Telepresence and telerobotics

The capability for a single operator to simultaneously control complex remote multi degree of freedom robotic arms and associated dextrous end effectors is being developed. An optimal solution within the realm of current technology, can be achieved by recognizing that: (1) machines/computer systems are more effective than humans when the task is routine and specified, and (2) humans process complex data sets and deal with the unpredictable better than machines. These observations lead naturally to a philosophy in which the human's role becomes a higher level function associated with planning, teaching, initiating, monitoring, and intervening when the machine gets into trouble, while the machine performs the codifiable tasks with deliberate efficiency. This concept forms the basis for the integration of man and telerobotics, i.e., robotics with the operator in the control loop. The concept of integration of the human in the loop and maximizing the feed-forward and feed-back data flow is referred to as telepresence

Identification, Structural, and Functional Characterization of a New Early Gene (6A3-5, 7 kb): Implication in the Proliferation and Differentiation of Smooth Muscle Cells

Arterial smooth muscle cells (SMCs) play a major role in atherosclerosis and restenosis. Differential display was used to compare transcription profiles of synthetic SMCs to proliferating rat cultured SMC line. An isolated cDNA band (6A3-5) was shown by northern (7 kb) to be upregulated in the proliferating cell line. A rat tissue northern showed differential expression of this gene in different tissues. Using 5′ RACE and screening of a rat brain library, part of the cDNA was cloned and sequenced (5.4 kb). Sequence searches showed important similarities with a new family of transcription factors, bearing ARID motifs. A polyclonal antibody was raised and showed a protein band of 175 kd, which is localized intracellularly. We also showed that 6A3-5 is upregulated in dedifferentiated SMC (P9) in comparison to contractile SMC ex vivo (P0). This work describes cloning, structural, and functional characterization of a new early gene involved in SMC phenotype modulation

Trust in Government in the Trump Era: A Comprehensive Study of U.S. Public Opinion on the Federal Government Under the Trump Administration

The election and presidency of Donald Trump has upended American politics in numerous ways. For his most ardent supporters, President Trump's efforts to change things in Washington; to deliver nationalist economic policies on trade, jobs, and immigration; and to advance culturally conservative rhetoric and racial appeals are worth the break with past presidential behavior and national unity. For his detractors, the actions of Trump and his administration represent a serious abrogation of presidential norms and mark a dangerous shift away from pluralist democracy and toward more authoritarian nationalism. Many other voters with less intense feelings about Trump are just trying to put the whole spectacle out of their minds and to find some semblance of normalcy in a politically fractured environment. For those who study public attitudes about government itself, the Trump presidency raises serious questions about whether the United States is experiencing real, long-lasting changes in voters' attitudes toward government, or if Americans are reacting in intense but more typical ways that are consistent with past trends. To examine these issues in more detail, the Center for American Progress, along with its colleagues at Hart Research Associates, designed a comprehensive national survey to measure basic beliefs about government and specific voter attitudes about the Trump administration. The online survey of 1,500 registered voters nationally was conducted March 19–25, 2018, and has an overall margin of error of +/- 2.6 percent. This study builds upon a major public opinion study that CAP and Hart conducted in 2015, which examined public attitudes about government and explored a variety of proposals for improving the performance and representation of the government in Washington. The results of that research are summarized in the unpublished May 2016 report, "Of the People, By the People, For the People? A National Study of Public Trust and Confidence in Government."1Based on the results of the current study and comparisons with earlier responses from the 2015 research and other publicly available data, we believe that reactions to the Trump administration represent a genuine break with past public views of government in significant ways. Most importantly, the partisan divisions on measures of trust and confidence in government found in earlier research are now fully solidified. Many American voters today are not basing their evaluations of government on objective criteria that weigh policy choices and overall performance in a neutral manner. Rather, in-party and out-party voters are reacting in entirely divergent ways to the government itself based primarily upon who is leading the government and which party is in control

6A3-5/Osa2 is an Early Activated Gene Implicated in the Control of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Functions

Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) growth plays a key role in the pathophysiology of vascular diseases. However, the molecular mechanisms controlling gene transcription in VSMC remain poorly understood. We previously identified, by differential display, a new gene (6A3-5) overexpressed in proliferating rat VSMC. In this study, we have cloned the full-length cDNA by screening a rat foetal brain cDNA library and investigated its functions. The 6A3-5 protein shows 4 putative conserved functional motifs: a DNA binding domain called ARID (AT-rich interaction domain), two recently described motifs (Osa Homology Domain), and a nuclear localization signal. The deduced protein sequence was observed to be 85% identical to the recently described human Osa2 gene. Immunolabelling, using an anti-6A3-5/Osa2 monoclonal antibody, showed a nuclear localization of the 6A3-5/Osa2 protein. In addition, PDGF upregulated 6A3-5/Osa2 expression at both the transcript and protein levels in a dose and time-dependent fashion. The pattern of upregulation by PDGF was reminiscent of the early responsive gene c-fos. The PDGF-induced upregulation of 6A3-5/Osa2 and proliferation of VSMC were significantly inhibited in a dose and sequence-dependent fashion by an antisense, but not by sense, scrambled or mismatched oligonucleotides directed against 6A3-5/Osa2. In VSMC of aortas derived from hypertensive (LH) rats, 6A3-5/Osa2 is overexpressed as compared to that in normotensive (LL) rats. The 6A3-5/Osa2-gene expression is downregulated by an ACE inhibitor and upregulated by exogenous AngiotensinII in LH rats. In summary, these results indicate that 6A3-5/Osa2 is an early activated gene that belongs to a new family of proteins involved in the control of VSMC growth

Synthesis of bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene (BEDT-TTF) derivatives functionalised with two, four or eight hydroxyl groups

Short synthetic routes to a range of BEDT-TTF derivatives functionalised with two, four or eight hydroxyl groups are reported, of interest because of their potential for introducing hydrogen bonding between donor and anion into their radical cation salts. The cycloaddition of 1,3-dithiole-2,4,5-trithione with alkenes to construct 5,6-dihydro-1,3-dithiolo[4,5-b]1,4-dithiin-2-thiones is a key step, with homo- or hetero-coupling procedures and O-deprotection completing the syntheses. The first synthesis of a single diastereomer of tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)BEDT-TTF, the cis, trans product, was achieved by careful choice of O-protecting groups to facilitate separation of homo- and hetero-coupled products. Cyclisation of the trithione with enantiopure 1R,2R,5R,6R-bis(O,O-isopropylidene)hex-3-ene-1,2,5,6-tetrol (from D-mannitol) gave two separable diastereomeric thiones, which can be transformed to enantiomeric BEDT-TTF derivatives with four or eight hydroxyl groups

Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape: Remembering Kant, Forgetting Proust

This article draws on Samuel Beckett’s recently published letters and archival scholarship to consider the place of Immanuel Kant’s critical epistemology within Beckett’s early thinking and his subsequent works. Beginning from Beckett’s engagement with Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, demonstrated by notes taken from Wilhelm Windelband’s A History of Philosophy between 1932 and 1933, excerpts from Jules de Gaultier’s From Kant to Nietzsche in the “Whoroscope” Notebook, and Beckett’s acquisition of Immanuel Kants Werke in 1938, I offer a close analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of Beckett’s parody of Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu in Krapp’s Last Tape. The larger purpose of this article is to argue that a critique of metaphysical thought can be found in Beckett’s work and to demonstrate that Kant’s influence as a philosophical source of this critique has been largely overlooked in Beckett criticism

FeedNetBack - D05.04 - Design methodologies for event-based control systems

This is a Deliverable Report for the FeedNetBack project (www.feednetback.eu). Networked Control Systems (NCS) are systems in which the sensors or/and the actuators communicate with the controller through a network. Energy saving and robustness to unreliable channels are major challenges in networked control, notably in wireless scenarios. Energy efficiency and in particular asynchronous design methodologies are studied in this deliverable. The presence of a channel between the sensors measuring the plant and the controller generating the control inputs implies that the measurements should be quantized. As a preliminary step, the problem of finding a stabilizing policy with quantized measurements and bounded control inputs is considered. It is common to assume that the different nodes of a Network Control System use a periodic synchronized clock, this simplifies the model which may take into account some transmission delays. However, this assumption is strong and energy consuming. Indeed, the periodic sampling time is often chosen to ensure given performance in the worst case scenario, wasting energy when the system is running around its working point. To relax the assumption of synchronized nodes, the rest of the deliverable introduces two asynchronous design methodologies, event-based and self-triggered methodologies. The former consists in limiting the transmissions between the nodes when a given condition holds, or, in other words, when an event occurs. Not only this approach relaxes the assumption of synchronized nodes, but it also limits the transmissions which save energy. In the following, event-based approach is applied to a feedback control case and an estimation case. However, by its nature, event-based approach forces the communicating node to watch for the occurrence of the triggering event. This is relaxed in self-triggered approach where each node decides, at the end of an action (e.g. measuring, transmitting, controlling), when the next action will take place. In between these times, the node usually goes to down mode to save energy. In the last part of this deliverable, this approach is applied to a variable sample rate control and to the case of IEEE 802.15.4 protocol

Cost effectiveness of first-line oral therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension: A modelling study

Background: In recent years, a significant number of costly oral therapies have become available for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Funding decisions for these therapies requires weighing up their effectiveness and costs. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the cost effectiveness of monotherapy with oral PAH-specific therapies versus supportive care as initial therapy for patients with functional class (FC) II and III PAH in Canada. Methods: A cost-utility analysis, from the perspective of a healthcare system and based on a Markov model, was designed to estimate the costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) associated with bosentan, ambrisentan, riociguat, tadalafil, sildenafil and supportive care for PAH in treatment-naïve patients. Separate analyses were conducted for cohorts of patients commencing therapy at FC II and III PAH. Transition probabilities, based on the relative risk of improving and worsening in FC with treatment versus placebo, were derived from a recent network meta-analysis. Utility values and costs were obtained from published data and clinical expert opinion. Extensive sensitivity analyses were conducted. Results: Analysis suggests that sildenafil is the most cost-effective therapy for PAH in patients with FC II or III. Sildenafil was both the least costly and most effective therapy, thereby dominating all other treatments. Tadalafil was also less costly and more effective than supportive care in FC II and III; however, sildenafil was dominant over tadalafil. Even given the uncertainty within the clinical inputs, the probabilistic sensitivity analysis showed that apart from sildenafil and tadalafil, the other PAH therapies had negligible probability of being the most cost effective. Conclusion: The results show that initiation of therapy with sildenafil is likely the most cost-effective strategy in PAH patients with either FC II or III disease.This research was supported by funds from the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH)