Examining the Society of Mind

This article examines Marvin Minsky's Society of Mind theory of human cognition. We describe some of the history behind the theory, review several of the specific mechanisms and representations that Minsky proposes, and consider related developments in artificial intelligence since the theory's publication

The Role Of Physical Therapy Interventions For An Elderly Patient Following Surgical Fixation Of A Fracture Of The Femoral Shaft: A Case Report

Background and Purpose: This case report contributes to and builds upon established knowledge about the importance of early weight bearing for patients who sustained a fracture and repair. The purpose of this case report is to document this patient’s response to skilled physical therapy in the inpatient setting, including functional mobility, gait training and therapeutic exercise to maximize the patient\u27s functional ability prior to discharge home. Case Description: This report follows an 88-year old female who underwent open reduction and internal fixation of her right femoral shaft after sustaining a non-traumatic fracture. The patient was seen in the acute care unit of the hospital for three days prior to transitioning to the inpatient skilled therapy. Her care included physical therapy five times a week for 11 days, before being discharged home with services to continue to maximize functional independence. Outcomes: After completing inpatient skilled physical therapy, the patient met all her physical therapy goals. She improved her gross lower extremity strength and muscle endurance. She also was independent with all functional mobility and ambulation with the use of a rolling walker. She improved her Tinetti Balance Assessment score (15/28 to 20/28). Discussion: In conclusion, this case report successfully demonstrates the important role of physical therapy in the inpatient setting for patients that have sustained this type of injury. This is particularly true for a patient such as the one in this case report who also presented with a multitude of co-morbidities, and barriers to overcome to return to prior level of function

The influence of push-off timing in a robotic ankle-foot prosthesis on the energetics and mechanics of walking

Background: Robotic ankle-foot prostheses that provide net positive push-off work can reduce the metabolic rate of walking for individuals with amputation, but benefits might be sensitive to push-off timing. Simple walking models suggest that preemptive push-off reduces center-of-mass work, possibly reducing metabolic rate. Studies with bilateral exoskeletons have found that push-off beginning before leading leg contact minimizes metabolic rate, but timing was not varied independently from push-off work, and the effects of push-off timing on biomechanics were not measured. Most lower-limb amputations are unilateral, which could also affect optimal timing. The goal of this study was to vary the timing of positive prosthesis push-off work in isolation and measure the effects on energetics, mechanics and muscle activity. Methods: We tested 10 able-bodied participants walking on a treadmill at 1.25 m.s(-1). Participants wore a tethered ankle-foot prosthesis emulator on one leg using a rigid boot adapter. We programmed the prosthesis to apply torque bursts that began between 46% and 56% of stride in different conditions. We iteratively adjusted torque magnitude to maintain constant net positive push-off work. Results: When push-off began at or after leading leg contact, metabolic rate was about 10% lower than in a condition with Spring-like prosthesis behavior. When push-off began before leading leg contact, metabolic rate was not different from the Spring-like condition. Early push-off led to increased prosthesis-side vastus medialis and biceps femoris activity during push-off and increased variability in step length and prosthesis loading during push-off. Prosthesis push-off timing had no influence on intact-side leg center-of-mass collision work. Conclusions: Prosthesis push-off timing, isolated from push-off work, strongly affected metabolic rate, with optimal timing at or after intact-side heel contact. Increased thigh muscle activation and increased human variability appear to have caused the lack of reduction in metabolic rate when push-off was provided too early. Optimal timing with respect to opposite heel contact was not different from normal walking, but the trends in metabolic rate and center-of-mass mechanics were not consistent with simple model predictions. Optimal push-off timing should also be characterized for individuals with amputation, since meaningful benefits might be realized with improved timing

Trustworthy content push

Delivery of content to mobile devices gains increasing importance in industrial environments to support employees in the field. An important application are e-mail push services like the fashionable Blackberry. These systems are facing security challenges regarding data transport to, and storage of the data on the end user equipment. The emerging Trusted Computing technology offers new answers to these open questions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figure

Virtual push-forwards

Let $p:F\to G$ be a morphism of stacks of positive \emph{virtual} relative dimension $k$ and let $\gamma\in H^k(F)$. We give sufficient conditions for $p_*\gamma\cdot[F]^{virt}$ to be a multiple of $[G]^{virt}$. We apply this result to show an analogue of the conservation of number for virtually smooth families. We show implications to Gromov-Witten invariants and give a new proof of a theorem of Marian, Oprea and Pandharipande which compares the virtual classes of moduli spaces of stable maps and moduli spaces of stable quotients

An inhibitory pull-push circuit in frontal cortex.

Push-pull is a canonical computation of excitatory cortical circuits. By contrast, we identify a pull-push inhibitory circuit in frontal cortex that originates in vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP)-expressing interneurons. During arousal, VIP cells rapidly and directly inhibit pyramidal neurons; VIP cells also indirectly excite these pyramidal neurons via parallel disinhibition. Thus, arousal exerts a feedback pull-push influence on excitatory neurons-an inversion of the canonical push-pull of feedforward input

Repeatability of push-up and push-down methods in the measure of accommodation amplitude

La mesura de l’amplitud d’acomodació és una pràctica molt habitual en optometria. La majoria de professionals coincideixen en que els mètodes push-up i push-down són els més utilitzats als exàmens visuals degut al fet que són mètodes ràpids, fàcils i eficaços. Tot i això, és important saber la concordança entre cada mètode per tal de realitzar diagnòstics correctes. En aquest estudi, s’han comparat els resultats en diòptries dels mètodes push-up i push-down. Per tal de dur a terme l’estudi, s’ha mesurat l’amplitud d’acomodació a 12 pacients, dues vegades, prenent 3 mesures en cada repetició. Per avaluar la concordança entre mètodes s’han utilitzat el paired-T test, el Shapiro-wilk test i el gràfics de Bland and Altman. L’anàlisi estadístic de les dades mesurades s’ha fet per tal d’estudiar ambdós mètodes. Els resultats no han mostrat diferències significatives entre el mètode del push-up i el del push-down

Texas Business Review, October 1976

To Push or Not To Push; Tracking Intracity Changes; Killeen-Temple: Magnet AreaBureau of Business Researc