Survey of domestic food purchases and related home handling practices in the Abruzzo region (central Italy): Data collection and analysis through a language-independent classification system

A telephone survey was carried out on 13,486 randomly selected households located in the Abruzzo region (central Italy). Three questionnaires were specifically designed in relation to three different groups of foods (Meat and meat products, Fishery products, Fruit and vegetables). Questions were mainly focused on the amount and number of purchases, type of retailer, and home food handling practices with respect to the week prior to the interview. Data were classified according to a multilingual thesaurus system (LanguaL). Results allowed to estimate domestic purchases (in kg) per capita for different food categories. The category “Red meat/Cattle” accounted for a large part of purchases in the “meat and meat products” group (10.9 kg per capita/year; 32.2% of purchases in the group) while the category “Fish or related organism/Fish” was the most purchased in the “fishery products” group (6.9 kg per capita/year; 63.3%). The aggregation of more detailed characteristics enabled the identification of popular categories of foods, such as “Red meat/Cattle/Divided into pieces” (25% of the “meat and meat products” group). Significant differences (p < 0.05) were found between the four different provinces (L'Aquila, Chieti, Pescara and Teramo) with respect to “Poultry/Chicken” and “Red meat/Cattle” categories. Householders were also asked about post-purchase food handling practices that might be hazardous to food safety. More than 20% of those surveyed stated that they thawed frozen meat at room temperature. The degree of doneness after cooking of different food categories was generally high: over 90% of products purchased in the majority of meat and fish categories were properly cooked. However a noticeable proportion of householders (about 15%) reported medium or rare cooking of “Red meat/Cattle” and “Red meat/Swine”. Differences (p < 0.05) were also found between consumers of different ages, with people over 65 years old being more prone to freeze meat and cook it thoroughly.The survey was carried out in a specific geographic area and on a statistically significant sample of households, thus allowing a collection of data on domestic habits relating to food purchases and home food handling practices. This information should be included in the framework of quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) models as a measure of the actual exposure of consumers to pathogenic microorganism. The LanguaL system also proved to be a practical language-independent method useful not only to identify and describe food items but also to classify them according to specific food safety characteristics.     

The benefit of being physically present: A survey of experimental works comparing copresent robots,telepresent robots and virtual agents

The effects of physical embodiment and physical presence were explored through a survey of 33 experimental works comparing how people interacted with physical robots and virtual agents. A qualitative assessment of the direction of quantitative effects demonstrated that robots were more persuasive and perceived more positively when physically present in a user׳s environment than when digitally-displayed on a screen either as a video feed of the same robot or as a virtual character analog; robots also led to better user performance when they were collocated as opposed to shown via video on a screen. However, participants did not respond differently to physical robots and virtual agents when both were displayed digitally on a screen – suggesting that physical presence, rather than physical embodiment, characterizes people׳s responses to social robots. Implications for understanding psychological response to physical and virtual agents and for methodological design are discussed.     

灰色预测模型在油气操作成本预测中的应用

油气操作成本是油气田生产消耗的主要项目，为了有效地控制油气操作成本，必须制定准确的油气操作成本计划。而油气操作成本在我国是最近几年才提出来的，数据项比较少，给油气操作成本预测带来一定的难度。为此，文章根据灰色预测的基本原理，采用灰色系统理论进行油气操作成本预测，就可以弥补对预测所需的数据少，而且也无须剔除不可比因素，只要所建模型能满足精度要求，预测结果就可以信赖。     

移动机器人路径规划方法研究

移动机器人技术研究中的一个重要领域是路径规划技术，它分为基于模型的环境已知的全局路径规划和基于传感器的环境未知的局部路径规划。综述了移动机器人路径规划技术的发展现状指出了各种方法的优点与不足，最后对移动机器人路径规划技术的发展趋势进行了展望。     

可移动机器人的运动学模型与控制原理

本文首先对可移动机器人的运动学进行了分析，建立了运动学模型与控制结构图，然后采用时域分析法对此系统进行了校正，最后通过对此系统的仿真与时测实验，对各校正环节的参数进行了整定。     

使用遗传算法的迷宫学习

本文试用遗传计算及决策制定方法来实现机器人有认识迷宫意向的能力，这里“意向”是指遵循对迷宫特有的路径规则所出的决定，令机器人在两个相对的迷宫中行走学习，一个迷宫路径是基于同样的意向，另一个则基于不同的意向，研究结果确认了已达成的意向学习。     

编译错误的一种处理策略

本文提出了一种独特的编译错误处理方法，其特点是将错误信息组成一个独立的文件。     

遥操作工程机器人系统临场感技术研究-6自由度临场运动感觉反馈技术的研究进展

 研究开发出一种遥操作工程机器人系统，可以应用于诸如火灾现场的修复作业等广阔的领域．该系统由伺服控制的工程机器人、2根从远处操纵工程机器人的操纵杆、视频系统和6自由度运动模拟器组成．操作者坐于座椅上，座椅固定于运动模拟器的上方． 该系统需要解决的一个关键问题是如何使操纵者高质量地获得工作现场的临场运动感觉． 提出了一种6自由度临场运动感觉反馈方法，其信号源来自工程机器人上安装的6个加速度传感器． 该方法的有效性已为实验所证明，即应用6自由度运动模拟器不但可以高质量地模拟工程机器人单个自由度的运动：滚动、俯仰、转动以及前后、左右、上下的平移，而且可以高质量地模拟工程机器人的各种复合运动．     

Specification methods for material-handling control algorithms in flexible manufacturing systems

Good methods are needed to specify, test, and debug material-handling control logic. This article surveys a number of representative methods for defining and describing control algorithms for programmable material-handling equipment used in flexible manufacturing systems. The methods are evaluated with regard to their suitability for communication between people and as bases for interfaces to automatic program generators. It is concluded that no single method is entirely satisfactory. Three methods (position diagrams, function block diagrams, and operation networks) have potential to be combined into an effective hybrid approach that minimizes the need for the user to switch between various conceptual models.     

Facility layout problems: A survey

Layout problems are found in several types of manufacturing systems. Typically, layout problems are related to the location of facilities (e.g., machines, departments) in a plant. They are known to greatly impact the system performance. Most of these problems are NP hard. Numerous research works related to facility layout have been published. A few literature reviews exist, but they are not recent or are restricted to certain specific aspects of these problems. The literature analysis given here is recent and not restricted to specific considerations about layout design.

We suggest a general framework to analyze the literature and present existing works using such criteria as: the manufacturing system features, static/dynamic considerations, continual/discrete representation, problem formulation, and resolution approach. Several research directions are pointed out and discussed in our conclusion.