Kinematic and kinetic analysis of geneva mechanisms and their applications to synchronization of motion

Geneva mechanisms have been used for generating intermittent motion for use in indexing and packaging operations. Due to their popularity, cost effectiveness and diversified applications in industry, it is desirable to optimize their design. Optimization techniques and modifications have been developed to provide long life, trouble-free high-speed indexing and intermittent motion while minimizing the undesirable inherent dynamic characteristics of this class of mechanisms. A general information base of the motion characteristics and types of geneva mechanisms available has been established. Development of the full spectrum of the required equations, generation of the normalized values of critical design parameters along with the use of high speed computers provides a new strategy for the optimization of the design of standard external geneva mechanisms. In addition, a novel application of external geneva mechanisms is introduced to achieve a certain synchronization processes. This effort will provide the mechanical engineer with new tools and a fresh approach that overcomes certain optimization and synchronization problems

Ethical Considerations of Chatbot Use for Mental Health Support

The promise of artificial intelligence thus far is greater than its actual application in healthcare, though it has been developed to be used effectively in this field. One application of technology in this setting is chatbot use for mental health support. Chatbots are conversational entities that mimic human conversations to interact with a human user as if two human agents are engaging with one another. Chatbots have the potential to engage those who might otherwise be unable or unwilling to receive mental health care by circumventing many of the barriers that prevent people from receiving care from a human provider. In the mental health arena, both practical barriers (such as geographic location and financial costs) as well as societal barriers (such as self and societal stigma) prevent people from accessing treatment. Even some of those who are able to overcome some most commonly cited barriers to care cannot receive it due to the lack of providers as compared to demand for aid. Thus, there is a need for a massive enhancement of mental health services that is not currently being met, where chatbots could rise to meet these needs. Despite lengthy discussion of the negative possibilities that I will summarize in this paper, the positive outcomes remain especially promising. This technology as a therapy, however, is investigational, as it has not yet been approved for use. Because of this, I advocate for moving forward with this technology, but cautiously. In this paper I will identify different areas of ethical concern regarding chatbot use for mental health support. I will explain why the identification of harms matter, and what steps, if any, can be taken to prevent and mitigate them. Most importantly, I will reiterate that though this technology is investigational thus far, it has the potential to be a widely successful therapeutic solution to many barriers of access, and that these considerations are paramount for the ethical development of this technology in the mental health space

How does the audience affect the way we express our gender roles?

Human beings adapt their language to suit their audience when interacting. While audience effects have been studied in theory and small-scale research, there is a lack of large-scale studies on naturally occurring audience effects. In this study, we examine audience effects in interactions with gendered contexts that emphasize different social identities (e.g. mother, father, and parent) by analyzing interactions on Reddit. We collected posts from three popular parenting subreddits (r/Daddit, r/Mommit, and r/Parenting), which cater to self-identified fathers and mothers (ostensibly single-gender) and parents (explicitly mixed-gender) respectively. By selecting a sample of users who have published on both single-gender and mixed-gender subreddits, we are able to explore both audience and gender effects. To analyze the posts, we used word embeddings and added the user as a token in the corpus. This allowed us to compare user-tokens to word-tokens and measure their similarity. Our results show that mothers and fathers behave similarly and discuss a diverse range of topics in a mixed-gender context, focusing more on advising each other on educational and family matters. In single-gender subreddits, mothers and fathers are more focused on specific topics. Mothers in r/Mommit distinguish themselves from other groups by discussing topics such as medical care, sleep and potty training, and food. Both mothers and fathers celebrate parenting events and describe or comment on the physical appearance of their children in front of a single-gender audience. In conclusion, this study demonstrates how mothers and fathers express different concerns and adapt their behaviour to different group-based audiences. It also highlights the potential of using Reddit and word embeddings to better understand the dynamics of audience and gender in a natural setting

Inhibitory effect of mixture herbs/ spices on formation of heterocyclic amines and mutagenic activity of grilled beef

Natural antioxidants in spices and herbs have attracted considerable attention as potential inhibitors against the formation of mutagenic heterocyclic amines (HCAs) in heat-processed meat. In this study, the inhibitory activity of four spices/herbs and their mixtures on HCAs formation in grilled beef were examined. A simplex centroid mixture design with four components comprising turmeric, curry leaf, torch ginger and lemon grass in 19 different proportions were applied on beef samples before grilling at 240 ºC for 10 min. The HCAs were extracted from the samples using solid phase extraction (SPE) method and analysed using Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry LC-MS/MS. All spices/herbs in single or mixture forms were found to reduce total HCA concentrations in marinated grilled beef ranging from 21.2% for beef marinated with curry leaf to 94.7% for the combination of turmeric and lemon grass (50:50 w/w). At the optimum marinade formula (turmeric: lemon grass 52.4%: 47.6%), concentration of 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinolone (IQ), 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP), Harman, Norharman and AαC were 2.2, 1.4, 0.5, 2.8 and 1.2 ng/g, respectively. The results of the mutagenic activity demonstrated that this optimised marinade formula significantly (p < 0.05) diminished mutagenicity of marinated grilled beef in bacterial Ames test

Ethical Considerations of Chatbot Use for Mental Health Support

The promise of artificial intelligence thus far is greater than its actual application in healthcare, though it has been developed to be used effectively in this field. One application of technology in this setting is chatbot use for mental health support. Chatbots are conversational entities that mimic human conversations to interact with a human user as if two human agents are engaging with one another. Chatbots have the potential to engage those who might otherwise be unable or unwilling to receive mental health care by circumventing many of the barriers that prevent people from receiving care from a human provider. In the mental health arena, both practical barriers (such as geographic location and financial costs) as well as societal barriers (such as self and societal stigma) prevent people from accessing treatment. Even some of those who are able to overcome some most commonly cited barriers to care cannot receive it due to the lack of providers as compared to demand for aid. Thus, there is a need for a massive enhancement of mental health services that is not currently being met, where chatbots could rise to meet these needs. Despite lengthy discussion of the negative possibilities that I will summarize in this paper, the positive outcomes remain especially promising. This technology as a therapy, however, is investigational, as it has not yet been approved for use. Because of this, I advocate for moving forward with this technology, but cautiously. In this paper I will identify different areas of ethical concern regarding chatbot use for mental health support. I will explain why the identification of harms matter, and what steps, if any, can be taken to prevent and mitigate them. Most importantly, I will reiterate that though this technology is investigational thus far, it has the potential to be a widely successful therapeutic solution to many barriers of access, and that these considerations are paramount for the ethical development of this technology in the mental health space

Evaluation of local spices and herbs as marinating ingredients for the reduction of heterocyclic amines in grilled beef

Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HCAs) are an important group of food mutagens and potential carcinogens which are formed during heat processing. Phenolic compounds, ubiquitous in plants are well known for their free radical scavenging activities which can inhibit the formation of HCAs. There is no study which have investigated the effects of different proportions of spices/herbs on the reduction of HCAs in grilled beef. This research has been conducted to determine the antioxidant property of selected herbs and spices, optimize the proportion of their combination to achieve the highest reduction of HCAs, identify the main bioactive inhibitors of HCAs formation and explore the level of mutagenicity and toxicity of marinated grilled beef. Selected herbs and spices (turmeric, curry leaf, lemon grass and torch ginger) were evaluated for their total phenolic compound (TPC), total phenolic content (TFC), DPPH radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). The bioactive compounds of the samples were identified using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Nineteen combinations of selected herbs and spices (turmeric, curry leaf, lemon grass and torch ginger) based on a simplex centroid mixture design were used to marinate beef in order to determine the optimal proportion which achieve the highest reduction of HCAs. The results showed that the combination of turmeric and lemon grass exhibited the highest reduction of HCAs. The optimum mixture of crude extract of these herbs was fractionated to determine the main inhibitors of PhIP formation. Six fractions were collected and applied into PhIP model system containing glucose, phenylalanine and creatinine. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry quadruple time of flight (LC-MS/MS Q-TOF) and orthogonal partial least-squares (OPLS) analysis was used to correlate PhIP reduction to different metabolite profiles of each fraction. In vivo and in vitro experiments were respectively carried out using zebrafish embryo and Salmonella Typhimurium (Ames test), to determine whether total HCAs reduction in optimized marinated grilled beef exhibited comparable reduction of toxicity and mutagenicity. The results of experiment showed that turmeric possessed the signifinatly highest TPC (172.10 mgGA/dw), TFC (380.7 mgQE/dw), DPPH antioxidant activity (47.35%) and FRAP (55.79 mgQE/gdw basis) which was followed by curry leaf, torch ginger and lemon grass. The combination of turmeric with lemon grass (50:50 w/w) showed the significanyly highest reduction of total HCAs at 94.7%. Using the response optimizer, the optimal proportion of spices and herbs for reduction of total HCAs was found to be a combination of turmeric:lemon grass with the proportion of 52.42%:47.57%. OPLS results indicated that the fraction 5 exhibited remarkable inhibitory activity in the formation of PhIP. The potential inhibitor compounds in this fraction were identified as luteolin, curcumin, luteolin 6-C-Glucosyl (Isoorientin), luteolin 6-CPentosyl- 8-C-pentosyl, Pentosyl-8-C-deoxyhexosyl luteolin, apigenin 7-rutinoside, 2''-O-Rhamnosyl isoorientin, Embigenin 2″-(2″-acetylrhamnoside), apigenin 7- rutinoside-4'-glucoside, luteoin 7-(6″″-acetylollosyl-(1->3)-glucosyl-(1->2)glucoside, Kaempferol 3-rutinoside-7-sophoroside. The results of experiment also showed that the mixture of turmeric and lemon grass (52.42%:47.57%) can be used in the diet of zebrafish without any detrimental effect on liver, kidney, fertility, growth rate and marinades decreased the mutagenic activity in the marinated grilled samples compared with those of the unmarinated samples. The results of the mutagenic activity demonstrated that this optimized marinade formula significantly (p < 0.05) diminished mutagenicity of grilled beef in bacterial Ames test. It can be concluded that all selected herbs and spices utilized in this study possess antioxidant activity which can reduce total HCAs concentration in grilled beef. It is evidenced that combination of turmeric and lemon grass (52.42%:47.57%) gave satisfactory results for the maximum reduction of total HCAs and mutagenicity without any detrimental effect on zebrafish embryo

Everyday objects as living things: The application of Transactional Analysis to understand and design product-person relationships

This research investigated the application of Transactional Analysis (TA) in the Design field. As a theory about interpersonal relationships to understand relationships between people and products, the use of TA in Design led to identifying the main factors influencing people’s relationships with the objects, which are products’ function, facilitation, perceived performance, and evoked emotions. The findings of co-discovery and interview sessions resulted in a framework that can help designers to design products that support enhanced user-product relationships through understanding personality of products and the emotions they evoke. E.g., applying “helpful” and “efficient” personalities to products’ function creates positive emotions

The Connection Between Perceived Product Performance and Evoked Emotions

To enhance emotional experiences of everyday objects, this study investigated how perceived product performance influences creating emotions. Fifteen pairs of participants were asked to share their experiences of everyday objects while they were looking at a list of products and personalities and attributing those personalities to products. Analysing the data from these co-discovery sessions showed that perceived poor performance of products causes negative emotions while satisfactory performance can lead to both positive and negative emotions. In creating both positive and negative emotions, functional aspects were more influential than symbolic and aesthetic ones. Results of this study can help designers to get a better understanding of interaction between people and products in order to design products which evoke positive emotions