State of the art of haptic feedback in virtual reality in manufacturing

This paper discusses the application of haptic feedback in Virtual Reality to enhance user performance in manufacturing. Haptic interfaces have the potential to enhance communication and interaction via the computer enabling affective expressive interpersonal communication and enriching interaction by haptic feedback. The aim of this study was to investigate and develop a better understanding of using haptic feedback in manufacturing

A Review of haptic feedback in virtual reality for manufacturing industry

This paper discusses the application of haptic feedback in Virtual Reality to enhance user performance in manufacturing industry. Haptic interfaces have the potential to enhance communication and interaction via the computer enabling affective expressive interpersonal communication and enriching interaction by haptic feedback. The aim of this study was to investigate and develop a better understanding of using haptic feedback in manufacturing

Virtual reality adoption capability in Malaysian automotive manufacturing industry

Virtual reality and three-dimensional modelling technologies are mainly used in industry in many aspects. The automotive industry is considered as the initial group that uses virtual reality technologies. However, without adopting advanced technology, the automotive industry cannot compete with its global competition. In this study, six automotive companies in Malaysia were selected as case study to verify the virtual reality adoption capability. A total number of 240 questionnaires were distributed among the six car companies in Malaysia and 153 people responded to the questionnaires. For analysing, Pearson chi-square test was conducted followed by frequency analysis on the respondents’ answers. The analysis showed that 54% of industry respondents have stated that existing technology is not enough while 83.7% of them showed tendency towards adoption and improvement with new technology in which virtual reality was found as the best option that can be adopted to different sections of automotive manufacturing industry. The results also revealed that manufacturing, designing, ‘planning and research’ and engineering departments are the appropriate areas for implementing virtual reality technology

Mesoscale mapping of sediment source hotspots for dam sediment management in data-sparse semi-arid catchments

Land degradation and water availability in semi-arid regions are interdependent challenges for management that are influenced by climatic and anthropogenic changes. Erosion and high sediment loads in rivers cause reservoir siltation and decrease storage capacity, which pose risk on water security for citizens, agriculture, and industry. In regions where resources for management are limited, identifying spatial-temporal variability of sediment sources is crucial to decrease siltation. Despite widespread availability of rigorous methods, approaches simplifying spatial and temporal variability of erosion are often inappropriately applied to very data sparse semi-arid regions. In this work, we review existing approaches for mapping erosional hotspots, and provide an example of spatial-temporal mapping approach in two case study regions. The barriers limiting data availability and their effects on erosion mapping methods, their validation, and resulting prioritization of leverage management areas are discussed.BMBF, 02WGR1421A-I, GROW - Verbundprojekt SaWaM: Saisonales Wasserressourcen-Management in Trockenregionen: Praxistransfer regionalisierter globaler Informationen, Teilprojekt 1DFG, 414044773, Open Access Publizieren 2019 - 2020 / Technische Universität Berli

Does a long reference list guarantee more citations? Analysis of Malaysian highly cited and review pPapers

Earlier publications have shown that the number of references as well as the number of received citations are field-dependent. Consequently, a long reference list may lead to more citations. The purpose of this article is to study the concrete relationship between number of references and citation counts. This article tries to find an answer for the concrete case of Malaysian highly cited papers and Malaysian review papers. Malaysian paper is a paper with at least one Malaysian affiliation. A total of 2466 papers consisting of two sets, namely 1966 review papers and 500 highly-cited articles, are studied. The statistical analysis shows that an increase in the number of references leads to a slight increase in the number of citations. Yet, this increase is not statistically significant. Therefore, a researcher should not try to increase the number of received citations by artificially increasing the number of references

Oropharyngeal candidiasis and resistance to antifungal drugs in patients receiving radiation for head and neck cancer

BACKGROUND: Oropharyngeal candidiasis is a common infection in patient receiving radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. Accurate and rapid identification of candida species is very important in clinical laboratory, because the incidence of candidiasis continues to rise after radiotherapy. The genus Candida has about 154 species that show different level of resistance to antifungal drugs and have high degree of phenotypic similarity. The aim of this study was to investigate oral yeast colonization and infection and resistance to antifungal drugs in these patients. METHODS: Thirty patients receiving a 6-week course of radiation therapy for treatment of head and neck cancer at the Oncology Unit in Shafa Hospital, in 2008, were enrolled in the study. Specimens from patients were cultured weekly for Candida. All isolates were plated on CHROM agar and RPMI-based medium. They were subcultured and submitted for antifungal susceptibility testing (nystatin, fluconazole, clotrimazole and ketoconazole) and molecular typing. RESULTS: Infection (clinical and microbiological evidence) occurred in 50% of the patients and Candida colonization (only microbiological evidence) occurred in 70% of subjects in the first week. Candida albicans alone was isolated in 94.9% of patient visits with positive cultures. Candida tropicalis was isolated from 5.1% of patient visits with positive cultures. All isolates were susceptible to nystatin, but did not respond to the other antifungal drugs CONCLUSIONS: The irradiation-induced changes of the intraoral environment such as xerostomia lead to increased intraoral colonization by Candida species. All yeast isolates were susceptible to nystatin. Thus prophylactic therapy with nystatin should be considered for these patients. KEY WORDS: Oropharyngeal candidiasis, radiation, colonization, antifungal drugs, cance

Comparing "pick and place" task in spatial Augmented Reality versus non-immersive Virtual Reality for rehabilitation setting.

Introducing computer games to the rehabilitation market led to development of numerous Virtual Reality (VR) training applications. Although VR has provided tremendous benefit to the patients and caregivers, it has inherent limitations, some of which might be solved by replacing it with Augmented Reality (AR). The task of pick-and-place, which is part of many activities of daily living (ADL's), is one of the major affected functions stroke patients mainly expect to recover. We developed an exercise consisting of moving an object between various points, following a flash light that indicates the next target. The results show superior performance of subjects in spatial AR versus non-immersive VR setting. This could be due to the extraneous hand-eye coordination which exists in VR whereas it is eliminated in spatial AR

Identifying High Crash Risk Roadways through Jerk-Cluster Analysis

The state-of-the-practice for most municipal traffic agencies seeking to identify high-risk road segments has been to use prior crash history. While historic traffic crash data is recognized to be valuable in improving roadway safety, it relies on prior observation rather than future crash likelihood. Recently, however, researchers are developing predictive crash methods based on “abnormal driving events.” These include abrupt and atypical vehicle movements thought to be indicative of crash avoidance maneuvers and/or near-crashes. Because these types of near-crash events occur far more frequently than actual crashes, it is hypothesized that they can be used as an indicator of high-risk locations and, even more valuably, to identify where crashes are likely to occur in the future. This thesis describes the results of research that used naturalistic driving data collected from global positioning system (GPS) sensors to locate high concentrations of abrupt and atypical vehicle movements in Baton Rouge, Louisiana based on vehicle rate of change of acceleration (jerk). Statistical analyses revealed that clusters of high magnitude jerk events while decelerating were significantly correlated to long-term crash rates at these same locations. These significant and consistent relationships between jerks and crashes suggest that these events can be used as surrogate measures of safety and as a way of predicting safety problems before even a single crash has occurred

Ketidakstabilan Ekspor dan Ekonomi Indonesia

Perekonomian Indonesia adalah perekonomian yang menganut sistem ekonomi terbuka. Di dalam sistem ini lalu lintas ekonomi Internasional mengambil peranan yang penting di dalam perekonomian dan pembangunan suatu negara. Pentingnya lalu lintas ekonomi Internasional bagi Indonesia dapat dilihat dari rasio perdagangan luar negeri terhadap Produk Domestik Bruto (PDB)