Integrating adjunct therapies within a large hospital environment : A model of integrating medical services

アートセラピーをはじめとする各種セラピーには、病院の現場における不安や否定的気分、痛みへの対処という点において効果が期待されている。また、患者のストレスと不安を低減させるという点で、病院での治療の質および治癒力や患者の満足感を一層高めることが可能である。しかし現状では、その対象が心理面における何らかの不適合性を持っている患者に限定されているケースがほとんどである。本稿では、都市型総合病院における一般的な患者を対象とした融合型補助セラピープログラムの成功例を紹介するために、プログラムコーディネーターの視点からプログラム実施現場の実態について調査を行った。その結果、各種補助セラピーを採り入れた融合型の治療サービスは、大型総合病院という医療現場においてすべてのタイプの患者を対象に幅広く採り入れられる可能性を持っているという点を確認し、その重要性を指摘するに至った。Art therapy, music therapy, massage therapy and other adjunctive therapies have shown promise in hospital settings for reducing anxiety, control of negative mood and in pain management. These therapies also can enhance the patient\u27s hospital experience by reducing stress and anxiety, which can lead to better healing and patient satisfaction. However, in the majority of hospital settings these therapies remain restricted to helping patients with emotional difficulties, if offered at all. This paper reports on an interview with the project coordinator of a successful program which has successfully integrated adjunctive therapies into general patient care within a large metropolitan hospital. The focus of the interview was on the context and efforts which led to this program to successfully integrate adjunct therapies in a large hospital setting. Most importantly, this particular program can serve as a practical model of how a range of integrative healing services can be successfully provided for all patients within a larger hospital environment

Cognitive Benefits from Bilingualism and Second Language Study

この数十年，一言語話者と比較した場合における二言語話者の認知的有益性を示唆する研究報告が増加し続けている。広範囲にわたる年齢層や学習状況を対象とした研究では，二言語話者および第二言語学習者は数々の認知タスクにおいて一言語話者よりも高い結果となり，複数の言語から得られた能力の有益性を示唆している。本稿では，これらの先行研究を概観し，第二言語習得における認知的有益性という新しい効果視点への認識を深める。During the past decades a growing number of research studies have found cognitive benefits for bi-lingual individuals in comparison to people who only speak one language. Across a broad range of ages and learning conditions research has found that bilinguals and students learning a second language perform better on a number of cognitive tasks and exhibit other benefits from their knowledge of more than a single language. This review presents a general summary of the findings to increase general awareness of the cognitive benefits of foreign language learning

Sleep and Academic Performance : What students and faculty need to know

ここ数10年の間における研究をとおして,アカデミック・パフォーマンスにおける睡眠の役割と重要性への理解が進んできた。睡眠の量および質という両側面が,人間の記憶機能と神経系の働きに直接的かつ重大な影響を持つことが明らかになってきている。本稿では,最近の研究文献を多角的かつ複合的に再考し,アカデミック・パフォーマンスを向上させるためには睡眠の質を高めることが重要かつ不可欠であるという提言を試みる。During the past few decades much progress has been made in our understanding of the function of sleep and its importance to academic performance. It is now clear that both the quantity and quality of sleep has a direct and significant effect on human memory function and on the health of the nervous system. Included are general recommendations to raise the quality of sleep

Robust adaptive control for a hybrid solid oxide fuel cell system

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are electrochemical energy conversion devices. They offer a number of advantages beyond those of most other fuel cells due to their high operating temperature (800-1000 ° C), such as internal reforming, heat as a byproduct, and faster reaction kinetics without precious metal catalysts. Mitigating fuel starvation and improving load-following capabilities of SOFC systems are conflicting control objectives. However, this can be resolved by the hybridization of the system with an energy storage device, such as an ultra-capacitor. In this thesis, a steady-state property of the SOFC is combined with an input-shaping method in order to address the issue of fuel starvation. Simultaneously, an overall adaptive system control strategy is employed to manage the energy sharing between the elements as well as to maintain state-of-charge of the energy storage device. The adaptive control method is robust to errors in the fuel cell\u27s fuel supply system and guarantees that the fuel cell current and ultra-capacitor state-of-charge approach their target values and remain uniformly, ultimately bounded about these target values. Parameter saturation is employed to guarantee boundedness of the parameters. The controller is validated through hardware-in-the-loop experiments as well as computer simulations

Robust Adaptive Control of Linear Parameter-Varying Systems with Unmatched Uncertainties

This paper presents a robust adaptive control solution for linear parameter-varying (LPV) systems with unknown input gain and unmatched nonlinear (state- and time-dependent) uncertainties based on the $\mathcal{L}_1$ adaptive control architecture and peak-to-peak gain (PPG) analysis/minimization from robust control. Specifically, we introduce new tools for stability and performance analysis leveraging the PPG bound of an LPV system that is computable using linear matrix inequality (LMI) techniques. A piecewise-constant estimation law is introduced to estimate the lumped uncertainty with quantifiable error bounds, which can be systematically improved by reducing the estimation sampling time. We also present a new approach to attenuate the unmatched uncertainty based on the PPG minimization that is applicable to a broad class of systems with linear nominal dynamics. In addition, we derive transient and steady-state performance bounds in terms of the input and output signals of the actual closed-loop system as compared to the same signals of a virtual reference system that represents the possibly best achievable performance. Under mild assumptions, we prove that the transient performance bounds can be uniformly reduced by decreasing the estimation sampling time, which is subject only to hardware limitations. The theoretical development is validated by extensive simulations on the short-period dynamics of an F-16 aircraft

Signal-Specialized Parameterization

To reduce memory requirements for texture mapping a model, we build a surface parametrization specialized to its signal (such as color or normal). Intuitively, we want to allocate more texture samples in regions with greater signal detail. Our approach is to minimize signal approximation error --- the difference between the original surface signal and its reconstruction from the sampled texture. Specifically, our signal-stretch parametrization metric is derived from a Taylor expansion of signal error. For fast evaluation, this metric is pre-integrated over the surface as a metric tensor. We minimize this nonlinear metric using a novel coarse-to-fine hierarchical solver, further accelerated with a fine-to-coarse propagation of the integrated metric tensor. Use of metric tensors permits anisotropic squashing of the parametrization along directions of low signal gradient. Texture area can often be reduced by a factor of 4 for a desired signal accuracy compared to non-specialized parametrizations.Engineering and Applied Science

Designing an online dissertation research community of practice

This design case describes phase one (pilot phase) of an intervention strategy aimed to support students in a limited–residency doctoral program. Specifically, this case documents the process and decisions that were made along the way to design an online research community of practice (CoP) for students who have completed coursework and are working on their dissertations in the field of instructional design and technology. The case includes the designers’ guiding framework, a detailed description of the case including the site, participant and platform selection, and the preliminary state of the design. To date, a design team is in place, a guiding framework for the design of the CoP is established, a needs analysis has been conducted, the participants have been identified, the CoP strategy has been defined, the site has launched, and students are just now beginning to become a part of this online community. It will take time to cultivate the community and determine whether the design is effective in achieving the community’s goals. Data collection and documentation of design decisions continue as the design and development of the online CoP emerges

Discontinuity Edge Overdraw

Aliasing is an important problem when rendering triangle meshes. Efficient antialiasing techniques such as mipmapping greatly improve the filtering of textures defined over a mesh. A major component of the remaining aliasing occurs along discontinuity edges such as silhouettes, creases, and material boundaries. Framebuffer supersampling is a simple remedy, but 2x2 supersampling leaves behind significant temporal artifacts, while greater supersampling demands even more fill-rate and memory. We present an alternative that focuses effort on discontinuity edges by overdrawing such edges as antialiased lines. Although the idea is simple, several subtleties arise. Visible silhouette edges must be detected efficiently. Discontinuity edges need consistent orientations. They must be blended as they approach the silhouette to avoid popping. Unfortunately, edge blending results in blurriness. Our technique balances these two competing objectives of temporal smoothness and spatial sharpness. Finally, the best results are obtained when discontinuity edges are sorted by depth. Our approach proves surprisingly effective at reducing temporal artifacts commonly referred to as "crawling jaggies," with little added cost.Engineering and Applied Science

日本語学習者における特殊拍生成時の音響学的特性 : 英語・中国語母語話者の時間的調整を中心として

Phonetically, Japanese is a mora-timed language which is very different from the majority of languages. Many learners of Japanese as a second language have difficulty producing the special mora phoneme. Our initial research task was to describe the acoustical phonetic features of special mora as produced by non-native Japanese learners, in the hope of establishing in the future a training method for special mora phoneme pronunciation for non-native learners of Japanese language. In particular, this paper reviews our data on the geminate consonant and elongated vowel produced by English and Chinese native speakers. We observed features of temporal coordination during native Japanese speakers word production taking measurements of the geminate consonants and elongated vowels and compared these measurements with data from the nonnative speakers. Subjects pronounced sets of words (minimal pairs differing in geminate and non-geminate consonant, and minimal pairing words with elongated vowels and non-elongated vowels) and compared the rate of change in the length of the stop gap and the vowel duration produced by speakers of differing native language backgrounds. Our results indicated that the stop gap produced by English native speakers was significantly extended in comparison to the stop produced by native Japanese speakers, while the duration of elongated vowels were less extended than the native speakers. The stop gap produced by Chinese native speakers was less than the stop gap of native Japanese speakers