Watch Me Calibrate My Force-Sensing Shoes!

This paper presents a novel method for smaller-sized humanoid robots to self-calibrate their foot force sensors. The method consists of two steps: 1. The robot is commanded to move along planned whole-body trajectories in different double support configurations. 2. The sensor parameters are determined by minimizing the error between the measured and modeled center of pressure (CoP) and ground reaction force (GRF) during the robot's movement using optimization. This is the first proposed autonomous calibration method for foot force-sensing devices in smaller humanoid robots. Furthermore, we introduce a high-accuracy manual calibration method to establish CoP ground truth, which is used to validate the measured CoP using self-calibration. The results show that the self-calibration can accurately estimate CoP and GRF without any manual intervention. Our method is demonstrated using a NAO humanoid platform and our previously presented force-sensing shoes

Recurrent neck abscesses due to cervical tuberculous lymphadenopathy in an elderly woman post-splenectomy: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>There are approximately 7000 new cases of tuberculosis every year in the UK, the majority of which are pulmonary. Approximately 5% affect the lymph nodes in immunocompetent patients. Scrofula is an old term used to describe lymph nodes of the neck infected with tuberculosis</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>In the elderly population, growing neck lumps are always treated as red flags until a diagnosis is confirmed. Here, the case of an 89-year-old Caucasian woman is presented. She was reluctant to seek medical help as she feared the cause was sinister and did not want surgical intervention.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>It is difficult to culture tuberculosis from superficial swabs, resulting in a high proportion of false negative results. Where there is a high degree of clinical suspicion for tuberculosis, it is important to consider a biopsy with culture. Patients over the age of 65 have waning immunity and are therefore a vulnerable group for acute infections as well as the re-activation of indolent organisms. Post-splenectomy patients are at a major disadvantage during sepsis and when a cellular immune response is required, such as when faced with a <it>Mycobacterium tuberculosis </it>infection. Scrofula is treated with a similar regime as pulmonary tuberculosis and has a near 100% success rate.</p

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum

Metabolic assessment of a novel chronic myelogenous leukemic cell line and an imatinib resistant subline by 1H NMR spectroscopy

The goal of this study was to examine metabolic differences between a novel chronic myelogenous leukemic (CML) cell line, MyL, and a sub-clone, MyL-R, which displays enhanced resistance to the targeted Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib. 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was carried out on cell extracts and conditioned media from each cell type. Both principal component analysis (PCA) and specific metabolite identification and quantification were used to examine metabolic differences between the cell types. MyL cells showed enhanced glucose removal from the media compared to MyL-R cells with significant differences in production rates of the glycolytic end-products, lactate and alanine. Interestingly, the total intracellular creatine pool (creatine + phosphocreatine) was significantly elevated in MyL-R compared to MyL cells. We further demonstrated that the MyL-R cells converted the creatine to phosphocreatine using non-invasive monitoring of perfused alginate-encapsulated MyL-R and MyL cells by in vivo 31P NMR spectroscopy and subsequent HPLC analysis of extracts. Our data demonstrated a clear difference in the metabolite profiles of drug-resistant and sensitive cells, with the biggest difference being an elevation of creatine metabolites in the imatinib-resistant MyL-R cells