A data science approach for quantifying spatio-temporal effects to graft failures in organ transplantation

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via the DOI in tis recordThe transplantation of solid organs is one of the most important accomplishments of modern medicine. Yet, organ shortage is a major public health issue; 8,000 people died while waiting for an organ in 2014. Meanwhile, the allocation system currently implemented can lead to organs being discarded and the medical community still investigates factors that affects early graft failure such as distance and ischemic time. In this paper, we investigate early graft failure under a spatio-temporal perspective using a data science unified approach for all six organs that is based on complementary cumulative analysis of both distance and ischemic time. Interestingly, although distance seems to highly affect some organs (e.g. liver), it appears to have no effect on others (e.g. kidney). Similarly, the results on ischemic time confirm it affects early graft failure with higher influence for some organs such as (e.g. heart) and lower influence for others such as (e.g. kidney). This poses the question whether the allocation policies should be individually designed for each organ in order to account for their particularities as shown in this work

Cell delivery systems using alginate : carrageenan hydrogel beads and fibers for regenerative medicine applications

The present work was focused on the development and characterization of new hydrogel systems based on natural origin polymers, namely, alginate and carrageenan, into different formats and with adequate properties to sustain the viability of encapsulated cells, envisioning their application as cell delivery vehicles for tissue regeneration. Different formulations of alginate and carrageenan hydrogels and different processing parameters were considered to determine the best conditions required to achieve the most adequate response in terms of the mechanical stability, cell viability, and functionality of the developed systems. The morphology, size, and structure of the hydrogels and their degradation behavior and mechanical properties were evaluated during this study. In addition to cytotoxicity studies, preliminary experiments were carried out to investigate the ability of alginate−carrageenan beads/fibers to encapsulate chondrocytes. The results obtained indicated that the different formulations, both in the form of beads and fibers, have considerable potential as cell-carrier materials for cell delivery in tissue engineering/ regenerative medicine applications.European NoE EXPERTISSUES - NMP3-CT-2004-500283Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - SFRH/BD/64070/2009

A systematic review of attitudes, anxiety, acceptance, and trust towards social robots

As social robots become more common, there is a need to understand how people perceive and interact with such technology. This systematic review seeks to estimate people’s attitudes toward, trust in, anxiety associated with, and acceptance of social robots; as well as factors that are associated with these beliefs. Ninety-seven studies were identified with a combined sample of over 13,000 participants and a standardized score was computed for each in order to represent the valence (positive, negative, or neutral) and magnitude (on a scale from 1 to − 1) of people’s beliefs about robots. Potential moderating factors such as the robots’ domain of application and design, the type of exposure to the robot, and the characteristics of potential users were also investigated. The findings suggest that people generally have positive attitudes towards social robots and are willing to interact with them. This finding may challenge some of the existing doubt surrounding the adoption of robotics in social domains of application but more research is needed to fully understand the factors that influence attitudes

Domestic drones : context of use in research literature

Domestic robotic entities are on the rise, out of which, domestic drones are taking place in our society as one of the upcoming interactive technologies that we will see in our daily lives. In this paper, we scope for research literature that addresses the use of domestic drones within our environments to understand the current usage as well as identifying future research directions. After performing a search based collection of relevant papers in the ACM digital library (N=61 papers), we analysed the drone's application areas, their interaction modalities, the target users, and the level of autonomy of the proposed systems. The results show interesting trends in the modalities of interaction (visual projection combined with hand/foot gestures) as well as important research gaps such as child-drone interaction, and the use of drones for healthcare or education, given that currently most use cases for domestic drones are generic in nature

Teammitglied oder Werkzeug – Der Einfluss anthropomorpher Gestaltung in der Mensch-Roboter-Interaktion

Die direkte Zusammenarbeit von Robotern und Menschen gewinnt in privaten, kommerziellen und industriellen Lebensbereichen stetig an Bedeutung. Dabei findet diese Form der Interaktion kooperativ oder kollaborativ unter gemeinsamer Zielsetzung in unmittelbarer räumlicher und zeitlicher Nähe statt. Eine Möglichkeit, die Zusammenarbeit intuitiver und effektiver zu gestalten, bietet die Anwendung anthropomorpher Merkmale auf das Design des Roboters. Doch auch wenn eine anthropomorphe Gestaltung, im Sinne von Form, Kommunikation, Bewegung und Kontext, die Akzeptanz und Koordination fördern kann, bilden sich im Zuge von vermenschlichten Interaktionen neue Herausforderungen. Neben dem Phänomen des „Uncanny Valleys“ und der Problematik des erwartungskonformen Designs, erzeugt vor allem das Spannungsfeld zwischen Funktionalität und Anthropomorphismus eine zentrale Problematik. Dabei zeigt sich in der differenzierten Analyse, dass letztendlich der Kontext der Interaktion entscheidet, inwieweit Anthropomorphismus eingesetzt werden kann, ohne dabei die Zweckgebundenheit des Roboters zu konterkarieren