width alternated from 37.63 mm (Yavuz) to 31.33 mm (Yerli), the nut height ranged from 52.25 mm (Yavuz) to 41.07 mm (Yerli), and the kernel percentage ranged from 46.07% (Bilecik) to 49.43% (Yavuz). The highest oil content was detected in Yavuz cultivar (63.20%), while the lowest value was obtained from the Bilecik cultivar with 53.90%. Contrary to fat content, the highest protein content was detected in the Bilecik cultivar. Consequently, our data showed that the fruit properties of Yavuz and Şebin cultivars were superior than the others in Central Anatolian ecological conditions