Application of serious games to sport, health and exercise

Use of interactive entertainment has been exponentially expanded since the last decade. Throughout this 10+ year evolution there has been a concern about turning entertainment properties into serious applications, a.k.a "Serious Games". In this article we present two set of Serious Game applications, an Environment Visualising game which focuses solely on applying serious games to elite Olympic sport and another set of serious games that incorporate an in house developed proprietary input system that can detect most of the human movements which focuses on applying serious games to health and exercise

Multiple defect interpretation based on Gaussian processes for MFL technology

Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) technology has been used in non-destructive testing for more than three decades. There have been several publications in detecting and sizing defects on metal pipes using machine learning techniques. Most of these literature focus on isolated defects, which is far from the real scenario. This study is towards the generalization of interpretation of the leakage flux in the presence of multiple defects based on simulation models, together with data-driven inference methodologies, such as Gaussian Process (GP) models. A MFL device has been simulated using both COMSOL Multiphysics and ANSYS software followed by prototyping the same device for experimental validations. Multiple defects with different geometrical configurations were introduced on a cast iron pipe sample and both radial and axial components of the leakage field have been measured. It was observed that both axial and radial components differ with different defect configurations. We propose to use GP to solve the inverse model problem by capturing such behaviors, i.e. to recover the profille of a cluster of defects from the measurements of a MFL device. The data was used to learn the non-parametric GP model with squared exponential covariance function and automatic relevance determination to solve this regression problem. Extensive quantitative and qualitative evaluations are presented using simulated and experimental data that validate the success of the proposed non-parametric methodology for interpreting the profiling of clusters of defects with MFL technology. © 2013 SPIE

Predictive Analytics Toolkit for H2S Estimation and Sewer Corrosion

This paper presents a predictive analytics toolkit, which is based on the emerging spatiotemporal data analysis techniques, for the estimation of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) gas distribution and prediction of sewer concrete corrosion level. The toolkit is an easy-to-use desktop application with a user-friendly interface for querying and producing output results on GIS. The inputs to the toolkit are the sewer network geometry, monitored factors, and hydraulic information; the outputs of the toolkit are spatiotemporal estimates of H2S gas concentration and concrete corrosion levels on the entire sewer network with uncertainties of the predictions. The toolkit is also able to integrate experts’ domain knowledge or existing physical model’s results as prior knowledge into the analytics model. The final outcomes of the toolkit can be used to prioritise high risk areas, recommend chemical dosing locations, and suggest deployment of sensors. A simulation of H2S and corrosion level prediction on a subsystem of the sewer network in the greater Sydney area is reported to demonstrate the capability of the toolki

A question of ties: The impact of social ties on resource mobilization of women entrepreneurs in the Sri Lankan floriculture industry

Current understanding of women entrepreneurs in emerging economies remains limited, despite the fact that women entrepreneur numbers are rapidly growing across the globe. In particular, there is little empirical study on how women entrepreneurs identify opportunities, access resources and develop business networks. Floriculture is a booming agribusiness in Sri Lanka, especially for women growers. This research identifies the social reality of respondents and examines it objectively. The research used a mixed design, with questionnaire surveys. The interview sample was of floriculturists in Western Province. Variables of influence included support from family and from institutes. The study found that 76% of women sampled received support from their family and 16% support from other institutes. The results revealed that both strong ties and weak ties play a significant role in determining business growth for Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs.Keywords: Floriculture, social capital, strong ties, Sri Lanka, weak ties, women entrepreneurshi

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated generation and analysis of N terminus polymorphic models of β2AR in isogenic hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes

During normal- and patho-physiological situations, the behavior of the beta2-adrenoreceptor (β2AR) is influenced by polymorphic variants. The functional impact of such polymorphisms has been suggested from data derived from genetic association studies, in vitro experiments with primary cells, and transgenic overexpression models. However, heterogeneous genetic background and non-physiological transgene expression levels confound interpretation, leading to conflicting mechanistic conclusions. To overcome these limitations, we used CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology in human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to create a unique suite of four isogenic homozygous variants at amino acid positions 16(G/R) and 27(G/Q), which reside in the N terminus of the β2AR. By producing cardiomyocytes from these hPSC lines, we determined that at a functional level β2AR signaling dominated over β1AR . Examining changes in beat rates and responses to isoprenaline, Gi coupling, cyclic AMP (cAMP) production, downregulation, and desensitization indicated that responses were often heightened for the GE variant, implying differential dominance of both polymorphic location and amino acid substitution. This finding was corroborated, since GE showed hypersensitivity to doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity relative to GQ and RQ variants. Thus, understanding the effect of β2AR polymorphisms on cardiac response to anticancer therapy may provide a route for personalized medicine and facilitate immediate clinical impact

The effect of post-harvest storage on the physicochemical properties and phytochemical content of Queen Garnet plum

The Queen Garnet Plum (QGP), a cultivar of Japanese plum (Prunus salicina Lindl.), was developed as a high anthocyanin plum in a Queensland Government breeding programme. Anthocyanins have been associated with various health attributes, including diabetes control, cardiovascular disease prevention and anti-inflammatory activity. This study was aimed at identifying the changes in physiochemical properties and important phytochemicals of QGP when stored under two storage temperatures. QGP from two growers were stored at 4 and 23 oC for 0, 4, 7, 10 and 14 days. At the end of each storage period the peel, outer flesh (up to 7 mm from the peel) and inner flesh were separated and analysed for chroma, total soluble solids (TSS) and titratable acidity (TA). The grower source had a significant effect on the measured parameters when considered as a covariate. Chroma values of the peel, inner and outer flesh were significantly (P < 0.05) different at 4 and 23 oC, after 14 days. There was no significant difference in the inner flesh TSS (IF-TSS) and outer flesh TSS (OF-TSS) between the different storage temperatures, but compared to day 0, after 14 days IF-TSS and OF-TSS were significantly (P < 0.05) lower. TA of the inner and outer flesh were significantly (P < 0.05) different at the two storage temperatures, but only the inner flesh TA was significantly (P < 0.05) different after 14 days. Further analysis is in progress for anthocyanins, total phenolics, carotenoids, folates and vitamin C. The current study indicates that QGP is climacteric and grower source, storage temperature and time as well as tissue can significantly affect the studied physicochemical parameters