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A higher degree of automation - and autonomization - of agricultural processes is expected to lead to productivity gains, especially in light of more environmentally-friendly farming practices, while improving the safety of agricultural processes. To exploit the potential of this development, it should be possible to flexibly integrate devices and services within service mashups, and thereby enable them to provide higher-value services together, However, current farm automation tools instead tend to reinforce vertical functional silos and tight coupling within often proprietary systems that manage the farm environment information. We propose to describe capabilities of individual devices and services and interlink them across components and with the description of the farm environment. We posit that this will better enable autonomous agents - software agents as well as humans - to perform complex agricultural tasks while integrating heterogeneous devices and services across multiple vendors. Concretely, we describe - and demonstrate in a laboratory setting - the usage of a Knowledge Graph to describe the environment and equipment used to perform farming tasks. We show how a multi-agent-based automation system for smart farming uses this graph to reason about the state of the environment and the agents to plan the achievement of user-specified goals. Furthermore, we show how such knowledge-driven autonomous systems may include human agents alongside artificial agents as first-class citizens, towards realizing “Social Machines” in the agriculture domain.

AbstractSix new species of Piezocerini (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae) are described: Alienosternus sanjacintero, Hemilissa bifasciata, Hemilissa erikae, Hemilissa claudiae, and Migorybia santossilvaifrom Colombia and Alienosternus wappesifrom Bolivia. The genus AlienosternusMartins, 1976 is recorded for the first time for Colombia and Bolivia, and the genus MigorybiaMartins, 1985 is recorded for the first time for Colombia. The geographical distribution of three species is expanded, and keys to species of Alienosternusand HemilissaPascoe, 1858 are provided.

SummaryTwo new species of Neoibidionini from Colombia are described: Psiloibidion boteroin. sp. and Tropidion neisin. sp. The previous key to species of Tropidionis modified to include the new species. The females of Compsibidion paradoxumMartins, 1971 and Glomibidion trinidadense(Gilmour, 1963) are described and illustrated for the first time. Moreover, the geographical distribution is expanded for nine species of Neoibidionini.

Presents a list of top 25 universities and colleges in the U.S. for Hispanic American students. Stanford University in Palo Alto California; Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts; California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California; University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.

Provides information on the top 25 colleges for Latinos in the U.S. Names and type of schools of the different colleges; School fees including tuition, room and board; Data on freshman retention rates and minority enrollments.

Focuses on the contributions of several Hispanic American educators to their colleges. Efforts of Modesto Maidique in adding doctoral degrees and expanding research opportunities in Florida International University in Miami; Development of Destination 2010 initiative by Alexander González of California State University in Sacramento; Expansion of academic programs at the University of Houston in Downtown, Texas by Máx Castillo.

Presents information on the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Role of the center in the promotion of Hispanic culture and tradition; Private donations received by the center from various companies; Description of the center's architectural design.

Provides information on El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem, New York City. Amount being paid by El Museo for its annual operating costs from memberships and individual donations; Collaboration of El Museo with the National Portrait Gallery and the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) on Retratos: 2000 Years of Latin America Portraits exhibition; Remarks from Marion Oettinger, project director of Retratos and SAMA, on El Museo.

The article features the aluminum dominoes manufactured by Tucson, Arizona-based Billet Bones. Ronald Rosales, owner of Billet Bones, started making aluminum dominoes in 2001 because he was tired of his tiles breaking whenever he slammed them down to intimidate opponents. He makes his dominoes from T6 aircraft quality aluminum, also commonly referred to as billet, thus his company's name. Tiles are available in platinum gold, black onyx, sapphire blue, emerald green and ruby red. A set of 28 tiles costs nearly $250 and comes in a plastic case or a wooden case for an additional $75.

Features the National Alliance for Hispanic Health (NAHH) in the U.S. Views of president and CEO Jane Delgado on the mission of the alliance; Efforts of the NAHH to help low-income Hispanic Americans sign up for medicare; Collaboration of the alliance with the Patient Safety Institute for the creation of the National Medical Information Exchange.

Features Hispanic American Marjorie L. Torres, CEO of Concrete Stories. Academic and career background; Reasons for venturing in commercial real estate business; Involvement of the executive in community organizations.

Profiles advertising expert Bolívar José Bueno. Focus of Bueno on consumers; Statement issued by Tom Holliday, president of retail, marketing and advertising executives trade association, on the popularity of Bueno in their conference; Characteristics that companies look for in hiring people according to Bueno.

Features Samuel A. Ramírez and Co. Inc., a Hispanic-owned investment bank in the U.S. Advantage of the Ramírez Hispanic Index; Services offered by the company; Personal background of the Ramírez father and son.

Features Juliet García, who helped create the University of Texas in Brownsville (UTB). Career achievements; Family background; Courses offered at UTB.

Features Mexican American golfer Nancy López. Career achievements; Remarks from Donna Lopiano, CEO of Women's Sports Foundation, on the contributions of López to the golf profession; Family background.

Deals with the launch of an online dating Web site dedicated to Hispanic Americans called Apreciar.com, produced by WebSourced Inc. in partnership with Quepasa Corp. Business model for the site; Effectiveness of a Web technology that will be employed by Apreciar.com; Expansion plans of WebSourced in the online dating market.

Provides information on the popularity of a taco-shaped cookie called Takitos from Comida Food Products Inc. in San Antonio, Texas. Background on the invention of the cookie; Similarity of Takitos with Oriental fortune cookies; Details of other food products being offered by Comida.

Focuses on the Western-style clothing business of Hispanic fashion designer Manuel. Celebrities who have worn the designs of Manuel; Features of his clothes; Comment from singer Linda Ronstadt on the clothes of Manuel; Style of Manuel in tailoring and customizing his customers' clothes; Family and educational background of Manuel.

Discusses the effectiveness of whole body scans. Cost of a whole body scan; Comment from Charles Matthews, director of CT scanning for the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, Louisiana; Method most widely used for conducting a whole body scan; Number of centers that offer whole body scanning in the U.S.

Features the Sterling Financial Group of Companies Inc. under CEO Charles Garc&iacute:a. Type of market serviced by the company; Reason behind the growth of the company; Comment from García; Specialization of the company.