Bio-inspired swing leg control for spring-mass robots running on ground with unexpected height disturbance

We proposed three swing leg control policies for spring-mass running robots, inspired by experimental data from our recent collaborative work on ground running birds. Previous investigations suggest that animals may prioritize injury avoidance and/or efficiency as their objective function during running rather than maintaining limit-cycle stability. Therefore, in this study we targeted structural capacity (maximum leg force to avoid damage) and efficiency as the main goals for our control policies, since these objective functions are crucial to reduce motor size and structure weight. Each proposed policy controls the leg angle as a function of time during flight phase such that its objective function during the subsequent stance phase is regulated. The three objective functions that are regulated in the control policies are (i) the leg peak force, (ii) the axial impulse, and (iii) the leg actuator work. It should be noted that each control policy regulates one single objective function. Surprisingly, all three swing leg control policies result in nearly identical subsequent stance phase dynamics. This implies that the implementation of any of the proposed control policies would satisfy both goals (damage avoidance and efficiency) at once. Furthermore, all three control policies require a surprisingly simple leg angle adjustment: leg retraction with constant angular acceleration

Mechanisms of Direct Reprogramming of Human Astrocytes To Induced-Neurons

Trans-differentiation of cells into induced-neurons is a promising strategy for CNS repair after acute injury or neurodegenerative diseases. Astrocytes are an ideal cell source for direct neuronal conversion. The purpose of the present study is the investigation of the neuronal reprogramming capacity of Cend1 and/or Neurog2, upon their overexpression on primary human adult cortical astrocytes. The newborn induced-neurons were studied for their morphology and molecular phenotype at specific time points after transgene overexpression. The astrocytes are reprogrammed by either CEND1 or NEUROG2 directly to cells with differentiated neuronal morphology, exhibiting long neurites and branched processes. Induced neurons exhibit either GABAergic (CEND1 overexpression) or Glutamatergic/dopaminergic (NEUROG2 overexpression) molecular phenotype. Exploration of gene expression dynamics along the entire conversion process revealed that neuronal genes are significantly up-regulated while astrocytic genes are down-regulated. On the other hand, in double-trasnsduced cultures, the levels of relative expression of neural progenitor/stem genes are high and this comes in accordance with the appearance of highly proliferative spheres with neural progenitor cell (NPC) properties in culture.Trans-differentiation of cells into induced-neurons is a promising strategy for CNS repair after acute injury or neurodegenerative diseases. Astrocytes are an ideal cell source for direct neuronal conversion. The purpose of the present study is the investigation of the neuronal reprogramming capacity of Cend1 and/or Neurog2, upon their overexpression on primary human adult cortical astrocytes. The newborn induced-neurons were studied for their morphology and molecular phenotype at specific time points after transgene overexpression. The astrocytes are reprogrammed by either CEND1 or NEUROG2 directly to cells with differentiated neuronal morphology, exhibiting long neurites and branched processes. Induced neurons exhibit either GABAergic (CEND1 overexpression) or Glutamatergic/dopaminergic (NEUROG2 overexpression) molecular phenotype. Exploration of gene expression dynamics along the entire conversion process revealed that neuronal genes are significantly up-regulated while astrocytic genes are down-regulated. On the other hand, in double-trasnsduced cultures, the levels of relative expression of neural progenitor/stem genes are high and this comes in accordance with the appearance of highly proliferative spheres with neural progenitor cell (NPC) properties in culture

Particle-identification capability of the straw tube tracker and feasibility studies for the charmed-baryon program with PANDA

PANDA zal een van de belangrijkste experimenten zijn bij de toekomstige Faciliteit voor Antiproton en Ion Onderzoek (FAIR), welke in aanbouw is in Darmstadt, Duitsland. Het PANDA experiment zal botsingen onderzoeken tussen een straal van antiprotonen en een gefixeerd proton of nucleair doelwit. PANDA heeft een unieke opstelling vergeleken met andere natuurkunde experimenten en zal een unieke toegang geven tot verschillende natuurkunde onderwerpen. De verwachting is dat het PANDA experiment zal voorzien in nieuwe resultaten die helpen de zware-baryon sector experimenteel in kaart te brengen. Het Λc baryon speelt een significante rol in het begrijpen van zowel charm als bottom baryonen. PANDA bestaat uit subdetectoren die geoptimaliseerde individuele taken hebben. Een van de belangrijke taken is de reconstructie van de afgelegde baan, die gebaseerd is op informatie verkregen van de baandetectoren. PANDA heeft vier belangrijke baandetectoren en een daarvan is de Straw Tube Tracker (STT), een cilindrische detector die bestaat uit met gas gevulde buizen. Dit proefschrift presenteert Monte Carlo (MC) -simulaties die zijn uitgevoerd om het vermogen van PANDA bij gecharmeerde baryonproductie te onderzoeken. Daarnaast worden de resultaten gepresenteerd van tests die zijn uitgevoerd met een prototype STT-detector onderzoek ook de elektronische uitlezing en tracking en PID-prestaties om eindelijk een beslissing te nemen om de PANDA STT-detector te lezen

The Trend of Hydatidosis in Kermanshah Province, Western Iran (1986–2008)

Background: Hydatidosis is the larval stage of the Echinococcus granulosus. This disease is en­demic in Iran. There are many studies about hydatidosis in different regions of the country, but there is not any information about the disease in Kermanshah Province. This article will review all available data about hydatidosis in this province.Methods: Using web based search engines and a survey on medical student's theses, all the informa­tion about hydatid cysts in the province from 1986 -2008 was collected.Results: During these twenty years, at least 482 proven cases of hydatid cyst have been identified in the province. Accordingly, the trend of hydatid cyst operation in the province has been grow­ing and the average annual number of cases has reached 1.41/100,000. Frequency of disease in urban areas was slightly higher than rural areas and the rate of infection in housewives was more than others.Conclusion: Because of the growing trend of hydatid cyst operation in Kermanshah Province, which may be due to many different reasons, this province should be considered as one of the impor­tant endemic regions of hydatidosis in Iran

Induced demand: A challenge on the way of Iran Health Revolution Program

By comparing indefinite demand and definite resources during the time, induced demand leads to an increase in the share of people in health costs. This may turn into a critical challenge in health system if not managed appropriately. The aim of the current study is to explain the different dimensions of influential factors in induced demand. In addition, changes in induced demand from the beginning of its implementation in the health program are studies as well. This study was carried out through semi-structured interviews with the managers of health care system in Isfahan Province, Iran, which offer health service in three levels: first, second, and third. After the implementation of seven packages of Health Revolution Program, four fundamental concepts of influential fundamental and social factors in induced demand, the organizational structure, and interested parties were studied in 2015. Our findings show that the health Revolution Program has caused an increase in induced demand through social factors (incremental demand, physician-centered system), fundamental factors (lost influence of Referral and Family Physician Programs),the organizational structure(weakness in the educational system, ignoring medicine ethics, lack of regulatory programs), and interested parties (suppliers and receivers). Induced demand increases the affordable costs index. This, in turn, influences the positive acquired results of the program and decreases effective allocation of national resources. This can be managed using such strategies as improving managers' insight about supporting induced demand control, appropriate planning in health care system, correcting the educational system in the field of health care, correcting the payment and referral systems

Design of agile signal conditioning circuits for microelectromechanical sensors

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are used in many applications to detect physical parameters and convert them to an electrical signal. The output of MEMS-based transducers is usually not suitable to be directly processed in the digital or the analog domain, and they could be as small as femto farads in capacitive sensing and micro volts in resistive sensing. Consequently, high sensitivity signal conditioning circuits are essential. In this thesis, it is shown that both the noise and input capacitance are important parameters to ensure optimal capacitive sensing. The dominant noise source in MEMS conditioning circuits is flicker noise, and one of the best methods to mitigate flicker noise is the chopping technique. Three different chopping techniques are considered: single chopper amplifier (SCA), dual chopper amplifier (DCA), and two-stage single chopper amplifier (TCA). Also, their sensitivity and power consumption based on the total gain and sensing capacitance are extracted. It is shown that the distribution of gain between the two stages in the DCA and TCA has a significant effect on the sensitivity, and, based on this distribution, the sensitivity and power consumption change significantly. For small sensor capacitances, the highest sensitivity could be achieved by a DCA because of its ability to decrease the noise floor and the input sensor capacitance simultaneously. A novel DCA is proposed to reach higher sensitivity and reduced power consumption. In this DCA, two supply voltages are utilized, and the second stage is composed of two parallel paths that improve the SNR and provide two gain settings. This circuit is fabricated in the GlobalFoundries 0.13 μm CMOS technology. The measurement results show a power consumption of 2.66 μW for the supply voltage of 0.7 V and of 3.26 μW for the supply voltage of 1.2 V. The single path DCA has a gain of 34 dB with bandwidth of 4 kHz and input noise floor of 25 nV/√Hz. The dual path DCA has a gain of 38 dB with bandwidth of 3 kHz and input noise floor of 40 nV/√Hz. To be able to detect the signal near DC frequencies, another circuit is proposed which has a configurable bandwidth and a sub-μHz noise corner frequency. This circuit is composed of three stages, and three chopping frequencies are used to mitigate the flicker noise of the three stages. The simulated circuit is designed in the GlobalFoundries 0.13 μm CMOS technology with supply voltages of 0.4 V and 1.2 V. The total power consumption is of 6.7 μW. A gain of 68 dB and bandwidths of 1, 10, 100 and 1000 Hz are achieved. The input referred noise floor is of 20.5 nV/√Hz and the design attains a good power efficiency factor of 4.0. In the capacitive mode, the noise floor is of 3.6 zF for a 100 fF capacitance sensor

The status, purpose and style of the story telling (exemplum) in Shahnameh of Ferdowsi

Abstract Most poets and writers in Iranian culture have used a lot of "exemplum" as a rhetorical element, because exemplum regardless that to be based on a famous story or habit or to be simply a wise, well-meaning and well-worded sentence has great persuasive power. Hakim Abolqasem Ferdowsi, like other poets, expresses the exemplum inShahnameh in various occasions by awareness of a persuasive power that lies in a variety of exemplums, and he interprets it as "storytelling". In this paper, the quality of these "storytelling" has been examined through descriptive-analytical method. To do this, we first have introduced different meanings of the word "storytelling" in Shahnameh, and then, based on the couplets that this word has been used in them in the meaning of the expression of the exemplum, we have tried to show that Ferdowsi often uses of this persuasive strategy at the time of hidden or obvious inconsistency or dissonance of events of the story, or the speech, or the act, or the verdict of the characters with the vote of the exemplum and rhetorical speaker, and in most cases, the appearance of the exemplum is for this reason that a word, an event, an adventure, a decision, a condition or an opinion, a belief and the behavior way that is not acceptable to be changed, and its speaker identifies that if he sees fit, to be expressed in the form of an exemplum which is the result of collective wisdom of predecessors, will have a greater impact.  Ferdowsi also pursues various purposes such as punishment, annulment, reverence; strengthen the spirit, and weakening the spirit of narrating these exemplums.  Although the most of storytelling in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh is accompanied by the announcement of the speaker, and he states, aside from the exemplum, there are examples in which they narrating the exemplum is done without news. There are other examples that the wise word is quoted from the wise human and is the basis for decision making and practice. This wise word is in fact the same exemplum, and in terms of content and status of appearance, has no difference with the words that have been referred to as their being sample, and the only difference is that there is no mention of the phrase "storytelling" .  The present paper, these mentioned results have been obtained by examining the story telling technique in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh; the results that have no history in the field of rhetorical researches of Shahnameh, and can be effective in identifying the art of this famous poet and the his poetry style