8,219 research outputs found
Prediction of Human Trajectory Following a Haptic Robotic Guide Using Recurrent Neural Networks
Social intelligence is an important requirement for enabling robots to
collaborate with people. In particular, human path prediction is an essential
capability for robots in that it prevents potential collision with a human and
allows the robot to safely make larger movements. In this paper, we present a
method for predicting the trajectory of a human who follows a haptic robotic
guide without using sight, which is valuable for assistive robots that aid the
visually impaired. We apply a deep learning method based on recurrent neural
networks using multimodal data: (1) human trajectory, (2) movement of the
robotic guide, (3) haptic input data measured from the physical interaction
between the human and the robot, (4) human depth data. We collected actual
human trajectory and multimodal response data through indoor experiments. Our
model outperformed the baseline result while using only the robot data with the
observed human trajectory, and it shows even better results when using
additional haptic and depth data.Comment: 6 pages, Submitted to IEEE World Haptics Conference 201
Inversions of two wave-forward operators with variable coefficients
As the most successful example of a hybrid tomographic technique,
photoacoustic tomography is based on generating acoustic waves inside an object
of interest by stimulating electromagnetic waves. This acoustic wave is
measured outside the object and converted into a diagnostic image. One
mathematical problem is determining the initial function from the measured
data. The initial function describes the spatial distribution of energy
absorption, and the acoustic wave satisfies the wave equation with variable
speed. In this article, we consider two types of problems: inverse problem with
Robin boundary condition and inverse problem with Dirichlet boundary condition.
We define two wave-forward operators that assign the solution of the wave
equation based on the initial function to a given function and provide their
inversions
Critical Velocity for Vortex Shedding in a Bose-Einstein Condensate
We present measurements of the critical velocity for vortex shedding in a
highly oblate Bose-Einstein condensate with a moving repulsive Gaussian laser
beam. As a function of the barrier height , the critical velocity
shows a dip structure having a minimum at , where is
the chemical potential of the condensate. At fixed , we
observe that the ratio of to the speed of sound monotonically
increases for decreasing , where is the beam width and
is the condensate healing length. The measured upper bound for
is about 0.4, which is in good agreement with theoretical predictions for a
two-dimensional superflow past a circular cylinder. We explain our results with
the density reduction effect of the soft boundary of the Gaussian obstacle,
based on the local Landau criterion for superfluidity.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Sample-Efficient Training of Robotic Guide Using Human Path Prediction Network
Training a robot that engages with people is challenging, because it is
expensive to involve people in a robot training process requiring numerous data
samples. This paper proposes a human path prediction network (HPPN) and an
evolution strategy-based robot training method using virtual human movements
generated by the HPPN, which compensates for this sample inefficiency problem.
We applied the proposed method to the training of a robotic guide for visually
impaired people, which was designed to collect multimodal human response data
and reflect such data when selecting the robot's actions. We collected 1,507
real-world episodes for training the HPPN and then generated over 100,000
virtual episodes for training the robot policy. User test results indicate that
our trained robot accurately guides blindfolded participants along a goal path.
In addition, by the designed reward to pursue both guidance accuracy and human
comfort during the robot policy training process, our robot leads to improved
smoothness in human motion while maintaining the accuracy of the guidance. This
sample-efficient training method is expected to be widely applicable to all
robots and computing machinery that physically interact with humans
Phytochemical profile, antioxidant, antimicrobial and antipancreatic lipase activities of fermented Camellia japonica L leaf extracts
Purpose: To investigate the probable antioxidant, antimicrobial and antipancreatic lipase effects of fermented Camellia japonica leaf extracts.Methods: Camellia japonica leaves fermented with Nuruk were extracted using methanol and ethanol. Total phenolic, flavonoid, carotenoid and L-ascorbic acid contents were determined by UV-visible spectrophotometry. The antioxidant activities of these extracts were determined by free radical scavenging, ferrous ion chelating and reducing power assays. Their antimicrobial properties against Gram-positive Staphylococcus epidermidis and Bacillus subtilis, and Gram-negative Klebsiella pneumonia and Escherichia coli bacteria were evaluated by disc diffusion method. Inhibition of pancreatic lipase was measured based on the hydrolytic reaction of p-nitrophenyl butyrate with pancreatic lipase.Results: The ethanol extracts of fermented Camellia japonica leaves exhibited higher phenolic (32274mg GAE/100 g) and flavonoid (20519 mg RE/100 g) contents with higher superoxide (IC50 = 0.23 mg/mL), hydrogen peroxide (IC50 = 0.28 mg/mL) radical scavenging and ferrous ion chelating (IC50 = 0.21 mg/mL) activities than those of methanol. These ethanol extracts also showed higher antimicrobial activities against all bacterial strains tested with higher inhibitory effects on pancreatic lipase than methanol extracts.Conclusion: The results highlight the possible use of fermented Camellia japonica leaf extracts as a source of antioxidant, antibacterial and antiobesity agents. Ethanol is recommended as solvent for extracting antioxidants, antibacterial and antiobesity agents from this plant.Keywords: Antioxidant activity, Antimicrobial activity, Fermented Camellia japonica extracts, Pancreatic lipase inhibitio
Relaxation of superfluid turbulence in highly oblate Bose-Einstein condensates
We investigate thermal relaxation of superfluid turbulence in a highly oblate
Bose-Einstein condensate. We generate turbulent flow in the condensate by
sweeping the center region of the condensate with a repulsive optical
potential. The turbulent condensate shows a spatially disordered distribution
of quantized vortices and the vortex number of the condensate exhibits
nonexponential decay behavior which we attribute to the vortex pair
annihilation. The vortex-antivortex collisions in the condensate are identified
with crescent-shaped, coalesced vortex cores. We observe that the
nonexponential decay of the vortex number is quantitatively well described by a
rate equation consisting of one-body and two-body decay terms. In our
measurement, we find that the local two-body decay rate is closely proportional
to , where is the temperature and is the chemical potential.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure
GENOTOXICITY OF N-HYDROXY AND AMINOPHENOL METABOLITES OF 2,6- AND 3,5-DIMETHYLANILINE AT THE HYPOXANTHINEGUANINE PHOSPHORIBOSYLTRANSFERASE LOCUS IN TK6 CELLS
Objective: The objective of this study as to characterize the genotoxicity of reactive metabolites of 2,6-dimethylaniline (2,6-DMA) and 3,5-DMA in the hypoxanthineguanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) gene of human lymphoblastoid TK6 cells.Methods: Cultures were exposed to N-hydroxylamine and aminophenol metabolites of 2,6- and 3,5-DMA for 1 h in serum-free medium. Cell survival 24 h after exposure was determined by trypan blue exclusion. Cells were then subcultured for 7–10 days to allow to phenotypic expression of HPRT mutants. After the expression period, cells were plated in the presence of 2 μg/ml 6-thioguanine for the selection of HPRT mutants. Plating efficiency was determined and mutant fraction calculated. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) was also used to determine whether 3,5- dimethylaminophenol (DMAP) produced reactive oxygen species (ROS).Results: All of the metabolites tested were cytotoxic to these cells but exhibited a considerable variation in potency. The aminophenol metabolites of 2,6- and 3,5-DMA were considerably more toxic than the corresponding N-hydroxylamines. Furthermore, each metabolite of 3,5-DMA was more toxic than its 2,6-DMA counterpart; N-OH-3,5-DMA and 3,5-DMAP were clearly mutagenic at a level of 50 μM. EPR studies showed intracellular oxidative stress induced under 3,5-DMAP treatment.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that genotoxic responses of 2,6- and 3,5-DMA are mediated through the generation of ROS by hydroxylamine and/ or aminophenol metabolites.Â
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