A proposed framework of an interactive semi-virtual environment for enhanced education of children with autism spectrum disorders

Education of people with special needs has recently been considered as a key element in the field of medical education. Recent development in the area of information and communication technologies may enable development of collaborative interactive environments which facilitate early stage education and provide specialists with robust tools indicating the person's autism spectrum disorder level. Towards the goal of establishing an enhanced learning environment for children with autism this paper attempts to provide a framework of a semi-controlled real-world environment used for the daily education of an autistic person according to the scenarios selected by the specialists. The proposed framework employs both real-world objects and virtual environments equipped with humanoids able to provide emotional feedback and to demonstrate empathy. Potential examples and usage scenarios for such environments are also described

Optimal Excitation Controller Design for Wind Turbine Generator

An optimal excitation controller design based on multirate-output controllers (MROCs) having a multirate sampling mechanismwith different sampling period in each measured output of the system is presented. The proposed H∞ -control techniqueis applied to the discrete linear open-loop system model which represents a wind turbine generator supplying an infinite busthrough a transmission line

Spontaneous Magnon Decays

A theoretical overview of the phenomenon of spontaneous magnon decays in quantum antiferromagnets is presented. The intrinsic zero-temperature damping of magnons in quantum spin systems is a fascinating many-body effect, which has recently attracted significant attention in view of its possible observation in neutron-scattering experiments. An introduction to the theory of magnon interactions and a discussion of necessary symmetry and kinematic conditions for spontaneous decays are provided. Various parallels with the decays of anharmonic phonons and excitations in superfluid 4He are extensively used. Three principal cases of spontaneous magnon decays are considered: field-induced decays in Heisenberg antiferromagnets, zero-field decays in spiral antiferromagnets, and triplon decays in quantum-disordered magnets. Analytical results are compared with available numerical data and prospective materials for experimental observation of the decay-related effects are briefly discussed.Comment: v3.0, asymptotically close to the published versio

Economic impact to shipping industry : Economic impact to shipping industry considering Maritime Spatial Planning and green routes in pilot case studies

In this project, three case studies are considered in order to examine the economic impact of the implementation of MSP when considering environmental impact of the shipping industry. Specific characteristics and limitations of areas in the Greek Sea, the Balearic Sea and the Baltic Sea are evaluated with respect to their economic effects on the maritime transport domain. The purpose of the above is to evaluate the economic impacts and risk implications of different scenarios and particularly: The economic impact of vessel traffic rerouting and/or reducing the speed in order to reduce the probability of vessel strikes or other negative impact to endangered marine species. Analysis and treatment of costs (constraints and penalties) from unexpected delays, in addition to the additional transit time cost. Estimation of the direct and indirect economic impact on the shipping industry and the effects of potential port call dislocation for the implementation of the proposed management options (e.g. speed deceleration or ship rerouting).https://commons.wmu.se/monalisa2/1001/thumbnail.jp

Developing Student Collaborations across Disciplines, Distances, and Institutions

Because quantitative biology requires skills and concepts from a disparate collection of different disciplines, the scientists of the near future will increasingly need to rely on collaborations to produce results. Correspondingly, students in disciplines impacted by quantitative biology will need to be taught how to create and engage in such collaborations. In response to this important curricular need, East Tennessee State University and Georgia Technological University/Emory University cooperated in an unprecedented curricular experiment in which theoretically oriented students at East Tennessee State designed biophysical models that were implemented and tested experimentally by biomedical engineers at the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Technological University and Emory University. Implementing the collaborations between two institutions allowed an assessment of the student collaborations from before the groups of students had met for the first time until after they had finished their projects, thus providing insight about the formation and conduct of such collaborations that could not have been obtained otherwise