Powered Wheelchair Platform for Assistive Technology Development

Literature shows that numerous wheelchair platforms, of various complexities, have been developed and evaluated for Assistive Technology purposes. However there has been little consideration to providing researchers with an embedded system which is fully compatible, and communicates seamlessly with current manufacturer's wheelchair systems. We present our powered wheelchair platform which allows researchers to mount various inertial and environment sensors, and run guidance and navigation algorithms which can modify the human desired joystick trajectory, so as to assist users with negotiating obstacles, and moving from room to room. We are also able to directly access other currently manufactured human input devices and integrate new and novel input devices into the powered wheelchair platform for clinical and research assessment

Staying Power: The Future of Manufacturing in Massachusetts

Reviews the state's manufacturing employment since 1939; analyzes current data by industry, economic share, workers' demographics, and location; and projects trends through 2016. Based on surveys and interviews, examines manufacturers' perspectives

Measuring value in the innovation processes of university-industry research centres

There is increasing interest in new research relationships in the form of university-industry partnerships, by governments, universities, intermediary organisations and industry. These collaborations create value, however the value perceived, created and captured by the different actors in the innovation value network are different. However, based on the literature we can say that these values have to be present for all actors, at each phase, for the innovation process to continue. This paper presents a framework that illustrates a multi- actor view of the innovation process and associated values. It is hoped that this matrix can lead to new insight for researchers, practitioners and policy makers to manage better the innovation value network by facilitating the five phases of the innovation value network: policy making and grant process, idea generation and basic research, knowledge and technology development, knowledge and technology transfer and application of knowledge and technologies created by these research centres. Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd

Innovation and value creation in university-industry research centres in the canadian forest products industry

As the forest products industry evolves into a modern industry based on cutting-edge industrial and management research, the prevalence and importance of university research centres have gained importance. Although there has been increased funding and attention given to university-industry research centres from policy makers and researchers, little is still known about the benefits or value that these collaborations provide and create for firms. Applied academic research requires the active participation of researchers and practitioners. In the Canadian forest products industry, there are other important actors that need to be considered, the federal and provincial governments as owners and regulators of the resource and funders of research and development projects and intermediary organisations who are often charged with transforming academic results into tools and methods able to be implemented into industry firms. This paper presents the results of three comparative case studies of university-industry research centres operating in the Canadian forest products industry through an exploration of their knowledge and technology transfer processes. The goal is to better understand the value that has been created for the four main groups of actors involved though informal and formal transfer processes and which processes are best suited for different types of knowledge

Étudier le théâtre, dans le monde

Depuis une vingtaine d'années, le champ des études et de la pratique théâtrales à l'Université connaît une progression constante et une formidable diversification. Les programmes se sont multipliés et ouverts à de nouveaux types d'activités, souvent multidisciplinaires, abordant autant la théorie que la création, la formation que la pédagogie. Ce développement se double d'un autre phénomène tout aussi marquant : l'accroissement considérable des compagnies et des rencontres théâtrales universi..

Generation of EMIC Waves and Effects on Particle Precipitation During a Solar Wind Pressure Intensification With Bz>0.

During geomagnetic storms, some fraction of the solar wind energy is coupled via reconnection at the dayside magnetopause, a process that requires a southward interplanetary magnetic field Bz. Through a complex sequence of events, some of this energy ultimately drives the generation of electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves, which can then scatter energetic electrons and ions from the radiation belts. In the event described in this paper, the interplanetary magnetic field remained northward throughout the event, a condition unfavorable for solar wind energy coupling through low‐latitude reconnection. While this resulted in SYM/H remaining positive throughout the event (so this may not be considered a storm, in spite of the very high solar wind densities), pressure fluctuations were directly transferred into and then propagated throughout the magnetosphere, generating EMIC waves on global scales. The generation mechanism presumably involved the development of temperature anisotropies via perpendicular pressure perturbations, as evidenced by strong correlations between the pressure variations and the intensifications of the waves globally. Electron precipitation was recorded by the Balloon Array for RBSP Relativistic Electron Losses balloons, although it did not have the same widespread signatures as the waves and, in fact, appears to have been quite patchy in character. Observations from Van Allen Probe A satellite (at postmidnight local time) showed clear butterfly distributions, and it may be possible that the EMIC waves contributed to the development of these distribution functions. Ion precipitation was also recorded by the Polar‐orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite satellites, though tended to be confined to the dawn‐dusk meridians

E_(10), BE_(10) and Arithmetical Chaos in Superstring Cosmology

It is shown that the never ending oscillatory behaviour of the generic solution, near a cosmological singularity, of the massless bosonic sector of superstring theory can be described as a billiard motion within a simplex in 9-dimensional hyperbolic space. The Coxeter group of reflections of this billiard is discrete and is the Weyl group of the hyperbolic Kac-Moody algebra E$_{10}$ (for type II) or BE$_{10}$ (for type I or heterotic), which are both arithmetic. These results lead to a proof of the chaotic (``Anosov'') nature of the classical cosmological oscillations, and suggest a ``chaotic quantum billiard'' scenario of vacuum selection in string theory.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, minor changes in the text, two references adde