Twitch Plays Simulated Soft Robotics

Scalability has been a long-standing open problem in the field of robotics and especially in the field of soft robotics where there has never been a technology that allows for crowdsourcing the creation and training of soft robots. The crowdsourced approach is very advantageous because it strives to maximize the use of available resources, cut expenses, diversify contributions, and promote transparency (Uhlmann et al., 2019). I posit that by using Voxcraft, Google Colab and Twitch we can not only create a way to crowdsource the creation of simulations of soft robots but also do it in an accessible, replicable, and scalable manner. I not only demonstrate that this can be done for the first time ever but also demonstrate that soft robots can be collectively created using this approach. The crowdsourced, low barrier to entry, replicability and scalability of this approach suggests that Twitch Plays Simulated Soft Robotics (TPSS) can be replicated and built upon in the future to not only get other user inputs such as fitness function or mutation rate to train robots but also scaled up to possibly crowdsource the crowdsourcing of soft robotics

UMN and HP contribution to the development of hydropower in Nepal and Its effect on the environment

This thesis discusses about the UMN/HP contribution to the development of hydropower in Nepal and its effect on the environment by exploring the research question: how have UMN/HP contributed hydropower plants affected the socio-economic conditions and the environment? with the application of empowering and caring dimension of diaconal and community resilience theori

Carnivore ecology and conservation : implications for tiger conservation and management in Nepal /

In human-dominated landscapes, conservation and management of large carnivores has been a formidable challenge due to habitat fragmentation, degradation and loss, wildlife persecution, and poaching. Consequently, wide-ranging species like tigers are now relegated to small protected areas. I evaluated factors influencing occupancy of tiger at a fine spatial-scale, developed a novel model to estimate prey abundance, assessed intraguild interaction between tigers and leopards in response to prey and disturbance factors, and evaluated sustainable financing mechanisms for tiger conservation programs. The success of carnivore conservation relies on better understanding their habitat use and prey availability, the community structure of competing species, and the financial ability to sustain monitoring and conservation programs. I collected field data through camera trap survey in Chitwan National Park and found that tiger occurrence was influenced by fine-scale habitat factors including prey availability. I concluded that in small protected areas wide-ranging carnivores may persist at high population densities by intensively focusing their activity on small portions of their home ranges. Furthermore, prey abundance, key to carnivore persistence, can be reliably estimated from camera trapping data using binomial mixture models. Further, prey abundances in conjunction with human and livestock presence in the park modulate intraguild interactions between tigers and leopards. Collectively, these findings should provide useful information for biologists, conservationists, and managers on how to successfully conserve and manage large carnivores.Dr. Matthew E. Gompper, Dissertation Advisor.Includes bibliographical references

Piloting ecological sanitation toilets in peri-urban community of Nepal

Concept of Ecological Sanitation; referred as ECOSAN, integrates sanitation and agriculture by using human waste as fertilizer and soil conditioner. The ECOSAN concept has been applied in Siddhipur village of Lalitpur District, which is nearby urban settlement of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. The project, initiated on a small scale as a pilot project, is first of its kind in the country. The ECOSAN toilets in this village have been implemented after the demand from the community for proper management of their wastes. Main thrust of constructing ECOSAN toilets is due to their potential of preventing groundwater pollution, reuse in agriculture and management of sanitary waste. The acceptance, active participation, sharing of cost for building ECOSAN units and use of urine in agriculture are few of the indicators of sustainability of the project. The significant impact on the whole community has given impetus for replication to other areas as well

Distribution of catechins, epicatechins and methylxanthines in caffeinated and decaffeinated green tea

Includes bibliographical references

Customer Experience and Digital Marketing in the Hotel Business

The marketing communication is changing every day. Besides, customer satisfaction is measured in the hospitality industry by fulfilling their changeable needs and demands. The purpose of the thesis is to provide service guidelines to the hotel employees which helps to guide them through the training and getting the motivation to work further and in developing the quality service of the hotel. In addition, the thesis has provided the developing ideas in digital marketing of the hotel to upgrade the digital networks on a broader range and upsell the products and service to grow the profitability and maintaining the reliability of the hotel. The research and theoretical background of the thesis is focused on customer experiences and digital marketing in the hospitality industry. This thesis shows the experiences of the customers at hotel which includes the theoretical background of qualitative customer service, an interaction between employees, customer satisfaction and sociocultural influences in the entire hospitality industry. The thesis also comprises the research based on planning and development of the digital marketing that involves various ways of social media advertisement, search engine marketing, public relations and the different techniques of customer attraction to upsell the business. The authors have conducted the interviews with both employees and customers, aiming to collect the detailed information about their experiences and current situation of the hotel. The authors are likely to recommend the owner of the hotel to focus importantly on the employee's motivation and hotel marketing through digital technology to empower a significant number of customers’ commitment and satisfy them in full

Religion and Climate Change! A qualitative Study of Nepalese Young Adults Prespectives on Believe and Environment

Religions enable humans realise their responsibilities to act, to listen, and to speak on behalf of the silence, vulnerable, deprived and excluded who are the hit hardest of climate change. Asserting scriptural mandates, ritual practices and daily life experiences, my informants emphasise the moral and ethical dimension of climate crises. They agreed that the environmental crises, losses of bio-diversity, eco-system failure, and climate change harsh impacts are the manifestations of underlying sustaining causes of humans mind i.e. selfishness, greed and indifference. To address these aforementioned problems humans need to be transformed spiritually, religiously and culturally. Similarly,my interview showed that religions do not only arouse ethical responsibility but also enable to take actions against climate injustices by supporting the affected. Religious institutions provide support connecting the local victims into their larger network. With larger social network capital religious institutions build resilience to the victim and local eco-system. They, in conclusion, focus religions inspiration to bio-centric and eco-centric ethics besides anthropocentric. Humans do not only have responsibilities to other human but equally nonhuman sphere too. Religions motivate humans‟ behavioural change for the sustainability of environment, creating a just and fair inclusive/participatory society where every member enjoys sufficient sustenance being together. What scientists, economists and politicians‟ lapse that religions fill up

Title of project: Describing and measuring the pharmacists’ involvement in dosing and monitoring vancomycin at Tucson Medical Center, a community teaching hospital

Class of 2018 AbstractSpecific Aims: To measure the amount of time spent by pharmacists on vancomycin dosing and monitoring at Tucson Medical Center (TMC). Methods: This is a descriptive study that used data obtained through a questionnaire and data collection sheets from pharmacists at TMC from September 18 through October 13, 2017. Pharmacists were eligible to participate in the study if they were working in an inpatient pharmacy setting at this community hospital for at least 24 hours a week and more than 6 months. Data were analyzed by using student t-test to compare between groups. Main Results: Through a questionnaire, pharmacists reported spending an average of 13.5 minutes (SD 6.9) and 9.5 minutes (SD 4.3) for new and continuous vancomycin therapeutic drug monitoring per encounter, respectively. Data collection over a period of 29 days revealed that pharmacists spent a total of 112.33 hours and an average of 3.85 hours per day on vancomycin TDM. In general, pharmacists spent an average of 10.27 minutes (SD 6.76) per encounter and 30.42 minutes (SD 27.53) per patient. The mean time for new (n=163) versus continuous (n=493) vancomycin TDM was 11.7 minutes (SD 5.6) and 9.8 minutes (SD 7.0), respectively, with statistically significant P values of 0.001. The mean time spent per encounter was statistically significant between groups that used a vancomycin calculator (n=323) [13 minutes (SD 7.9)] versus those that did not use a calculator (n=333) [7.6 minutes (SD 3.9); P = 0.001]. Conclusions: The average time spent per patient by the pharmacist for vancomycin therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) was about half an hour, which supported the prediction for the time spent on vancomycin by pharmacists prior to our study. More time was spent on new-start vancomycin TDM than existing vancomycin drug monitoring. In addition, more time was spent on vancomycin TDM with the use of a calculator.This item is part of the Pharmacy Student Research Projects collection, made available by the College of Pharmacy and the University Libraries at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please contact Jennifer Martin, Librarian and Clinical Instructor, Pharmacy Practice and Science, [email protected]