This work explores how the availability of visual and haptic feedback affects the kinematics of reaching performance in a tabletop virtual environment. Eight subjects performed reach-to-grasp movements toward target objects of various sizes in conditions where visual and haptic feedback were either present or absent. It was found that movement time was slower when visual feedback of the moving limb was not available. Further MT varied systematically with target size when haptic feedback was available (i.e. augmented targets), and thus followed Fitts' law. However, movement times were constant regardless of target size when haptic feedback was removed. In depth analysis of the reaching kinematics revealed that subjects spent longer decelerating toward smaller targets in conditions where haptic feedback was available. In contrast, deceleration time was constant when haptic feedback was absent. These results suggest that visual feedback about the moving limb and veridical haptic feedback about object contact are extremely important for humans to effectively work in virtual environments.

Cowpea, Vigna unguiculata L. Walp., is a diploid warm-season legume of critical importance as both food and fodder in sub-Saharan Africa. This species is also grown in Northern Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, and East to Southeast Asia. To capture the genomic diversity of domesticates of this important legume, de novo genome assemblies were produced for representatives of six subpopulations of cultivated cowpea identified previously from genotyping of several hundred diverse accessions. In the most complete assembly (IT97K-499-35), 26,026 core and 4963 noncore genes were identified, with 35,436 pan genes when considering all seven accessions. GO terms associated with response to stress and defense response were

Cowpea, Vigna unguiculata L. Walp., is a diploid warm-season legume of critical importance as both food and fodder in sub-Saharan Africa. This species is also grown in Northern Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America and East/Southeast Asia. To capture the genomic diversity of domesticates of this important legume, de novo genome assemblies were produced for representatives of six sub-populations of cultivated cowpea identified previously from genotyping of several hundred diverse accessions. A total of 44,861 genes were identified in the resulting pan-genome, including 21,330 core and 23,531 non-core genes. Therefore, the total number of genes in the domesticated cowpea pan-genome is more than double the number of genes in any of the individual genomes. GO-Terms associated with response to stress, defense response in particular, were highly enriched among the non-core genes, while core genes were significantly enriched in terms associated with catabolic processes, transport and cellular homeostasis, among others. Over 5 million SNPs relative to each individual assembly and over 40 structural variants >1 Mb in size were identified by comparing genomes. Vu10 was the chromosome with the highest frequency of SNPs and Vu04 had the most structural variants of all sizes. While similar numbers of synonymous SNPs and in-frame indels were found in core and non-core genes, non-core genes had much higher numbers of missense, stop gain, and frameshift mutations. These results suggest that non-core genes make a large contribution to diversity within domesticated cowpeas, and may be particularly important in terms of the contribution of large-effect variants.

No abstract