Distributive laws between functors are a fundamental tool in the theory of coalgebras. In the context of coinduction in complete lattices, they correspond to the so-called compatible functions, which enable enhancements of the coinductive proof technique. Amongst these, the greatest compatible function, called the companion, has recently been shown to satisfy many good properties. Categorically...

Recently, studies in the United States and European countries have shown that the degree of attachment is associated with the attribution of emotions to companion animals. These studies imply that investigating the degree of attachment to companion animals is a good way for researchers to explore animal emotions and then improve animal welfare. Although a promising area of study, in Japan, no e...

The adoption of transgenic crops (also called GMOs and biotech crops) worldwide has been rapid and impressive, reaching 120 million ha in 2008, and continues to grow at a steady pace (James, 2008). Approximately 80% of the total area devoted to these crops has been planted with herbicide-resistant crops, virtually all being glyphosate-resistant (GR) crops. Thus, a single genetic trait—glyphosat...

Soils of the African savanna are generally deficient in nutrients, a situation that has negative implications on crop and livestock intensification and hence on food security in Africa. The exclusive use of inorganic fertilizers to bring about increased crop production sometimes has negative impact on the soil. On the other hand, the adoption of fallow systems to rejuvenate the soils is becomin...

Most known trans-neptunian objects (TNO’s) are either on low eccentricity orbits or could have been perturbed to their current trajectories via gravitational interactions with known bodies. However, one or two recently-discovered TNO’s are distant detached objects (DDO’s) (perihelion, q > 40 AU and semimajor axis, a > 50 AU) whose origins are not as easily understood. We investigate the paramet...

Non-player characters that act as companions for players are a common feature of modern games. Designing a companion that reacts appropriately to the player’s experience, however, is not a trivial task, and even current, triple-A titles tend to provide companions that are either static in behaviour or evince only superficial connection to player activity. To address this issue we develop an ada...

Virtual Singapura (VS) is a virtual world based learning environment designed to facilitate learning of the plant transport system. During field studies of VS, we observed that students in virtual world tend to be attracted by visual and auditorial stimuli and be distracted from learning objectives. Also, intensive cognitive load can affect students’ learning experience. To address these issues...

The European Energy Crops Overview (EECO) project was carried out with 20 partners from fourteen EU countries during 1996. The EECO-project provides the state-of-the-art on energy crops activities in Europe. More than 30 potential energy crop species have been investigated in Europe, but only a few have achieved commercial status so far. The introduction of energy crops in agriculture is relati...