Telepresence: Design, Implementation and Study of an HMD-controlled Avatar with a Mechatronic Approach

Telepresence describes technologies that allow users to remotely experience the sensation of being present at an event without being physically present. An avatar exists to represent the user whilst in a remote location and is tasked to collect stimuli from its immediate surroundings to be delivered to the user for consumption. With the advent of recent developments in Virtual Reality technology, viz., head-mounted displays (HMDs), new possibilities have been enabled in the field of Telepresence. The main focus of this thesis is to develop a solution for visual Telepresence, where an HMD is used to control the direction of a camera‟s viewpoint, such that the user‟s head is tracked by the avatar, while providing visual feedback to the user. The design and development of the device follows a mechatronic approach, where a real time operating system (RTOS) is used in conjunction with a microcontroller for mechanical actuator control. The first-generation prototype, HOG-1 (HMD-Operated Gimbal, rev. 1), developed for this thesis serves as a foundation for study; the implementation and analysis of the prototype contributes to the state of the art by providing a clearer glimpse of hardware and software requirements that are necessary to construct an improved model. Additionally, qualitative and quantitative measurements are developed in the process of this research

Synergistic Effects of d-δ-Tocotrienol And Xanthorrhizol on Murine B16 Melanoma Cells

Background: Skin cancer has become the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States, of which melanoma is the most lethal form. Conventional chemotherapy treatments come with a host of side effects. d-δ-Tocotrienol and xanthorrhizol have shown potential in treatment of cancers. Tocotrienol, an isomer of vitamin E, has demonstrated apoptotic and cell cycle arrest effects on cancer cells. Xanthorrhizol, a sesquiterpenoid, has demonstrated anticancer effects through both hormonal and nonhormonal pathways. It is unknown whether combinations of d-δ-tocotrienol and xanthorrhizol provide greater growth-suppressive activity than these agents alone. Methods: The proliferation of murine B16 melanoma cells was measured using MTT assay with CellTiter 96 Aqueous One Solution (Progmega, Madison WI, USA). Cell cycle distribution was examined by flow cytometry. Protein expression was detected by Western blot analysis with chemiluminescent imaging. Results: Xanthorrhizol inhibited cell proliferation in a dose-response manner. The IC50 of xanthorrhizol, or the concentration of xanthorrhizol required to suppress the cell proliferation by 50%, was estimated to be 65 μM. A combination of 16.25 μM xanthorrhizol and 10 μM d-δ-tocotrienol inhibited cell proliferation to a greater extent than those by individual compounds (P Conclusion: Xanthorrhizol and d-δ-tocotrienol demonstrate additive and possibly synergistic effects on the viability of murine B16 melanoma cells. The underlying mechanisms of action for this finding, including apoptosis and cell cycle, warrant further investigation

Sandpiles, spanning trees, and plane duality

Let G be a connected, loopless multigraph. The sandpile group of G is a finite abelian group associated to G whose order is equal to the number of spanning trees in G. Holroyd et al. used a dynamical process on graphs called rotor-routing to define a simply transitive action of the sandpile group of G on its set of spanning trees. Their definition depends on two pieces of auxiliary data: a choice of a ribbon graph structure on G, and a choice of a root vertex. Chan, Church, and Grochow showed that if G is a planar ribbon graph, it has a canonical rotor-routing action associated to it, i.e., the rotor-routing action is actually independent of the choice of root vertex. It is well-known that the spanning trees of a planar graph G are in canonical bijection with those of its planar dual G*, and furthermore that the sandpile groups of G and G* are isomorphic. Thus, one can ask: are the two rotor-routing actions, of the sandpile group of G on its spanning trees, and of the sandpile group of G* on its spanning trees, compatible under plane duality? In this paper, we give an affirmative answer to this question, which had been conjectured by Baker.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Peran Digital Marketing pada PT Kreasi Dapur Nusantara

Magang ini bertujuan untuk memahami dan menerapkan strategi pemasaran yang efektif dalam konteks industri F&B yang kompetitif. Laporan ini mencakup analisis dan pengamatan yang dilakukan selama magang di Bidang F&B, dengan berfokus pada berbagai aspek pemasaran, termasuk riset pasar, segmentasi pelanggan, branding, promosi, dan pemasaran digital. Melalui pengalaman ini, penulis memperoleh pemahaman yang mendalam tentang bagaimana pemasaran dapat berperan sebagai alat yang kuat dalam meningkatkan visibilitas merek, daya tarik pelanggan, dan keberhasilan bisnis secara keseluruhan. Selama magang, penulis terlibat dalam berbagai kegiatan pemasaran, seperti mengumpulkan dan menganalisis data pasar untuk memahami preferensi pelanggan, mengembangkan strategi segmentasi yang tepat, serta merancang dan melaksanakan kampanye promosi yang efektif. Penulis juga terlibat dalam pengelolaan platform media sosial perusahaan dan mempelajari praktik terbaik dalam pemasaran digital. Kesimpulan dari pengalaman magang ini adalah bahwa pemasaran memiliki peran penting dalam kesuksesan bisnis F&B. Dalam industri yang kompetitif ini, strategi pemasaran yang tepat dapat memberikan keunggulan kompetitif yang signifikan. Laporan ini diharapkan dapat memberikan wawasan yang bermanfaat tentang pentingnya pemasaran dalam industri F&B, serta memberikan rekomendasi yang relevan untuk meningkatkan strategi pemasaran di Bidang F&B

Acculturation: a social identity approach

Under the influence of globalisation, people are, and are continuing to migrate around the globe on a large scale. Acculturation deals with the process of cultural and psychological change of immigrants as they live and interact with the host society. Berry’s (1992) framework of acculturation strategies is the predominant framework in acculturation studies today. According to the framework, four strategies (integration, separation, assimilation and marginalisation) emerge from the interplay between the maintenance of the ethnic culture and the adoption and integration of the host culture. It is argued that while this framework is useful in describing how groups of immigrants acculturate in a particular society, it is not sufficient to explain why people acculturate in different ways. Social identity theory is the proposed perspective in examining the nature of the acculturation process. The four acculturation strategies are argued to be the result of the activation of the in-group/ out-group mechanism, which is treated as a generic social cognitive mechanism by social psychologists. While the current study is not the first to discuss acculturation from a social cognitive perspective, it is the first to claim and empirically test a direct connection. Forty randomly selected participants were recruited in public areas in Christchurch, New Zealand, to take part in the study. Scales of ethnic identity and national identity were used to measure the acculturation style of the participants, and interviews were conducted afterwards to investigate the psychology related to the in-group/ out-group mechanism. Distinctions in stereotypic perceptions and beliefs were found across all acculturation styles, which suggests that acculturation and social identity are interrelated concepts. Additional themes (the role of language, personal identity, the change in environment and the integration of cultural norms) were also identified to influence the adaptation of immigrants. Their relevance and interaction with social identity were discussed

Pharmacologic inhibition of reactive gliosis blocks TNF-α-mediated neuronal apoptosis.

Reactive gliosis is an early pathological feature common to most neurodegenerative diseases, yet its regulation and impact remain poorly understood. Normally astrocytes maintain a critical homeostatic balance. After stress or injury they undergo rapid parainflammatory activation, characterized by hypertrophy, and increased polymerization of type III intermediate filaments (IFs), particularly glial fibrillary acidic protein and vimentin. However, the consequences of IF dynamics in the adult CNS remains unclear, and no pharmacologic tools have been available to target this mechanism in vivo. The mammalian retina is an accessible model to study the regulation of astrocyte stress responses, and their influence on retinal neuronal homeostasis. In particular, our work and others have implicated p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling as a key regulator of glutamate recycling, antioxidant activity and cytokine secretion by astrocytes and related Müller glia, with potent influences on neighboring neurons. Here we report experiments with the small molecule inhibitor, withaferin A (WFA), to specifically block type III IF dynamics in vivo. WFA was administered in a model of metabolic retinal injury induced by kainic acid, and in combination with a recent model of debridement-induced astrocyte reactivity. We show that WFA specifically targets IFs and reduces astrocyte and Müller glial reactivity in vivo. Inhibition of glial IF polymerization blocked p38 MAPK-dependent secretion of TNF-α, resulting in markedly reduced neuronal apoptosis. To our knowledge this is the first study to demonstrate that pharmacologic inhibition of IF dynamics in reactive glia protects neurons in vivo

Known-groups validity of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) in adolescents and young adults with special healthcare needs

To examine known-groups validity of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) Short Forms (SFs) for adolescents and young adults with special health care needs (SHCN) using data collected from the PROMIS Linking Study

Dietary fibre, whole grains, and risk of colorectal cancer: systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies

Objective To investigate the association between intake of dietary fibre and whole grains and risk of colorectal cancer

An item-level response shift study on the change of health state with the rating of asthma-specific quality of life: a report from the PROMIS® Pediatric Asthma Study

To examine item-level response shift associated with the change in asthma-related health state (i.e., change in asthma control status and global rating of change (GRC) in breathing problems)

Responsiveness to Change in PROMIS

AbstractObjectiveTo compare the responsiveness to change of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) asthma impact, pain interference, fatigue, depressive symptoms, mobility, and peer relationship scales to a legacy scale, the Paediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (PAQLQ).MethodsTwo hundred and twenty-nine child-parent dyads from public insurance programs were enrolled. PROMIS pediatric short forms (SFs) and the PAQLQ were used to measure health-related quality of life across four time points (T1–T4) over 2 years. The Asthma Control and Communication Instrument was used to measure the change in asthma control, and the Global Rating of Change (GRC) Index for breathing problems and overall health was used to measure the change in health status. Responsiveness was tested by comparing the changes in health-related quality of life with the changes in asthma control and health status over time using t tests, generalized estimating equations, and relative validity approaches. Magnitudes of the responsiveness between the Pediatric PROMIS and PAQLQ were assessed through statistical significance, Cohen's d effect size (ES), and standardized response mean (SRM).ResultsThe PROMIS asthma impact scale and all PAQLQ scales exhibited significant responsiveness (p'sConclusionsThe PROMIS asthma impact SF indicated similar responsiveness to the PAQLQ scales. Due to its brevity and responsiveness, the PROMIS asthma impact SF is useful for clinical practice or research