scholarly journals Evaluation of a touch interface for the control of electric wheelchairs for people suffering from neuromuscular diseases

2019 ◽  
Vol Volume 8, Issue 1, Special... (Research articles) ◽  
Author(s):  
Youssef Guedira ◽  
Delphine Dervin ◽  
Pierre-Eric Brohm ◽  
René Farcy ◽  
Yacine Bellik
Keyword(s):  
Muscular Strength ◽  
Neuromuscular Diseases ◽  
User Performance ◽  
Essais Cliniques ◽  
Wheelchair Users ◽  
Fauteuil Roulant Électrique ◽  
Power Wheelchairs ◽  
The World ◽  
International Audience ◽  
Maladies Neuromusculaires

International audience Power wheelchairs remain an efficient means of regaining mobility for many people around the world. Unfortunately, some are not able to use power wheelchairs because of difficulties using a standard joystick. People with neuromuscular diseases who experience a loss in muscular strength find it difficult to use of a joystick. In this paper, we explore steering power wheelchairs using a tactile interface on a smartphone. Eleven users with neuromuscular diseases tried this type of steering in free learning sessions. Four among them were able to take part in an experiment where we evaluated their kinematic performance between the use of the tactile steering interface and the joystick. The paper presents data and observations from both sessions and tries to detect tendencies and draw hypotheses that can guide further and in-depth clinical testing of the tactile steering for wheelchair users suffering from neuromuscular diseases. Overall, the user performance with the tablet was close or the same as their performance with the joystick. In addition, the users reported a lesser level of physical demand of the tactile steering over the joystick Les fauteuils roulants électriques constituent un moyen efficace de retrouver une certaine mobilité pour de nombreuses personnes dans le monde. Malheureusement, certaines ne sont pas en mesure d'utiliser un fauteuil roulant électrique en raison de difficultés éprouvées lors de l'utilisation d'un joystick standard. Les personnes atteintes de maladies neuromusculaires souffrant d'une perte de force musculaire ont du mal à utiliser un joystick. Dans cet article, nous explorons l'utilisation d'une interface tactile sur un smartphone pour le pilotage de fauteuils roulants électriques. Onze utilisateurs atteints de maladies neuromusculaires ont testé notre prototype lors de séances d'initiation. Parmi eux, quatre ont pu participer à une expérience dans laquelle nous avons évalué leur performance cinématique lors de l’utilisation de l’interface de pilotage tactile et du joystick. Cet article présente des données et des observations issues de ces deux campagnes (initiation et évaluation), met en évidence des tendances et dégage des hypothèses qui peuvent guider versdes essais cliniques plus approfondis concernant le pilotage tactile pour des utilisateurs de fauteuils roulants souffrant de maladies neuromusculaires. Dans l’ensemble, les performances des utilisateurs avec la tablette étaient proches de celles du joystick. En outre, les utilisateurs ont signalé un sentiment de moindre fatigue physique avec l'interface tactile par rapport au joystick

Contractual Relationships among Artists, Record Labels, and Artist Management Companies in Japan

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuhiro Ando
Keyword(s):  
Music Industry ◽  
Music Business ◽  
Know How ◽  
Contractual Relationships ◽  
The World ◽  
Employee Relationship ◽  
International Audience ◽  
Music Market ◽  
Japanese Music ◽  
The Relationship

Although Japan is the second largest music market in the world, the structure and practices of the music industry are little understood internationally. People overseas need to know how the music business works in Japan so that they can conduct business comfortably. The Japanese music industry has unique features in some respects. First, Japanese record labels remain heavily dependent on traditional physically packaged music although its profitability is much lower than that of digital distribution. Second, full-scale competition in the music copyright management business has just begun. While JASRAC monopolized this market for more than sixty years, the new entrant, NexTone has gradually increased the market share thanks to the frustration experienced by many music publishers and songwriters in their dealings with JASRAC. Third, the relationship between artists and artist management companies is more like an employer-employee relationship than a client-agent relationship. Artist management companies are fully invested in discovering, nurturing, and marketing young artists just the way big businesses handle their recruits. This chapter illuminates practices of the Japanese music industry for an international audience.

scholarly journals High-Tech Training for Birds of Prey

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 530
Author(s):  
Giovanni Granati ◽  
Francesca Cichella ◽  
Pia Lucidi
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Wild Bird ◽  
Muscular Strength ◽  
Risk Groups ◽  
Birds Of Prey ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Training Method ◽  
Top Predators ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Technologies

Raptors are some of the most at-risk groups of birds in the world and saving these top predators is essential for maintaining the health of many ecosystems. After hospitalization, raptors are often released when muscular recovery is still unfitting when they are unable to hunt efficiently and are at risk of dying from starvation within a few days. On the other hand, if a convalescent bird is trained with the only use of classic falconry techniques, it is likely to remain dependent on the caretaker/falconer even long after the release, so unable to hunt independently. To overcome these problems, a new training method was conceived, which could improve raptors’ muscular strength while limiting habituation to humans. This has been possible due to the combination of classic falconry techniques and modern technologies, such as the introduction of specific workouts with drones. Three falconry raptors and one wild Eurasian hobby were trained through high-tech falconry to develop the ability to catch, grasp, and airlift their prey at a different speed, altitude, and resistance. The main findings of this study were: (i) The rapid increase of the raptors’ speed; (ii) the muscular growth and endurance, and (iii) successful reintroduction of a wild bird.

scholarly journals Body, Flesh and Soul in Vladislav Khodasevich’s Poetry

Slovo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol How to think of literary... (Varia) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel DEMADRE
Keyword(s):  
Great Difficulty ◽  
The Body ◽  
Inert Material ◽  
Image Corporelle ◽  
The World ◽  
International Audience ◽  
Poetic Work

International audience Even in Putëm zerna [Grain’s Way] (where in moments of mystical fullness the world appears transfigured), Khodasevich’s poetic work is dominated by a dualistic worldview, which ultimately relates to the mystical idealism of the Russian Symbolists inspired by Vladimir Solovyov. Such an attitude to the world is realized first of all in the dualism Body (“Me”) / Soul (Spirit), where the body is perceived as an “envelope”, from which the soul can get free only with great difficulty. In Tjažëlaja lira [The Heavy Lyre], the dualism “Me” (Body) / Soul grows up, and the poet’s mystical aspiration turns into painful effort towards the attainment of transcendence. The physical intensity of this effort is so strong that it becomes practically pathological. Since the body symbolises the imprisonment in the world that the poet rejects, the interior dichotomy Body/Soul exacerbates with the poet’s perception of the dualism earthly World/another World. The “inert” material that is transcended by the poet‑«Orpheus» in «Ballada», the final poem of Tjažëlaja lira, gives place in Evropejskaja noč’ [European Night] to the world that is crashed by materiality, while the expressionist vision of the “German cycle” is dominated by violence and a degrading sexuality. The rejection of Body and the disgust for Flesh is contrasted in Khodasevich’s poetic work with the image of a foetus and its life in the mother’s womb. The poet associates this image with the “native, original world” of the Soul and the original Life. This image is not very stable, but it is radically positive. Such a sacralization of the image of a foetus and Motherhood can be correlated with the image of the Virgin, who embodies for Khodasevich the fusion of earthly and divine. Même dans Putëm zerna (où en des moments de plénitude mystique, le monde apparaît transfiguré), l’œuvre poétique de Khodassevitch est dominée par une vision du monde dualiste, qui s’inscrit dans l’idéalisme mystique symboliste « soloviévien ». Ce rapport au monde se cristallise d’abord dans le dualisme corps (« moi »)/âme (esprit), où le corps du poète est perçu comme une « enveloppe », dont l’âme ne parvient à se libérer que difficilement. Dans Tjažëlaja lira, le dualisme « moi » (corps)/âme s’accentue, et l’aspiration mystique du poète se réduit de plus en plus à un douloureux effort de transcendance, d’une intensité physique, proprement pathologique. Le corps étant la concrétisation de l’enfermement dans un monde que le poète rejette, la dichotomie intérieure corps/âme s’intensifie à mesure que s’exacerbe la perception du dualisme monde/au delà. La matière « inerte » que le poète « Orphée » transcendait dans la «Ballada» finale de Tjažëlaja lira, fait ainsi place, dans Evropejskaja noč’, à un univers écrasé par la matérialité et dominé, dans la vision expressionniste du « cycle allemand », par la violence et une sexualité dégradante. À ce rejet du corps et cette répulsion pour la chair s’oppose, dans l’univers khodassévitchien, une image corporelle, plus fugace, mais radicalement positive, celle de la vie utérine et du fœtus dans le sein maternel, que le poète associe au « monde natal, originel » de l’âme et à la Vie élémentaire. Cette sacralisation de l’image du fœtus et de la maternité peut être mise en corrélation avec la figure de la Vierge, mère par excellence et incarnation, pour le poète, de la fusion du terrestre et du divin. Дуалистическое мировоззрение, свойственное символистскому мистическому идеализму, навеянному Владимиром Соловьёвым, превалирует в поэзии Ходасевича. Оно присутствует и в cборнике «Путём зерна», где в моменты мистической полноты мир представляется преображенным. Такое отношение к миру в первую очередь выражается в дуализме «тело («я») / душа (дух)», где тело воспринимается как «оболочка», от которой душа может освободиться лишь с трудом. В «Тяжёлой лире» дуализм «“Я” (тело) / душа» усугубляется. Мистический порыв поэта всё больше превращается в болезненное стремление к трансцендентности. Физическая интенсивность этого стремления настолько велика, что доходит практически до патологии. Поскольку телесная оболочка воплощает заключение в отвергаемый поэтом мир, внутренняя дихотомия «тело / душа» усиливается по мере того, как обостряется восприятие поэтом дуализма «мир земной / мир иной». «Косная» материя, трансцендируемая поэтом‑«Орфеем» в «Балладе», заключительном стихотворении «Тяжёлой лиры», уступает место миру, полностью задавленному вещами, в «Европейской ночи». В экспрессионистском же вúдении немецкого цикла доминируют физическое насилие и унижающая сексуальность. Отторжению тела и отвращению к плоти противопоставлен в творчестве Ходасевича образ тела, не столь устойчивый, но совершенно положительный. Речь идет о зарождающейся жизни в материнской утробе, ассоциируемой поэтом с «родным, первоначальным миром» души и первозданной Жизнью. Такая сакрализация утробной жизни и материнства может быть соотнесена с образом Богородицы, воплощающей у Ходасевича слияние земного с божественным.

Data Modeling

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hock Chuan Chan ◽  
Chuan-Hoo Tan ◽  
Hock-Hai Teo
Keyword(s):  
Data Modeling ◽  
Clear Distinction ◽  
User Performance ◽  
Experiment Data ◽  
The World ◽  
Database Models ◽  
User Data ◽  
Conceptual Data ◽  
The Relationship

Research on ontology and conceptual data modeling builds on the premise that the world could be represented in terms of concepts (also known as “things”), their properties and their (things') relationships. A persistent effort in the representation is how to distinguish things from their properties, as well as how to denote relationships that relate two things together. Following the tradition of deriving guidelines from ontology studies, this paper proposes a need to make a clear distinction between relationships among things and relationships among things' properties. The central thrust of this paper is in proposing an ontologically guided principle: For the same relationship, working with the relationship among things will lead to better user performance than working with the relationship among things' properties. This principle, called Relationship without Pointers principle, is robustly validated by re-analyzing a set of experiment data on user data modeling performance with three database models. This principle may be applicable to other contexts that study relationships.

scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT OF THE USABILITY SCALE FOR POWER WHEELCHAIRS AND ITS APPLICATION IN POWER WHEELCHAIRS USERS IN KOREA

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 2040031
Author(s):  
BUM-SUK LEE ◽  
JUNG AH LEE ◽  
HYUN CHOI ◽  
HAN RAM PAK ◽  
EUN JOO KIM ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Assistive Technology ◽  
Content Validity ◽  
Service Process ◽  
User Evaluation ◽  
Storage Space ◽  
Repair Service ◽  
Wheelchair Users ◽  
Operation Efficiency ◽  
Power Wheelchairs ◽  
Safety Operation

More of power wheelchair users’ needs have to be met in the making of power wheelchairs. However, there has been no usability scale for the power wheelchair that is specifically focusing on the users’ needs. The purpose of this study was to test and validate a usability scale for power wheelchairs (USPW). The USPW has been developed through interviews with power wheelchair and consultations with a panel of experts. The USPW consists of four evaluation categories (safety, operation, efficiency, and satisfaction). In order to validate it, its usability and the Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction Assistive Technology (QUEST) were also administered to 50 power wheelchair users. The USPW was extracted 12 items from safety, 7 from operation, 5 from efficiency, and 14 from satisfaction, with a total of 38 items. The content validity met the criteria. The total internal consistency (Cronbach’s [Formula: see text]) of the USPW was 0.75. Users of power wheelchair demanded that the safety of moving on the slopes, the satisfaction of storage space for power wheelchairs, and the repair service process would be improved. The correlation between the USPW and the QUEST was significant ([Formula: see text]). The USPW may be very useful to evaluate overall usability of power wheelchair including its safety, operability, efficiency, and satisfaction. The developed usability scale (USPW) may help wheelchair makers become aware of the problems of present power wheelchairs and the users’ needs, allowing them to make better ones.

scholarly journals L’individu à l’épreuve des pouvoirs communautaires dans l’épopée lyrique d’Isaac Babel Cavalerie rouge

Slovo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol The autobiographical... (Russia in its margins>) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Géry
Keyword(s):  
Literary Text ◽  
Narrative Technique ◽  
Social Determinism ◽  
Isaac Babel ◽  
The World ◽  
International Audience ◽  
The Subject ◽  
War Experience ◽  
Viktor Shklovsky ◽  
Alter Ego

International audience Red Cavalry is an ambiguous and unstable literary text, an oneiric and mystifying reconstruction in which reality as it was lived by the author/narrator goes through several distorting prisms. The reader has to experience the same feeling of disorientation as Isaac Babel experienced during the Polish campaign in 1920. The War experience is translated into an experience of otherness. Lioutov, the narrator of Red Cavalry and Babel’s alter ego, is the “absolute stranger”: he is a Jew among Cossacks, an Intellectual among Soldiers, and a Bolshevik among Hasids. He looks at the world with external eyes, which prevents him from recognition and from subjection to identitarianism. The outsider’s look is a way of renewing perception, which is, according to Viktor Shklovsky, one of the main principles of the “defamiliarization” as a narrative technique that achieves singularity. Here we are talking about the irreducible singularity of the subject who is thinking of himself as an outsider and, consequently, resists all kinds of social determinism and normative forms of power and knowledge. Cavalerie rouge est un texte instable et ambigu, une reconstruction onirique et mystificatrice où le réel vécu par l’auteur-narrateur passe par toute une série de prismes déformants, faisant subir au lecteur une expérience de la désorientation analogue à celle éprouvée par Isaac Babel lors de la campagne de Pologne en 1920. Aussi, l’expérience de la guerre est rendue comme une expérience de l’altérité. Lioutov, le narrateur de Cavalerie rouge et alter ego de Babel est l’étranger absolu : Juif chez les Cosaques, intellectuel chez les combattants, bolchevique chez les Hassidim, il contemple le monde d’un regard extérieur avec une distance qui empêche toute identification mais aussi tout assujettissement identitaire. Le regard de l’étranger est propre à renouveler profondément la perception, ce qui est, selon Viktor Chklovski, l’un des principes majeurs de l’étrangéisation comme dispositif narratif visant à gêner les processus de reconnaissance ou d’appartenance, pour atteindre la singularisation. Cette singularité irréductible, c’est celle du sujet qui se pense lui‑même comme un autre et qui, de ce fait, résiste à toutes lesdéterminations sociales et à toutes les formes normatives de pouvoir et de savoir. Конармия Исаака Бабеля – двусмысленное и «нестабильное» литературное произведение, в котором жизненный опыт повествователяпроходит сквозь целый ряд искажающих призм. Следовательно, читатель испытывает то же ощущение дезориентации, что и испытывал Бабель-Лютов во время польской кампании в 1920-ом году. В Конармии военный опыт превращается в столкновение с «инакостью». «Абсолютным чужаком» является Кирилл Лютов – еврей среди казаков, интеллигент среди боевиов, большевик среди хасидов. Он смотрит на окружающий мир с внешним взглядом постоянно чужого человека. Эта дистанция мешает процессу опознавания и даже формирования индентичности. К тому же взгляд чужого человека позволяет обновить восприятие – один из основных принципов «остранения» по Виктору Шкловскому. Способ видеть вещи выведенными из их контекста имеет своей целью индивидуализацию не только предметов но и самого субъекта. Я здесь имею в виду ту неотъемлемую единственность индивида, мыслящего себя как «чужого» и, следовательно, противостоящего всякой социальной детерминированности или нормативным видам власти и знания.

scholarly journals Mechatronic simulator of lever driven wheelchairs

2013 ◽  
Vol 27-28 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 65-69
Author(s):  
Włodzimierz Choromański ◽  
Krzysztof Fiok ◽  
Andrzej Potyński ◽  
Grzegorz Dobrzyński
Keyword(s):  
Work Conditions ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Wheelchair Propulsion ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Propulsion Systems ◽  
Wheelchair Users ◽  
The World ◽  
Two Parameters ◽  
System Designs ◽  
Training Station

Development of the lever-driven wheelchairs by different authors resulted in creating various lever-human work conditions in which disabled people propel their wheelchairs. This fact implies varying efficiency of human’s work during lever wheelchair propulsion. In order to assess which of the world-wide proposed lever propulsion systems is the most efficient from the humans’ work point of view a proper simulator was designed. Here described test stand offers the possibility to perform various ergonomic tests, it can also become a training station for the lever wheelchair users. Since the main differences in world known lever propelling system designs concern the lever length and levers axis of rotation position on the wheelchair, the wide regulation of these two parameters, was a decisive factor in designing the mechatronic simulator.

scholarly journals Towards a Heritage-Led Sustainable Post-Conflict Reconciliation: A Policy-Led Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1686
Author(s):  
Ataa Alsalloum ◽  
Andre Brown
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Subsequent Paper ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The World ◽  
Analysis Strategy ◽  
International Audience ◽  
Conflict Reconciliation

In today’s context, threats to heritage sites posed by armed conflicts are prevalent. This article argues for an urgently needed framework, based on authoritative heritage policy documents, to guide sustainable reconciliation in such circumstances. The methodological approach proposed derives from a content analysis strategy that investigated a selected list of documents. Key extractions are then synthesised to develop useful recommendations for sustainable post-conflict reconciliation in heritage contexts. This conceptual framework also helps to achieve the potential re-nomination of any reconstructed sites which, in turn, provides both additional robust protection of heritage values, and supports sustainable development. This article presents the first part of a broader research study and is intended to communicate the results to a multi-faceted international audience including stakeholders, along with policy and decision makers in the world heritage field. The application of the proposed framework to the world heritage cities of Damascus and Aleppo is the subject of the second part of this research and is presented in a subsequent paper in this special issue of the journal Sustainability.

“Our Dreams Are Not Different from Yours”

2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (3) ◽  
pp. 654-660
Author(s):  
Marta Bellingreri
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Migration Policies ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
International Audience ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
And Migration ◽  
European Youth

Migration and revolution in the Mediterranean area are inextricably connected. In this paper, I bring the stories of young Tunisian and Syrian revolutionaries of the 2008 and 2011 uprisings who were later forced into displacement and migration and who—both in their countries of origin and at European borders—demand freedom from their regimes’ oppression and freedom of movement. As European youth can mostly move freely in the world, Arab youth share the dream of doing the same. Both local tyrannies and their international allies, as well as unjust socioeconomic and migration policies, prevent these young people from living in dignity, from choosing where they live, and from being actors of change. The letters they share and the movement they found address an international audience and it to listen to their demands.

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