Trunk Robot for Extended Environments

We describe the design and physical realization of a novel type of large-scale continuum robot. The design, based on a hybrid concentric-tube/tendon actuated structure, is realized at a significantly larger scale than previous concentric tube continuum robots, with an extended length well over one meter. While operation at this scale opens up new types of potential applications, realization at this scale presents interesting challenges. We detail and discuss the associated issues via the prototyping and testing of the physical system with the help of experiments

Locally Adaptive Block Thresholding Method with Continuity Constraint

We present an algorithm that enables one to perform locally adaptive block thresholding, while maintaining image continuity. Images are divided into sub-images based some standard image attributes and thresholding technique is employed over the sub-images. The present algorithm makes use of the thresholds of neighboring sub-images to calculate a range of values. The image continuity is taken care by choosing the threshold of the sub-image under consideration to lie within the above range. After examining the average range values for various sub-image sizes of a variety of images, it was found that the range of acceptable threshold values is substantially high, justifying our assumption of exploiting the freedom of range for bringing out local details.Comment: 12 Pages, 4 figures, 1 Tabl

Migrant Adolescent Girls in Urban Slums India: Aspirations, Opportunities and Challenges

Migrant adolescent girls in India’s fast-growing urban-slum population face multiple intersecting vulnerabilities, including gender, poverty and migrant-status. The study aims to understand the opportunities and challenges for migrant adolescent girls in low-income urban slum settings. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with girls aged 12-19 who migrated during the past two years and non-migrant adolescent girls for comparison to explore their experiences in fast-growing Indore. A groupinterview with slum women’s group members discussedways to address challenges. Push/pull factors linked with different employment/educational opportunities between rural and urban areas motivated families of unmarried girls to migrate. Recently married girls joined city-based families or accompanied husbands who were labor migrants. Neither married nor unmarried girls played decision-making roles in migration. Married migrant adolescent girls faced challenges in accessing education, employment, social opportunities and services owing to restrictions on freedom of movement, weak social networks, and little awareness of opportunities and services. Childbearing migrant girls faced particular risks. Contact with their natal families being limited, the quality of relationship with husbands and marital families was crucial for married girls’well-being. Unmarried girls attending schools were positive about the migration experience, perceiving the city to offer greater educational opportunities. Through school, they accessed opportunities for new relationships and social activities. Not all unmarried adolescent-girls wereable to access opportunities owing to family restrictions and economic circumstances. These girls’ worlds remained small despite moving to a large city. Where girls’ economic and/or family and social circumstances allowed, migration entailed a positive change that enhanced their opportunities. Specific challenges of this population segment need focus in policies and programs, prioritizing three particularly vulnerable groups: girls who are neither in education nor employment, pregnant girls or new mothers, and those with difficult relationships in marital homes. Proactive outreach to raise awareness about opportunities and services and fostering social networks through front-line workers and slum women’s groups are recommended

Examining the role of Duration of illness on the level of mental disability in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Recent literature considers duration of illness (DI) and duration of untreatedillness (DUI) as important factors influencing outcome in many psychiatric conditions. The aimof the present article is to analyze the relationship between DI and DUI, and pharmacologicalresponse in the different psychiatric disorders with particular emphasis on neurodegenerativeaspects. An updated review of the current literature was conducted through PubMed in orderto compare different studies focused on DI and DUI, and treatment response in major psychosesand in depressive/anxiety disorders. A significant body of evidence shows that a prolongedDI and DUI is associated with brain abnormalities and poor treatment response, particularly inschizophrenia. Nevertheless, an increasing number of studies point toward a similar conclusionin mood and anxiety disorders as well, even though fewer studies have been published in thisfield. The present study was undertaken to assess and compare the disability in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) using Indian Disability Evaluation Assessment Scale (IDEAS). Results indicated Significant disabilityin work and global score was seen in patients of obsessive-compulsive disorder with duration of illness >5 yr. it was concluded that these illnesses affect all areas of daily functioning leading to greaterdisability, and thus increasing the burden on the family, pose greater challenge for therehabilitation of patients and their inclusion in the mainstream of the family and society. Furtherstudies on a larger sample need to be done to confirm the finding. Keywords: obsessive-compulsive disorder, Indian Disability Evaluation Assessment Scale, duration of illness, disability

Discovering User-Interpretable Capabilities of Black-Box Planning Agents

Several approaches have been developed for answering users' specific questions about AI behavior and for assessing their core functionality in terms of primitive executable actions. However, the problem of summarizing an AI agent's broad capabilities for a user is comparatively new. This paper presents an algorithm for discovering from scratch the suite of high-level "capabilities" that an AI system with arbitrary internal planning algorithms/policies can perform. It computes conditions describing the applicability and effects of these capabilities in user-interpretable terms. Starting from a set of user-interpretable state properties, an AI agent, and a simulator that the agent can interact with, our algorithm returns a set of high-level capabilities with their parameterized descriptions. Empirical evaluation on several game-based scenarios shows that this approach efficiently learns descriptions of various types of AI agents in deterministic, fully observable settings. User studies show that such descriptions are easier to understand and reason with than the agent's primitive actions.Comment: KR 202