EM-skin:an artificial robotic skin using magnetic inductance tomography

Physical sensing by touch is essential for building intelligent artificial systems in robotic manipulation and human-robotic interaction. Inductive skins are being investigated as part of a major effort to develop the most robust and reliable touch sensors, primarily based on traditional inductive proximity sensing. Magnetic induction tomography (MIT) is an imaging system considered for medical diagnostics and industrial process monitoring. This article presents a novel electromagnetic-based skin (EM-skin) using the MIT imaging system. This is done by processing the mutual inductance data from a planar array sensing a skin-like medium, including an elastomeric medium that interfaces the MIT sensors with plates of metallic or magnetic touch elements. This article demonstrates EM-based multi-touch, dynamical touch, and quantitative touch pressure sensing. MIT data are captured at 10 frames/s, so allowing for dynamical touch analysis. The EM-skin sensing area of 900 mm demonstrates a large area of sensing skin. The results show the successful reconstruction of dynamical sensing, where two applied cyclic touch points, with different frequencies are discriminately detected. Quantitative force sensing shows the detection of a minimum of 120 mN force, which translates to 0.38 kP of applied pressure in the described system. Further force calibration is carried out demonstrating the quantitative nature of the proposed EM skin. These results will open the way to a new generation of distributed and reliable soft skins that are versatile due to material design and processing.</p

Mapping Platform Urbanism: Charting the Nuance of the Platform Pivot

Urban planners are increasingly working with ideas around datafied cities, such as platform urbanism, to understand urban life and changes with technology. This article seeks to assist urban planners in these efforts by analysing and mapping the qualities of platform urbanism. Drawing on a dataset of approximately 100 examples that detail urban data practices, we trace some of the current tendencies that are shaping the nature and dynamics of platform urbanism. While we identify no unifying narrative or overarching pattern to our data, we interpret this as supporting Barns’ (2019) notion of a pivot towards platforms. We argue this through exploring the interoperability between data sources and domains (vertical and horizontal integration), identifying elements of how platforms intermediate urban life through their growth in different sectors and the use of geolocation, and note the different artefacts that contribute to platform urbanism. We also note a concerning dynamic where city administration becomes ‘locked in’ to specific corporate products and interests, and thereby ‘locked out’ from alternatives. We discuss this in the context of social inclusion and what this means for urban planners, including the fragility of corporate platforms and what platforms urbanism means for social relationships in the city

Perspectives on “Giving Back”: A Conversation Between Researcher and Refugee

Our chapter—“Perspectives on ‘giving back’: A conversation between researcher and refugee”—offers personal reflections on the ethics of research with refugees and what it means for researchers to “give back” to refugee participants beyond “policy impact”. Written as a dialogue between an academic and a Rohingya refugee youth leader, we explore the blurry lines between academic work and advocacy when the issues of refugee protection are pressing, as well as the appropriateness of researchers giving monetary donations and volunteering for refugee causes as payback for data. In this chapter, we also examine what it means to build trust and relationships between researchers and refugees, and how too often researchers fail to develop meaningful research interactions with refugee participants who share their time, energy and personal stories of vulnerability

Finite temperature QCD: progress and outstanding problems

I review recent progress in numerical simulations of finite temperature quantum chromodynamics and discuss the status of some outstanding problems. Included is (1) a discussion of recent results determining the temperature of the ``phase transition'' in full QCD, (2) a scaling analysis of the Polyakov loop variable, leading to the determination of a constituent quark free energy, (3) studies of critical behavior near the phase transition in two-flavor QCD, (4) a discussion of problems and new results in thermodynamic simulations with Wilson fermions, (5) recent results in pure gauge theory with a mixed fundamental/adjoint action, and (6) the nonperturbative determination of the equation of state with dynamical fermions included. Finally I mention briefly new developments in efforts to construct a phenomenology of deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration, namely (7) the dual superconducting model and (8) the instanton model.Comment: Contribution to Lattice '94. 12 pages Postscrip

Oral rehydration versus intravenous therapy for treating dehydration due to gastroenteritis in children: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

BACKGROUND: Despite treatment recommendations from various organizations, oral rehydration therapy (ORT) continues to be underused, particularly by physicians in high-income countries. We conducted a systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to compare ORT and intravenous therapy (IVT) for the treatment of dehydration secondary to acute gastroenteritis in children. METHODS: RCTs were identified through MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, authors and references of included trials, pharmaceutical companies, and relevant organizations. Screening and inclusion were performed independently by two reviewers in order to identify randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials comparing ORT and IVT in children with acute diarrhea and dehydration. Two reviewers independently assessed study quality using the Jadad scale and allocation concealment. Data were extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second. The primary outcome measure was failure of rehydration. We analyzed data using standard meta-analytic techniques. RESULTS: The quality of the 14 included trials ranged from 0 to 3 (Jadad score); allocation concealment was unclear in all but one study. Using a random effects model, there was no significant difference in treatment failures (risk difference [RD] 3%; 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0, 6). The Mantel-Haenzsel fixed effects model gave a significant difference between treatment groups (RD 4%; 95% CI: 2, 5) favoring IVT. Based on the four studies that reported deaths, there were six in the IVT groups and two in ORT. There were no significant differences in total fluid intake at six and 24 hours, weight gain, duration of diarrhea, or hypo/hypernatremia. Length of stay was significantly shorter for the ORT group (weighted mean difference [WMD] -1.2 days; 95% CI: -2.4,-0.02). Phlebitis occurred significantly more often with IVT (number needed to treat [NNT] 33; 95% CI: 25,100); paralytic ileus occurred more often with ORT (NNT 33; 95% CI: 20,100). These results may not be generalizable to children with persistent vomiting. CONCLUSION: There were no clinically important differences between ORT and IVT in terms of efficacy and safety. For every 25 children (95% CI: 20, 50) treated with ORT, one would fail and require IVT. The results support existing practice guidelines recommending ORT as the first course of treatment in appropriate children with dehydration secondary to gastroenteritis

Student Recital (December 11, 2012)

Choro No. 1 / Heitor Villa-Lobos Praeludium, BWV 999 / Johann Sebastian Bach Thomas Prosser, guitar Fugue in C minor, BWV 847 / J. S. Bach Carl Hollant, piano Sonata in G minor, Op. 1, No. 2, HWV 360 / Georg Friedrich Handel Adagio Andante Nicole Mount, flute Minuet in C, Op. 22 / Fernando Sor Mark Gavin, guitar Where’re Your Walk, from Semele, HWV 58 / G. F. Handel Thomas Manning, tenor Romance / anon. Un Dia De Noviembre / Leo Brower Christopher Bosch, guitar Etude No. 57 / Mitchell Peters Nicole Desmarais, timpani Suite for Cello No. 1, BWV 1007 / Johann Sebastian Bach Courante Mackenzie Leahy, alto saxophone Prelude No. 4 in E minor / Heitor Villa-Lobos Ian Timpany, guitar Sonata / Kent Kennan James Sheehan, trumpet Sonate pour Flute et Piano / Francis Poulenc Allegretto Malincolico Jennifer Drake, flutehttps://vc.bridgew.edu/student_concerts/1033/thumbnail.jp