Native American Outpatient Clinic

This design project was created to focus on the healthcare needs within the Native American communities in rural parts of Arizona. There is a lack of healthcare facilities in these areas, which begins to show within the tribes, such as dying from preventable diseases. So here I focus on Native American health and the incorporation of traditional healing into modernized medical facilities through design. I will talk about my background research of Native American culture, the site, and the inclusion of traditional ways into healthcare fit for the indigenous population

Benchmarking Multimodal Variational Autoencoders: GeBiD Dataset and Toolkit

Multimodal Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) have been a subject of intense research in the past years as they can integrate multiple modalities into a joint representation and can thus serve as a promising tool for both data classification and generation. Several approaches toward multimodal VAE learning have been proposed so far, their comparison and evaluation have however been rather inconsistent. One reason is that the models differ at the implementation level, another problem is that the datasets commonly used in these cases were not initially designed for the evaluation of multimodal generative models. This paper addresses both mentioned issues. First, we propose a toolkit for systematic multimodal VAE training and comparison. Second, we present a synthetic bimodal dataset designed for a comprehensive evaluation of the joint generation and cross-generation capabilities. We demonstrate the utility of the dataset by comparing state-of-the-art models

How language of interaction affects the user perception of a robot

Spoken language is the most natural way for a human to communicate with a robot. It may seem intuitive that a robot should communicate with users in their native language. However, it is not clear if a user's perception of a robot is affected by the language of interaction. We investigated this question by conducting a study with twenty-three native Czech participants who were also fluent in English. The participants were tasked with instructing the Pepper robot on where to place objects on a shelf. The robot was controlled remotely using the Wizard-of-Oz technique. We collected data through questionnaires, video recordings, and a post-experiment feedback session. The results of our experiment show that people perceive an English-speaking robot as more intelligent than a Czech-speaking robot (z = 18.00, p-value = 0.02). This finding highlights the influence of language on human-robot interaction. Furthermore, we discuss the feedback obtained from the participants via the post-experiment sessions and its implications for HRI design.Comment: ICSR 202

Experimental study of hydraulic descaling

Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 1-4 July, 2007.Experimental work was concentrated on the study of descaling in relation to heat transfer and the quality of removing scale from the surface. Three types of measurements were implemented. The first one is a measurement of impact pressure distribution on spraying surface. The second is a measurement of temperature drop when a product is passing under the nozzle. The third type is a study of the surface quality where a defined layer of oxides is sprayed and its remaining thickness is evaluated. The heat transfer test is evaluated by inverse task and the results are prepared in a form of boundary conditions suitable for using in a numerical model.cs201

Validation report which details the advanced models developed to describe a) static and continuous and b) dynamic force transfer standards taking into account sensitivity stability, temperature and other parasitic influences on the measurement uncertainty (target uncertainty is 1 % up to 100 Hz and 2 % between 100 - 1000 Hz)

Current document reports on the development and validation of advanced practical models for describing force measuring devices used for the measurement of static, continuous forces in part A as well as dynamic forces in part B of the report. In the force measurement applications, the sensitivity curve of the force measuring devices determined in the calibration gives the traceability to national standards. The measurement uncertainty in an application is mainly affected by the sensitivity stability, the influence of temperature and other parasitic components. To capture these effects an advanced model for static and continuous forces was developed in part A which describes these influences especially in respect of their contribution to the measurement uncertainty. In contrast to the static calibration procedure, the dynamic calibration of the sensor has been always challenging because of several reasons such as the sophisticated nature of dynamic measurement, insufficient structural equipment, and parasitic effects which yield higher measurement uncertainty in comparison to static measurements and therefore inappropriate characterization of the force transducers. To close this knowledge gap in the dynamic calibration, the advanced model for dynamic forces was developed in part B. To consider the dynamic properties of force measuring devices the frequency dependency of the sensitivity and the influence of parasitic influences from temperature of the force measuring devices was considered and described. The target uncertainty is 1 % for up to 100 Hz and the target uncertainty is 2 % for higher frequency range from 100 Hz up to 1000 Hz

A rapid sensitive assay for phosphatidate phosphohydrolase

For a purified preparation of the soluble form of phosphatidate phosphohydrolase (EC 3.1.3.4) from guinea pig cerebral cortex, 1-O-alkyl-rac-glycerol 3-phosphate was found to be accepted as a substrate. This substrate analog was tritium-labeled in order to serve in a rapid sensitive assay for the enzyme, in which labeled 1-alkyl glycerol is released. Heat denaturation and enzyme activity dependence on pH indicated that 1-O-alkyl-rac-glycerol 3-phosphate phosphohydrolase and phosphatidate phosphohydrolase activities in the preparation are attributable to the same enzyme. 1-O-Alkyl-rac-glycerol 3-phosphate was hydrolyzed with a Vmax of 1.7 nmol min-1 mg-1 of protein and a Km of 270 [mu].Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/22588/1/0000136.pd

Competition in the Swedish mutual fund industry

The mutual fund industry plays an important role in the Swedish society where a part of the future income for all people is linked to the return of Swedish mutual fund industry and its assets. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the competitiveness in the Swedish premium pension system. We use publicly available data on market values, entry and exit to estimate the degree of competition in the premium pension system. By constructing a structural competition model we find that market value of mutual funds is negatively correlated by the concentration of the market. The premium pension system is characterized by a high degree of entry over the study period, 2001-2013. Mutual funds with lower market value are more likely to both enter and exit. Our findings suggest that the probability of exit does not increase when more mutual funds are added into the premium pension system