scholarly journals "Musical Exercise” for People with Visual Impairments: A Preliminary Study with the Blindfolded

Author(s):  
Ridwan Ahmed Khan ◽  
Myounghoon Jeon ◽  
Tejin Yoon

Performing independent physical exercise is critical to maintain one's good health, but it is specifically hard for people with visual impairments. To address this problem, we have developed a Musical Exercise platform for people with visual impairments so that they can perform exercise in a good form consistently. We designed six different conditions, including blindfolded or visual without audio conditions, and blindfolded or visual with two different types of audio feedback (continuous vs. discrete) conditions. Eighteen sighted participants participated in the experiment, by doing two exercises - squat and wall sit with all six conditions. The results show that Musical Exercise is a usable exercise assistance system without any adverse effect on exercise completion time or perceived workload. Also, the results show that with a specific sound design (i.e., discrete), participants in the blindfolded condition can do exercise as consistently as participants in the non-blindfolded condition. This implies that not all sounds equally work and thus, care is required to refine auditory displays. Potentials and limitations of Musical Exercise and future works are discussed with the results.

Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 235
Author(s):  
Nicolò Maria Ippolito ◽  
Ionela Birloaga ◽  
Francesco Ferella ◽  
Marcello Centofanti ◽  
Francesco Vegliò

The present paper is focused on the extraction of gold from high-grade e-waste, i.e., spent electronic connectors and plates, by leaching and electrowinning. These connectors are usually made up of an alloy covered by a layer of gold; sometimes, in some of them, a plastic part is also present. The applied leaching system consisted of an acid solution of diluted sulfuric acid (0.2 mol/L) with thiourea (20 g/L) as a reagent and ferric sulfate (21.8 g/L) as an oxidant. This system was applied on three different high-grade e-waste, namely: (1) Connectors with the partial gold-plated surface (Au concentration—1139 mg/kg); (2) different types of connectors with some of which with completely gold-plated surface (Au concentration—590 mg/kg); and (3) connectors and plates with the completely gold-plated surface (Au concentration—7900 mg/kg). Gold dissolution yields of 52, 94, and 49% were achieved from the first, second, and third samples, respectively. About 95% of Au recovery was achieved after 1.5 h of electrowinning at a current efficiency of only 4.06% and current consumption of 3.02 kWh/kg of Au from the leach solution of the third sample.


Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (s1) ◽  
pp. S273-S280
Author(s):  
Xinhe Yao ◽  
Yu Song ◽  
Peter Vink

BACKGROUND: Scents may influence the perceived comfort of an environment. There are only a few studies conducted on the relationship between scent and comfort in aircraft cabin. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this research is to explore whether relationships between scents and perceived comfort can be found for passengers in an aircraft cabin. METHODS: 276 participants joined an experiment in a Boeing 737 fuselage. The participants were divided into nine groups and each joined a session for 60 minutes with the exposure to different scents. The effect of the odor was measured by a set of questionnaires at the beginning and at the end of the session. Results of questionnaires were analyzed regarding the effects on the completion time, of the type of scents, of the intensity of the scent and on gender. RESULTS: Significant differences were found at the beginning and at the end of the experiment regarding comfort and emotion, but sometimes no relations could be established. The influence of different scents on comfort/discomfort varied and changed over time. However, in all scenarios, participant’ scores on emotion decreased. Additionally, the added scents influenced the linearity between the changes in comfort and discomfort. CONCLUSIONS: Smell could influence the perceived comfort/discomfort of aircraft passengers over time, and different types of smells have different effects on passengers. The preferences on scents are diverse, which highlights the need for personalization in aircraft cabin design.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1173
Author(s):  
Mingxiao Liu ◽  
Samuel Wilder ◽  
Sean Sanford ◽  
Soha Saleh ◽  
Noam Y. Harel ◽  
...  

Sensory feedback from wearables can be effective to learn better movement through enhanced information and engagement. Facilitating greater user cognition during movement practice is critical to accelerate gains in motor function during rehabilitation following brain or spinal cord trauma. This preliminary study presents an approach using an instrumented glove to leverage sense of agency, or perception of control, to provide training feedback for functional grasp. Seventeen able-bodied subjects underwent training and testing with a custom-built sensor glove prototype from our laboratory. The glove utilizes onboard force and flex sensors to provide inputs to an artificial neural network that predicts achievement of “secure” grasp. Onboard visual and audio feedback was provided during training with progressively shorter time delay to induce greater agency by intentional binding, or perceived compression in time between an action (grasp) and sensory consequence (feedback). After training, subjects demonstrated a significant reduction (p < 0.05) in movement pathlength and completion time for a functional task involving grasp-move-place of a small object. Future work will include a model-based algorithm to compute secure grasp, virtual reality immersion, and testing with clinical populations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Huijie Zhang ◽  
Shuhai Liu

Abstract The tribological properties of proppant particle sliding on shale rock determine the shale gas production. This work focuses on investigating the impacts of sliding speed on the coefficient of friction (COF) and wear of the silica ball-shale rock contact, which was lubricated by water or different types of polyacrylamide (PAM) aqueous or brine solution. The experimental results show that both boundary and mixed lubrication occur under specific speed and normal load. COF and wear depth of shale rock under water are higher than those under PAM solution due to superior lubrication of PAM. COF of shale rock under PAM brine solution increases and the wear of the rock is more serious, attributed to the corrosion of shale rock and adverse effect on lubrication of PAM by brine.


Author(s):  
Saeema Ahmed ◽  
Luciënne Blessing ◽  
Ken Wallace

Abstract The aerospace industry, along with other industries, has acknowledged the need to bridge the experience gap between novice and experienced designers [Moore, 1997]. The research aims to identify the support a novice designer requires to gain experience faster. The focus of this paper is to present some initial results of a study of novice and experienced designers. This initial study highlighted the difficulty in establishing consistent and precise usage for the terms data, information and knowledge. It is concluded that data, information and knowledge are relative concepts that cannot be defined in absolute terms. As relative concepts, these help differentiate experts and novices, and different types of novices. The relationships between data, information and knowledge are examined with the aim of prompting a discussion.


2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-183
Author(s):  
Arun Kumar Acharya

AbstractIn this paper, an attempt has been made to analyse how the violence and abuse against elderly migrants in Monterrey, Mexico affects their health. For this research, 257 elderly Mexican migrants were surveyed in the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey during 2012 through 2013. The study found that the majority of elderly people migrate to urban areas in search of a better economic opportunity. Once in the city, they are absorbed into the informal economic sectors. Results indicate that most of these elderly people suffer physical, sexual and psychological violence, as well as neglect and financial abuse from their employer, relatives, clients and pedestrians, which has an adverse effect on their health. Elderly migrants reported numerous health problems, where many of them were suffering from different types of injuries, stress and depression, among others. This paper concluded that violence suffered by elderly migrants has a significant impact on their health.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (86) ◽  
pp. e237-e243
Author(s):  
Kaan Orhan ◽  
◽  
Poyzan Bozkurt ◽  
Zeynep Serap Berktaş ◽  
Mehmet Hakan Kurt ◽  
...  

Aim of the study: The present preliminary study aims to evaluate the possible positive outcomes of ultrasonography-guided sialolithotomies and duct stricture dilations utilizing stone retrieval baskets and guide wires. Case description: A total of 6 cases in an ongoing study (4 cases of sialolithiasis and 2 cases of duct strictures with intraluminal adhesion) were analyzed. All sialoliths were <5 mm in diameter. Stone removals and duct dilations were performed under ultrasonography guidance with two different types of linear probes. Edema measurements were carried out, and the area of edema was evaluated via the echogenicity changes. Patient satisfaction was also evaluated by the patients themselves using a Visual Analog Scale questionnaire on postoperative day 0, and on days 1, 2, and 3. Conclusions: There were no postoperative complications, and mouth openings returned to normal at 7-day follow-up. The pain scores decreased after 6 hours, and pain subsided completely after 12 hours in all the patients. Edema also resolved gradually after the operation. The patient satisfaction levels were high.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104-113
Author(s):  
O. P. Deryugina ◽  
E. A. Trapeznikov

The article discusses the issue of industrial compounding, which improves the quality of the raw materials supplied to the main pipelines. Compounding from "to compound" (English) - to mix. When mixing different types of oil obtained, "incompatibility" is possible, which is expressed in the precipitation of a solid sediment and violation of the stability of the colloidal system and due to the differing properties of oils. Attention to this problem is due to the tightening of requirements for the quality of raw materials that must comply with modern standards. The article discusses the causes of the problem of "incompatibility" of oil during compounding and effective ways of solving it, substantiates the need for a preliminary study of the properties of mixed oil in order to identify possible incompatibility of various types of oil. The standard tests for determination of incompatibility indices characterizing the ability of raw materials to mix are considered. The article substantiates the need to develop methods for diagnosing the incompatibility of oils as the most important task of modern chemical science, the solution of which will improve the quality of the raw material obtained and solve many technological problems in the compounding process.


Author(s):  
Myounghoon Jeon

While design theories in visual displays have been well developed and further refined, relatively little research has been conducted on design theories and models in auditory displays. The existing discussions mainly account for functional mappings between sounds and referents, but these do not fully address design aspects of auditory displays. To bridge the gap, the present proposal focuses on design affordances in sound design among many design constructs. To this end, the definition and components of design affordances are briefly explored, followed by the auditory display examples of those components to gauge whether sound can deliver perceived affordances in interactive products. Finally, other design constructs, such as feedback and signifier, are discussed together with future work. This exploratory proposal is expected to contribute to elaborating sound design theory and practice.


Author(s):  
Sudheer Bayanker ◽  
Joshua D. Summers ◽  
Anand K. Gramopadhye

This paper presents an experimental investigation into input suitability for human-computer interaction during computer aided design operations. Specifically, three types of operations, synthesis, interrogation, and modification, are examined with respect to three different types of user interfaces, mouse, direct tablet, and indirect tablet. The study, using undergraduate student participants in an introductory engineering graphics course, demonstrates that the mouse performs the highest across the dimensions of completion time and number of errors. However, the direct tablet, using a pen like device directly on the visualization screen, shows promise.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document