Symposium on Bullying

During the visit to the Colegio Santa Maria a symposium took place on the subject of bullying. Speakers at the symposium included Treavor Bogard, Maria Eugenia Orihuela, Franco G. Chiappo, Clever Serrano, and Julius Amin. The articles in this section were presented by Serrano, Chiappo, and Orihuela. The symposium attracted a large audience and participation was very good. Perspectives on bullying in South America and the US were presented. It became clear that bullying was a universal problem and required both local and universal solutions.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/cip_ges/1011/thumbnail.jp

Predicting approximate seismic responses in multistory buildings from real-time earthquake source information, for earthquake early warning applications

Regional earthquake early warning (EEW) alerts and related risk-mitigation actions are often triggered when the expected value of a ground-motion intensity measure (IM), computed from real-time magnitude and source location estimates, exceeds a predefined critical IM threshold. However, the shaking experienced in mid- to high-rise buildings may be significantly different from that on the ground, which could lead to sub-optimal decision-making (i.e., increased occurrences of false and missed EEW alarms) with the aforementioned strategy. This study facilitates an important advancement in EEW decision-support, by developing empirical models that directly relate earthquake source parameters to resulting approximate responses in multistory buildings. The proposed models can leverage real-time earthquake information provided by a regional EEW system, to provide rapid predictions of structure-specific engineering demand parameters that can be used to more accurately determine whether or not an alert is triggered. We use a simplified continuum building model consisting of a flexural/shear beam combination and vary its parameters to capture a wide range of deformation modes in different building types. We analyse the approximate responses for the building model variations, using Italian accelerometric data and corresponding source parameter information from 54 earthquakes. The resulting empirical prediction equations are incorporated in a real-time Bayesian framework that can be used for building-specific EEW applications, such as (1) early warning of floor-shaking sensed by occupants; and (2) elevator control. Finally, we demonstrate the improvement in EEW alert accuracy that can be achieved using the proposed models

Fuzzy synchronization of chaotic systems with hidden attractors

Chaotic systems are hard to synchronize, and no general solution exists. The presence of hidden attractors makes finding a solution particularly elusive. Successful synchronization critically depends on the control strategy, which must be carefully chosen considering system features such as the presence of hidden attractors. We studied the feasibility of fuzzy control for synchronizing chaotic systems with hidden attractors and employed a special numerical integration method that takes advantage of the oscillatory characteristic of chaotic systems. We hypothesized that fuzzy synchronization and the chosen numerical integration method can successfully deal with this case of synchronization. We tested two synchronization schemes: complete synchronization, which leverages linearization, and projective synchronization, capitalizing on parallel distributed compensation (PDC). We applied the proposal to a set of known chaotic systems of integer order with hidden attractors. Our results indicated that fuzzy control strategies combined with the special numerical integration method are effective tools to synchronize chaotic systems with hidden attractors. In addition, for projective synchronization, we propose a new strategy to optimize error convergence. Furthermore, we tested and compared different Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy models obtained by tensor product (TP) model transformation. We found an effect of the fuzzy model of the chaotic system on the synchronization performance

"Contemplating the next maneuver": functional neuroimaging reveals intraoperative decision-making strategies

OBJECTIVE: To investigate differences in the quality, confidence, and consistency of intraoperative surgical decision making (DM) and using functional neuroimaging expose decision systems that operators use. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Novices are hypothesized to use conscious analysis (effortful DM) leading to activation across the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, whereas experts are expected to use unconscious automation (habitual DM) in which decisions are recognition-primed and prefrontal cortex independent. METHODS: A total of 22 subjects (10 medical student novices, 7 residents, and 5 attendings) reviewed simulated laparoscopic cholecystectomy videos, determined the next safest operative maneuver upon video termination (10 s), and reported decision confidence. Video paradigms either declared ("primed") or withheld ("unprimed") the next operative maneuver. Simultaneously, changes in cortical oxygenated hemoglobin and deoxygenated hemoglobin inferring prefrontal activation were recorded using Optical Topography. Decision confidence, consistency (primed vs unprimed), and quality (script concordance) were assessed. RESULTS: Attendings and residents were significantly more certain (P < 0.001), and decision quality was superior (script concordance: attendings = 90%, residents = 78.3%, and novices = 53.3%). Decision consistency was significantly superior in experts (P < 0.001) and residents (P < 0.05) than novices (P = 0.183). During unprimed DM, novices showed significant activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, whereas this activation pattern was not observed among residents and attendings. During primed DM, significant activation was not observed in any group. CONCLUSIONS: Expert DM is characterized by improved quality, consistency, and confidence. The findings imply attendings use a habitual decision system, whereas novices use an effortful approach under uncertainty. In the presence of operative cues (primes), novices disengage the prefrontal cortex and seem to accept the observed operative decision as correct

Collaborative Gaze Channelling for Improved Cooperation During Robotic Assisted Surgery

The use of multiple robots for performing complex tasks is becoming a common practice for many robot applications. When different operators are involved, effective cooperation with anticipated manoeuvres is important for seamless, synergistic control of all the end-effectors. In this paper, the concept of Collaborative Gaze Channelling (CGC) is presented for improved control of surgical robots for a shared task. Through eye tracking, the fixations of each operator are monitored and presented in a shared surgical workspace. CGC permits remote or physically separated collaborators to share their intention by visualising the eye gaze of their counterparts, and thus recovers, to a certain extent, the information of mutual intent that we rely upon in a vis-à-vis working setting. In this study, the efficiency of surgical manipulation with and without CGC for controlling a pair of bimanual surgical robots is evaluated by analysing the level of coordination of two independent operators. Fitts' law is used to compare the quality of movement with or without CGC. A total of 40 subjects have been recruited for this study and the results show that the proposed CGC framework exhibits significant improvement (p<0.05) on all the motion indices used for quality assessment. This study demonstrates that visual guidance is an implicit yet effective way of communication during collaborative tasks for robotic surgery. Detailed experimental validation results demonstrate the potential clinical value of the proposed CGC framework. © 2012 Biomedical Engineering Society.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Robot telecontrolado aplicado en la mitigación de incendios para la Estación de Bomberos Voluntarios Victoria N° 08, Lima-Perú

La presente investigación corresponde a la aplicación de un robot telecontrolado en la mitigación de incendios para la Estación de Bomberos Voluntarios Victoria N° 08, el cual detecta zonas de alta temperatura utilizando imágenes térmicas

Plan de negocio de una plataforma web de an?lisis del mercado laboral peruano en tiempo real orientado a las instituciones de capacitaci?n

En la actualidad existe una brecha entre las habilidades adquiridas por los profesionales y t?cnicos con aquellas solicitadas en el mercado laboral peruano. Por ello, las instituciones educativas y empresas de capacitaci?n requieren actualizar su oferta educativa constantemente. Para tal fin, utilizan distintos m?todos manuales como consulta a expertos, b?squeda por internet, comparaci?n con sus competidores y estudios de mercado, los cuales son costosos y demandan tiempo, resultando inaccesible en muchos casos. Datorch es una soluci?n de an?lisis de datos SaaS (software as a service) accesible desde computadoras de escritorio y dispositivos m?viles que, a trav?s de la recolecci?n y aplicaci?n de t?cnicas de Big Data a datos recolectados de anuncios laborales publicados en portales web de trabajo, muestra, en una aplicaci?n web amigable, estad?sticas, tendencias y gr?ficas del mercado laboral peruano. El p?bico objetivo comprende las instituciones educativas privadas y p?blicas, as? como las empresas de capacitaci?n del departamento de Lima, a las cuales se les brindar?, mediante suscripci?n anual, informaci?n relevante con la finalidad de actualizar su oferta educativa y reducir la incertidumbre en la apertura y culminaci?n de sus cursos con ?xito

Markedly Divergent Tree Assemblage Responses to Tropical Forest Loss and Fragmentation across a Strong Seasonality Gradient

We examine the effects of forest fragmentation on the structure and composition of tree assemblages within three seasonal and aseasonal forest types of southern Brazil, including evergreen, Araucaria, and deciduous forests. We sampled three southernmost Atlantic Forest landscapes, including the largest continuous forest protected areas within each forest type. Tree assemblages in each forest type were sampled within 10 plots of 0.1 ha in both continuous forests and 10 adjacent forest fragments. All trees within each plot were assigned to trait categories describing their regeneration strategy, vertical stratification, seed-dispersal mode, seed size, and wood density. We detected differences among both forest types and landscape contexts in terms of overall tree species richness, and the density and species richness of different functional groups in terms of regeneration strategy, seed dispersal mode and woody density. Overall, evergreen forest fragments exhibited the largest deviations from continuous forest plots in assemblage structure. Evergreen, Araucaria and deciduous forests diverge in the functional composition of tree floras, particularly in relation to regeneration strategy and stress tolerance. By supporting a more diversified light-demanding and stress-tolerant flora with reduced richness and abundance of shade-tolerant, old-growth species, both deciduous and Araucaria forest tree assemblages are more intrinsically resilient to contemporary human-disturbances, including fragmentation-induced edge effects, in terms of species erosion and functional shifts. We suggest that these intrinsic differences in the direction and magnitude of responses to changes in landscape structure between forest types should guide a wide range of conservation strategies in restoring fragmented tropical forest landscapes worldwide