Contact identification for assembly-disassembly simulation with a haptic device

Assembly/Disassembly (A/D) simulations using haptic devices are facing difficulties while simulating insertion/extraction operations such as removing cylinders from holes. In order to address this configuration as well as others, an approach based on contact identification between components is presented in this paper. This approach can efficiently contribute either to a new A/D simulation preparation process relying on two types of shape representations (mesh and CAD NURBS models), or directly to the real time simulation process when it is performed with 6D haptic devices. The model processing pipeline is described and illustrated to show how information can be propagated and used for contact detection. Then, the contact identification process is introduced and illustrated through an exampl

OPTIMIZING SPORTS PERFORMANCE THROUGH MENTAL TOUGHNESS: PILOT STUDY

Background. Mental toughness is one of the most important and well-known psychological constructs in sports and beyond. Researchers in the field, argue that the development of mental toughness is based on both the influences of the environment in which the person operates and the learning and training processes that it went through them. “Gold Medal - Metal Training” it’s a program for developing mental toughness and it’s based on the work of several psychologists and coaches from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. Aims. The aim of the present study was to verify the 4 essential aspects (process, resources, management and scientific) of the intervention program. Methods. The sample of this study consisted of N = 16 participants (31.8% male and 68.8% female), from a diverse range of sports (Judo, Hockey, Basketball, Triathlon, Dance, Athletics). Of these, 8 are performance athletes, and 8 are amateurs. Their age ranged from 19 to 44 years with a mean of M = 25.81 (SD = 7.70). Self-reports were obtained from all athletes regarding their mental toughness (Mental toughness Inventory) and the feasibility of the intervention program through a questionnaire in accordance with the objectives of the study. Results. Regarding the difference between statistical test indicate significant difference for item 2, item 3 and item 9. For the difference between the level of physical activity statistical test indicate significant difference for item 2. The results obtained in the ANOVA analysis with repeated measurements F (1, 15) = 8.257 (p = 0.012, MSE = 5.181, η² = 0.355) the F test is statistically significant despite the small sample size because the value of Eta (η²) far exceeds the threshold (> 0.14) in terms of a large effect. Conclusions. According to the results, the study is feasible with slight changes related to the implementation and organization of the process, so the coordinator must be more active in collaborating with subjects and provide them with information and suggestions more often. REZUMAT. Optimizarea performanței sportive prin intermediul conceptului Mental Toughness: studiu pilot. Introducere. Mental toughness (MT) este unul dintre cele mai importante și bine cunoscute constructe psihologice în sport și nu numai. Cercetătorii din domeniu susțin că dezvoltarea Mental toughness se bazează atât pe influențele mediului în care acționează persoana respectivă, cât și pe procesele de învățare și formare pe care le-a parcurs. „Medalia de aur – antrenament mental” este un program pentru dezvoltarea Mental toughness și se bazează pe munca mai multor psihologi și antrenori din Europa de Est și Scandinavia. Obiective. Scopul acestei lucrări a fost de a verifica cele 4 aspecte esențiale (proces, resurse, management și științific) ale programului de intervenție. Metode. Eșantionul acestui studiu a fost format din N = 16 participanți (31,8% bărbați și 68,8% femei), dintr-o gamă variată de sporturi (judo, hochei, baschet, triatlon, dans, atletism). Dintre aceștia, 8 sunt sportivi de performanță, iar 8 sunt amatori. Vârsta acestora a variat între 19 și 44 de ani, cu o medie de M = 25,81 (SD = 7,70). Aceștia au completat 2 chestionare, primul cu scopul de a măsura nivelul Mental toughness (Inventarul Mental toughness), iar al doi-lea fiind un chestionar care viza fezabilitatea programului de intervenție în conformitate cu obiectivele studiului. Rezultate. În ceea ce privește genul subiecților testul statistic a arătat diferențe semnificative pentru itemul 2, itemul 3 și itemul 9. Pentru diferența dintre nivelul de practicare a activității fizice testul statistic indicați diferența semnificativă pentru itemul 2. Pe baza rezultatelor obținute în cadrul analizei ANOVA cu măsurători repetate F (1 , 15) = 8,257 (p = 0,012, MSE = 5,181, η² = 0,355) testul F este semnificativ statistic în ciuda dimensiunii reduse a eșantionului, deoarece valoarea Eta (η²) depășește cu mult pragul (> 0,14) în ceea ce privește un efect mare. Concluzii. Conform rezultatelor, studiul este fezabil cu modificări ușoare legate de implementarea și organizarea procesului, astfel încât coordonatorul trebuie să fie mai activ în colaborarea cu subiecții și să le ofere informații și sugestii mai des. Cuvinte cheie: Mental toughness, program Mental toughness, performanță sportivă, studiu pilot, Medalia de aur – antrenament mental, Inventarul Mental toughness

The Impact of Undergraduate Mentorship on Student Satisfaction and Engagement, Teamwork Performance, and Team Dysfunction in a Software Engineering Group Project

Mentorship schemes in software engineering education usually involve professional software engineers guiding and advising teams of undergraduate students working collaboratively to develop a software system. With or without mentorship, teams run the risk of experiencing team dysfunction: a situation where lack of engagement, internal conflicts, and/or poor team management lead to different assessment outcomes for individual team members and overall frustration and dissatisfaction within the team. The paper describes a mentorship scheme devised as part of a 33 week software engineering group project course, where the mentors were undergraduate students who had recently completed the course successfully and possessed at least a year’s experience as professional software engineers. We measure and discuss the impact the scheme had on: (1) student satisfaction and engagement, (2) team performance, and (3) team dysfunction

Modélisation des trajectoires d'assemblage et de désassemblage associées aux liaisons fonctionnelles de produits

La modélisation des opérations de désassemblage fait intervenir de multiples données (géométriques, cinématiques, technologiques, ...) et nécessite de passer par une étape d'analyse des liaisons cinématiques entre composants au cours des différentes étapes de montage/démontage. Dans ce contexte, le but principal abordé ici est le développement d'un nouveau modèle capable de représenter tous les déplacements autorisés pour chaque couple de surfaces d'une liaison mécanique. Les différentes combinaisons possibles des contacts élémentaires sont étudiées afin de proposer un modèle général. Cette modèle est utilisé pour la simulation des opérations cinématiques nécessaires à l'assemblage et au désassemblage des produits lors du processus de production, des opérations de maintenance et en fin de cycle de vie. Un outil informatique, opérationnel sur OPEN CASCADE, est également proposé et présenté permettant de capter le type des contacts entre deux composants d'un ensemble mécanique

Introducing e-health technology to routine cataract care:patient perspectives on web-based eye test for postoperative telemonitoring

Purpose:To explore cataract patients' experiences with an e-health tool for self-assessing visual function (ie, a web-based eye test), and to formulate recommendations for its successful adoption in routine cataract care.Setting:Clinics in the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria.Design:Mixed-methods study.Methods:22 participants were included in this study; in-depth interviews were conducted with 12. Questionnaires and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted alongside a multicenter randomized controlled trial evaluating the validity, safety and cost-effectiveness of remote care after cataract surgery (Cataract Online Refraction Evaluation, a Randomized Controlled Trial). Results were analyzed thematically.Results:Participants reported positively about performing the web-based eye test at home. 4 overarching themes were identified in the interviews. First, participants were inventive in overcoming practical barriers encountered while conducting the test. Second, participants desired a clear presentation of test results and their meaning. Third, the ability to self-monitor visual function was appreciated. Fourth, most participants preferred to keep the option to contact their eyecare professional (ECP) postoperatively, especially when experiencing symptoms. Most would be satisfied with a phone consultation or an e-consult. Participants reported positive experiences with the web-based eye test. Barriers for successful adoption were identified, including insecurity about correctly performing the test, incomplete information on how to interpret test results, and a feeling that in-hospital assessments were superior to remote assessments.Conclusions:It is recommended to focus on building trust in remote eyecare delivery and that access to the ECP be retained when medically indicated or deemed necessary by the patient.</p

Privacy in Multimodal Federated Human Activity Recognition

Human Activity Recognition (HAR) training data is often privacy-sensitive or held by non-cooperative entities. Federated Learning (FL) addresses such concerns by training ML models on edge clients. This work studies the impact of privacy in federated HAR at a user, environment, and sensor level. We show that the performance of FL for HAR depends on the assumed privacy level of the FL system and primarily upon the colocation of data from different sensors. By avoiding data sharing and assuming privacy at the human or environment level, as prior works have done, the accuracy decreases by 5-7%. However, extending this to the modality level and strictly separating sensor data between multiple clients may decrease the accuracy by 19-42%. As this form of privacy is necessary for the ethical utilisation of passive sensing methods in HAR, we implement a system where clients mutually train both a general FL model and a group-level one per modality. Our evaluation shows that this method leads to only a 7-13% decrease in accuracy, making it possible to build HAR systems with diverse hardware.Comment: In 3rd On-Device Intelligence Workshop at MLSys 2023, 8 page

Hepatic arterial variations detected at multidetector computer tomography angiography in the Romanian population

Background: Our purpose was to determine the prevalence of normal hepatic vascularization and variations of the hepatic arteries using multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) angiography. These variants should be known before any surgery of the upper abdomen, the downside being that there aren't many studies on large groups of patients using high-specialized imaging. Materials and methods: This study was carried out on 4192 patients. We performed MDCT angiography on each one of the patients and had a specialized team observe the images. Results: Using Michels' classification, the normal anatomy (type I) was present in 3392 (80.91%) cases, while abnormal hepatic arteries were observed in 800 (19.08%) cases. The variations were distributed as follows: type II in 40 (0.95%) cases, type III in 442 (10.54%) cases, type IV in 13 (0.31%) cases, type V in 285 (6.79%) cases, type VI in 12 (0.28%) cases, type VII in 3 (0.07%) cases, type VIII in 108 (2.57%) cases, type IX in 6 (0.14%) cases and type X in one case (0.02%). 170 (4.05%) unclassified cases were observed. Using Hiatt’s classification, the variations were: type II in 325 (7.75%) cases, type III in 454 (10.83%) cases, type IV in 124 (2.95%) cases, type V in 6 cases (0.14%) and type VI in 69 (1.64%) cases. 102 (2.43%) unclassified cases were observed. Conclusions: We observed well-known variations of the hepatic arterial pattern and also found a large number of rare, unclassified cases

Introducing e-health technology to routine cataract care: patient perspectives on web-based eye test for postoperative telemonitoring

PURPOSE: To explore cataract patients' experiences with an e-health tool for self-assessing visual function (ie, a web-based eye test), and to formulate recommendations for its successful adoption in routine cataract care. SETTING: Clinics in the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria. DESIGN: Mixed-methods study. METHODS: 22 participants were included in this study; in-depth interviews were conducted with 12. Questionnaires and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted alongside a multicenter randomized controlled trial evaluating the validity, safety and cost-effectiveness of remote care after cataract surgery (Cataract Online Refraction Evaluation, a Randomized Controlled Trial). Results were analyzed thematically. RESULTS: Participants reported positively about performing the web-based eye test at home. 4 overarching themes were identified in the interviews. First, participants were inventive in overcoming practical barriers encountered while conducting the test. Second, participants desired a clear presentation of test results and their meaning. Third, the ability to self-monitor visual function was appreciated. Fourth, most participants preferred to keep the option to contact their eyecare professional (ECP) postoperatively, especially when experiencing symptoms. Most would be satisfied with a phone consultation or an e-consult. Participants reported positive experiences with the web-based eye test. Barriers for successful adoption were identified, including insecurity about correctly performing the test, incomplete information on how to interpret test results, and a feeling that in-hospital assessments were superior to remote assessments. CONCLUSIONS: It is recommended to focus on building trust in remote eyecare delivery and that access to the ECP be retained when medically indicated or deemed necessary by the patient

Mediastinal Lymphadenopathy, Class-Switched Auto-Antibodies and Myocardial Immune-Complexes During Heart Failure in Rodents and Humans.

Mediastinal lymphadenopathy and auto-antibodies are clinical phenomena during ischemic heart failure pointing to an autoimmune response against the heart. T and B cells have been convincingly demonstrated to be activated after myocardial infarction, a prerequisite for the generation of mature auto-antibodies. Yet, little is known about the immunoglobulin isotype repertoire thus pathological potential of anti-heart auto-antibodies during heart failure. We obtained human myocardial tissue from ischemic heart failure patients and induced experimental MI in rats. We found that anti-heart autoimmunity persists during heart failure. Rat mediastinal lymph nodes are enlarged and contain active secondary follicles with mature isotype-switched IgG2a B cells. Mature IgG2a auto-antibodies specific for cardiac antigens are present in rat heart failure serum, and IgG and complement C3 deposits are evident in heart failure tissue of both rats and human patients. Previously established myocardial inflammation, and the herein provided proof of B cell maturation in lymph nodes and myocardial deposition of mature auto-antibodies, provide all the hallmark signs of an established autoimmune response in chronic heart failure