Weight control device using bites detection

The present invention relates to a device that can be used in individual weight control protocols that is capable of detecting in real time information with regard to number of bites taken, time between bites, and so forth. The weight control device can detect bites through motion detection via a sensor worn on the wrist or hand of a user. The device can include notification capabilities that can alert a user as to excessive eating speed, excessive amounts of food intake, and the like so as to provide immediate feedback for purposes of weight control

Device and method for detecting eating activities

Devices and methods for detecting an eating activity occurrence are provided. A device includes a sensor for monitoring movement of a portion of an arm of a subject, and a processor in communication with the sensor for collecting raw data associated with movement of the portion of the arm. The processor is configured to process the raw data and form processed data. The processed data includes a determination of whether an eating activity has occurred. A method includes sensing movement of a portion of an arm of a subject, and processing raw data associated with the movement of the portion of the arm of the subject to form processed data. The processed data includes a determination of whether an eating activity has occurred

The Effect of a Target Bite Count and Plate Size on Food Intake.

The purpose of this study was to determine if an instruction to take fewer bites than typically taken, would reduce intake and overcome the known environmental cue of plate size. In a previous study, fifty-five participants (34F) ate ad libitum macaroni and cheese in groups of four, either from a small plate or a large plate. They ate 111±35g with 12±4 bites from the small plate, and 195±111g with 20± 6 bites from the large plate. The current study employed the same paradigm. Sixty participants (33F) were given bite count feedback and were instructed to take only 12 bites, while eating from either a small plate or a large plate. Participants ate 135±52g with 12±3 bites from the small plate and 177±63g with 12±2 bites from the large plate. Results of a 2x2 ANOVA indicate a main effect of plate size (p\u3c.001) and instruction (p\u3c.001) on bites taken and an interaction (p\u3c.001). Plate size also affected grams consumed (p\u3c.001). Notably, instruction also affected bite size (p\u3c.001). These results suggest that people will reduce the number of bites when instructed to, but will increase their bite size to compensate for the reduced bite allowance

Combating the Problem of Smuggling Via Legal Refugee Transport Agencies

Our final project is the idea of an organization that works to legally transport refugees into the EU where they can safely become members of the local economy. Legal and social loopholes prevent refugees from entering easily, while refugees are actually seen to aid in temporary working economies. Nexus Maximus IV The Challenge: Innovation for Refugees and Displaced Populations One of the great challenges of our time is how to help refugees and displaced populations, and how to prevent the causes in the first place. Every minute, 24 people around the world are forced to flee their homes. That’s 34,000 people a day who leave everything behind in the hope of finding safety and a better tomorrow. The impact of war, political, racial and religious conflict, and environmental crises of famine and climate change, have caused great suffering and there is a great opportunity to do better. The issues these populations and the countries who receive them face are diverse and complex. They include public health, housing/built environment, cultural integration, public safety, employment/economic and more. How can innovation address these challenges? How do we create the social systems and products to support a healthy, safe and integrated program for refugees? How do we address the physical, emotional, and social needs of refugees to restore hope and opportunity? The solutions may be as far ranging as the challenges, exploring the acute needs during a crisis, as well as the chronic needs of the permanently displaced; looking at immigration and adjustments to new cultures. We encourage participants to draw upon all disciplines, from health professions to architecture, engineering to design, ethics, communication and every way of thinking we have, to find better ways to innovate on physical solutions, processes, policies, systems, and more. Recap of poster presentations.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/nexusmaximus/1007/thumbnail.jp

Language Model Crossover: Variation through Few-Shot Prompting

This paper pursues the insight that language models naturally enable an intelligent variation operator similar in spirit to evolutionary crossover. In particular, language models of sufficient scale demonstrate in-context learning, i.e. they can learn from associations between a small number of input patterns to generate outputs incorporating such associations (also called few-shot prompting). This ability can be leveraged to form a simple but powerful variation operator, i.e. to prompt a language model with a few text-based genotypes (such as code, plain-text sentences, or equations), and to parse its corresponding output as those genotypes' offspring. The promise of such language model crossover (which is simple to implement and can leverage many different open-source language models) is that it enables a simple mechanism to evolve semantically-rich text representations (with few domain-specific tweaks), and naturally benefits from current progress in language models. Experiments in this paper highlight the versatility of language-model crossover, through evolving binary bit-strings, sentences, equations, text-to-image prompts, and Python code. The conclusion is that language model crossover is a promising method for evolving genomes representable as text

Effect of Volume and Temperature on the Global and Segmental Dynamics in Polypropylene Glycol and 1,4-polyisoprene

Published dielectric relaxation measurements on polypropylene glycol and 1,4-polyisoprene are analyzed to determine the relative effect that thermal energy and volume have on the temperature dependence of the normal mode relaxation times, and compare this to their effect on the temperature dependence of the local segmental relaxation times. We find that for both polymers at temperatures well above Tg, both relaxation modes are governed more by thermal energy than by volume, although the latter's contribution is not negligible. Such a result is consistent with an assumption underlying models for polymer viscoelasticity, such as the Rouse and tube models, that the friction coefficient governing motions over large length scales can be identified with the local segmental friction coefficient. We also show that relaxation data for both the segmental and the normal mode superimpose, when expressed as a function of the product of the temperature and the volume, the latter raised to a power. This scaling form arises from an inverse power form for the intermolecular potential. The value of the exponent on the volume for these two polymers indicates a relatively "soft" potential.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

It Pays to Be Bumpy: Drag Reducing Armor in The Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker, \u3cem\u3eEumicrotremus Orbis\u3c/em\u3e

Armor is a multipurpose set of structures that has evolved independently at least 30 times in fishes. In addition to providing protection, armor can manipulate flow, increase camouflage, and be sexually dimorphic. There are potential tradeoffs in armor function: increased impact resistance may come at the cost of maneuvering ability; and ornate armor may offer visual or protective advantages, but could incur excess drag. Pacific spiny lumpsuckers (Eumicrotremus orbis) are covered in rows of odontic, cone-shaped armor whorls, protecting the fish from wave driven impacts and the threat of predation. We are interested in measuring the effects of lumpsucker armor on the hydrodynamic forces on the fish. Bigger lumpsuckers have larger and more complex armor which may incur a greater hydrodynamic cost. In addition to their protective armor, lumpsuckers have evolved a ventral adhesive disc, allowing them to remain stationary in their environment. We hypothesize a tradeoff between the armor and adhesion: little fish prioritize suction while big fish prioritize protection. Using micro-CT we compared armor volume to disc area over lumpsucker development and built 3D models to measure changes in drag over ontogeny. We found that drag and drag coefficients decrease with greater armor coverage and vary consistently with orientation. Adhesive disc area is isometric but safety factor increases with size, allowing larger fish to remain attached in higher flows than smaller fish