Mid-air haptic rendering of 2D geometric shapes with a dynamic tactile pointer

An important challenge that affects ultrasonic midair haptics, in contrast to physical touch, is that we lose certain exploratory procedures such as contour following. This makes the task of perceiving geometric properties and shape identification more difficult. Meanwhile, the growing interest in mid-air haptics and their application to various new areas requires an improved understanding of how we perceive specific haptic stimuli, such as icons and control dials in mid-air. We address this challenge by investigating static and dynamic methods of displaying 2D geometric shapes in mid-air. We display a circle, a square, and a triangle, in either a static or dynamic condition, using ultrasonic mid-air haptics. In the static condition, the shapes are presented as a full outline in mid-air, while in the dynamic condition, a tactile pointer is moved around the perimeter of the shapes. We measure participants’ accuracy and confidence of identifying shapes in two controlled experiments (n1 = 34, n2 = 25). Results reveal that in the dynamic condition people recognise shapes significantly more accurately, and with higher confidence. We also find that representing polygons as a set of individually drawn haptic strokes, with a short pause at the corners, drastically enhances shape recognition accuracy. Our research supports the design of mid-air haptic user interfaces in application scenarios such as in-car interactions or assistive technology in education

Patrones ecomorfológicos en insectos neotropicales: efectos de la fragmentacion en la morfologia de los organismos: variacion en los patrones de coloracion de abejas y avispas (insecta: hymenoptera) en un paisaje altamente fragmentado del Oeste de Paraná

Anais do VI Encontro de Iniciação Científica e II Encontro Anual de Iniciação ao Desenvolvimento Tecnológico e Inovação – EICTI 2017 - 04 a 06 de outubro de 2017 - temática Ciências BiológicasEl proceso de fragmentación forestal viene afectando negativamente las dinámicas de las poblaciones de insectos polinizadores, elementos críticos para la manutención de los servicios ecosistémicos en ambientes naturales y en paisajes agrícolas. La naturaleza adaptativa de los colores para la regulación de la temperatura del cuerpo de los insectos en diferentes condiciones ambientales es central en la biología de estos organismos, pero la explotación cuantitativa de la variación en los patrones de coloración de los insectos parece bastante aislada. Y considerando que en ambientes fragmentados hay, en muchos casos, una transición abrupta entre ambientes, es razonable suponer que las diferentes presiones encontradas en ambientes de interior de bosque, borde y matriz puedan llevar a patrones bastante distintos en la coloración de los organismos encontrados en áreas de bosque y de matrizUniversidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (Unila); Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq); Fundação Araucária; Parque Tecnológico Itaipu (PTI) e Companhia de Saneamento do Paraná (SANEPAR

Performance Evaluation of Inverted Tee (IT) Bridge System

The Inverted Tee (IT) girder bridge system was originally developed in 1996 by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) researchers and Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) engineers. This bridge system currently accounts for over 110 bridges in Nebraska used for both state highways and local county roads. Extensive longitudinal and transverse deck cracking have been observed and noted in numerous bridge inspection reports. Since the IT girder bridge system is relatively new, limited data and knowledge exist on its structural performance and behavior. This study evaluates the IT girder bridge system by conducting twenty field observations as well as recording accelerometer, strain gauge, and LVDT time histories and lidar scans for a selected subset of these bridges and then a three-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) was conducted. The field observations included visual inspection for damage and developing deck crack maps to identify a trend for the damage. System identification of the bridge deck and girders helped investigate the global and local structural responses, respectively. Operational modal analysis quantified the natural frequencies, damping ratios, and operational deflected shapes for the instrumented IT girder bridges. These results helped diagnose the reason for the longitudinal deck cracking. The IT girders respond non- uniformly for the first operational deflected shape and independently for higher modes. Two comparable bridges, namely one slab and one NU girder bridge, were instrumented to verify and demonstrate that the IT girder behavior is unique. An advanced geospatial analysis was conducted for the IT girder bridges to develop lidar depth maps of the deck and girders elevations. These depth maps help identify locations of potential water/chloride penetration and girders set at various elevations and/or where the deck thickness is non-uniform. Live load tests helped quantify the transverse dynamic behavior of the bridge girders. Quantifying the transverse dynamic behavior helped validate the source of longitudinal deck cracking in IT girder bridges, which was determined to be the differential deflection between adjacent IT girders. The FEA analysis was conducted to evaluate the live load moment and shear distribution factors and compare that to the predicted values calculated from the AASHTO Standard and LRFD bridge design specifications. The comparison indicated that the predicted distribution factors were conservative. Also, interviews with IT bridge producers and contractors were conducted to determine production and construction advantages and challenges of this bridge system

The development of models to predict melting and pyrolysis point data associated with several hundred thousand compounds mined from PATENTS

BACKGROUND: Melting point (MP) is an important property in regards to the solubility of chemical compounds. Its prediction from chemical structure remains a highly challenging task for quantitative structure-activity relationship studies. Success in this area of research critically depends on the availability of high quality MP data as well as accurate chemical structure representations in order to develop models. Currently, available datasets for MP predictions have been limited to around 50k molecules while lots more data are routinely generated following the synthesis of novel materials. Significant amounts of MP data are freely available within the patent literature and, if it were available in the appropriate form, could potentially be used to develop predictive models. RESULTS: We have developed a pipeline for the automated extraction and annotation of chemical data from published PATENTS. Almost 300,000 data points have been collected and used to develop models to predict melting and pyrolysis (decomposition) points using tools available on the OCHEM modeling platform (http://ochem.eu). A number of technical challenges were simultaneously solved to develop models based on these data. These included the handing of sparse data matrices with >200,000,000,000 entries and parallel calculations using 32 × 6 cores per task using 13 descriptor sets totaling more than 700,000 descriptors. We showed that models developed using data collected from PATENTS had similar or better prediction accuracy compared to the highly curated data used in previous publications. The separation of data for chemicals that decomposed rather than melting, from compounds that did undergo a normal melting transition, was performed and models for both pyrolysis and MPs were developed. The accuracy of the consensus MP models for molecules from the drug-like region of chemical space was similar to their estimated experimental accuracy, 32 °C. Last but not least, important structural features related to the pyrolysis of chemicals were identified, and a model to predict whether a compound will decompose instead of melting was developed. CONCLUSIONS: We have shown that automated tools for the analysis of chemical information have reached a mature stage allowing for the extraction and collection of high quality data to enable the development of structure-activity relationship models. The developed models and data are publicly available at http://ochem.eu/article/99826

Perfectionism and training distress in junior athletes: A longitudinal investigation

Perfectionistic athletes may train harder and for longer than non-perfectionistic athletes, leaving them susceptible to elevated levels of training distress. So far, however, no study has investigated the relationships between perfectionism and training distress, a key indicator of overtraining syndrome. Furthermore, no study has determined psychological predictors of overtraining syndrome. Using a two-wave design, the present study examined perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns, and training distress in 141 junior athletes (mean age 17.3 years, range 16-19 years) over 3 months of active training. Multiple regression analyses were employed to test cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between perfectionism and training distress. In all analyses, perfectionism emerged as a significant predictor, but strivings and concerns showed differential relationships. When the cross-sectional relationships were regarded, perfectionistic concerns positively predicted training distress (p .05). The findings suggest that sports scientists who wish to identify athletes at risk of overtraining syndrome may monitor athletes’ perfectionistic concerns as a possible risk factor