MOVEMENT HISTORY AND SKILL LEVEL IMPACT MOTOR EXPLORATION OF NOVEL HUMAN MACHINE INTERACTIONS: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

The current study provides preliminary data from an investigation of the relationship between movement history and skill on the approach a person takes to explore human machine interactions (HMI). We recruited participants representing a spectrum of athletic performers to non-performers to complete a set of manual dexterity tests as well as three tasks related to different aspects of HMI. Currently, our main finding is that dexterity seems to be related to goal discovery in the free search task, though it is not related to task completion time under an instructed task nor rating of utility of HMI. Ultimately, these results might be extended to inform HMI training and determine candidates for devices

Analysis of South Australian Onshore Oil and Gas well decommissioning and potential impact on regulatory compliance, environmental and corporate risk

This research aims to improve on the limited understanding related to the increasing portfolio of shut-in or suspended South Australian Oil and Gas wells in the Cooper Eromanga basin. This is accurate for wells drilled up to October 2017 due to a two-year confidentiality period on data for more recent wells when this research analysis commenced in 2019. The increasing portfolio presents a significant potential commercial, regulatory, and environmental risk to the operators that is generally not well understood or quantified. The results from the analysis provide a better understanding of the growing portfolio of wells, approximation of associated risks and costs together with a framework of a forward-looking abandonment strategy for the basin to manage risk effectively and economically. This is relevant research as there is no clear abandonment strategy from operators that have historically or currently operated wells in the 60-year history of the basin. Furthermore, only limited research has been conducted by the regulators, operators, academia, or other independent government bodies on publicly available data pertaining to these wells. To understand the risk associated with well integrity, it is important to perform analysis on existing data for all wells that have been drilled, their geology, associated producing formation data, zonal isolation practices, and drilling practices in addition to considering other previously abandoned and suspended wells. An outcome of this research is a unique risk code for each well that amalgamates complexity and associated risk stemming from the analysis of six well parameters. These parameters are well age; shut-in time; well depth; zonal exposure; completion type; and well production geometry. This forms a starting point for quantification, and the number of parameters that can be utilized in this modular method can be expanded as required. The result of this research is a risk code that provides detailed context for each well to enable the efficient building of an abandonment strategy specific to that well. Further, a cost approximation model was built to quantify the commercial aspects of executing a basin-wide abandonment strategy. This cost was conservatively estimated to be $ 654 Million AUD for all 1511 remaining wells that are yet to be abandoned, between now and the end of well and field life in the basin. The magnitude of this figure should encourage collaboration which could identify technology and optimization to reduce a necessary process that does not yield a commercial return. Even though there have historically been more than 25 operators in the basin over its 60-year life, over 85% of well ownership is spread between two operators. Based on the analysis of over 100 parameters in more than 2000 wells in the basin, the research shows there is an urgent need to perform a deep joint industry and academic analysis on the basin to assess the constantly increasing risk and associated liability of abandonment. Furthermore, this research shows that by using emerging digital and mechanical technologies it is possible to build more effective, economic, and scalable abandonment strategies compared to the existing time-consuming and expensive methods.Thesis (MPhil) -- University of Adelaide, Australian School of Petroleum and Energy Resources (ASPER), 202

Mindfulness Practices in Online Learning: Supporting Learner Self-Regulation

This collective autoethnography discusses the effects of mindfulness practices integrated into an online Master of Education course at a Canadian Distance Education university. While the M.Ed. program is designed to address challenges typically associated with online courses, such as spatial and temporal distance, lower levels of synchronous interaction with peers and instructors, balancing flexibility and autonomy, as well as feeling isolated, the authors initially found themselves overwhelmed by the pressures stemming from competing responsibilities and emotional demands of being an online learner. They report on how the mindfulness practices, introduced mid-way through the program, impacted their online learning experience and their personal lives beyond the program. One of the key aspects of the marked growth was their improved self-regulated learning (SRL) skills that are essential for online learners. The chief mindfulness-supported habits that the authors found to positively affect the forethought, performance, and self-reflection processes were enhanced intrinsic motivation, self-awareness, and a mindful approach to time management

Robust Generalized Proportional Integral Control for Trajectory Tracking of Soft Actuators in a Pediatric Wearable Assistive Device

Soft robotics hold promise in the development of safe yet powered assistive wearable devices for infants. Key to this is the development of closed-loop controllers that can help regulate pneumatic pressure in the device's actuators in an effort to induce controlled motion at the user's limbs and be able to track different types of trajectories. This work develops a controller for soft pneumatic actuators aimed to power a pediatric soft wearable robotic device prototype for upper extremity motion assistance. The controller tracks desired trajectories for a system of soft pneumatic actuators supporting two-degree-of-freedom shoulder joint motion on an infant-sized engineered mannequin. The degrees of freedom assisted by the actuators are equivalent to shoulder motion (abduction/adduction and flexion/extension). Embedded inertial measurement unit sensors provide real-time joint feedback. Experimental data from performing reaching tasks using the engineered mannequin are obtained and compared against ground truth to evaluate the performance of the developed controller. Results reveal the proposed controller leads to accurate trajectory tracking performance across a variety of shoulder joint motions

Infant sitting postural control appears robust across changes in surface context

Aim of the study: Independent sitting requires the control of the involved body segments over the base of support using information obtained from the three sensory systems (visual, vestibular, and somatosensory). The contribution of somatosensory information in infant sitting has not been explored. To address this gap, we altered the context of the sitting support surface and examined the infants’ immediate postural responses. Materials and methods: Ten 7-month-old typically developing infants sat on compliant and firm surfaces in one session. Spatial, frequency, and temporal measures of postural control were obtained using center of pressure data. Results Our results suggest that infants’ postural sway is not immediately affected by the different types of foam surface while sitting. Conclusions: It seems that mature sitter infants are able to adapt to different environmental constraints by disregarding the distorted somatosensory information from the support surface and relying more on their remaining senses (visual and vestibular) to control their sitting posture

A Fabric-based Pneumatic Actuator for the Infant Elbow: Design and Comparative Kinematic Analysis

This paper focuses on the design and systematic evaluation of fabric-based, bellow-type soft pneumatic actuators to assist with flexion and extension of the elbow, intended for use in infant wearable devices. Initially, the performance of a range of actuator variants was explored via simulation. The actuator variants were parameterized based on the shape, number, and size of the cells present. Subsequently, viable actuator variants identified from the simulations were fabricated and underwent further testing on a physical model based on an infant's body anthropometrics. The performance of these variants was evaluated based on kinematic analyses using metrics including movement smoothness, path length, and elbow joint angle. Internal pressure of the actuators was also attained. Taken together, results reported herein provide valuable insights about the suitability of several actuator designs to serve as components for pediatric wearable assistive devices

Fear of COVID-19, anxiety, depression and suicide among elderly patients with chronic physical or mental diseases

Older age renders individuals vulnerable during public emergency crises. Considering that older adults are a highly heterogeneous and continuously growing demographic subgroup, this study aimed to assess the mental health impact of COVID-19 on two groups of older patients: a group of chronic physical disease and a group of chronic mental disease. A total of 102 patients completed the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale, the Brief Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and several questions regarding demographic characteristics. Suicidality was assessed by the 9th item of the PHQ-9. According to the results, older chronic disease patients showed higher levels of fear, whereas anxiety and depressive symptoms were present mainly in the group of older psychiatric patients. Suicidality was reported from a subtotal of 25.4% that was composed of 7.8% chronic disease patients and 17.6% psychiatric patients. Chronic physical disease and higher anxiety predicted more severe COVID-19-related fear

Structure-Based Design of Non-Natural Amino Acid Inhibitors of Amyloid Fibrillation

Many globular and natively disordered proteins can convert into amyloid fibers. These fibers are associated with numerous pathologies1 as well as with normal cellular functions2,3, and frequently form during protein denaturation4,5. Inhibitors of pathological amyloid fibers could serve as leads for therapeutics, provided the inhibitors were specific enough to avoid interfering with normal processes. Here we show that computer-aided, structure-based design can yield highly specific peptide inhibitors of amyloid formation. Using known atomic structures of segments of amyloid fibers as templates, we have designed and characterized an all D-amino acid inhibitor of fibrillation of the tau protein found in Alzheimer’s disease, and a non-natural L-amino acid inhibitor of an amyloid fiber that enhances sexual transmission of HIV. Our results indicate that peptides from structure-based designs can disrupt the fibrillation of full-length proteins, including those like tau that lack fully ordered native structures.We thank M.I. Ivanova, J. Corn, T. Kortemme, D. Anderson, M.R. Sawaya, M. Phillips, S. Sambashivan, J. Park, M. Landau, Q. Zhang, R. Clubb, F. Guo, T. Yeates, J. Nowick, J. Zheng, and M.J. Thompson for discussions, HHMI, NIH, NSF, the GATES foundation, and the Joint Center for Translational Medicine for support, R. Peterson for help with NMR experiments, E. Mandelkow for providing tau constructs, R. Riek for providing amyloid beta, J. Stroud for amyloid beta preparation. Support for JK was from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, for HWC by the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, for JM from the programme for junior-professors by the ministry of science, Baden-Württemberg, and for SAS by a UCLA-IGERT bioinformatics traineeship

Small molecule inhibitors of Aβ-aggregation and neurotoxicity

Alzheimer disease (AD) is characterized pathologically by extracellular amyloid deposits composed of Aβ peptide, neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) made up of hyperphosphorylated tau, and a deficit of cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain. Presently, only symptomatic therapies are available for the treatment of AD and these therapies have a limited time frame of utility. Amyloid disorders represent the effects of chronic Aβ production and are not a secondary pathological effect caused by a distant trigger; therefore targeting Aβ is a viable pursuit. In this review, we will discuss the various small molecule anti-aggregation inhibitors that have been reported in the literature, with emphasis on compounds that are presently being investigated in clinical trials

Macrocyclic β-Sheet Peptides That Inhibit the Aggregation of a Tau-Protein-Derived Hexapeptide

This paper describes studies of a series of macrocyclic β-sheet peptides 1 that inhibit the aggregation of a tau-protein-derived peptide. The macrocyclic β-sheet peptides comprise a pentapeptide "upper" strand, two δ-linked ornithine turn units, and a "lower" strand comprising two additional residues and the β-sheet peptidomimetic template "Hao". The tau-derived peptide Ac-VQIVYK-NH(2) (AcPHF6) aggregates in solution through β-sheet interactions to form straight and twisted filaments similar to those formed by tau protein in Alzheimer's neurofibrillary tangles. Macrocycles 1 containing the pentapeptide VQIVY in the "upper" strand delay and suppress the onset of aggregation of the AcPHF6 peptide. Inhibition is particularly pronounced in macrocycles 1a, 1d, and 1f, in which the two residues in the "lower" strand provide a pattern of hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity that matches that of the pentapeptide "upper" strand. Inhibition varies strongly with the concentration of these macrocycles, suggesting that it is cooperative. Macrocycle 1b containing the pentapeptide QIVYK shows little inhibition, suggesting the possibility of a preferred direction of growth of AcPHF6 β-sheets. On the basis of these studies, a model is proposed in which the AcPHF6 amyloid grows as a layered pair of β-sheets and in which growth is blocked by a pair of macrocycles that cap the growing paired hydrogen-bonding edges. This model provides a provocative and appealing target for future inhibitor design