Machines with Heart: Utilizing an STS Framework to Analyze Implementation and Design of Social Eldercare Robots in Germany and Japan

Robots are everywhere from car factories to cafes, but many people may not realize robots are quite popular in assisted living residencies for older adults. Social eldercare robots (SER) provide care to older adults without relying on human labor, offering a lucrative promise of technological efficiency during global labor crises. However, their adaptation into care settings is not this simple. Human trust in robots is rooted in nuanced social, cultural, and historical factors, making SER a highly interpretively flexible technology. This thesis analyzes social eldercare robot implementation in two countries, Germany and Japan, using a Science, Technology and Society (STS) framework. By investigating how service animals, perception of migrant labor, and religious factors impact social eldercare robot use, I argue acceptance of SER is highly bound to local beliefs about caretaking, spirituality, and what it truly means to be alive

25th International Congress of the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES) Frankfurt, Germany, 14-17 June 2017 : Oral Presentations

Introduction: Ouyang has recently proposed hiatal surface area (HSA) calculation by multiplanar multislice computer tomography (MDCT) scan as a useful tool for planning treatment of hiatus defects with hiatal hernia (HH), with or without gastroesophageal reflux (MRGE). Preoperative upper endoscopy or barium swallow cannot predict the HSA and pillars conditions. Aim to asses the efficacy of MDCT’s calculation of HSA for planning the best approach for the hiatal defects treatment. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 25 patients, candidates to laparoscopic antireflux surgery as primary surgery or hiatus repair concomitant with or after bariatric surgery. Patients were analyzed preoperatively and after one-year follow-up by MDCT scan measurement of esophageal hiatus surface. Five normal patients were enrolled as control group. The HSA’s intraoperative calculation was performed after complete dissection of the area considered a triangle. Postoperative CT-scan was done after 12 months or any time reflux symptoms appeared. Results: (1) Mean HSA in control patients with no HH, no MRGE was cm2 and similar in non-complicated patients with previous LSG and cruroplasty. (2) Mean HSA in patients candidates to cruroplasty was 7.40 cm2. (3) Mean HSA in patients candidates to redo cruroplasty for recurrence was 10.11 cm2. Discussion. MDCT scan offer the possibility to obtain an objective measurement of the HSA and the correlation with endoscopic findings and symptoms. The preoperative information allow to discuss with patients the proper technique when a HSA[5 cm2 is detected. During the follow-up a correlation between symptoms and failure of cruroplasty can be assessed. Conclusions: MDCT scan seems to be an effective non-invasive method to plan hiatal defect treatment and to check during the follow-up the potential recurrence. Future research should correlate in larger series imaging data with intraoperative findings

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes

This bibliography lists 161 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in November, 1987

Adult pedestrian traffic trauma in Cape Town with special reference to the role of alcohol

This research is a prospective, descriptive survey of adult pedestrian injuries in Cape Town. It profiles 'at risk' pedestrians and describes their injuries, injury severity and outcome. The role which alcohol plays in these collisions is threaded through the thesis. Since no study of this nature has been done in South Africa, it provides baseline data on the epidemiology, alcohol-relatedness, clinical presentation and prevention of adult pedestrian collisions in the metropole. Data were collected prospectively on all injured pedestrians who presented consecutively, within six hours of being injured, to the Trauma Unit of Groote Schuur Hospital over a nine week period in 1993. Data were also gathered retrospectively from the state mortuary on all pedestrians who died before reaching hospital during the same time period. A total of 227 patients were included in the study. Data gathered included demographics, physiological response to injury, anatomical nature and severity of injuries as well as progress and outcome. Injuries were assessed and scored using the Abbreviated Injury Score (1990 revision) and the New Injury Severity Score. Alcohol consumption was assessed using four measures, viz. self-evaluation, clinical assessment, breath alcohol analysis and blood alcohol concentration (SAC). Data were analysed using SAS version 6. The study recorded a very high incidence of alcohol intoxication among injured pedestrians in Cape Town. This is highly suggestive of a causal link. One hundred and forty-one patients (62.1%) were found to have positive BACs; more than 40% had BACs in excess of 0.20 g/100ml. SAC positive pedestrians were found to have more severe injuries, to require longer hospitalisation periods and to need more complex management. They consequently cost more to treat than their sober counterparts. The comparison between the four methods of alcohol assessment revealed that self-evaluation and clinical assessment were poor screening tools. Breath alcohol analysis, using a Lion Alcolmeter S-D2, had a high degree of accuracy when compared to the SAC, which remains the 'gold standard'. It is therefore recommended that all traffic trauma patients be subjected to breath analysis. The study also generated recommendations for the prevention of pedestrian collisions. These address pre-crash, crash and post-crash factors. Control of drunken driving and walking, as well as road safety education, particularly to pedestrians, are key issues. However, there remains a need for improved road engineering and better monitoring of the roadworthiness of vehicles. This thesis highlights the severity of alcohol-related pedestrian injuries and the importance of preventative strategies

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 231)

This bibliography lists 469 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in September, 1988

Investigating Human Perceptions of Trust and Social Cues in Robots for Safe Human-Robot Interaction in Human-oriented Environments

As robots increasingly take part in daily living activities, humans will have to interact with them in domestic and other human-oriented environments. This thesis envisages a future where autonomous robots could be used as home companions to assist and collaborate with their human partners in unstructured environments without the support of any roboticist or expert. To realise such a vision, it is important to identify which factors (e.g. trust, participants’ personalities and background etc.) that influence people to accept robots’ as companions and trust the robots to look after their well-being. I am particularly interested in the possibility of robots using social behaviours and natural communications as a repair mechanism to positively influence humans’ sense of trust and companionship towards the robots. The main reason being that trust can change over time due to different factors (e.g. perceived erroneous robot behaviours). In this thesis, I provide guidelines for a robot to regain human trust by adopting certain human-like behaviours. I can expect that domestic robots will exhibit occasional mechanical, programming or functional errors, as occurs with any other electrical consumer devices. For example, these might include software errors, dropping objects due to gripper malfunctions, picking up the wrong object or showing faulty navigational skills due to unclear camera images or noisy laser scanner data respectively. It is therefore important for a domestic robot to have acceptable interactive behaviour when exhibiting and recovering from an error situation. In this context, several open questions need to be addressed regarding both individuals’ perceptions of the errors and robots, and the effects of these on people’s trust in robots. As a first step, I investigated how the severity of the consequences and the timing of a robot’s different types of erroneous behaviours during an interaction may have different impact on users’ attitudes towards a domestic robot. I concluded that there is a correlation between the magnitude of an error performed by the robot and the corresponding loss of trust of the human in the robot. In particular, people’s trust was strongly affected by robot errors that had severe consequences. This led us to investigate whether people’s awareness of robots’ functionalities may affect their trust in a robot. I found that people’s acceptance and trust in the robot may be affected by their knowledge of the robot’s capabilities and its limitations differently according the participants’ age and the robot’s embodiment. In order to deploy robots in the wild, strategies for mitigating and re-gaining people’s trust in robots in case of errors needs to be implemented. In the following three studies, I assessed if a robot with awareness of human social conventions would increase people’s trust in the robot. My findings showed that people almost blindly trusted a social and a non-social robot in scenarios with non-severe error consequences. In contrast, people that interacted with a social robot did not trust its suggestions in a scenario with a higher risk outcome. Finally, I investigated the effects of robots’ errors on people’s trust of a robot over time. The findings showed that participants’ judgement of a robot is formed during the first stage of their interaction. Therefore, people are more inclined to lose trust in a robot if it makes big errors at the beginning of the interaction. The findings from the Human-Robot Interaction experiments presented in this thesis will contribute to an advanced understanding of the trust dynamics between humans and robots for a long-lasting and successful collaboration

Peer coaching: To what extent can it support the development of professional attributes required to be a teacher?

Students on a science PGCE course were introduced to peer coaching. This article describes the structures developed to enhance student teachers’ professional attributes and then reports the results. The students were given questionnaires to ascertain to what extent they felt they had developed their professional attributes as a result of being involved in peer coaching. The questionnaire design provided both qualitative and quantitative data. The evidence indicates that the peer coaching procedures had a positive impact on student teachers’ professional development. Data was analysed and has been used to draw conclusions to inform peer coaching in an education setting

Sustainable Construction

Construction is one of the main sectors that generates greenhouse gases. This industry consumes large amounts of raw materials, such as stone, timber, water, etc. Additionally, infrastructure should provide service over many years without safety problems. Therefore, their correct design, construction, maintenance, and dismantling are essential to reducing economic, environmental, and societal consequences. That is why promoting sustainable construction has recently become extremely important. To help address and resolve these types of questions, this book explores new ways of reducing the environmental impacts caused by the construction sector, as well promotes social progress and economic growth. The chapters collect the papers included in the “Sustainable Construction” Special Issue of the Sustainability journal. The papers cover a wide spectrum of issues related to the use of sustainable materials in construction, the optimization of designs based con sustainable indicators, the life-cycle assessment, the decision-making processes that integrate economic, social, and environmental aspects, and the promotion of durable materials that reduce future maintenance