880 research outputs found
Odd Sensation Induced by Moving-Phantom which Triggers Subconscious Motor Program
Our motor actions are sometimes not properly performed despite our having complete understanding of the environmental situation with a suitable action intention. In most cases, insufficient skill for motor control can explain the improper performance. A notable exception is the action of stepping onto a stopped escalator, which causes clumsy movements accompanied by an odd sensation. Previous studies have examined short-term sensorimotor adaptations to treadmills and moving sleds, but the relationship between the odd sensation and behavioral properties in a real stopped-escalator situation has never been examined. Understanding this unique action-perception linkage would help us to assess the brain function connecting automatic motor controls and the conscious awareness of action.
Here we directly pose a question: Does the odd sensation emerge because of the unfamiliar motor behavior itself toward the irregular step-height of a stopped escalator or as a consequence of an automatic habitual motor program cued by the escalator itself. We compared the properties of motor behavior toward a stopped escalator (SE) with those toward moving escalator and toward a wooden stairs (WS) that mimicked the stopped escalator, and analyzed the subjective feeling of the odd sensation in the SE and WS conditions. The results show that moving escalator-specific motor actions emerged after participants had stepped onto the stopped escalator despite their full awareness that it was stopped, as if the motor behavior was guided by a “phantom” of a moving escalator. Additionally, statistical analysis reveals that postural forward sway that occurred after the stepping action is directly linked with the odd sensation.
The results suggest a dissociation between conscious awareness and subconscious motor control: the former makes us perfectly aware of the current environmental situation, but the latter automatically emerges as a result of highly habituated visual input no matter how unsuitable the motor control is. This dissociation appears to yield an attribution conflict, resulting in the odd sensation
Development and verification of wall-flap-gate as tsunami inundation defence for nuclear plants
A wall-flap-gate is automatic watertight door, and it works by buoyancy without powered machineries and human operations. In the Tohoku Earthquake tsunamis, serious damages were caused by inundation from ventilators of outer walls in power plants. The wall-flap-gate is estimated to be effective in keeping sustainability of nuclear plants against extreme tsunamis. The present study examines the hydrodynamic characteristics of the wall-flap-gate by hydraulic model experiments and verifies its capability of flood prevention for nuclear plants through various prototype tests. The experimental results proved that the wall-flap-gate had sufficient strength, watertightness, and durability against tsunamis and that its motion was not disturbed by debris. The viability of the wall-flap-gate as an inundation defence structure for nuclear plants was confirmed through this study. As a result, practical wall-flap-gates are installing on Hamaoka nuclear power station in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan
MaestROB: A Robotics Framework for Integrated Orchestration of Low-Level Control and High-Level Reasoning
This paper describes a framework called MaestROB. It is designed to make the
robots perform complex tasks with high precision by simple high-level
instructions given by natural language or demonstration. To realize this, it
handles a hierarchical structure by using the knowledge stored in the forms of
ontology and rules for bridging among different levels of instructions.
Accordingly, the framework has multiple layers of processing components;
perception and actuation control at the low level, symbolic planner and Watson
APIs for cognitive capabilities and semantic understanding, and orchestration
of these components by a new open source robot middleware called Project Intu
at its core. We show how this framework can be used in a complex scenario where
multiple actors (human, a communication robot, and an industrial robot)
collaborate to perform a common industrial task. Human teaches an assembly task
to Pepper (a humanoid robot from SoftBank Robotics) using natural language
conversation and demonstration. Our framework helps Pepper perceive the human
demonstration and generate a sequence of actions for UR5 (collaborative robot
arm from Universal Robots), which ultimately performs the assembly (e.g.
insertion) task.Comment: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2018.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19JsdZi0TW
Odd Sensation Induced by Moving-Phantom which Triggers Subconscious Motor Program
Our motor actions are sometimes not properly performed despite our having complete understanding of the environmental situation with a suitable action intention. In most cases, insufficient skill for motor control can explain the improper performance. A notable exception is the action of stepping onto a stopped escalator, which causes clumsy movements accompanied by an odd sensation. Previous studies have examined short-term sensorimotor adaptations to treadmills and moving sleds, but the relationship between the odd sensation and behavioral properties in a real stopped-escalator situation has never been examined. Understanding this unique action-perception linkage would help us to assess the brain function connecting automatic motor controls and the conscious awareness of action.
Here we directly pose a question: Does the odd sensation emerge because of the unfamiliar motor behavior itself toward the irregular step-height of a stopped escalator or as a consequence of an automatic habitual motor program cued by the escalator itself. We compared the properties of motor behavior toward a stopped escalator (SE) with those toward moving escalator and toward a wooden stairs (WS) that mimicked the stopped escalator, and analyzed the subjective feeling of the odd sensation in the SE and WS conditions. The results show that moving escalator-specific motor actions emerged after participants had stepped onto the stopped escalator despite their full awareness that it was stopped, as if the motor behavior was guided by a “phantom” of a moving escalator. Additionally, statistical analysis reveals that postural forward sway that occurred after the stepping action is directly linked with the odd sensation.
The results suggest a dissociation between conscious awareness and subconscious motor control: the former makes us perfectly aware of the current environmental situation, but the latter automatically emerges as a result of highly habituated visual input no matter how unsuitable the motor control is. This dissociation appears to yield an attribution conflict, resulting in the odd sensation
Intra-articular osteoid osteoma of the calcaneus: a case report and review
AbstractOsteoid osteoma of the calcaneus is rare and frequently misdiagnosed as arthritis because of similar symptoms. In addition, radiographic findings may be nonspecific, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may show a bone marrow edema and changes in adjacent soft tissue. A 19-year-old man presented with a 6-month history of persistent pain and swelling in the left hind foot; diagnostic computed tomography and MRI analyses revealed lesions suggesting an intra-articular osteoid osteoma of the calcaneus. Initial MRI did not show specific findings. On operation, the tumor was removed by curettage; pathologic findings demonstrated woven bone trabeculae surrounded by connective tissue, confirming the diagnosis. To the best of our knowledge, MRI scans in all cases of calcaneal osteoid osteoma reported till 3 months after the injury exhibited a nidus. We believe that calcaneal osteoid osteoma should be considered as a differential diagnosis in patients undergoing MRI 3 months after symptom presentation; early computed tomography is critical in diagnosis
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