8,884 research outputs found

    Towards Autonomous Selective Harvesting: A Review of Robot Perception, Robot Design, Motion Planning and Control

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    This paper provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art in selective harvesting robots (SHRs) and their potential for addressing the challenges of global food production. SHRs have the potential to increase productivity, reduce labour costs, and minimise food waste by selectively harvesting only ripe fruits and vegetables. The paper discusses the main components of SHRs, including perception, grasping, cutting, motion planning, and control. It also highlights the challenges in developing SHR technologies, particularly in the areas of robot design, motion planning and control. The paper also discusses the potential benefits of integrating AI and soft robots and data-driven methods to enhance the performance and robustness of SHR systems. Finally, the paper identifies several open research questions in the field and highlights the need for further research and development efforts to advance SHR technologies to meet the challenges of global food production. Overall, this paper provides a starting point for researchers and practitioners interested in developing SHRs and highlights the need for more research in this field.Comment: Preprint: to be appeared in Journal of Field Robotic

    The Metaverse: Survey, Trends, Novel Pipeline Ecosystem & Future Directions

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    The Metaverse offers a second world beyond reality, where boundaries are non-existent, and possibilities are endless through engagement and immersive experiences using the virtual reality (VR) technology. Many disciplines can benefit from the advancement of the Metaverse when accurately developed, including the fields of technology, gaming, education, art, and culture. Nevertheless, developing the Metaverse environment to its full potential is an ambiguous task that needs proper guidance and directions. Existing surveys on the Metaverse focus only on a specific aspect and discipline of the Metaverse and lack a holistic view of the entire process. To this end, a more holistic, multi-disciplinary, in-depth, and academic and industry-oriented review is required to provide a thorough study of the Metaverse development pipeline. To address these issues, we present in this survey a novel multi-layered pipeline ecosystem composed of (1) the Metaverse computing, networking, communications and hardware infrastructure, (2) environment digitization, and (3) user interactions. For every layer, we discuss the components that detail the steps of its development. Also, for each of these components, we examine the impact of a set of enabling technologies and empowering domains (e.g., Artificial Intelligence, Security & Privacy, Blockchain, Business, Ethics, and Social) on its advancement. In addition, we explain the importance of these technologies to support decentralization, interoperability, user experiences, interactions, and monetization. Our presented study highlights the existing challenges for each component, followed by research directions and potential solutions. To the best of our knowledge, this survey is the most comprehensive and allows users, scholars, and entrepreneurs to get an in-depth understanding of the Metaverse ecosystem to find their opportunities and potentials for contribution

    TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF EFFORTFUL FUNDRAISING EXPERIENCES: USING INTERPRETATIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS IN FUNDRAISING RESEARCH

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    Physical-activity oriented community fundraising has experienced an exponential growth in popularity over the past 15 years. The aim of this study was to explore the value of effortful fundraising experiences, from the point of view of participants, and explore the impact that these experiences have on people’s lives. This study used an IPA approach to interview 23 individuals, recognising the role of participants as proxy (nonprofessional) fundraisers for charitable organisations, and the unique organisation donor dynamic that this creates. It also bought together relevant psychological theory related to physical activity fundraising experiences (through a narrative literature review) and used primary interview data to substantiate these. Effortful fundraising experiences are examined in detail to understand their significance to participants, and how such experiences influence their connection with a charity or cause. This was done with an idiographic focus at first, before examining convergences and divergences across the sample. This study found that effortful fundraising experiences can have a profound positive impact upon community fundraisers in both the short and the long term. Additionally, it found that these experiences can be opportunities for charitable organisations to create lasting meaningful relationships with participants, and foster mutually beneficial lifetime relationships with them. Further research is needed to test specific psychological theory in this context, including self-esteem theory, self determination theory, and the martyrdom effect (among others)

    Educating Sub-Saharan Africa:Assessing Mobile Application Use in a Higher Learning Engineering Programme

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    In the institution where I teach, insufficient laboratory equipment for engineering education pushed students to learn via mobile phones or devices. Using mobile technologies to learn and practice is not the issue, but the more important question lies in finding out where and how they use mobile tools for learning. Through the lens of Kearney et al.’s (2012) pedagogical model, using authenticity, personalisation, and collaboration as constructs, this case study adopts a mixed-method approach to investigate the mobile learning activities of students and find out their experiences of what works and what does not work. Four questions are borne out of the over-arching research question, ‘How do students studying at a University in Nigeria perceive mobile learning in electrical and electronic engineering education?’ The first three questions are answered from qualitative, interview data analysed using thematic analysis. The fourth question investigates their collaborations on two mobile social networks using social network and message analysis. The study found how students’ mobile learning relates to the real-world practice of engineering and explained ways of adapting and overcoming the mobile tools’ limitations, and the nature of the collaborations that the students adopted, naturally, when they learn in mobile social networks. It found that mobile engineering learning can be possibly located in an offline mobile zone. It also demonstrates that investigating the effectiveness of mobile learning in the mobile social environment is possible by examining users’ interactions. The study shows how mobile learning personalisation that leads to impactful engineering learning can be achieved. The study shows how to manage most interface and technical challenges associated with mobile engineering learning and provides a new guide for educators on where and how mobile learning can be harnessed. And it revealed how engineering education can be successfully implemented through mobile tools

    Chinese Benteng Women’s Participation in Local Development Affairs in Indonesia: Appropriate means for struggle and a pathway to claim citizen’ right?

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    It had been more than two decades passing by aftermath the devastating Asia’s Financial Crisis in 1997, subsequently followed by Suharto’s step down from his presidential throne which he occupied for more than three decades. The financial turmoil turned to a political disaster furthermore has led to massive looting that severely impacted Indonesians of Chinese descendant, including unresolved mystery of the most atrocious sexual violation against women and covert killings of students and democracy activists in this country. Since then, precisely aftermath May 1998, which publicly known as “Reformasi”1, Indonesia underwent political reform that eventually corresponded positively to its macroeconomic growth. Twenty years later, in 2018, Indonesia captured worldwide attention because it has successfully hosted two internationally renowned events, namely the Asian Games 2018 – the most prestigious sport events in Asia – conducted in Jakarta and Palembang; and the IMF/World Bank Annual Meeting 2018 in Bali. Particularly in the IMF/World Bank Annual Meeting, this event has significantly elevated Indonesia’s credibility and international prestige in the global economic powerplay as one of the nations with promising growth and openness. However, the narrative about poverty and inequality, including increasing racial tension, religious conservatism, and sexual violation against women are superseded by friendly climate for foreign investment and eventually excessive glorification of the nation’s economic growth. By portraying the image of promising new economic power, as rhetorically promised by President Joko Widodo during his presidential terms, Indonesia has swept the growing inequality in this highly stratified society that historically compounded with religious and racial tension under the carpet of digital economy.Arte y Humanidade

    Influence of sensorimotor ” rhythm phase and power on motor cortex excitability and plasticity induction, assessed with EEG-triggered TMS

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    In dieser Arbeit werden zwei Experimente vorgestellt, bei denen EEG-getriggerte transkranielle Magnetstimulation (TMS) an gesunden Probanden eingesetzt wurde, um die Rolle des sensomotorischen 8-14Hz ”-Rhythmus auf die kortikospinale Erregbarkeit (CSE) und die Induktion positiver PlastizitĂ€t zu untersuchen. Unser Ziel war es, fĂŒr PlastizitĂ€tsinduktion gĂŒnstige Zeitpunkte im EEG zu identifizieren, um in Zukunft die EffektivitĂ€t solcher zurzeit oft noch unzuverlĂ€ssigen Anwendungen zu steigern. Unser EEG-TMS System interpretierte Oszillationen im EEG in Echtzeit und löste einen Stimulus aus, wenn bestimmte, vorher festgelegte Eigenschaften zutrafen. Die ‘Gehirnwellen’ im EEG entstehen durch synchronisierte Fluktuationen des Membranpotentials kortikaler Neurone, welche aufgrund ihrer intrakortikalen Kommunikationsfunktion wertvolle Informationen ĂŒber neuronale Erregbarkeit vermitteln. Im Gegensatz zu “open-loop” TMS ermöglicht EEG-TMS nicht nur eine prĂ€zisere Erforschung der Funktion von Gehirnwellen, sondern auch die Umsetzung der gewonnenen Erkenntnisse in effizientere therapeutische Anwendungen. Speziell Oszillationen im Alpha-Frequenzbereich (8-14Hz) spielen eine bedeutsame Rolle, indem sie den Informationsfluss im Gehirn durch Hemmung aktuell irrelevanter Areale steuern, und zwar laut einer fĂŒhrenden Theorie als “asymmetrisch gepulste Inhibition” mit einem Maximum der Hemmung wĂ€hrend der Hochpunkte (“Peaks”) und wĂ€hrend hoher “Power” (∌ Amplitude). Der “”-Rhythmus”, Wellen in alpha-Frequenz ĂŒber dem sensomotorischen Kortex, scheint fĂŒr diese Areale eine analoge Rolle wie das okzipitale Alpha fĂŒr den visuellen Kortex zu spielen. Die CSE lĂ€sst sich durch die Amplitude der ausgelösten kontralateralen Muskelzuckungen (MEPs im EMG) quantifizieren. Im Vorexperiment erforschten wir den Einfluss der Power der ”-Wellen auf die CSE. 16 Teilnehmer wurden in einer Sitzung mit Einzelpuls-TMS des linken M1 stimuliert. Die Pulse wurden durch die momentane Power ausgelöst, 10 Dezile des individuellen ”-Powerspektrums wurden in pseudorandomisierter Reihenfolge angesteuert, verteilt auf 4 Stimulationsblöcke. Nach BerĂŒcksichtigung der “Inter-Trial-Intervalle” (ITIs, bekannter “Confounder”) und Normalisierung pro Block zeigten unsere Daten eine schwache positiv-lineare Korrelation zwischen ” Power und MEP-Amplitude, welche somit im Widerspruch zur angenommenen hemmenden Wirkung von ” steht, aber mittlerweile in mehreren anderen Studien repliziert wurde. Diese Diskrepanz kann z.B. durch eine tatsĂ€chlich fazilitatorische Wirkung erklĂ€rt werden, oder auch durch eine anatomisch dem sensorischen Kortex (S1) zuzuordnende Quelle der angesteuerten ”-Wellen, was ĂŒber hem- 83mende Interneurone von S1 auf M1 zu einer ‘Vorzeichenumkehrung’ der Effektrichtung fĂŒhren könnte. Weiterhin wird eine AbhĂ€ngigkeit der ‘erregbarsten’ Power-Werte von der StimulusstĂ€rke diskutiert. Im Hauptexperiment sollte mit ‘paarig-assoziativer Stimulation’ (PAS) (intervallsensitive Kombination von Elektrostimulation des rechten Nervus medianus mit TMS des linken M1) positive PlastizitĂ€t (die Intervention ĂŒberdauernde StĂ€rkung von Synapsen) induziert werden. Dem ging ein umfangreiches “Screening” zur Identifikation geeigneter Probanden mit ausgeprĂ€gtem ”-Rhythmus (fĂŒr prĂ€zise EEGTriggerung) voraus. Letztlich absolvierten 16 Teilnehmer je 4 Sitzungen (eine pro Trigger-Bedingung). Unsere Hypothese war hierbei, mehr PlastizitĂ€t nach Stimulation wĂ€hrend der Tiefpunkte (“Troughs”) als wĂ€hrend der Peaks zu erzielen, also mehr synaptische ‘Formbarkeit’ wĂ€hrend höherer Erregbarkeit. In Anbetracht der schwachen Ergebnisse des Vorexperiments sowie einer widersprĂŒchlichen Beweislage bezĂŒglich einer fazilitatorischen oder inhibitorischen Funktion wurden hohe und niedrige Power nicht explizit miteinander verglichen. TMS wĂ€hrend PAS wurde durch (1) ”-Peaks, (2) ”-Troughs, (3) mittlere ”-Power und (4) open-loop getriggert. (3) und (4) dienten jeweils als Kontrollbedingung. PAS konnte, unabhĂ€ngig von der EEG-Bedingung, keine signifikante VerĂ€nderung der MEP-Amplituden vom Ausgangswert hervorrufen. Die fehlende Wirkung könnte durch intra- und interindividuelle Schwankungen gewisser Parameter zwischen den Sitzungen erklĂ€rt werden (z.B. MEP-Ausgangswerte, absolute ”-Power wĂ€hrend PAS), die sich jedoch nicht als systematische Confounder zwischen EEG-Bedingungen herausstellten. Die, im Gegensatz zu open-loop-Studien, schwankenden ITIs wĂ€hrend der PAS könnten die Wirkung ebenfalls beeintrĂ€chtigt haben. Weiterhin waren zwei verschiedene Kortexareale (S1 und M1) am Protokoll beteiligt, was die Identifikation einer relevanten EEG-Eigenschaft erschwerte. GegenwĂ€rtig rufen PlastizitĂ€ts-induzierende TMS-Protokolle in der Forschung und in Studien mit Schlaganfallpatienten schwankende und zeitlich begrenzte Wirkungen hervor. Durch EEG-Triggerung und / oder die Kombination mit klassischer Physiotherapie könnte eine verbesserte EffektivitĂ€t und somit eine routinemĂ€ĂŸige Anwendung erreicht werden. Trotz unserer negativen Ergebnisse bleibt EEG-getriggerte TMS ein vielversprechendes Instrument in Forschung und Klinik.This thesis presents two experiments employing real-time EEG-triggered transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on healthy volunteers to investigate the role of sensorimotor 8-14Hz ” rhythm in EEG at rest on corticospinal excitability and induction of positive plasticity. We intended to identify brain states favorable to induction of positive plasticity to inform development of more efficient TMS protocols for clinical application e.g. in stroke patients. Applying TMS triggered by pre-determined EEG brain states in real time (opposed to open-loop TMS with post-hoc trial sorting) offers not only more precise research into the role of certain brain waves, but also translation into more efficient therapies. The membrane potential of superficial cortical neurons fluctuates rhythmically, visible as oscillations in surface EEG. Different brain areas seem to communicate through these synchronized fluctuations. ‘Brain waves’ therefore convey valuable information about the excitability of said areas. Oscillations in the alpha frequency range (8-14Hz) play a crucial role in this, gating information by inhibiting brain areas irrelevant to the current task. According to an influential hypothesis, this function is exerted as an ‘asymmetric pulsed inhibition’, with a maximum of inhibition during the peaks and during high alpha power (∌ amplitude). Sensorimotor alpha frequency waves (” rhythm) play a similar role as the well-researched occipital alpha does for the visual cortex. The primary motor cortex (M1) provides a quantifiable measure of (corticospinal) excitability, the amplitude of TMS-elicited contralateral muscle twitches (appearing as MEPs in the EMG). The first experiment investigated the role of ” power for M1 excitability. 16 participants underwent one session of single-pulse TMS of the left M1, triggered by overall 10 individual power deciles in pseudorandomized order, partitioned into 4 ‘blocks’ of stimulation over time. The data revealed, after stratification for confounding inter-trial-intervals (ITIs) and normalization to block average, a weak positive linear relationship contrary to the proposed inhibitory role of ”, which has however since been replicated several times in other studies. This discrepancy can be explained e.g. by an in fact facilitatory nature of ”, by a postcentral and thus sensory cortical (S1) source of the targeted oscillations, reversing the inhibitory effect in sign to a facilitatory one through S1-to-M1 feedforward inhibition, or by a shift of most excitable power values dependent on stimulus strength. For the main experiment, we applied a paired associative stimulation (PAS) pro- 81tocol intended to induce positive plasticity (strengthening of synaptic connection outlasting the intervention), combining electrical stimulation of the right median nerve at the wrist with a TMS of the left M1 in a temporally sensitive manner. After an extensive screening to pre-select suitable subjects with a sufficiently strong ” rhythm (to ensure accurate performance of the real-time EEG targeting), 16 participants completed 4 sessions (one condition each). We expected to induce more positive plasticity during more excitable brain states, i.e., ” troughs rather than ” peaks. In light of our findings on ” power from the first experiment (weak influence as compared to ITIs and intrinsic variability over time) and overall contradictory evidence as to its (facilitatory versus inhibitory) role, high vs. low power were not explicitly compared. TMS during PAS was applied at (1) ” peaks, (2) ” troughs, (3) at medium ” powers and (4) open-loop. (3) and (4) both served as controls. The intervention failed to evoke a significant change in MEP amplitudes from baseline irrespective of condition. Possible explanations can be found in the intra- and interindividual variability of decisive parameters across sessions (e.g. baseline amplitudes and absolute ” powers during PAS), which however did not significantly depend on the targeted condition and were thus not true confounders. The number of sessions might still have introduced a further measure of variability. Varying PAS ITIs (due to EEG-triggering) could have also impeded plasticity induction, and the involvement of two cortical regions (S1 and M1) might have complicated the identification of one relevant brain state. Currently, plasticity-inducing TMS protocols in research and clinical trials evoke variable and transient effects. Improvements to enable routine application might come from EEG-triggering and/or combining with traditional motor training (physiotherapy). Regardless of our nil results in plasticity induction, EEG-triggered TMS remains a promising instrument in research and therapy

    Hunting Wildlife in the Tropics and Subtropics

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    The hunting of wild animals for their meat has been a crucial activity in the evolution of humans. It continues to be an essential source of food and a generator of income for millions of Indigenous and rural communities worldwide. Conservationists rightly fear that excessive hunting of many animal species will cause their demise, as has already happened throughout the Anthropocene. Many species of large mammals and birds have been decimated or annihilated due to overhunting by humans. If such pressures continue, many other species will meet the same fate. Equally, if the use of wildlife resources is to continue by those who depend on it, sustainable practices must be implemented. These communities need to remain or become custodians of the wildlife resources within their lands, for their own well-being as well as for biodiversity in general. This title is also available via Open Access on Cambridge Core

    Graphical scaffolding for the learning of data wrangling APIs

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    In order for students across the sciences to avail themselves of modern data streams, they must first know how to wrangle data: how to reshape ill-organised, tabular data into another format, and how to do this programmatically, in languages such as Python and R. Despite the cross-departmental demand and the ubiquity of data wrangling in analytical workflows, the research on how to optimise the instruction of it has been minimal. Although data wrangling as a programming domain presents distinctive challenges - characterised by on-the-fly syntax lookup and code example integration - it also presents opportunities. One such opportunity is how tabular data structures are easily visualised. To leverage the inherent visualisability of data wrangling, this dissertation evaluates three types of graphics that could be employed as scaffolding for novices: subgoal graphics, thumbnail graphics, and parameter graphics. Using a specially built e-learning platform, this dissertation documents a multi-institutional, randomised, and controlled experiment that investigates the pedagogical effects of these. Our results indicate that the graphics are well-received, that subgoal graphics boost the completion rate, and that thumbnail graphics improve navigability within a command menu. We also obtained several non-significant results, and indications that parameter graphics are counter-productive. We will discuss these findings in the context of general scaffolding dilemmas, and how they fit into a wider research programme on data wrangling instruction

    Industry 4.0: product digital twins for remanufacturing decision-making

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    Currently there is a desire to reduce natural resource consumption and expand circular business principles whilst Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is regarded as the evolutionary and potentially disruptive movement of technology, automation, digitalisation, and data manipulation into the industrial sector. The remanufacturing industry is recognised as being vital to the circular economy (CE) as it extends the in-use life of products, but its synergy with I4.0 has had little attention thus far. This thesis documents the first investigating into I4.0 in remanufacturing for a CE contributing a design and demonstration of a model that optimises remanufacturing planning using data from different instances in a product’s life cycle. The initial aim of this work was to identify the I4.0 technology that would enhance the stability in remanufacturing with a view to reducing resource consumption. As the project progressed it narrowed to focus on the development of a product digital twin (DT) model to support data-driven decision making for operations planning. The model’s architecture was derived using a bottom-up approach where requirements were extracted from the identified complications in production planning and control that differentiate remanufacturing from manufacturing. Simultaneously, the benefits of enabling visibility of an asset’s through-life health were obtained using a DT as the modus operandi. A product simulator and DT prototype was designed to use Internet of Things (IoT) components, a neural network for remaining life estimations and a search algorithm for operational planning optimisation. The DT was iteratively developed using case studies to validate and examine the real opportunities that exist in deploying a business model that harnesses, and commodifies, early life product data for end-of-life processing optimisation. Findings suggest that using intelligent programming networks and algorithms, a DT can enhance decision-making if it has visibility of the product and access to reliable remanufacturing process information, whilst existing IoT components provide rudimentary “smart” capabilities, but their integration is complex, and the durability of the systems over extended product life cycles needs to be further explored
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