Digital Twin for Emergency Traffic Management

69A3551747111The goals of this project include building Digital Twin city models, implementing real-time traffic overlays, and rendering mobility scenarios in extreme conditions. We have built digital twin models of downtown Pittsburgh, the UPMC STAT MedEvac helicopter launchpad, and the EMS commanding center. These models were based on 3D scanning of real-world scenes and rendered in Unity (a cross-platform computer game engine) and C++ environments. We have overlaid ambulance routing sample data on Digital Twins via the MQTT protocol, and we have tested it on our 3D visualization platform. We tested the helicopter launchpad model with normal pre-flight checklist procedures, and in extreme situations such as escaping fire incidents and deploying the fire-extinguishing-cannon. Small affordable IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) based 6-DOF sensor modules attached to the user\u2019s foot are used to implement realistic gait detection and avatar motion in the VR simulator

One-Dimensional Haptic Rendering Using Audio Speaker with Displacement Determined by Inductance

We report overall design considerations and preliminary results for a new haptic rendering device based on an audio loudspeaker. Our application models tissue properties during microsurgery. For example, the device could respond to the tip of a tool by simulating a particular tissue, displaying a desired compressibility and viscosity, giving way as the tissue is disrupted, or exhibiting independent motion, such as that caused by pulsations in blood pressure. Although limited to one degree of freedom and with a relatively small range of displacement compared to other available haptic rendering devices, our design exhibits high bandwidth, low friction, low hysteresis, and low mass. These features are consistent with modeling interactions with delicate tissues during microsurgery. In addition, our haptic rendering device is designed to be simple and inexpensive to manufacture, in part through an innovative method of measuring displacement by existing variations in the speaker’s inductance as the voice coil moves over the permanent magnet. Low latency and jitter are achieved by running the real-time simulation models on a dedicated microprocessor, while maintaining bidirectional communication with a standard laptop computer for user controls and data logging

Fasting and High-Fat Diet Alter Histone Deacetylase Expression in the Medial Hypothalamus

Increasing attention is now being given to the epigenetic regulation of animal and human behaviors including the stress response and drug addiction. Epigenetic factors also influence feeding behavior and metabolic phenotypes, such as obesity and insulin sensitivity. In response to fasting and high-fat diets, the medial hypothalamus changes the expression of neuropeptides regulating feeding, metabolism, and reproductive behaviors. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are involved in the epigenetic control of gene expression and alter behavior in response to a variety of environmental factors. Here, we examined the expression of HDAC family members in the medial hypothalamus of mice in response to either fasting or a high-fat diet. In response to fasting, HDAC3 and −4 expression levels increased while HDAC10 and −11 levels decreased. Four weeks on a high-fat diet resulted in the increased expression of HDAC5 and −8. Moreover, fasting decreased the number of acetylated histone H3- and acetylated histone H4-positive cells in the ventrolateral subdivision of the ventromedial hypothalamus. Therefore, HDACs may be implicated in altered gene expression profiles in the medial hypothalamus under different metabolic states

Characterization of a Drosophila Alzheimer's Disease Model: Pharmacological Rescue of Cognitive Defects

Transgenic models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have made significant contributions to our understanding of AD pathogenesis, and are useful tools in the development of potential therapeutics. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, provides a genetically tractable, powerful system to study the biochemical, genetic, environmental, and behavioral aspects of complex human diseases, including AD. In an effort to model AD, we over-expressed human APP and BACE genes in the Drosophila central nervous system. Biochemical, neuroanatomical, and behavioral analyses indicate that these flies exhibit aspects of clinical AD neuropathology and symptomology. These include the generation of Aβ40 and Aβ42, the presence of amyloid aggregates, dramatic neuroanatomical changes, defects in motor reflex behavior, and defects in memory. In addition, these flies exhibit external morphological abnormalities. Treatment with a γ-secretase inhibitor suppressed these phenotypes. Further, all of these phenotypes are present within the first few days of adult fly life. Taken together these data demonstrate that this transgenic AD model can serve as a powerful tool for the identification of AD therapeutic interventions

A Questionnaire on Materialisms

Recent philosophical tendencies of “Actor-Network Theory,” “Object-Oriented Ontology,” and “Speculative Realism” have profoundly challenged the centrality of subjectivity in the humanities, and many artists and curators, particularly in the UK, Germany, and the United States, appear deeply influenced by this shift from epistemology to ontology. October editors asked artists, historians, and philosophers invested in these projects—from Graham Harman and Alexander R. Galloway to Armen Avanessian and Patricia Falguières to Ed Atkins and Amie Siegel—to explore what the rewards and risks of assigning agency to objects may be, and how, or if, such new materialisms can be productive for making and thinking about art today