Intimate interfaces in action: assessing the usability and subtlety of emg-based motionless gestures

Mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones and networked personal digital assistants (PDAs), allow users to be constantly connected and communicate anywhere and at any time, often resulting in personal and private communication taking place in public spaces. This private -- public contrast can be problematic. As a remedy, we promote intimate interfaces: interfaces that allow subtle and minimal mobile interaction, without disruption of the surrounding environment. In particular, motionless gestures sensed through the electromyographic (EMG) signal have been proposed as a solution to allow subtle input in a mobile context. In this paper we present an expansion of the work on EMG-based motionless gestures including (1) a novel study of their usability in a mobile context for controlling a realistic, multimodal interface and (2) a formal assessment of how noticeable they are to informed observers. Experimental results confirm that subtle gestures can be profitably used within a multimodal interface and that it is difficult for observers to guess when someone is performing a gesture, confirming the hypothesis of subtlety

RAPD Analysis, Plasmid Profiles, Antibiotic Resistance and Occurrence of the Van Genes in Enterococcus Species Isolated from Human And Poultry

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the molecular relatedness of the Enterococcus spp. isolated among poultry and clinical samples. A total of 71 poultry isolates and 29 clinical isolates were examined in this study. The poultry samples obtained from market in Sri Serdang, Selangor and Makmal Kesihatan Awam Veterinar. Petaling Jaya, whereas the clinical samples were from Hospital Universiti. Kuala Lumpur. E. faecalis (41 of 71 , 58%) was the dominant species isolated from poultry samples. Besides that, E. faecium (3 of 71, 4%). E. casseliflavus (4 of 71, 6%), E. durans (18 of 71, 25%) and E. hirae (5 of 71, 7%) were also detected. Twenty-nine isolates from clinical samples were identified as E. faeca/is (19 isolates, 66%), E. faecium (8 isolates, 28%), E. mundtii (1 isolate, 3%) and E. raffinosus (1 isolate, 3%). All isolates were resistant against ceftazidime, erythromycin. kanamycin, nalidixic acid and streptomycin (100%). Clinical isolates also demonstrated high resistance to cephalothin, gentamicin and norf\oxacin (100%). Sixty-four of 71 poultry isolates, and 26 of 29 clinical isolates were resistant to vancomycin and this indicated high prevalence of vancomycin resistant enterococci detected among the isolates. All seventyone isolates from poultry exhibited multiple resistance with Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) indices ranging between 0.53 to 1.0 while for clinical isolates the range were between 0.6 to 0.86. These high MAR index suggests that a\l the isolates originated from high risk sources. According to plasmid profile analysis. 29 plasmid patterns were observed among poultry isolates with the plasmid DNA bands ranging in sizes from 1.1 to 35.8 megadalton. The plasmid analysis among clinical isolates were grouped into 9 plasmid patterns ranging in sizes from 1.85 to 35.8 megadalton. RAPD-PCR has been used to generate polymorphic genomic fingerprints to discriminate the enterococci isolates. Two primers (GEN15008 and GEN15009) were chosen after screening a set of 10 primers. These two primers yield reproducible and typeable results in most isolates examined with the bands ranging in sizes from 0.25 kb to 5.0 kb. From the dendrogram generated to study the interspecific relatedness among the isolates. 2 main clusters were observed and further subdivided into several subclusters defining the genetic heterogeneity among the isolates. The vanA specific (732 bp) fragment was detected in 96 of 100 (96%) of the isolates. 29 (100%) of dinical isolates and 67 of 71 (94%) of poultry isolates were positive for vanA gene. 4 of 71 (6%) of poultry were positive for vanC2IC3 gene (439 bp). Isolates containing the vanS or vanC1 gene were not found

Post-school education and social class destinations in Scotland in the 1950s

Data from the 1947 Scottish Mental Survey are used to investigate the relationship between type of secondary school attended and both post-school education up to age 27 and also occupational status by age 27, controlling for social background (social class, parental education, gender), intelligence at age 12, and attitude to school work. The survey was based on a representative sample of all children born in Scotland in 1936. They were first surveyed in 1947 and then almost annually to 1963. The focus of the paper is on the legacies of several waves of reform to secondary education in the first half of the twentieth century. The main research questions are whether the reforms extended access to educational attainment up to age 27 and thus widened access to high-status occupations. These questions are investigated using mainly multiple linear regression. The conclusions are that access was extended, but that people who had attended the older-established secondaries that pre-dated the reforms were more successful educationally and occupationally than people who attended newer foundations, even controlling for social background and intelligence. This effect was especially pronounced for pupils of above-average intelligence, the old schools providing them with particularly pronounced opportunities in adulthood

A next-generation inverse-geometry spallation-driven ultracold neutron source

The physics model of a next-generation spallation-driven high-current ultracold neutron (UCN) source capable of delivering an extracted UCN rate of around an-order-of-magnitude higher than the strongest proposed sources, and around three-orders-of-magnitude higher than existing sources, is presented. This UCN-current-optimized source would dramatically improve cutting-edge UCN measurements that are currently statistically limited. A novel "Inverse Geometry" design is used with 40 L of superfluid $^4$He (He-II), which acts as a converter of cold neutrons (CNs) to UCNs, cooled with state-of-the-art sub-cooled cryogenic technology to $\sim$1.6 K. Our design is optimized for a 100 W maximum heat load constraint on the He-II and its vessel. In our geometry, the spallation target is wrapped symmetrically around the UCN converter to permit raster scanning the proton beam over a relatively large volume of tungsten spallation target to reduce the demand on the cooling requirements, which makes it reasonable to assume that water edge-cooling only is sufficient. Our design is refined in several steps to reach $P_{UCN}=2.1\times10^9\,/$s under our other restriction of 1 MW maximum available proton beam power. We then study effects of the He-II scattering kernel as well as reductions in $P_{UCN}$ due to pressurization to reach $P_{UCN}=1.8\times10^9\,/$s. Finally, we provide a design for the UCN extraction system that takes into account the required He-II heat transport properties and implementation of a He-II containment foil that allows UCN transmission. We estimate a total useful UCN current from our source of $R_{use}=5\times10^8\,/$s from a 18 cm diameter guide 5 m from the source. Under a conservative "no return" approximation, this rate can produce an extracted density of $>1\times10^4\,/$cm$^3$ in $<$1000~L external experimental volumes with a $^{58}$Ni (335 neV) cut-off potential.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Applied Physic

New insight into the transmission dynamics of the crustacean pathogen Hematodinium perezi (Dinoflagellata) using a novel sentinel methodology

Hematodinium perezi causes disease and mortality in several decapod crustaceans along the eastern seaboard and Gulf coast of the USA. The route of transmission of the parasite is unknown, but infections exhibit a sharp seasonal cycle in its primary host, the blue crab Callinectes sapidus, that indicates the possibility of a short transmission period in its life cycle. We developed a sentinel methodology based on the use of naïve, uninfected, early benthic juvenile crabs (instars C1 to C10) to investigate the transmission of H. perezi. Crabs were collected from a non-endemic site, held for a short period for evaluation, and then deployed in a highly endemic site for 14 d. Transmission of the pathogen was successful; 12.7 to 25.7% of the crabs deployed at the endemic site became infected over this period. Infections developed rapidly, with 25% of new infections developing into heavy infections during the deployment. The large number of infections that developed using the sentinel methodology allowed for the first estimates of incidence (the proportion of new infections in a population over time) in this system. Incidence varied from 0.9 to 1.8% of the resident crab population per day and accounts for the high prevalence levels observed in the endemic coastal bays of the Delmarva Peninsula. The development of this sentinel methodology has broad application for studying disease ecology in this system and in other pathogens that infect decapods

A high-field adiabatic fast passage ultracold neutron spin flipper for the UCNA experiment

The UCNA collaboration is making a precision measurement of the β asymmetry (A) in free neutron decay using polarized ultracold neutrons (UCN). A critical component of this experiment is an adiabatic fast passage neutron spin flipper capable of efficient operation in ambient magnetic fields on the order of 1 T. The requirement that it operate in a high field necessitated the construction of a free neutron spin flipper based, for the first time, on a birdcage resonator. The design, construction, and initial testing of this spin flipper prior to its use in the first measurement of A with UCN during the 2007 run cycle of the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center's 800 MeV proton accelerator is detailed. These studies determined the flipping efficiency of the device, averaged over the UCN spectrum present at the location of the spin flipper, to be ϵ(overbar) = 0.9985(4)

The Dichotomy of Vascular Smooth Muscle Differentiation/De- Differentiation in Health and Disease

Vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) are thought to display cellular plasticity by alternating between a quiescent ‘contractile’ differentiated phenotype and a proliferative ‘synthetic’ de-differentiated phenotype in response to induction of distinct developmental pathways or to local micro-environmental cues. This classic de-differentiation and re-programming process is associated with a significant loss in the expression of key SMC differentiation marker genes for a large number of proliferative vascular diseases in vivo and in sub-cultured cells in vitro. Regarded as essential for vascular regeneration and repair in vivo, phenotypic modulation represents a critical target for therapeutic intervention. However, recent evidence now suggests that this process of vascular regeneration may also involve differentiation of resident vascular stem cells and the accumulation of stem cell-derived myogenic, osteochondrogenic and macrophage-like phenotypes within vascular lesions in vivo and across sub-cultured SMC cell populations in vitro. This review summarises our current knowledge of vascular regeneration, de-differentiation and re-programming of vascular SMCs, and focuses on the accumulating evidence of a putative role for stem cell-derived progeny and the evolving dichotomy of the origin of SMC-like cells during intimal-medial thickening and the progression of arteriosclerotic disease

Measurement of the half-life of the T=12\frac{1}{2} mirror decay of 19^{19}Ne and its implication on physics beyond the standard model

The $\frac{1}{2}^+ \rightarrow \frac{1}{2}^+$ superallowed mixed mirror decay of $^{19}$Ne to $^{19}$F is excellently suited for high precision studies of the weak interaction. However, there is some disagreement on the value of the half-life. In a new measurement we have determined this quantity to be $T_{1/2}$ = $17.2832 \pm 0.0051_{(stat)}$ $\pm 0.0066_{(sys)}$ s, which differs from the previous world average by 3 standard deviations. The impact of this measurement on limits for physics beyond the standard model such as the presence of tensor currents is discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl