Leveling the playing field for Visually Impaired using Transport Assistant

Visually impaired people face numerous challenges when it comes to transportation. Not only must they circumvent obstacles while navigating, but they also need access to essential information related to available public transport, up-to-date weather forecast, and convenient method for booking private taxis. In this paper we introduce Transport Assistant - a voice based assistive technology prototype, built with a goal of leveling the playing field for the visually impaired to solve these problems that they face in their day to day life. Being voice enabled makes it seamlessly integrate into the environment, and can be invoked by saying a hotword - hello assistant. The paper explores this research question, followed by investigating existing technologies, explains the methodology and design, then concludes by presenting the prototype and results.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, ubiquitous computin

Hypoconstrained Jammed Packings of Nonspherical Hard Particles: Ellipses and Ellipsoids

Continuing on recent computational and experimental work on jammed packings of hard ellipsoids [Donev et al., Science, vol. 303, 990-993] we consider jamming in packings of smooth strictly convex nonspherical hard particles. We explain why the isocounting conjecture, which states that for large disordered jammed packings the average contact number per particle is twice the number of degrees of freedom per particle (\bar{Z}=2d_{f}), does not apply to nonspherical particles. We develop first- and second-order conditions for jamming, and demonstrate that packings of nonspherical particles can be jammed even though they are hypoconstrained (\bar{Z}<2d_{f}). We apply an algorithm using these conditions to computer-generated hypoconstrained ellipsoid and ellipse packings and demonstrate that our algorithm does produce jammed packings, even close to the sphere point. We also consider packings that are nearly jammed and draw connections to packings of deformable (but stiff) particles. Finally, we consider the jamming conditions for nearly spherical particles and explain quantitatively the behavior we observe in the vicinity of the sphere point.Comment: 33 pages, third revisio

When do we eat? An evaluation of food items input into an electronic monitoring application

We present a formative study that examines what, when, and how participants in a chronic kidney disease (stage 5) population input food items into an electronic intake monitoring application. Participants scanned food item barcodes or voice recorded food items they consumed during a three week period. The results indicated that a learning curve was associated with barcode scanning; participants with low literacy skills had difficulty describing food items in voice recordings; and participants input food items depending on when they had dialysis treatment. Participants thought this electronic self monitoring application would be helpful for chronically ill populations in their first year of treatmen

Dissipative surface solitons in periodic structures

We report dissipative surface solitons forming at the interface between a semi-infinite lattice and a homogeneous Kerr medium. The solitons exist due to balance between amplification in the near-surface lattice channel and two-photon absorption. The stable dissipative surface solitons exist in both focusing and defocusing media, when propagation constants of corresponding states fall into a total semi-infinite and or into one of total finite gaps of the spectrum (i.e. in a domain where propagation of linear waves is inhibited for the both media). In a general situation, the surface solitons form when amplification coefficient exceeds threshold value. When a soliton is formed in a total finite gap there exists also the upper limit for the linear gain.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Europhysics Letter

Dynamic analysis of a lithium-boiling potassium refractory metal Rankine cycle power system for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Lithium-boiling potassium refractory metal Rankine cycle power system heat transfer model

Data Mining a Medieval Medical Text Reveals Patterns in Ingredient Choice That Reflect Biological Activity against Infectious Agents

We used established methodologies from network science to identify patterns in medicinal ingredient combinations in a key medieval text, the 15th-century Lylye of Medicynes, focusing on recipes for topical treatments for symptoms of microbial infection. We conducted experiments screening the antimicrobial activity of selected ingredients. These experiments revealed interesting examples of ingredients that potentiated or interfered with each other’s activity and that would be useful bases for future, more detailed experiments. Our results highlight (i) the potential to use methodologies from network science to analyze medieval data sets and detect patterns of ingredient combination, (ii) the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration to reveal different aspects of the ethnopharmacology of historical medical texts, and (iii) the potential development of novel therapeutics inspired by premodern remedies in a time of increased need for new antibiotics.The pharmacopeia used by physicians and laypeople in medieval Europe has largely been dismissed as placebo or superstition. While we now recognize that some of the materia medica used by medieval physicians could have had useful biological properties, research in this area is limited by the labor-intensive process of searching and interpreting historical medical texts. Here, we demonstrate the potential power of turning medieval medical texts into contextualized electronic databases amenable to exploration by the use of an algorithm. We used established methodologies from network science to reveal patterns in ingredient selection and usage in a key text, the 15th-century Lylye of Medicynes, focusing on remedies to treat symptoms of microbial infection. In providing a worked example of data-driven textual analysis, we demonstrate the potential of this approach to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and to shine a new light on the ethnopharmacology of historical medical texts