Design Research on Robotic Products for School Environments

Advancements in robotic research have led to the design of a number of robotic products that can interact with people. In this research, a school environment was selected for a practical test of robotic products. For this, the robot “Tiro” was built, with the aim of supporting the learning activities of children. The possibility of applying robotic products was then tested through example lessons using Tiro. To do this, the robot design process and user-centred HRI evaluation framework were studied, and observations of robotic products were made via a field study on the basis of these understandings. Three different field studies were conducted, and interactions between children and robotic products were investigated. As a result, it was possible to understand how emotional interaction and verbal interaction affect the development of social relationships. Early results regarding this and coding schemes for video protocol analysis were gained. In this preliminary study, the findings are summarized and several design implications from insight grouping are suggested. These will help robot designers grasp how various factors of robotic products may be adopted in the everyday lives of people. Keywords: Robotic Products Design, HRI Evaluation, User-Centered HRI.</p

The Usage and Evaluation of Anthropomorphic Form in Robot Design

There are numerous examples illustrating the application of human shape in everyday products. Usage of anthropomorphic form has long been a basic design strategy, particularly in the design of intelligent service robots. As such, it is desirable to use anthropomorphic form not only in aesthetic design but also in interaction design. Proceeding from how anthropomorphism in various domains has taken effect on human perception, we assumed that anthropomorphic form used in appearance and interaction design of robots enriches the explanation of its function and creates familiarity with robots. From many cases we have found, misused anthropomorphic form lead to user disappointment or negative impressions on the robot. In order to effectively use anthropomorphic form, it is necessary to measure the similarity of an artifact to the human form (humanness), and then evaluate whether the usage of anthropomorphic form fits the artifact. The goal of this study is to propose a general evaluation framework of anthropomorphic form for robot design. We suggest three major steps for framing the evaluation: 'measuring anthropomorphic form in appearance', 'measuring anthropomorphic form in Human-Robot Interaction', and 'evaluation of accordance of two former measurements'. This evaluation process will endow a robot an amount of humanness in their appearance equivalent to an amount of humanness in interaction ability, and then ultimately facilitate user satisfaction. Keywords: Anthropomorphic Form; Anthropomorphism; Human-Robot Interaction; Humanness; Robot Design</p

MOOKKOORI

Mookkoori is a 20-minute narrative film written and directed by Myungsuk Kim. The film was completed and shown in May 2014 at the RIT School of Film and Animation\u27s Spring Screenings. The film\u27s main character is Bora, who is the teenage daughter of a shaman in Korea. She is betrayed by Sunhee, her only friend in high school and she is being bullied and threatened by a gang. Bora\u27s mother, who reveals herself to be quack shaman, blames Bora for getting involved in fighting. Fearing for her future, Bora reads her fortune at a shrine and sees three different ways to react to the bullies, each path has a different conclusion. All of the paths lead to someone dying. Mookkoori reveals how Bora deals with the betrayal of her only friend, and how she reacts to a gang of bullies. In the film Bora discovers she has a gift of seeing the future and she decides to take control of her destiny. This paper discusses the intention and original concept of the film, as well as the processes for producing the film from pre-production to post production

Systems Genetic Analysis of Atherosclerosis and Gut Microbiota

Atherosclerosis is a precipitating event in the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The progression of the disease is prevalent in developed countries and there are currently limited options for prevention and treatment interventions. Recent studies report that liver transcriptome and gut microbiota contributes to the pathogenesis of CVD, including metabolic syndrome. While host genetic variants are known factors that affect atherosclerosis development, liver transcriptome, and gut microbiota composition, the mechanisms underlying genetic variations are not yet clear. Here, we interrogated atherosclerosis regulatory networks in hyperlipidemic Diversity Outbred (DO) mice to reveal key insights into control of atherosclerosis using system genetic approaches of cardiometabolic traits, liver transcriptome, and microbiome. Global hepatic gene expression analysis showed that both atherogenic diet and host genetics have profound effects on the liver transcriptome in eight DO founder strains. These also include identifying sex-specific cardiometabolic traits, liver genetic pathways and networks, and abundance of fecal microbial taxa associated with atherosclerotic traits, defining the functionality of genes associated with the atherosclerotic traits and gut microbiota, and finding signatures of functional gene variants predicted to modulate those traits in the hyperlipidemic DO mice. Collectively, this study provides a rich resource for investigating the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and suggests an opportunity to discover therapeutics and biomarkers in the setting of hyperlipidemia

Lemon Balm and Its Constituent, Rosmarinic Acid, Alleviate Liver Damage in an Animal Model of Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) ranges in severity from hepatic steatosis to cirrhosis. Lemon balm and its major constituent, rosmarinic acid (RA), effectively improve the liver injury and obesity; however, their therapeutic effects on nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of RA and a lemon balm extract (LBE) on NAFLD and liver fibrosis and elucidated their mechanisms. Palmitic acid (PA)-exposed HepG2 cells and db/db mice fed a methionine- and choline-deficient (MCD) diet were utilized to exhibit symptoms of human NASH. LBE and RA treatments alleviated the oxidative stress by increasing antioxidant enzymes and modulated lipid metabolism-related gene expression by the activation of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in vitro and in vivo. LBE and RA treatments inhibited the expression of genes involved in hepatic fibrosis and inflammation in vitro and in vivo. Together, LBE and RA could improve liver damage by non-alcoholic lipid accumulation and may be promising medications to treat NASH

Improving I/O Performance of Large-Page Flash Storage Systems Using Subpage-Parallel Reads

Handling small read requests is important on large-page flash storage systems because small reads tend to waste the read bandwidth. We present a system level solution that avoids wasting the read bandwidth based on a new page read operation, called the subpage-parallel read (SPREAD). SPREAD achieves an optimal latency for a small read request by reading requested subpages only. By improving the read performance of applications as well as garbage collection, SPREAD improves the overall I/O performance. Experimental results show that an SPREAD-aware FTL can improve the IOPS and read latency by up to 122% and 56%, respectively.N