51 research outputs found
Mobile Communications Technologies in Tree Time: The Listening Wood
This article presents a practice-led investigation by a cross-disciplinary team of artists and computer scientists into the potential for mobile and digital communications technologies to engage visitors to Londonâs Hampstead Heath with the histories of its veteran urban trees. Focusing on the application of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies within the arboreal environment for the digital poetic walk, The Listening Wood, it considers the reciprocal impact of âtree timeâ on the development of âslow techâ
Heart versus Head: Differential Bodily Feedback Causally Alters Economic Decision-making
Metaphorically, altruistic acts, such as monetary donations, are said to be driven by the heart, whereas sound financial
investments are guided by reason, embodied by the head. In a unique experiment, we tested the effects of these bodily
metaphors using biofeedback and an incentivized economic decision-making paradigm. Participants played a repeated
investment game with a simulated partner, alternating between tactical investor and altruistic investee. When making
decisions, participants received counterbalanced visual feedback from their own or a simulated partnerâs heart or head,
as well as no feedback. As investor, participants transferred a greater proportion of their endowments when exposed
to visual feedback from their own head than to feedback from their own heart or no feedback at all. These effects were
not observed when the source of the feedback was the simulated partner. As investee, heart feedback predicted greater altruistic returns than head or no feedback, but this effect did not differ based on source (own vs partner). Consistent with a dual-process framework, we suggest that people may be encouraged to invest more or be more altruistic when receiving bodily feedback from conceptually diametric sources
Internet of Things of Trees - Conversational objects via SMS protocols
The paper describes a âwork in progressâ to develop a system to enable users to engage with the historical and environmental story behind veteran trees in Hampstead Heath in the spirit of the Internet of Things. Unlike other âInternet of Treesâ projects, this study focuses on story telling rather than sensor networks. Building on previous work, conversational agents (âchatbotsâ) are used as proxies for the trees to enable a two-way narrative exchange between the user and the âtreeâ. Two interaction pathways are proposed (direct SMS and web-based geofencing) and the technical development of both approaches is described, as well as ethnographic studies undertaken on Hampstead Heath to elicit engaging content for the chatbot. An initial deployment of the SMS-based interaction at Tate Exchange, a project space within Tate Modern, London is discussed and a preliminary evaluation presented
The effect of artificial selection on phenotypic plasticity in maize
Remarkable productivity has been achieved in crop species through artificial selection and adaptation to modern agronomic practices. Whether intensive selection has changed the ability of improved cultivars to maintain high productivity across variable environments is unknown. Understanding the genetic control of phenotypic plasticity and genotype by environment (G Ă E) interaction will enhance crop performance predictions across diverse environments. Here we use data generated from the Genomes to Fields (G2F) Maize G Ă E project to assess the effect of selection on G Ă E variation and characterize polymorphisms associated with plasticity. Genomic regions putatively selected during modern temperate maize breeding explain less variability for yield G Ă E than unselected regions, indicating that improvement by breeding may have reduced G Ă E of modern temperate cultivars. Trends in genomic position of variants associated with stability reveal fewer genic associations and enrichment of variants 0â5000 base pairs upstream of genes, hypothetically due to control of plasticity by short-range regulatory elements
Maize Genomes to Fields: 2014 and 2015 field season genotype, phenotype, environment, and inbred ear image datasets
Objectives: Crop improvement relies on analysis of phenotypic, genotypic, and environmental data. Given large, well-integrated, multi-year datasets, diverse queries can be made: Which lines perform best in hot, dry environments? Which alleles of specific genes are required for optimal performance in each environment? Such datasets also can be leveraged to predict cultivar performance, even in uncharacterized environments. The maize Genomes to Fields (G2F) Initiative is a multi-institutional organization of scientists working to generate and analyze such datasets from existing, publicly available inbred lines and hybrids. G2Fâs genotype by environment project has released 2014 and 2015 datasets to the public, with 2016 and 2017 collected and soon to be made available.
Data description: Datasets include DNA sequences; traditional phenotype descriptions, as well as detailed ear, cob, and kernel phenotypes quantified by image analysis; weather station measurements; and soil characterizations by site. Data are released as comma separated value spreadsheets accompanied by extensive README text descriptions. For genotypic and phenotypic data, both raw data and a version with outliers removed are reported. For weather data, two versions are reported: a full dataset calibrated against nearby National Weather Service sites and a second calibrated set with outliers and apparent artifacts removed
The HEV Ventilator
HEV is a low-cost, versatile, high-quality ventilator, which has been
designed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ventilator is intended to be
used both in and out of hospital intensive care units, and for both invasive
and non-invasive ventilation. The hardware can be complemented with an external
turbine for use in regions where compressed air supplies are not reliably
available. The standard modes provided include PC-A/C(Pressure Assist
Control),PC-A/C-PRVC(Pressure Regulated Volume Control), PC-PSV (Pressure
Support Ventilation) and CPAP (Continuous Positive airway pressure). HEV is
designed to support remote training and post market surveillance via a web
interface and data logging to complement the standard touch screen operation,
making it suitable for a wide range of geographical deployment. The HEV design
places emphasis on the quality of the pressure curves and the reactivity of the
trigger, delivering a global performance which will be applicable to ventilator
needs beyond theCOVID-19 pandemic. This article describes the conceptual design
and presents the prototype units together with their performance evaluation.Comment: 34 pages, 18 figures, Extended version of the article submitted to
PNA
- âŠ