WorldWideScience

Sample records for touch hydrodynamic imaging

  1. You can't touch this: touch-free navigation through radiological images.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ebert, Lars C; Hatch, Gary; Ampanozi, Garyfalia; Thali, Michael J; Ross, Steffen

    2012-09-01

    Keyboards, mice, and touch screens are a potential source of infection or contamination in operating rooms, intensive care units, and autopsy suites. The authors present a low-cost prototype of a system, which allows for touch-free control of a medical image viewer. This touch-free navigation system consists of a computer system (IMac, OS X 10.6 Apple, USA) with a medical image viewer (OsiriX, OsiriX foundation, Switzerland) and a depth camera (Kinect, Microsoft, USA). They implemented software that translates the data delivered by the camera and a voice recognition software into keyboard and mouse commands, which are then passed to OsiriX. In this feasibility study, the authors introduced 10 medical professionals to the system and asked them to re-create 12 images from a CT data set. They evaluated response times and usability of the system compared with standard mouse/keyboard control. Users felt comfortable with the system after approximately 10 minutes. Response time was 120 ms. Users required 1.4 times more time to re-create an image with gesture control. Users with OsiriX experience were significantly faster using the mouse/keyboard and faster than users without prior experience. They rated the system 3.4 out of 5 for ease of use in comparison to the mouse/keyboard. The touch-free, gesture-controlled system performs favorably and removes a potential vector for infection, protecting both patients and staff. Because the camera can be quickly and easily integrated into existing systems, requires no calibration, and is low cost, the barriers to using this technology are low.

  2. Automated separation of touching grains in digital images of thin sections

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van den Berg, E.H.; Meesters, A.G.C.A.; Kenter, J.A.M.; Schlager, W.

    2002-01-01

    The determination of textural properties of granular material with image analysis is generally troubled by the fact that touching grain sections merge into single features. Without separation of these touching grain sections, the textural properties derived from the images contain substantial bias.

  3. The value of virtual touch tissue image (VTI) and virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) in the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Feng-Juan; Han, Ruo-Ling; Zhao, Xin-Ming

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • All nodules in the research were confirmed by histopathology. • The classification method of VTI was easy to learn. • VTQ could provide quantitative elasticity measurements for thyroid nodules. • VTI classification could provide semi-quantitative elasticity analysis. • The area ratio could show invasive extent of malignant tumor. - Abstract: Objectives: To explore the value of virtual touch tissue image (VTI) and virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) in the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules. Methods: One-hundred and seven patients with 113 thyroid nodules were performed conventional ultrasound and acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography. The stiffness of the nodules on virtual touch tissue image (VTI) was graded, and the area ratios (AR) of nodules on VTI images versus on B-mode images were calculated. Shear wave velocity (SWV) within the thyroid nodules were measured using virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) technique. The pathological diagnosis as the gold standard draws the receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) to find the cut-off point of VTI grades, AR and SWV to predict thyroid cancer. Results: The difference in VTI grades of malignant and benign nodules was statistically significant (P < 0.05), as well as in AR and SWV. There was no significant difference in the AR of nodules or the SWV of nodules in benign group or in malignant group. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of VTI grades, AR, and SWV in the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules were calculated. There was no significant difference in diagnostic accuracy among the three methods. Conclusion: VTI grades, AR of nodules on VTI images versus on B-mode images and SWV within the nodules can help the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules

  4. The influence of image interactivity upon user engagement when using mobile touch screens

    OpenAIRE

    Blazquez Cano, Marta; Perry, Patsy; Ashman, Rachel; Waite, Kathryn

    2017-01-01

    Touch screens are a key component of consumer mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, as well as an increasingly common self-service component of information retrieval on fixed screens and mobile devices in-store. The ubiquity of touch screens in daily life increases consumer accessibility and extended use for shopping, whilst software innovations have increased the functionality of touch screens, for example the extent to which images respond to fingertip control. This study examines...

  5. Anomalous hydrodynamics of Weyl materials

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monteiro, Gustavo; Abanov, Alexander

    Kinetic theory is a useful tool to study transport in Weyl materials when the band-touching points are hidden inside a Fermi surface. It accounts, for example, for the negative magnetoresistance caused by the chiral magnetic effect and quantum oscillations (SdH effect) in the magnetoresistance together within the same framework. As an alternative approach to kinetic theory we also consider the regime of strong interactions where hydrodynamics can be applicable. A variational principle of these hydrodynamic equations can be found in and provide a natural framework to study hydrodynamic surface modes which correspond to the strongly-interacting physics signature of Fermi arcs. G.M. acknowledges the financial support from FAPESP.

  6. Comparing Four Touch-Based Interaction Techniques for an Image-Based Audience Response System

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jorritsma, Wiard; Prins, Jonatan T.; van Ooijen, Peter M. A.

    2015-01-01

    This study aimed to determine the most appropriate touch-based interaction technique for I2Vote, an image-based audience response system for radiology education in which users need to accurately mark a target on a medical image. Four plausible techniques were identified: land-on, take-off,

  7. Expansion of Smartwatch Touch Interface from Touchscreen to Around Device Interface Using Infrared Line Image Sensors

    OpenAIRE

    Lim, Soo-Chul; Shin, Jungsoon; Kim, Seung-Chan; Park, Joonah

    2015-01-01

    Touchscreen interaction has become a fundamental means of controlling mobile phones and smartwatches. However, the small form factor of a smartwatch limits the available interactive surface area. To overcome this limitation, we propose the expansion of the touch region of the screen to the back of the user’s hand. We developed a touch module for sensing the touched finger position on the back of the hand using infrared (IR) line image sensors, based on the calibrated IR intensity and the maxi...

  8. Segmentation of touching mycobacterium tuberculosis from Ziehl-Neelsen stained sputum smear images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Chao; Zhou, Dongxiang; Liu, Yunhui

    2015-12-01

    Touching Mycobacterium tuberculosis objects in the Ziehl-Neelsen stained sputum smear images present different shapes and invisible boundaries in the adhesion areas, which increases the difficulty in objects recognition and counting. In this paper, we present a segmentation method of combining the hierarchy tree analysis with gradient vector flow snake to address this problem. The skeletons of the objects are used for structure analysis based on the hierarchy tree. The gradient vector flow snake is used to estimate the object edge. Experimental results show that the single objects composing the touching objects are successfully segmented by the proposed method. This work will improve the accuracy and practicability of the computer-aided diagnosis of tuberculosis.

  9. Hydrodynamic Modeling and Its Application in AUC.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rocco, Mattia; Byron, Olwyn

    2015-01-01

    The hydrodynamic parameters measured in an AUC experiment, s(20,w) and D(t)(20,w)(0), can be used to gain information on the solution structure of (bio)macromolecules and their assemblies. This entails comparing the measured parameters with those that can be computed from usually "dry" structures by "hydrodynamic modeling." In this chapter, we will first briefly put hydrodynamic modeling in perspective and present the basic physics behind it as implemented in the most commonly used methods. The important "hydration" issue is also touched upon, and the distinction between rigid bodies versus those for which flexibility must be considered in the modeling process is then made. The available hydrodynamic modeling/computation programs, HYDROPRO, BEST, SoMo, AtoB, and Zeno, the latter four all implemented within the US-SOMO suite, are described and their performance evaluated. Finally, some literature examples are presented to illustrate the potential applications of hydrodynamics in the expanding field of multiresolution modeling. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Expansion of Smartwatch Touch Interface from Touchscreen to Around Device Interface Using Infrared Line Image Sensors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Soo-Chul; Shin, Jungsoon; Kim, Seung-Chan; Park, Joonah

    2015-07-09

    Touchscreen interaction has become a fundamental means of controlling mobile phones and smartwatches. However, the small form factor of a smartwatch limits the available interactive surface area. To overcome this limitation, we propose the expansion of the touch region of the screen to the back of the user's hand. We developed a touch module for sensing the touched finger position on the back of the hand using infrared (IR) line image sensors, based on the calibrated IR intensity and the maximum intensity region of an IR array. For complete touch-sensing solution, a gyroscope installed in the smartwatch is used to read the wrist gestures. The gyroscope incorporates a dynamic time warping gesture recognition algorithm for eliminating unintended touch inputs during the free motion of the wrist while wearing the smartwatch. The prototype of the developed sensing module was implemented in a commercial smartwatch, and it was confirmed that the sensed positional information of the finger when it was used to touch the back of the hand could be used to control the smartwatch graphical user interface. Our system not only affords a novel experience for smartwatch users, but also provides a basis for developing other useful interfaces.

  11. Expansion of Smartwatch Touch Interface from Touchscreen to Around Device Interface Using Infrared Line Image Sensors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Soo-Chul Lim

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Touchscreen interaction has become a fundamental means of controlling mobile phones and smartwatches. However, the small form factor of a smartwatch limits the available interactive surface area. To overcome this limitation, we propose the expansion of the touch region of the screen to the back of the user’s hand. We developed a touch module for sensing the touched finger position on the back of the hand using infrared (IR line image sensors, based on the calibrated IR intensity and the maximum intensity region of an IR array. For complete touch-sensing solution, a gyroscope installed in the smartwatch is used to read the wrist gestures. The gyroscope incorporates a dynamic time warping gesture recognition algorithm for eliminating unintended touch inputs during the free motion of the wrist while wearing the smartwatch. The prototype of the developed sensing module was implemented in a commercial smartwatch, and it was confirmed that the sensed positional information of the finger when it was used to touch the back of the hand could be used to control the smartwatch graphical user interface. Our system not only affords a novel experience for smartwatch users, but also provides a basis for developing other useful interfaces.

  12. Expansion of Smartwatch Touch Interface from Touchscreen to Around Device Interface Using Infrared Line Image Sensors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Soo-Chul; Shin, Jungsoon; Kim, Seung-Chan; Park, Joonah

    2015-01-01

    Touchscreen interaction has become a fundamental means of controlling mobile phones and smartwatches. However, the small form factor of a smartwatch limits the available interactive surface area. To overcome this limitation, we propose the expansion of the touch region of the screen to the back of the user’s hand. We developed a touch module for sensing the touched finger position on the back of the hand using infrared (IR) line image sensors, based on the calibrated IR intensity and the maximum intensity region of an IR array. For complete touch-sensing solution, a gyroscope installed in the smartwatch is used to read the wrist gestures. The gyroscope incorporates a dynamic time warping gesture recognition algorithm for eliminating unintended touch inputs during the free motion of the wrist while wearing the smartwatch. The prototype of the developed sensing module was implemented in a commercial smartwatch, and it was confirmed that the sensed positional information of the finger when it was used to touch the back of the hand could be used to control the smartwatch graphical user interface. Our system not only affords a novel experience for smartwatch users, but also provides a basis for developing other useful interfaces. PMID:26184202

  13. Perception of 3-D location based on vision, touch, and extended touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giudice, Nicholas A; Klatzky, Roberta L; Bennett, Christopher R; Loomis, Jack M

    2013-01-01

    Perception of the near environment gives rise to spatial images in working memory that continue to represent the spatial layout even after cessation of sensory input. As the observer moves, these spatial images are continuously updated. This research is concerned with (1) whether spatial images of targets are formed when they are sensed using extended touch (i.e., using a probe to extend the reach of the arm) and (2) the accuracy with which such targets are perceived. In Experiment 1, participants perceived the 3-D locations of individual targets from a fixed origin and were then tested with an updating task involving blindfolded walking followed by placement of the hand at the remembered target location. Twenty-four target locations, representing all combinations of two distances, two heights, and six azimuths, were perceived by vision or by blindfolded exploration with the bare hand, a 1-m probe, or a 2-m probe. Systematic errors in azimuth were observed for all targets, reflecting errors in representing the target locations and updating. Overall, updating after visual perception was best, but the quantitative differences between conditions were small. Experiment 2 demonstrated that auditory information signifying contact with the target was not a factor. Overall, the results indicate that 3-D spatial images can be formed of targets sensed by extended touch and that perception by extended touch, even out to 1.75 m, is surprisingly accurate.

  14. An fMRI study on cortical responses during active self-touch and passive touch from others

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rochelle eAckerley

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Active, self-touch and the passive touch from an external source engage comparable afferent mechanoreceptors on the touched skin site. However, touch directed to glabrous skin compared to hairy skin will activate different types of afferent mechanoreceptors. Despite perceptual similarities between touch to different body sites, it is likely that the touch information is processed differently. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI to elucidate the cortical differences in the neural signal of touch representations during active, self-touch and passive touch from another, to both glabrous (palm and hairy (arm skin, where a soft brush was used as the stimulus. There were two active touch conditions, where the participant used the brush in their right hand to stroke either their left palm or arm. There were two similar passive, touch conditions where the experimenter used an identical brush to stroke the same palm and arm areas on the participant. Touch on the left palm elicited a large, significant, positive blood-oxygenation level dependence (BOLD signal in right sensorimotor areas. Less extensive activity was found for touch to the arm. Separate somatotopical palm and arm representations were found in Brodmann area 3 of the right primary somatosensory cortex (SI and in both these areas, active stroking gave significantly higher signals than passive stroking. Active, self-touch elicited a positive BOLD signal in a network of sensorimotor cortical areas in the left hemisphere, compared to the resting baseline. In contrast, during passive touch, a significant negative BOLD signal was found in the left SI. Thus, each of the four conditions had a unique cortical signature despite similarities in afferent signalling or evoked perception. It is hypothesized that attentional mechanisms play a role in the modulation of the touch signal in the right SI, accounting for the differences found between active and passive touch.

  15. Object recognition - Convergence of vision, audition, and touch

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kassuba, Tanja

    of object information across audition and touch or across all thee senses. Further, even though object recognition within different senses is to some degree redundant, the different senses differ with respect to their intrinsic efficiency in extracting types of information (Lederman & Klatzky, 2009...... magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). The following research questions were addressed: 1. Where in the human brain does object recognition converge across vision, audition, and touch? 2. How is audio-haptic object......-match-to-sample task was applied in which participants had to match a target object with a previously presented sample object within and across audition and touch in both directions (auditory─haptic and haptic─auditory). As a coherence in content is an important binding cue (Laurienti et al., 2004), semantic...

  16. A Kinect-Based Segmentation of Touching-Pigs for Real-Time Monitoring

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miso Ju

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Segmenting touching-pigs in real-time is an important issue for surveillance cameras intended for the 24-h tracking of individual pigs. However, methods to do so have not yet been reported. We particularly focus on the segmentation of touching-pigs in a crowded pig room with low-contrast images obtained using a Kinect depth sensor. We reduce the execution time by combining object detection techniques based on a convolutional neural network (CNN with image processing techniques instead of applying time-consuming operations, such as optimization-based segmentation. We first apply the fastest CNN-based object detection technique (i.e., You Only Look Once, YOLO to solve the separation problem for touching-pigs. If the quality of the YOLO output is not satisfied, then we try to find the possible boundary line between the touching-pigs by analyzing the shape. Our experimental results show that this method is effective to separate touching-pigs in terms of both accuracy (i.e., 91.96% and execution time (i.e., real-time execution, even with low-contrast images obtained using a Kinect depth sensor.

  17. A touch of affect: mediated social touch and affect

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs

    2012-01-01

    This position paper outlines the first stages in an ongoing PhD project on mediated social touch, and the effects mediated touch can have on someone's affective state. It is argued that touch is a profound communication channel for humans, and that communication through touch can, to some extent,

  18. TouchTokens: Guiding Touch Patterns with Passive Tokens

    OpenAIRE

    Morales Gonzalez , Rafael; Appert , Caroline; Bailly , Gilles; Pietriga , Emmanuel

    2016-01-01

    International audience; TouchTokens make it possible to easily build interfaces that combine tangible and gestural input using passive tokens and a regular multi-touch surface. The tokens constrain users' grasp, and thus, the relative spatial configuration of fingers on the surface, theoretically making it possible to design algorithms that can recognize the resulting touch patterns. We performed a formative user study to collect and analyze touch patterns with tokens of varying shape and siz...

  19. Touch Challenge ‘15: Recognizing Social Touch Gestures

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jung, Merel Madeleine; Cang, Xi Laura; Poel, Mannes; MacLean, Karon E.

    2015-01-01

    Advances in the field of touch recognition could open up applications for touch-based interaction in areas such as Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). We extended this challenge to the research community working on multimodal interaction with the goal of sparking interest in the touch modality and to

  20. The Virtual Midas Touch: Helping Behavior After a Mediated Social Touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haans, A; Usselsteijn, W A

    2009-01-01

    A brief touch on the upper arm increases people's altruistic behavior and willingness to comply with a request. In this paper, we investigate whether this Midas touch phenomenon would also occur under mediated conditions (i.e., touching via an arm strap equipped with electromechanical actuators). Helping behavior was more frequently endorsed in the touch, compared to the no-touch condition, but this difference was not found to be statistically significant. However, a meta-analytical comparison with published research demonstrated that the strength of the virtual Midas touch is of the same magnitude as that of the Midas touch in unmediated situations. The present experiment, thus, provides empirical evidence that touch-like qualities can be attributed to electromechanical stimulation. This is important for the field of mediated social touch of which the design rationale is based on the assumption that mediated touch by means of tactile feedback technologies is processed in ways similar to real physical contact.

  1. Encoding of Touch Intensity But Not Pleasantness in Human Primary Somatosensory Cortex

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laubacher, Claire M.; Olausson, Håkan; Wang, Binquan; Spagnolo, Primavera A.; Bushnell, M. Catherine

    2016-01-01

    Growing interest in affective touch has delineated a neural network that bypasses primary somatosensory cortex (S1). Several recent studies, however, have cast doubt on the segregation of touch discrimination and affect, suggesting that S1 also encodes affective qualities. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to examine the role of S1 in processing touch intensity and pleasantness. Twenty-six healthy human adults rated brushing on the hand during fMRI. Intensity ratings significantly predicted activation in S1, whereas pleasantness ratings predicted activation only in the anterior cingulate cortex. Nineteen subjects also received inhibitory rTMS over right hemisphere S1 and the vertex (control). After S1 rTMS, but not after vertex rTMS, sensory discrimination was reduced and subjects with reduced sensory discrimination rated touch as more intense. In contrast, rTMS did not alter ratings of touch pleasantness. Our findings support divergent neural processing of touch intensity and pleasantness, with affective touch encoded outside of S1. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Growing interest in affective touch has identified a neural network that bypasses primary somatosensory cortex (S1). Several recent studies, however, cast doubt on the separation of touch discrimination and affect. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to demonstrate the representation of touch discrimination and intensity in S1, but the representation of pleasantness in the anterior cingulate cortex, not S1. Our findings support divergent neural processing of touch intensity and pleasantness, with affective touch encoded outside of S1. Our study contributes to growing delineation of the affective touch system, a crucial step in understanding its dysregulation in numerous clinical conditions such as autism, eating disorders, depression, and chronic pain. PMID:27225773

  2. Extended-Maxima Transform Watershed Segmentation Algorithm for Touching Corn Kernels

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yibo Qin

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Touching corn kernels are usually oversegmented by the traditional watershed algorithm. This paper proposes a modified watershed segmentation algorithm based on the extended-maxima transform. Firstly, a distance-transformed image is processed by the extended-maxima transform in the range of the optimized threshold value. Secondly, the binary image obtained by the preceding process is run through the watershed segmentation algorithm, and watershed ridge lines are superimposed on the original image, so that touching corn kernels are separated into segments. Fifty images which all contain 400 corn kernels were tested. Experimental results showed that the effect of segmentation is satisfactory by the improved algorithm, and the accuracy of segmentation is as high as 99.87%.

  3. Vicarious Social Touch Biases Gazing at Faces and Facial Emotions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schirmer, Annett; Ng, Tabitha; Ebstein, Richard P

    2018-02-01

    Research has suggested that interpersonal touch promotes social processing and other-concern, and that women may respond to it more sensitively than men. In this study, we asked whether this phenomenon would extend to third-party observers who experience touch vicariously. In an eye-tracking experiment, participants (N = 64, 32 men and 32 women) viewed prime and target images with the intention of remembering them. Primes comprised line drawings of dyadic interactions with and without touch. Targets comprised two faces shown side-by-side, with one being neutral and the other being happy or sad. Analysis of prime fixations revealed that faces in touch interactions attracted longer gazing than faces in no-touch interactions. In addition, touch enhanced gazing at the area of touch in women but not men. Analysis of target fixations revealed that touch priming increased looking at both faces immediately after target onset, and subsequently, at the emotional face in the pair. Sex differences in target processing were nonsignificant. Together, the present results imply that vicarious touch biases visual attention to faces and promotes emotion sensitivity. In addition, they suggest that, compared with men, women are more aware of tactile exchanges in their environment. As such, vicarious touch appears to share important qualities with actual physical touch. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  4. Three-dimensional touch interface for medical education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panchaphongsaphak, Bundit; Burgkart, Rainer; Riener, Robert

    2007-05-01

    We present the technical principle and evaluation of a multimodal virtual reality (VR) system for medical education, called a touch simulator. This touch simulator comes with an innovative three-dimensional (3-D) touch sensitive input device. The device comprises a six-axis force-torque sensor connected to a tangible object representing the shape of an anatomical structure. Information related to the point of contact is recorded by the sensor, processed, and audiovisually displayed. The touch simulator provides a high level of user-friendliness and fidelity compared to other purely graphically oriented simulation environments. In this paper, the touch simulator has been realized as an interactive neuroanatomical training simulator. The user can visualize and manipulate graphical information of the brain surface or different cross-sectional slices by a finger-touch on a brain-like shaped tangible object. We evaluated the system by theoretical derivations, experiments, and subjective questionnaires. In the theoretical analysis, we could show that the contact point estimation error mainly depends on the accuracy and the noise of the sensor, the amount and direction of the applied force, and the geometry of the tangible object. The theoretical results could be validated by experiments: applying a normal force of 10 N on a 120 mm x 120 mm x 120 mm cube causes a maximum error of 2.5 +/- 0.7 mm. This error becomes smaller when increasing the contact force. Based on the survey results, the touch simulator may be a useful tool for assisting medical schools in the visualization of brain image data and the study of neuroanatomy.

  5. Social Touch Technology: A Survey of Haptic Technology for Social Touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs

    2017-01-01

    This survey provides an overview of work on haptic technology for social touch. Social touch has been studied extensively in psychology and neuroscience. With the development of new technologies, it is now possible to engage in social touch at a distance or engage in social touch with artificial

  6. Small animal PET imaging of HSV1-tk gene expression with {sup 124}IVDU in liver by the hydrodynamic injection

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Song, I. H.; Lee, T. S.; Woo, S. G.; Jeong, J. H.; Kang, J. H.; Kim, K. M.; Chun, K. J.; Choi, C. W.; Lim, S. M. [Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2007-07-01

    The liver is an important target organ for gene transfer due to its capacity for synthesizing serum protein and its involvement in numerous genetic diseases. High level of foreign gene expression in liver can be achieved by a large-volume and high-speed intravenous injection of naked plasmid DNA (pDNA), so called hydrodynamic injection. This study is aimed to evaluate liver specific-gene expression of herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase(HSV1-tk) by hydrodynamic injection and image HSV1-tk expression using {sup 124}IVDU-PET. We constructed herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase (HSV1-tk)-expressing pDNA (pHSV1-tk) modified from pEGFP-N1. Hydrodynamic injection was performed using 40 {mu}g of plasmid (pEGFP/N1 or pHSV1-tk) in 2 ml of 0.85% saline solution for 20{approx}22g mice in 5 seconds intravenously. At 1 d post-hydrodynamic injection, biodistribution study was performed at 2 h post-injection of radiolabeled IVDU, fluorescence image was obtained using optical imager and small animal PET image was acquired with {sup 124}IVDU at 2 h post-injection. After PET imaging, digital whole body autoradiography (DWBA) was performed. Expression of HSV1-tk and EGFP was confirmed by RT-PCR in each liver tissue. In liver of pHSV1-tk and pEGFP/N1 injection groups, {sup 123}IVDU uptake was 5.65%ID/g and 0.98%ID/g, respectively. {sup 123}IVDU uptake in liver of pHSV1-tk injection group showed 5.7-fold higher than that of pEGFP/N1 injection group (p<0.01). On the other hand, the liver of pEGFP/N1 injection group showed fluorescence activity. In small animal PET images, {sup 124}IVDU uptake was selectively localized in liver of pHSV1-tk injection group and also checked in DWBA, but showed minimal uptake in liver of pEGFP/N1 injection mice. Hydrodynamic injection was effective to liver-specific delivery of plasmid DNA. Small animal PET image of {sup 124}IVDU could be used in the evaluation of noninvasive reporter gene imaging in liver.

  7. Identification of hydrodynamic forces around 3D surrogates using particle image velocimetry in a microfluidic channel

    Science.gov (United States)

    Afshar, Sepideh; Nath, Shubhankar; Demirci, Utkan; Hasan, Tayyaba; Scarcelli, Giuliano; Rizvi, Imran; Franco, Walfre

    2018-02-01

    Previous studies have demonstrated that flow-induced shear stress induces a motile and aggressive tumor phenotype in a microfluidic model of 3D ovarian cancer. However, the magnitude and distribution of the hydrodynamic forces that influence this biological modulation on the 3D cancer nodules are not known. We have developed a series of numerical and experimental tools to identify these forces within a 3D microchannel. In this work, we used particle image velocimetry (PIV) to find the velocity profile using fluorescent micro-spheres as surrogates and nano-particles as tracers, from which hydrodynamic forces can be derived. The fluid velocity is obtained by imaging the trajectory of a range of florescence nano-particles (500-800 μm) via confocal microscopy. Imaging was done at different horizontal planes and with a 50 μm bead as the surrogate. For an inlet current rate of 2 μl/s, the maximum velocity at the center of the channel was 51 μm/s. The velocity profile around the sphere was symmetric which is expected since the flow is dominated by viscous forces as opposed to inertial forces. The confocal PIV was successfully employed in finding the velocity profile in a microchannel with a nodule surrogate; therefore, it seems feasible to use PIV to investigate the hydrodynamic forces around 3D biological models.

  8. Making the Cut: An Agential Realist Examination of Selfies and Touch

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katie Warfield

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available This article leverages the work of Karen Barad to analyze digital self-imaging research. Drawing on findings from four interviews with avid selfie authors, this article argues that agential realism can provide a rich ontological framework for examining selfies that goes beyond the representational paradigm in some studies of socially mediated digital images. Rather than beginning the study with the presumption that bodies, photos, cameras, and expressed selves are distinct and pre-existing entities that then interact with one another, or touch, selfies here are construed as networked material–discursive entanglements wherein bodies, photos, cameras, and expressed selves are always and already touching. Within this entangled phenomenon, then, this article suggests that what reads as touch (images that grab or repulse/efface is in a sense the opposite of touch—it is a pulling apart of the entangled phenomenon wherein agential cuts demarcate the desired boundaries of entities like bodies, images, and self. This article further suggests that what makes and doesn’t make the “cut” is not natural but emerges within gendered apparatuses of bodily production.

  9. Self Touch to Touch Others: Designing the Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, G.; Darriba Frederiks, A.; van Dijk, B.; Kröse, B.; Heylen, D.

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we present the concept and initial design stages of the TaSST (Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch). The TaSST consists of a soft pressure-sensitive input layer, and an output layer containing vibration motors. A touch to ones own sleeve is felt as a vibration on the sleeve of another

  10. Self touch to touch others : designing the tactile sleeve for social touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs; Darriba Frederiks, Aduén; Heylen, Dirk; Van Dijk, Betsy; Kröse, Ben

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we present the concept and initial design stages of the TaSST (Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch). The TaSST consists of a soft pressure-sensitive input layer, and an output layer containing vibration motors. A touch to ones own sleeve is felt as a vibration on the sleeve of another

  11. Investigation of the hydrodynamic behavior of diatom aggregates using particle image velocimetry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiao, Feng; Li, Xiaoyan; Lam, Kitming; Wang, Dongsheng

    2012-01-01

    The hydrodynamic behavior of diatom aggregates has a significant influence on the interactions and flocculation kinetics of algae. However, characterization of the hydrodynamics of diatoms and diatom aggregates in water is rather difficult. In this laboratory study, an advanced visualization technique in particle image velocimetry (PIV) was employed to investigate the hydrodynamic properties of settling diatom aggregates. The experiments were conducted in a settling column filled with a suspension of fluorescent polymeric beads as seed tracers. A laser light sheet was generated by the PIV setup to illuminate a thin vertical planar region in the settling column, while the motions of particles were recorded by a high speed charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. This technique was able to capture the trajectories of the tracers when a diatom aggregate settled through the tracer suspension. The PIV results indicated directly the curvilinear feature of the streamlines around diatom aggregates. The rectilinear collision model largely overestimated the collision areas of the settling particles. Algae aggregates appeared to be highly porous and fractal, which allowed streamlines to penetrate into the aggregate interior. The diatom aggregates have a fluid collection efficiency of 10%-40%. The permeable feature of aggregates can significantly enhance the collisions and flocculation between the aggregates and other small particles including algal cells in water.

  12. Instant Sencha Touch

    CERN Document Server

    Dave, Hiren J

    2013-01-01

    Get to grips with a new technology, understand what it is and what it can do for you, and then get to work with the most important features and tasks. This book is a practical, step by step tutorial that will get you to use Sencha Touch core components quickly and efficiently.Instant Sencha Touch is for hobbyists who want to explore the capabilities of Sencha Touch. No prior knowledge of Sencha Touch is assumed. This book is simultaneously helpful for developers as well who want to quickly learn about Sencha Touch Framework. The book is structured in such a way that amateurs as well as experts

  13. A TOUCH-SENSITIVE DEVICE

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2009-01-01

    The present invention relates to an optical touch-sensitive device and a method of determining a position and determining a position change of an object contacting an optical touch sensitive device. In particular, the present invention relates to an optical touch pad and a method of determining...... a position and determining a position change of an object contacting an optical touch pad. A touch-sensitive device, according to the present invention may comprise a light source, a touch- sensitive waveguide, a detector array, and a first light redirecting member, wherein at least a part of the light...... propagating towards a specific point of the detector array is prevented from being incident upon the specific point of the detector array when an object contacts a touch-sensitive surface of the touch-sensitive waveguide at a corresponding specific contact point....

  14. iPod touch-assisted instrumentation of the spine: a technical report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jost, Gregory F; Bisson, Erica F; Schmidt, Meic H

    2013-12-01

    Instrumentation of the spine depends on choosing the correct insertion angles to implant screws. Although modern image guidance facilitates precise instrumentation of the spine, the equipment is costly and availability is limited. Although most surgeons use lateral fluoroscopy to guide instrumentation in the sagittal plane, the lateromedial angulation is often chosen by estimation. To overcome the associated uncertainty, iPod touch-based applications for measuring angles can be used to assist with screw implantation. To evaluate the use of the iPod touch to adjust instruments to the optimal axial insertion angle for placement of pedicle screws in the lumbar spine. Twenty lumbar pedicle screws in 5 consecutive patients were implanted using the iPod touch. The lateromedial angulation was measured on preoperative images and reproduced in the operative field with the iPod touch. The instruments to implant the screws were aligned with the side of the iPod for screw insertion. Actual screw angles were remeasured on postoperative imaging. We collected demographic, clinical, and operative data for each patient. In 16 of 20 screws, the accuracy of implantation was within 3 degrees of the ideal trajectory. The 4 screws with an angle mismatch of 7 to 13 degrees were all implanted at the caudal end of the exposure, where maintaining the planned angulation was impeded by strong muscles pushing medially. iPod touch-assisted instrumentation of the spine is a very simple technique, which, in combination with a lateral fluoroscopy, may guide placement of pedicle screws in the lumbar spine.

  15. The virtual midas touch : helping behavior after a mediated social touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haans, A.; IJsselsteijn, W.A.

    2009-01-01

    A brief touch on the upper arm increases people's altruistic behavior and willingness to comply with a request. In this paper, we investigate whether this Midas touch phenomenon would also occur under mediated conditions (i.e., touching via an arm strap equipped with electromechanical actuators).

  16. Hydrodynamic perception in true seals (Phocidae) and eared seals (Otariidae).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanke, Wolf; Wieskotten, Sven; Marshall, Christopher; Dehnhardt, Guido

    2013-06-01

    Pinnipeds, that is true seals (Phocidae), eared seals (Otariidae), and walruses (Odobenidae), possess highly developed vibrissal systems for mechanoreception. They can use their vibrissae to detect and discriminate objects by direct touch. At least in Phocidae and Otariidae, the vibrissae can also be used to detect and analyse water movements. Here, we review what is known about this ability, known as hydrodynamic perception, in pinnipeds. Hydrodynamic perception in pinnipeds developed convergently to the hydrodynamic perception with the lateral line system in fish and the sensory hairs in crustaceans. So far two species of pinnipeds, the harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) representing the Phocidae and the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) representing the Otariidae, have been studied for their ability to detect local water movements (dipole stimuli) and to follow hydrodynamic trails, that is the water movements left behind by objects that have passed by at an earlier point in time. Both species are highly sensitive to dipole stimuli and can follow hydrodynamic trails accurately. In the individuals tested, California sea lions were clearly more sensitive to dipole stimuli than harbour seals, and harbour seals showed a superior trail following ability as compared to California sea lions. Harbour seals have also been shown to derive additional information from hydrodynamic trails, such as motion direction, size and shape of the object that caused the trail (California sea lions have not yet been tested). The peculiar undulated shape of the harbour seals' vibrissae appears to play a crucial role in trail following, as it suppresses self-generated noise while the animal is swimming.

  17. GelTouch

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Miruchna, Viktor; Walter, Robert; Lindlbauer, David

    2015-01-01

    We present GelTouch, a gel-based layer that can selectively transition between soft and stiff to provide tactile multi-touch feedback. It is flexible, transparent when not activated, and contains no mechanical, electromagnetic, or hydraulic components, resulting in a compact form factor (a 2mm thin...... touchscreen layer for our prototype). The activated areas can be morphed freely and continuously, without being limited to fixed, predefined shapes. GelTouch consists of a poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) gel layer which alters its viscoelasticity when activated by applying heat (>32 C). We present three different...

  18. Automatic recognition of touch gestures in the corpus of social touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jung, Merel Madeleine; Poel, Mannes; Poppe, Ronald Walter; Heylen, Dirk K.J.

    For an artifact such as a robot or a virtual agent to respond appropriately to human social touch behavior, it should be able to automatically detect and recognize touch. This paper describes the data collection of CoST: Corpus of Social Touch, a data set containing 7805 captures of 14 different

  19. Virtual Touch

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stenslie, Ståle

    The central focus of this thesis is the use and experience of touch in artistic, multimodal and computer-based environments. The haptic experience of touch is an area that has only received limited research-based interest. Touch is too often seen as the effect, and not the cause of our everyday...... experiences. The study aims to provide an improved knowledge of how touch functions and how haptic storytelling can be used as an artistic medium. This thesis is divided into seven parts. The introductory chapter presents the structure of the study and the history leading up the formulation of research...... questions and hypotheses. Further it contextualizes the research in a broader context. The second chapter presents my bricolage of methodological choices and puts them in relation to art, technology and aesthetics. Here the thesis is presented as practice-based research focused on my artistic experiment...

  20. Touch communicates distinct emotions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hertenstein, Matthew J; Keltner, Dacher; App, Betsy; Bulleit, Brittany A; Jaskolka, Ariane R

    2006-08-01

    The study of emotional signaling has focused almost exclusively on the face and voice. In 2 studies, the authors investigated whether people can identify emotions from the experience of being touched by a stranger on the arm (without seeing the touch). In the 3rd study, they investigated whether observers can identify emotions from watching someone being touched on the arm. Two kinds of evidence suggest that humans can communicate numerous emotions with touch. First, participants in the United States (Study 1) and Spain (Study 2) could decode anger, fear, disgust, love, gratitude, and sympathy via touch at much-better-than-chance levels. Second, fine-grained coding documented specific touch behaviors associated with different emotions. In Study 3, the authors provide evidence that participants can accurately decode distinct emotions by merely watching others communicate via touch. The findings are discussed in terms of their contributions to affective science and the evolution of altruism and cooperation. (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved

  1. Explaining away the body: experiences of supernaturally caused touch and touch on non-hand objects within the rubber hand illusion.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jakob Hohwy

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available In rubber hand illusions and full body illusions, touch sensations are projected to non-body objects such as rubber hands, dolls or virtual bodies. The robustness, limits and further perceptual consequences of such illusions are not yet fully explored or understood. A number of experiments are reported that test the limits of a variant of the rubber hand illusion.A variant of the rubber hand illusion is explored, in which the real and foreign hands are aligned in personal space. The presence of the illusion is ascertained with participants' scores and temperature changes of the real arm. This generates a basic illusion of touch projected to a foreign arm. Participants are presented with further, unusual visuotactile stimuli subsequent to onset of the basic illusion. Such further visuotactile stimulation is found to generate very unusual experiences of supernatural touch and touch on a non-hand object. The finding of touch on a non-hand object conflicts with prior findings, and to resolve this conflict a further hypothesis is successfully tested: that without prior onset of the basic illusion this unusual experience does not occur.A rubber hand illusion is found that can arise when the real and the foreign arm are aligned in personal space. This illusion persists through periods of no tactile stimulation and is strong enough to allow very unusual experiences of touch felt on a cardboard box and experiences of touch produced at a distance, as if by supernatural causation. These findings suggest that one's visual body image is explained away during experience of the illusion and they may be of further importance to understanding the role of experience in delusion formation. The findings of touch on non-hand objects may help reconcile conflicting results in this area of research. In addition, new evidence is provided that relates to the recently discovered psychologically induced temperature changes that occur during the illusion.

  2. Sencha Touch cookbook

    CERN Document Server

    Kumar, Ajit

    2013-01-01

    The book is written in a Cookbook style, presenting examples in the style of recipes, allowing you to go directly to your topic of interest or follow topics throughout a chapter to gain in-depth knowledge.Sencha Touch Cookbook (2nd edition) is great for developers who are new to Sencha Touch and who are looking to get a good hold on what the Sencha Touch framework offers and how to use it to build a great touch-based mobile application running on different platforms. It is assumed that you will have some experience in HTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript. To truly appreciate the framework capability

  3. Towards social touch intelligence: developing a robust system for automatic touch recognition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jung, Merel Madeleine

    2014-01-01

    Touch behavior is of great importance during social interaction. Automatic recognition of social touch is necessary to transfer the touch modality from interpersonal interaction to other areas such as Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). This paper describes a PhD research program on the automatic

  4. A virtual Midas touch? : touch, compliance, and confederate bias in mediated communication

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haans, A.; Bruijn, de R.; IJsselsteijn, W.A.

    2014-01-01

    A brief touch to the shoulder or upper arm increases people’s helping behavior and willingness to comply with requests. In this manuscript, we investigate whether this well-known Midas touch effect is also operative in mediated interactions where the touch act is replaced by electromechanical

  5. Social touch and human development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cascio, Carissa J; Moore, David; McGlone, Francis

    2018-04-24

    Social touch is a powerful force in human development, shaping social reward, attachment, cognitive, communication, and emotional regulation from infancy and throughout life. In this review, we consider the question of how social touch is defined from both bottom-up and top-down perspectives. In the former category, there is a clear role for the C-touch (CT) system, which constitutes a unique submodality that mediates affective touch and contrasts with discriminative touch. Top-down factors such as culture, personal relationships, setting, gender, and other contextual influences are also important in defining and interpreting social touch. The critical role of social touch throughout the lifespan is considered, with special attention to infancy and young childhood, a time during which social touch and its neural, behavioral, and physiological contingencies contribute to reinforcement-based learning and impact a variety of developmental trajectories. Finally, the role of social touch in an example of disordered development -autism spectrum disorder-is reviewed. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  6. Nanodevice for Imaging Normal Stress Distribution With Application in Sensing Texture and Feel' by Touching

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Saraf, Ravi F; Maheshwari, Vivek

    2004-01-01

    Touch is one of the five senses designed by nature for survival. 'Touch' may (partially) be characterized as a sensory operation for measuring texture and softness of an object by mechanical contact...

  7. Touch and You’re Trapp(cked: Quantifying the Uniqueness of Touch Gestures for Tracking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Masood Rahat

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available We argue that touch-based gestures on touch-screen devices enable the threat of a form of persistent and ubiquitous tracking which we call touch-based tracking. Touch-based tracking goes beyond the tracking of virtual identities and has the potential for cross-device tracking as well as identifying multiple users using the same device. We demonstrate the likelihood of touch-based tracking by focusing on touch gestures widely used to interact with touch devices such as swipes and taps.. Our objective is to quantify and measure the information carried by touch-based gestures which may lead to tracking users. For this purpose, we develop an information theoretic method that measures the amount of information about users leaked by gestures when modelled as feature vectors. Our methodology allows us to evaluate the information leaked by individual features of gestures, samples of gestures, as well as samples of combinations of gestures. Through our purpose-built app, called TouchTrack, we gather gesture samples from 89 users, and demonstrate that touch gestures contain sufficient information to uniquely identify and track users. Our results show that writing samples (on a touch pad can reveal 73.7% of information (when measured in bits, and left swipes can reveal up to 68.6% of information. Combining different combinations of gestures results in higher uniqueness, with the combination of keystrokes, swipes and writing revealing up to 98.5% of information about users. We further show that, through our methodology, we can correctly re-identify returning users with a success rate of more than 90%.

  8. The MAGIC Touch: Combining MAGIC-Pointing with a Touch-Sensitive Mouse

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drewes, Heiko; Schmidt, Albrecht

    In this paper, we show how to use the combination of eye-gaze and a touch-sensitive mouse to ease pointing tasks in graphical user interfaces. A touch of the mouse positions the mouse pointer at the current gaze position of the user. Thus, the pointer is always at the position where the user expects it on the screen. This approach changes the user experience in tasks that include frequent switching between keyboard and mouse input (e.g. working with spreadsheets). In a user study, we compared the touch-sensitive mouse with a traditional mouse and observed speed improvements for pointing tasks on complex backgrounds. For pointing task on plain backgrounds, performances with both devices were similar, but users perceived the gaze-sensitive interaction of the touch-sensitive mouse as being faster and more convenient. Our results show that using a touch-sensitive mouse that positions the pointer on the user’s gaze position reduces the need for mouse movements in pointing tasks enormously.

  9. Touch massage, a rewarding experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindgren, Lenita; Jacobsson, Maritha; Lämås, Kristina

    2014-12-01

    This study aims to describe and analyze healthy individuals' expressed experiences of touch massage (TM). Fifteen healthy participants received whole body touch massage during 60 minutes for two separate occasions. Interviews were analyzed by narrative analysis. Four identifiable storyline was found, Touch massage as an essential need, in this storyline the participants talked about a desire and need for human touch and TM. Another storyline was about, Touch massage as a pleasurable experience and the participants talked about the pleasure of having had TM. In the third storyline Touch massage as a dynamic experience, the informants talked about things that could modulate the experience of receiving TM. In the last storyline, Touch massage influences self-awareness, the participants described how TM affected some of their psychological and physical experiences. Experiences of touch massage was in general described as pleasant sensations and the different storylines could be seen in the light of rewarding experiences. © The Author(s) 2014.

  10. Touching the Void - Introducing CoST: Corpus of Social Touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jung, Merel M.; Poppe, Ronald; Poel, Mannes; Heylen, Dirk K. J.

    2014-01-01

    Touch behavior is of great importance during social interaction. To transfer the tactile modality from interpersonal interaction to other areas such as Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) and remote communication automatic recognition of social touch is necessary. This paper introduces CoST: Corpus of

  11. How to Touch Humans : Guidelines for Social Agents and Robots that can Touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Erp, J.B.F. van; Toet, A.

    2013-01-01

    Touch is an essential channel in interpersonal and affective communication, yet most social agents currently lack the capability to touch the user. In this paper we show the credibility of three premises that make the case that providing touch capability to social robots will increase their

  12. Learning from vision-to-touch is different than from touch-to-vision.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dagmar A Wismeijer

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available We studied whether vision can teach touch to the same extent as touch seems to teach vision. In a 2 x 2 between-participants learning study, we artificially correlated visual gloss cues with haptic compliance cues. In two "natural" tasks, we tested whether visual gloss estimations have an influence on haptic estimations of softness and vice versa. In two "new" tasks, in which participants were either asked to haptically judge glossiness or to visually judge softness, we investigated how perceptual estimates transfer from one sense to the other. Our results showed that vision does not teach touch as efficient as touch seems to teach vision.

  13. Touching my left elbow: the anatomical structure of the body affects the illusion of self-touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Rebekah C; Aimola Davies, Anne M

    2011-01-01

    A self-touch paradigm is used to create the illusion that one is touching one's own left elbow when one is actually touching the examiner's arm. Our new self-touch illusion is sensitive to the anatomical structure of the body: you can touch your left elbow with your right index finger but not with your left index finger. Illusion onset was faster and illusion ratings were higher when participants administered touch using the plausible right index finger compared with the implausible left index finger.

  14. Viscosity of dilute suspensions of rigid bead arrays at low shear: accounting for the variation in hydrodynamic stress over the bead surfaces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allison, Stuart A; Pei, Hongxia

    2009-06-11

    In this work, we examine the viscosity of a dilute suspension of irregularly shaped particles at low shear. A particle is modeled as a rigid array of nonoverlapping beads of variable size and geometry. Starting from a boundary element formalism, approximate account is taken of the variation in hydrodynamic stress over the surface of the individual beads. For a touching dimer of two identical beads, the predicted viscosity is lower than the exact value by 5.2%. The methodology is then applied to several other model systems including tetramers of variable conformation and linear strings of touching beads. An analysis is also carried out of the viscosity and translational diffusion of several dilute amino acids and diglycine in water. It is concluded that continuum hydrodynamic modeling with stick boundary conditions is unable to account for the experimental viscosity and diffusion data simultaneously. A model intermediate between "stick" and "slip" could possibly reconcile theory and experiment.

  15. Reading the mind in the touch: Neurophysiological specificity in the communication of emotions by touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirsch, Louise P; Krahé, Charlotte; Blom, Nadia; Crucianelli, Laura; Moro, Valentina; Jenkinson, Paul M; Fotopoulou, Aikaterini

    2017-05-29

    Touch is central to interpersonal interactions. Touch conveys specific emotions about the touch provider, but it is not clear whether this is a purely socially learned function or whether it has neurophysiological specificity. In two experiments with healthy participants (N = 76 and 61) and one neuropsychological single case study, we investigated whether a type of touch characterised by peripheral and central neurophysiological specificity, namely the C tactile (CT) system, can communicate specific emotions and mental states. We examined the specificity of emotions elicited by touch delivered at CT-optimal (3cm/s) and CT-suboptimal (18cm/s) velocities (Experiment 1) at different body sites which contain (forearm) vs. do not contain (palm of the hand) CT fibres (Experiment 2). Blindfolded participants were touched without any contextual cues, and were asked to identify the touch provider's emotion and intention. Overall, CT-optimal touch (slow, gentle touch on the forearm) was significantly more likely than other types of touch to convey arousal, lust or desire. Affiliative emotions such as love and related intentions such as social support were instead reliably elicited by gentle touch, irrespective of CT-optimality, suggesting that other top-down factors contribute to these aspects of tactile social communication. To explore the neural basis of this communication, we also tested this paradigm in a stroke patient with right perisylvian damage, including the posterior insular cortex, which is considered as the primary cortical target of CT afferents, but excluding temporal cortex involvement that has been linked to more affiliative aspects of CT-optimal touch. His performance suggested an impairment in 'reading' emotions based on CT-optimal touch. Taken together, our results suggest that the CT system can add specificity to emotional and social communication, particularly with regards to feelings of desire and arousal. On the basis of these findings, we speculate

  16. The ten rules of touch : Guidelines for social agents and robots that can touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Erp, J.B.F. van

    2012-01-01

    Touching is essential in interpersonal and affective communication, yet most social agents lack the capability to touch the user. In this paper we show the credibility of three premises that make the case that providing touch capability to social robots will increase their effectiveness in

  17. Voluntary self-touch increases body ownership

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Masayuki eHara

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Experimental manipulations of body ownership have indicated that multisensory integration is central to forming bodily self-representation. Voluntary self-touch is a unique multisensory situation involving corresponding motor, tactile and proprioceptive signals. Yet, even though self-touch is frequent in everyday life, its contribution to the formation of body ownership is not well understood. Here we investigated the role of voluntary self-touch in body ownership using a novel adaptation of the rubber hand illusion (RHI, in which a robotic system and virtual reality allowed participants self-touch of real and virtual hands. In the first experiment, active and passive self-touch were applied in the absence of visual feedback. In the second experiment, we tested the role of visual feedback in this bodily illusion. Finally, in the third experiment, we compared active and passive self-touch to the classical RHI in which the touch is administered by the experimenter. We hypothesized that active self-touch would increase ownership over the virtual hand through the addition of motor signals strengthening the bodily illusion. The results indicated that active self-touch elicited stronger illusory ownership compared to passive self-touch and sensory only stimulation, and indicate an important role of active self-touch in the formation of bodily self.

  18. Please Touch the Children: Appropriate Touch in the Primary Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Owen, Pamela M.; Gillentine, Jonathan

    2011-01-01

    This study proposes to shift the current theoretical framework in which teachers practise a guarded approach regarding the touching of children in early childhood settings, towards a practice of acceptance. A brief historical context of touching is presented and supplemented with a survey of 63 currently practising K-3rd grade teachers. The survey…

  19. touché is required for touch evoked generator potentials within vertebrate sensory neurons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Low, Sean E.; Ryan, Joel; Sprague, Shawn M.; Hirata, Hiromi; Cui, Wilson W.; Zhou, Weibin; Hume, Richard I.; Kuwada, John Y.; Saint-Amant, Louis

    2010-01-01

    The process by which light-touch in vertebrates is transformed into an electrical response in cutaneous mechanosensitive neurons is a largely unresolved question. To address this question we undertook a forward genetic screen in zebrafish (Danio rerio) to identify mutants exhibiting abnormal touch-evoked behaviors, despite the presence of sensory neurons and peripheral neurites. One family, subsequently named touché, was found to harbor a recessive mutation which produced offspring that were unresponsive to light-touch, but responded to a variety of other sensory stimuli. The optogenetic activation of motor behaviors by touché mutant sensory neurons expressing ChannelRhodopsin-2 suggested that the synaptic output of sensory neurons was intact, consistent with a defect in sensory neuron activation. To explore sensory neuron activation we developed an in vivo preparation permitting the precise placement of a combined electrical and tactile stimulating probe upon eGFP positive peripheral neurites. In wild type larva electrical and tactile stimulation of peripheral neurites produced action potentials detectable within the cell body. In a subset of these sensory neurons an underlying generator potential could be observed in response to subthreshold tactile stimuli. A closer examination revealed that the amplitude of the generator potential was proportional to the stimulus amplitude. When assayed touché mutant sensory neurons also responded to electrical stimulation of peripheral neurites similar to wild type larvae, however tactile stimulation of these neurites failed to uncover a subset of sensory neurons possessing generator potentials. These findings suggest that touché is required for generator potentials, and that generator potentials underlie responsiveness to light-touch in zebrafish. PMID:20631165

  20. Shape from touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kappers, A.M.L.; Bergmann Tiest, W.M.

    2014-01-01

    The shape of objects cannot only be recognized by vision, but also by touch. Vision has the advantage that shapes can be seen at a distance, but touch has the advantage that during exploration many additional object properties become available, such as temperature (Jones, 2009), texture (Bensmaia,

  1. Learning from vision-to-touch is different than learning from touch-to-vision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wismeijer, Dagmar A; Gegenfurtner, Karl R; Drewing, Knut

    2012-01-01

    We studied whether vision can teach touch to the same extent as touch seems to teach vision. In a 2 × 2 between-participants learning study, we artificially correlated visual gloss cues with haptic compliance cues. In two "natural" tasks, we tested whether visual gloss estimations have an influence on haptic estimations of softness and vice versa. In two "novel" tasks, in which participants were either asked to haptically judge glossiness or to visually judge softness, we investigated how perceptual estimates transfer from one sense to the other. Our results showed that vision does not teach touch as efficient as touch seems to teach vision.

  2. Touched by the storyteller: the influence of remote touch in the context of storytelling

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jung, Merel Madeleine; Boensma, Robert W.M.; Huisman, Gijs; van Dijk, Elisabeth M.A.G.

    In this study we investigate the role of remote touch as an additional communication channel in the context of storytelling. We focus on studying the effect of remote touch and the timing of touch on perceived social presence and story recall. In our experiment people listened to an emotional story.

  3. Business Plan Design : Green Touch

    OpenAIRE

    Govindaraju, Navaneethan; Pallati, Rakesh

    2012-01-01

    Green Touch is a start-up company in the Digital Menu arena that offers clients with an All in One Digital Technology solution and 24/7 customer support. Our goal is to offer a complete digital solution for the hospitality industry by offering state of the art technology which enables businesses to be more productive by reducing work flow for its employees and yet substantial increase profits. Digital Menus increase profits in more ways than one, WOW your guests with live images of your dishe...

  4. Imaging of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Thymidine Kinase Gene Expression with Radiolabeled 5-(2-iodovinyl)-2'-deoxyuridine (IVDU) in Liver by Hydrodynamic-based Procedure

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Song, In Ho; Lee, Tae Sup; Kang, Joo Hyun; Lee, Yong Jin; Kim, Kwang Il; An, Gwang Il; Chung, Wee Sup; Cheon, Gi Jeong; Choi, Chang Woon; Lim, Sang Moo [Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2009-10-15

    Hydrodynamic-based procedure is a simple and effective gene delivery method to lead a high gene expression in liver tissue. Non-invasive imaging reporter gene system has been used widely with herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase (HSV1-tk) and its various substrates. In the present study, we investigated to image the expression of HSV1-tk gene with 5-(2-iodovinyl)-2'-deoxyuridine (IVDU) in mouse liver by the hydrodynamicbased procedure. HSV1-tk or enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) encoded plasmid DNA was transferred into the mouse liver by hydrodynamic injection. At 24 h post-injection, RT-PCR, biodistribution, fluorescence imaging, nuclear imaging and digital wholebody autoradiography (DWBA) were performed to confirm transferred gene expression. In RT-PCR assay using mRNA from the mouse liver, specific bands of HSV1-tk and EGFP gene were observed in HSV1-tk and EGFP expressing plasmid injected mouse, respectively. Higher uptake of radiolabeled IVDU was exhibited in liver of HSV1-tk gene transferred mouse by biodistribution study. In fluorescence imaging, the liver showed specific fluorescence signal in EGFP gene transferred mouse. Gamma-camera image and DWBA results showed that radiolabeled IVDU was accumulated in the liver of HSV1-tk gene transferred mouse. In this study, hydrodynamic-based procedure was effective in liver-specific gene delivery and it could be quantified with molecular imaging methods. Therefore, co-expression of HSV1-tk reporter gene and target gene by hydrodynamic-based procedure is expected to be a useful method for the evaluation of the target gene expression level with radiolabeled IVDU.

  5. The virtual Midas touch : helping behavior after a mediated social touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haans, A.; IJsselsteijn, W.A.; Graus, M.P.; Salminen, J.A.

    2008-01-01

    A brief touch on the upper arm increases people's altruistic behavior and willingness to comply to a request. In this paper, we investigate whether this Midas Touch effect would also occur under mediated conditions (i.e., a text messaging system and an arm strap equipped with vibrotactile

  6. Kinaesthesia and Touching Reality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roger Smith

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available This article outlines the philosophical and historical background to nineteenth-century belief that the touch sense, specifically including kinaesthesia, gives special, or uniquely deep, access to the world. The argument associates touch with life itself. Victorian writers also tied the sense of movement and touch to an understanding of causation and the world as a system of forces. The conclusion points to the possible significance of the arguments for the modernist arts, especially dance.

  7. Thermo-hydrodynamic lubrication in hydrodynamic bearings

    CERN Document Server

    Bonneau, Dominique; Souchet, Dominique

    2014-01-01

    This Series provides the necessary elements to the development and validation of numerical prediction models for hydrodynamic bearings. This book describes the thermo-hydrodynamic and the thermo-elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication. The algorithms are methodically detailed and each section is thoroughly illustrated.

  8. Image potential in the interaction of fast ions with carbon nanotubes: A comparison between the one- and two-fluid hydrodynamic models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Karbunar, L.; Borka, D.; Radović, I.; Mišković, Z.L.

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • We study the interaction of protons with carbon nanotubes under channeling conditions. • We use the linearized, 2D, one-fluid and two-fluid hydrodynamic models. • The image potential for a proton moving parallel to the nanotube axis is calculated. • Results for the image potential are compared for different types of nanotubes. • We also compute the angular and spatial distributions of channeled protons. - Abstract: We study the interaction of charged particles with four different types of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) under channeling conditions by means of the linearized, two dimensional, one-fluid and two-fluid hydrodynamic models. The models are used to calculate the image potential for protons moving parallel to the axis of the SWNTs at the speeds up to 10 a.u. Numerical results are obtained to show the influence of the damping factor, the nanotube radius, and the particle position on the image potential inside the nanotube. We also compute the spatial and angular distributions of protons and compare them for the two models

  9. Shear wave velocity measurements for differential diagnosis of solid breast masses: a comparison between virtual touch quantification and virtual touch IQ.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tozaki, Mitsuhiro; Saito, Masahiro; Benson, John; Fan, Liexiang; Isobe, Sachiko

    2013-12-01

    This study compared the diagnostic performance of two shear wave speed measurement techniques in 81 patients with 83 solid breast lesions. Virtual Touch Quantification, which provides single-point shear wave speed measurement capability (SP-SWS), was compared with Virtual Touch IQ, a new 2-D shear wave imaging technique with multi-point shear wave speed measurement capability (2D-SWS). With SP-SWS, shear wave velocity was measured within the lesion ("internal" value) and the marginal areas ("marginal" value). With 2D-SWS, the highest velocity was measured. The marginal values obtained with the SP-SWS and 2D-SWS methods were significantly higher for malignant lesions and benign lesions, respectively (p breast masses. Copyright © 2013 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Bacterial contamination of computer touch screens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerba, Charles P; Wuollet, Adam L; Raisanen, Peter; Lopez, Gerardo U

    2016-03-01

    The goal of this study was to determine the occurrence of opportunistic bacterial pathogens on the surfaces of computer touch screens used in hospitals and grocery stores. Opportunistic pathogenic bacteria were isolated on touch screens in hospitals; Clostridium difficile and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus and in grocery stores; methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Enteric bacteria were more common on grocery store touch screens than on hospital computer touch screens. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  11. TOUCH, TOUCH, TOUCH, SENSORIAL COGNITIVE SKILLS SENSITIZED THROUGH TACTILITY AND TANGIBILITY

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wendrich, Robert E.

    2018-01-01

    This paper presents the development and testing of an original user interface ()UI) based on the sense of touch. A tangible user interface (TUI) project that includes the exploration of haptics, design processes, hybrid design tools and unconventional user interfaces (NUI) that focus essentially on

  12. Touch screens go optical

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hanson, Steen Grüner; Jakobsen, Michael Linde; Pedersen, Henrik Chresten

    2012-01-01

    A simple optical implementation of a touch screen is made possible by disrupting the total internal reflection in a 2D waveguide.......A simple optical implementation of a touch screen is made possible by disrupting the total internal reflection in a 2D waveguide....

  13. Frequency of Maternal Touch Predicts Resting Activity and Connectivity of the Developing Social Brain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brauer, Jens; Xiao, Yaqiong; Poulain, Tanja; Friederici, Angela D; Schirmer, Annett

    2016-08-01

    Previous behavioral research points to a positive relationship between maternal touch and early social development. Here, we explored the brain correlates of this relationship. The frequency of maternal touch was recorded for 43 five-year-old children during a 10 min standardized play session. Additionally, all children completed a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging session. Investigating the default mode network revealed a positive relation between the frequency of maternal touch and activity in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) extending into the temporo-parietal junction. Using this effect as a seed in a functional connectivity analysis identified a network including extended bilateral regions along the temporal lobe, bilateral frontal cortex, and left insula. Compared with children with low maternal touch, children with high maternal touch showed additional connectivity with the right dorso-medial prefrontal cortex. Together these results support the notion that childhood tactile experiences shape the developing "social brain" with a particular emphasis on a network involved in mentalizing. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

  14. Social touch technology : extending the reach of social touch through haptic technology

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs

    2017-01-01

    The skin not only protects the body from harm but, through receptors found in the skin, also enables the sense of touch. The sense of touch is used to obtain information about the world outside the body, for example, the shape and weight of a book or the texture of its cover. However, the sense of

  15. Body Image and Anti-Fat Attitudes: An Experimental Study Using a Haptic Virtual Reality Environment to Replicate Human Touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tremblay, Line; Roy-Vaillancourt, Mélina; Chebbi, Brahim; Bouchard, Stéphane; Daoust, Michael; Dénommée, Jessica; Thorpe, Moriah

    2016-02-01

    It is well documented that anti-fat attitudes influence the interactions individuals have with overweight people. However, testing attitudes through self-report measures is challenging. In the present study, we explore the use of a haptic virtual reality environment to physically interact with overweight virtual human (VH). We verify the hypothesis that duration and strength of virtual touch vary according to the characteristics of VH in ways similar to those encountered from interaction with real people in anti-fat attitude studies. A group of 61 participants were randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions involving giving a virtual hug to a female or a male VH of either normal or overweight. We found significant associations between body image satisfaction and anti-fat attitudes and sex differences on these measures. We also found a significant interaction effect of the sex of the participants, sex of the VH, and the body size of the VH. Female participants hugged longer the overweight female VH than overweight male VH. Male participants hugged longer the normal-weight VH than the overweight VH. We conclude that virtual touch is a promising method of measuring attitudes, emotion and social interactions.

  16. Effect of touch screen button size and spacing on touch characteristics of users with and without disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sesto, Mary E; Irwin, Curtis B; Chen, Karen B; Chourasia, Amrish O; Wiegmann, Douglas A

    2012-06-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of button size and spacing on touch characteristics (forces, impulses, and dwell times) during a digit entry touch screen task. A secondary objective was to investigate the effect of disability on touch characteristics. Touch screens are common in public settings and workplaces. Although research has examined the effect of button size and spacing on performance, the effect on touch characteristics is unknown. A total of 52 participants (n = 23, fine motor control disability; n = 14, gross motor control disability; n = 15, no disability) completed a digit entry task. Button sizes varied from 10 mm to 30 mm, and button spacing was 1 mm or 3 mm. Touch characteristics were significantly affected by button size. The exerted peak forces increased 17% between the largest and the smallest buttons, whereas impulses decreased 28%. Compared with the fine motor and nondisabled groups, the gross motor group had greater impulses (98% and 167%, respectively) and dwell times (60% and 129%, respectively). Peak forces were similar for all groups. Button size but not spacing influenced touch characteristics during a digit entry task. The gross motor group had significantly greater dwell times and impulses than did the fine motor and nondisabled groups. Research on touch characteristics, in conjunction with that on user performance, can be used to guide human computer interface design strategies to improve accessibility of touch screen interfaces. Further research is needed to evaluate the effect of the exerted peak forces and impulses on user performance and fatigue.

  17. Touch for Socioemotional and Physical Well-Being: A Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Field, Tiffany

    2010-01-01

    This review briefly summarizes recent empirical research on touch. The research includes the role of touch in early development, touch deprivation, touch aversion, emotions that can be conveyed by touch, the importance of touch for interpersonal relationships and how friendly touch affects compliance in different situations. MRI data are reviewed…

  18. Instructor Touch Enhanced College Students' Evaluations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Legg, Angela M.; Wilson, Janie H.

    2013-01-01

    Touch between people is associated with several outcomes, including reduced stress, more positive mood, enhanced feelings of closeness, and positive behavioral change. However, the potential utility of touch rarely has been examined in a college sample, with teachers touching their students. In the present study, we used instrumental touch…

  19. User Authentication based on Continuous Touch Biometrics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christina J Kroeze

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Mobile devices such as smartphones have until now been protected by traditional authentication methods, including passwords or pattern locks. These authentication mechanisms are difficult to remember and are often disabled, leaving the device vulnerable if stolen. This paper investigates the possibility of unobtrusive, continuous authentication for smartphones based on biometric data collected using a touchscreen. The possibility of authenticating users on a smartphone was evaluated by conducting an experiment simulating real-world touch interaction. Touch data was collected from 30 participants during normal phone use. The touch features were analysed in terms of the information provided for authentication. It was found that features such as finger pressure, location of touch interaction and shape of the finger were important discriminators for authentication. The touch data was also analysed using two classification algorithms to measure the authentication accuracy. The results show that touch data is sufficiently distinct between users to be used in authentication without disrupting normal touch interaction. It is also shown that the raw touch data was more effective in authentication than the aggregated gesture data.

  20. Touch increases autonomic coupling between romantic partners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jonas eChatel-Goldman

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Interpersonal touch is of paramount importance in human social bonding and close relationships, allowing a unique channel for affect communication. So far the effect of touch on human physiology has been studied at an individual level. The present study aims at extending the study of affective touch from isolated individuals to truly interacting dyads. We have designed an ecological paradigm where romantic partners interact only via touch and we manipulate their empathic states. Simultaneously, we collected their autonomic activity (skin conductance, pulse, respiration. 14 couples participated to the experiment. We found that interpersonal touch increased coupling of electrodermal activity between the interacting partners, regardless the intensity and valence of the emotion felt. In addition, physical touch induced strong and reliable changes in physiological states within individuals. These results support an instrumental role of interpersonal touch for affective support in close relationships. Furthermore, they suggest that touch alone allows the emergence of a somatovisceral resonance between interacting individuals, which in turn is likely to form the prerequisites for emotional contagion and empathy.

  1. Friendly touch increases gratitude by inducing communal feelings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simão, Cláudia; Seibt, Beate

    2015-01-01

    Communion among people is easily identifiable. Close friends or relatives frequently touch each other and this physical contact helps identifying the type of relationship they have. We tested whether a friendly touch and benefits elicit the emotion of gratitude given the close link between gratitude and communal relations. In Study 1, we induced a communal mindset and manipulated friendly touch (vs. non-touch) and benefit to female participants by a female confederate. We measured pre- and post-benefit gratitude, communal feelings, and liking toward the toucher, as well as general affect. In Study 2, we manipulated mindset, friendly touch and benefit, and measured the same variables in female pairs (confederate and participants). In both studies the results showed a main effect of touch on pre-benefit gratitude: participants who were touched by the confederate indicated more gratitude than those not touched. Moreover, benefit increased gratitude toward a confederate in the absence of touch, but not in the presence of touch. Additionally, perceiving the relationship as communal, and not merely liking the confederate, or a positive mood mediated the link between touch and gratitude. The results further support a causal model where touch increases communal feelings, which in turn increase gratitude at the end of the interaction, after having received a benefit from the interaction partner. These results support a broader definition of gratitude as an emotion embodied in communal relationship cues.

  2. A touch of gastronomy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Spence, C.; Hobkinson, C.; Gallace, A.; Piqueras Fiszman, B.

    2013-01-01

    The last few years have seen a rapid growth of research interest in the study of the role of touch and oralsomatosensation in the experience of eating and drinking. The various ways in which the sense of touch can be used to enhance the diner’s/consumer’s experience in both everyday eating and

  3. Exploring Touch Communication Between Coaches and Athletes ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Exploring Touch Communication Between Coaches and Athletes. ... Proceeding from a review of the literature on human touch communication to examine research on the power of touch to exchange relational ... AJOL African Journals Online.

  4. Friendly touch increases gratitude by inducing communal feelings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cláudia eSimão

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Communion among people is easily identifiable. Close friends or relatives frequently touch each other and this physical contact helps identifying the type of relationship they have. We tested whether a friendly touch and benefits elicit the emotion of gratitude given the close link between gratitude and communal relations. In Study 1 we induced a communal mindset and manipulated friendly touch (vs. non-touch and benefit to female participants by a female confederate. We measured pre- and post-benefit gratitude, communal feelings, and liking towards the toucher, as well as general affect. In Study 2 we manipulated mindset, friendly touch and benefit, and measured the same variables in female pairs (confederate and participants. In both studies the results showed a main effect of touch on pre-benefit gratitude: participants who were touched by the confederate indicated more gratitude than those not touched. Moreover, benefit increased gratitude towards a confederate in the absence of touch, but not in the presence of touch. Additionally, perceiving the relationship as communal, and not merely liking the confederate, or a positive mood mediated the link between touch and gratitude. The results further support a causal model where touch increases communal feelings, which in turn increase gratitude at the end of the interaction, after having received a benefit from the interaction partner. These results support a broader definition of gratitude as an emotion embodied in communal relationship cues.

  5. Introduction to hydrodynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wilkins, M.L.

    1979-01-01

    Various aspects of hydrodynamics and elastic--plastic flow are introduced for the purpose of defining hydrodynamic terms and explaining what some of the important hydrodynamic concepts are. The first part covers hydrodynamic theory; and discussed fundamental hydrodynamic equations, discontinuities, and shock, detonation, and elastic--plastic waves. The second part deals with applications of hydrodynamic theory to material equations of state, spall, Taylor instabilities, and detonation pressure measurements

  6. 'Do not touch' lesions of the skull base

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dobre, Mircea C.; Fischbein, Nancy

    2014-01-01

    Imaging of the skull base presents many challenges due to its anatomical complexity, numerous normal variants and lack of familiarity to many radiologists. As the skull base is a region which is not amenable to physical examination and as lesions of the skull base are generally difficult to biopsy and even more difficult to operate on, the radiologist plays a major role in directing patient management via accurate image interpretation. Knowledge of the skull base should not be limited to neuroradiologists and head and neck radiologists, however, as the central skull base is routinely included in the field of view when imaging the brain, cervical spine, or head and neck with computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, and hence, its nuances should be familiar to general radiologists as well. We herein review the imaging findings of a subcategory of lesions of the central skull base, the 'do not touch' lesions.

  7. Automated segmentation and isolation of touching cell nuclei in cytopathology smear images of pleural effusion using distance transform watershed method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Win, Khin Yadanar; Choomchuay, Somsak; Hamamoto, Kazuhiko

    2017-06-01

    The automated segmentation of cell nuclei is an essential stage in the quantitative image analysis of cell nuclei extracted from smear cytology images of pleural fluid. Cell nuclei can indicate cancer as the characteristics of cell nuclei are associated with cells proliferation and malignancy in term of size, shape and the stained color. Nevertheless, automatic nuclei segmentation has remained challenging due to the artifacts caused by slide preparation, nuclei heterogeneity such as the poor contrast, inconsistent stained color, the cells variation, and cells overlapping. In this paper, we proposed a watershed-based method that is capable to segment the nuclei of the variety of cells from cytology pleural fluid smear images. Firstly, the original image is preprocessed by converting into the grayscale image and enhancing by adjusting and equalizing the intensity using histogram equalization. Next, the cell nuclei are segmented using OTSU thresholding as the binary image. The undesirable artifacts are eliminated using morphological operations. Finally, the distance transform based watershed method is applied to isolate the touching and overlapping cell nuclei. The proposed method is tested with 25 Papanicolaou (Pap) stained pleural fluid images. The accuracy of our proposed method is 92%. The method is relatively simple, and the results are very promising.

  8. Pain relief by touch: a quantitative approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mancini, Flavia; Nash, Thomas; Iannetti, Gian Domenico; Haggard, Patrick

    2014-03-01

    Pain relief by touch has been studied for decades in pain neuroscience. Human perceptual studies revealed analgesic effects of segmental tactile stimulation, as compared to extrasegmental touch. However, the spatial organisation of touch-pain interactions within a single human dermatome has not been investigated yet. In 2 experiments we tested whether, how, and where within a dermatome touch modulates the perception of laser-evoked pain. We measured pain perception using intensity ratings, qualitative descriptors, and signal detection measures of sensitivity and response bias. Touch concurrent with laser pulses produced a significant analgesia, and reduced the sensitivity in detecting the energy of laser stimulation, implying a functional loss of information within the ascending Aδ pathway. Touch also produced a bias to judge laser stimuli as less painful. This bias decreased linearly when the distance between the laser and tactile stimuli increased. Thus, our study provides evidence for a spatial organisation of intrasegmental touch-pain interactions. Copyright © 2013 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Seeing touch in the somatosensory cortex: a TMS study of the visual perception of touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bolognini, Nadia; Rossetti, Angela; Maravita, Angelo; Miniussi, Carlo

    2011-12-01

    Recent studies suggest the existence of a visuo-tactile mirror system, comprising the primary (SI) and secondary (SII) somatosensory cortices, which matches observed touch with felt touch. Here, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was used to determine whether SI or SII play a functional role in the visual processing of tactile events. Healthy participants performed a visual discrimination task with tactile stimuli (a finger touching a hand) and a control task (a finger moving without touching). During both tasks, rTMS was applied over either SI or SII, and to the occipital cortex. rTMS over SI selectively reduced subject performance for interpreting whether a contralateral visual tactile stimulus contains a tactile event, whereas SII stimulation impaired visual processing regardless of the tactile component. These findings provide evidence for a multimodal sensory-motor system with mirror properties, where somatic and visual properties of action converge. SI, a cortical area traditionally viewed as modality-specific, is selectively implicated in the visual processing of touch. These results are in line with the existence of a sensory mirror system mediating the embodied simulation concept. Copyright © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  10. ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION REPORT LASER TOUCH AND TECHNOLOGIES, LLC LASER TOUCH MODEL LT-B512

    Science.gov (United States)

    The Environmental Technology Verification report discusses the technology and performance of Laser Touch model LT-B512 targeting device manufactured by Laser Touch and Technologies, LLC, for manual spray painting operations. The relative transfer efficiency (TE) improved an avera...

  11. Nurses' comfort with touch and workplace well-being.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pedrazza, Monica; Minuzzo, Stefania; Berlanda, Sabrina; Trifiletti, Elena

    2015-06-01

    Touch is an essential part of caregiving and has been proved to be useful to reduce pain. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to nurses' perceptions of touch. The aim of this article was to examine the relationship between nurses' feelings of comfort with touch and their well-being at work. A sample of 241 nurses attending a pain management training course completed a questionnaire, including the following measures: Comfort with Touch (CT) scale (task-oriented contact, touch promoting physical comfort, touch providing emotional containment), Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI; emotional exhaustion, cynicism), and Job Satisfaction. Results of structural equation models showed that touch providing emotional containment was the main predictor of emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion, in turn, was positively related to cynicism and negatively related to job satisfaction. In addition, the direct path from touch providing emotional containment to cynicism was significant. Practical implications of the findings are discussed. © The Author(s) 2014.

  12. Optical touch screen based on waveguide sensing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Henrik Chresten; Jakobsen, Michael Linde; Hanson, Steen Grüner

    2011-01-01

    We disclose a simple, optical touch screen technique based on a planar injection molded polymer waveguide, a single laser, and a small linear detector array. The solution significantly reduces the complexity and cost as compared to existing optical touch technologies. Force detection of a touching...

  13. The Meaning of Touch to Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leonard, Katherine E; Kalman, Melanie

    2015-09-01

    To explore the experience of being touched in people diagnosed with cancer and undergoing IV chemotherapy.
 Qualitative, phenomenologic.
 Central New York and northern Pennsylvania, both in the northeastern United States
. 11 Caucasian, English-speaking adults.
. Individual interviews used open-ended questions to explore the meaning of being touched to each participant. Meanings of significant statements, which pertained to the phenomenon under investigation, were formulated hermeneutically. Themes were derived from immersion in the data and extraction of similar and divergent concepts among all interviews, yielding a multidimensional understanding of the meaning of being touched in this sample of participants
. Participants verbalized awareness of and sensitivity to the regard of others who were touching them, including healthcare providers, family, and friends. Patients do not classify a provider's touch as either task or comfort oriented. Meanings evolved in the context of three primary themes. The experience of being touched encompasses the quality of presence of providers, family, or friends. For touch to be regarded as positive, patients must be regarded as inherently whole and equal. The quality of how touch is received is secondary to and flows from the relationship established between patient and provider
. This study adds to the literature in its finding that the fundamental quality of the relationship between patient and provider establishes the perceived quality of touch. Previous studies have primarily divided touch into two categories.

  14. Final Report. Hydrodynamics by high-energy-density plasma flow and hydrodynamics and radiative hydrodynamics with astrophysical application

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    R Paul Drake

    2004-01-01

    OAK-B135 This is the final report from the project Hydrodynamics by High-Energy-Density Plasma Flow and Hydrodynamics and Radiation Hydrodynamics with Astrophysical Applications. This project supported a group at the University of Michigan in the invention, design, performance, and analysis of experiments using high-energy-density research facilities. The experiments explored compressible nonlinear hydrodynamics, in particular at decelerating interfaces, and the radiation hydrodynamics of strong shock waves. It has application to supernovae, astrophysical jets, shock-cloud interactions, and radiative shock waves

  15. The TaSST: Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, G.; Darriba Frederiks, A.; van Dijk, B.; Heylen, D.; Kröse, B.

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we outline the design process of the TaSST (Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch), a touch-sensitive vibrotactile arm sleeve. The TaSST was designed to enable two people to communicate different types of touch over a distance. The touch-sensitive surface of the sleeve consists of a grid of

  16. The TaSST: Tactile sleeve for social touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs; Darriba Frederiks, Aduén; van Dijk, Elisabeth M.A.G.; Heylen, Dirk K.J.; Krose, Ben

    In this paper we outline the design process of the TaSST (Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch), a touch-sensitive vibrotactile arm sleeve. The TaSST was designed to enable two people to communicate different types of touch over a distance. The touch-sensitive surface of the sleeve consists of a grid of

  17. The TaSST - Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs; Darriba Frederiks, Aduén; Van Dijk, Betsy; Heylen, Dirk

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we outline the design process of TaSST (Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch), a touch-sensitive vibrotactile arm sleeve. The TaSST was designed to enable two people to communicate different types of touches over a distance. The touch-sensitive surface of the sleeve consists of a grid of

  18. The Use of Touch in Therapy: Can We Talk?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, Melanie A.

    The empirical literature regarding the use of nonerotic touch in psychotherapy is reviewed. Theoretical and ethical concerns are discussed, including the taboo against touching clients, situations in which touch may be appropriate, and whether or not nonerotic touch leads to erotic touch. It is difficult to design controlled studies for ongoing…

  19. The Role of Interactional Quality in Learning from Touch Screens during Infancy: Context Matters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elizabeth Zack

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Interactional quality has been shown to enhance learning during book reading and play, but has not been examined during touch screen use. Learning to apply knowledge from a touch screen is complex for infants because it involves transfer of learning between a 2-dimensional (2D screen and 3-dimensional (3D object in the physical world. This study uses a touch screen procedure to examine interactional quality measured via maternal structuring, diversity of maternal language, and dyadic emotional responsiveness and infant outcomes during a transfer of learning task. Fifty 15-month-old infants and their mothers participated in this semi-naturalistic teaching task. Mothers were given a 3D object, and a static image of the object presented on a touch screen. Mothers had 5 minutes to teach their infant that a button on the real toy works in the same way as a virtual button on the touch screen (or vice versa. Overall, 64% of infants learned how to make the button work, transferring learning from the touch screen to the 3D object or vice versa. Infants were just as successful in the 3D to 2D transfer direction as they were in the 2D to 3D transfer direction. A cluster analysis based on emotional responsiveness, the proportion of diverse maternal verbal input, and amount of maternal structuring resulted in two levels of interactional quality: high quality and moderate quality. A logistic regression revealed the level of interactional quality predicted infant transfer. Infants were 19 times more likely to succeed and transfer learning between the touch screen and real object if they were in a high interactional quality dyad, even after controlling for infant activity levels. The present findings suggest that interactional quality between mother and infant plays an important role in making touch screens effective teaching tools for infants’ learning.

  20. The Role of Interactional Quality in Learning from Touch Screens during Infancy: Context Matters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zack, Elizabeth; Barr, Rachel

    2016-01-01

    Interactional quality has been shown to enhance learning during book reading and play, but has not been examined during touch screen use. Learning to apply knowledge from a touch screen is complex for infants because it involves transfer of learning between a two-dimensional (2D) screen and three-dimensional (3D) object in the physical world. This study uses a touch screen procedure to examine interactional quality measured via maternal structuring, diversity of maternal language, and dyadic emotional responsiveness and infant outcomes during a transfer of learning task. Fifty 15-month-old infants and their mothers participated in this semi-naturalistic teaching task. Mothers were given a 3D object, and a static image of the object presented on a touch screen. Mothers had 5 min to teach their infant that a button on the real toy works in the same way as a virtual button on the touch screen (or vice versa). Overall, 64% of infants learned how to make the button work, transferring learning from the touch screen to the 3D object or vice versa. Infants were just as successful in the 3D to 2D transfer direction as they were in the 2D to 3D transfer direction. A cluster analysis based on emotional responsiveness, the proportion of diverse maternal verbal input, and amount of maternal structuring resulted in two levels of interactional quality: high quality and moderate quality. A logistic regression revealed the level of interactional quality predicted infant transfer. Infants were 19 times more likely to succeed and transfer learning between the touch screen and real object if they were in a high interactional quality dyad, even after controlling for infant activity levels. The present findings suggest that interactional quality between mother and infant plays an important role in making touch screens effective teaching tools for infants' learning.

  1. ROSETTA lander Philae: Touch-down reconstruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roll, Reinhard; Witte, Lars

    2016-06-01

    The landing of the ROSETTA-mission lander Philae on November 12th 2014 on Comet 67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was planned as a descent with passive landing and anchoring by harpoons at touch-down. Actually the lander was not fixed at touch-down to the ground due to failing harpoons. The lander internal damper was actuated at touch-down for 42.6 mm with a speed of 0.08 m/s while the lander touch-down speed was 1 m/s. The kinetic energy before touch-down was 50 J, 45 J were dissipated by the lander internal damper and by ground penetration at touch-down, and 5 J kinetic energy are left after touch-down (0.325 m/s speed). Most kinetic energy was dissipated by ground penetration (41 J) while only 4 J are dissipated by the lander internal damper. Based on these data, a value for a constant compressive soil-strength of between 1.55 kPa and 1.8 kPa is calculated. This paper focuses on the reconstruction of the touch-down at Agilkia over a period of around 20 s from first ground contact to lift-off again. After rebound Philae left a strange pattern on ground documented by the OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera (NAC). The analysis shows, that the touch-down was not just a simple damped reflection on the surface. Instead the lander had repeated contacts with the surface over a period of about 20 s±10 s. This paper discusses scenarios for the reconstruction of the landing sequence based on the data available and on computer simulations. Simulations are performed with a dedicated mechanical multi-body model of the lander, which was validated previously in numerous ground tests. The SIMPACK simulation software was used, including the option to set forces at the feet to the ground. The outgoing velocity vector is mostly influenced by the timing of the ground contact of the different feet. It turns out that ground friction during damping has strong impact on the lander outgoing velocity, on its rotation, and on its nutation. After the end of damping, the attitude of the lander can be

  2. The communication of emotion via touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hertenstein, Matthew J; Holmes, Rachel; McCullough, Margaret; Keltner, Dacher

    2009-08-01

    The study of emotional communication has focused predominantly on the facial and vocal channels but has ignored the tactile channel. Participants in the current study were allowed to touch an unacquainted partner on the whole body to communicate distinct emotions. Of interest was how accurately the person being touched decoded the intended emotions without seeing the tactile stimulation. The data indicated that anger, fear, disgust, love, gratitude, and sympathy were decoded at greater than chance levels, as well as happiness and sadness, 2 emotions that have not been shown to be communicated by touch to date. Moreover, fine-grained coding documented specific touch behaviors associated with different emotions. The findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to the study of emotion-related communication. 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

  3. Graphene Tribotronics for Electronic Skin and Touch Screen Applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Usman; Kim, Tae-Ho; Ryu, Hanjun; Seung, Wanchul; Kim, Sang-Woo

    2017-01-01

    Graphene tribotronics is introduced for touch-sensing applications such as electronic skins and touch screens. The devices are based on a coplanar coupling of triboelectrification and current transport in graphene transistors. The touch sensors are ultrasensitive, fast, and stable. Furthermore, they are transparent and flexible, and can spatially map touch stimuli such as movement of a ball, multi-touch, etc. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  4. Bimanual Interaction with Interscopic Multi-Touch Surfaces

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schöning, Johannes; Steinicke, Frank; Krüger, Antonio; Hinrichs, Klaus; Valkov, Dimitar

    Multi-touch interaction has received considerable attention in the last few years, in particular for natural two-dimensional (2D) interaction. However, many application areas deal with three-dimensional (3D) data and require intuitive 3D interaction techniques therefore. Indeed, virtual reality (VR) systems provide sophisticated 3D user interface, but then lack efficient 2D interaction, and are therefore rarely adopted by ordinary users or even by experts. Since multi-touch interfaces represent a good trade-off between intuitive, constrained interaction on a touch surface providing tangible feedback, and unrestricted natural interaction without any instrumentation, they have the potential to form the foundation of the next generation user interface for 2D as well as 3D interaction. In particular, stereoscopic display of 3D data provides an additional depth cue, but until now the challenges and limitations for multi-touch interaction in this context have not been considered. In this paper we present new multi-touch paradigms and interactions that combine both traditional 2D interaction and novel 3D interaction on a touch surface to form a new class of multi-touch systems, which we refer to as interscopic multi-touch surfaces (iMUTS). We discuss iMUTS-based user interfaces that support interaction with 2D content displayed in monoscopic mode and 3D content usually displayed stereoscopically. In order to underline the potential of the proposed iMUTS setup, we have developed and evaluated two example interaction metaphors for different domains. First, we present intuitive navigation techniques for virtual 3D city models, and then we describe a natural metaphor for deforming volumetric datasets in a medical context.

  5. Therapeutic touch and post-Hurricane Hugo stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olson, M; Sneed, N; Bonadonna, R; Ratliff, J; Dias, J

    1992-06-01

    This repeated-session design sought to answer questions about the effectiveness of therapeutic touch in reduction of stress for 23 individuals following a natural disaster. In addition, methodological issues related to the average length of time for a therapeutic-touch treatment and a method of documenting the nonverbal interaction between subject and toucher were investigated. Findings indicate that stressed people report themselves to be less stressed following therapeutic touch (p = .05). Time of therapeutic-touch intervention varied significantly between the touchers, with a range of 6.8 to 20 minutes. Qualitative data examining the interaction of toucher and subject raised a number of questions that require further study.

  6. A Collaborative Digital Pathology System for Multi-Touch Mobile and Desktop Computing Platforms

    KAUST Repository

    Jeong, W.

    2013-06-13

    Collaborative slide image viewing systems are becoming increasingly important in pathology applications such as telepathology and E-learning. Despite rapid advances in computing and imaging technology, current digital pathology systems have limited performance with respect to remote viewing of whole slide images on desktop or mobile computing devices. In this paper we present a novel digital pathology client-server system that supports collaborative viewing of multi-plane whole slide images over standard networks using multi-touch-enabled clients. Our system is built upon a standard HTTP web server and a MySQL database to allow multiple clients to exchange image and metadata concurrently. We introduce a domain-specific image-stack compression method that leverages real-time hardware decoding on mobile devices. It adaptively encodes image stacks in a decorrelated colour space to achieve extremely low bitrates (0.8 bpp) with very low loss of image quality. We evaluate the image quality of our compression method and the performance of our system for diagnosis with an in-depth user study. Collaborative slide image viewing systems are becoming increasingly important in pathology applications such as telepathology and E-learning. Despite rapid advances in computing and imaging technology, current digital pathology systems have limited performance with respect to remote viewing of whole slide images on desktop or mobile computing devices. In this paper we present a novel digital pathology client-server systems that supports collaborative viewing of multi-plane whole slide images over standard networks using multi-touch enabled clients. Our system is built upon a standard HTTP web server and a MySQL database to allow multiple clients to exchange image and metadata concurrently. © 2013 The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  7. A Collaborative Digital Pathology System for Multi-Touch Mobile and Desktop Computing Platforms

    KAUST Repository

    Jeong, W.; Schneider, J.; Hansen, A.; Lee, M.; Turney, S. G.; Faulkner-Jones, B. E.; Hecht, J. L.; Najarian, R.; Yee, E.; Lichtman, J. W.; Pfister, H.

    2013-01-01

    Collaborative slide image viewing systems are becoming increasingly important in pathology applications such as telepathology and E-learning. Despite rapid advances in computing and imaging technology, current digital pathology systems have limited performance with respect to remote viewing of whole slide images on desktop or mobile computing devices. In this paper we present a novel digital pathology client-server system that supports collaborative viewing of multi-plane whole slide images over standard networks using multi-touch-enabled clients. Our system is built upon a standard HTTP web server and a MySQL database to allow multiple clients to exchange image and metadata concurrently. We introduce a domain-specific image-stack compression method that leverages real-time hardware decoding on mobile devices. It adaptively encodes image stacks in a decorrelated colour space to achieve extremely low bitrates (0.8 bpp) with very low loss of image quality. We evaluate the image quality of our compression method and the performance of our system for diagnosis with an in-depth user study. Collaborative slide image viewing systems are becoming increasingly important in pathology applications such as telepathology and E-learning. Despite rapid advances in computing and imaging technology, current digital pathology systems have limited performance with respect to remote viewing of whole slide images on desktop or mobile computing devices. In this paper we present a novel digital pathology client-server systems that supports collaborative viewing of multi-plane whole slide images over standard networks using multi-touch enabled clients. Our system is built upon a standard HTTP web server and a MySQL database to allow multiple clients to exchange image and metadata concurrently. © 2013 The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  8. Hydrodynamic interactions of two nearly touching Brownian spheres in a stiff potential: Effect of fluid inertia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Radiom, Milad; Ducker, William; Robbins, Brian; Paul, Mark

    2015-01-01

    The hydrodynamic interaction of two closely spaced micron-scale spheres undergoing Brownian motion was measured as a function of their separation. Each sphere was attached to the distal end of a different atomic force microscopy cantilever, placing each sphere in a stiff one-dimensional potential (0.08 Nm −1 ) with a high frequency of thermal oscillations (resonance at 4 kHz). As a result, the sphere’s inertial and restoring forces were significant when compared to the force due to viscous drag. We explored interparticle gap regions where there was overlap between the two Stokes layers surrounding each sphere. Our experimental measurements are the first of their kind in this parameter regime. The high frequency of oscillation of the spheres means that an analysis of the fluid dynamics would include the effects of fluid inertia, as described by the unsteady Stokes equation. However, we find that, for interparticle separations less than twice the thickness of the wake of the unsteady viscous boundary layer (the Stokes layer), the hydrodynamic interaction between the Brownian particles is well-approximated by analytical expressions that neglect the inertia of the fluid. This is because elevated frictional forces at narrow gaps dominate fluid inertial effects. The significance is that interparticle collisions and concentrated suspensions at this condition can be modeled without the need to incorporate fluid inertia. We suggest a way to predict when fluid inertial effects can be ignored by including the gap-width dependence into the frequency number. We also show that low frequency number analysis can be used to determine the microrheology of mixtures at interfaces

  9. Investigating Maternal Touch and Infants' Self-Regulatory Behaviours during a Modified Face-to-Face Still-Face with Touch Procedure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jean, Amélie D. L.; Stack, Dale M.; Arnold, Sharon

    2014-01-01

    Maternal touch and infants' self-regulatory behaviours were examined during a modified Still-Face with Touch (SF?+?T) procedure. Mothers and their 5½-month-old infants participated in one period of Normal interaction followed by three SF?+?T periods. Maternal functions of touch, and infants' self-regulatory behaviour, affect, and…

  10. Social touch in human–computer interaction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Erp, J.B.F. van; Toet, A.

    2015-01-01

    Touch is our primary non-verbal communication channel for conveying intimate emotions and as such essential for our physical and emotional wellbeing. In our digital age, human social interaction is often mediated. However, even though there is increasing evidence that mediated touch affords

  11. Social touch in human–computer interaction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Erp, Johannes Bernardus Fransiscus; Toet, Alexander

    Touch is our primary non-verbal communication channel for conveying intimate emotions and as such essential for our physical and emotional wellbeing. In our digital age, human social interaction is often mediated. However, even though there is increasing evidence that mediated touch affords

  12. The effects of therapeutic touch on pain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monroe, Carolyn Magdalen

    2009-06-01

    To better understand how Therapeutic Touch can be used in today's health care arena, this integrative literature review will examine current research that will help answer the question, Does Therapeutic Touch reduce pain? An extensive search was conducted of the online databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PsychLIT, and PubMed to retrieve research articles published from 1997 to 2007. Seven studies that were conducted between 1997 and 2004 were found and only five of the seven were included as pertinent evidence to answer the question. All of the research that was reviewed to answer whether Therapeutic Touch could significantly reduce pain revealed a majority of statistically significant positive results for implementing this intervention. Because there are no identified risks to Therapeutic Touch as a pain relief measure, it is safe to recommend despite the limitations of current research. Therapeutic Touch should be considered among the many possible nursing interventions for the treatment of pain.

  13. Fingertip touch improves postural stability in patients with peripheral neuropathy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dickstein, R; Shupert, C L; Horak, F B

    2001-12-01

    The purpose of this work was to determine whether fingertip touch on a stable surface could improve postural stability during stance in subjects with somatosensory loss in the feet from diabetic peripheral neuropathy. The contribution of fingertip touch to postural stability was determined by comparing postural sway in three touch conditions (light, heavy and none) in eight patients and eight healthy control subjects who stood on two surfaces (firm or foam) with eyes open or closed. In the light touch condition, fingertip touch provided only somatosensory information because subjects exerted less than 1 N of force with their fingertip to a force plate, mounted on a vertical support. In the heavy touch condition, mechanical support was available because subjects transmitted as much force to the force plate as they wished. In the no touch condition, subjects held the right forefinger above the force plate. Antero-posterior (AP) and medio-lateral (ML) root mean square (RMS) of center of pressure (CoP) sway and trunk velocity were larger in subjects with somatosensory loss than in control subjects, especially when standing on the foam surface. The effects of light and heavy touch were similar in the somatosensory loss and control groups. Fingertip somatosensory input through light touch attenuated both AP and ML trunk velocity as much as heavy touch. Light touch also reduced CoP sway compared to no touch, although the decrease in CoP sway was less effective than with heavy touch, particularly on the foam surface. The forces that were applied to the touch plate during light touch preceded movements of the CoP, lending support to the suggestion of a feedforward mechanism in which fingertip inputs trigger the activation of postural muscles for controlling body sway. These results have clinical implications for understanding how patients with peripheral neuropathy may benefit from a cane for postural stability in stance.

  14. Performance and touch characteristics of disabled and non-disabled participants during a reciprocal tapping task using touch screen technology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irwin, Curt B; Sesto, Mary E

    2012-11-01

    Touch screens are becoming more prevalent in everyday environments. Therefore, it is important that this technology is accessible to those with varying disabilities. The objective of the current study was to evaluate performance and touch characteristics (forces, impulses, and dwell times) of individuals with and without a movement disorder during a reciprocal tapping touch screen task. Thirty-seven participants with a motor control disability and 15 non-disabled participants participated. Outcome measures include number of correct taps, dwell time, exerted force, and impulse. Results indicate non-disabled participants had 1.8 more taps than participants with fine motor control disabilities and 2.8 times more than those with gross motor impairments (ptouch characteristics exist between those with and without motor control disabilities. Understanding how people (including those with disabilities) interact with touch screens may allow designers and engineers to ultimately improve usability of touch screen technology. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

  15. Touching Hearts, Touching Minds: Using Emotion-Based Messaging to Promote Healthful Behavior in the Massachusetts WIC Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colchamiro, Rachel; Ghiringhelli, Kara; Hause, Judith

    2010-01-01

    The "Touching Hearts, Touching Minds" initiative was funded through a 2003 United States Department of Agriculture Special Projects grant to revitalize nutrition education and services in the Massachusetts Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program. The 30 nutrition education materials and…

  16. Touch panel system for control applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Crook, K.; Johnson, R.

    1976-12-01

    The use of finger-sensitive touch panels in association with computer-generated displays for control and monitoring of the Stanford linear accelerator is discussed. This control concept has proven to be very effective. The hardware and software aspects of the Touch Panel portion of the control system are described

  17. Inventions on GUI for Touch Sensitive Screens

    OpenAIRE

    Mishra, Umakant

    2014-01-01

    A touch sensitive screen displays the information on the screen and also receives the input by sensing a user's touch on the same screen. This mechanism facilitates system interaction directly through the screen without needing a mouse or keyboard. This method has the advantage to make the system compact by removing keyboard, mouse and similar interactive device. However there are certain difficulties to implement a touch screen interface. The display screens of portable devices are becoming ...

  18. Sencha Touch 2 mobile JavaScript framework

    CERN Document Server

    Clark, John Earl

    2013-01-01

    Full of explained code and enriched with screenshots, this book is the practical way to take your Sencha Touch skills to the next level.If you want to gain practical knowledge for using the Sencha Touch mobile web application framework, and you are familiar with HTML and CSS, then this book is for you. It is assumed that you know how to use touchscreens, touch events, and mobile devices such as Apple iOS and Google Android.

  19. Piezoelectric touch-sensitive flexible hybrid energy harvesting nanoarchitectures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choi, Dukhyun; Kim, Eok Su; Kim, Tae Sang; Lee, Sang Yoon; Choi, Jae-Young; Kim, Jong Min; Lee, Keun Young; Lee, Kang Hyuck; Kim, Sang-Woo

    2010-01-01

    In this work, we report a flexible hybrid nanoarchitecture that can be utilized as both an energy harvester and a touch sensor on a single platform without any cross-talk problems. Based on the electron transport and piezoelectric properties of a zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructured thin film, a hybrid cell was designed and the total thickness was below 500 nm on a plastic substrate. Piezoelectric touch signals were demonstrated under independent and simultaneous operations with respect to photo-induced charges. Different levels of piezoelectric output signals from different magnitudes of touching pressures suggest new user-interface functions from our hybrid cell. From a signal controller, the decoupled performance of a hybrid cell as an energy harvester and a touch sensor was confirmed. Our hybrid approach does not require additional assembly processes for such multiplex systems of an energy harvester and a touch sensor since we utilize the coupled material properties of ZnO and output signal processing. Furthermore, the hybrid cell can provide a multi-type energy harvester by both solar and mechanical touching energies.

  20. 'Kiss, cuddle, squeeze': the experiences and meaning of touch among parents of children with autism attending a Touch Therapy Programme.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cullen, Lesley; Barlow, Julie

    2002-09-01

    The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences and meaning of touch between parents and children with autism before and after attending a Touch Therapy Programme. The sample comprised 12 parents (1 father and 11 mothers) of children (1 female and 11 male) with autism. Parents were interviewed before and immediately after the 8-week programme. Pre-programme results suggested that children were controlling the experience of touch. Parents felt 'hurt' in response to the 'aloof nature of autism, and natural parenting instincts (e.g. spontaneous cuddles) were restricted. Post-programme results suggested that children appeared to tolerate touch. Parents reported that routine tasks (e.g. dressing) were accomplished more easily and that children appeared generally more relaxed. Parents reported feeling 'closer' to their children and felt that the touch therapy had opened a communication channel between themselves and their children.

  1. Physiological Effects of Touching Wood

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harumi Ikei

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to clarify the physiological effects of touching wood with the palm, in comparison with touching other materials on brain activity and autonomic nervous activity. Eighteen female university students (mean age, 21.7  ±  1.6 years participated in the study. As an indicator of brain activity, oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb concentrations were measured in the left/right prefrontal cortex using near-infrared time-resolved spectroscopy. Heart rate variability (HRV was used as an indicator of autonomic nervous activity. The high-frequency (HF component of HRV, which reflected parasympathetic nervous activity, and the low-frequency (LF/HF ratio, which reflected sympathetic nervous activity, were measured. Plates of uncoated white oak, marble, tile, and stainless steel were used as tactile stimuli. After sitting at rest with their eyes closed, participants touched the materials for 90 s. As a result, tactile stimulation with white oak significantly (1 decreased the oxy-Hb concentration in the left/right prefrontal cortex relative to marble, tile, and stainless steel and (2 increased ln(HF-reflected parasympathetic nervous activity relative to marble and stainless steel. In conclusion, our study revealed that touching wood with the palm calms prefrontal cortex activity and induces parasympathetic nervous activity more than other materials, thereby inducing physiological relaxation.

  2. Hydrodynamic discrimination of wakes caused by objects of different size or shape in a harbour seal (Phoca vitulina)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wieskotten, S.; Mauck, B.; Miersch, L.

    2011-01-01

    Harbour seals can use their mystacial vibrissae to detect and track hydrodynamic wakes. We investigated the ability of a harbour seal to discriminate objects of different size or shape by their hydrodynamic signature and used particle image velocimetry to identify the hydrodynamic parameters...... that a seal may be using to do so. Hydrodynamic trails were generated by different sized or shaped paddles that were moved in the calm water of an experimental box to produce a characteristic signal. In a two-alternative forced-choice procedure the blindfolded subject was able to discriminate size differences...... of down to 3.6. cm (Weber fraction 0.6) when paddles were moved at the same speed. Furthermore the subject distinguished hydrodynamic signals generated by flat, cylindrical, triangular or undulated paddles of the same width. Particle image velocimetry measurements demonstrated that the seal could have...

  3. Usability of Web Browsers for Multi-touch Platforms

    OpenAIRE

    Khan, Hasan Zaryab

    2010-01-01

    Multi-touch interface is an improvement within the existing touch screen technology, which allows the user to operate the electronic visual display with finger gestures. This work examines how good current web browsers are positioned to avail of the next generation HCI, currently dubbed Natural User Interfaces which are largely multi-touch interfaces at this point in time.

  4. The design of light pipe with microstructures for touch screen

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Bo; Lu, Kan; Liu, Pengfei; Wei, Xiaona

    2010-11-01

    Touch screen has a very wide range of applications. Most of them are used in public information inquiries, for instance, service inquiries in telecommunication bureau, tax bureau, bank system, electric department, etc...Touch screen can also be used for entertainment and virtual reality applications too. Traditionally, touch screen was composed of pairs of infrared LED and correspondent receivers which were all installed in the screen frame. Arrays of LED were set in the adjacent sides of the frame of an infrared touch screen while arrays of the infrared receivers were fixed in each opposite side, so that the infrared detecting network was formed. While the infrared touch screen has some technical limitations nowadays such as the low resolution, limitations of touching methods and fault response due to environmental disturbances. The plastic material has a relatively high absorption rate for infrared light, which greatly limits the size of the touch screen. Our design uses laser diode as source and change the traditional inner structure of touch screen by using a light pipe with microstructures. The geometric parameters of the light pipe and the microstructures were obtained through equation solving. Simulation results prove that the design method for touch screen proposed in this paper could achieve high resolution and large size of touch screen.

  5. The Benefits of Single-Touch Screens in Intersubjective Meaning Making

    OpenAIRE

    Davidsen, Jacob; Christiansen, Ellen Tove

    2013-01-01

    What are the benefits of single-touch screens? The paper presents findings of onevideo extract from ten months of observation of single-touch screen interaction among 8-9 year-old children. Recent studies of collaborative learning mediated by digital touch screens and tabletops emphasize the possibilities for equal levels of verbal and physical participation.Additionally, these studies suggest that multi-touch technologies offer more task-oriented activities compared to single-touch screen in...

  6. Caring touch--patients' experiences in an anthroposophic clinical context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ozolins, Lise-Lotte; Hörberg, Ulrica; Dahlberg, Karin

    2015-12-01

    This study describes the phenomenon of caring touch from the patients' perspective in an anthroposophic clinical context where caring touch is often used to promote health and alleviate suffering. The aim of the study was to explore and phenomenologically describe the phenomenon of caring touch from the patients' perspectives. The study has been carried out with a Reflective Lifeworld Research approach in order to understand and describe human existential phenomena. Ten female patients were interviewed in an anthroposophic clinic in Sweden. The findings show how caring touch has multifaceted meanings and makes the patients' feel present and anchored in a meaningful context. The patients' feel that they are seen, accepted and confirmed. Furthermore, touch creates a caring space where the patients become receptive for care and has the power to alleviate the patients' suffering, as well as to frighten and cause or worsen the suffering. In order to take advantage of the caring potential, the patient needs to be invited to a respectful and sensitive form of touch. An interpersonal flexible space is necessary where the touch can be effective, and where a dynamic interplay can develop. In conclusion, caring touch is an opportunity for carers to support well-being and health. The carers need to approach their patients in both a sensitive and reflective way. A caring science perspective can serve as a help to further understand touch as a unique caring act. © 2015 Nordic College of Caring Science.

  7. Children's Learning from Touch Screens: A Dual Representation Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheehan, Kelly J; Uttal, David H

    2016-01-01

    Parents and educators often expect that children will learn from touch screen devices, such as during joint e-book reading. Therefore an essential question is whether young children understand that the touch screen can be a symbolic medium - that entities represented on the touch screen can refer to entities in the real world. Research on symbolic development suggests that symbolic understanding requires that children develop dual representational abilities, meaning children need to appreciate that a symbol is an object in itself (i.e., picture of a dog) while also being a representation of something else (i.e., the real dog). Drawing on classic research on symbols and new research on children's learning from touch screens, we offer the perspective that children's ability to learn from the touch screen as a symbolic medium depends on the effect of interactivity on children's developing dual representational abilities. Although previous research on dual representation suggests the interactive nature of the touch screen might make it difficult for young children to use as a symbolic medium, the unique interactive affordances may help alleviate this difficulty. More research needs to investigate how the interactivity of the touch screen affects children's ability to connect the symbols on the screen to the real world. Given the interactive nature of the touch screen, researchers and educators should consider both the affordances of the touch screen as well as young children's cognitive abilities when assessing whether young children can learn from it as a symbolic medium.

  8. Grab and Touch

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Esben Warming

    , by supporting multi-touch control, and by allowing efficient interaction with multiple tangibles. These benefits were evaluated in a study that shows that rotation-based interactions were more efficient with Tangible Bots. A second study demonstrated usefulness by observing how electronic musicians use Tangible......Tangible user interfaces seek to make computing natural and ubiquitous by coupling digital information with physical objects. The thesis contributes to this field by presenting empirical research on tangible computing and touch interaction. In the area of tangible computing, the thesis first...... and the results suggest that mixiTUI improved both the audience’s and the musician’s experience. To enhance the interaction with tangible user interfaces,we developed Tangible Bots, a set of active, motorized tangibles. Tangible Bots assist users by providing haptic feedback, by correcting interaction errors...

  9. An automated three-dimensional detection and segmentation method for touching cells by integrating concave points clustering and random walker algorithm.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yong He

    Full Text Available Characterizing cytoarchitecture is crucial for understanding brain functions and neural diseases. In neuroanatomy, it is an important task to accurately extract cell populations' centroids and contours. Recent advances have permitted imaging at single cell resolution for an entire mouse brain using the Nissl staining method. However, it is difficult to precisely segment numerous cells, especially those cells touching each other. As presented herein, we have developed an automated three-dimensional detection and segmentation method applied to the Nissl staining data, with the following two key steps: 1 concave points clustering to determine the seed points of touching cells; and 2 random walker segmentation to obtain cell contours. Also, we have evaluated the performance of our proposed method with several mouse brain datasets, which were captured with the micro-optical sectioning tomography imaging system, and the datasets include closely touching cells. Comparing with traditional detection and segmentation methods, our approach shows promising detection accuracy and high robustness.

  10. Does affective touch influence the virtual reality full body illusion?

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Jong, Jutta R; Keizer, Anouk; Engel, Manja M; Dijkerman, H Chris

    2017-06-01

    The sense of how we experience our physical body as our own represents a fundamental component of human self-awareness. Body ownership can be studied with bodily illusions which are generated by inducing a visuo-tactile conflict where individuals experience illusionary ownership over a fake body or body part, such as a rubber hand. Previous studies showed that different types of touch modulate the strength of experienced ownership over a rubber hand. Specifically, participants experienced more ownership after the rubber hand illusion was induced through affective touch vs non-affective touch. It is, however, unclear whether this effect would also occur for an entire fake body. The aim of this study was, therefore, to investigate whether affective touch modulates the strength of ownership in a virtual reality full body illusion. To elicit this illusion, we used slow (3 cm/s; affective touch) and fast (30 cm/s; non-affective touch) stroking velocities on the participants' abdomen. Both stroking velocities were performed either synchronous or asynchronous (control condition), while participants viewed a virtual body from a first-person-perspective. In our first study, we found that participants experienced more subjective ownership over a virtual body in the affective touch condition, compared to the non-affective touch condition. In our second study, we found higher levels of subjective ownership for synchronous stimulation, compared to asynchronous, for both touch conditions, but failed to replicate the findings from study 1 that show a difference between affective and non-affective touch. We, therefore, cannot conclude unequivocally that affective touch enhances the full-body illusion. Future research is required to study the effects of affective touch on body ownership.

  11. Elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication

    CERN Document Server

    Dowson, D; Hopkins, D W

    1977-01-01

    Elasto-Hydrodynamic Lubrication deals with the mechanism of elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication, that is, the lubrication regime in operation over the small areas where machine components are in nominal point or line contact. The lubrication of rigid contacts is discussed, along with the effects of high pressure on the lubricant and bounding solids. The governing equations for the solution of elasto-hydrodynamic problems are presented.Comprised of 13 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication and representation of contacts by cylinders, followed by a discussio

  12. Elementary classical hydrodynamics

    CERN Document Server

    Chirgwin, B H; Langford, W J; Maxwell, E A; Plumpton, C

    1967-01-01

    Elementary Classical Hydrodynamics deals with the fundamental principles of elementary classical hydrodynamics, with emphasis on the mechanics of inviscid fluids. Topics covered by this book include direct use of the equations of hydrodynamics, potential flows, two-dimensional fluid motion, waves in liquids, and compressible flows. Some general theorems such as Bernoulli's equation are also considered. This book is comprised of six chapters and begins by introducing the reader to the fundamental principles of fluid hydrodynamics, with emphasis on ways of studying the motion of a fluid. Basic c

  13. Homo Tangens, or Man Touching and Tangible

    OpenAIRE

    J Mizinska

    2011-01-01

    The article is devoted to the analysis of the concept sense of touch, which is considered in all its aspects and dimensions. The author's aim is to determine what is touch in terms of philosophy, what types it has and what traditional functions (i.e. prior to the emergence of virtual reality) each of these functions performed. The conducted research allows the author to make a conclusion about the importance of perceiving the role and significance of man as a homo tangens - man touching and t...

  14. Mirror Neurons and Mirror-Touch Synesthesia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linkovski, Omer; Katzin, Naama; Salti, Moti

    2016-05-30

    Since mirror neurons were introduced to the neuroscientific community more than 20 years ago, they have become an elegant and intuitive account for different cognitive mechanisms (e.g., empathy, goal understanding) and conditions (e.g., autism spectrum disorders). Recently, mirror neurons were suggested to be the mechanism underlying a specific type of synesthesia. Mirror-touch synesthesia is a phenomenon in which individuals experience somatosensory sensations when seeing someone else being touched. Appealing as it is, careful delineation is required when applying this mechanism. Using the mirror-touch synesthesia case, we put forward theoretical and methodological issues that should be addressed before relying on the mirror-neurons account. © The Author(s) 2016.

  15. The Will to Touch: David Copperfield’s Hand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pamela K. Gilbert

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available In the nineteenth century, touch was considered to be a more privileged sense than has been generally noted, and the hand was pre-eminently the site of active touching. The hand comes newly to rival the face in descriptive significance in mid-nineteenth-century fiction, and reflects contemporary notions of the role of touch in the exercise of the will and the development of the sensorium. This article explores medical and philosophical understandings of embodied touch within the period, and examines why the hand emerged as a focal point for scientific, poetic, and popular discussion. Such scientists as Charles Bell, Herbert Spencer, and Alexander Bain tend to work within two paradigms: the hand as a site of sensory input that forms a conduit between inner and outer worlds, and the hand as an instrument of the will. The article explores Dickens's use of these ideas about touch and development in his 1850 'Bildungsroman', 'David Copperfield'. David struggles to establish his proper status as a middle-class male, in part by learning to use his hands to impose his own will and to resist the dominance of inappropriate others through touch.

  16. Children's Learning from Touch Screens: A Dual Representation perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kelly Jean Sheehan

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Parents and educators often expect that children will learn from touch screen devices, such as during joint e-book reading. Therefore an essential question is whether young children understand that the touch screen can be a symbolic medium – that entities represented on the touch screen can refer to entities in the real world. Research on symbolic development suggests that symbolic understanding requires that children develop dual representational abilities, meaning children need to appreciate that a symbol is an object in itself (i.e., picture of a dog while also being a representation of something else (i.e., the real dog. Drawing on classic research on symbols and new research on children’s learning from touch screens, we offer the perspective that children’s ability to learn from the touch screen as a symbolic medium depends on the effect of interactivity on children’s developing dual representational abilities. Although previous research on dual representation suggests the interactive nature of the touch screen might make it difficult for young children to use as a symbolic medium, the unique interactive affordances may help alleviate this difficulty. More research needs to investigate how the interactivity of the touch screen affects children’s ability to connect the symbols on the screen to the real world. Given the interactive nature of the touch screen, researchers and educators should consider both the affordances of the touch screen as well as young children’s cognitive abilities when assessing whether young children can learn from it as a symbolic medium.

  17. Homo Tangens, or Man Touching and Tangible

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J Mizinska

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available The article is devoted to the analysis of the concept sense of touch, which is considered in all its aspects and dimensions. The author's aim is to determine what is touch in terms of philosophy, what types it has and what traditional functions (i.e. prior to the emergence of virtual reality each of these functions performed. The conducted research allows the author to make a conclusion about the importance of perceiving the role and significance of man as a homo tangens - man touching and tangible.

  18. Archaeologies of touch interfacing with haptics from electricity to computing

    CERN Document Server

    Parisi, David

    2018-01-01

    David Parisi offers the first full history of new computing technologies known as haptic interfaces--which use electricity, vibration, and force feedback to stimulate the sense of touch--showing how the efforts of scientists and engineers over the past 300 years have gradually remade and redefined our sense of touch. Archaeologies of Touch offers a timely and provocative engagement with the long history of touch technology that helps us confront and question the power relations underpinning the project of giving touch its own set of technical media.

  19. Touch Surgery™

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Arun Kumar Agnihotri

    Available for Android and iOS. With regard to the teaching of undergraduate surgery, there is a lot of ... Until now. We now have Touch Surgery™, an app available for the iOS and Android platforms. This is a ... authentication of professional standing which is limited for users in most countries. The use of the app, however, for ...

  20. Rapid Assessment of Contrast Sensitivity with Mobile Touch-screens

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mulligan, Jeffrey B.

    2013-01-01

    The availability of low-cost high-quality touch-screen displays in modern mobile devices has created opportunities for new approaches to routine visual measurements. Here we describe a novel method in which subjects use a finger swipe to indicate the transition from visible to invisible on a grating which is swept in both contrast and frequency. Because a single image can be swiped in about a second, it is practical to use a series of images to zoom in on particular ranges of contrast or frequency, both to increase the accuracy of the measurements and to obtain an estimate of the reliability of the subject. Sensitivities to chromatic and spatio-temporal modulations are easily measured using the same method. We will demonstrate a prototype for Apple Computer's iPad-iPod-iPhone family of devices, implemented using an open-source scripting environment known as QuIP (QUick Image Processing,

  1. Contact high: Mania proneness and positive perception of emotional touches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Piff, Paul K; Purcell, Amanda; Gruber, June; Hertenstein, Matthew J; Keltner, Dacher

    2012-01-01

    How do extreme degrees of positive emotion-such as those characteristic of mania-influence emotion perception? The present study investigated how mania proneness, assessed using the Hypomanic Personality Scale, influences the perception of emotion via touch. Using a validated dyadic interaction paradigm for communicating emotion through touch (Hertenstein, Keltner, App, Bulleit, & Jaskolka, 2006), participants (N=53) received eight different touches to their forearm from a stranger and then identified the emotion via forced-choice methodology. Mania proneness predicted increased overall accuracy in touch perception, particularly for positive emotion touches, as well as the over-attribution of positive and under-attribution of negative emotions across all touches. These findings highlight the effects of positive emotion extremes on the perception of emotion in social interactions.

  2. Touch, and you will gaze

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bruun, Anders; Hahn, Claudia; Voigt, Benjamin

    2013-01-01

    This study extends previous research by exploring the quality of the interaction experienced by a group of elderly participants interacting with a healthcare portal when applying a touch screen remote control. This is compared to a standard remote control with physical buttons.......This study extends previous research by exploring the quality of the interaction experienced by a group of elderly participants interacting with a healthcare portal when applying a touch screen remote control. This is compared to a standard remote control with physical buttons....

  3. An Algorithm of Calculating the Position in a Self-Capacitance Touch Screen

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Huan; Peng, Haiyan; Qian, Xiaoli; Ren, Can; Wang, Wentao; Li, Jianjun

    Touch screens have been widely used in many kinds of electronic products. For many capacitive touch sensing devices, they always suffer from a variety of electronic signal noises. So when a finger touches the screen, it is difficult to calculate the exact touch position on the screen. We proposed an algorithm of calculating the position in a self-capacitance touch screen to alleviate noise interference. We determined the touch region by calculating the differences between current data and reference data in every channel. In the touch region we divided it into different ranges to calculate the touch point. The simulation results show that the algorithm that we proposed can alleviate noise interference effectively and obtain the exact positioning on touch screen accurately.

  4. Experiences with Interactive Multi-touch Tables

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fikkert, Wim; Hakvoort, Michiel; van der Vet, Paul; Nijholt, Anton

    Interactive multi-touch tables can be a powerful means of communication for collaborative work as well as an engaging environment for competition. Through enticing gameplay we have evaluated user experience on competitive gameplay, collaborative work and musical expression. In addition, we report on our extensive experiences with two types of interactive multi-touch tables and we introduce a software framework that abstracts from their technical differences.

  5. The Benefits of Single-Touch Screens in Intersubjective Meaning Making

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Davidsen, Jacob; Christiansen, Ellen Tove

    2013-01-01

    the possibilities for equal levels of verbal and physical participation.Additionally, these studies suggest that multi-touch technologies offer more task-oriented activities compared to single-touch screen interaction, in which discussion about turn-taking is more prevalent from the outset. In contrast, applying......What are the benefits of single-touch screens? The paper presents findings of one video extract from ten months of observation of single-touch screen interaction among 8-9 year-old children. Recent studies of collaborative learning mediated by digital touch screens and tabletops emphasize...... the Embodied Interaction Analysis, we find that the constraints of single-touch screens offer support for intersubjective meaning making in their capacity of constraining the interaction. This “grain of sand” shows how children display and construct a shared work space through embodied interaction...

  6. Taking Your iPod touch to the Max

    CERN Document Server

    Sadun, Erica

    2010-01-01

    Unleash your iPhone and take it to the limit using secret tips and techniques from gadget hacker Erica Sadun. Fast and fun to read, Taking Your iPod touch 4 to the Max is fully updated to show you how get the most out of Apple's new OS 4. You'll find all the best undocumented tricks as well as the most efficient and enjoyable introduction to the iPhone available. Starting with an introduction to iPod touch 4 basics, you'll quickly move on to discover the iPod touch's hidden potential, like how to connect to a TV, get contract-free VOIP, and hack OS 4 so it will run apps on your iPod touch. Fro

  7. Touch design and narrative interpretation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhao, Sumin; Unsworth, Len

    2016-01-01

    and the Bottle in depth, and illustrate how interactive design elements help to create an interpretative possibility of the story. We suggest that a better understanding of interactive touch design would promote more effective adult-child interactions around mobile applications....... of technology, but also a resource for meaning making. We distinguish two basic types of interactivity—intra-text and extra-text—incorporated in the touch design, and explore the different functions they perform in a broad range of picture book apps. In particular, we look at the app version of The Heart...

  8. The Power of Touch: Nonverbal Communication within Married Dyads

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Joann C. Seeman; Vogel, David L.; Madon, Stephanie; Edwards, Sarah R.

    2011-01-01

    Researchers have suggested that one function of touch in mixed-sex interactions is to exert influence over another person. Yet theories offer different explanations as to when women and men will use touch as an influence strategy. The gender politics hypothesis proposes that men touch more as a way to maintain inequalities present in society. In…

  9. Patterns of Touching between Preschool Children and Their Parents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fialkov, Claire; And Others

    Twenty 2- to 5-year-old children were observed during separate play with their mothers and fathers in an attempt to more clearly define patterns of touching. Specific purposes of the study were: (1) to identify the different functions of touch; (2) to determine the frequency of occurrence and duration of different types of touches; (3) to describe…

  10. AGATE: Autonomous Go and Touch Exploration, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The innovation (AGATE, for Autonomous Go And Touch Exploration) will enable single-sol "go and touch" instrument placement from distances of up to five meters for...

  11. Hyperbolic metamaterial lens with hydrodynamic nonlocal response

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yan, Wei; Mortensen, N. Asger; Wubs, Martijn

    2013-01-01

    We investigate the effects of hydrodynamic nonlocal response in hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs), focusing on the experimentally realizable parameter regime where unit cells are much smaller than an optical wavelength but much larger than the wavelengths of the longitudinal pressure waves...... of the free-electron plasma in the metal constituents. We derive the nonlocal corrections to the effective material parameters analytically, and illustrate the noticeable nonlocal effects on the dispersion curves numerically. As an application, we find that the focusing characteristics of a HMM lens...... in the local-response approximation and in the hydrodynamic Drude model can differ considerably. In particular, the optimal frequency for imaging in the nonlocal theory is blueshifted with respect to that in the local theory. Thus, to detect whether nonlocal response is at work in a hyperbolic metamaterial, we...

  12. Cooling the thermal grill illusion through self-touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kammers, Marjolein P M; de Vignemont, Frédérique; Haggard, Patrick

    2010-10-26

    Acute peripheral pain is reduced by multisensory interactions at the spinal level [1]. Central pain is reduced by reorganization of cortical body representations [2, 3]. We show here that acute pain can also be reduced by multisensory integration through self-touch, which provides proprioceptive, thermal, and tactile input forming a coherent body representation [4, 5]. We combined self-touch with the thermal grill illusion (TGI) [6]. In the traditional TGI, participants press their fingers on two warm objects surrounding one cool object. The warm surround unmasks pain pathways, which paradoxically causes the cool object to feel painfully hot. Here, we warmed the index and ring fingers of each hand while cooling the middle fingers. Immediately after, these three fingers of the right hand were touched against the same three fingers on the left hand. This self-touch caused a dramatic 64% reduction in perceived heat. We show that this paradoxical release from paradoxical heat cannot be explained by low-level touch-temperature interactions alone. To reduce pain, we often clutch a painful hand with the other hand. We show here that self-touch not only gates pain signals reaching the brain [7-9] but also, via multisensory integration, increases coherence of cognitive body representations to which pain afferents project [10]. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Topography of social touching depends on emotional bonds between humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suvilehto, Juulia T; Glerean, Enrico; Dunbar, Robin I M; Hari, Riitta; Nummenmaa, Lauri

    2015-11-10

    Nonhuman primates use social touch for maintenance and reinforcement of social structures, yet the role of social touch in human bonding in different reproductive, affiliative, and kinship-based relationships remains unresolved. Here we reveal quantified, relationship-specific maps of bodily regions where social touch is allowed in a large cross-cultural dataset (N = 1,368 from Finland, France, Italy, Russia, and the United Kingdom). Participants were shown front and back silhouettes of human bodies with a word denoting one member of their social network. They were asked to color, on separate trials, the bodily regions where each individual in their social network would be allowed to touch them. Across all tested cultures, the total bodily area where touching was allowed was linearly dependent (mean r(2) = 0.54) on the emotional bond with the toucher, but independent of when that person was last encountered. Close acquaintances and family members were touched for more reasons than less familiar individuals. The bodily area others are allowed to touch thus represented, in a parametric fashion, the strength of the relationship-specific emotional bond. We propose that the spatial patterns of human social touch reflect an important mechanism supporting the maintenance of social bonds.

  14. Topography of social touching depends on emotional bonds between humans

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suvilehto, Juulia T.; Glerean, Enrico; Dunbar, Robin I. M.; Hari, Riitta; Nummenmaa, Lauri

    2015-01-01

    Nonhuman primates use social touch for maintenance and reinforcement of social structures, yet the role of social touch in human bonding in different reproductive, affiliative, and kinship-based relationships remains unresolved. Here we reveal quantified, relationship-specific maps of bodily regions where social touch is allowed in a large cross-cultural dataset (N = 1,368 from Finland, France, Italy, Russia, and the United Kingdom). Participants were shown front and back silhouettes of human bodies with a word denoting one member of their social network. They were asked to color, on separate trials, the bodily regions where each individual in their social network would be allowed to touch them. Across all tested cultures, the total bodily area where touching was allowed was linearly dependent (mean r2 = 0.54) on the emotional bond with the toucher, but independent of when that person was last encountered. Close acquaintances and family members were touched for more reasons than less familiar individuals. The bodily area others are allowed to touch thus represented, in a parametric fashion, the strength of the relationship-specific emotional bond. We propose that the spatial patterns of human social touch reflect an important mechanism supporting the maintenance of social bonds. PMID:26504228

  15. Laterality of foetal self-touch in relation to maternal stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reissland, Nadja; Aydin, Ezra; Francis, Brian; Exley, Kendra

    2015-01-01

    This longitudinal observational study investigated whether foetuses change their hand preference with gestational age, and also examined the effects of maternal stress on lateralized foetal self-touch. Following ethical approval, fifteen healthy foetuses (eight girls and seven boys) were scanned four times from 24 to 36 weeks gestation. Self-touch behaviours which resulted in a touch of the foetal face/head were coded in 60 scans for 10 min and analysed in terms of frequency of the foetuses using left and right hands to touch their face. The joint effects of foetal age, stress and sex on laterality were assessed. We modelled the proportion of right self-touches for each foetal scan using a generalized linear mixed model, taking account of the repeated measures design. There was substantial variability in hand preference between foetuses. However, there was no significant increase in the proportion of right-handed touches with foetal age. No sex differences in handedness were identified. However, maternally reported stress level was significantly positively related to foetal left-handed self-touches (odds ratio 0.915; p < .0001). This longitudinal study provides important new insights into the effect of recent maternal stress on foetal predominant hand use during self-touch.

  16. Galaxy Tab Covers Samsung TouchWiz Interface

    CERN Document Server

    Gralla, Preston

    2011-01-01

    Galaxy Tab lets you work, play, read, and connect on the go, but mastering its TouchWiz interface and finding the best apps can be tricky-unless you have this Missing Manual. Gadget whiz Preston Gralla provides crystal-clear explanations and step-by-step instructions to get you up to speed quickly, whether you have the 3G/4G or Wi-Fi version of this amazing device. The important stuff you need to know: Design your experience. Add interactive widgets and mini-apps to your screen with TouchWiz.Satisfy your appetite. Download thousands of games and apps from the Android Market.Keep in touch. Ch

  17. Reactions, accuracy and response complexity of numerical typing on touch screens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Cheng-Jhe; Wu, Changxu

    2013-01-01

    Touch screens are popular nowadays as seen on public kiosks, industrial control panels and personal mobile devices. Numerical typing is one frequent task performed on touch screens, but this task on touch screen is subject to human errors and slow responses. This study aims to find innate differences of touch screens from standard physical keypads in the context of numerical typing by eliminating confounding issues. Effects of precise visual feedback and urgency of numerical typing were also investigated. The results showed that touch screens were as accurate as physical keyboards, but reactions were indeed executed slowly on touch screens as signified by both pre-motor reaction time and reaction time. Provision of precise visual feedback caused more errors, and the interaction between devices and urgency was not found on reaction time. To improve usability of touch screens, designers should focus more on reducing response complexity and be cautious about the use of visual feedback. The study revealed that slower responses on touch screens involved more complex human cognition to formulate motor responses. Attention should be given to designing precise visual feedback appropriately so that distractions or visual resource competitions can be avoided to improve human performance on touch screens.

  18. Touch Attenuates Infants' Physiological Reactivity to Stress

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feldman, Ruth; Singer, Magi; Zagoory, Orna

    2010-01-01

    Animal studies demonstrate that maternal touch and contact regulate infant stress, and handling during periods of maternal deprivation attenuates the stress response. To measure the effects of touch on infant stress reactivity during simulated maternal deprivation, 53 dyads were tested in two paradigms: still-face (SF) and still-face with maternal…

  19. Mining MaNGA for Merging Galaxies: A New Imaging and Kinematic Technique from Hydrodynamical Simulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nevin, Becky; Comerford, Julia M.; Blecha, Laura

    2018-06-01

    Merging galaxies play a key role in galaxy evolution, and progress in our understanding of galaxy evolution is slowed by the difficulty of making accurate galaxy merger identifications. Mergers are typically identified using imaging alone, which has its limitations and biases. With the growing popularity of integral field spectroscopy (IFS), it is now possible to use kinematic signatures to improve galaxy merger identifications. I use GADGET-3 hydrodynamical simulations of merging galaxies with the radiative transfer code SUNRISE, the later of which enables me to apply the same analysis to simulations and observations. From the simulated galaxies, I have developed the first merging galaxy classification scheme that is based on kinematics and imaging. Utilizing a Linear Discriminant Analysis tool, I have determined which kinematic and imaging predictors are most useful for identifying mergers of various merger parameters (such as orientation, mass ratio, gas fraction, and merger stage). I will discuss the strengths and limitations of the classification technique and then my initial results for applying the classification to the >10,000 observed galaxies in the MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point) IFS survey. Through accurate identification of merging galaxies in the MaNGA survey, I will advance our understanding of supermassive black hole growth in galaxy mergers and other open questions related to galaxy evolution.

  20. Invariant description of solutions of hydrodynamic-type systems in hodograph space: hydrodynamic surfaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ferapontov, E.V.

    2002-01-01

    Hydrodynamic surfaces are solutions of hydrodynamic-type systems viewed as non-parametrized submanifolds of the hodograph space. We propose an invariant differential-geometric characterization of hydrodynamic surfaces by expressing the curvature form of the characteristic web in terms of the reciprocal invariants. (author)

  1. Children’s Learning from Touch Screens: A Dual Representation Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheehan, Kelly J.; Uttal, David H.

    2016-01-01

    Parents and educators often expect that children will learn from touch screen devices, such as during joint e-book reading. Therefore an essential question is whether young children understand that the touch screen can be a symbolic medium – that entities represented on the touch screen can refer to entities in the real world. Research on symbolic development suggests that symbolic understanding requires that children develop dual representational abilities, meaning children need to appreciate that a symbol is an object in itself (i.e., picture of a dog) while also being a representation of something else (i.e., the real dog). Drawing on classic research on symbols and new research on children’s learning from touch screens, we offer the perspective that children’s ability to learn from the touch screen as a symbolic medium depends on the effect of interactivity on children’s developing dual representational abilities. Although previous research on dual representation suggests the interactive nature of the touch screen might make it difficult for young children to use as a symbolic medium, the unique interactive affordances may help alleviate this difficulty. More research needs to investigate how the interactivity of the touch screen affects children’s ability to connect the symbols on the screen to the real world. Given the interactive nature of the touch screen, researchers and educators should consider both the affordances of the touch screen as well as young children’s cognitive abilities when assessing whether young children can learn from it as a symbolic medium. PMID:27570516

  2. A review of sensing technologies for small and large-scale touch panels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akhtar, Humza; Kemao, Qian; Kakarala, Ramakrishna

    2017-06-01

    A touch panel is an input device for human computer interaction. It consists of a network of sensors, a sampling circuit and a micro controller for detecting and locating a touch input. Touch input can come from either finger or stylus depending upon the type of touch technology. These touch panels provide an intuitive and collaborative workspace so that people can perform various tasks with the use of their fingers instead of traditional input devices like keyboard and mouse. Touch sensing technology is not new. At the time of this writing, various technologies are available in the market and this paper reviews the most common ones. We review traditional designs and sensing algorithms for touch technology. We also observe that due to its various strengths, capacitive touch will dominate the large-scale touch panel industry in years to come. In the end, we discuss the motivation for doing academic research on large-scale panels.

  3. A Modified Tactile Brush Algorithm for Complex Touch Gestures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ragan, Eric [Texas A& M University

    2015-01-01

    Several researchers have investigated phantom tactile sensation (i.e., the perception of a nonexistent actuator between two real actuators) and apparent tactile motion (i.e., the perception of a moving actuator due to time delays between onsets of multiple actuations). Prior work has focused primarily on determining appropriate Durations of Stimulation (DOS) and Stimulus Onset Asynchronies (SOA) for simple touch gestures, such as a single finger stroke. To expand upon this knowledge, we investigated complex touch gestures involving multiple, simultaneous points of contact, such as a whole hand touching the arm. To implement complex touch gestures, we modified the Tactile Brush algorithm to support rectangular areas of tactile stimulation.

  4. Touch Processing and Social Behavior in ASD

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miguel, Helga O.; Sampaio, Adriana; Martínez-Regueiro, Rocío; Gómez-Guerrero, Lorena; López-Dóriga, Cristina Gutiérrez; Gómez, Sonia; Carracedo, Ángel; Fernández-Prieto, Montse

    2017-01-01

    Abnormal patterns of touch processing have been linked to core symptoms in ASD. This study examined the relation between tactile processing patterns and social problems in 44 children and adolescents with ASD, aged 6-14 (M = 8.39 ± 2.35). Multiple linear regression indicated significant associations between touch processing and social problems. No…

  5. Touch in primary care consultations: qualitative investigation of doctors’ and patients’ perceptions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cocksedge, Simon; George, Bethan; Renwick, Sophie; Chew-Graham, Carolyn A

    2013-01-01

    Background Good communication skills are integral to successful doctor–patient relationships. Communication may be verbal or non-verbal, and touch is a significant component, which has received little attention in the primary care literature. Touch may be procedural (part of a clinical task) or expressive (contact unrelated to a procedure/examination). Aim To explore GPs’ and patients’ experiences of using touch in consultations. Design and setting Qualitative study in urban and semi-rural areas of north-west England. Method Participating GPs recruited registered patients with whom they felt they had an ongoing relationship. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews and subjected to constant comparative qualitative analysis. Results All participants described the importance of verbal and non-verbal communication in developing relationships. Expressive touch was suggested to improve communication quality by most GPs and all patients. GPs reported a lower threshold for using touch with older patients or those who were bereaved, and with patients of the same sex as themselves. All patient responders felt touch on the hand or forearm was appropriate. GPs described limits to using touch, with some responders rarely using anything other than procedural touch. In contrast, most patient responders believed expressive touch was acceptable, especially in situations of distress. All GP responders feared misinterpretation in their use of touch, but patients were keen that these concerns should not prevent doctors using expressive touch in consultations. Conclusion Expressive touch improves interactions between GPs and patients. Increased educational emphasis on the conscious use of expressive touch would enhance clinical communication and, hence, perhaps patient wellbeing and care. PMID:23540485

  6. Therapeutic touch: influence on vital signs of newborns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramada, Nadia Christina Oliveira; Almeida, Fabiane de Amorim; Cunha, Mariana Lucas da Rocha

    2013-01-01

    ABSTRACT Objective>: To compare vital signs before and after the therapeutic touch observed in hospitalized newborns in neonatal intensive care unit. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study performed at a neonatal intensive care unit of a municipal hospital, in the city of São Paulo (SP), Brazil. The sample included 40 newborns submitted to the therapeutic touch after a painful procedure. We evaluated the vital signs, such as heart and respiratory rates, temperature and pain intensity, before and after the therapeutic touch. Results: The majority of newborns were male (n=28; 70%), pre-term (n=19; 52%) and born from vaginal delivery (n=27; 67%). Respiratory distress was the main reason for hospital admission (n=16; 40%). There was a drop in all vital signs after therapeutic touch, particularly in pain score, which had a considerable reduction in the mean values, from 3.37 (SD=1.31) to 0 (SD=0.0). All differences found were statistically significant by the Wilcoxon test (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results showed that therapeutic touch promotes relaxation of the baby, favoring reduction in vital signs and, consequently in the basal metabolism rate. PMID:24488378

  7. Temperature-touch interaction: Weber's phenomenon revisited.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stevens, J C; Green, B G

    1978-09-01

    The six experiments reported here stemmed from Weber's (E. H. Weber, In R. Wagner (Ed.), Handwnörterbuch der Physiologie, 1846. Vol. 3, pp. 481-588) report that cold objects on the forehead feel heavier than warm ones, implying an effect of temperature on the touch modality. The experiments arrived at first-order answers to how temperature, force of stimulation, areal size of stimulation, and body locus might influence the magnitude of touch sensation. Typically, concomitant cooling greatly intensifies touch magnitude as perceived via the forehead and the forearm. Warning has little or no effect via the forehead but gives a significant intensification (less pronounced than that of cooling) on the forearm. When the areal size of the stimulation becomes very small, the intensification effects cannot be reliably demonstrated. The findings are reviewed in the light of what is known about the physiology of the cutaneous nerves.

  8. Helping Hands: Designing Video Games with Interpersonal Touch Interaction

    OpenAIRE

    Watts , Cody; Sharlin , Ehud; Woytiuk , Peter

    2010-01-01

    International audience; Increasingly, the movements of players' physical bodies are being used as a method of controlling and playing video games. This trend is evidenced by the recent development of interpersonal touch-based games; multiplayer games which players control by physically touching their partners. Although a small number of interpersonal touch-based games have recently been designed, the best practices for creating video games based on this unconventional interaction technique re...

  9. The Effects of Using Touch-Screen Devices on Students' Molecular Visualization and Representational Competence Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCollum, Brett M.; Regier, Lisa; Leong, Jaque; Simpson, Sarah; Sterner, Shayne

    2014-01-01

    The impact of touch-screen technology on spatial cognitive skills as related to molecular geometries was assessed through 102 one-on-one interviews with undergraduate students. Participants were provided with either printed 2D ball-and-stick images of molecules or manipulable projections of 3D molecular structures on an iPad. Following a brief…

  10. Merkel cells and neurons keep in touch

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woo, Seung-Hyun; Lumpkin, Ellen A.; Patapoutian, Ardem

    2014-01-01

    The Merkel cell-neurite complex is a unique vertebrate touch receptor comprising two distinct cell types in the skin. Its presence in touch-sensitive skin areas was recognized more than a century ago, but the functions of each cell type in sensory transduction have been unclear. Three recent studies demonstrate that Merkel cells are mechanosensitive cells that function in touch transduction via Piezo2. One study concludes that Merkel cells rather than sensory neurons are principal sites of mechanotransduction, whereas the other two studies report that both Merkel cells and neurons encode mechanical inputs. Together, these studies settle a longstanding debate on whether Merkel cells are mechanosensory cells, and enable future investigations of how these skin cells communicate with neurons. PMID:25480024

  11. Touch sensitive electrorheological fluid based tactile display

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yanju; Davidson, Rob; Taylor, Paul

    2005-12-01

    A tactile display is programmable device whose controlled surface is intended to be investigated by human touch. It has a great number of potential applications in the field of virtual reality and elsewhere. In this research, a 5 × 5 tactile display array including electrorheological (ER) fluid has been developed and investigated. Force responses of the tactile display array have been measured while a probe was moved across the upper surface. The purpose of this was to simulate the action of touch performed by human finger. Experimental results show that the sensed surface information could be controlled effectively by adjusting the voltage activation pattern imposed on the tactels. The performance of the tactile display is durable and repeatable. The touch sensitivity of this ER fluid based tactile display array has also been investigated in this research. The results show that it is possible to sense the touching force normal to the display's surface by monitoring the change of current passing through the ER fluid. These encouraging results are helpful for constructing a new type of tactile display based on ER fluid which can act as both sensor and actuator at the same time.

  12. Hydrodynamic determination of the moving direction of an artificial fin by a harbour seal (Phoca vitulina).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wieskotten, S; Dehnhardt, G; Mauck, B; Miersch, L; Hanke, W

    2010-07-01

    Harbour seals can use their vibrissal system to detect and follow hydrodynamic trails left by moving objects. In this study we determined the maximum time after which a harbour seal could indicate the moving direction of an artificial fish tail and analysed the hydrodynamic parameters allowing the discrimination. Hydrodynamic trails were generated using a fin-like paddle moving from left to right or from right to left in the calm water of an experimental box. The blindfolded seal was able to recognise the direction of the paddle movement when the hydrodynamic trail was up to 35 s old. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) revealed that the seal might have perceived and used two different hydrodynamic parameters to determine the moving direction of the fin-like paddle. The structure and spatial arrangement of the vortices in the hydrodynamic trail and high water velocities between two counter-rotating vortices are characteristic of the movement direction and are within the sensory range of the seal.

  13. Reach out and touch somebody's virtual hand : Affectively connected through mediated touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Toet, A.; Erp, J.B.F. van; Petrignani, F.F.; Dufrasnes, M.H.; Sahhashivan, A.

    2013-01-01

    We present the design of a haptic computer accessory that adds the experience of touch to online conversations. It enables dyads to exchange the physical experience of holding hands regardless of distance and location. Text, speech and video communication systems support the transmission of several

  14. Mirror-Touch and Ticker Tape Perceptions in Synesthesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Charlotte Anne Chun

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available A fundamental question in the field of synesthesia is whether it is associated with other cognitive phenomena. The current study examined synesthesia’s connections with phenomenal traits of mirror-touch and ticker tape experiences, as well as the representation of the three phenomena in the population, across gender and domain of work/study. Mirror-touch is the automatic, involuntary experience of tactile sensation on one's own body when others are being touched. For example, seeing another person’s arm being stroked can evoke physical touch sensation on one’s own arm. Ticker tape is the automatic visualization of spoken words or thoughts, such as a teleprompter. For example, when spoken to, a ticker taper might see mentally the spoken words displayed in front of his face or as coming out of the speaker’s mouth. To explore synesthesia’s associations with these phenomena, a diverse group (n=3,743 was systematically recruited from eight universities and one public museum in France to complete an online screening. Of the 1,017 eligible respondents, synesthetes (across all subtypes reported higher rates of mirror-touch and ticker tape than non-synesthetes, suggesting that synesthesia is associated with these phenomenal traits. However effect size was small and we could not rule out that response bias influenced these associations. Mirror-touch and ticker tape were independent. No differences were found across gender or domain of work and study in prevalence of synesthesia, mirror-touch or ticker tape. The prevalence of ticker tape, unknown so far, was estimated at about 7%, an intermediate rate between estimates of grapheme-color (2 to 4% and sequence-space synesthesia (9 to 14%. Within synesthesia, grapheme-personification, also called ordinal-linguistic personification was the most common subtype and was estimated around 12%. Co-occurences of the different types of synesthesia were higher than chance, though at the level of small effect

  15. Parental Reports on Touch Screen Use in Early Childhood.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alejandrina Cristia

    Full Text Available Touch screens are increasingly prevalent, and anecdotal evidence suggests that young children are very drawn towards them. Yet there is little data regarding how young children use them. A brief online questionnaire queried over 450 French parents of infants between the ages of 5 and 40 months on their young child's use of touch-screen technology. Parents estimated frequency of use, and further completed several checklists. Results suggest that, among respondent families, the use of touch screens is widespread in early childhood, meaning that most children have some exposure to touch screens. Among child users, certain activities are more frequently reported to be liked than others, findings that we discuss in light of current concern for children's employment of time and the cognitive effects of passive media exposure. Additionally, these parental reports point to clear developmental trends for certain types of interactive gestures. These results contribute to the investigation of touch screen use on early development and suggest a number of considerations that should help improve the design of applications geared towards toddlers, particularly for scientific purposes.

  16. Parental Reports on Touch Screen Use in Early Childhood.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cristia, Alejandrina; Seidl, Amanda

    2015-01-01

    Touch screens are increasingly prevalent, and anecdotal evidence suggests that young children are very drawn towards them. Yet there is little data regarding how young children use them. A brief online questionnaire queried over 450 French parents of infants between the ages of 5 and 40 months on their young child's use of touch-screen technology. Parents estimated frequency of use, and further completed several checklists. Results suggest that, among respondent families, the use of touch screens is widespread in early childhood, meaning that most children have some exposure to touch screens. Among child users, certain activities are more frequently reported to be liked than others, findings that we discuss in light of current concern for children's employment of time and the cognitive effects of passive media exposure. Additionally, these parental reports point to clear developmental trends for certain types of interactive gestures. These results contribute to the investigation of touch screen use on early development and suggest a number of considerations that should help improve the design of applications geared towards toddlers, particularly for scientific purposes.

  17. Measurement of biofilm growth and local hydrodynamics using optical coherence tomography

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Weiss, Nicolas; El Tayeb El Obied, Khalid; Kalkman, Jeroen; Lammertink, Rob G.H.; van Leeuwen, Ton G.

    2016-01-01

    We report on localized and simultaneous measurement of biofilm growth and local hydrodynamics in a microfluidic channel using optical coherence tomography. We measure independently with high spatio-temporal resolution the longitudinal flow velocity component parallel to the imaging beam and the

  18. Hyperbolic metamaterial lens with hydrodynamic nonlocal response.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Wei; Mortensen, N Asger; Wubs, Martijn

    2013-06-17

    We investigate the effects of hydrodynamic nonlocal response in hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs), focusing on the experimentally realizable parameter regime where unit cells are much smaller than an optical wavelength but much larger than the wavelengths of the longitudinal pressure waves of the free-electron plasma in the metal constituents. We derive the nonlocal corrections to the effective material parameters analytically, and illustrate the noticeable nonlocal effects on the dispersion curves numerically. As an application, we find that the focusing characteristics of a HMM lens in the local-response approximation and in the hydrodynamic Drude model can differ considerably. In particular, the optimal frequency for imaging in the nonlocal theory is blueshifted with respect to that in the local theory. Thus, to detect whether nonlocal response is at work in a hyperbolic metamaterial, we propose to measure the near-field distribution of a hyperbolic metamaterial lens.

  19. Determining the number of clusters for nuclei segmentation in breast cancer image

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fatichah, Chastine; Navastara, Dini Adni; Suciati, Nanik; Nuraini, Lubna

    2017-02-01

    Clustering is commonly technique for image segmentation, however determining an appropriate number of clusters is still challenging. Due to nuclei variation of size and shape in breast cancer image, an automatic determining number of clusters for segmenting the nuclei breast cancer is proposed. The phase of nuclei segmentation in breast cancer image are nuclei detection, touched nuclei detection, and touched nuclei separation. We use the Gram-Schmidt for nuclei cell detection, the geometry feature for touched nuclei detection, and combining of watershed and spatial k-Means clustering for separating the touched nuclei in breast cancer image. The spatial k-Means clustering is employed for separating the touched nuclei, however automatically determine the number of clusters is difficult due to the variation of size and shape of single cell breast cancer. To overcome this problem, first we apply watershed algorithm to separate the touched nuclei and then we calculate the distance among centroids in order to solve the over-segmentation. We merge two centroids that have the distance below threshold. And the new of number centroid as input to segment the nuclei cell using spatial k- Means algorithm. Experiment show that, the proposed scheme can improve the accuracy of nuclei cell counting.

  20. POINT-OF-PURCHASE SIGNS, IMPULSE PURCHASES, AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE "DESIRE TO TOUCH"

    OpenAIRE

    Peck, Joann; Childers, Terry

    2000-01-01

    What is the role of touch in consumer behavior? Consumers are especially motivated to touch some products before buying them, and for some people, those high in "desire to touch", touching before buying is especially important. In addition, some situations encourage consumers to touch goods before purchasing them. How do these relate to impulse purchases? People high in their "desire to touch" are more likely to make impulse purchases. Point-of-purchase signs that encourage touching a product...

  1. Biomedical device prototype based on small scale hydrodynamic cavitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghorbani, Morteza; Sozer, Canberk; Alcan, Gokhan; Unel, Mustafa; Ekici, Sinan; Uvet, Huseyin; Koşar, Ali

    2018-03-01

    This study presents a biomedical device prototype based on small scale hydrodynamic cavitation. The application of small scale hydrodynamic cavitation and its integration to a biomedical device prototype is offered as an important alternative to other techniques, such as ultrasound therapy, and thus constitutes a local, cheap, and energy-efficient solution, for urinary stone therapy and abnormal tissue ablation (e.g., benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH)). The destructive nature of bubbly, cavitating, flows was exploited, and the potential of the prototype was assessed and characterized. Bubbles generated in a small flow restrictive element (micro-orifice) based on hydrodynamic cavitation were utilized for this purpose. The small bubbly, cavitating, flow generator (micro-orifice) was fitted to a small flexible probe, which was actuated with a micromanipulator using fine control. This probe also houses an imaging device for visualization so that the emerging cavitating flow could be locally targeted to the desired spot. In this study, the feasibility of this alternative treatment method and its integration to a device prototype were successfully accomplished.

  2. Biomedical device prototype based on small scale hydrodynamic cavitation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Morteza Ghorbani

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available This study presents a biomedical device prototype based on small scale hydrodynamic cavitation. The application of small scale hydrodynamic cavitation and its integration to a biomedical device prototype is offered as an important alternative to other techniques, such as ultrasound therapy, and thus constitutes a local, cheap, and energy-efficient solution, for urinary stone therapy and abnormal tissue ablation (e.g., benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH. The destructive nature of bubbly, cavitating, flows was exploited, and the potential of the prototype was assessed and characterized. Bubbles generated in a small flow restrictive element (micro-orifice based on hydrodynamic cavitation were utilized for this purpose. The small bubbly, cavitating, flow generator (micro-orifice was fitted to a small flexible probe, which was actuated with a micromanipulator using fine control. This probe also houses an imaging device for visualization so that the emerging cavitating flow could be locally targeted to the desired spot. In this study, the feasibility of this alternative treatment method and its integration to a device prototype were successfully accomplished.

  3. TouchWB : Touch behavioral user authentication based on web browsing on smartphones

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Meng, Weizhi; Wang, Yu; Wong, Duncan S.

    2018-01-01

    browsing gestures. For evaluation, we implemented the scheme on Android phones and conducted a user study involving 48 participants. Experimental results demonstrated that our approach could reduce the touch behavioral deviation by nearly half and achieve an average error rate of about 2.4% by using...

  4. A Deported View Concept for Touch Interaction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Alapetite, Alexandre; Andersen, Henning Boje; Fogh, Rune

    2013-01-01

    Following the paradigm shift where physical controls are replaced by touch-enabled surfaces, we report on an experimental evaluation of a user interface concept that allows touchscreen-based panels to be manipulated partially blindly (aircrafts, cars). The proposed multi-touch interaction strategy...... – involving visual front-view feedback to the user from a copy of the peripheral panel being manipulated – compares favourably against trackballs or head-down interactions....

  5. Goal-Role Integration as Driver for Customer Engagement Behaviours across Touch-points

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Haurum, Helle; Beckmann, Suzanne C.

    Customers and firms interact at many different touch-points that enable customer engagement behaviour. By adopting a customer-centric approach we investigated through 20 in-depth interviews what drives service customers’ CEB manifestations in touch-points, which the firm either manages, monitors......, or manoeuvres between. The key findings are that (a) CEBs are driven by different forms of goal-role integration across touch-points, (b) customers’ goal-directedness determines the touch-points where CEBs are manifested, (c) customers’ role-playing behaviours determine the nature of CEBs, and (d) customers......’ role-playing behaviours can change across touch-points, contingent upon goal-directedness. Hence, this study provides rich insights into customer-firm encounters at touch-points, which subsequently define and shape the relation over time....

  6. Antibacterial Metallic Touch Surfaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Victor M. Villapún

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Our aim is to present a comprehensive review of the development of modern antibacterial metallic materials as touch surfaces in healthcare settings. Initially we compare Japanese, European and US standards for the assessment of antimicrobial activity. The variations in methodologies defined in these standards are highlighted. Our review will also cover the most relevant factors that define the antimicrobial performance of metals, namely, the effect of humidity, material geometry, chemistry, physical properties and oxidation of the material. The state of the art in contact-killing materials will be described. Finally, the effect of cleaning products, including disinfectants, on the antimicrobial performance, either by direct contact or by altering the touch surface chemistry on which the microbes attach, will be discussed. We offer our outlook, identifying research areas that require further development and an overview of potential future directions of this exciting field.

  7. Creating iPhone Apps with Cocoa Touch

    CERN Document Server

    Hockenberry, Craig

    2010-01-01

    Creating iPhone Apps with Cocoa Touch: The Mini Missing Manual walks you through developing your first iPhone App and introduces you to your programming environments and tools: Cocoa Touch, Interface Builder, Xcode, and the Objective-C programming language. If you're a Java or C developer, this eBook is your fast track to App development. This eBook is adapted from parts of iPhone App Development: The Missing Manual.

  8. Discomfort and avoidance of touch: new insights on the emotional deficits of social anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kashdan, Todd B; Doorley, James; Stiksma, Melissa C; Hertenstein, Matthew J

    2017-12-01

    Physical touch is central to the emotional intimacy that separates romantic relationships from other social contexts. In this study of 256 adults (128 heterosexual couples, mean relationship length = 20.5 months), we examined whether individual differences in social anxiety influenced comfort with and avoidance of physical touch. Because of prior work on sex difference in touch use, touch comfort, and social anxiety symptoms and impairment, we explored sex-specific findings. We found evidence that women with greater social anxiety were less comfortable with touch and more avoidant of touch in same-sex friendships. Additionally, a woman's social anxiety had a bigger effect on a man's comfort with touch and avoidance of touch in the romantic relationship than a man's social anxiety had on the woman's endorsement of touch-related problems. These effects were uninfluenced by the length of romantic relationships. Touch is a neglected emotional experience that offers new insights into the difficulties of individuals suffering from social anxiety problems, and their romantic partners.

  9. Human figure drawings and children's recall of touching.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruck, Maggie

    2009-12-01

    In 2 studies, children ages 3 to 7 years were asked to recall a series of touches that occurred during a previous staged event. The recall interview took place 1 week after the event in Study 1 and immediately after the event in Study 2. Each recall interview had 2 sections: In 1 section, children were given human figure drawings (HFDs) and were asked to show where the touching took place; in the other section, the same questions were asked without the HFDs (verbal condition). Children were randomly assigned to 2 different conditions: HFD 1st/verbal 2nd or verbal 1st/HFD 2nd. There were 2 major findings. First, HFDs elicited more errors than the verbal condition when used to probe for information that the child had already been asked. Second, regardless of interview method, children had poor recall of the touches even when these occurred minutes before the interview. It is suggested that cognitive mechanisms involving memory and semantics underlie children's poor recall of touching in both verbal and HFD conditions. Copyright 2009 APA

  10. Therapeutic touch: influence on vital signs of newborns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramada, Nadia Christina Oliveira; Almeida, Fabiane de Amorim; Cunha, Mariana Lucas da Rocha

    2013-12-01

    To compare vital signs before and after the therapeutic touch observed in hospitalized newborns in neonatal intensive care unit. This was a quasi-experimental study performed at a neonatal intensive care unit of a municipal hospital, in the city of São Paulo (SP), Brazil. The sample included 40 newborns submitted to the therapeutic touch after a painful procedure. We evaluated the vital signs, such as heart and respiratory rates, temperature and pain intensity, before and after the therapeutic touch. The majority of newborns were male (n=28; 70%), pre-term (n=19; 52%) and born from vaginal delivery (n=27; 67%). Respiratory distress was the main reason for hospital admission (n=16; 40%). There was a drop in all vital signs after therapeutic touch, particularly in pain score, which had a considerable reduction in the mean values, from 3.37 (SD=1.31) to 0 (SD=0.0). All differences found were statistically significant by the Wilcoxon test (ptouch promotes relaxation of the baby, favoring reduction in vital signs and, consequently in the basal metabolism rate.

  11. Touching force response of the piezoelectric Braille cell.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smithmaitrie, Pruittikorn; Kanjantoe, Jinda; Tandayya, Pichaya

    2008-11-01

    The objective of this research is to investigate dynamic responses of the piezoelectric Braille cell when it is subjected to both electrical signal and touching force. Physical behavior of the piezoelectric actuator inside the piezoelectric Braille cell is analyzed. The mathematical model of the piezoelectric Braille system is presented. Then, data of visually impaired people using a Braille Note is studied as design information and a reference input for calculation of the piezoelectric Braille response under the touching force. The results show dynamic responses of the piezoelectric Braille cell. The designed piezoelectric bimorph has a settling time of 0.15 second. The relationship between the Braille dot height and applied voltage is linear. The behavior of the piezoelectric Braille dot when it is touched during operation shows that the dot height is decreased as the force increases. The result provides understanding of the piezoelectric Braille cell behavior under both touching force and electrical excitation simultaneously. This is the important issue for the design and development of piezoelectric Braille cells in senses of controlling Braille dot displacement or force-feedback in the future.

  12. Combining mediated social touch with vision : from self-attribution to telepresence?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haans, A.; IJsselsteijn, W.A.; Nijholt, A.; Dijk, E.O.; Lemmens, P.M.C.; Luitjens, S.

    2010-01-01

    Combining mediated social touch (i.e., interpersonal touch over a distance by means of a tactile display) with vision allows people to both see and feel their remote interaction partner’s touches. This is expected to increase the user’s sense of telepresence (i.e., the experience of "being there" in

  13. Sencha Touch Mobile JavaScript Framework

    CERN Document Server

    Rao, SSVV Narasimha

    2012-01-01

    This book is a step-by-step tutorial aimed at beginners to Sencha Touch. There is ready sample code explained with essential screenshots for better and quicker understanding. This book is ideal for anyone who wants to gain the practical knowledge involved in using Sencha Touch mobile web application framework to make attractive web apps for mobiles. If you have some familiarity with HTML and CSS, then this book is for you. This book will give designers the skills they need to implement their ideas, and provides developers with creative inspiration through practical examples. It is assumed that

  14. A Multi-touch Tool for Co-creation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ludden, Geke D. S.; Broens, Tom

    Multi-touch technology provides an attractive way for knowledge workers to collaborate. Co-creation is an important collaboration process in which collecting resources, creating results and distributing these results is essential. We propose a wall-based multi-touch system (called CoCreate) in which these steps are made easy due to the notion of connected private spaces and a shared co-create space. We present our ongoing work, expert evaluation of interaction scenarios and future plans.

  15. Dissipative relativistic hydrodynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Imshennik, V.S.; Morozov, Yu.I.

    1989-01-01

    Using the comoving reference frame in the general non-inertial case, the relativistic hydrodynamics equations are derived with an account for dissipative effects in the matter. From the entropy production equation, the exact from for the dissipative tensor components is obtained. As a result, the closed system of equations of dissipative relativistic hydrodynamics is obtained in the comoving reference frame as a relativistic generalization of the known Navier-Stokes equations for Lagrange coordinates. Equations of relativistic hydrodynamics with account for dissipative effects in the matter are derived using the assocoated reference system in general non-inertial case. True form of the dissipative tensor components is obtained from entropy production equation. Closed system of equations for dissipative relativistic hydrodynamics is obtained as a result in the assocoated reference system (ARS) - relativistic generalization of well-known Navier-Stokes equations for Lagrange coordinates. Equation system, obtained in this paper for ARS, may be effectively used in numerical models of explosive processes with 10 51 erg energy releases which are characteristic for flashes of supernovae, if white dwarf type compact target suggested as presupernova

  16. The Neurobiology Shaping Affective Touch: Expectation, Motivation, and Meaning in the Multisensory Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellingsen, Dan-Mikael; Leknes, Siri; Løseth, Guro; Wessberg, Johan; Olausson, Håkan

    2016-01-01

    Inter-individual touch can be a desirable reward that can both relieve negative affect and evoke strong feelings of pleasure. However, if other sensory cues indicate it is undesirable to interact with the toucher, the affective experience of the same touch may be flipped to disgust. While a broad literature has addressed, on one hand the neurophysiological basis of ascending touch pathways, and on the other hand the central neurochemistry involved in touch behaviors, investigations of how external context and internal state shapes the hedonic value of touch have only recently emerged. Here, we review the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms responsible for the integration of tactile “bottom–up” stimuli and “top–down” information into affective touch experiences. We highlight the reciprocal influences between gentle touch and contextual information, and consider how, and at which levels of neural processing, top-down influences may modulate ascending touch signals. Finally, we discuss the central neurochemistry, specifically the μ-opioids and oxytocin systems, involved in affective touch processing, and how the functions of these neurotransmitters largely depend on the context and motivational state of the individual. PMID:26779092

  17. The neurobiology shaping affective touch: Expectation, motivation, and meaning in the multisensory context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dan-Mikael eEllingsen

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Inter-individual touch can be a desirable reward that can both relieve negative affect and evoke strong feelings of pleasure. However, if other sensory cues indicate it is undesirable to interact with the toucher, the affective experience of the same touch may be flipped to disgust. While a broad literature has addressed, on one hand the neurophysiological basis of ascending touch pathways, and on the other hand the central neurochemistry involved in touch behaviors, investigations of how external context and internal state shapes the hedonic value of touch have only recently emerged. Here, we review the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms responsible for the integration of tactile bottom-up stimuli and top-down information into affective touch experiences. We highlight the reciprocal influences between gentle touch and contextual information, and consider how, and at which levels of neural processing, top-down influences may modulate ascending touch signals. Finally, we discuss the central neurochemistry, specifically the µ-opioids and oxytocin systems, involved in affective touch processing, and how the functions of these neurotransmitters largely depend on the context and motivational state of the individual.

  18. Braille Touch : Mobile Touchscreen Text Entry for the Visually Impaired

    OpenAIRE

    Southern, Caleb; Clawson, James; Frey, Brian; Abowd, Gregory; Romero, Mario

    2012-01-01

    We present a demonstration of BrailleTouch, an accessible keyboard for blind users on a touchscreen smartphone (see Figure 1). Based on the standard Perkins Brailler, BrailleTouch implements a six-key chorded braille soft keyboard [1]. We will briefly introduce audience members to the braille code, and then allow them to hold the BrailleTouch prototype and enter text, with the aid of a visual chart of the braille alphabet. QC 20160418

  19. Toddlers' Word Learning from Contingent and Noncontingent Video on Touch Screens

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirkorian, Heather L.; Choi, Koeun; Pempek, Tiffany A.

    2016-01-01

    Researchers examined whether contingent experience using a touch screen increased toddlers' ability to learn a word from video. One hundred and sixteen children (24-36 months) watched an on-screen actress label an object: (a) without interacting, (b) with instructions to touch "anywhere" on the screen, or (c) with instructions to touch a…

  20. The Use of Touch in Counseling: An Ethical Decision-Making Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Calmes, Stephanie A.; Piazza, Nick J.; Laux, John M.

    2013-01-01

    Although some counselors have advocated for the limited use of touch in counseling, others have argued that touch has no place within the counseling relationship. Despite the controversy, the use of touch has been shown to have a number of therapeutic benefits; however, there are few ethical decision-making models that are appropriate for…

  1. Relativistic hydrodynamics

    CERN Document Server

    Luciano, Rezzolla

    2013-01-01

    Relativistic hydrodynamics is a very successful theoretical framework to describe the dynamics of matter from scales as small as those of colliding elementary particles, up to the largest scales in the universe. This book provides an up-to-date, lively, and approachable introduction to the mathematical formalism, numerical techniques, and applications of relativistic hydrodynamics. The topic is typically covered either by very formal or by very phenomenological books, but is instead presented here in a form that will be appreciated both by students and researchers in the field. The topics covered in the book are the results of work carried out over the last 40 years, which can be found in rather technical research articles with dissimilar notations and styles. The book is not just a collection of scattered information, but a well-organized description of relativistic hydrodynamics, from the basic principles of statistical kinetic theory, down to the technical aspects of numerical methods devised for the solut...

  2. Motion-sensitized SPRITE measurements of hydrodynamic cavitation in fast pipe flow.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adair, Alexander; Mastikhin, Igor V; Newling, Benedict

    2018-06-01

    The pressure variations experienced by a liquid flowing through a pipe constriction can, in some cases, result in the formation of a bubble cloud (i.e., hydrodynamic cavitation). Due to the nature of the bubble cloud, it is ideally measured through the use of non-optical and non-invasive techniques; therefore, it is well-suited for study by magnetic resonance imaging. This paper demonstrates the use of Conical SPRITE (a 3D, centric-scan, pure phase-encoding pulse sequence) to acquire time-averaged void fraction and velocity information about hydrodynamic cavitation for water flowing through a pipe constriction. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Analysis of touch used by occupational therapy practitioners in skilled nursing facilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morris, Douglas; Henegar, J; Khanin, S; Oberle, G; Thacker, S

    2014-09-01

    Instrumental touch is identified as having purposeful physical contact in order to complete a task. Expressive touch is identified as warm, friendly physical contact and is not solely for performing a task. Expressive touch has been associated with improved client status, increased rapport and greater gains made during therapy. The purpose of the study was to observe the frequency of expressive and instrumental touch utilized by an occupational therapist during an occupational therapy session. Thirty-three occupational therapy professionals, including occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants, employed at skilled nursing facilities in southwest Florida were observed. Data were collected on the Occupational Therapy Interaction Assessment. The results of the data analysis showed a positive relationship between the gender of the therapist and the frequency of expressive touch. The data also showed that a large majority of touches were instrumental touch and pertained to functional mobility. The results of the study can contribute to a better understanding of the holistic aspects of occupational therapy. By the use of more expressive touch, occupational therapy practitioners may have a positive, beneficial effect on both the client and the therapy process as a whole. Further research is needed to determine the effect an occupational therapy setting has on the frequency of instrumental and expressive touch. A larger sample size and a distinction between evaluation and treatment sessions would benefit future studies. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  4. Multiple caregivers' touch interactions with young children among the Bofi foragers in Central Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jung, Min-Jung; Fouts, Hillary N

    2011-02-01

    The current study examined the use of three types of touch (caregiving, active social-affectionate, and passive social-affectionate) by caregivers with young children among the Bofi foragers, a seminomadic group of hunter-gatherers in Central Africa. With the purpose of providing a more holistic view of touch interactions in early childhood, compared to extant Western mother-centric views, this study documents stylistic touch patterns used by multiple caregivers (mother, father, adult relatives, and juvenile relatives) with Bofi forager children. Thirty-five Bofi forager children, between 18 and 59 months of age, and their various caregivers were naturalistically observed over 12 daylight hours using a focal child observational technique. Frequencies of each type of touch and the rank order of types of touch that children received were compared between caregivers and examined by child age and gender. Even though nonmaternal caregivers showed high physical involvement with children, mothers exemplified the highest level of involvement. Overall, passive social-affectionate touch was utilized the most by all types of caregivers. Mothers used more caregiving touch, and fathers and adult relatives had similar frequencies of caregiving touch and active social-affectionate touch. In contrast, juvenile relatives showed more active social-affectionate touch with focal children. This study highlights the importance of examining multiple caregivers and physical interactions when studying early childhood experiences. Furthermore, by focusing on multiple caregivers and multiple types of touch, this study provides a more thorough characterization of the touch experiences of young children than previous studies of touch. Finally, the current study exemplifies the value of considering non-Western populations when investigating touch interactions.

  5. Recent development of hydrodynamic modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirano, Tetsufumi

    2014-09-01

    In this talk, I give an overview of recent development in hydrodynamic modeling of high-energy nuclear collisions. First, I briefly discuss about current situation of hydrodynamic modeling by showing results from the integrated dynamical approach in which Monte-Carlo calculation of initial conditions, quark-gluon fluid dynamics and hadronic cascading are combined. In particular, I focus on rescattering effects of strange hadrons on final observables. Next I highlight three topics in recent development in hydrodynamic modeling. These include (1) medium response to jet propagation in di-jet asymmetric events, (2) causal hydrodynamic fluctuation and its application to Bjorken expansion and (3) chiral magnetic wave from anomalous hydrodynamic simulations. (1) Recent CMS data suggest the existence of QGP response to propagation of jets. To investigate this phenomenon, we solve hydrodynamic equations with source term which exhibits deposition of energy and momentum from jets. We find a large number of low momentum particles are emitted at large angle from jet axis. This gives a novel interpretation of the CMS data. (2) It has been claimed that a matter created even in p-p/p-A collisions may behave like a fluid. However, fluctuation effects would be important in such a small system. We formulate relativistic fluctuating hydrodynamics and apply it to Bjorken expansion. We found the final multiplicity fluctuates around the mean value even if initial condition is fixed. This effect is relatively important in peripheral A-A collisions and p-p/p-A collisions. (3) Anomalous transport of the quark-gluon fluid is predicted when extremely high magnetic field is applied. We investigate this possibility by solving anomalous hydrodynamic equations. We found the difference of the elliptic flow parameter between positive and negative particles appears due to the chiral magnetic wave. Finally, I provide some personal perspective of hydrodynamic modeling of high energy nuclear collisions

  6. HOMEinTOUCH

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Marianne Graves; Borup Hansen, Aviaja; Rosengreen Nielsen, Kaspar

    2008-01-01

    Digital Picture Frames has received attention both research wise and by consumers, who are increasingly buying existing solutions. In this paper we investigate how to design improved picture frames through providing means for two-way communication and through exploring the potential in providing...... automatically generated context information. We report on the design and trial use of a HOMEinTOUCH, an experience prototype of a picture frame for domestic environment, supporting two-way communication and context-information around pictures. We tested this prototype, as well as two other commercial products...

  7. Touch me, touch me not: senses, faith and performativity in early modernity:introduction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erin E. Benay

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available This issue brings together an exciting collection of essays that investigate the collaborative roles of senses in the genesis and experience of renaissance and baroque art. Examining, in particular, the ways in which senses were evoked in the realm of the sacred, where questions of the validity of sensory experience were particularly contentious and fluid, the contributors seek to problematise the neoplatonic imperialism of sight and sense hierarchies that traditionally considered touch, along with smell and taste, as base and bodily. The essays show instead that it was a multiplicity of sensory modalities – touch, sight, hearing, and sometimes even taste and smell, that provided access to the divine – and shaped the imaginative, physical and performative experience of works of art. The issue’s project thus brings us closer to achieving Geraldine Johnson’s eloquent proprosal, that, by revisioning Michael Baxandall’s famous ‘period eye’, we might, in fact, arrive at a more aptly described, historically specific, 'period body'.

  8. Therapeutic touch and agitation in individuals with Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawranik, Pamela; Johnston, Pat; Deatrich, Judith

    2008-06-01

    Limited effective strategies exist to alleviate or treat disruptive behaviors in people with Alzheimer's disease. Fifty-one residents of a long-term care facility with Alzheimer's disease were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups. A multiple time series, blinded, experimental design was used to compare the effectiveness of therapeutic touch, simulated therapeutic touch, and usual care on disruptive behavior. Three forms of disruptive behavior comprised the dependent variables: physical aggression, physical nonaggression, and verbal agitation. Physical nonaggressive behaviors decreased significantly in those residents who received therapeutic touch compared with those who received the simulated version and the usual care. No significant differences in physically aggressive and verbally agitated behaviors were observed across the three study groups. The study provided preliminary evidence for the potential for therapeutic touch in dealing with agitated behaviors by people with dementia. Researchers and practitioners must consider a broad array of strategies to deal with these behaviors.

  9. Parent-Child Positive Touch: Gender, Age, and Task Differences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aznar, Ana; Tenenbaum, Harriet R

    2016-01-01

    This study examined gender, age, and task differences in positive touch and physical proximity during mother-child and father-child conversations. Sixty-five Spanish mothers and fathers and their 4- ( M  = 53.50 months, SD  = 3.54) and 6-year-old ( M  = 77.07 months, SD  = 3.94) children participated in this study. Positive touch was examined during a play-related storytelling task and a reminiscence task (conversation about past emotions). Fathers touched their children positively more frequently during the play-related storytelling task than did mothers. Both mothers and fathers were in closer proximity to their 6-year-olds than their 4-year-olds. Mothers and fathers touched their children positively more frequently when reminiscing than when playing. Finally, 6-year-olds remained closer to their parents than did 4-year-olds. Implications of these findings for future research on children's socioemotional development are discussed.

  10. Hydrodynamic optical soliton tunneling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sprenger, P.; Hoefer, M. A.; El, G. A.

    2018-03-01

    A notion of hydrodynamic optical soliton tunneling is introduced in which a dark soliton is incident upon an evolving, broad potential barrier that arises from an appropriate variation of the input signal. The barriers considered include smooth rarefaction waves and highly oscillatory dispersive shock waves. Both the soliton and the barrier satisfy the same one-dimensional defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation, which admits a convenient dispersive hydrodynamic interpretation. Under the scale separation assumption of nonlinear wave (Whitham) modulation theory, the highly nontrivial nonlinear interaction between the soliton and the evolving hydrodynamic barrier is described in terms of self-similar, simple wave solutions to an asymptotic reduction of the Whitham-NLS partial differential equations. One of the Riemann invariants of the reduced modulation system determines the characteristics of a soliton interacting with a mean flow that results in soliton tunneling or trapping. Another Riemann invariant yields the tunneled soliton's phase shift due to hydrodynamic interaction. Soliton interaction with hydrodynamic barriers gives rise to effects that include reversal of the soliton propagation direction and spontaneous soliton cavitation, which further suggest possible methods of dark soliton control in optical fibers.

  11. Developing C# Apps for iPhone and iPad using MonoTouch

    CERN Document Server

    Costanich, Bryan

    2011-01-01

    Developing C# Applications for iPhone and iPad using MonoTouch shows you how to use your existing C# skills to write apps for the iPhone and iPad. Fortunately, there's MonoTouch, Novell's .NET library that allows C# developers to write C# code that executes in iOS. Furthermore, MonoTouch allows you to address all the unique functions of the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. And the big plus: You needn't learn any Objective-C to master MonoTouch!. Former Microsoft engineer and published app-store developer Bryan Costanich shows you how to use the tools you already know to create native apps in iOS

  12. Hydrodynamic cavitation for sonochemical effects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moholkar, V S; Kumar, P S; Pandit, A B

    1999-03-01

    A comparative study of hydrodynamic and acoustic cavitation has been made on the basis of numerical solutions of the Rayleigh-Plesset equation. The bubble/cavity behaviour has been studied under both acoustic and hydrodynamic cavitation conditions. The effect of varying pressure fields on the collapse of the cavity (sinusoidal for acoustic and linear for hydrodynamic) and also on the latter's dynamic behaviour has been studied. The variations of parameters such as initial cavity size, intensity of the acoustic field and irradiation frequency in the case of acoustic cavitation, and initial cavity size, final recovery pressure and time for pressure recovery in the case of hydrodynamic cavitation, have been found to have significant effects on cavity/bubble dynamics. The simulations reveal that the bubble/cavity collapsing behaviour in the case of hydrodynamic cavitation is accompanied by a large number of pressure pulses of relatively smaller magnitude, compared with just one or two pulses under acoustic cavitation. It has been shown that hydrodynamic cavitation offers greater control over operating parameters and the resultant cavitation intensity. Finally, a brief summary of the experimental results on the oxidation of aqueous KI solution with a hydrodynamic cavitation set-up is given which supports the conclusion of this numerical study. The methodology presented allows one to manipulate and optimise of specific process, either physical or chemical.

  13. Solitonic Dispersive Hydrodynamics: Theory and Observation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maiden, Michelle D.; Anderson, Dalton V.; Franco, Nevil A.; El, Gennady A.; Hoefer, Mark A.

    2018-04-01

    Ubiquitous nonlinear waves in dispersive media include localized solitons and extended hydrodynamic states such as dispersive shock waves. Despite their physical prominence and the development of thorough theoretical and experimental investigations of each separately, experiments and a unified theory of solitons and dispersive hydrodynamics are lacking. Here, a general soliton-mean field theory is introduced and used to describe the propagation of solitons in macroscopic hydrodynamic flows. Two universal adiabatic invariants of motion are identified that predict trapping or transmission of solitons by hydrodynamic states. The result of solitons incident upon smooth expansion waves or compressive, rapidly oscillating dispersive shock waves is the same, an effect termed hydrodynamic reciprocity. Experiments on viscous fluid conduits quantitatively confirm the soliton-mean field theory with broader implications for nonlinear optics, superfluids, geophysical fluids, and other dispersive hydrodynamic media.

  14. Topography of social touching depends on emotional bonds between humans

    OpenAIRE

    Suvilehto, Juulia T.; Glerean, Enrico; Dunbar, Robin I. M.; Hari, Riitta; Nummenmaa, Lauri

    2015-01-01

    Touch is a powerful tool for communicating positive emotions. However, it has remained unknown to what extent social touch would maintain and establish social bonds. We asked a total of 1,368 people from five countries to reveal, using an Internet-based topographical self-reporting tool, those parts of their body that they would allow relatives, friends, and strangers to touch. These body regions formed relationship-specific maps in which the total area was directly related to the strength of...

  15. Large-Scale Description of Interacting One-Dimensional Bose Gases: Generalized Hydrodynamics Supersedes Conventional Hydrodynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doyon, Benjamin; Dubail, Jérôme; Konik, Robert; Yoshimura, Takato

    2017-11-01

    The theory of generalized hydrodynamics (GHD) was recently developed as a new tool for the study of inhomogeneous time evolution in many-body interacting systems with infinitely many conserved charges. In this Letter, we show that it supersedes the widely used conventional hydrodynamics (CHD) of one-dimensional Bose gases. We illustrate this by studying "nonlinear sound waves" emanating from initial density accumulations in the Lieb-Liniger model. We show that, at zero temperature and in the absence of shocks, GHD reduces to CHD, thus for the first time justifying its use from purely hydrodynamic principles. We show that sharp profiles, which appear in finite times in CHD, immediately dissolve into a higher hierarchy of reductions of GHD, with no sustained shock. CHD thereon fails to capture the correct hydrodynamics. We establish the correct hydrodynamic equations, which are finite-dimensional reductions of GHD characterized by multiple, disjoint Fermi seas. We further verify that at nonzero temperature, CHD fails at all nonzero times. Finally, we numerically confirm the emergence of hydrodynamics at zero temperature by comparing its predictions with a full quantum simulation performed using the NRG-TSA-abacus algorithm. The analysis is performed in the full interaction range, and is not restricted to either weak- or strong-repulsion regimes.

  16. Hydrodynamic escape from planetary atmospheres

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, Feng

    Hydrodynamic escape is an important process in the formation and evolution of planetary atmospheres. Due to the existence of a singularity point near the transonic point, it is difficult to find transonic steady state solutions by solving the time-independent hydrodynamic equations. In addition to that, most previous works assume that all energy driving the escape flow is deposited in one narrow layer. This assumption not only results in less accurate solutions to the hydrodynamic escape problem, but also makes it difficult to include other chemical and physical processes in the hydrodynamic escape models. In this work, a numerical model describing the transonic hydrodynamic escape from planetary atmospheres is developed. A robust solution technique is used to solve the time dependent hydrodynamic equations. The method has been validated in an isothermal atmosphere where an analytical solution is available. The hydrodynamic model is applied to 3 cases: hydrogen escape from small orbit extrasolar planets, hydrogen escape from a hydrogen rich early Earth's atmosphere, and nitrogen/methane escape from Pluto's atmosphere. Results of simulations on extrasolar planets are in good agreement with the observations of the transiting extrasolar planet HD209458b. Hydrodynamic escape of hydrogen from other hypothetical close-in extrasolar planets are simulated and the influence of hydrogen escape on the long-term evolution of these extrasolar planets are discussed. Simulations on early Earth suggest that hydrodynamic escape of hydrogen from a hydrogen rich early Earth's atmosphere is about two orders magnitude slower than the diffusion limited escape rate. A hydrogen rich early Earth's atmosphere could have been maintained by the balance between the hydrogen escape and the supply of hydrogen into the atmosphere by volcanic outgassing. Origin of life may have occurred in the organic soup ocean created by the efficient formation of prebiotic molecules in the hydrogen rich early

  17. Touch DNA collection versus firearm fingerprinting: comparing evidence production and identification outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nunn, Samuel

    2013-05-01

    A project by a metropolitan police agency in 2008-2009 had police use touch DNA kits to collect cell samples from seized firearms. To assess outcomes, results of touch DNA swabbing of firearms were compared to fingerprinting firearm evidence. The rationale was that fingerprinting, as the older technology, was the baseline against which to compare touch DNA. But little is known about ways to measure touch DNA productivity compared to fingerprinting. To examine differences between the two requires comparable measurements. Two measures were used: quantity of probative or investigative evidence produced and identification outcomes. When applied to firearms seized within an Indianapolis, IN police district, touch DNA produced a larger volume of evidence than fingerprinting, but identification outcomes for the two methods were equal. Because touch DNA was deployed by police patrol officers, there are implications for firearm forensics and the choice of forensic approaches used by police. © 2013 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  18. Numerical Analysis of Hydrodynamics for Bionic Oscillating Hydrofoil Based on Panel Method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gang Xue

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The kinematics model based on the Slender-Body theory is proposed from the bionic movement of real fish. The Panel method is applied to the hydrodynamic performance analysis innovatively, with the Gauss-Seidel method to solve the Navier-Stokes equations additionally, to evaluate the flexible deformation of fish in swimming accurately when satisfying the boundary conditions. A physical prototype to mimic the shape of tuna is developed with the revolutionized technology of rapid prototyping manufacturing. The hydrodynamic performance for rigid oscillating hydrofoil is analyzed with the proposed method, and it shows good coherence with the cases analyzed by the commercial software Fluent and the experimental data from robofish. Furthermore, the hydrodynamic performance of coupled hydrofoil, which consisted of flexible fish body and rigid caudal fin, is analyzed with the proposed method. It shows that the caudal fin has great influence on trailing vortex shedding and the phase angle is the key factor on hydrodynamic performance. It is verified that the shape of trailing vortex is similar to the image of the motion curve at the trailing edge as the assumption of linear vortex plane under the condition of small downwash velocity. The numerical analysis of hydrodynamics for bionic movement based on the Panel method has certain value to reveal the fish swimming mechanism.

  19. A hydrodynamic formalism for Brownian systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pina, E.; Rosales, M.A.

    1981-01-01

    A formal hydrodynamic approach to Brownian motion is presented and the corresponding equations are derived. Hydrodynamic quantities are expressed in terms of the physical variables characterizing the Brownian systems. Contact is made with the hydrodynamic model of Quantum Mechanics. (author)

  20. "Atypical touch perception in MTS may derive from an abnormally plastic self-representation".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bufalari, Ilaria; Porciello, Giuseppina; Aglioti, Salvatore Maria

    2015-01-01

    Mirror Touch Synesthetes (MTSs) feel touch while they observe others being touched. According to the authors, two complementary theoretical frameworks, the Threshold Theory and the Self-Other Theory, explain Mirror Touch Synesthesia (MTS). Based on the behavioral evidence that in MTSs the mere observation of touch is sufficient to elicit self-other merging (i.e., self-representation changes), a condition that in non-MTSs just elicits self-other sharing (i.e., mirroring activity without self-other blurring), and on the rTPJ anatomical alterations in MTS, we argue that MTS may derive from an abnormally plastic self-representation and atypical multisensory integrative mechanisms.

  1. Light and heavy touch reduces postural sway and modifies axial tone in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franzén, Erika; Paquette, Caroline; Gurfinkel, Victor; Horak, Fay

    2012-10-01

    Light touch with a stable object reduces postural sway by increasing axial postural tone in healthy subjects. However, it is unknown whether subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD), who have more postural sway and higher axial postural tone than healthy subjects, can benefit from haptic touch. To investigate the effect of light and heavy touch on postural stability and hip tone in subjects with PD. Fourteen subjects with mid-stage PD and 14 healthy control subjects were evaluated during quiet standing with eyes closed with their arms (a) crossed, (b) lightly touching a fixed rigid bar in front of them, and (c) firmly gripping the bar. Postural sway was measured with a forceplate, and axial hip tone was quantified using a unique device that measures the resistance of the hips to yaw rotation while maintaining active stance. Subjects with PD significantly decreased their postural sway with light or heavy touch (P touch, hip tone was larger in PD subjects. With touch, however, tone values were similar in both groups. This change in hip tone with touch was highly correlated with the initial amount of tone (PD, r = -.72 to -.95; controls, r = -.74 to -.85). The authors showed, for the first time, that subjects with PD benefit from touch similarly to control subjects and that despite higher axial postural tone, PD subjects are able to modulate their tone with touch. Future studies should investigate the complex relationship between touch and postural tone.

  2. Modulation of C. elegans Touch Sensitivity Is Integrated at Multiple Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Xiaoyin

    2014-01-01

    Sensory systems can adapt to different environmental signals. Here we identify four conditions that modulate anterior touch sensitivity in Caenorhabditis elegans after several hours and demonstrate that such sensory modulation is integrated at multiple levels to produce a single output. Prolonged vibration involving integrin signaling directly sensitizes the touch receptor neurons (TRNs). In contrast, hypoxia, the dauer state, and high salt reduce touch sensitivity by preventing the release of long-range neuroregulators, including two insulin-like proteins. Integration of these latter inputs occurs at upstream neurohormonal cells and at the insulin signaling cascade within the TRNs. These signals and those from integrin signaling converge to modulate touch sensitivity by regulating AKT kinases and DAF-16/FOXO. Thus, activation of either the integrin or insulin pathways can compensate for defects in the other pathway. This modulatory system integrates conflicting signals from different modalities, and adapts touch sensitivity to both mechanical and non-mechanical conditions. PMID:24806678

  3. Touching points in the energy band structure of bilayer graphene superlattices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pham, C Huy; Nguyen, V Lien

    2014-01-01

    The energy band structure of the bilayer graphene superlattices with zero-averaged periodic δ-function potentials are studied within the four-band continuum model. Using the transfer matrix method, the study is mainly focused on examining the touching points between adjacent minibands. For the zero-energy touching points the dispersion relation derived shows a Dirac-like double-cone shape with the group velocity which is periodic in the potential strength P with the period of π and becomes anisotropic at relatively large P. From the finite-energy touching points we have identified those located at zero wave-number. It was shown that for these finite-energy touching points the dispersion is direction-dependent in the sense that it is linear or parabolic in the direction parallel or perpendicular to the superlattice direction, respectively. We have also calculated the density of states and the conductivity which demonstrates a manifestation of the touching points examined. (paper)

  4. A First Step toward the Automatic Understanding of Social Touch for Naturalistic Human–Robot Interaction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jung, Merel Madeleine; Poel, Mannes; Reidsma, Dennis; Heylen, Dirk K.J.

    2017-01-01

    Social robots should be able to automatically understand and respond to human touch. The meaning of touch does not only depend on the form of touch but also on the context in which the touch takes place. To gain more insight into the factors that are relevant to interpret the meaning of touch within

  5. Smartphone User Authentication Using Touch Dynamics in the Big Data Era: Challenges and Opportunities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jiang, Lijun; Meng, Weizhi

    2016-01-01

    dynamics can be described as the characteristics of the inputs received from a touchscreen when a user is interacting with a device (e.g., a touchscreen mobile phone). Intuitively, touch dynamics is different from keystroke dynamics in that touch dynamics has more input types such as multi-touch and touch...

  6. Human Figure Drawings and Children’s Recall of Touching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruck, Maggie

    2010-01-01

    In 2 studies, children ages 3 to 7 years were asked to recall a series of touches that occurred during a previous staged event. The recall interview took place 1 week after the event in Study 1 and immediately after the event in Study 2. Each recall interview had 2 sections: In 1 section, children were given human figure drawings (HFDs) and were asked to show where the touching took place; in the other section, the same questions were asked without the HFDs (verbal condition). Children were randomly assigned to 2 different conditions: HFD 1st/verbal 2nd or verbal 1st/HFD 2nd. There were 2 major findings. First, HFDs elicited more errors than the verbal condition when used to probe for information that the child had already been asked. Second, regardless of interview method, children had poor recall of the touches even when these occurred minutes before the interview. It is suggested that cognitive mechanisms involving memory and semantics underlie children’s poor recall of touching in both verbal and HFD conditions. PMID:20025421

  7. Sports Coaching in Risk Society: No Touch! No Trust!

    Science.gov (United States)

    Piper, Heather; Taylor, Bill; Garratt, Dean

    2012-01-01

    This paper is informed by a UK based Economic and Social Research Council funded research project which developed and deployed a case-study approach to issues of touch between children and professionals in schools and childcare. Outcomes from these settings are referred to, but the focus here is shifted to touch in sports coaching and its…

  8. Measurement, modeling and perception of painted surfaces: A Multi-scale Analysis of the Touch-up Problem

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalghatgi, Suparna Kishore

    Real-world surfaces typically have geometric features at a range of spatial scales. At the microscale, opaque surfaces are often characterized by bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDF), which describes how a surface scatters incident light. At the mesoscale, surfaces often exhibit visible texture -- stochastic or patterned arrangements of geometric features that provide visual information about surface properties such as roughness, smoothness, softness, etc. These textures also affect how light is scattered by the surface, but the effects are at a different spatial scale than those captured by the BRDF. Through this research, we investigate how microscale and mesoscale surface properties interact to contribute to overall surface appearance. This behavior is also the cause of the well-known "touch-up problem" in the paint industry, where two regions coated with exactly the same paint, look different in color, gloss and/or texture because of differences in application methods. At first, samples were created by applying latex paint to standard wallboard surfaces. Two application methods- spraying and rolling were used. The BRDF and texture properties of the samples were measured, which revealed differences at both the microscale and mesoscale. This data was then used as input for a physically-based image synthesis algorithm, to generate realistic images of the surfaces under different viewing conditions. In order to understand the factors that govern touch-up visibility, psychophysical tests were conducted using calibrated, digital photographs of the samples as stimuli. Images were presented in pairs and a two alternative forced choice design was used for the experiments. These judgments were then used as data for a Thurstonian scaling analysis to produce psychophysical scales of visibility, which helped determine the effect of paint formulation, application methods, and viewing and illumination conditions on the touch-up problem. The results can be

  9. How to fake hydrodynamic signals

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Romatschke, Paul [Department of Physics, 390 UCB, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO (United States); Center for Theory of Quantum Matter, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 (United States)

    2016-12-15

    Flow signatures in experimental data from relativistic ion collisions, are usually interpreted as a fingerprint of the presence of a hydrodynamic phase during the evolution of these systems. I review some theoretical ideas to ‘fake’ this hydrodynamic behavior in p+A and A+A collisions. I find that transverse flow and femtoscopic measurements can easily be forged through non-hydrodynamic evolution, while large elliptic flow requires some non-vanishing interactions in the hot phase.

  10. Hydrodynamics of foam flows for in situ bioremediation of DNAPL-contaminated subsurface

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bouillard, J.X.; Enzien, M.; Peters, R.W.; Frank, J.; Botto, R.E.; Cody, G.

    1995-01-01

    In situ remediation technologies such as (1) pump-and-treat, (2) soil vacuum extraction, (3) soil flushing/washing, and (4) bioremediation are being promoted for cleanup of contaminated sites. However, these technologies are limited by flow channeling of chemical treatment agents. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), the Gas Research Institute, and the Institute of Gas Technology are collaboratively investigating a new bioremediation technology using foams. The ability of a foam to block pores and limit flow bypassing makes it ideal for DNAPL remediation. The hydrodynamics of gas/liquid foam flows differ significantly from the hydrodynamics of single and multiphase nonfoaming flows. This is illustrated using a multiphase flow hydrodynamic computer model and a two-dimensional flow visualization cell. A state-of-the-art, nonintrusive, three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging technique was developed to visualize DNAPL mobilization in three dimensions. Mechanisms to be investigated are in situ DNAPL interactions with the foam, DNAPL emulsification, DNAPL scouring by the foam, and subsequent DNAPL mobilization/redeposition in the porous media

  11. Social touch modulates endogenous μ-opioid system activity in humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nummenmaa, Lauri; Tuominen, Lauri; Dunbar, Robin; Hirvonen, Jussi; Manninen, Sandra; Arponen, Eveliina; Machin, Anna; Hari, Riitta; Jääskeläinen, Iiro P; Sams, Mikko

    2016-09-01

    In non-human primates, opioid-receptor blockade increases social grooming, and the endogenous opioid system has therefore been hypothesized to support maintenance of long-term relationships in humans as well. Here we tested whether social touch modulates opioidergic activation in humans using in vivo positron emission tomography (PET). Eighteen male participants underwent two PET scans with [11C]carfentanil, a ligand specific to μ-opioid receptors (MOR). During the social touch scan, the participants lay in the scanner while their partners caressed their bodies in a non-sexual fashion. In the baseline scan, participants lay alone in the scanner. Social touch triggered pleasurable sensations and increased MOR availability in the thalamus, striatum, and frontal, cingulate, and insular cortices. Modulation of activity of the opioid system by social touching might provide a neurochemical mechanism reinforcing social bonds between humans. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. A Touch Sensing Technique Using the Effects of Extremely Low Frequency Fields on the Human Body.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elfekey, Hatem; Bastawrous, Hany Ayad; Okamoto, Shogo

    2016-12-02

    Touch sensing is a fundamental approach in human-to-machine interfaces, and is currently under widespread use. Many current applications use active touch sensing technologies. Passive touch sensing technologies are, however, more adequate to implement low power or energy harvesting touch sensing interfaces. This paper presents a passive touch sensing technique based on the fact that the human body is affected by the surrounding extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields, such as those of AC power lines. These external ELF fields induce electric potentials on the human body-because human tissues exhibit some conductivity at these frequencies-resulting in what is called AC hum. We therefore propose a passive touch sensing system that detects this hum noise when a human touch occurs, thus distinguishing between touch and non-touch events. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is validated by designing and implementing a flexible touch sensing keyboard.

  13. The impact of glide phases on the trackability of hydrodynamic trails in harbour seals (Phoca vitulina).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wieskotten, S; Dehnhardt, G; Mauck, B; Miersch, L; Hanke, W

    2010-11-01

    The mystacial vibrissae of harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) constitute a highly sensitive hydrodynamic receptor system enabling the seals to detect and follow hydrodynamic trails. In the wild, hydrodynamic trails, as generated by swimming fish, consist of cyclic burst-and-glide phases, associated with various differences in the physical parameters of the trail. Here, we investigated the impact of glide phases on the trackability of differently aged hydrodynamic trails in a harbour seal. As fish are not easily trained to swim certain paths with predetermined burst-and-glide phases, the respective hydrodynamic trails were generated using a remote-controlled miniature submarine. Gliding phases in hydrodynamic trails had a negative impact on the trackability when trails were 15 s old. The seal lost the generated trails more often within the transition zones, when the submarine switched from a burst to a glide moving pattern. Hydrodynamic parameter analysis (particle image velocimetry) revealed that the smaller dimensions and faster decay of hydrodynamic trails generated by the gliding submarine are responsible for the impaired success of the seal tracking the gliding phase. Furthermore, the change of gross water flow generated by the submarine from a rearwards-directed stream in the burst phase to a water flow passively dragged behind the submarine during gliding might influence the ability of the seal to follow the trail as this might cause a weaker deflection of the vibrissae. The possible ecological implications of intermittent swimming behaviour in fish for piscivorous predators are discussed.

  14. Touch technologies in primary education

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Davidsen, Jacob

    This paper presents findings from a longitude project on children‘s use of interactive touchscreens in classroom-settings. By exploring and analysing interaction among pairs, children‘s collaborative activities are under study, and it is highlighted how touch technologies invites for a more...

  15. Development of virtual touch panel system for operation at KEK-Electron Linac

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kudou, T.; Kusano, S.; Furukawa, K.; Kamikubota, N.; Satoh, M.

    2004-01-01

    At the KEK Electron Linac, various operator interfaces are employed to keep its stable operation. Among these, the touch-panel system has been used to manipulate each equipment. However, maintenance of the touch-panel system became difficult for various reasons. A new operator interface on X Window was developed as a virtual touch-panel system with an improved operator interface. All the functions which are used in the old system were already ported. It is designed so that a new function can be added flexibly. The architecture of those old and new touch panel systems is described. (author)

  16. Warm and touching tears: tearful individuals are perceived as warmer because we assume they feel moved and touched.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zickfeld, Janis H; Schubert, Thomas W

    2018-01-31

    Recent work investigated the inter-individual functions of emotional tears in depth. In one study (Van de Ven, N., Meijs, M. H. J., & Vingerhoets, A. (2017). What emotional tears convey: Tearful individuals are seen as warmer, but also as less competent. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56(1), 146-160. Https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12162) tearful individuals were rated as warmer, and participants expressed more intentions to approach and help such individuals. Simultaneously, tearful individuals were rated as less competent, and participants expressed less intention to work with the depicted targets. While tearful individuals were perceived as sadder, perceived sadness mediated only the effect on competence, but not on warmth. We argue that tearful individuals might be perceived as warm because they are perceived as feeling moved and touched. We ran a pre-registered extended replication of Van de Ven et al. Results replicate the warmth and helping findings, but not the competence and work effects. The increase in warmth ratings was completely mediated by perceiving feeling moved and touched. Possible functions of feeling moved and touched with regard to emotional tears are discussed.

  17. TouchGrid: Touchpad pointing by recursively mapping taps to smaller display regions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hertzum, Morten; Hornbæk, Kasper

    2005-01-01

    Touchpad devices are widely used but lacking in pointing efficiency. The TouchGrid, an instance of what we term cell cursors, replaces moving the cursor through dragging the finger on a touchpad with tapping in different regions of the touchpad. The touchpad regions are recursively mapped...... to smaller display regions and thereby enable high-precision pointing without requiring high tapping precision. In an experiment, six subjects used the TouchGrid and a standard touchpad across different numbers of targets, distances to targets, and target widths. Whereas standard touchpad operation follows...... Fitts’ law, target selection time with the TouchGrid is a linear function of the required number of taps. The TouchGrid was significantly faster for small targets and for tasks requiring one tap, and marginally faster for two-tap tasks. Error rates tended to be higher with the TouchGrid than...

  18. Implementation of Networking-by-Touch to Small Unit, Network-Enabled Operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-09-01

    consumer electronics and wearable devices etc., which are further exploit later in the chapter. 4 . Touch The body’s sense of touch is a potentially...consoles including Sony’s Playstation 2, Nintendo’s GameCube and Wii, and Microsoft’s X-Box and X-box 360. 56 6. Tactile Displays Embedded in Consumer ...2010 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED Master’s Thesis 4 . TITLE AND SUBTITLE Implementation of Networking-by-Touch to Small Unit, Network-Enabled

  19. Professional iPhone Programming with MonoTouch and .NET/C#

    CERN Document Server

    McClure, Wallace B; Dunn, Craig

    2010-01-01

    What .NET C# developers need to enter the hot field of iPhone apps. iPhone applications offer a hot opportunity for developers. Until the open source MonoTouch project, this field was limited to those familiar with Apple's programming languages. Now .NET and C# developers can join the party. This Wrox guide is the first book to cover MonoTouch, preparing developers to take advantage of this lucrative opportunity.: MonoTouch opens the field of iPhone app development to .NET and C# developers for the first time; the Wrox reputation among .NET developers assures them that this guide covers everyt

  20. Force and touch make video games 'serious' for dexterity rehabilitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Confalonieri, Michele; Guandalini, Giovanni; Da Lio, Mauro; De Cecco, Mariolino

    2012-01-01

    Computerized interfaces are able to represent 3D immersive simulations. Most of them make use of joystick, mouse, gloves, or grasp pressure transducers. Those have the drawback of 'filtering' the user interaction and/or de-locate the touch with respect to the visual stimulus. To overcome this we developed dexterity rehabilitation games on a novel touch interface that measures also force. The system allows dexterity training through 'direct' manipulation of virtual objects in 3D. Two dimensions via the touch screen, the third by the force channel. Tactile feedback is provided with a vibration device mounted on the screen back.

  1. Touch sensors based on planar liquid crystal-gated-organic field-effect transistors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seo, Jooyeok; Lee, Chulyeon; Han, Hyemi; Lee, Sooyong; Nam, Sungho; Kim, Youngkyoo; Kim, Hwajeong; Lee, Joon-Hyung; Park, Soo-Young; Kang, Inn-Kyu

    2014-01-01

    We report a tactile touch sensor based on a planar liquid crystal-gated-organic field-effect transistor (LC-g-OFET) structure. The LC-g-OFET touch sensors were fabricated by forming the 10 μm thick LC layer (4-cyano-4 ′ -pentylbiphenyl - 5CB) on top of the 50 nm thick channel layer (poly(3-hexylthiophene) - P3HT) that is coated on the in-plane aligned drain/source/gate electrodes (indium-tin oxide - ITO). As an external physical stimulation to examine the tactile touch performance, a weak nitrogen flow (83.3 μl/s) was employed to stimulate the LC layer of the touch device. The LC-g-OFET device exhibited p-type transistor characteristics with a hole mobility of 1.5 cm 2 /Vs, but no sensing current by the nitrogen flow touch was measured at sufficiently high drain (V D ) and gate (V G ) voltages. However, a clear sensing current signal was detected at lower voltages, which was quite sensitive to the combination of V D and V G . The best voltage combination was V D = −0.2 V and V G = −1 V for the highest ratio of signal currents to base currents (i.e., signal-to-noise ratio). The change in the LC alignment upon the nitrogen flow touch was assigned as the mechanism for the present LC-g-OFET touch sensors

  2. An Empirical Study of User Experience on Touch Mice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chou, Jyh Rong

    2016-01-01

    The touch mouse is a new type of computer mouse that provides users with a new way of touch-based environment to interact with computers. For more than a decade, user experience (UX) has grown into a core concept of human-computer interaction (HCI), describing a user's perceptions and responses that result from the use of a product in a particular…

  3. Tunable hydrodynamic characteristics in microchannels with biomimetic superhydrophobic (lotus leaf replica) walls.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dey, Ranabir; Raj M, Kiran; Bhandaru, Nandini; Mukherjee, Rabibrata; Chakraborty, Suman

    2014-05-21

    The present work comprehensively addresses the hydrodynamic characteristics through microchannels with lotus leaf replica (exhibiting low adhesion and superhydrophobic properties) walls. The lotus leaf replica is fabricated following an efficient, two-step, soft-molding process and is then integrated with rectangular microchannels. The inherent biomimetic, superhydrophobic surface-liquid interfacial hydrodynamics, and the consequential bulk flow characteristics, are critically analyzed by the micro-particle image velocimetry technique. It is observed that the lotus leaf replica mediated microscale hydrodynamics comprise of two distinct flow regimes even within the low Reynolds number paradigm, unlike the commonly perceived solely apparent slip-stick dominated flows over superhydrophobic surfaces. While the first flow regime is characterized by an apparent slip-stick flow culminating in an enhanced bulk throughput rate, the second flow regime exhibits a complete breakdown of the aforementioned laminar and uni-axial flow model, leading to a predominantly no-slip flow. Interestingly, the critical flow condition dictating the transition between the two hydrodynamic regimes is intrinsically dependent on the micro-confinement effect. In this regard, an energetically consistent theoretical model is also proposed to predict the alterations in the critical flow condition with varying microchannel configurations, by addressing the underlying biomimetic surface-liquid interfacial conditions. Hence, the present research endeavour provides a new design-guiding paradigm for developing multi-functional microfluidic devices involving biomimetic, superhydrophobic surfaces, by judicious exploitation of the tunable hydrodynamic characteristics in the two regimes.

  4. Hydrodynamical description of collective flow

    OpenAIRE

    Huovinen, Pasi

    2003-01-01

    I review how hydrodynamical flow is related to the observed flow in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions and how initial conditions, equation of state and freeze-out temperature affect flow in hydrodynamical models.

  5. RISET EFEKTIVITAS INDIHOME TOUCH POINT TERHADAP KELUHAN GANGGUAN DAN PASANG BARU PELANGGAN INDIHOME

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bilpen Nainggolan

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Indonesia Digital Home atau Indihome adalah salah satu produk layanan dari PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia , Tbk. berupa paket layanan komunikasi dan data seperti tel epon rumah ( voice , internet ( Internet on Fiber atau High Speed Internet dan layanan televisi interaktif IPTV ( Internet Protocol TeleVision . Untuk melayani kebutuhan pelanggan Indihome dalam hal penanganan keluhan gangguan maupun permintaan pasang baru, Telkom menyediakan beberapa touch point atau channel agar pelanggan dapat dengan mudah berinte raksi dengan Telkom. Namun, masih terdapat permasalahan yang dihadapi Telkom mengenai efektivitas masing - masing touch point dalam merespon keluhan gangguan maupun permintaan pasang baru . Pengukuran efektivitas touch point belum sempurna dilakukan, sehingga Telkom perlu menyempurnakan touch point mana yan g paling efektif dalam merespon keluhan gangguan dan pasang baru pelanggan Indihome . T ouch point sangat berdampak langsung terhadap keputusan pelanggan untuk membeli dan loyalitas pelanggan. Riset ini mencakup eksplorasi pada pengukuran efektivitas Indihome touch point terhadap keluhan gangguan dan pasang baru pelanggan Indihome melalui beberapa metode sehin gga dapat dipetakan customer experience journey masing - masing touch point , baik kondisi ideal maupun kondisi eksisting , serta dapat teridentifikasi gap customer experience journey masing - masing touch point antara kondisi ideal dengan kondisi eksisting.

  6. Developing an Assessment (Tool) for Touch Screen Devices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Danial-Saad, Alexandra; Chiari, Lorenzo

    2017-01-01

    Touch screen devices have become prevalent in our lives. Assistive technology experts working with people with disabilities face difficulty in understanding and assessing the problems experienced by individuals with disabilities in operating touch screen devices. This paper presents the processes of collecting and creating the required knowledge needed for assessing the user's skills for operating various touch screen devices, in order to develop an application for assessing the user's abilities and limitations. A six step procedure was used to collect and validate the required knowledge for the assessment from a multidisciplinary team. To determine the agreement levels between the experts, content validity was calculated. To test correlation between the experts from the different disciplines, a comparison was made between the discipline groups and their choice of specific skills/measurements. The final number of domains and skills/measurements was 15 domains and 50 skills/measurements. The result of Cronbach's α test for the final assessment questionnaire (50 skills/measurements) was 0.94, which indicates a high degree of reliability. The results of Kruskal-Wallis test showed the lack of any significant difference between agreements of the clinicians and the technicians groups, but significant differences were found between the educators and the clinicians groups. Each of the skills appearing in the final questionnaire was illustrated in a flowchart in preparation for developing the assessment (tool) for using touch screen devices.

  7. Visual Experience Shapes the Neural Networks Remapping Touch into External Space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crollen, Virginie; Lazzouni, Latifa; Rezk, Mohamed; Bellemare, Antoine; Lepore, Franco; Collignon, Olivier

    2017-10-18

    Localizing touch relies on the activation of skin-based and externally defined spatial frames of reference. Psychophysical studies have demonstrated that early visual deprivation prevents the automatic remapping of touch into external space. We used fMRI to characterize how visual experience impacts the brain circuits dedicated to the spatial processing of touch. Sighted and congenitally blind humans performed a tactile temporal order judgment (TOJ) task, either with the hands uncrossed or crossed over the body midline. Behavioral data confirmed that crossing the hands has a detrimental effect on TOJ judgments in sighted but not in early blind people. Crucially, the crossed hand posture elicited enhanced activity, when compared with the uncrossed posture, in a frontoparietal network in the sighted group only. Psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed, however, that the congenitally blind showed enhanced functional connectivity between parietal and frontal regions in the crossed versus uncrossed hand postures. Our results demonstrate that visual experience scaffolds the neural implementation of the location of touch in space. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In daily life, we seamlessly localize touch in external space for action planning toward a stimulus making contact with the body. For efficient sensorimotor integration, the brain has therefore to compute the current position of our limbs in the external world. In the present study, we demonstrate that early visual deprivation alters the brain activity in a dorsal parietofrontal network typically supporting touch localization in the sighted. Our results therefore conclusively demonstrate the intrinsic role that developmental vision plays in scaffolding the neural implementation of touch perception. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/3710097-07$15.00/0.

  8. The meaning of the virtual Midas touch: an ERP study in economic decision making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spapé, Michiel M; Hoggan, Eve E; Jacucci, Giulio; Ravaja, Niklas

    2015-03-01

    The Midas touch refers to the altruistic effects of a brief touch. Though these effects have often been replicated, they remain poorly understood. We investigate the psychophysiology of the effect using remotely transmitted, precisely timed, tactile messages in an economic decision-making game called Ultimatum. Participants were more likely to accept offers after receiving a remotely transmitted touch. Furthermore, we found distinct effects of touch on event-related potentials evoked by (a) feedback regarding accepted and rejected offers, (b) decision cues related to proposals, and (c) the haptic and auditory cues themselves. In each case, a late positive effect of touch was observed and related to the P3. Given the role of the P3 in memory-related functions, the results indicate an indirect relationship between touch and generosity that relies on memory. This hypothesis was further tested and confirmed in the positive effects of touch on later proposals. © 2014 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

  9. C-tactile afferent stimulating touch carries a positive affective value.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pawling, Ralph; Cannon, Peter R; McGlone, Francis P; Walker, Susannah C

    2017-01-01

    The rewarding sensation of touch in affiliative interactions is hypothesized to be underpinned by a specialized system of nerve fibers called C-Tactile afferents (CTs), which respond optimally to slowly moving, gentle touch, typical of a caress. However, empirical evidence to support the theory that CTs encode socially relevant, rewarding tactile information in humans is currently limited. While in healthy participants, touch applied at CT optimal velocities (1-10cm/sec) is reliably rated as subjectively pleasant, neuronopathy patients lacking large myelinated afferents, but with intact C-fibres, report that the conscious sensation elicited by stimulation of CTs is rather vague. Given this weak perceptual impact the value of self-report measures for assessing the specific affective value of CT activating touch appears limited. Therefore, we combined subjective ratings of touch pleasantness with implicit measures of affective state (facial electromyography) and autonomic arousal (heart rate) to determine whether CT activation carries a positive affective value. We recorded the activity of two key emotion-relevant facial muscle sites (zygomaticus major-smile muscle, positive affect & corrugator supercilii-frown muscle, negative affect) while participants evaluated the pleasantness of experimenter administered stroking touch, delivered using a soft brush, at two velocities (CT optimal 3cm/sec & CT non-optimal 30cm/sec), on two skin sites (CT innervated forearm & non-CT innervated palm). On both sites, 3cm/sec stroking touch was rated as more pleasant and produced greater heart rate deceleration than 30cm/sec stimulation. However, neither self-report ratings nor heart rate responses discriminated stimulation on the CT innervated arm from stroking of the non-CT innervated palm. In contrast, significantly greater activation of the zygomaticus major (smiling muscle) was seen specifically to CT optimal, 3cm/sec, stroking on the forearm in comparison to all other stimuli

  10. C-tactile afferent stimulating touch carries a positive affective value.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ralph Pawling

    Full Text Available The rewarding sensation of touch in affiliative interactions is hypothesized to be underpinned by a specialized system of nerve fibers called C-Tactile afferents (CTs, which respond optimally to slowly moving, gentle touch, typical of a caress. However, empirical evidence to support the theory that CTs encode socially relevant, rewarding tactile information in humans is currently limited. While in healthy participants, touch applied at CT optimal velocities (1-10cm/sec is reliably rated as subjectively pleasant, neuronopathy patients lacking large myelinated afferents, but with intact C-fibres, report that the conscious sensation elicited by stimulation of CTs is rather vague. Given this weak perceptual impact the value of self-report measures for assessing the specific affective value of CT activating touch appears limited. Therefore, we combined subjective ratings of touch pleasantness with implicit measures of affective state (facial electromyography and autonomic arousal (heart rate to determine whether CT activation carries a positive affective value. We recorded the activity of two key emotion-relevant facial muscle sites (zygomaticus major-smile muscle, positive affect & corrugator supercilii-frown muscle, negative affect while participants evaluated the pleasantness of experimenter administered stroking touch, delivered using a soft brush, at two velocities (CT optimal 3cm/sec & CT non-optimal 30cm/sec, on two skin sites (CT innervated forearm & non-CT innervated palm. On both sites, 3cm/sec stroking touch was rated as more pleasant and produced greater heart rate deceleration than 30cm/sec stimulation. However, neither self-report ratings nor heart rate responses discriminated stimulation on the CT innervated arm from stroking of the non-CT innervated palm. In contrast, significantly greater activation of the zygomaticus major (smiling muscle was seen specifically to CT optimal, 3cm/sec, stroking on the forearm in comparison to all

  11. Final Sampling Bias in Haptic Judgments: How Final Touch Affects Decision-Making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitsuda, Takashi; Yoshioka, Yuichi

    2018-01-01

    When people make a choice between multiple items, they usually evaluate each item one after the other repeatedly. The effect of the order and number of evaluating items on one's choices is essential to understanding the decision-making process. Previous studies have shown that when people choose a favorable item from two items, they tend to choose the item that they evaluated last. This tendency has been observed regardless of sensory modalities. This study investigated the origin of this bias by using three experiments involving two-alternative forced-choice tasks using handkerchiefs. First, the bias appeared in a smoothness discrimination task, which indicates that the bias was not based on judgments of preference. Second, the handkerchief that was touched more often tended to be chosen more frequently in the preference task, but not in the smoothness discrimination task, indicating that a mere exposure effect enhanced the bias. Third, in the condition where the number of touches did not differ between handkerchiefs, the bias appeared when people touched a handkerchief they wanted to touch last, but not when people touched the handkerchief that was predetermined. This finding suggests a direct coupling between final voluntary touching and judgment.

  12. Exploring Landscape Engagement through a Participatory Touch Table Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Conniff

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Governments and national bodies are increasingly concerned with promoting outdoor activity as a means to benefit general health and wellbeing. Techniques to encourage and popularize engagement with the outdoor environment should therefore be welcome. This paper explores the use of a touch table as a method to facilitate discussions about people’s engagement with rural and urban landscapes through recreational walking. We describe a study in north-east Scotland involving 22 participants who undertook walks of their choice using GPS smartphone applications to track their routes. Tracked routes were uploaded to a touch table and small group sessions explored spatial behavior in, and perceptions and knowledge of, local landscapes. Individual interviews 4–6 weeks later elicited reflections on the touch table session and personal engagement with the landscape. Two types of findings are reported: (i observations and recommendations relating to the use of a touch table in combination with GPS applications; and (ii knowledge exchange and insights afforded by group discussion and individual reflection. We conclude that our approach is a promising participatory method through which to investigate spatial behavior and promote recreational opportunities in the landscape.

  13. Explore the interactive design of touch interface Webpage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    JIANG Zhen

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available With the arrival of the era of mobile touch,website HTML,CSS and JavaScript building have been changed.Especially the functional development of hypertext markup language HTML5 and touch interface not only enhances the speed of the Website,but also creates amazing user experiences.Therefore,now Webpage design focus on the transmission of information at the same time,more concerns itself about the personalized and interactive design of users,including visual experience,browsing expect and psychological interaction,etc.

  14. Biomimetic shark skin: design, fabrication and hydrodynamic function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wen, Li; Weaver, James C; Lauder, George V

    2014-05-15

    Although the functional properties of shark skin have been of considerable interest to both biologists and engineers because of the complex hydrodynamic effects of surface roughness, no study to date has successfully fabricated a flexible biomimetic shark skin that allows detailed study of hydrodynamic function. We present the first study of the design, fabrication and hydrodynamic testing of a synthetic, flexible, shark skin membrane. A three-dimensional (3D) model of shark skin denticles was constructed using micro-CT imaging of the skin of the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus). Using 3D printing, thousands of rigid synthetic shark denticles were placed on flexible membranes in a controlled, linear-arrayed pattern. This flexible 3D printed shark skin model was then tested in water using a robotic flapping device that allowed us to either hold the models in a stationary position or move them dynamically at their self-propelled swimming speed. Compared with a smooth control model without denticles, the 3D printed shark skin showed increased swimming speed with reduced energy consumption under certain motion programs. For example, at a heave frequency of 1.5 Hz and an amplitude of ± 1 cm, swimming speed increased by 6.6% and the energy cost-of-transport was reduced by 5.9%. In addition, a leading-edge vortex with greater vorticity than the smooth control was generated by the 3D printed shark skin, which may explain the increased swimming speeds. The ability to fabricate synthetic biomimetic shark skin opens up a wide array of possible manipulations of surface roughness parameters, and the ability to examine the hydrodynamic consequences of diverse skin denticle shapes present in different shark species. © 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

  15. Touch in Computer-Mediated Environments: An Analysis of Online Shoppers' Touch-Interface User Experiences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Sorim

    2016-01-01

    Over the past few years, one of the most fundamental changes in current computer-mediated environments has been input devices, moving from mouse devices to touch interfaces. However, most studies of online retailing have not considered device environments as retail cues that could influence users' shopping behavior. In this research, I examine the…

  16. Hydrodynamics and stellar winds an introduction

    CERN Document Server

    Maciel, Walter J

    2014-01-01

    Stellar winds are a common phenomenon in the life of stars, from the dwarfs like the Sun to the red giants and hot supergiants, constituting one of the basic aspects of modern astrophysics. Stellar winds are a hydrodynamic phenomenon in which circumstellar gases expand towards the interstellar medium. This book presents an elementary introduction to the fundamentals of hydrodynamics with an application to the study of stellar winds. The principles of hydrodynamics have many other applications, so that the book can be used as an introduction to hydrodynamics for students of physics, astrophysics and other related areas.

  17. Envisat/ASAR Images for the Calibration of Wind Drag Action in the Doñana Wetlands 2D Hydrodynamic Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anaïs Ramos-Fuertes

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Doñana National Park wetlands are located in southwest Spain, on the right bank of the Guadalquivir River, near the Atlantic Ocean coast. The wetlands dry out completely every summer and progressively flood again throughout the fall and winter seasons. Given the flatness of Doñana’s topography, the wind drag action can induce the flooding or emergence of extensive areas, detectable in remote sensing images. Envisat/ASAR scenes acquired before and during strong and persistent wind episodes enabled the spatial delineation of the wind-induced water displacement. A two-dimensional hydrodynamic model of Doñana wetlands was built in 2006 with the aim to predict the effect of proposed hydrologic restoration actions within Doñana’s basin. In this work, on-site wind records and concurrent ASAR scenes are used for the calibration of the wind-drag modeling by assessing different formulations. Results show a good adjustment between the modeled and observed wind drag effect. Displacements of up to 2 km in the wind direction are satisfactorily reproduced by the hydrodynamic model, while including an atmospheric stability parameter led to no significant improvement of the results. Such evidence will contribute to a more accurate simulation of hypothetic or design scenarios, when no information is available for the atmospheric stability assessment.

  18. Brave NUI World Designing Natural User Interfaces for Touch and Gesture

    CERN Document Server

    Wigdor, Daniel

    2011-01-01

    Touch and gestural devices have been hailed as next evolutionary step in human-computer interaction. As software companies struggle to catch up with one another in terms of developing the next great touch-based interface, designers are charged with the daunting task of keeping up with the advances in new technology and this new aspect to user experience design. Product and interaction designers, developers and managers are already well versed in UI design, but touch-based interfaces have added a new level of complexity.

  19. Understanding and Creating Accessible Touch Screen Interactions for Blind People

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kane, Shaun K.

    2011-01-01

    Using touch screens presents a number of usability and accessibility challenges for blind people. Most touch screen-based user interfaces are optimized for visual interaction, and are therefore difficult or impossible to use without vision. This dissertation presents an approach to redesigning gesture-based user interfaces to enable blind people…

  20. Instant website touch integration

    CERN Document Server

    Dickson, Alexander

    2013-01-01

    This book gives you a quick theoretical knowledge base before moving on to focus on task-based projects designed to keep you on your toes.This book is for web developers who have a working knowledge of JavaScript and the traditional way of writing web applications intended to be mouse-driven. A touch-enabled device is definitely recommended as well as a sense of adventure.

  1. A neural interface provides long-term stable natural touch perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Daniel W; Schiefer, Matthew A; Keith, Michael W; Anderson, James Robert; Tyler, Joyce; Tyler, Dustin J

    2014-10-08

    Touch perception on the fingers and hand is essential for fine motor control, contributes to our sense of self, allows for effective communication, and aids in our fundamental perception of the world. Despite increasingly sophisticated mechatronics, prosthetic devices still do not directly convey sensation back to their wearers. We show that implanted peripheral nerve interfaces in two human subjects with upper limb amputation provided stable, natural touch sensation in their hands for more than 1 year. Electrical stimulation using implanted peripheral nerve cuff electrodes that did not penetrate the nerve produced touch perceptions at many locations on the phantom hand with repeatable, stable responses in the two subjects for 16 and 24 months. Patterned stimulation intensity produced a sensation that the subjects described as natural and without "tingling," or paresthesia. Different patterns produced different types of sensory perception at the same location on the phantom hand. The two subjects reported tactile perceptions they described as natural tapping, constant pressure, light moving touch, and vibration. Changing average stimulation intensity controlled the size of the percept area; changing stimulation frequency controlled sensation strength. Artificial touch sensation improved the subjects' ability to control grasping strength of the prosthesis and enabled them to better manipulate delicate objects. Thus, electrical stimulation through peripheral nerve electrodes produced long-term sensory restoration after limb loss. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  2. Experimental hydrodynamics of swimming in fishes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tytell, Eric Daniel

    2005-11-01

    The great diversity of fish body shapes suggests that they have adapted to different selective pressures. For many fishes, the pressures include hydrodynamic demands: swimming efficiently or accelerating rapidly, for instance. However, the hydrodynamic advantages or disadvantages to specific morphologies are poorly understood. In particular, eels have been considered inefficient swimmers, but they migrate long distances without feeding, a task that requires efficient swimming. This dissertation, therefore, begins with an examination of the swimming hydrodynamics of American eels, Anguilla rostrata, at steady swimming speeds from 0.5 to 2 body lengths (L) per second and during accelerations from -1.4 to 1.3 L s -2. The final chapter examines the hydrodynamic effects of body shape directly by describing three-dimensional flow around swimming bluegill sunfish, Lepomis macrochirus. In all chapters, flow is quantified using digital particle image velocimetry, and simultaneous kinematics are measured from high-resolution digital video. The wake behind a swimming eel in the horizontal midline plane is described first. Rather than producing a wake with fluid jets angled backwards, like in fishes such as sunfish, eels have a wake with exclusively lateral jets. The lack of downstream momentum indicates that eels balance the axial forces of thrust and drag evenly over time and over their bodies, and therefore do not change axial fluid momentum. This even balance, present at all steady swimming speeds, is probably due to the relatively uniform body shape of eels. As eels accelerate, thrust exceeds drag, axial momentum increases, and the wake approaches that of other fishes. During steady swimming, though, the lack of axial momentum prevents direct efficiency estimation. The effect of body shape was examined directly by measuring flow in multiple transverse planes along the body of bluegill sunfish swimming at 1.2 L s-1. The dorsal and anal fin, neglected in many previous

  3. Effect of Therapeutic Touch in Patients with Cancer: a Literature Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tabatabaee, Amir; Tafreshi, Mansoureh Zagheri; Rassouli, Maryam; Aledavood, Seyed Amir; AlaviMajd, Hamid; Farahmand, Seyed Kazem

    2016-04-01

    The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) techniques has been growing. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine places therapeutic touch (TT) into the category of bio field energy. This literature review is aimed at critically evaluating the data from clinical trials examining the clinical efficacy of therapeutic touch as a supportive care modality in adult patients with cancer. Electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Scholar Google, and Science Direct) were searched from the year 1990 to 2015 to locate potentially relevant peer-reviewed articles using the key words therapeutic touch, touch therapy, neoplasm, cancer, and CAM. Additionally, relevant journals and references of all the located articles were manually searched for other potentially relevant studies. The number of 334 articles was found on the basis of the key words, of which 17 articles related to the clinical trial were examined in accordance with the objectives of the study. A total of 6 articles were in the final dataset in which several examples of the positive effects of healing touch on pain, nausea, anxiety and fatigue, and life quality and also on biochemical parameters were observed. Based on the results of this study, an affirmation can be made regarding the use of TT, as a non-invasive intervention for improving the health status in patients with cancer. Moreover, therapeutic touch was proved to be a useful strategy for adult patients with cancer.

  4. Design and algorithm research of high precision airborne infrared touch screen

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xiao-Bing; Wang, Shuang-Jie; Fu, Yan; Chen, Zhao-Quan

    2016-10-01

    There are shortcomings of low precision, touch shaking, and sharp decrease of touch precision when emitting and receiving tubes are failure in the infrared touch screen. A high precision positioning algorithm based on extended axis is proposed to solve these problems. First, the unimpeded state of the beam between emitting and receiving tubes is recorded as 0, while the impeded state is recorded as 1. Then, the method of oblique scan is used, in which the light of one emitting tube is used for five receiving tubes. The impeded information of all emitting and receiving tubes is collected as matrix. Finally, according to the method of arithmetic average, the position of the touch object is calculated. The extended axis positioning algorithm is characteristic of high precision in case of failure of individual infrared tube and affects slightly the precision. The experimental result shows that the 90% display area of the touch error is less than 0.25D, where D is the distance between adjacent emitting tubes. The conclusion is gained that the algorithm based on extended axis has advantages of high precision, little impact when individual infrared tube is failure, and using easily.

  5. Diagnostic value of virtual touch tissue imaging quantification for benign and malignant breast lesions with different sizes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Hui; Zhao, Li-Xia; Xu, Guang; Yao, Ming-Hua; Zhang, Ai-Hong; Xu, Hui-Xiong; Wu, Rong

    2015-01-01

    The study was to explore diagnostic value of the virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) in distinguishing benign and malignant breast lesions of variable sizes. We performed conventional ultrasound and VTIQ in 139 breast lesions. The lesions were categorized into three groups according to size (group 1, ≤ 10 mm; group 2, 10-20 mm; and group 3, > 20 mm), and their mean, min, and max shear wave velocities (SWVs) were measured. Diagnoses were confirmed by pathological examination after surgery or needle biopsy. Receiver-operating characteristic curves (ROC) were constructed to determine the optimum cut-off values, calculate the area under curve (AUC), the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for each velocity. For all groups, the mean, min, and max SWVs of malignant lesions were significantly higher than those of benign lesions (P < 0.05). The cut-off values of mean, min, and max SWVs were not significantly different among the three groups. In addition, the diagnostic performance of mean, min, and max SWV values is analogous, regardless of lesion size. In conclusion, VTIQ is a strong complement to conventional ultrasound, which is a promising method in the differential diagnosis of the breast lesions with different sizes. Further studies validate our results as well as reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies, regardless of size is warranted. PMID:26550234

  6. Vicariously touching products through observing others' hand actions increases purchasing intention, and the effect of visual perspective in this process: An fMRI study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yi; Zang, Xuelian; Chen, Lihan; Assumpção, Leonardo; Li, Hong

    2018-01-01

    The growth of online shopping increases consumers' dependence on vicarious sensory experiences, such as observing others touching products in commercials. However, empirical evidence on whether observing others' sensory experiences increases purchasing intention is still scarce. In the present study, participants observed others interacting with products in the first- or third-person perspective in video clips, and their neural responses were measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We investigated (1) whether and how vicariously touching certain products affected purchasing intention, and the neural correlates of this process; and (2) how visual perspective interacts with vicarious tactility. Vicarious tactile experiences were manipulated by hand actions touching or not touching the products, while the visual perspective was manipulated by showing the hand actions either in first- or third-person perspective. During the fMRI scanning, participants watched the video clips and rated their purchasing intention for each product. The results showed that, observing others touching (vs. not touching) the products increased purchasing intention, with vicarious neural responses found in mirror neuron systems (MNS) and lateral occipital complex (LOC). Moreover, the stronger neural activities in MNS was associated with higher purchasing intention. The effects of visual perspectives were found in left superior parietal lobule (SPL), while the interaction of tactility and visual perspective was shown in precuneus and precuneus-LOC connectivity. The present study provides the first evidence that vicariously touching a given product increased purchasing intention and the neural activities in bilateral MNS, LOC, left SPL and precuneus are involved in this process. Hum Brain Mapp 39:332-343, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  7. Young Children Learning from Touch Screens: Taking a Wider View

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Silvia Lovato

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Touch screen devices such as smartphones and tablets are now ubiquitous in the lives of American children. These devices permit very young children to engage interactively in an intuitive fashion with actions as simple as touching, swiping and pinching. Yet, we know little about the role these devices play in very young children’s lives or their impact on early learning and development. Here we focus on two areas in which existing research sheds some light on these issues with children under three years of age. The first measures transfer of learning, or how well children use information learned from screens to reason about events off-screen, using object retrieval and word learning tasks. The second measures the impact of interactive screens on parent-child interactions and story comprehension during reading time. More research is required to clarify the pedagogical potential and pitfalls of touch screens for infants and very young children, especially research focused on capabilities unique to touch screens and on the social and cultural contexts in which young children use them.

  8. Young Children Learning from Touch Screens: Taking a Wider View.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lovato, Silvia B; Waxman, Sandra R

    2016-01-01

    Touch screen devices such as smartphones and tablets are now ubiquitous in the lives of American children. These devices permit very young children to engage interactively in an intuitive fashion with actions as simple as touching, swiping and pinching. Yet, we know little about the role these devices play in very young children's lives or their impact on early learning and development. Here we focus on two areas in which existing research sheds some light on these issues with children under 3 years of age. The first measures transfer of learning, or how well children use information learned from screens to reason about events off-screen, using object retrieval and word learning tasks. The second measures the impact of interactive screens on parent-child interactions and story comprehension during reading time. More research is required to clarify the pedagogical potential and pitfalls of touch screens for infants and very young children, especially research focused on capabilities unique to touch screens and on the social and cultural contexts in which young children use them.

  9. The effect of relationship status on communicating emotions through touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Erin H; Hampton, James A

    2011-02-01

    Research into emotional communication to date has largely focused on facial and vocal expressions. In contrast, recent studies by Hertenstein, Keltner, App, Bulleit, and Jaskolka (2006) and Hertenstein, Holmes, McCullough, and Keltner (2009) exploring nonverbal communication of emotion discovered that people could identify anger, disgust, fear, gratitude, happiness, love, sadness and sympathy from the experience of being touched on either the arm or body by a stranger, without seeing the touch. The study showed that strangers were unable to communicate the self-focused emotions embarrassment, envy and pride, or the universal emotion surprise. Literature relating to touch indicates that the interpretation of a tactile experience is significantly influenced by the relationship between the touchers (Coan, Schaefer, & Davidson, 2006). The present study compared the ability of romantic couples and strangers to communicate emotions solely via touch. Results showed that both strangers and romantic couples were able to communicate universal and prosocial emotions, whereas only romantic couples were able to communicate the self-focused emotions envy and pride. © 2010 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

  10. Enhancing the Entertainment Experience of Blind and Low-Vision Theatregoers through Touch Tours

    Science.gov (United States)

    Udo, J. P.; Fels, D. I.

    2010-01-01

    In this paper we demonstrate how universal design theory and the research available on museum-based touch tours can be used to develop a touch tour for blind and low-vision theatregoers. We discuss these theoretical and practical approaches with reference to data collected and experience gained from the creation and execution of a touch tour for…

  11. Proximity and physical navigation in collaborative work with a multi-touch wall-display

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jakobsen, Mikkel Rønne; Hornbæk, Kasper

    2012-01-01

    Multi-touch, wall-sized displays afford new forms of collaboration. Yet, most data on collaboration with multi-touch displays come from tabletop settings, where users often sit and where space is a limited resource. We study how two-person groups navigate in relation to a 2.8m!1.2m multi-touch di......-touch display with 24.8 megapixels and to each other when solving a sensemaking task on a document collection. The results show that users physically navigate to shift fluently among different parts of the display and between parallel and joint group work....

  12. Hydrodynamics of electrons in graphene

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lucas, Andrew; Chung Fong, Kin

    2018-02-01

    Generic interacting many-body quantum systems are believed to behave as classical fluids on long time and length scales. Due to rapid progress in growing exceptionally pure crystals, we are now able to experimentally observe this collective motion of electrons in solid-state systems, including graphene. We present a review of recent progress in understanding the hydrodynamic limit of electronic motion in graphene, written for physicists from diverse communities. We begin by discussing the ‘phase diagram’ of graphene, and the inevitable presence of impurities and phonons in experimental systems. We derive hydrodynamics, both from a phenomenological perspective and using kinetic theory. We then describe how hydrodynamic electron flow is visible in electronic transport measurements. Although we focus on graphene in this review, the broader framework naturally generalizes to other materials. We assume only basic knowledge of condensed matter physics, and no prior knowledge of hydrodynamics.

  13. Is the game of touch rugby safe for female adolescents? | Vijam ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The mechanisms producing the musculoskeletal injuries were rapid, rotational movement (33.3%) and poor landing (26.6%) (p<0.05). Female adolescent touch rugby players experience a high prevalence of acute musculoskeletal knee and ankle injuries. Keywords: Touch rugby, musculoskeletal injury, female adolescents.

  14. Affective Touch Enhances Self-Face Recognition During Multisensory Integration

    OpenAIRE

    Panagiotopoulou, Elena; Filippetti, Maria Laura; Tsakiris, Manos; Fotopoulou, Aikaterini

    2017-01-01

    Multisensory integration is a powerful mechanism for constructing body awareness and key for the sense of selfhood. Recent evidence has shown that the specialised C tactile modality that gives rise to feelings of pleasant, affective touch, can enhance the experience of body ownership during multisensory integration. Nevertheless, no study has examined whether affective touch can also modulate psychological identification with our face, the hallmark of our identity. The current study used the ...

  15. Integration of advanced technologies to enhance problem-based learning over distance: Project TOUCH.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacobs, Joshua; Caudell, Thomas; Wilks, David; Keep, Marcus F; Mitchell, Steven; Buchanan, Holly; Saland, Linda; Rosenheimer, Julie; Lozanoff, Beth K; Lozanoff, Scott; Saiki, Stanley; Alverson, Dale

    2003-01-01

    Distance education delivery has increased dramatically in recent years as a result of the rapid advancement of communication technology. The National Computational Science Alliance's Access Grid represents a significant advancement in communication technology with potential for distance medical education. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the TOUCH project (Telehealth Outreach for Unified Community Health; http://hsc.unm.edu/touch) with special emphasis on the process of problem-based learning case development for distribution over the Access Grid. The objective of the TOUCH project is to use emerging Internet-based technology to overcome geographic barriers for delivery of tutorial sessions to medical students pursuing rotations at remote sites. The TOUCH project also is aimed at developing a patient simulation engine and an immersive virtual reality environment to achieve a realistic health care scenario enhancing the learning experience. A traumatic head injury case is developed and distributed over the Access Grid as a demonstration of the TOUCH system. Project TOUCH serves as an example of a computer-based learning system for developing and implementing problem-based learning cases within the medical curriculum, but this system should be easily applied to other educational environments and disciplines involving functional and clinical anatomy. Future phases will explore PC versions of the TOUCH cases for increased distribution. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  16. "Touching" workflow management at runtime

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Claessen, J.E.W.; Reijers, H.A.

    2014-01-01

    New technologies are being introduced into our lives on a almost daily basis. Touch technology is a recent one which changes the way we interact with devices. It influences the work environment a user works in: Instead of only a desk with a PC, the environment is enriched with devices like a

  17. Integrating 2D Mouse Emulation with 3D Manipulation for Visualizations on a Multi-Touch Table

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vlaming, Luc; Collins, Christopher; Hancock, Mark; Nacenta, Miguel; Isenberg, Tobias; Carpendale, Sheelagh

    2010-01-01

    We present the Rizzo, a multi-touch virtual mouse that has been designed to provide the fine grained interaction for information visualization on a multi-touch table. Our solution enables touch interaction for existing mouse-based visualizations. Previously, this transition to a multi-touch

  18. Black brane entropy and hydrodynamics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Booth, I.; Heller, M.P.; Spaliński, M.

    2010-01-01

    A generalization of entropy to near-equilibrium phenomena is provided by the notion of a hydrodynamic entropy current. Recent advances in holography have lead to the formulation of fluid-gravity duality, a remarkable connection between the hydrodynamics of certain strongly coupled media and dynamics

  19. Black brane entropy and hydrodynamics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Booth, I.; Heller, M.P.; Spaliński, M.

    2011-01-01

    A generalization of entropy to near-equilibrium phenomena is provided by the notion of a hydrodynamic entropy current. Recent advances in holography have lead to the formulation of fluid-gravity duality, a remarkable connection between the hydrodynamics of certain strongly coupled media and dynamics

  20. Affective touch awareness in mental health and disease relates to autistic traits - An explorative neurophysiological investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Croy, Ilona; Geide, Helen; Paulus, Martin; Weidner, Kerstin; Olausson, Håkan

    2016-11-30

    Affective touch is important for social interaction within families and groups and there is evidence that unmyelinated C tactile fibers are involved in this process. Individuals with autism spectrum disorders show alterations in the perception and processing of affective touch. sThus, we hypothesized that affective touch awareness based on C tactile fiber activation is impaired in individuals with high levels of autistic trait. The pleasantness perception of optimal and suboptimal C tactile stimuli was tested in an explorative study in 70 patients recruited from an outpatient psychotherapy clinic and 69 healthy comparison subjects. All participants completed questionnaires about autistic traits, depressive symptomatology, childhood maltreatment, and about the daily amount of touch. Relative to comparison subjects, patients reported engaging in touch less frequently in daily life and rated touch less pleasant. Reduced valence ratings of touch were explained by childhood maltreatment but not by any particular disorder or depression severity. Among all tested variables, the affective touch awareness correlated with autistic traits only - in patients as well as in comparison subjects. Taken together, individuals with mental health issues have a lower baseline of expression and reception of affective touch. Autistic traits and childhood maltreatment modulate the experience of affective touch. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Feasibility of Training and Delivering Compassionate Touch in Long-Term Care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Areum; Kunik, Mark E

    2017-09-19

    Limited evidence supports the use of therapeutic touch for people with dementia (PWD). Interventions incorporating a person-centered approach to touch delivered by staff may benefit PWD and staff in long-term care settings. The Compassionate Touch ® (CT) program provides skilled human touch and a compassionate presence following a person-centered approach and touch protocol. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of training and delivering CT. An online survey was sent via email to 112 staff who attended the CT coach training. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used to analyze closed-and open-ended questions of the survey. Twenty-four staff members completed the survey and reported positive perspectives about the training, use of the program, and benefits for PWD and themselves. Five themes emerged, including (1) benefits for residents, (2) challenges in using CT, (3) when to use CT, (4) training staff, and (5) needed support. Preliminary findings from the present research show potential benefits of using the CT program for residents, challenges participants faced in using the program and training other staff, and support needed to overcome these challenges. Programs such as CT may benefit PWD and staff in residential care settings.

  2. Interactions of touch feedback with muscle vibration and galvanic vestibular stimulation in the control of trunk posture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Maaswinkel, E.; Veeger, H.E.J.; van Dieen, J.H.

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated the effect of touch on trunk sway in a seated position. Two touch conditions were included: touching an object with the index finger of the right hand (hand-touch) and maintaining contact with an object at the level of the spine of T10 on the mid back (back-touch). In both

  3. Detecting and Classifying Human Touches in a Social Robot Through Acoustic Sensing and Machine Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alonso-Martín, Fernando; Gamboa-Montero, Juan José; Castillo, José Carlos; Castro-González, Álvaro; Salichs, Miguel Ángel

    2017-05-16

    An important aspect in Human-Robot Interaction is responding to different kinds of touch stimuli. To date, several technologies have been explored to determine how a touch is perceived by a social robot, usually placing a large number of sensors throughout the robot's shell. In this work, we introduce a novel approach, where the audio acquired from contact microphones located in the robot's shell is processed using machine learning techniques to distinguish between different types of touches. The system is able to determine when the robot is touched (touch detection), and to ascertain the kind of touch performed among a set of possibilities: stroke , tap , slap , and tickle (touch classification). This proposal is cost-effective since just a few microphones are able to cover the whole robot's shell since a single microphone is enough to cover each solid part of the robot. Besides, it is easy to install and configure as it just requires a contact surface to attach the microphone to the robot's shell and plug it into the robot's computer. Results show the high accuracy scores in touch gesture recognition. The testing phase revealed that Logistic Model Trees achieved the best performance, with an F -score of 0.81. The dataset was built with information from 25 participants performing a total of 1981 touch gestures.

  4. Embodied terror management: interpersonal touch alleviates existential concerns among individuals with low self-esteem.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koole, Sander L; Tjew A Sin, Mandy; Schneider, Iris K

    2014-01-01

    Individuals with low (rather than high) self-esteem often struggle with existential concerns. In the present research, we examined whether these existential concerns may be alleviated by seemingly trivial experiences of both real and simulated interpersonal touch. A brief touch on the shoulder by a female experimenter led individuals with low self-esteem to experience less death anxiety (Study 1) and more social connectedness after a death reminder (Study 2). Reminding individuals with low self-esteem of death increased their desire for touch, as indicated by higher value estimates of a teddy bear, a toy animal that simulates interpersonal touch (Study 3). Finally, holding a teddy bear (vs. a cardboard box) led individuals with low self-esteem to respond to a death reminder with less defensive ethnocentrism (Study 4). Individuals with high self-esteem were unaffected by touch (Studies 1-4). These findings highlight the existential significance of embodied touch experiences, particularly for individuals with low self-esteem.

  5. Light and heavy touch reduces postural sway and modifies axial tone in Parkinson’s disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franzén, Erika; Paquette, Caroline; Gurfinkel, Victor; Horak, Fay

    2014-01-01

    Background Light touch with a stable object reduces postural sway by increasing axial postural tone in healthy subjects. However, it is unknown whether subjects with Parkinson’s disease (PD), who have more postural sway and higher axial postural tone than healthy subjects, can benefit from haptic touch. Objective To investigate the effect of light and heavy touch on postural stability and hip tone in subjects with PD. Methods Fourteen subjects with mid-stage PD, and 14 healthy control subjects were evaluated during quiet standing with eyes closed with their arms: 1) crossed, 2) lightly touching a fixed rigid bar in front of them and 3) firmly gripping the bar. Postural sway was measured with a forceplate and axial hip tone was quantified using a unique device that measures the resistance of the hips to yaw rotation while maintaining active stance. Results Subjects with PD significantly decreased their postural sway with light or heavy touch (ptouch, hip tone was larger in PD subjects. With touch, however, tone values were similar in both groups. This change in hip tone with touch was highly correlated with the initial amount of tone (PD: r=− 0.72 to −0.95 and controls: r=−0.74 to−0.85). Conclusions We showed, for the first time, that subjects with PD benefit from touch similarly to control subjects and that despite higher axial postural tone, PD subjects are able to modulate their tone with touch. Future studies should investigate the complex relationship between touch and postural tone. PMID:22415944

  6. Topics in fluctuating nonlinear hydrodynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Milner, S.T.

    1986-01-01

    Models of fluctuating nonlinear hydrodynamics have enjoyed much success in explaining the effect of long-wavelength fluctuations in diverse hydrodynamic systems. This thesis explores two such problems; in both, the body of hydrodynamic assumptions powerfully constrains the predictions of a well-posed theory. The effects of layer fluctuations in smectic-A liquid crystals are first examined. The static theory (introduced by Grinstein and Pelcovits) is reviewed. Ward identities, resulting from the arbitrariness of the layering direction, are derived and exploited. The static results motivate an examination of dynamic fluctuation effects. A new sound-damping experiment is proposed that would probe singular dependence of viscosities on applied stress. A theory of Procaccia and Gitterman that reaction rates of chemically reacting binary mixtures are drastically reduced near their thermodynamic critical points is analyzed. Hydrodynamic arguments and Van Hove theory are applied, concluding that the PG idea is drastically slowed, and spatially varying composition fluctuations are at best slowed down over a narrow range of wavenumbers

  7. The (Null) Effect of Affective Touch on Betrayal Aversion, Altruism, and Risk Taking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koppel, Lina; Andersson, David; Morrison, India; Västfjäll, Daniel; Tinghög, Gustav

    2017-01-01

    Pleasant touch is thought to increase the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin, in turn, has been extensively studied with regards to its effects on trust and prosocial behavior, but results remain inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of touch on economic decision making. Participants ( n = 120) were stroked on their left arm using a soft brush (touch condition) or not at all (control condition; varied within subjects), while they performed a series of decision tasks assessing betrayal aversion (the Betrayal Aversion Elicitation Task), altruism (donating money to a charitable organization), and risk taking (the Balloon Analog Risk Task). We found no significant effect of touch on any of the outcome measures, neither within nor between subjects. Furthermore, effects were not moderated by gender or attachment. However, attachment avoidance had a significant effect on altruism in that those who were high in avoidance donated less money. Our findings contribute to the understanding of affective touch-and, by extension, oxytocin-in social behavior, and decision making by showing that touch does not directly influence performance in tasks involving risk and prosocial decisions. Specifically, our work casts further doubt on the validity of oxytocin research in humans.

  8. Convergent and invariant object representations for sight, sound, and touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Man, Kingson; Damasio, Antonio; Meyer, Kaspar; Kaplan, Jonas T

    2015-09-01

    We continuously perceive objects in the world through multiple sensory channels. In this study, we investigated the convergence of information from different sensory streams within the cerebral cortex. We presented volunteers with three common objects via three different modalities-sight, sound, and touch-and used multivariate pattern analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data to map the cortical regions containing information about the identity of the objects. We could reliably predict which of the three stimuli a subject had seen, heard, or touched from the pattern of neural activity in the corresponding early sensory cortices. Intramodal classification was also successful in large portions of the cerebral cortex beyond the primary areas, with multiple regions showing convergence of information from two or all three modalities. Using crossmodal classification, we also searched for brain regions that would represent objects in a similar fashion across different modalities of presentation. We trained a classifier to distinguish objects presented in one modality and then tested it on the same objects presented in a different modality. We detected audiovisual invariance in the right temporo-occipital junction, audiotactile invariance in the left postcentral gyrus and parietal operculum, and visuotactile invariance in the right postcentral and supramarginal gyri. Our maps of multisensory convergence and crossmodal generalization reveal the underlying organization of the association cortices, and may be related to the neural basis for mental concepts. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  9. Rubber Hands Feel Touch, but Not in Blind Individuals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ehrsson, H. Henrik

    2012-01-01

    Psychology and neuroscience have a long-standing tradition of studying blind individuals to investigate how visual experience shapes perception of the external world. Here, we study how blind people experience their own body by exposing them to a multisensory body illusion: the somatic rubber hand illusion. In this illusion, healthy blindfolded participants experience that they are touching their own right hand with their left index finger, when in fact they are touching a rubber hand with their left index finger while the experimenter touches their right hand in a synchronized manner (Ehrsson et al. 2005). We compared the strength of this illusion in a group of blind individuals (n = 10), all of whom had experienced severe visual impairment or complete blindness from birth, and a group of age-matched blindfolded sighted participants (n = 12). The illusion was quantified subjectively using questionnaires and behaviorally by asking participants to point to the felt location of the right hand. The results showed that the sighted participants experienced a strong illusion, whereas the blind participants experienced no illusion at all, a difference that was evident in both tests employed. A further experiment testing the participants' basic ability to localize the right hand in space without vision (proprioception) revealed no difference between the two groups. Taken together, these results suggest that blind individuals with impaired visual development have a more veridical percept of self-touch and a less flexible and dynamic representation of their own body in space compared to sighted individuals. We speculate that the multisensory brain systems that re-map somatosensory signals onto external reference frames are less developed in blind individuals and therefore do not allow efficient fusion of tactile and proprioceptive signals from the two upper limbs into a single illusory experience of self-touch as in sighted individuals. PMID:22558268

  10. Rubber hands feel touch, but not in blind individuals.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valeria I Petkova

    Full Text Available Psychology and neuroscience have a long-standing tradition of studying blind individuals to investigate how visual experience shapes perception of the external world. Here, we study how blind people experience their own body by exposing them to a multisensory body illusion: the somatic rubber hand illusion. In this illusion, healthy blindfolded participants experience that they are touching their own right hand with their left index finger, when in fact they are touching a rubber hand with their left index finger while the experimenter touches their right hand in a synchronized manner (Ehrsson et al. 2005. We compared the strength of this illusion in a group of blind individuals (n = 10, all of whom had experienced severe visual impairment or complete blindness from birth, and a group of age-matched blindfolded sighted participants (n = 12. The illusion was quantified subjectively using questionnaires and behaviorally by asking participants to point to the felt location of the right hand. The results showed that the sighted participants experienced a strong illusion, whereas the blind participants experienced no illusion at all, a difference that was evident in both tests employed. A further experiment testing the participants' basic ability to localize the right hand in space without vision (proprioception revealed no difference between the two groups. Taken together, these results suggest that blind individuals with impaired visual development have a more veridical percept of self-touch and a less flexible and dynamic representation of their own body in space compared to sighted individuals. We speculate that the multisensory brain systems that re-map somatosensory signals onto external reference frames are less developed in blind individuals and therefore do not allow efficient fusion of tactile and proprioceptive signals from the two upper limbs into a single illusory experience of self-touch as in sighted individuals.

  11. Rubber hands feel touch, but not in blind individuals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petkova, Valeria I; Zetterberg, Hedvig; Ehrsson, H Henrik

    2012-01-01

    Psychology and neuroscience have a long-standing tradition of studying blind individuals to investigate how visual experience shapes perception of the external world. Here, we study how blind people experience their own body by exposing them to a multisensory body illusion: the somatic rubber hand illusion. In this illusion, healthy blindfolded participants experience that they are touching their own right hand with their left index finger, when in fact they are touching a rubber hand with their left index finger while the experimenter touches their right hand in a synchronized manner (Ehrsson et al. 2005). We compared the strength of this illusion in a group of blind individuals (n = 10), all of whom had experienced severe visual impairment or complete blindness from birth, and a group of age-matched blindfolded sighted participants (n = 12). The illusion was quantified subjectively using questionnaires and behaviorally by asking participants to point to the felt location of the right hand. The results showed that the sighted participants experienced a strong illusion, whereas the blind participants experienced no illusion at all, a difference that was evident in both tests employed. A further experiment testing the participants' basic ability to localize the right hand in space without vision (proprioception) revealed no difference between the two groups. Taken together, these results suggest that blind individuals with impaired visual development have a more veridical percept of self-touch and a less flexible and dynamic representation of their own body in space compared to sighted individuals. We speculate that the multisensory brain systems that re-map somatosensory signals onto external reference frames are less developed in blind individuals and therefore do not allow efficient fusion of tactile and proprioceptive signals from the two upper limbs into a single illusory experience of self-touch as in sighted individuals.

  12. Gesture Recognition for Educational Games: Magic Touch Math

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kye, Neo Wen; Mustapha, Aida; Azah Samsudin, Noor

    2017-08-01

    Children nowadays are having problem learning and understanding basic mathematical operations because they are not interested in studying or learning mathematics. This project proposes an educational game called Magic Touch Math that focuses on basic mathematical operations targeted to children between the age of three to five years old using gesture recognition to interact with the game. Magic Touch Math was developed in accordance to the Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC) methodology. The prototype developed has helped children to learn basic mathematical operations via intuitive gestures. It is hoped that the application is able to get the children motivated and interested in mathematics.

  13. Diagnostic values of FibroScan and FibroTouch for liver fibrosis: a comparative analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    WU Na

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available ObjectiveTo compare the diagnostic values of FibroScan and FibroTouch for liver fibrosis. MethodsA total of 962 patients who visited Department of Hepatology, The First Hospital of Jilin University from September 2013 to March 2014 were enrolled. FibroScan and FibroTouch were performed among these patients. Thirty-three cases underwent liver biopsy, and Aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI was calculated in 66 patients (chronic hepatitis B (CHB: 53 cases; chronic hepatitis C (CHC: 13 cases. Spearman rank correlation test was used to analyze the correlation between the results measured by FibroScan and FibroTouch. The diagnostic values of FibroScan and FibroTouch for liver fibrosis were analyzed and compared by receiver operating characteristic (ROC curve. ResultsThe analysis of liver stiffness measured by FibroScan and FibroTouch among all patients showed that the correlation coefficient between FibroScan and FibroTouch was 0.866 (P<0.05, n=962. FibroScan and FibroTouch were significantly correlated with APRI (r=0.58 and 0.63, P<0.05, n=66 and pathological stage determined by liver biopsy (r=0.67 and 0.74, P<0.05, n=33. Among patients with CHB, for the diagnosis of APRI ≥2 (liver cirrhosis, the areas under the ROC curve (AUCs of FibroScan and FibroTouch were 0.761 vs 0.728 (P=0.61; among patients with CHC, for the diagnosis of APRI ≥1 (liver cirrhosis, the AUCs of FibroScan and FibroTouch were 0.810 vs 0.893 (P=0.38. For pathological stages ≥S1, ≥S2, ≥S3, and ≥S4, the AUCs of FibroScan and FibroTouch were 0.830 vs 0.889 (P=0.15, 0.841 vs 0.835 (P=0.90, 0.888 vs 0.920 (P=0.43, and 0.964 vs 0.979 (P=0.45, respectively. ConclusionFibroScan and FibroTouch have comparable diagnostic values for liver fibrosis. However, the number of cases undergoing liver biopsy in this study was relatively small, and investigation of more cases is needed to make further confirmation.

  14. SPECIAL RELATIVISTIC HYDRODYNAMICS WITH GRAVITATION

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hwang, Jai-chan [Department of Astronomy and Atmospheric Sciences, Kyungpook National University, Daegu (Korea, Republic of); Noh, Hyerim [Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Daejon (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-12-20

    Special relativistic hydrodynamics with weak gravity has hitherto been unknown in the literature. Whether such an asymmetric combination is possible has been unclear. Here, the hydrodynamic equations with Poisson-type gravity, considering fully relativistic velocity and pressure under the weak gravity and the action-at-a-distance limit, are consistently derived from Einstein’s theory of general relativity. An analysis is made in the maximal slicing, where the Poisson’s equation becomes much simpler than our previous study in the zero-shear gauge. Also presented is the hydrodynamic equations in the first post-Newtonian approximation, now under the general hypersurface condition. Our formulation includes the anisotropic stress.

  15. Similarity flows in relativistic hydrodynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blaizot, J.P.; Ollitrault, J.Y.

    1986-01-01

    In ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions, one expects in particular to observe a deconfinement transition leading to a formation of quark gluon plasma. In the framework of the hydrodynamic model, experimental signatures of such a plasma may be looked for as observable consequences of a first order transition on the evolution of the system. In most of the possible scenario, the phase transition is accompanied with discontinuities in the hydrodynamic flow, such as shock waves. The method presented in this paper has been developed to treat without too much numerical effort such discontinuous flow. It relies heavily on the use of similarity solutions of the hydrodynamic equations

  16. The RAGE radiation-hydrodynamic code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gittings, Michael; Clover, Michael; Betlach, Thomas; Byrne, Nelson; Ranta, Dale; Weaver, Robert; Coker, Robert; Dendy, Edward; Hueckstaedt, Robert; New, Kim; Oakes, W Rob; Stefan, Ryan

    2008-01-01

    We describe RAGE, the 'radiation adaptive grid Eulerian' radiation-hydrodynamics code, including its data structures, its parallelization strategy and performance, its hydrodynamic algorithm(s), its (gray) radiation diffusion algorithm, and some of the considerable amount of verification and validation efforts. The hydrodynamics is a basic Godunov solver, to which we have made significant improvements to increase the advection algorithm's robustness and to converge stiffnesses in the equation of state. Similarly, the radiation transport is a basic gray diffusion, but our treatment of the radiation-material coupling, wherein we converge nonlinearities in a novel manner to allow larger timesteps and more robust behavior, can be applied to any multi-group transport algorithm

  17. Image retrieval

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ørnager, Susanne

    1997-01-01

    The paper touches upon indexing and retrieval for effective searches of digitized images. Different conceptions of what subject indexing means are described as a basis for defining an operational subject indexing strategy for images. The methodology is based on the art historian Erwin Panofsky......), special knowledge about image codes, and special knowledge about history of ideas. The semiologist Roland Barthes has established a semiology for pictorial expressions based on advertising photos. Barthes uses the concepts denotation/connotation where denotations can be explained as the sober expression...

  18. Designing social play through interpersonal touch

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Padfield, Nicolas; Löwgren, Jonas; Hobye, Mads

    2013-01-01

    We present five design cases as an annotated portfolio, exploring ways to design for intimate, interpersonal touch and social intimacy in interaction design. Five key qualities are elicited from the cases, including novel connotations sparking curiosity; providing an excuse to interact; unfolding...

  19. Experiences with Interactive Multi-touch Tables

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fikkert, F.W.; Hakvoort, M.; Hakvoort, M.C.; van der Vet, P.E.; Nijholt, Antinus; Nijholt, A.; Reidsma, D.; Reidsma, Dennis; Hondorp, G.H.W.

    2009-01-01

    Interactive multi-touch tables can be a powerful means of communication for collaborative work as well as an engaging environment for competition. Through enticing gameplay we have evaluated user experience on competitive gameplay, collaborative work and musical expression. In addition, we report on

  20. Texture design for light touch perception

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhang, S.; Zeng, X.; Matthews, D.T.A.; Igartua, A.; Rodriguez Vidal, E.; Fortes, J. Contreras; Van Der Heide, E.

    This study focused on active light touch with predefined textures specially-designed for tactile perception. The counter-body material is stainless steel sheet. Three geometric structures (grid, crater and groove) were fabricated by pulsed laser surface texturing. A total number of twenty volunteers

  1. Design and analysis of a piezoelectric material based touch screen with additional pressure and its acceleration measurement functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chu, Xiang-Cheng; Liu, Jia-Yi; Gao, Ren-Long; Chang, Jie; Li, Long-Tu

    2013-01-01

    Touch screens are becoming more and more prevalent in everyday environments due to their convenience and humanized operation. In this paper, a piezoelectric material based touch screen is developed and investigated. Piezoelectric ceramics arrayed under the touch panel at the edges or corners are used as tactile sensors to measure the touch positioning point similarly to conventional touch screens. However, additional touch pressure and its acceleration performance can also be obtained to obtain a higher-level human–machine interface. The piezoelectric ceramics can also be added to a traditional touch screen structure, or they can be used independently to construct a novel touch screen with a high light transmittance approach to a transparent glass. The piezoelectric ceramics were processed from PZT piezoelectric ceramic powder into a round or rectangular shape. According to the varied touch position and physical press strength of a finger, or even a gloved hand or fingernail, the piezoelectric tactile sensors will have different output voltage responses. By calculating the ratio of different piezoelectric tactile sensors’ responses and summing up all piezoelectric tactile sensors’ output voltages, the touch point position, touch pressure and touch force acceleration can be detected. A prototype of such a touch screen is manufactured and its position accuracy, touch pressure and response speed are measured in detail. The experimental results show that the prototype has many advantages such as high light transmittance, low energy cost and high durability. (paper)

  2. Design of High-Precision Infrared Multi-Touch Screen Based on the EFM32

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhong XIAOLING

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Due to the low accuracy of traditional infrared multi-touch screen, it’s difficult to ascertain the touch point. Putting forward a design scheme based on ARM Cortex-M3 kernel EFM32 processor of high precision infrared multi-touch screen. Using tracking scanning area algorithm after accessed electricity for the first time to scan, it greatly improved the scanning efficiency and response speed. Based on the infrared characteristic difference, putting forward a data fitting algorithm, employing the subtraction relationship between the covering area and sampling value to curve fitting, concluding the infrared sampling value of subtraction characteristic curve, establishing a sampling value differential data tables, at last ensuring the precise location of touch point. Besides, practices have proved that the accuracy of the infrared touch screen can up to 0.5 mm. The design uses standard USB port which connected to the PC can also be widely used in various terminals.

  3. Differences Between Psoriasis Patients and Skin-healthy Controls Concerning Appraisal of Touching, Shame and Disgust.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lahousen, Theresa; Kupfer, Jörg; Gieler, Uwe; Hofer, Angelika; Linder, M Dennis; Schut, Christina

    2016-08-23

    Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease associated with high levels of psychological distress and considerable life impact. Feelings of shame and stigmatization can lead to avoidance of social activity and intimacy. In this study, the questionnaire TSD-Q was used to evaluate pleasure in touching oneself and in a partnership, parental touching during childhood and (skin-related) shame and disgust. Skin-related disgust and shame were significantly higher in psoriatic patients than in healthy controls. Moreover, psoriasis-patients scored significantly lower than skin-healthy controls concerning appraisal of self-touching and parental touching. In contrast, psoriasis-patients scored higher concerning appraisal of touching in a partnership. Due to the fact that low self-esteem might enhance the negative evaluation of touch and the feelings of shame and disgust, psychological interventions should be integrated in the treatment of psoriasis.

  4. Sencha Touch cookbook

    CERN Document Server

    Kumar, Ajit

    2011-01-01

    The book is written in a cookbook style, presenting examples in the style of recipes, allowing you to go directly to your topic of interest, or follow topics throughout a chapter to gain in-depth knowledge. This book is ideal for anyone who wants to gain the practical knowledge involved in using Sencha Touch mobile web application framework to make attractive web apps for mobiles. If you have some familiarity with HTML and CSS, then this book is for you. This book will give designers the skills they need to implement their ideas, and provide developers with creative inspiration through practic

  5. Blame it on the bossa nova: Transfer of perceived sexiness from music to touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fritz, Thomas Hans; Brummerloh, Berit; Urquijo, Maria; Wegner, Katharina; Reimer, Enrico; Gutekunst, Sven; Schneider, Lydia; Smallwood, Jonathan; Villringer, Arno

    2017-09-01

    Emotion elicited through music transfers to subsequent processing of facial expressions. Music may accordingly function as a social technology by promoting social bonding. Here, we investigated whether music would cross-modally influence the perception of sensual touch, a behavior related to mating. A robot applied precisely controlled gentle touch to a group of healthy participants while they listened to music that varied with respect to its perceived sexiness. As the perceived sexiness of the music increased, so did the subjective sexiness of the touch stimulations. In short, the perception of sexiness transferred from music to touch. Because sensual touch is key to mating behavior and relates to procreation, this association has implications for the universality and evolutionary significance of music. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  6. Light touch contact improves pain-evoked postural instability during quiet standing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hirata, Rogerio P.; Christensen, Steffan W.; Agger, Simone

    2018-01-01

    for 40 seconds with their eyes closed. Their postural stability was quantified by the area and velocity of center of pressure (CoP) displacement. The CoP was recorded with and without pain during two different conditions: 1) no touch and 2) the subjects were asked to lightly touch a curtain...

  7. Modelling hydrodynamic parameters to predict flow assisted corrosion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Poulson, B.; Greenwell, B.; Chexal, B.; Horowitz, J.

    1992-01-01

    During the past 15 years, flow assisted corrosion has been a worldwide problem in the power generating industry. The phenomena is complex and depends on environment, material composition, and hydrodynamic factors. Recently, modeling of flow assisted corrosion has become a subject of great importance. A key part of this effort is modeling the hydrodynamic aspects of this issue. This paper examines which hydrodynamic parameter should be used to correlate the occurrence and rate of flow assisted corrosion with physically meaningful parameters, discusses ways of measuring the relevant hydrodynamic parameter, and describes how the hydrodynamic data is incorporated into the predictive model

  8. Quantification of Single- and Multi-Phase Hydrodynamic Dispersion in Rocks Using Dynamic 3D PET Imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pini, R.; Vandehey, N. T.; O'Neil, J.; Benson, S. M.

    2015-12-01

    We report results of an experimental investigation into the effects of small-scale (mm-cm) heterogeneities and hydrodynamic dispersion on miscible and immiscible displacements in a Berea Sandstone core. Pulse-radiotracer tests were carried out by measuring breakthrough curves at distinct flow rates and gas/water saturation ratios, while simultaneously imaging the internal displacement of the radioactive solution by [11C]PET. Dynamic multidimensional maps of the tracer concentration in the rock sample have been obtained with a spatial resolution of about 10 mm3 and provide evidence for significant macrodispersion effects caused by the presence of heterogeneities at the same scale. The numerical solution of the classic Advection-Dispersion Equation (ADE) applied in 1D form fails to describe the measured breakthrough curves and significantly overestimates longitudinal dispersivity. An excellent agreement with the experiments is attained by explicitly accounting for permeability heterogeneity, while reducing the contribution of "Fickian" dispersivity. Heterogeneity was introduced in the model by discretising the rock sample into independent parallel streamlines, which were generated based on a previously determined 3D permeability map, and by solving the 1D ADE for each of them. The use of streamlines is supported by direct quantitative observations from the PET scans; remarkably, this approach leads to an accurate representation of both the temporal behaviour and spatial distribution of the tracer concentration in the sample. It is shown that when the length-scale of permeability variations is similar in order as the size of the sample, the effect of the former can be as significant as hydrodynamic dispersion. The presence of a second immiscible fluid phase further complicates the flow field and, accordingly, the interpretation of the experiments. The ability to decouple these effects leads to the estimation of dispersion coefficients that aren't sample specific and

  9. Hydrodynamic effects on coalescence.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dimiduk, Thomas G.; Bourdon, Christopher Jay; Grillet, Anne Mary; Baer, Thomas A.; de Boer, Maarten Pieter; Loewenberg, Michael (Yale University, New Haven, CT); Gorby, Allen D.; Brooks, Carlton, F.

    2006-10-01

    The goal of this project was to design, build and test novel diagnostics to probe the effect of hydrodynamic forces on coalescence dynamics. Our investigation focused on how a drop coalesces onto a flat surface which is analogous to two drops coalescing, but more amenable to precise experimental measurements. We designed and built a flow cell to create an axisymmetric compression flow which brings a drop onto a flat surface. A computer-controlled system manipulates the flow to steer the drop and maintain a symmetric flow. Particle image velocimetry was performed to confirm that the control system was delivering a well conditioned flow. To examine the dynamics of the coalescence, we implemented an interferometry capability to measure the drainage of the thin film between the drop and the surface during the coalescence process. A semi-automated analysis routine was developed which converts the dynamic interferogram series into drop shape evolution data.

  10. Motor dysfunction and touch-slang in user interface data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein, Yoni; Djaldetti, Ruth; Keller, Yosi; Bachelet, Ido

    2017-07-05

    The recent proliferation in mobile touch-based devices paves the way for increasingly efficient, easy to use natural user interfaces (NUI). Unfortunately, touch-based NUIs might prove difficult, or even impossible to operate, in certain conditions e.g. when suffering from motor dysfunction such as Parkinson's Disease (PD). Yet, the prevalence of such devices makes them particularly suitable for acquiring motor function data, and enabling the early detection of PD symptoms and other conditions. In this work we acquired a unique database of more than 12,500 annotated NUI multi-touch gestures, collected from PD patients and healthy volunteers, that were analyzed by applying advanced shape analysis and statistical inference schemes. The proposed analysis leads to a novel detection scheme for early stages of PD. Moreover, our computational analysis revealed that young subjects may be using a 'slang' form of gesture-making to reduce effort and attention cost while maintaining meaning, whereas older subjects put an emphasis on content and precise performance.

  11. Acetylated tubulin is essential for touch sensation in mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morley, Shane J; Qi, Yanmei; Iovino, Loredana; Andolfi, Laura; Guo, Da; Kalebic, Nereo; Castaldi, Laura; Tischer, Christian; Portulano, Carla; Bolasco, Giulia; Shirlekar, Kalyanee; Fusco, Claudia M; Asaro, Antonino; Fermani, Federica; Sundukova, Mayya; Matti, Ulf; Reymond, Luc; De Ninno, Adele; Businaro, Luca; Johnsson, Kai; Lazzarino, Marco; Ries, Jonas; Schwab, Yannick; Hu, Jing; Heppenstall, Paul A

    2016-12-13

    At its most fundamental level, touch sensation requires the translation of mechanical energy into mechanosensitive ion channel opening, thereby generating electro-chemical signals. Our understanding of this process, especially how the cytoskeleton influences it, remains unknown. Here we demonstrate that mice lacking the α-tubulin acetyltransferase Atat1 in sensory neurons display profound deficits in their ability to detect mechanical stimuli. We show that all cutaneous afferent subtypes, including nociceptors have strongly reduced mechanosensitivity upon Atat1 deletion, and that consequently, mice are largely insensitive to mechanical touch and pain. We establish that this broad loss of mechanosensitivity is dependent upon the acetyltransferase activity of Atat1, which when absent leads to a decrease in cellular elasticity. By mimicking α-tubulin acetylation genetically, we show both cellular rigidity and mechanosensitivity can be restored in Atat1 deficient sensory neurons. Hence, our results indicate that by influencing cellular stiffness, α-tubulin acetylation sets the force required for touch.

  12. Mechanosensitive Channels: In Touch with Piezo

    OpenAIRE

    Xiao, Rui; Xu, X.Z. Shawn

    2010-01-01

    Mechanosensory transduction underlies touch, hearing and proprioception and requires mechanosensitive channels that are directly gated by forces; however, the molecular identities of these channels remain largely elusive. A new study has identified Piezo1 and Piezo2 as a novel class of mechanosensitive channels.

  13. Hydrodynamic interactions in active colloidal crystal microrheology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weeber, R; Harting, J

    2012-11-01

    In dense colloids it is commonly assumed that hydrodynamic interactions do not play a role. However, a found theoretical quantification is often missing. We present computer simulations that are motivated by experiments where a large colloidal particle is dragged through a colloidal crystal. To qualify the influence of long-ranged hydrodynamics, we model the setup by conventional Langevin dynamics simulations and by an improved scheme with limited hydrodynamic interactions. This scheme significantly improves our results and allows to show that hydrodynamics strongly impacts the development of defects, the crystal regeneration, as well as the jamming behavior.

  14. Touch sensitivity with sterile standard surgical gloves and single-use protective gloves.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tiefenthaler, W; Gimpl, S; Wechselberger, G; Benzer, A

    2006-10-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate touch sensitivity and static two-point discrimination of the dominant index and middle finger in 20 anaesthetists wearing no gloves, single-use protective gloves or sterile standard surgical gloves. Semmes-Weinstein filaments were used to measure cutaneous pressure thresholds, and a Two-Point-Discriminator to estimate static two-point discrimination. Wearing gloves significantly reduced touch sensitivity (p gloves. The results of our study suggest that the additional cost of sterile standard surgical gloves can not be justified in terms of touch sensitivity.

  15. ExTouch: Spatially-aware embodied manipulation of actuated objects mediated by augmented reality

    OpenAIRE

    Kasahara, Shunichi; Niiyama, Ryuma; Ishii, Hiroshi; Heun, Valentin Markus Josef

    2013-01-01

    As domestic robots and smart appliances become increasingly common, they require a simple, universal interface to control their motion. Such an interface must support a simple selection of a connected device, highlight its capabilities and allow for an intuitive manipulation. We propose "exTouch", an embodied spatially-aware approach to touch and control devices through an augmented reality mediated mobile interface. The "exTouch" system extends the users touchscreen interactions into the rea...

  16. Numerical Hydrodynamics in General Relativity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Font José A.

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available The current status of numerical solutions for the equations of ideal general relativistic hydrodynamics is reviewed. With respect to an earlier version of the article, the present update provides additional information on numerical schemes, and extends the discussion of astrophysical simulations in general relativistic hydrodynamics. Different formulations of the equations are presented, with special mention of conservative and hyperbolic formulations well-adapted to advanced numerical methods. A large sample of available numerical schemes is discussed, paying particular attention to solution procedures based on schemes exploiting the characteristic structure of the equations through linearized Riemann solvers. A comprehensive summary of astrophysical simulations in strong gravitational fields is presented. These include gravitational collapse, accretion onto black holes, and hydrodynamical evolutions of neutron stars. The material contained in these sections highlights the numerical challenges of various representative simulations. It also follows, to some extent, the chronological development of the field, concerning advances on the formulation of the gravitational field and hydrodynamic equations and the numerical methodology designed to solve them.

  17. The RAGE radiation-hydrodynamic code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gittings, Michael; Clover, Michael; Betlach, Thomas; Byrne, Nelson; Ranta, Dale [Science Applications International Corp. MS A-1, 10260 Campus Point Drive, San Diego, CA 92121 (United States); Weaver, Robert; Coker, Robert; Dendy, Edward; Hueckstaedt, Robert; New, Kim; Oakes, W Rob [Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS T087, PO Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Stefan, Ryan [TaylorMade-adidas Golf, 5545 Fermi Court, Carlsbad, CA 92008-7324 (United States)], E-mail: michael.r.clover@saic.com

    2008-10-01

    We describe RAGE, the 'radiation adaptive grid Eulerian' radiation-hydrodynamics code, including its data structures, its parallelization strategy and performance, its hydrodynamic algorithm(s), its (gray) radiation diffusion algorithm, and some of the considerable amount of verification and validation efforts. The hydrodynamics is a basic Godunov solver, to which we have made significant improvements to increase the advection algorithm's robustness and to converge stiffnesses in the equation of state. Similarly, the radiation transport is a basic gray diffusion, but our treatment of the radiation-material coupling, wherein we converge nonlinearities in a novel manner to allow larger timesteps and more robust behavior, can be applied to any multi-group transport algorithm.

  18. Mutual regulation between infant facial affect and maternal touch in depressed and nondepressed dyads

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Egmose, Ida; Cordes, Katharina; Smith-Nielsen, Johanne

    2017-01-01

    research suggests that touch is an important means through which parents regulate their infants’ affects. Also, previous research has shown that post-partum depressed (PPD) mothers and nonclinical mothers differ in their touching behaviors when interacting with their infants. We examined the affect......-regulating function of affectionate, caregiving and playful maternal touch in 24 PPD and 47 nonclinical mother-infant dyads when infants were four months old. In order to investigate the direction of effects and to account for repeated observations, the data were analysed using time-window sequential analysis......, only in the PPD dyads, were the mothers more likely to initiate affectionate touch when their infants were displaying negative facial affect. Our results also showed that mothers use specific touch types to regulate infants’ negative and positive affects; infants are more likely to initiate positive...

  19. Sensory integration of a light touch reference in human standing balance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Craig P.; Reynolds, Raymond F.

    2018-01-01

    In upright stance, light touch of a space-stationary touch reference reduces spontaneous sway. Moving the reference evokes sway responses which exhibit non-linear behavior that has been attributed to sensory reweighting. Reweighting refers to a change in the relative contribution of sensory cues signaling body sway in space and light touch cues signaling finger position with respect to the body. Here we test the hypothesis that the sensory fusion process involves a transformation of light touch signals into the same reference frame as other sensory inputs encoding body sway in space, or vice versa. Eight subjects lightly gripped a robotic manipulandum which moved in a circular arc around the ankle joint. A pseudo-randomized motion sequence with broad spectral characteristics was applied at three amplitudes. The stimulus was presented at two different heights and therefore different radial distances, which were matched in terms of angular motion. However, the higher stimulus evoked a significantly larger sway response, indicating that the response was not matched to stimulus angular motion. Instead, the body sway response was strongly related to the horizontal translation of the manipulandum. The results suggest that light touch is integrated as the horizontal distance between body COM and the finger. The data were well explained by a model with one feedback loop minimizing changes in horizontal COM-finger distance. The model further includes a second feedback loop estimating the horizontal finger motion and correcting the first loop when the touch reference is moving. The second loop includes the predicted transformation of sensory signals into the same reference frame and a non-linear threshold element that reproduces the non-linear sway responses, thus providing a mechanism that can explain reweighting. PMID:29874252

  20. Creating Joint Representations of Collaborative Problem Solving with Multi-Touch Technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mercier, E.; Higgins, S.

    2014-01-01

    Multi-touch surfaces have the potential to change the nature of computer-supported collaborative learning, allowing more equitable access to shared digital content. In this paper, we explore how large multi-touch tables can be used by groups of students as an external representation of their group interaction processes. Video data from 24 groups…

  1. Gender and the Communication of Emotion Via Touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hertenstein, Matthew J; Keltner, Dacher

    2011-01-01

    We reanalyzed a data set consisting of a U.S. undergraduate sample (N = 212) from a previous study (Hertenstein et al. 2006a) that showed that touch communicates distinct emotions between humans. In the current reanalysis, we found that anger was communicated at greater-than-chance levels only when a male comprised at least one member of a communicating dyad. Sympathy was communicated at greater-than-chance levels only when a female comprised at least one member of the dyad. Finally, happiness was communicated only if females comprised the entire dyad. The current analysis demonstrates gender asymmetries in the accuracy of communicating distinct emotions via touch between humans.

  2. Hydrodynamic Forces on Composite Structures

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-06-01

    NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA THESIS Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited HYDRODYNAMIC ...Thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE HYDRODYNAMIC FORCES ON COMPOSITE STRUCTURES 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6. AUTHOR(S) Scott C. Millhouse 7. PERFORMING...angles yields different free surface effects including vortices and the onset of cavitation . 14. SUBJECT TERMS Fluid structure interaction, FSI, finite

  3. Human perception of shape from touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kappers, Astrid M L

    2011-01-01

    In this paper, I focus on the role of active touch in three aspects of shape perception and discrimination studies. First an overview is given of curvature discrimination experiments. The most prominent result is that first-order stimulus information (that is, the difference in attitude or slope

  4. Transverse acoustic forcing of a round hydrodynamically self-excited jet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kushwaha, Abhijit Kumar; Mazur, Marek; Worth, Nicholas; Dawson, James; Li, Larry K. B.

    2017-11-01

    Hydrodynamically self-excited jets can readily synchronize with longitudinal acoustic forcing, but their response to transverse acoustic forcing is less clear. In this experimental study, we apply transverse acoustic forcing to an axisymmetric low-density jet at frequencies around its natural global frequency. We place the jet in a rectangular box containing two loudspeakers, one at each end, producing nominally one-dimensional standing pressure waves. By traversing the jet across this box, we subject it to a range of acoustic modes, from purely longitudinal (streamwise) modes at the pressure anti-node to purely transverse (cross-stream) modes at the pressure node. Using time-resolved Background-Oriented Schlieren (BOS) imaging and hot-wire anemometry, we characterize the jet response for different forcing frequencies, amplitudes and mode shapes, providing new insight into the way transverse acoustic oscillations interact with axisymmetric hydrodynamic oscillations. This work was supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Project No. 16235716 and 26202815).

  5. Investigation of force, contact area, and dwell time in finger-tapping tasks on membrane touch interface.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Na; Yu, Ruifeng

    2018-06-01

    This study aimed to determine the touch characteristics during tapping tasks on membrane touch interface and investigate the effects of posture and gender on touch characteristics variables. One hundred participants tapped digits displayed on a membrane touch interface on sitting and standing positions using all fingers of the dominant hand. Touch characteristics measures included average force, contact area, and dwell time. Across fingers and postures, males exerted larger force and contact area than females, but similar dwell time. Across genders and postures, thumb exerted the largest force and the force of the other four fingers showed no significant difference. The contact area of the thumb was the largest, whereas that of the little finger was the smallest; the dwell time of the thumb was the longest, whereas that of the middle finger was the shortest. Relationships among finger sizes, gender, posture and touch characteristics were proposed. The findings helped direct membrane touch interface design for digital and numerical control products from hardware and software perspectives. Practitioner Summary: This study measured force, contact area, and dwell time in tapping tasks on membrane touch interface and examined effects of gender and posture on force, contact area, and dwell time. The findings will direct membrane touch interface design for digital and numerical control products from hardware and software perspectives.

  6. Anisotropic hydrodynamics for conformal Gubser flow

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Strickland, Michael; Nopoush, Mohammad [Kent State University, Kent OH 44242 (United States); Ryblewski, Radoslaw [The H. Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, PL-31342 Kraków (Poland)

    2016-12-15

    In this proceedings contribution, we review the exact solution of the anisotropic hydrodynamics equations for a system subject to Gubser flow. For this purpose, we use the leading-order anisotropic hydrodynamics equations which assume that the distribution function is ellipsoidally symmetric in local-rest-frame momentum. We then prove that the SO(3){sub q} symmetry in de Sitter space constrains the anisotropy tensor to be of spheroidal form with only one independent anisotropy parameter remaining. As a consequence, the exact solution reduces to the problem of solving two coupled non-linear differential equations. We show that, in the limit that the relaxation time goes to zero, one obtains Gubser's ideal hydrodynamic solution and, in the limit that the relaxation time goes to infinity, one obtains the exact free streaming solution obtained originally by Denicol et al. For finite relaxation time, we solve the equations numerically and compare to the exact solution of the relaxation-time-approximation Boltzmann equation subject to Gubser flow. Using this as our standard, we find that anisotropic hydrodynamics describes the spatio-temporal evolution of the system better than all currently known dissipative hydrodynamics approaches.

  7. Anisotropic hydrodynamics for conformal Gubser flow

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Strickland, Michael; Nopoush, Mohammad; Ryblewski, Radoslaw

    2016-01-01

    In this proceedings contribution, we review the exact solution of the anisotropic hydrodynamics equations for a system subject to Gubser flow. For this purpose, we use the leading-order anisotropic hydrodynamics equations which assume that the distribution function is ellipsoidally symmetric in local-rest-frame momentum. We then prove that the SO(3)_q symmetry in de Sitter space constrains the anisotropy tensor to be of spheroidal form with only one independent anisotropy parameter remaining. As a consequence, the exact solution reduces to the problem of solving two coupled non-linear differential equations. We show that, in the limit that the relaxation time goes to zero, one obtains Gubser's ideal hydrodynamic solution and, in the limit that the relaxation time goes to infinity, one obtains the exact free streaming solution obtained originally by Denicol et al. For finite relaxation time, we solve the equations numerically and compare to the exact solution of the relaxation-time-approximation Boltzmann equation subject to Gubser flow. Using this as our standard, we find that anisotropic hydrodynamics describes the spatio-temporal evolution of the system better than all currently known dissipative hydrodynamics approaches.

  8. Small systems – hydrodynamics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bożek, Piotr, E-mail: piotr.bozek@fis.agh.edu.pl

    2016-12-15

    The scenario assuming a collective expansion stage in collisions of small systems, p-A, d-Au, and {sup 3}He-Au is discussed. A review of the observables predicted in relativistic hydrodynamic models in comparison with experimental data is presented, with arguments indicating the presence of collective expansion. The limits of applicability of the hydrodynamic model are addressed. We briefly indicate possible applications of the collective flow in small systems to study the space-time dynamics at very small scales in relativistic collisions.

  9. Relativistic conformal magneto-hydrodynamics from holography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buchbinder, Evgeny I.; Buchel, Alex

    2009-01-01

    We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to study first-order relativistic viscous magneto-hydrodynamics of (2+1)-dimensional conformal magnetic fluids. It is shown that the first order magneto-hydrodynamics constructed following Landau and Lifshitz from the positivity of the entropy production is inconsistent. We propose additional contributions to the entropy motivated dissipative current and, correspondingly, new dissipative transport coefficients. We use the strongly coupled M2-brane plasma in external magnetic field to show that the new magneto-hydrodynamics leads to self-consistent results in the shear and sound wave channels.

  10. Dileptons from transport and hydrodynamical models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huovinen, P.; Koch, V.

    2000-01-01

    Transport and hydrodynamical models used to describe the expansion stage of a heavy-ion collision at the CERN SPS give different dilepton spectrum even if they are tuned to reproduce the observed hadron spectra. To understand the origin of this difference we compare the dilepton emission from transport and hydrodynamical models using similar initial states in both models. We find that the requirement of pion number conservation in a hydrodynamical model does not change the dilepton emission. Also the mass distribution from the transport model indicates faster cooling and longer lifetime of the fireball

  11. Assessing Potential Algal Blooms in a Shallow Fluvial Lake by Combining Hydrodynamic Modelling and Remote-Sensed Images

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Monica Pinardi

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Shallow fluvial lakes are dynamic ecosystems shaped by physical and biological factors and characterized by the coexistence of phytoplankton and macrophytes. Due to multiple interplaying factors, understanding the distribution of phytoplankton in fluvial lakes is a complex but fundamental issue, in the context of increasing eutrophication, climate change, and multiple water uses. We analyze the distribution of phytoplankton by combining remotely sensed maps of chlorophyll-a with a hydrodynamic model in a dammed fluvial lake (Mantua Superior Lake, Northern Italy. The numerical simulation of different conditions shows that the main hydrodynamic effects which influence algal distribution are related to the combined effect of advection due to wind forces and local currents, as well as to the presence of large gyres which induce recirculation and stagnation regions, favoring phytoplankton accumulation. Therefore, the general characters of the phytoplankton horizontal patchiness can be inferred from the results of the hydrodynamic model. Conversely, hyperspectral remote-sensing products can be used to validate this model, as they provide chlorophyll-a distribution maps. The integration of ecological, hydraulic, and remote-sensing techniques may therefore help the monitoring and protection of inland water quality, with important improvements in management actions by policy makers.

  12. Touch, the essence of caring for people with end-stage dementia: a mental health perspective in Namaste Care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nicholls, Daniel; Chang, Esther; Johnson, Amanda; Edenborough, Michel

    2013-01-01

    This article presents the mental health aspects of 'touch' associated with a funded research project: Avoiding 'high tech' through 'high touch' in end-stage dementia: Protocol for care at the end-of-life. These mental health aspects highlight the human need for touch that continues up until and inclusive of the final stages of life. This study was informed by Simard's (2007) 'high touch' protocol based on the End-of-Life Namaste Care programme for people with dementia. The article is situated in relation to the research project which used a three-phase mixed methods approach. Data explored in this article are derived from focus groups conducted at three residential aged care facilities located in metropolitan and regional areas of NSW, Australia. The exploration of touch vis-a-vis mental health fell under two broad themes: touch by others and touch by the person. Sub-elements of these themes comprised touch towards a physical objective, touch towards an emotional objective, touch of objects and touch of others. The overarching outcome of interconnectedness embraced environmental awareness and human and life awareness. These two broad themes, with their accompanying elements, express the essential nature of mental health as a reciprocal connectedness, with reciprocal impacts on both those people with advanced dementia and their carers.

  13. Using an experimental model for the study of therapeutic touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    dos Santos, Daniella Soares; Marta, Ilda Estéfani Ribeiro; Cárnio, Evelin Capellari; de Quadros, Andreza Urba; Cunha, Thiago Mattar; de Carvalho, Emilia Campos

    2013-02-01

    to verify whether the Paw Edema Model can be used in investigations about the effects of Therapeutic Touch on inflammation by measuring the variables pain, edema and neutrophil migration. this is a pilot and experimental study, involving ten male mice of the same genetic strain and divided into experimental and control group, submitted to the chemical induction of local inflammation in the right back paw. The experimental group received a daily administration of Therapeutic Touch for 15 minutes during three days. the data showed statistically significant differences in the nociceptive threshold and in the paw circumference of the animals from the experimental group on the second day of the experiment. the experiment model involving animals can contribute to study the effects of Therapeutic Touch on inflammation, and adjustments are suggested in the treatment duration, number of sessions and experiment duration.

  14. TOUCH INTERACTION WITH 3D GEOGRAPHICAL VISUALIZATION ON WEB: SELECTED TECHNOLOGICAL AND USER ISSUES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Herman

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The use of both 3D visualization and devices with touch displays is increasing. In this paper, we focused on the Web technologies for 3D visualization of spatial data and its interaction via touch screen gestures. At the first stage, we compared the support of touch interaction in selected JavaScript libraries on different hardware (desktop PCs with touch screens, tablets, and smartphones and software platforms. Afterward, we realized simple empiric test (within-subject design, 6 participants, 2 simple tasks, LCD touch monitor Acer and digital terrain models as stimuli focusing on the ability of users to solve simple spatial tasks via touch screens. An in-house testing web tool was developed and used based on JavaScript, PHP, and X3DOM languages and Hammer.js libraries. The correctness of answers, speed of users’ performances, used gestures, and a simple gesture metric was recorded and analysed. Preliminary results revealed that the pan gesture is most frequently used by test participants and it is also supported by the majority of 3D libraries. Possible gesture metrics and future developments including the interpersonal differences are discussed in the conclusion.

  15. Analytic approaches to relativistic hydrodynamics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hatta, Yoshitaka

    2016-12-15

    I summarize our recent work towards finding and utilizing analytic solutions of relativistic hydrodynamic. In the first part I discuss various exact solutions of the second-order conformal hydrodynamics. In the second part I compute flow harmonics v{sub n} analytically using the anisotropically deformed Gubser flow and discuss its dependence on n, p{sub T}, viscosity, the chemical potential and the charge.

  16. Changes in Cerebral Hemodynamics during Complex Motor Learning by Character Entry into Touch-Screen Terminals.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Akira Sagari

    Full Text Available Studies of cerebral hemodynamics during motor learning have mostly focused on neurorehabilitation interventions and their effectiveness. However, only a few imaging studies of motor learning and the underlying complex cognitive processes have been performed.We measured cerebral hemodynamics using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS in relation to acquisition patterns of motor skills in healthy subjects using character entry into a touch-screen terminal. Twenty healthy, right-handed subjects who had no previous experience with character entry using a touch-screen terminal participated in this study. They were asked to enter the characters of a randomly formed Japanese syllabary into the touch-screen terminal. All subjects performed the task with their right thumb for 15 s alternating with 25 s of rest for 30 repetitions. Performance was calculated by subtracting the number of incorrect answers from the number of correct answers, and gains in motor skills were evaluated according to the changes in performance across cycles. Behavioral and oxygenated hemoglobin concentration changes across task cycles were analyzed using Spearman's rank correlations.Performance correlated positively with task cycle, thus confirming motor learning. Hemodynamic activation over the left sensorimotor cortex (SMC showed a positive correlation with task cycle, whereas activations over the right prefrontal cortex (PFC and supplementary motor area (SMA showed negative correlations.We suggest that increases in finger momentum with motor learning are reflected in the activity of the left SMC. We further speculate that the right PFC and SMA were activated during the early phases of motor learning, and that this activity was attenuated with learning progress.

  17. Brownian dynamics with hydrodynamic interactions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ermak, D.L.; McCammon, J.A.

    1978-01-01

    A method for simulating the Brownian dynamics of N particles with the inclusion of hydrodynamic interactions is described. The particles may also be subject to the usual interparticle or external forces (e.g., electrostatic) which have been included in previous methods for simulating Brownian dynamics of particles in the absence of hydrodynamic interactions. The present method is derived from the Langevin equations for the N particle assembly, and the results are shown to be consistent with the corresponding Fokker--Planck results. Sample calculations on small systems illustrate the importance of including hydrodynamic interactions in Brownian dynamics simulations. The method should be useful for simulation studies of diffusion limited reactions, polymer dynamics, protein folding, particle coagulation, and other phenomena in solution

  18. Two-fluid hydrodynamic model for semiconductors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Maack, Johan Rosenkrantz; Mortensen, N. Asger; Wubs, Martijn

    2018-01-01

    The hydrodynamic Drude model (HDM) has been successful in describing the optical properties of metallic nanostructures, but for semiconductors where several different kinds of charge carriers are present an extended theory is required. We present a two-fluid hydrodynamic model for semiconductors...

  19. Morphology of seahorse head hydrodynamically aids in capture of evasive prey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gemmell, Brad J; Sheng, Jian; Buskey, Edward J

    2013-01-01

    Syngnathid fish (seahorses, pipefish and sea dragons) are slow swimmers yet capture evasive prey (copepods) using a technique known as the 'pivot' feeding, which involves rapid movement to overcome prey escape capabilities. However, this feeding mode functions only at short range and requires approaching very closely to hydrodynamically sensitive prey without triggering an escape. Here we investigate the role of head morphology on prey capture using holographic and particle image velocimetry (PIV). We show that head morphology functions to create a reduced fluid deformation zone, minimizing hydrodynamic disturbance where feeding strikes occur (above the end of the snout), and permits syngnathid fish to approach highly sensitive copepod prey (Acartia tonsa) undetected. The results explain how these animals can successfully employ short range 'pivot' feeding effectively on evasive prey. The need to approach prey with stealth may have selected for a head shape that produces lower deformation rates than other fish.

  20. Assessment for hydrodynamic masses of HANARO flow tubes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ryu, Jeong Soo; Cho, Yeong Garp; Kim, Doo Kie; Woo, Jong Sug; Park, Jin Ho

    2000-06-01

    The effect of hydrodynamic masses is investigated in dynamic characteristics and seismic response analyses of the submerged HANARO hexagonal flow tubes. Consistent hydrodynamic masses of the surrounding water are evaluated by the prepared program using the finite element method, in which arbitrary cross-sections of submerged structures and boundary conditions of the surrounding fluid can be considered. Also lumped hydrodynamic masses are calculated using simple formula applied to hexagonal flow tubes in the infinite fluid. Modal analyses and seismic response spectrum analyses were performed using hydrodynamic masses obtained by the finite element method and the simple formula. The results of modal analysis were verified by comparing the results measured from modal tests. And the displacement results of the seismic response spectrum analysis were assessed by comparing the consistent and the lumped hydrodynamic masses obtained by various methods. Finally practical criteria based on parametric studies are proposed as the lumped hydrodynamic masses for HANARO flow tubes

  1. Assessment for hydrodynamic masses of HANARO flow tubes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ryu, Jeong Soo; Cho, Yeong Garp; Kim, Doo Kie; Woo, Jong Sug; Park, Jin Ho

    2000-06-01

    The effect of hydrodynamic masses is investigated in dynamic characteristics and seismic response analyses of the submerged HANARO hexagonal flow tubes. Consistent hydrodynamic masses of the surrounding water are evaluated by the prepared program using the finite element method, in which arbitrary cross-sections of submerged structures and boundary conditions of the surrounding fluid can be considered. Also lumped hydrodynamic masses are calculated using simple formula applied to hexagonal flow tubes in the infinite fluid. Modal analyses and seismic response spectrum analyses were performed using hydrodynamic masses obtained by the finite element method and the simple formula. The results of modal analysis were verified by comparing the results measured from modal tests. And the displacement results of the seismic response spectrum analysis were assessed by comparing the consistent and the lumped hydrodynamic masses obtained by various methods. Finally practical criteria based on parametric studies are proposed as the lumped hydrodynamic masses for HANARO flow tubes.

  2. The association between need for touch and desire for unique products and consumer (interdependent problem-solving

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valter Afonso Vieira

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Some people cannot buy products without first touching them, believing that doing so will create more assurance and information and reduce uncertainty. The international consumer marketing literature suggests an instrument to measure consumers' necessity for pohysical contact, called Need for Touch (NFT. This paper analyzes whether the Need for Touch structure is empirically consistent. Based on a literature review, we suggest six hypotheses in order to assess the nomological, convergent, and discriminant validity of the phenomenon. Departing from these, data supported four assumptions in the predicted direction. Need for Touch was associated with Need for Input and with Need for Cognition. Need for Touch was not associated with traditional marketing channels. The results also showed the dual characterization of Need for Touch as a bi-dimensional construct. The moderator effect indicated that when the consumer has a higher (vs. lower Need for Touch autotelic score, the experiential motivation for shopping played a more (vs. less important role in impulsive motivation. Our Study 3 supports the NFT structure and shows new associations with the need for unique products and dependent decisions.

  3. Reading touch screen storybooks with mothers negatively affects seven-year-old readers’ comprehension but enriches emotional engagement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kirsty Mhairi Ross

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Touch screen storybooks turn reading into an interactive multimedia experience, with hotspot-activated animations, sound effects, and games. Positive and negative effects of reading multimedia stories have been reported, but the underlying mechanisms which explain how children’s learning is affected remain uncertain. The present study examined the effect of storybook format (touch screen and print on story comprehension, and considered how level of touch screen interactivity (high and low and shared reading behaviors (cognitive and emotional scaffolding, emotional engagement might contribute to comprehension. Seven-year-olds (n = 22 were observed reading one touch screen storybook and one print storybook with their mothers. Story comprehension was inferior for the touch screen storybooks compared to the print versions. Touch screen interactivity had no significant effect on comprehension but did affect shared reading behaviors. The mother-child dyads spent less time talking about the story in the highly interactive touch screen condition, despite longer shared reading sessions because of touch screen interactions. Positive emotional engagement was greater for children and mothers in the highly interactive touch screen condition, due to additional positive emotions expressed during touch screen interactions. Negative emotional engagement was greater for children when reading and talking about the story in the highly interactive condition, and some mothers demonstrated negative emotional engagement with the touch screen activities. The less interactive touch screen storybook had little effect on shared reading behaviors, but mothers controlling behaviors were more frequent. Storybook format had no effect on the frequency of mothers’ cognitive scaffolding behaviors (comprehension questions, word help. Relationships between comprehension and shared reading behaviors were examined for each storybook, and length of the shared reading session and

  4. Reading Touch Screen Storybooks with Mothers Negatively Affects 7-Year-Old Readers’ Comprehension but Enriches Emotional Engagement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ross, Kirsty M.; Pye, Rachel E.; Randell, Jordan

    2016-01-01

    Touch screen storybooks turn reading into an interactive multimedia experience, with hotspot-activated animations, sound effects, and games. Positive and negative effects of reading multimedia stories have been reported, but the underlying mechanisms which explain how children’s learning is affected remain uncertain. The present study examined the effect of storybook format (touch screen and print) on story comprehension, and considered how level of touch screen interactivity (high and low) and shared reading behaviors (cognitive and emotional scaffolding, emotional engagement) might contribute to comprehension. Seven-year-olds (n = 22) were observed reading one touch screen storybook and one print storybook with their mothers. Story comprehension was inferior for the touch screen storybooks compared to the print formats. Touch screen interactivity level had no significant effect on comprehension but did affect shared reading behaviors. The mother–child dyads spent less time talking about the story in the highly interactive touch screen condition, despite longer shared reading sessions because of touch screen interactions. Positive emotional engagement was greater for children and mothers in the highly interactive touch screen condition, due to additional positive emotions expressed during touch screen interactions. Negative emotional engagement was greater for children when reading and talking about the story in the highly interactive condition, and some mothers demonstrated negative emotional engagement with the touch screen activities. The less interactive touch screen storybook had little effect on shared reading behaviors, but mothers controlling behaviors were more frequent. Storybook format had no effect on the frequency of mothers’ cognitive scaffolding behaviors (comprehension questions, word help). Relationships between comprehension and shared reading behaviors were examined for each storybook, and although length of the shared reading session and

  5. On higher order and anisotropic hydrodynamics for Bjorken and Gubser flows

    CERN Document Server

    2018-01-01

    We study the evolution of hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic moments of the distribution function using anisotropic and third-order Chapman-Enskog hydrodynamics for systems undergoing Bjorken and Gubser flows. The hydrodynamic results are compared with the exact solution of the Boltzmann equation with a collision term in relaxation time approximation. While the evolution of the hydrodynamic moments of the distribution function (i.e. of the energy momentum tensor) can be described with high accuracy by both hydrodynamic approximation schemes, their description of the evolution of the entropy of the system is much less precise. We attribute this to large contributions from non-hydrodynamic modes coupling into the entropy evolution which are not well captured by the hydrodynamic approximations. The differences between the exact solution and the hydrodynamic approximations are larger for the third-order Chapman-Enskog hydrodynamics than for anisotropic hydrodynamics, which effectively resums some of the dissipati...

  6. Touch in Computer-Mediated Environments: An Analysis of Online Shoppers’ Touch-Interface User Experiences

    OpenAIRE

    Chung, Sorim

    2016-01-01

    Over the past few years, one of the most fundamental changes in current computer-mediated environments has been input devices, moving from mouse devices to touch interfaces. However, most studies of online retailing have not considered device environments as retail cues that could influence users’ shopping behavior. In this research, I examine the underlying mechanisms between input device environments and shoppers’ decision-making processes. In particular, I investigate the impact of input d...

  7. Finding the Right Touch: Extending the Right-Touch Regulation Approach to the Accreditation of Voluntary Registers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bilton, Douglas; Cayton, Harry

    2013-01-01

    What is "right-touch regulation"? In this article we explain why the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (the Authority) has focussed much of its policy work in recent times on seeking an answer to this question, and why it wants to know. We explain why the Authority's predecessor body, the Council for Healthcare…

  8. Cunt touch this: a conversation on intimate design and embarrassment

    OpenAIRE

    Kirman, Ben; Harrer, Sabine; Hasselager, Andrea; Linehan, Conor; Toft, Ida; Schumacher, Raimund

    2015-01-01

    This position paper presents a conversation between players and the designers of the unique mobile game experience Cunt Touch This. Revisiting their personal experiences with playing the game, the player-authors read the game as a system that takes advantage of social embarrassment as a key element from which the pleasure of the game is derived. Contrasting this view, the designer-authors comment on the original intention, production context and purpose of Cunt Touch This. The goal of thi...

  9. A Method for Rapid Measurement of Contrast Sensitivity on Mobile Touch-Screens

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mulligan, Jeffrey B.

    2016-01-01

    Touch-screen displays in cell phones and tablet computers are now pervasive, making them an attractive option for vision testing outside of the laboratory or clinic. Here we de- scribe a novel method in which subjects use a finger swipe to indicate the transition from visible to invisible on a grating which is swept in both contrast and frequency. Because a single image can be swiped in about a second, it is practical to use a series of images to zoom in on particular ranges of contrast or frequency, both to increase the accuracy of the measurements and to obtain an estimate of the reliability of the subject. Sensitivities to chromatic and spatio-temporal modulations are easily measured using the same method. A proto- type has been developed for Apple Computer's iPad/iPod/iPhone family of devices, implemented using an open-source scripting environment known as QuIP (QUick Image Processing, http://hsi.arc.nasa.gov/groups/scanpath/research.php). Preliminary data show good agreement with estimates obtained from traditional psychophysical methods as well as newer rapid estimation techniques. Issues relating to device calibration are also discussed.

  10. Dual Innervation of Neonatal Merkel Cells in Mouse Touch Domes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Wenqin

    2014-01-01

    Merkel cell-neurite complexes are specialized mechanosensory end organs that mediate discriminative touch sensation. It is well established that type I slowly adapting (SAI) mechanoreceptors, which express neural filament heavy chain (NFH), innervate Merkel cells. It was previously shown that neurotrophic factor NT3 and its receptor TrkC play crucial roles in controlling touch dome Merkel cell innervation of NFH+ fibers. In addition, nerve fibers expressing another neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK), Ret, innervate touch dome Merkel cells as well. However, the relationship between afferents responsive to NT3/TrkC signaling and those expressing Ret is unclear. It is also controversial if these Ret+ fibers belong to the early or late Ret+ DRG neurons, which are defined based on the co-expression and developmental dependence of TrkA. To address these questions, we genetically traced Ret+ and TrkC+ fibers and analyzed their developmental dependence on TrkA. We found that Merkel cells in neonatal mouse touch domes receive innervation of two types of fibers: one group is Ret+, while the other subset expresses TrkC and NFH. In addition, Ret+ fibers depend on TrkA for their survival and normal innervation whereas NFH+ Merkel cell innervating fibers are almost unaltered in TrkA mutant mice, supporting that Ret+ and NFH+/TrkC+ afferents are two distinct groups. Ret signaling, on the other hand, plays a minor role for the innervation of neonatal touch domes. In contrast, Merkel cells in the glabrous skin are mainly contacted by NFH+/TrkC+ afferents. Taken together, our results suggest that neonatal Merkel cells around hair follicles receive dual innervation while Merkel cells in the glabrous skin are mainly innervated by only SAI mechanoreceptors. In addition, our results suggest that neonatal Ret+ Merkel cell innervating fibers most likely belong to the late but not early Ret+ DRG neurons. PMID:24637732

  11. Hydrodynamic Lubrication

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 1; Issue 9. Hydrodynamic Lubrication Experiment with 'Floating' Drops. Jaywant H Arakeri K R Sreenivas. General Article Volume 1 Issue 9 September 1996 pp 51-58. Fulltext. Click here to view fulltext PDF. Permanent link:

  12. Hydrodynamic interactions in active colloidal crystal microrheology

    OpenAIRE

    Weeber, R; Harting, JDR Jens

    2012-01-01

    In dense colloids it is commonly assumed that hydrodynamic interactions do not play a role. However, a found theoretical quantification is often missing. We present computer simulations that are motivated by experiments where a large colloidal particle is dragged through a colloidal crystal. To qualify the influence of long-ranged hydrodynamics, we model the setup by conventional Langevin dynamics simulations and by an improved scheme with limited hydrodynamic interactions. This scheme signif...

  13. Ionic signaling in plant responses to gravity and touch

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fasano, Jeremiah M.; Massa, Gioia D.; Gilroy, Simon

    2002-01-01

    Touch and gravity are two of the many stimuli that plants must integrate to generate an appropriate growth response. Due to the mechanical nature of both of these signals, shared signal transduction elements could well form the basis of the cross-talk between these two sensory systems. However, touch stimulation must elicit signaling events across the plasma membrane whereas gravity sensing is thought to represent transformation of an internal force, amyloplast sedimentation, to signal transduction events. In addition, factors such as turgor pressure and presence of the cell wall may also place unique constraints on these plant mechanosensory systems. Even so, the candidate signal transduction elements in both plant touch and gravity sensing, changes in Ca2+, pH and membrane potential, do mirror the known ionic basis of signaling in animal mechanosensory cells. Distinct spatial and temporal signatures of Ca2+ ions may encode information about the different mechanosignaling stimuli. Signals such as Ca2+ waves or action potentials may also rapidly transfer information perceived in one cell throughout a tissue or organ leading to the systemic reactions characteristic of plant touch and gravity responses. Longer-term growth responses are likely sustained via changes in gene expression and asymmetries in compounds such as inositol-1,4,5-triphosphate (IP3) and calmodulin. Thus, it seems likely that plant mechanoperception involves both spatial and temporal encoding of information at all levels, from the cell to the whole plant. Defining this patterning will be a critical step towards understanding how plants integrate information from multiple mechanical stimuli to an appropriate growth response.

  14. Touch Screen Tablets and Emergent Literacy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neumann, Michelle M.; Neumann, David L.

    2014-01-01

    The use of touch screen tablets by young children is increasing in the home and in early childhood settings. The simple tactile interface and finger-based operating features of tablets may facilitate preschoolers' use of tablet application software and support their educational development in domains such as literacy. This article reviews…

  15. Movement and touch make plants shorter

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heuvelink, E.; Kierkels, T.

    2017-01-01

    Plants in the greenhouse are increasingly on the move. More attention is being paid to air circulation and mobile cultivation is on the rise. Research shows that movement and touch (also as plants rub against each other) slow down growth. That can be frustrating but you can also use it to your

  16. Identification of nonviable genes affecting touch sensitivity in Caenorhabditis elegans using neuronally enhanced feeding RNA interference.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Xiaoyin; Cuadros, Margarete Diaz; Chalfie, Martin

    2015-01-09

    Caenorhabditis elegans senses gentle touch along the body via six touch receptor neurons. Although genetic screens and microarray analyses have identified several genes needed for touch sensitivity, these methods miss pleiotropic genes that are essential for the viability, movement, or fertility of the animals. We used neuronally enhanced feeding RNA interference to screen genes that cause lethality or paralysis when mutated, and we identified 61 such genes affecting touch sensitivity, including five positive controls. We confirmed 18 genes by using available alleles, and further studied one of them, tag-170, now renamed txdc-9. txdc-9 preferentially affects anterior touch response but is needed for tubulin acetylation and microtubule formation in both the anterior and posterior touch receptor neurons. Our results indicate that neuronally enhanced feeding RNA interference screens complement traditional mutageneses by identifying additional nonviable genes needed for specific neuronal functions. Copyright © 2015 Chen et al.

  17. Touch screens as a tool in patient care in the IBD outpatient clinic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larsen, Lone; Drewes, Asbjørn Mohr; Fallingborg, Jan; Jacobsen, Bent Ascanius; Jess, Tine

    2016-09-01

    We have introduced online touch screens in the waiting room for patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn's disease (CD) for recording of symptoms before their consultation. This has made disease activity scores readily available to the physician in our newly established database, 'Gastrobio'. We wanted to validate the use of touch screens compared to paper questionnaires. A total of 54 patients with UC and 74 patients with CD were included in the study. The UC patients filled out the Short Health Scale (SHS) and Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index (SSCAI). The CD patients filled out the SHS and Harvey-Bradshaw Index (HBI). Paper questionnaires and touch screen versions were used in random order and comparison between the two modalities was made by Spearman correlation test, Bland-Altman plots, and Kappa-statistics. Among the 128 patients, the two SHS scores (SHS touch versus SHS paper) were found to be highly correlated (Spearman correlation; 0.92 for UC and 0.92 for CD). Also, on average, Bland-Altman plots demonstrated a difference close to zero between the two modalities. Agreement between paper version and touch screen version of SCCAI and HBI scores was also high (Kappa-statistics; 78% raw and 98% weighted for SCCAI; 65% raw and 97% weighted for HBI). It is feasible to introduce touch screens in the outpatient clinic and to have patients record their symptoms before the consultation. However, the study may not be representative for elderly patients.

  18. Touch Locating and Stretch Sensing Studies of Conductive Hydrogels with Applications to Soft Robots.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Yanmin; He, Bin; Yan, Zhe; Shang, Yinghui; Wang, Qigang; Wang, Zhipeng

    2018-02-13

    Soft robots possess great potential in environmental adaptations, while their environmental sensing abilities are critical. Conductive hydrogels have been suggested to possess sensing abilities. However, their application in soft robots is lacking. In this work, we fabricated a soft and stretchable gel material, introduced its sensing mechanisms, and developed a measurement setup. Both experimental and simulation studies indicate strong nonlinearity of touch locating on a square touch panel with Cartesian coordinates. To simplify the touch locating, we proposed a touch locating system based on round touch panels with polar coordinates. Mathematical calculations and finite element method (FEM) simulations showed that in this system the locating of a touch point was only determined by its polar radius. This was verified by experimental studies. As a resistor, a gel strip's resistance increases with stretching. To demonstrate their applications on soft robots, a 3D printed three-fingered soft gripper was employed with gel strips attached. During finger bending for rod grasping, the resistances of the gel strips increased, indicating stretching of the soft material. Furthermore, the strain and stress of a gel strip increased with a decrease of the rod diameter. These studies advance the application of conductive hydrogels on soft robots.

  19. Universal hydrodynamics of non-conformal branes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kanitscheider, Ingmar; Skenderis, Kostas

    2009-01-01

    We examine the hydrodynamic limit of non-conformal branes using the recently developed precise holographic dictionary. We first streamline the discussion of holography for backgrounds that asymptote locally to non-conformal brane solutions by showing that all such solutions can be obtained from higher dimensional asymptotically locally AdS solutions by suitable dimensional reduction and continuation in the dimension. As a consequence, many holographic results for such backgrounds follow from the corresponding results of the Asymptotically AdS case. In particular, the hydrodynamics of non-conformal branes is fully determined in terms of conformal hydrodynamics. Using previous results on the latter we predict the form of the non-conformal hydrodynamic stress tensor to second order in derivatives. Furthermore we show that the ratio between bulk and shear viscosity is fixed by the generalized conformal structure to be ζ/η = 2(1/(d-1)-c s 2 ), where c s is the speed of sound in the fluid.

  20. The effect of light touch on balance control during overground walking in healthy young adults

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    AR Oates

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Balance control is essential for safe walking. Adding haptic input through light touch may improve walking balance; however, evidence is limited. This research investigated the effect of added haptic input through light touch in healthy young adults during challenging walking conditions. Sixteen individuals walked normally, in tandem, and on a compliant, low-lying balance beam with and without light touch on a railing. Three-dimensional kinematic data were captured to compute stride velocity (m/s, relative time spent in double support (%DS, a medial-lateral margin of stability (MOSML and its variance (MOSMLCV, as well as a symmetry index (SI for the MOSML. Muscle activity was evaluated by integrating electromyography signals for the soleus, tibialis anterior, and gluteus medius muscles bilaterally. Adding haptic input decreased stride velocity, increased the %DS, had no effect on the MOSML magnitude, decreased the MOSMLCV, had no effect on the SI, and increased activity of most muscles examined during normal walking. During tandem walking, stride velocity and the MOSMLCV decreased, while %DS, MOSML magnitude, SI, and muscle activity did not change with light touch. When walking on a low-lying, compliant balance beam, light touch had no effect on walking velocity, MOSML magnitude, or muscle activity; however, the %DS increased and the MOSMLCV and SI decreased when lightly touching a railing while walking on the balance beam. The decreases in the MOSMLCV with light touch across all walking conditions suggest that adding haptic input through light touch on a railing may improve balance control during walking through reduced variability.

  1. [Assessment strategies of the impact of healing touch in nursing care].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hentz, F; Mulliez, A; Belgacem, B; Noirfalise, C; Barrier, H; Gorrand, J; Paniagua, C c; Mathé, B; Gerbaud, L

    2009-06-01

    New care methods have emerged in the last few years. Healing Touch is relaxing and as such, helps prepare the patient for the medical act, the pain of which he may often feel anxious about As they foster confidence between the patient and the medical practitioner, such practices create better conditions for the medical care act to be performed. Even if there is no doubt about its impact on the patient, the effect of Healing Touch has never been scientifically assessed, and the only available references are rather scarce. This is the reason why we wished to assess the impact of this care in a number of clinical situations through a randomised clinical experiment. The object of this paper is to assert the efficacy of such care on the patient, especially on pain relief and the decrease of anxiety. To this end, authenticated assessment scales were used, such as the visual analog pain scale or Spielberg's test anxiety inventory. A prospective multicentre randomised study was carried out to create a control group to be compared to the group treated with Healing Touch. Only willing patients who were prescribed healing touch were included in the experiment. Patients with cognitive problems - be they temporary (linked to a temporary clinical conditions) or not - or those suffering from some disabilities preventing them from using assessment scales and questionnaires are excluded. The recruitment of a 784-patient panel was needed to set out the 8 situations in which a Healing Touch indication may be effective.

  2. Entropy-limited hydrodynamics: a novel approach to relativistic hydrodynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guercilena, Federico; Radice, David; Rezzolla, Luciano

    2017-07-01

    We present entropy-limited hydrodynamics (ELH): a new approach for the computation of numerical fluxes arising in the discretization of hyperbolic equations in conservation form. ELH is based on the hybridisation of an unfiltered high-order scheme with the first-order Lax-Friedrichs method. The activation of the low-order part of the scheme is driven by a measure of the locally generated entropy inspired by the artificial-viscosity method proposed by Guermond et al. (J. Comput. Phys. 230(11):4248-4267, 2011, doi: 10.1016/j.jcp.2010.11.043). Here, we present ELH in the context of high-order finite-differencing methods and of the equations of general-relativistic hydrodynamics. We study the performance of ELH in a series of classical astrophysical tests in general relativity involving isolated, rotating and nonrotating neutron stars, and including a case of gravitational collapse to black hole. We present a detailed comparison of ELH with the fifth-order monotonicity preserving method MP5 (Suresh and Huynh in J. Comput. Phys. 136(1):83-99, 1997, doi: 10.1006/jcph.1997.5745), one of the most common high-order schemes currently employed in numerical-relativity simulations. We find that ELH achieves comparable and, in many of the cases studied here, better accuracy than more traditional methods at a fraction of the computational cost (up to {˜}50% speedup). Given its accuracy and its simplicity of implementation, ELH is a promising framework for the development of new special- and general-relativistic hydrodynamics codes well adapted for massively parallel supercomputers.

  3. Using NFC technology for fast-tracking large-siza multi-touch screens

    OpenAIRE

    Muñoz-Organero, Mario; Opoku, Samuel King

    2011-01-01

    Multi-touch technology interfaces are becoming ubiquitous since their integration in smart-phones, tablets and many consumer electronics devices. Depending on the size of the tangible interface, the computing resource restrictions and the resolution required, there are different technological alternatives for multi-touch screens such as camera based systems, capacity, resistive or pressure sensing systems or LED based systems. This paper presents a different alternative to d...

  4. Touch Screen Technology Adoption and Utilisation by Educators in Early Childhood Educational Institutions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Plumb, Melinda; Kautz, Karlheinz; Tootell, Holly

    2013-01-01

    The adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) in early childhood educational settings, in particular touch screen technology such as interactive whiteboards and tablet computing devices has potential for use within early childhood educational institutions. We conducted a literature...... that can support the successful implementation of touch screen technology within early childhood educational institutions....... in regards to touch screen technology in early childhood, particularly from a process perspective, and suggest that further research is required to understand the interplay between individual actions and organisational structural influences. This will contribute to the development of an understanding...

  5. Frequency-dependent hydrodynamic interaction between two solid spheres

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jung, Gerhard; Schmid, Friederike

    2017-12-01

    Hydrodynamic interactions play an important role in many areas of soft matter science. In simulations with implicit solvent, various techniques such as Brownian or Stokesian dynamics explicitly include hydrodynamic interactions a posteriori by using hydrodynamic diffusion tensors derived from the Stokes equation. However, this equation assumes the interaction to be instantaneous which is an idealized approximation and only valid on long time scales. In the present paper, we go one step further and analyze the time-dependence of hydrodynamic interactions between finite-sized particles in a compressible fluid on the basis of the linearized Navier-Stokes equation. The theoretical results show that at high frequencies, the compressibility of the fluid has a significant impact on the frequency-dependent pair interactions. The predictions of hydrodynamic theory are compared to molecular dynamics simulations of two nanocolloids in a Lennard-Jones fluid. For this system, we reconstruct memory functions by extending the inverse Volterra technique. The simulation data agree very well with the theory, therefore, the theory can be used to implement dynamically consistent hydrodynamic interactions in the increasingly popular field of non-Markovian modeling.

  6. A High Optical Transmittance and Low Cost Touch Screen without Patterning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    SAMADZAMINI, K.

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Transparent Conducting Oxide (TCO materials such as Fluorine Tin Oxide (FTO and Indium Tin Oxide (ITO due to their optical and electrical properties are used in touch screens as electrodes and wires. This paper proposes a novel technique of using Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT method in order to produce touch screens without pattering. Unlike existing techniques, the proposed methodology employs a uniform TCO coated screen with a maximum optical transmittance to convert the touch point coordinates into side electrodes voltages. The performance of the proposed method is tested experimentally on a FTO coated glass with a sheet resistance of 20 ohms/sq. The proposed methodology is found to be less complicated and low cost, since no pattern or electrodes are implemented in the display area.

  7. A novel flexible capacitive touch pad based on graphene oxide film

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, He; Yang, Yi; Xie, Dan; Ren, Tian-Ling; Shu, Yi; Zhou, Chang-Jian; Sun, Hui; Liu, Xuan; Zhang, Cang-Hai

    2013-01-01

    Recently, graphene oxide (GO) supercapacitors with ultra-high energy densities have received significant attention. In addition to energy storage, GO capacitors might also have broad applications in renewable energy engineering, such as vibration and sound energy harvesting. Here, we experimentally create a macroscopic flexible capacitive touch pad based on GO film. An obvious touch ``ON'' to ``OFF'' voltage ratio up to ~60 has been observed. Moreover, we tested the capacitor structure on both flat and curved surfaces and it showed high response sensitivity under fast touch rates. Collectively, our results raise the exciting prospect that the realization of macroscopic flexible keyboards with large-area graphene based materials is technologically feasible, which may open up important applications in control and interface design for solar cells, speakers, supercapacitors, batteries and MEMS systems.

  8. A novel flexible capacitive touch pad based on graphene oxide film.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, He; Yang, Yi; Xie, Dan; Ren, Tian-Ling; Shu, Yi; Zhou, Chang-Jian; Sun, Hui; Liu, Xuan; Zhang, Cang-Hai

    2013-02-07

    Recently, graphene oxide (GO) supercapacitors with ultra-high energy densities have received significant attention. In addition to energy storage, GO capacitors might also have broad applications in renewable energy engineering, such as vibration and sound energy harvesting. Here, we experimentally create a macroscopic flexible capacitive touch pad based on GO film. An obvious touch "ON" to "OFF" voltage ratio up to ∼60 has been observed. Moreover, we tested the capacitor structure on both flat and curved surfaces and it showed high response sensitivity under fast touch rates. Collectively, our results raise the exciting prospect that the realization of macroscopic flexible keyboards with large-area graphene based materials is technologically feasible, which may open up important applications in control and interface design for solar cells, speakers, supercapacitors, batteries and MEMS systems.

  9. Investigation of the touch sensitivity of ER fluid based tactile display

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yanju; Davidson, Rob; Taylor, Paul

    2005-05-01

    A tactile display is programmable device whose controlled surface is intended to be investigated by human touch. It has a great number of potential applications in the field of virtual reality and elsewhere. In this research, a 5x5 touch sensitive tactile display array including electrorheological (ER) fluid has been developed and investigated. Experimental results show that the sensed surface information could be controlled effectively by adjusting the voltage activation pattern imposed on the tactels. In the meantime, it is possible to sense the touching force normal to the display"s surface by monitoring the change of current passing through the ER fluid. These encouraging results are helpful for constructing a new type of tactile display based on ER fluid which can act as both sensor and actuator at the same time.

  10. Multi-Touch Tables and Collaborative Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Higgins, Steve; Mercier, Emma; Burd, Liz; Joyce-Gibbons, Andrew

    2012-01-01

    The development of multi-touch tables, an emerging technology for classroom learning, offers valuable opportunities to explore how its features can be designed to support effective collaboration in schools. In this study, small groups of 10- to 11-year-old children undertook a history task where they had to connect various pieces of information…

  11. Virtual touch tissue quantification of acoustic radiation force impulse: a new ultrasound elastic imaging in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi-Feng Zhang

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: Virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI is a new quantitative technique to measure tissue stiffness. The study was aimed to assess the usefulness of VTQ in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules. METHODS: 173 pathologically proven thyroid nodules in 142 patients were included and all were examined by conventional ultrasound (US, conventional elasticity imaging (EI and VTQ of ARFI. The tissue stiffness for VTQ was expressed as shear wave velocity (SWV (m/s. Receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC analyses were performed to assess the diagnostic performance. Intra- and inter-observer reproducibility of VTQ measurement was assessed. RESULTS: The SWVs of benign and malignant thyroid nodules were 2.34±1.17 m/s (range: 0.61-9.00 m/s and 4.82±2.53 m/s (range: 2.32-9.00 m/s respectively (P20 mm and lowest for those ≤10 mm. The correlation coefficients were 0.904 for intraobserver measurement and 0.864 for interobserver measurement. CONCLUSIONS: VTQ of ARFI provides quantitative and reproducible information about the tissue stiffness, which is useful for the differentiation between benign and malignant thyroid nodules. The diagnostic performance of VTQ is higher than that of conventional EI.

  12. Hydrodynamics of insect spermatozoa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pak, On Shun; Lauga, Eric

    2010-11-01

    Microorganism motility plays important roles in many biological processes including reproduction. Many microorganisms propel themselves by propagating traveling waves along their flagella. Depending on the species, propagation of planar waves (e.g. Ceratium) and helical waves (e.g. Trichomonas) were observed in eukaryotic flagellar motion, and hydrodynamic models for both were proposed in the past. However, the motility of insect spermatozoa remains largely unexplored. An interesting morphological feature of such cells, first observed in Tenebrio molitor and Bacillus rossius, is the double helical deformation pattern along the flagella, which is characterized by the presence of two superimposed helical flagellar waves (one with a large amplitude and low frequency, and the other with a small amplitude and high frequency). Here we present the first hydrodynamic investigation of the locomotion of insect spermatozoa. The swimming kinematics, trajectories and hydrodynamic efficiency of the swimmer are computed based on the prescribed double helical deformation pattern. We then compare our theoretical predictions with experimental measurements, and explore the dependence of the swimming performance on the geometric and dynamical parameters.

  13. Food as Touch/Touching the Food: The Body In-Place and Out-of-Place in Preschool

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rossholt, Nina

    2012-01-01

    The article explores the need to eat as a biological and social practice among children in a preschool in Norway. The children in this preschool are aged from one to two years of age, and some of them have just started there. Different events from mealtimes relate to Derrida's concept of touch and Grosz's notion of bodies in-place and…

  14. Touch-mode capacitive pressure sensor with graphene-polymer heterostructure membrane

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berger, Christian; Phillips, Rory; Pasternak, Iwona; Sobieski, Jan; Strupinski, Wlodek; Vijayaraghavan, Aravind

    2018-01-01

    We describe the fabrication and characterisation of a touch-mode capacitive pressure sensor (TMCPS) with a robust design that comprises a graphene-polymer heterostructure film, laminated onto the silicon dioxide surface of a silicon wafer, incorporating a SU-8 spacer grid structure. The spacer grid structure allows the flexible graphene-polymer film to be partially suspended above the substrate, such that a pressure on the membrane results in a reproducible deflection, even after exposing the membrane to pressures over 10 times the operating range. Sensors show reproducible pressure transduction in water submersion at varying depths under static and dynamic loading. The measured capacitance change in response to pressure is in good agreement with an analytical model of clamped plates in touch mode. The device shows a pressure sensitivity of 27.1 +/- 0.5 fF Pa-1 over a pressure range of 0.5 kPa-8.5 kPa. In addition, we demonstrate the operation of this device as a force-touch sensor in air.

  15. An ergonomics study of thumb movements on smartphone touch screen.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiong, Jinghong; Muraki, Satoshi

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated the relationships between thumb muscle activity and thumb operating tasks on a smartphone touch screen with one-hand posture. Six muscles in the right thumb and forearm were targeted in this study, namely adductor pollicis, flexor pollicis brevis, abductor pollicis brevis (APB), abductor pollicis longus, first dorsal interosseous (FDI) and extensor digitorum. The performance measures showed that the thumb developed fatigue rapidly when tapping on smaller buttons (diameter: 9 mm compared with 3 mm), and moved more slowly in flexion-extension than in adduction-abduction orientation. Meanwhile, the electromyography and perceived exertion values of FDI significantly increased in small button and flexion-extension tasks, while those of APB were greater in the adduction-abduction task. This study reveals that muscle effort among thumb muscles on a touch screen smartphone varies according to the task, and suggests that the use of small touch buttons should be minimised for better thumb performance.

  16. Can The Pore Scale Geometry Explain Soil Sample Scale Hydrodynamic Properties?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sarah Smet

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available For decades, the development of new visualization techniques has brought incredible insights into our understanding of how soil structure affects soil function. X-ray microtomography is a technique often used by soil scientists but challenges remain with the implementation of the procedure, including how well the samples represent the uniqueness of the pore network and structure and the systemic compromise between sample size and resolution. We, therefore, chose to study soil samples from two perspectives: a macroscopic scale with hydrodynamic characterization and a microscopic scale with structural characterization through the use of X-ray microtomography (X-ray μCT at a voxel size of 21.53 μm3 (resampled at 433 μm3. The objective of this paper is to unravel the relationships between macroscopic soil properties and microscopic soil structure. The 24 samples came from an agricultural field (Cutanic Luvisol and the macroscopic hydrodynamic properties were determined using laboratory measurements of the saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks, air permeability (ka, and retention curves (SWRC. The X-ray μCT images were segmented using a global method and multiple microscopic measurements were calculated. We used Bayesian statistics to report the credible correlation coefficients and linear regressions models between macro- and microscopic measurements. Due to the small voxel size, we observed unprecedented relationships, such as positive correlations between log(Ks and a μCT global connectivity indicator, the fractal dimension of the μCT images or the μCT degree of anisotropy. The air permeability measured at a water matric potential of −70 kPa was correlated to the average coordination number and the X-ray μCT porosity, but was best explained by the average pore volume of the smallest pores. Continuous SWRC were better predicted near saturation when the pore-size distributions calculated on the X-ray μCT images were used as model input. We

  17. Affectionate Touch to Promote Relational, Psychological, and Physical Well-Being in Adulthood: A Theoretical Model and Review of the Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jakubiak, Brittany K; Feeney, Brooke C

    2017-08-01

    Throughout the life span, individuals engage in affectionate touch with close others. Touch receipt promotes well-being in infancy, but the impacts of touch in adult close relationships have been largely unexplored. In this article, we propose that affectionate touch receipt promotes relational, psychological, and physical well-being in adulthood, and we present a theoretical mechanistic model to explain why affectionate touch may promote these outcomes. The model includes pathways through which touch could affect well-being by reducing stress and by promoting well-being independent of stress. Specifically, two immediate outcomes of affectionate touch receipt-relational-cognitive changes and neurobiological changes-are described as important mechanisms underlying the effects of affectionate touch on well-being. We also review and evaluate the existing research linking affectionate touch to well-being in adulthood and propose an agenda to advance research in this area. This theoretical perspective provides a foundation for future work on touch in adult close relationships.

  18. The Role of Interactional Quality in Learning from Touch Screens during Infancy: Context Matters

    OpenAIRE

    Zack, Elizabeth; Barr, Rachel

    2016-01-01

    Interactional quality has been shown to enhance learning during book reading and play, but has not been examined during touch screen use. Learning to apply knowledge from a touch screen is complex for infants because it involves transfer of learning between a 2-dimensional (2D) screen and 3-dimensional (3D) object in the physical world. This study uses a touch screen procedure to examine interactional quality measured via maternal structuring, diversity of maternal language, and dyadic emot...

  19. Soliton Gases and Generalized Hydrodynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doyon, Benjamin; Yoshimura, Takato; Caux, Jean-Sébastien

    2018-01-01

    We show that the equations of generalized hydrodynamics (GHD), a hydrodynamic theory for integrable quantum systems at the Euler scale, emerge in full generality in a family of classical gases, which generalize the gas of hard rods. In this family, the particles, upon colliding, jump forward or backward by a distance that depends on their velocities, reminiscent of classical soliton scattering. This provides a "molecular dynamics" for GHD: a numerical solver which is efficient, flexible, and which applies to the presence of external force fields. GHD also describes the hydrodynamics of classical soliton gases. We identify the GHD of any quantum model with that of the gas of its solitonlike wave packets, thus providing a remarkable quantum-classical equivalence. The theory is directly applicable, for instance, to integrable quantum chains and to the Lieb-Liniger model realized in cold-atom experiments.

  20. Transparent conductive-polymer strain sensors for touch input sheets of flexible displays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takamatsu, Seiichi; Takahata, Tomoyuki; Muraki, Masato; Iwase, Eiji; Matsumoto, Kiyoshi; Shimoyama, Isao

    2010-01-01

    A transparent conductive polymer-based strain-sensor array, designed especially for touch input sheets of flexible displays, was developed. A transparent conductive polymer, namely poly(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), was utilized owing to its strength under repeated mechanical bending. PEDOT:PSS strain sensors with a thickness of 130 nm exhibited light transmittance of 92%, which is the same as the transmittance of ITO electrodes widely used in flat panel displays. We demonstrated that the sensor array on a flexible sheet was able to sustain mechanical bending 300 times at a bending radius of 5 mm. The strain sensor shows a gauge factor of 5.2. The touch point on a flexible sheet could be detected from histograms of the outputs of the strain sensors when the sheet was pushed with an input force of 5 N. The touch input could be detected on the flexible sheet with a curved surface (radius of curvature of 20 mm). These results show that the developed transparent conductive polymer-based strain-sensor array is applicable to touch input sheets of mechanically bendable displays.

  1. The effect of light touch on balance control during overground walking in healthy young adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oates, A R; Unger, J; Arnold, C M; Fung, J; Lanovaz, J L

    2017-12-01

    Balance control is essential for safe walking. Adding haptic input through light touch may improve walking balance; however, evidence is limited. This research investigated the effect of added haptic input through light touch in healthy young adults during challenging walking conditions. Sixteen individuals walked normally, in tandem, and on a compliant, low-lying balance beam with and without light touch on a railing. Three-dimensional kinematic data were captured to compute stride velocity (m/s), relative time spent in double support (%DS), a medial-lateral margin of stability (MOS ML ) and its variance (MOS ML CV), as well as a symmetry index (SI) for the MOS ML . Muscle activity was evaluated by integrating electromyography signals for the soleus, tibialis anterior, and gluteus medius muscles bilaterally. Adding haptic input decreased stride velocity, increased the %DS, had no effect on the MOS ML magnitude, decreased the MOS ML CV, had no effect on the SI, and increased activity of most muscles examined during normal walking. During tandem walking, stride velocity and the MOS ML CV decreased, while %DS, MOS ML magnitude, SI, and muscle activity did not change with light touch. When walking on a low-lying, compliant balance beam, light touch had no effect on walking velocity, MOS ML magnitude, or muscle activity; however, the %DS increased and the MOS ML CV and SI decreased when lightly touching a railing while walking on the balance beam. The decreases in the MOS ML CV with light touch across all walking conditions suggest that adding haptic input through light touch on a railing may improve balance control during walking through reduced variability.

  2. Reduced graphene oxide filled poly(dimethyl siloxane) based transparent stretchable, and touch-responsive sensors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ponnamma, Deepalekshmi; Sadasivuni, Kishor Kumar; Cabibihan, John-John; Yoon, W. Jong; Kumar, Bijandra

    2016-01-01

    The ongoing revolution in touch panel technology and electronics demands the need for thin films, which are flexible, stretchable, conductive, and highly touch responsive. In this regard, conductive elastomer nanocomposites offer potential solutions for these stipulations; however, viability is limited to the poor dispersion of conductive nanomaterials such as graphene into the matrix. Here, we fabricated a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) elastomer based transparent and flexible conductive touch responsive film by dispersing rGO honeycombs uniformly into PDMS elastomer through an ionic liquid (IL) modification. Pursuing a simple, scalable, and safe method of solution casting, this provides a versatile and creative design of a transparent and stretchable rGO/IL-PDMS capacitive touch responsive, where rGO acts as a sensing element. This transparent film with ∼70% transmittance exhibits approximately a five times faster response in comparison to rGO/PDMS film, with negligible degradation over time. The performance of this touch screen film is expected to have applications in the emerging field of foldable electronics.

  3. Reduced graphene oxide filled poly(dimethyl siloxane) based transparent stretchable, and touch-responsive sensors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ponnamma, Deepalekshmi [Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University, P. O. Box 2713, Doha (Qatar); Sadasivuni, Kishor Kumar; Cabibihan, John-John [Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha (Qatar); Yoon, W. Jong [School of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, University of Washington, Bothell, Washington 98011 (United States); Kumar, Bijandra, E-mail: bijandra.kumar@louisville.edu [Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky 40292 (United States); Research and Development Centre in Pharmaceutical Science and Applied Chemistry, Poona College of Pharmacy, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University Erandawane, Pune 411038 (India)

    2016-04-25

    The ongoing revolution in touch panel technology and electronics demands the need for thin films, which are flexible, stretchable, conductive, and highly touch responsive. In this regard, conductive elastomer nanocomposites offer potential solutions for these stipulations; however, viability is limited to the poor dispersion of conductive nanomaterials such as graphene into the matrix. Here, we fabricated a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) elastomer based transparent and flexible conductive touch responsive film by dispersing rGO honeycombs uniformly into PDMS elastomer through an ionic liquid (IL) modification. Pursuing a simple, scalable, and safe method of solution casting, this provides a versatile and creative design of a transparent and stretchable rGO/IL-PDMS capacitive touch responsive, where rGO acts as a sensing element. This transparent film with ∼70% transmittance exhibits approximately a five times faster response in comparison to rGO/PDMS film, with negligible degradation over time. The performance of this touch screen film is expected to have applications in the emerging field of foldable electronics.

  4. An Ergonomic Study on Influence of Touch-screen Phone Size on Single-hand Operation Performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhu Rui

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Touch-screen smart phones have gradually occupied the market of traditional Qwerty Phones and become the mainstream products of mobile phone industry. However, few ergonomics research has been conducted on the touch screens of smart phones, while it has led to tendosynovitis among users owing to the overuse of thumbs. Sizes of smart phones in market range from 3.0 to 7.0 inches. What’s more, 4.0 inches and above are the common size of current touch screens. Also, considering the users’ habits, one-hand operation is preferred when the other hand is occupied. This paper has collected hand parameters of 80 subjects and has adopted an experiment which includes the performance testing and surveys of subjective evaluation by means of usability evaluation. After analysing correlation between touch-screen sizes and operation performances, the result indicates that under one-hand operation, the size of touch screen affects the operation performance significantly. However, it’s hard to implement one-hand operation if the touch-screen size is over 5.7 inches. Additionally, the thickness of smart phones affects the degree of comfort remarkably.

  5. Hydrodynamic aspects of flotation separation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peleka Efrosyni N.

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Flotation separation is mainly used for removing particulates from aqueous dispersions. It is widely used for ore beneficiation and recovering valuable materials. This paper reviews the hydrodynamics of flotation separations and comments on selected recent publications. Units are distinguished as cells of ideal and non-ideal flow. A brief introduction to hydrodynamics is included to explain an original study of the hybrid flotation-microfiltration cell, effective for heavy metal ion removal.

  6. System reliability evaluation of a touch panel manufacturing system with defect rate and reworking

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin, Yi-Kuei; Huang, Cheng-Fu; Chang, Ping-Chen

    2013-01-01

    In recent years, portable consumer electronic products, such as cell phone, GPS, digital camera, tablet PC, and notebook are using touch panel as interface. With the demand of touch panel increases, performance assessment is essential for touch panel production. This paper develops a method to evaluate system reliability of a touch panel manufacturing system (TPMS) with defect rate of each workstation and takes reworking actions into account. The system reliability which evaluates the possibility of demand satisfaction can provide to managers with an understanding of the system capability and can indicate possible improvements. First, we construct a capacitated manufacturing network (CMN) for a TPMS. Second, a decomposition technique is developed to determine the input flow of each workstation based on the CMN. Finally, we generate the minimal capacity vectors that should be provided to satisfy the demand. The system reliability is subsequently evaluated in terms of the minimal capacity vectors. A further decision making issue is discussed to decide a reliable production strategy. -- Graphical abstract: The proposed procedure to evaluate system reliability of the touch panel manufacturing system (TPMS). Highlights: • The system reliability of a touch panel manufacturing system (TPMS) is evaluated. • The reworking actions are taken into account in the TPMS. • A capacitated manufacturing network is constructed for the TPMS. • A procedure is proposed to evaluate system reliability of TPMS

  7. Huggy Pajama: A Remote Interactive Touch and Hugging System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheok, Adrian David

    Huggy Pajama is a novel wearable system aimed at promoting physical interaction in remote communication between parent and child. This system enables parents and children to hug one another through a hugging interface device and a wearable, hug reproducing pajama connected through the Internet. The hug input device is a small, mobile doll with an embedded pressure sensing circuit that is able to accurately sense varying levels of pressure along the range of human touch produced from natural touch. This device sends hug signals to a haptic jacket that simulates the feeling of being hugged to the wearer. It features air pocket actuators that reproduce hug sensations, heating elements to produce warmth that accompanies hugs, and a color changing pattern and accessory to indicate distance of separation and communicate expressions. In this chapter, we present the system design of Huggy Pajama. We also show results from quantitative and qualitative user studies which show the effectiveness of the system simulating an actual human touch. Results also indicate an increased sense of presence between parents and children when used as an added component to instant messaging and video chat communication.

  8. Hydrodynamic bearings

    CERN Document Server

    Bonneau, Dominique; Souchet, Dominique

    2014-01-01

    This Series provides the necessary elements to the development and validation of numerical prediction models for hydrodynamic bearings. This book describes the rheological models and the equations of lubrication. It also presents the numerical approaches used to solve the above equations by finite differences, finite volumes and finite elements methods.

  9. The (Null Effect of Affective Touch on Betrayal Aversion, Altruism, and Risk Taking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lina Koppel

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Pleasant touch is thought to increase the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin, in turn, has been extensively studied with regards to its effects on trust and prosocial behavior, but results remain inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of touch on economic decision making. Participants (n = 120 were stroked on their left arm using a soft brush (touch condition or not at all (control condition; varied within subjects, while they performed a series of decision tasks assessing betrayal aversion (the Betrayal Aversion Elicitation Task, altruism (donating money to a charitable organization, and risk taking (the Balloon Analog Risk Task. We found no significant effect of touch on any of the outcome measures, neither within nor between subjects. Furthermore, effects were not moderated by gender or attachment. However, attachment avoidance had a significant effect on altruism in that those who were high in avoidance donated less money. Our findings contribute to the understanding of affective touch—and, by extension, oxytocin—in social behavior, and decision making by showing that touch does not directly influence performance in tasks involving risk and prosocial decisions. Specifically, our work casts further doubt on the validity of oxytocin research in humans.

  10. RECOGNITION AND VERIFICATION OF TOUCHING HANDWRITTEN NUMERALS

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhou, J.; Kryzak, A.; Suen, C.Y.

    2004-01-01

    In the field of financial document processing, recognition of touching handwritten numerals has been limited by lack of good benchmarking databases and low reliability of algorithms. This paper addresses the efforts toward solving the two problems. Two databases IRIS-Bell\\\\\\'98 and TNIST are

  11. Analysis of small deflection touch mode behavior in capacitive pressure sensors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fragiacomo, Giulio; Ansbæk, Thor; Pedersen, Thomas

    2010-01-01

    Due to an increasing need for devices with low power consumption, capacitive pressure sensors have become good substitutes for the well known piezoresistive pressure sensors. Mathematical models are necessary to design and characterize the device, preferably the model is analytical...... such that geometrical scalings are revealed. We show that, in the case of linear elastic behavior, a simple analytical model can be found for a touch mode capacitive pressure sensor (TMCPS). With this model it is possible to readily evaluate the main features of a TMCPS such as: sensitivity (both in normal and touch...... mode), touch point pressure and parasitic capacitance. Therefore, the desired device can be designed without using finite element modeling (FEM). This reduces the effort needed to design a micromachined TMCPS. Finally, the model has been compared with a micromachined TMCPS showing an excellent...

  12. Hydrodynamic dispersion of microswimmers in suspension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Matthieu; Rafaï, Salima; Peyla, Philippe

    2014-11-01

    In our laboratory, we study hydrodynamics of suspensions of micro-swimmers. These micro-organisms are unicellular algae Chlamydomonas Rheinhardii which are able to swim by using their flagella. The swimming dynamics of these micro-swimmers can be seen as a random walk, in absence of any kind of interaction. In addition, these algae have the property of being phototactic, i.e. they swim towards the light. Combining this property with a hydrodynamic flow, we were able to reversibly separate algae from the rest of the fluid. But for sufficiently high volume fraction, these active particles interact with each other. We are now interested in how the coupling of hydrodynamic interactions between swimmers and phototaxis can modify the swimming dynamics at the scale of the suspension. To this aim, we conduct experiments in microfluidic devices to study the dispersion of the micro-organisms in a the liquid phase as a function of the volume fraction. We show that the dispersion of an assembly of puller type microswimmers is quantitatively affected by hydrodynamics interactions. Phd student.

  13. Tuning bacterial hydrodynamics with magnetic fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pierce, C. J.; Mumper, E.; Brown, E. E.; Brangham, J. T.; Lower, B. H.; Lower, S. K.; Yang, F. Y.; Sooryakumar, R.

    2017-06-01

    Magnetotactic bacteria are a group of motile prokaryotes that synthesize chains of lipid-bound, magnetic nanoparticles called magnetosomes. This study exploits their innate magnetism to investigate previously unexplored facets of bacterial hydrodynamics at surfaces. Through use of weak, uniform, external magnetic fields and local, micromagnetic surface patterns, the relative strength of hydrodynamic, magnetic, and flagellar force components is tuned through magnetic control of the bacteria's orientation. The resulting swimming behaviors provide a means to experimentally determine hydrodynamic parameters and offer a high degree of control over large numbers of living microscopic entities. The implications of this controlled motion for studies of bacterial motility near surfaces and for micro- and nanotechnology are discussed.

  14. Hydrodynamics in a Degenerate, Strongly Attractive Fermi Gas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, John E.; Kinast, Joseph; Hemmer, Staci; Turlapov, Andrey; O'Hara, Ken; Gehm, Mike; Granade, Stephen

    2004-01-01

    In summary, we use all-optical methods with evaporative cooling near a Feshbach resonance to produce a strongly interacting degenerate Fermi gas. We observe hydrodynamic behavior in the expansion dynamics. At low temperatures, collisions may not explain the expansion dynamics. We observe hydrodynamics in the trapped gas. Our observations include collisionally-damped excitation spectra at high temperature which were not discussed above. In addition, we observe weakly damped breathing modes at low temperature. The observed temperature dependence of the damping time and hydrodynamic frequency are not consistent with collisional dynamics nor with collisionless mean field interactions. These observations constitute the first evidence for superfluid hydrodynamics in a Fermi gas.

  15. An introduction to astrophysical hydrodynamics

    CERN Document Server

    Shore, Steven N

    1992-01-01

    This book is an introduction to astrophysical hydrodynamics for both astronomy and physics students. It provides a comprehensive and unified view of the general problems associated with fluids in a cosmic context, with a discussion of fluid dynamics and plasma physics. It is the only book on hydrodynamics that addresses the astrophysical context. Researchers and students will find this work to be an exceptional reference. Contents include chapters on irrotational and rotational flows, turbulence, magnetohydrodynamics, and instabilities.

  16. Using enzyme folding to explore the mechanism of therapeutic touch: a feasibility study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strickland, Mallory L; Boylan, Helen M

    2010-07-01

    The goal of this research is to design a novel model using protein folding to study Therapeutic Touch, a noncontact form of energy manipulation healing. Presented is a feasibility study suggesting that the denaturation path of ribonuclease A may be a useful model to study the energy exchange underlying therapeutic touch. The folding of ribonuclease A serves as a controlled energy-requiring system in which energy manipulation can be measured by the degree of folding achieved. A kinetic assay and fluorescence spectroscopy are used to assess the enzyme-folding state. The data suggest that the kinetic assay is a useful means of assessing the degree of refolding, and specifically, the enzyme function. However, fluorescence spectroscopy was not shown to be an effective measurement of enzyme structure for the purposes of this work. More research is needed to assess the underlying mechanism of therapeutic touch to complement the existing studies. An enzyme-folding model may provide a useful means of studying the energy exchange in therapeutic touch.

  17. Theoretical hydrodynamics

    CERN Document Server

    Milne-Thomson, L M

    2011-01-01

    This classic exposition of the mathematical theory of fluid motion is applicable to both hydrodynamics and aerodynamics. Based on vector methods and notation with their natural consequence in two dimensions - the complex variable - it offers more than 600 exercises and nearly 400 diagrams. Prerequisites include a knowledge of elementary calculus. 1968 edition.

  18. Hydrodynamic Overview at Hot Quarks 2016

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Noronha-Hostler, Jacquelyn

    2017-01-01

    Event-by-event relativistic hydrodynamics has been extremely successful in describing flow observables in heavy-ion collisions. However, the initial state and viscosity simultaneously affect comparisons to data so a discussion of experimental observables that help to distinguish the two follows. Specific problems that arise in the hydrodynamical modeling at the Beam Energy Scan are also addressed. (paper)

  19. TOUCHING MOMENTS: DESIRE MODULATES THE NEURAL ANTICIPATION OF ACTIVE ROMANTIC CARESS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sjoerd J.H. Ebisch

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available A romantic caress is a basic expression of affiliative behavior and a primary reinforcer. Given its inherent affective valence, its performance also would imply the prediction of reward values. For example, touching a person for whom one has strong passionate feelings likely is motivated by a strong desire for physical contact and associated with the anticipation of hedonic experiences. The present study aims at investigating how the anticipatory neural processes of active romantic caress are modulated by the intensity of the desire for affective contact as reflected by passionate feelings for the other. Functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning was performed in romantically involved partners using a paradigm that allowed to isolate the specific anticipatory representations of active romantic caress, compared with control caress, while testing for the relationship between neural activity and measures of feelings of passionate love for the other. The results demonstrated that right posterior insula activity in anticipation of romantic caress significantly co-varied with the intensity of desire for union with the other. This effect was independent of the sensory-affective properties of the performed touch, like its pleasantness. Furthermore, functional connectivity analysis showed that the same posterior insula cluster interacted with brain regions related to sensory-motor functions as well as to the processing and anticipation of reward. The findings provide insight on the neural substrate mediating between the desire for and the performance of romantic caress. In particular, we propose that anticipatory activity patterns in posterior insula may modulate subsequent sensory-affective processing of skin-to-skin contact.

  20. Effects of mediated social touch on affective experiences and trust

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stefanie M. Erk

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated whether communication via mediated hand pressure during a remotely shared experience (watching an amusing video can (1 enhance recovery from sadness, (2 enhance the affective quality of the experience, and (3 increase trust towards the communication partner. Thereto participants first watched a sad movie clip to elicit sadness, followed by a funny one to stimulate recovery from sadness. While watching the funny clip they signaled a hypothetical fellow participant every time they felt amused. In the experimental condition the participants responded by pressing a hand-held two-way mediated touch device (a Frebble, which also provided haptic feedback via simulated hand squeezes. In the control condition they responded by pressing a button and they received abstract visual feedback. Objective (heart rate, galvanic skin conductance, number and duration of joystick or Frebble presses and subjective (questionnaires data were collected to assess the emotional reactions of the participants. The subjective measurements confirmed that the sad movie successfully induced sadness while the funny movie indeed evoked more positive feelings. Although their ranking agreed with the subjective measurements, the physiological measurements confirmed this conclusion only for the funny movie. The results show that recovery from movie induced sadness, the affective experience of the amusing movie, and trust towards the communication partner did not differ between both experimental conditions. Hence, feedback via mediated hand touching did not enhance either of these factors compared to visual feedback. Further analysis of the data showed that participants scoring low on Extraversion (i.e., persons that are more introvert or low on Touch Receptivity (i.e., persons who do not like to be touched by others felt better understood by their communication partner when receiving mediated touch feedback instead of visual feedback, while the opposite was

  1. Effects of mediated social touch on affective experiences and trust.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erk, Stefanie M; Toet, Alexander; Van Erp, Jan B F

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated whether communication via mediated hand pressure during a remotely shared experience (watching an amusing video) can (1) enhance recovery from sadness, (2) enhance the affective quality of the experience, and (3) increase trust towards the communication partner. Thereto participants first watched a sad movie clip to elicit sadness, followed by a funny one to stimulate recovery from sadness. While watching the funny clip they signaled a hypothetical fellow participant every time they felt amused. In the experimental condition the participants responded by pressing a hand-held two-way mediated touch device (a Frebble), which also provided haptic feedback via simulated hand squeezes. In the control condition they responded by pressing a button and they received abstract visual feedback. Objective (heart rate, galvanic skin conductance, number and duration of joystick or Frebble presses) and subjective (questionnaires) data were collected to assess the emotional reactions of the participants. The subjective measurements confirmed that the sad movie successfully induced sadness while the funny movie indeed evoked more positive feelings. Although their ranking agreed with the subjective measurements, the physiological measurements confirmed this conclusion only for the funny movie. The results show that recovery from movie induced sadness, the affective experience of the amusing movie, and trust towards the communication partner did not differ between both experimental conditions. Hence, feedback via mediated hand touching did not enhance either of these factors compared to visual feedback. Further analysis of the data showed that participants scoring low on Extraversion (i.e., persons that are more introvert) or low on Touch Receptivity (i.e., persons who do not like to be touched by others) felt better understood by their communication partner when receiving mediated touch feedback instead of visual feedback, while the opposite was found for

  2. Roughness based perceptual analysis towards digital skin imaging system with haptic feedback.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, K

    2016-08-01

    To examine psoriasis or atopic eczema, analyzing skin roughness by palpation is essential to precisely diagnose skin diseases. However, optical sensor based skin imaging systems do not allow dermatologists to touch skin images. To solve the problem, a new haptic rendering technology that can accurately display skin roughness must be developed. In addition, the rendering algorithm must be able to filter spatial noises created during 2D to 3D image conversion without losing the original roughness on the skin image. In this study, a perceptual way to design a noise filter that will remove spatial noises and in the meantime recover maximized roughness is introduced by understanding human sensitivity on surface roughness. A visuohaptic rendering system that can provide a user with seeing and touching digital skin surface roughness has been developed including a geometric roughness estimation method from a meshed surface. In following, a psychophysical experiment was designed and conducted with 12 human subjects to measure human perception with the developed visual and haptic interfaces to examine surface roughness. From the psychophysical experiment, it was found that touch is more sensitive at lower surface roughness, and vice versa. Human perception with both senses, vision and touch, becomes less sensitive to surface distortions as roughness increases. When interact with both channels, visual and haptic interfaces, the performance to detect abnormalities on roughness is greatly improved by sensory integration with the developed visuohaptic rendering system. The result can be used as a guideline to design a noise filter that can perceptually remove spatial noises while recover maximized roughness values from a digital skin image obtained by optical sensors. In addition, the result also confirms that the developed visuohaptic rendering system can help dermatologists or skin care professionals examine skin conditions by using vision and touch at the same time. © 2015

  3. What Can We Say about 112,000 Taps on a Ndjebbana Touch Screen?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Auld, Glenn

    2002-01-01

    In a remote Aboriginal Australian (Kunibidji) community, three touch-screen computers containing 96 Ndjebbana-language talking books were made available to children in informal settings. The computers' popularity is explained by the touch screens' form and the talking books' intertextual and hybrid nature. The Kunibidji are transforming their…

  4. On the hydrodynamics and the scale-up of flotation processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schubert, H.

    1986-01-01

    In flotation machines, turbulence is process-determining. Macroturbulence is necessary for suspension, microturbulence controls the air dispersion, the rate of the particle-bubble collisions and the stresses on agglomerates. Consequently, the hydrodynamic optimization of flotation processes plays an important role for the flotation efficiency. In the paper the following aspects are considered: the turbulent microprocesses of flotation processes; the integral hydrodynamic characterization of flotation processes; correlations between particle size and optimum hydrodynamics; correlations between flocculation of fine particles and optimum-hydrodynamics; and hydrodynamic scale-up of flotation processes

  5. Therapeutic touch is not therapeutic for procedural pain in very preterm neonates: a randomized trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnston, Celeste; Campbell-Yeo, Marsha; Rich, Bonnie; Whitley, Julie; Filion, Francoise; Cogan, Jennifer; Walker, Claire-Dominique

    2013-09-01

    Preterm neonates below 30 weeks' gestational age undergo numerous painful procedures. Many management approaches are not appropriate for this population. Therapeutic Touch, an alternative approach based on the theory of energy medicine, has been shown to promote physiological stability in preterm neonates and reduce pain in some adult studies. The objective was to determine whether Therapeutic Touch is efficacious in decreasing pain in preterm neonates. Infants Touch (n = 27) with infant behind curtains, leaving the curtained area for the heel lance, performed by another. In the sham condition (n = 28), the therapist stood by the incubator with hands by her side. The Premature Infant Pain Profile was used for pain response and time for heart rate to return to baseline for recovery. Heart rate variability and stress response were secondary outcomes. There were no group differences in any of the outcomes. Mean Premature Infant Pain Profile scores across 2 minutes of heel lance procedure in 30-second blocks ranged from 7.92 to 8.98 in the Therapeutic Touch group and 7.64 to 8.46 in the sham group. Therapeutic Touch given immediately before and after heel lance has no comforting effect in preterm neonates. Other effective strategies involving actual touch should be considered.

  6. Mind the Gap: The Effects of Temporal and Spatial Separation in Localization of Dual Touches on the Hand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renata Sadibolova

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available In this study, we aimed to relate the findings from two predominantly separate streams of literature, one reporting on the localization of single touches on the skin, and the other on the distance perception of dual touches. Participants were touched with two points, delivered either simultaneously or separated by a short delay to various locations on their left hand dorsum. They then indicated on a size-matched hand silhouette the perceived locations of tactile stimuli. We quantified the deviations between the actual stimulus grid and the corresponding perceptual map which was constructed from the perceived tactile locations, and we calculated the precision of tactile localization (i.e., the variability across localization attempts. The evidence showed that the dual touches, akin to single touch stimulations, were mislocalized distally and that their variable localization error was reduced near joints, particularly near knuckles. However, contrary to single-touch localization literature, we observed for the dual touches to be mislocalized towards the ulnar side of the hand, particularly when they were presented sequentially. Further, the touches presented in a sequential order were slightly “repelled” from each other and their perceived distance increased, while the simultaneous tactile pairs were localized closer to each other and their distance was compressed. Whereas the sequential touches may have been localized with reference to the body, the compression of tactile perceptual space for simultaneous touches was related in the previous literature to signal summation and inhibition and the low-level factors, including the innervation density and properties of receptive fields (RFs of somatosensory neurons.

  7. Mind the Gap: The Effects of Temporal and Spatial Separation in Localization of Dual Touches on the Hand.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadibolova, Renata; Tamè, Luigi; Walsh, Eamonn; Longo, Matthew R

    2018-01-01

    In this study, we aimed to relate the findings from two predominantly separate streams of literature, one reporting on the localization of single touches on the skin, and the other on the distance perception of dual touches. Participants were touched with two points, delivered either simultaneously or separated by a short delay to various locations on their left hand dorsum. They then indicated on a size-matched hand silhouette the perceived locations of tactile stimuli. We quantified the deviations between the actual stimulus grid and the corresponding perceptual map which was constructed from the perceived tactile locations, and we calculated the precision of tactile localization (i.e., the variability across localization attempts). The evidence showed that the dual touches, akin to single touch stimulations, were mislocalized distally and that their variable localization error was reduced near joints, particularly near knuckles. However, contrary to single-touch localization literature, we observed for the dual touches to be mislocalized towards the ulnar side of the hand, particularly when they were presented sequentially. Further, the touches presented in a sequential order were slightly "repelled" from each other and their perceived distance increased, while the simultaneous tactile pairs were localized closer to each other and their distance was compressed. Whereas the sequential touches may have been localized with reference to the body, the compression of tactile perceptual space for simultaneous touches was related in the previous literature to signal summation and inhibition and the low-level factors, including the innervation density and properties of receptive fields (RFs) of somatosensory neurons.

  8. Hyperscaling-violating Lifshitz hydrodynamics from black-holes: part II

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kiritsis, Elias [Crete Center for Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics,Department of Physics, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion (Greece); Crete Center for Quantum Complexity and Nanotechnology,Department of Physics, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion (Greece); APC Univ Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité,UMR 7164 CNRS, F-75205 Paris (France); Matsuo, Yoshinori [Department of Physics, National Taiwan University,Taipei 10617, Taiwan, R.O.C. (China)

    2017-03-08

    The derivation of Lifshitz-invariant hydrodynamics from holography, presented in https://www.doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2015)076 is generalized to arbitrary hyperscaling violating Lifshitz scaling theories with an unbroken U(1) symmetry. The hydrodynamics emerging is non-relativistic with scalar “forcing'. By a redefinition of the pressure it becomes standard non-relativistic hydrodynamics in the presence of specific chemical potential for the mass current. The hydrodynamics is compatible with the scaling theory of Lifshitz invariance with hyperscaling violation. The bulk viscosity vanishes while the shear viscosity to entropy ratio is the same as in the relativistic case. We also consider the dimensional reduction ansatz for the hydrodynamics and clarify the difference with previous results suggesting a non-vanishing bulk viscosity.

  9. HYDRODYNAMICS OF OSCILLATING WING ON THE PITCH ANGLE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vitalii Korobov

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: research of the hydrodynamic characteristics of a wing in a nonstationary stream. Methods: The experimental studies of the hydrodynamic load acting on the wing of 1.5 elongation, wich harmonically oscillated respect to the transversal axis in the frequency range of 0.2-2.5 Hz. The flow speed in the hydrodynamic tunnel ranged of 0.2-1.5 m/s. Results: The instantaneous values of the coefficients of lift and drag / thrust on the pitch angle at unsteady flow depends on the Strouhal number.Discussion: with increasing oscillation frequency coefficients of hydrodynamic force components significantly higher than the data for the stationary blowing out of the wing.

  10. A flexible tactile-feedback touch screen using transparent ferroelectric polymer film vibrators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ju, Woo-Eon; Moon, Yong-Ju; Park, Cheon-Ho; Choi, Seung Tae

    2014-01-01

    To provide tactile feedback on flexible touch screens, transparent relaxor ferroelectric polymer film vibrators were designed and fabricated in this study. The film vibrator can be integrated underneath a transparent cover film or glass, and can also produce acoustic waves that cause a tactile sensation on human fingertips. Poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorotrifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE-CTFE)] polymer was used as the relaxor ferroelectric polymer because it produces a large strain under applied electric fields, shows a fast response, and has excellent optical transparency. The natural frequency of this tactile-feedback touch screen was designed to be around 200–240 Hz, at which the haptic perception of human fingertips is the most sensitive; therefore, the resonance of the touch screen at its natural frequency provides maximum haptic sensation. A multilayered relaxor ferroelectric polymer film vibrator was also demonstrated to provide the same vibration power at reduced voltage. The flexible P(VDF-TrFE-CTFE) film vibrators developed in this study are expected to provide tactile sensation not only in large-area flat panel displays, but also in flexible displays and touch screens. (papers)

  11. Fast feedback in active sensing: touch-induced changes to whisker-object interaction.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dudi Deutsch

    Full Text Available Whisking mediated touch is an active sense whereby whisker movements are modulated by sensory input and behavioral context. Here we studied the effects of touching an object on whisking in head-fixed rats. Simultaneous movements of whiskers C1, C2, and D1 were tracked bilaterally and their movements compared. During free-air whisking, whisker protractions were typically characterized by a single acceleration-deceleration event, whisking amplitude and velocity were correlated, and whisk duration correlated with neither amplitude nor velocity. Upon contact with an object, a second acceleration-deceleration event occurred in about 25% of whisk cycles, involving both contacting (C2 and non-contacting (C1, D1 whiskers ipsilateral to the object. In these cases, the rostral whisker (C2 remained in contact with the object throughout the double-peak phase, which effectively prolonged the duration of C2 contact. These "touch-induced pumps" (TIPs were detected, on average, 17.9 ms after contact. On a slower time scale, starting at the cycle following first touch, contralateral amplitude increased while ipsilateral amplitude decreased. Our results demonstrate that sensory-induced motor modulations occur at various timescales, and directly affect object palpation.

  12. Bacteria contamination of touch surfaces in Polish hospital wards

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Różańska

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Background: The objective of the study has been to evaluate the pathogenic bacteria contamination of touch surfaces in hospital wards. Material and Methods: Samples were taken from frequently touched surfaces in the hospital environment in 13 units of various types. Culturing was carried out on solid blood agar and in growth broth (tryptic soy broth – TSB. Species identification was performed using the analytical profile index (API biochemical testing and confirmed with matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS system. Results: The total of 161 samples were taken for the study. Fifty-two of them, after 24 h of culture on a solid medium, demonstrated bacterial growth and further 60 samples had growth after prior multiplication in TSB. Overall, 69.6% of samples exhibited growth of 19 bacterial species. Pathogenic species – representing indicator organisms of efficiency of hospital cleaning – was demonstrated by 21.4% of samples. Among them Acinetobacter spp., Enterocococci spp. and Staphylococcus aureus were identified. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS were predominant. The proportion of various groups of bacteria significantly varied in respective hospitals, and in various types of wards. Disturbing observation is a large proportion of resistance of isolated CNS strains as a potential reservoir of resistance genes. Conclusions: The results show that touch surfaces in hospital units are contaminated by both potentially pathogenic and pathogenic bacterial species. In connection with the reported, also in Poland, frequent omission or incorrect execution of hand hygiene by hospital staff, and probably patients, touch surfaces still constitute important reservoir of pathogenic bacteria. Improving hand hygiene compliance of health-care workers with recommendations is necessary for increasing biological safety of hospital environment. Med Pr 2017;68(3:459–467

  13. Do Young Chinese Children Gain Anthropomorphism after Exposure to Personified Touch-Screen and Board Games?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Hui; Hsueh, Yeh; Wang, Fuxing; Bai, Xuejun; Liu, Tao; Zhou, Li

    2017-01-01

    Research shows that preschoolers are likely to anthropomorphize not only animals, but also inanimate toy after being exposed to books that personify these objects. Can such an effect also arise through young children's use of touch-screen games? The present study is the first to examine whether playing a touch-screen personified train game affects young children's anthropomorphism of real trains. Seventy-nine 4- and 6-year-old children were randomly assigned to play either a touch-screen game or a board game of Thomas the Tank Engine for 10 min. They completed the Individual Differences in Anthropomorphism Questionnaire-Child Form (IDAQ-CF) (two subscales: Technology/Inanimate Nature, Animate Nature) and an additional four items about the anthropomorphism of real trains, before (T1) and after (T2) the game. Overall results showed that children manifested a small but statistically significant increase in anthropomorphizing of real trains after their exposure to both games, claiming that real trains were like humans. Interestingly, 4-year-old children in the board game group tended to anthropomorphize real trains more than those in the touch-screen group, whereas the reverse was true for the 6-year-old children. The results suggest that touch-screen games may delay the decline of children's anthropomorphism during the cognitive and socio-emotional transition that occurs in children aged 5-7. These findings have implications for future research on how touch-screen games increase children's anthropomorphism of the real world, and more generally, for evaluation of the influence of the growing use of touch-screen games on young children's learning.

  14. Simulated Social Touch in a Collaborative Game

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs; Kolkmeijer, Jan; Heylen, Dirk; Auvray, Malika; Duriez, Christian

    In this paper we present a study in which participants played a collaborative augmented reality game together with two virtual agents, visible in the same augmented reality space. During interaction one of the virtual agents touches the user on the arm, by means of a vibrotactile display. We

  15. Numerical Hydrodynamics in Special Relativity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martí, José Maria; Müller, Ewald

    2003-01-01

    This review is concerned with a discussion of numerical methods for the solution of the equations of special relativistic hydrodynamics (SRHD). Particular emphasis is put on a comprehensive review of the application of high-resolution shock-capturing methods in SRHD. Results of a set of demanding test bench simulations obtained with different numerical SRHD methods are compared. Three applications (astrophysical jets, gamma-ray bursts and heavy ion collisions) of relativistic flows are discussed. An evaluation of various SRHD methods is presented, and future developments in SRHD are analyzed involving extension to general relativistic hydrodynamics and relativistic magneto-hydrodynamics. The review further provides FORTRAN programs to compute the exact solution of a 1D relativistic Riemann problem with zero and nonzero tangential velocities, and to simulate 1D relativistic flows in Cartesian Eulerian coordinates using the exact SRHD Riemann solver and PPM reconstruction. Supplementary material is available for this article at 10.12942/lrr-2003-7 and is accessible for authorized users.

  16. Lipschitz equivalence of self-similar sets with touching structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruan, Huo-Jun; Wang, Yang; Xi, Li-Feng

    2014-01-01

    Lipschitz equivalence of self-similar sets is an important area in the study of fractal geometry. It is known that two dust-like self-similar sets with the same contraction ratios are always Lipschitz equivalent. However, when self-similar sets have touching structures the problem of Lipschitz equivalence becomes much more challenging and intriguing at the same time. So far, all the known results only cover self-similar sets in R with no more than three branches. In this study we establish results for the Lipschitz equivalence of self-similar sets with touching structures in R with arbitrarily many branches. Key to our study is the introduction of a geometric condition for self-similar sets called substitutable. (paper)

  17. Effects of Therapeutic Touch on Healing of the Skin in Rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomaz de Souza, André Luiz; Carvalho Rosa, David Patrick; Blanco, Bruno Anjos; Passaglia, Patrícia; Stabile, Angelita Maria

    Therapeutic touch is a complementary treatment directed toward the balance of the energy field surrounding living beings. This study's aim was to investigate the effect of therapeutic touch on wound area contraction and fibroblast proliferation in rat skin. This study was conducted using 24 male Wistar rats with dorsal wounds of diameter 8mm. The rats were divided into the following two groups: a control group: in this, the wounds were sanitized with filtered water and neutral-pH soap and a treatment group: in this, the wounds were sanitized as in the control group but the rats also underwent to daily sessions of therapeutic touch. Wound area was measured on days 1, 4, and 7 using imagelab software, version 2.4 R.C. On days 4 and 7, six animals in each group were euthanized so that the lesioned tissue could be collected for fibroblast counts and histological evaluations. On days 1 and 4, wound areas were similar in both groups. Moreover, no significant differences in fibroblast counts were observed on day 4. On day 7, however, fibroblast counts were significantly higher in the treated group than in the control group, with a subsequent wound shrinkage. These data indicate that therapeutic touch may accelerate wound repair, possibly by increasing fibroblast activity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. The nonvisual illusion of self-touch: Misaligned hands and anatomical implausibility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Rebekah C; Weinberg, Jennifer L; Aimola Davies, Anne M

    2015-01-01

    The self-touch illusion is elicited when the participant (with eyes closed) administers brushstrokes to a prosthetic hand while the examiner administers synchronous brushstrokes to the participant's other (receptive) hand. In three experiments we investigated the effects of misalignment on the self-touch illusion. In experiment 1 we manipulated alignment (0 degrees, 45 degrees, 90 degrees, 135 degrees, 180 degrees) of the prosthetic hand relative to the participant's receptive hand. The illusion was equally strong at 0 degrees and 45 degrees: the two conditions in which the prosthetic hand was in an anatomically plausible orientation. To investigate whether the illusion was diminished at 90 degrees (and beyond) by anatomical implausibility rather than by misalignment, in experiment 2 hand positioning was changed. The illusion was equally strong at 0 degrees, 45 degrees, and 90 degrees, but diminished at 135 degrees despite the prosthetic hand now being in an anatomically plausible orientation. Thus the illusion is diminished with misalignment of 135 degrees, irrespective of anatomical plausibility. Having demonstrated that the illusion was equally strong with the hands aligned (0 degrees) or misaligned by 45 degrees, in experiment 3 we demonstrated that participants did not detect a 45 degrees misalignment. Large degrees of misalignment prevent a compelling experience of the self-touch illusion, and the self-touch illusion prevents detection of small degrees of misalignment.

  19. Computer simulation of the fire-tube boiler hydrodynamics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khaustov Sergei A.

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Finite element method was used for simulating the hydrodynamics of fire-tube boiler with the ANSYS Fluent 12.1.4 engineering simulation software. Hydrodynamic structure and volumetric temperature distribution were calculated. The results are presented in graphical form. Complete geometric model of the fire-tube boiler based on boiler drawings was considered. Obtained results are suitable for qualitative analysis of hydrodynamics and singularities identification in fire-tube boiler water shell.

  20. Boltzmann equation and hydrodynamics beyond Navier-Stokes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bobylev, A V

    2018-04-28

    We consider in this paper the problem of derivation and regularization of higher (in Knudsen number) equations of hydrodynamics. The author's approach based on successive changes of hydrodynamic variables is presented in more detail for the Burnett level. The complete theory is briefly discussed for the linearized Boltzmann equation. It is shown that the best results in this case can be obtained by using the 'diagonal' equations of hydrodynamics. Rigorous estimates of accuracy of the Navier-Stokes and Burnett approximations are also presented.This article is part of the theme issue 'Hilbert's sixth problem'. © 2018 The Author(s).

  1. Hydrodynamic states of phonons in insulators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S.A. Sokolovsky

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available The Chapman-Enskog method is generalized for accounting the effect of kinetic modes on hydrodynamic evolution. Hydrodynamic states of phonon system of insulators have been studied in a small drift velocity approximation. For simplicity, the investigation was carried out for crystals of the cubic class symmetry. It has been found that in phonon hydrodynamics, local equilibrium is violated even in the approximation linear in velocity. This is due to the absence of phonon momentum conservation law that leads to a drift velocity relaxation. Phonon hydrodynamic equations which take dissipative processes into account have been obtained. The results were compared with the standard theory based on the local equilibrium validity. Integral equations have been obtained for calculating the objects of the theory (including viscosity and heat conductivity. It has been shown that in low temperature limit, these equations are solvable by iterations. Steady states of the system have been considered and an expression for steady state heat conductivity has been obtained. It coincides with the famous result by Akhiezer in the leading low temperature approximation. It has been established that temperature distribution in the steady state of insulator satisfies a condition of heat source absence.

  2. Hydrodynamic relaxations in dissipative particle dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hansen, J. S.; Greenfield, Michael L.; Dyre, Jeppe C.

    2018-01-01

    This paper studies the dynamics of relaxation phenomena in the standard dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) model [R. D. Groot and P. B. Warren, J. Chem. Phys. 107, 4423 (1997)]. Using fluctuating hydrodynamics as the framework of the investigation, we focus on the collective transverse and longitudinal dynamics. It is shown that classical hydrodynamic theory predicts the transverse dynamics at relatively low temperatures very well when compared to simulation data; however, the theory predictions are, on the same length scale, less accurate for higher temperatures. The agreement with hydrodynamics depends on the definition of the viscosity, and here we find that the transverse dynamics are independent of the dissipative and random shear force contributions to the stress. For high temperatures, the spectrum for the longitudinal dynamics is dominated by the Brillouin peak for large length scales and the relaxation is therefore governed by sound wave propagation and is athermal. This contrasts the results at lower temperatures and small length scale, where the thermal process is clearly present in the spectra. The DPD model, at least qualitatively, re-captures the underlying hydrodynamical mechanisms, and quantitative agreement is excellent at intermediate temperatures for the transverse dynamics.

  3. Effects of acute tryptophan depletion on central processing of CT-targeted and discriminatory touch in humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trotter, Paula Diane; McGlone, Francis; McKie, Shane; McFarquhar, Martyn; Elliott, Rebecca; Walker, Susannah Claire; Deakin, John Francis William

    2016-08-01

    C-tactile afferents (CTs) are slowly conducting nerve fibres, present only in hairy skin. They are optimally activated by slow, gentle stroking touch, such as those experienced during a caress. CT stimulation activates affective processing brain regions, alluding to their role in affective touch perception. We tested a theory that CT-activating touch engages the pro-social functions of serotonin, by determining whether reducing serotonin, through acute tryptophan depletion, diminishes subjective pleasantness and affective brain responses to gentle touch. A tryptophan depleting amino acid drink was administered to 16 healthy females, with a further 14 receiving a control drink. After 4 h, participants underwent an fMRI scan, during which time CT-innervated forearm skin and CT non-innervated finger skin was stroked with three brushes of differing texture, at CT-optimal force and velocity. Pleasantness ratings were obtained post scanning. The control group showed a greater response in ipsilateral orbitofrontal cortex to CT-activating forearm touch compared to touch to the finger where CTs are absent. This differential response was not present in the tryptophan depleted group. This interaction effect was significant. In addition, control participants showed a differential primary somatosensory cortex response to brush texture applied to the finger, a purely discriminatory touch response, which was not observed in the tryptophan depleted group. This interaction effect was also significant. Pleasantness ratings were similar across treatment groups. These results implicate serotonin in the differentiation between CT-activating and purely discriminatory touch responses. Such effects could contribute to some of the social abnormalities seen in psychiatric disorders associated with abnormal serotonin function. © 2016 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. Touch-sensitive colour graphics enhance monitoring of loss-of-coolant accident tests

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Snedden, M.D.; Mead, G.L.

    1982-01-01

    A stand-alone computer-based system with an intelligent colour termimal is described for monitoring parameters during loss-of-coolant accident tests. Colour graphic displays and touch-sensitive control have been combined for effective operator interaction. Data collected by the host MODCOMP II minicomputer are dynamically updated on colour pictures generated by the terminal. Experimenters select system functions by touching simulated switches on a transparent touch-sensitive overlay, mounted directly over the face of the colour screen, eliminating the need for a keyboard. Switch labels and colours are changed on the screen by the terminal software as different functions are selected. Interaction is self-prompting and can be learned quickly. System operation for a complete set of 20 tests has demonstrated the convenience of interactive touchsensitive colour graphics

  5. Families Talking about Ecology at Touch Tanks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kopczak, Charles; Kisiel, James F.; Rowe, Shawn

    2015-01-01

    Research has demonstrated that conversations among museum, aquarium, and zoo visitors can be a clear indication of active learning, engagement, and participation in scientific reasoning. This descriptive study sought to determine the extent of talk about ecology-related topics exhibited by family groups visiting marine touch tanks at four Pacific…

  6. Girls' Touch Football, Physical Education: 5551.03.

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Kathy

    This course outline is a guide for teaching basic understanding of fundamental skills and rules of girls' touch football in grades 7-12. The course format includes lectures, demonstrations, practice of basic skills, visual aids, lead-up games, presentation and practice of officiating techniques, tournaments, and written and skills tests. Course…

  7. Improving clinical outcomes in psychiatric care with touch-screen technology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newnham, Elizabeth A; Doyle, Emma L; Sng, Adelln A H; Hooke, Geoffrey R; Page, Andrew C

    2012-05-01

    Patient-focused research, which uses clinical characteristics to predict outcomes, is a field in which information technology has been effectively integrated with practice. The present research used touch-screen technology to monitor the daily self-report measures of 1,308 consecutive inpatients and day patients participating in a 2-week cognitive-behavioral therapy group. Providing regular feedback was effective in reducing symptoms for patients at risk of poor outcomes (Newnham, Hooke, & Page, 2010b). The use of touch screens in psychiatric monitoring encourages a collaborative dialogue between patients and therapists and promotes engagement in the process of progress monitoring and treatment evaluation.

  8. Multiscale hydrodynamic investigation to intensify the biogas production in upflow anaerobic reactors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Jiankai; Wu, Jing; Zhang, Jinbai; Poncin, Souhila; Li, Huai Z

    2014-03-01

    Hydrodynamics plays a main role for the performance of an anaerobic reactor involving three phases: wastewater, sludge granules and biogas bubbles. The present work was focused on an original approach to investigate the hydrodynamics at different scales and then to intensify the performance of such complex reactors. The experiments were carried out respectively in a 3D reactor at macroscale, a 2D reactor at mesoscale and a 1D anaerobic reactor at microscale. A Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), a micro-PIV and a high-speed camera were employed to quantify the liquid flow fields and the relative motion between sludge granules and bubbles. Shear rates exerted on sludge granules were quantified from liquid flow fields. The optimal biogas production is obtained at mean shear rate varying from 28 to 48s(-1), which is controlled by two antagonistic mechanisms. The multiscale approach demonstrates pertinent mechanisms proper to each scale and allows a better understanding of such reactors. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Relabeling symmetries in hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Padhye, N.; Morrison, P.J.

    1996-04-01

    Lagrangian symmetries and concomitant generalized Bianchi identities associated with the relabeling of fluid elements are found for hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). In hydrodynamics relabeling results in Ertel's theorem of conservation of potential vorticity, while in MHD it yields the conservation of cross helicity. The symmetries of the reduction from Lagrangian (material) to Eulerian variables are used to construct the Casimir invariants of the Hamiltonian formalism

  10. Determination of minimum impact parameter by modified touching spheres schemes for intermediate energy Coulomb excitation experiments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kumar, Rajiv; Sharma, Shagun; Singh, Pradeep; Kharab, Rajesh

    2016-01-01

    The energy-independent touching spheres schemes commonly used for the determination of the safe minimum value of the impact parameter for Coulomb excitation experiments are modified through the inclusion of an energy-dependent term. The touching spheres+3fm scheme after modification emerges out to be the best one while touching spheres+4fm scheme is found to be better in its unmodified form. (orig.)

  11. Fish locomotion: kinematics and hydrodynamics of flexible foil-like fins

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lauder, George V.; Madden, Peter G. A.

    2007-11-01

    The fins of fishes are remarkable propulsive devices that appear at the origin of fishes about 500 million years ago and have been a key feature of fish evolutionary diversification. Most fish species possess both median (midline) dorsal, anal, and caudal fins as well as paired pectoral and pelvic fins. Fish fins are supported by jointed skeletal elements, fin rays, that in turn support a thin collagenous membrane. Muscles at the base of the fin attach to and actuate each fin ray, and fish fins thus generate their own hydrodynamic wake during locomotion, in addition to fluid motion induced by undulation of the body. In bony fishes, the jointed fin rays can be actively deformed and the fin surface can thus actively resist hydrodynamic loading. Fish fins are highly flexible, exhibit considerable deformation during locomotion, and can interact hydrodynamically during both propulsion and maneuvering. For example, the dorsal and anal fins shed a vortex wake that greatly modifies the flow environment experienced by the tail fin. New experimental kinematic and hydrodynamic data are presented for pectoral fin function in bluegill sunfish. The highly flexible sunfish pectoral fin moves in a complex manner with two leading edges, a spanwise wave of bending, and substantial changes in area through the fin beat cycle. Data from scanning particle image velocimetry (PIV) and time-resolved stereo PIV show that the pectoral fin generates thrust throughout the fin beat cycle, and that there is no time of net drag. Continuous thrust production is due to fin flexibility which enables some part of the fin to generate thrust at all times and to smooth out oscillations that might arise at the transition from outstroke to instroke during the movement cycle. Computational fluid dynamic analyses of sunfish pectoral fin function corroborate this conclusion. Future research on fish fin function will benefit considerably from close integration with studies of robotic model fins.

  12. Concurrent Driving Method with Fast Scan Rate for Large Mutual Capacitance Touch Screens

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohamed Gamal Ahmed Mohamed

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available A novel touch screen control technique is introduced, which scans each frame in two steps of concurrent multichannel driving and differential sensing. The proposed technique substantially increases the scan rate and reduces the ambient noise effectively. It is also extended to a multichip architecture to support excessively large touch screens with great scan rate improvement. The proposed method has been implemented using 0.18 μm CMOS TowerJazz process and tested with FPGA and AFE board connecting a 23-inch touch screen. Experimental results show a scan rate improvement of up to 23.8 times and an SNR improvement of 24.6 dB over the conventional method.

  13. The use of touch-sensitive VDUs for controlling plant and for training personnel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Usher, D.M.

    1983-01-01

    In response to the problems raised by the increasing complexity of power generating plant, Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) South West Region has researched new man-machine interface devices. The touch-screen, which facilitates interaction with a computer by simply touching a mimic displayed on a VDU, has emerged as a useful, versatile and acceptable operating method. CEGB personnel have expressed approval of it and their performances have been shown to be enhanced over those attained using an alternative keypad interface. The short familiarization time associated with their operation, in combination with the very great flexibility they offer the programmer, make touch screens valuable resources for training purposes, particularly for conveying basic principles. (author)

  14. From sweeping to the caress: similarities and discrepancies between human and non-human primates' pleasant touch

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura Clara Grandi

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Affective touch plays a key role in affiliative behavior, offering a mechanism for the formation and maintenance of social bonds among conspecifics, both in humans and non-human primates. Furthermore, it has been speculated that the CT fiber system is a specific coding channel for affiliative touch that occurs during skin-to-skin interactions with conspecifics. In humans, this touch is commonly referred to as the caress, and its correlation with the CT fiber system has been widely demonstrated. It has been hypothesized that the sweeping touch that occurs during grooming in non-human primates may modulate the CT fibers, with recent preliminary studies on rhesus monkeys supporting this hypothesis. The present mini-review proposes a comparison between the pleasant touch, caress and sweeping of humans and non-human primates, respectively. The currently available data was therefore reviewed regarding i the correlation between pleasant touch and CT fibers both in humans and non-human primates, ii the autonomic effects, iii the encoding at the central nervous system, iv the development from early life to adulthood, and v the potential applications of pleasant touch in the daily lives of both humans and non-human primates. Moreover, by considering both the similarities and discrepancies between the human caress and non-human primate sweeping, a possible evolutionary mechanism can be proposed that has developed from sweeping as a utilitarian action with affiliative meaning among monkeys, to the caress as a purely affective gesture associated with humans.

  15. Embodied terror management: interpersonal touch alleviates existential concerns among individuals with low self-esteem.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Koole, S.L.; Tjew-a-Sin, Mandy; Schneider, I.K.

    2014-01-01

    Individuals with low (rather than high) self-esteem often struggle with existential concerns. In the present research, we examined whether these existential concerns may be alleviated by seemingly trivial experiences of both real and simulated interpersonal touch. A brief touch on the shoulder by a

  16. Teaching Touch Rugby in Physical Education Classes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pugh, Steven F.; Alford, Alan

    2004-01-01

    Physical educators are always looking for new ideas that introduce moderate-to-vigorous activity, involve skill, encourage teamwork, and increase student interest. Touch rugby has the potential to contribute to these outcomes. Though the sport is not new, it is not a mainstream sport. Therefore, students see it as something new. Their motivation…

  17. High Touch in a High-Tech World

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibson, Cindy L.

    2009-01-01

    In a world of high tech and low touch, it is easy for public relations programs to stray from tried-and-true interpersonal strategies long associated with solid communication planning. New technologies allow communications professionals to quickly send e-mails and telephone calls to selected groups. Social media sites provide users immediate…

  18. Use of hydrodynamic cavitation in (waste)water treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dular, Matevž; Griessler-Bulc, Tjaša; Gutierrez-Aguirre, Ion; Heath, Ester; Kosjek, Tina; Krivograd Klemenčič, Aleksandra; Oder, Martina; Petkovšek, Martin; Rački, Nejc; Ravnikar, Maja; Šarc, Andrej; Širok, Brane; Zupanc, Mojca; Žitnik, Miha; Kompare, Boris

    2016-03-01

    The use of acoustic cavitation for water and wastewater treatment (cleaning) is a well known procedure. Yet, the use of hydrodynamic cavitation as a sole technique or in combination with other techniques such as ultrasound has only recently been suggested and employed. In the first part of this paper a general overview of techniques that employ hydrodynamic cavitation for cleaning of water and wastewater is presented. In the second part of the paper the focus is on our own most recent work using hydrodynamic cavitation for removal of pharmaceuticals (clofibric acid, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen, diclofenac, carbamazepine), toxic cyanobacteria (Microcystis aeruginosa), green microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris), bacteria (Legionella pneumophila) and viruses (Rotavirus) from water and wastewater. As will be shown, hydrodynamic cavitation, like acoustic, can manifest itself in many different forms each having its own distinctive properties and mechanisms. This was until now neglected, which eventually led to poor performance of the technique. We will show that a different type of hydrodynamic cavitation (different removal mechanism) is required for successful removal of different pollutants. The path to use hydrodynamic cavitation as a routine water cleaning method is still long, but recent results have already shown great potential for optimisation, which could lead to a low energy tool for water and wastewater cleaning. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Hydrodynamics of oceans and atmospheres

    CERN Document Server

    Eckart, Carl

    1960-01-01

    Hydrodynamics of Oceans and Atmospheres is a systematic account of the hydrodynamics of oceans and atmospheres. Topics covered range from the thermodynamic functions of an ideal gas and the thermodynamic coefficients for water to steady motions, the isothermal atmosphere, the thermocline, and the thermosphere. Perturbation equations, field equations, residual equations, and a general theory of rays are also presented. This book is comprised of 17 chapters and begins with an introduction to the basic equations and their solutions, with the aim of illustrating the laws of dynamics. The nonlinear

  20. Hydrodynamic simulation of elliptic flow

    CERN Document Server

    Kolb, P F; Ruuskanen, P V; Heinz, Ulrich W

    1999-01-01

    We use a hydrodynamic model to study the space-time evolution transverse to the beam direction in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions with nonzero impact parameters. We focus on the influence of early pressure on the development of radial and elliptic flow. We show that at high energies elliptic flow is generated only during the initial stages of the expansion while radial flow continues to grow until freeze-out. Quantitative comparisons with SPS data from semiperipheral Pb+Pb collisions suggest the applicability of hydrodynamical concepts already $\\approx$ 1 fm/c after impact.

  1. [Therapeutic touch and anorexia nervosa].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Satori, Nadine

    2016-01-01

    An innovative practice, therapeutic touch has been used for around ten years in the treatment of eating disorders. Delivered by nurse clinicians having received specific training, this approach is based on nursing diagnoses which identify the major symptoms of this pathology. The support is built around the body and its perceptions. Through the helping relationship, it mobilises the patient's resources to favour a relationship of trust, a letting-go, physical, psychological and emotional relaxation, and improves the therapeutic alliance. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

  2. A non-invasive modality: the US virtual touch tissue quantification (VTTQ) for evaluation of breast cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tamaki, Kentaro; Tamaki, Nobumitsu; Kamada, Yoshihiko; Uehara, Kano; Miyashita, Minoru; Ishida, Takanori; Sasano, Hironobu

    2013-09-01

    We evaluated the biologic features of breast tissues using a newly developed non-invasive diagnostic system, named virtual touch tissue quantification. A total of 180 patients including 115 invasive ductal carcinoma, 30 ductal carcinoma in situ, 4 mucinous carcinoma, 7 invasive lobular carcinoma, 8 fibroadenoma, 12 fibrocystic change and 4 intraductal papilloma were studied at Nahanishi Clinic, Okinawa. We first compared the results of virtual touch tissue quantification according to each histologic subtype and determined the optimal cutoff values for virtual touch tissue quantification to distinguish benign from malignant tissues, using the receiver operating characteristic method. In addition, we also examined the correlation between virtual touch tissue quantification velocities and Ki-67, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 in cases of invasive ductal carcinoma using linear regression analyses and Student's t-test. Virtual touch tissue quantification velocities were statistically higher in malignant cases than in benign cases (P breast cancer pathology in a non-invasive fashion.

  3. The effects of healing touch on pain, nausea, and anxiety following bariatric surgery: a pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Joel G; Suchicital, Liliana; Lang, Maria; Kukic, Azra; Mangione, Lucrezia; Swengros, Diane; Fabian, Jennifer; Friesen, Mary Ann

    2015-01-01

    Given the growth in the number of bariatric surgeries, it is important for healthcare practitioners to maximize symptom management for these patients, including the option of complementary therapies such as Healing Touch. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to determine the feasibility of a Healing Touch intervention for reducing pain, nausea, and anxiety in patients undergoing laparoscopic bariatric surgery. Following surgery, a nurse administered the Healing Touch intervention once daily. Study participants reported levels of pain, nausea, and anxiety immediately before and after the Healing Touch intervention using separate numeric rating scales. Significant decreases in pain, nausea, and anxiety were observed immediately following the intervention on post-operative days one and two, and in pain and anxiety on post-operative day three compared with pre-intervention levels. These findings indicate that the Healing Touch intervention is feasible and acceptable to patients undergoing bariatric surgery, and significantly improved pain, nausea, and anxiety in these patients. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Shear viscosity, cavitation and hydrodynamics at LHC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bhatt, Jitesh R.; Mishra, Hiranmaya; Sreekanth, V.

    2011-01-01

    We study evolution of quark-gluon matter in the ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions within the frame work of relativistic second-order viscous hydrodynamics. In particular, by using the various prescriptions of a temperature-dependent shear viscosity to the entropy ratio, we show that the hydrodynamic description of the relativistic fluid becomes invalid due to the phenomenon of cavitation. For most of the initial conditions relevant for LHC, the cavitation sets in very early stage. The cavitation in this case is entirely driven by the large values of shear viscosity. Moreover we also demonstrate that the conformal terms used in equations of the relativistic dissipative hydrodynamic can influence the cavitation time.

  5. Steady State Thermo-Hydrodynamic Analysis of Two-Axial groove and Multilobe Hydrodynamic Bearings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Bhagat

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Steady state thermo-hydrodynamic analysis of two axial groove and multi lobe oil journal bearings is performed in this paper. To study the steady state thermo-hydrodynamic characteristics Reynolds equation is solved simultaneously along with the energy equation and heat conduction equation in bush and shaft. The effect of groove geometry, cavitation in the fluid film, the recirculation of lubricant, shaft speed has also been taken into account. Film temperature in case of three-lobe bearing is found to be high as compared to other studied bearing configurations. The data obtained from this analysis can be used conveniently in the design of such bearings, which are presented in dimensionless form.

  6. First impressions and beyond: marketing your practice in touch points--Part II.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bisera, Cheryl

    2012-01-01

    When calling in a marketing expert to boost a practice's numbers, administrators and providers are usually looking for external marketing strategies--ways to attract new patients to the practice. However, one of the most important, yet often overlooked, elements to successfully marketing a practice is the very important work of retaining current patients and turning them into enthusiastic referrers. When new patients are simply filling the place of previous patients that have moved on, you are not building solid practice growth. You can create an atmosphere of loyal referring patients by providing positive touch points that fulfill the needs of your patients. This article will cover touch points that occur before a patient has chosen your practice. Laying the groundwork for positive touch points will give your marketing efforts a snowball effect, build growth, and deliver the most bang for your marketing bucks.

  7. A pilot study of the experience of participating in a Therapeutic Touch practice group.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Theresa; Ting, Brigid; Rossiter-Thornton, Maria

    2008-09-01

    This pilot study explored the experience of participating in a Therapeutic Touch practice group. A qualitative descriptive-exploratory method was used, involving 12 members of practice groups in Ontario and British Columbia, Canada. Analysis of the data using an extraction-synthesis process yielded four themes: (a) learning with others through sharing and hands-on experience is valued; (b) connecting with a network of supportive relationships that sustain self and Therapeutic Touch practice; (c) comfort-discomfort arising with self, others, or ideas; and (d) meaningful changes emerge while experiencing group energy and Therapeutic Touch. The findings expand current knowledge about the positive aspects of participating in practice groups and provide a beginning understanding of member discomfort, which had not been previously reported. This knowledge will be useful to Therapeutic Touch organizations, practice group leaders, and group members. It will also guide health care agencies and practitioners of other healing modalities who may be considering establishing practice groups.

  8. Memory for Random Time Patterns in Audition, Touch, and Vision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, HiJee; Lancelin, Denis; Pressnitzer, Daniel

    2018-03-22

    Perception deals with temporal sequences of events, like series of phonemes for audition, dynamic changes in pressure for touch textures, or moving objects for vision. Memory processes are thus needed to make sense of the temporal patterning of sensory information. Recently, we have shown that auditory temporal patterns could be learned rapidly and incidentally with repeated exposure [Kang et al., 2017]. Here, we tested whether rapid incidental learning of temporal patterns was specific to audition, or if it was a more general property of sensory systems. We used a same behavioral task in three modalities: audition, touch, and vision, for stimuli having identical temporal statistics. Participants were presented with sequences of acoustic pulses for audition, motion pulses to the fingertips for touch, or light pulses for vision. Pulses were randomly and irregularly spaced, with all inter-pulse intervals in the sub-second range and all constrained to be longer than the temporal acuity in any modality. This led to pulse sequences with an average inter-pulse interval of 166 ms, a minimum inter-pulse interval of 60 ms, and a total duration of 1.2 s. Results showed that, if a random temporal pattern re-occurred at random times during an experimental block, it was rapidly learned, whatever the sensory modality. Moreover, patterns first learned in the auditory modality displayed transfer of learning to either touch or vision. This suggests that sensory systems may be exquisitely tuned to incidentally learn re-occurring temporal patterns, with possible cross-talk between the senses. Copyright © 2018 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Microflow Cytometers with Integrated Hydrodynamic Focusing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martin Schmidt

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available This study demonstrates the suitability of microfluidic structures for high throughput blood cell analysis. The microfluidic chips exploit fully integrated hydrodynamic focusing based on two different concepts: Two-stage cascade focusing and spin focusing (vortex principle. The sample—A suspension of micro particles or blood cells—is injected into a sheath fluid streaming at a substantially higher flow rate, which assures positioning of the particles in the center of the flow channel. Particle velocities of a few m/s are achieved as required for high throughput blood cell analysis. The stability of hydrodynamic particle positioning was evaluated by measuring the pulse heights distributions of fluorescence signals from calibration beads. Quantitative assessment based on coefficient of variation for the fluorescence intensity distributions resulted in a value of about 3% determined for the micro-device exploiting cascade hydrodynamic focusing. For the spin focusing approach similar values were achieved for sample flow rates being 1.5 times lower. Our results indicate that the performances of both variants of hydrodynamic focusing suit for blood cell differentiation and counting. The potential of the micro flow cytometer is demonstrated by detecting immunologically labeled CD3 positive and CD4 positive T-lymphocytes in blood.

  10. Connection between hydrodynamic, water bag and Vlasov models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gros, M.; Bertrand, P.; Feix, M.R.

    1978-01-01

    The connection between hydrodynamic, water bag and Vlasov models is still under consideration with numerical experiments. For long wavelength, slightly non linear excitations and initial preparations such as the usual adiabatic invariant Pn -3 is space independent, the hydrodynamic model is equivalent to the water bag, and for long wavelengths a nice agreement is found with the full numerical solution of the Vlasov equation. For other initial conditions when the water bag cannot be defined, the hydrodynamic approach does not represent the correct behaviour. (author)

  11. Evaluation of a Spiral Groove Geometry for Improvement of Hemolysis Level in a Hydrodynamically Levitated Centrifugal Blood Pump.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murashige, Tomotaka; Kosaka, Ryo; Sakota, Daisuke; Nishida, Masahiro; Kawaguchi, Yasuo; Yamane, Takashi; Maruyama, Osamu

    2015-08-01

    The purpose of this study is to evaluate a spiral groove geometry for a thrust bearing to improve the hemolysis level in a hydrodynamically levitated centrifugal blood pump. We compared three geometric models: (i) the groove width is the same as the ridge width at any given polar coordinate (conventional model); (ii) the groove width contracts inward from 9.7 to 0.5 mm (contraction model); and (iii) the groove width expands inward from 0.5 to 4.2 mm (expansion model). To evaluate the hemolysis level, an impeller levitation performance test and in vitro hemolysis test were conducted using a mock circulation loop. In these tests, the driving conditions were set at a pressure head of 200 mm Hg and a flow rate of 4.0 L/min. As a result of the impeller levitation performance test, the bottom bearing gaps of the contraction and conventional models were 88 and 25 μm, respectively. The impeller of the expansion model touched the bottom housing. In the hemolysis test, the relative normalized index of hemolysis (NIH) ratios of the contraction model in comparison with BPX-80 and HPM-15 were 0.6 and 0.9, respectively. In contrast, the relative NIH ratios of the conventional model in comparison with BPX-80 and HPM-15 were 9.6 and 13.7, respectively. We confirmed that the contraction model achieved a large bearing gap and improved the hemolysis level in a hydrodynamically levitated centrifugal blood pump. Copyright © 2015 International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  12. CGLXTouch: A multi-user multi-touch approach for ultra-high-resolution collaborative workspaces

    KAUST Repository

    Ponto, Kevin

    2011-06-01

    This paper presents an approach for empowering collaborative workspaces through ultra-high resolution tiled display environments concurrently interfaced with multiple multi-touch devices. Multi-touch table devices are supported along with portable multi-touch tablet and phone devices, which can be added to and removed from the system on the fly. Events from these devices are tagged with a device identifier and are synchronized with the distributed display environment, enabling multi-user support. As many portable devices are not equipped to render content directly, a remotely scene is streamed in. The presented approach scales for large numbers of devices, providing access to a multitude of hands-on techniques for collaborative data analysis. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Hydrodynamic property of the cytoplasm is sufficient to mediate cytoplasmic streaming in the Caenorhabiditis elegans embryo

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niwayama, Ritsuya; Shinohara, Kyosuke; Kimura, Akatsuki

    2011-01-01

    Cytoplasmic streaming is a type of intracellular transport widely seen in nature. Cytoplasmic streaming in Caenorhabditis elegans at the one-cell stage is bidirectional; the flow near the cortex (“cortical flow”) is oriented toward the anterior, whereas the flow in the central region (“cytoplasmic flow”) is oriented toward the posterior. Both cortical flow and cytoplasmic flow depend on non-muscle-myosin II (NMY-2), which primarily localizes in the cortex. The manner in which NMY-2 proteins drive cytoplasmic flow in the opposite direction from remote locations has not been fully understood. In this study, we demonstrated that the hydrodynamic properties of the cytoplasm are sufficient to mediate the forces generated by the cortical myosin to drive bidirectional streaming throughout the cytoplasm. We quantified the flow velocities of cytoplasmic streaming using particle image velocimetry (PIV) and conducted a three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulation using the moving particle semiimplicit method. Our simulation quantitatively reconstructed the quantified flow velocity distribution resolved through PIV analysis. Furthermore, our PIV analyses detected microtubule-dependent flows during the pronuclear migration stage. These flows were reproduced via hydrodynamic interactions between moving pronuclei and the cytoplasm. The agreement of flow dynamics in vivo and in simulation indicates that the hydrodynamic properties of the cytoplasm are sufficient to mediate cytoplasmic streaming in C. elegans embryos. PMID:21730185

  14. Two thumbs and one index: A comparison of manual coordination in touch-typing and mobile-typing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cerni, Tania; Longcamp, Marieke; Job, Remo

    2016-06-01

    It has been extensively demonstrated that in touch-typing, manual alternation is performed faster than manual repetition (see i.e. Rumelhart & Norman, 1982), due to parallel activation of successive keystrokes. In this experiment, we tested whether the manual coordination patterns typical of touch-typing can be observed in mobile-typing. We recruited skilled touch-typists and divided them into two groups depending on their typing habits on the mobile device. The "one-hand" group typed with one index finger on the mobile, and therefore produced words exclusively through manual repetition. The "two-hands" group used two thumbs, and therefore produced words through a combination of mobile-typing repetitions and alternations. The two groups were tested in a typing to dictation task with both a standard keyboard and a mobile keyboard. Results showed that manual alternation and manual repetition patterns are similar in touch-typing and in mobile-typing. For the "two-hands" group, the mean interkeystroke intervals (IKIs) for touch-typing decreased as manual alterations in words increased in both touch- and mobile-typing. The "one-hand" group showed an opposite pattern in mobile-typing. Bigram frequency was correlated with IKIs per bigrams in both tasks and groups, but the correlation for the "one-hand" group in mobile-typing was different. Our results suggest that manual coordination processes are the same in touch-typing and in mobile-typing despite different effectors, provided that both hands are used to type. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. Physiological Effects of Touching Coated Wood

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harumi Ikei

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available This study examined the physiological effects of touching wood with various coating with the palm of the hand on brain activity and autonomic nervous activity. Participants were 18 female university students (mean age, 21.7 ± 1.6 years. As an indicator of brain activity, oxyhemoglobin concentrations were measured in the left and right prefrontal cortices using near-infrared time-resolved spectroscopy. Heart rate variability (HRV and heart rate were used as indicators of autonomic nervous activity. The high-frequency (HF component of HRV, which reflects parasympathetic nervous activity, and the low-frequency (LF/HF ratio, which reflects sympathetic nervous activity, were measured. Plates of uncoated, oil-finished, vitreous-finished, urethane-finished, and mirror-finished white oak wood were used as tactile stimuli. After sitting at rest with their eyes closed for 60 s, participants touched the stimuli with their palm for 90 s each. The results indicated that tactile stimulation with uncoated wood calmed prefrontal cortex activity (vs. urethane finish and mirror finish, increased parasympathetic nervous activity (vs. vitreous finish, urethane finish, and mirror finish, and decreased heart rate (vs. mirror finish, demonstrating a physiological relaxation effect. Further, tactile stimulation with oil- and vitreous-finished wood calmed left prefrontal cortex activity and decreased heart rate relative to mirror-finished wood.

  16. Physiological Effects of Touching Coated Wood.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ikei, Harumi; Song, Chorong; Miyazaki, Yoshifumi

    2017-07-13

    This study examined the physiological effects of touching wood with various coating with the palm of the hand on brain activity and autonomic nervous activity. Participants were 18 female university students (mean age, 21.7 ± 1.6 years). As an indicator of brain activity, oxyhemoglobin concentrations were measured in the left and right prefrontal cortices using near-infrared time-resolved spectroscopy. Heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate were used as indicators of autonomic nervous activity. The high-frequency (HF) component of HRV, which reflects parasympathetic nervous activity, and the low-frequency (LF)/HF ratio, which reflects sympathetic nervous activity, were measured. Plates of uncoated, oil-finished, vitreous-finished, urethane-finished, and mirror-finished white oak wood were used as tactile stimuli. After sitting at rest with their eyes closed for 60 s, participants touched the stimuli with their palm for 90 s each. The results indicated that tactile stimulation with uncoated wood calmed prefrontal cortex activity (vs. urethane finish and mirror finish), increased parasympathetic nervous activity (vs. vitreous finish, urethane finish, and mirror finish), and decreased heart rate (vs. mirror finish), demonstrating a physiological relaxation effect. Further, tactile stimulation with oil- and vitreous-finished wood calmed left prefrontal cortex activity and decreased heart rate relative to mirror-finished wood.

  17. Hydrodynamic disperser

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bulatov, A.I.; Chernov, V.S.; Prokopov, L.I.; Proselkov, Yu.M.; Tikhonov, Yu.P.

    1980-01-15

    A hydrodynamic disperser is suggested which contains a housing, slit nozzles installed on a circular base arranged opposite from each other, resonators secured opposite the nozzle and outlet sleeve. In order to improve the effectiveness of dispersion by throttling the flow, each resonator is made in the form of a crimped plate with crimpings that decrease in height in a direction towards the nozzle.

  18. Gaseous laser targets and optical diagnostics for studying compressible hydrodynamic instabilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Edwards, J M; Robey, H; Mackinnon, A

    2001-01-01

    Explore the combination of optical diagnostics and gaseous targets to obtain important information about compressible turbulent flows that cannot be derived from traditional laser experiments for the purposes of V and V of hydrodynamics models and understanding scaling. First year objectives: Develop and characterize blast wave-gas jet test bed; Perform single pulse shadowgraphy of blast wave interaction with turbulent gas jet as a function of blast wave Mach number; Explore double pulse shadowgraphy and image correlation for extracting velocity spectra in the shock-turbulent flow interaction; and Explore the use/adaptation of advanced diagnostics

  19. Hydrodynamic Limit of Multiple SLE

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hotta, Ikkei; Katori, Makoto

    2018-04-01

    Recently del Monaco and Schleißinger addressed an interesting problem whether one can take the limit of multiple Schramm-Loewner evolution (SLE) as the number of slits N goes to infinity. When the N slits grow from points on the real line R in a simultaneous way and go to infinity within the upper half plane H, an ordinary differential equation describing time evolution of the conformal map g_t(z) was derived in the N → ∞ limit, which is coupled with a complex Burgers equation in the inviscid limit. It is well known that the complex Burgers equation governs the hydrodynamic limit of the Dyson model defined on R studied in random matrix theory, and when all particles start from the origin, the solution of this Burgers equation is given by the Stieltjes transformation of the measure which follows a time-dependent version of Wigner's semicircle law. In the present paper, first we study the hydrodynamic limit of the multiple SLE in the case that all slits start from the origin. We show that the time-dependent version of Wigner's semicircle law determines the time evolution of the SLE hull, K_t \\subset H\\cup R, in this hydrodynamic limit. Next we consider the situation such that a half number of the slits start from a>0 and another half of slits start from -a exact solutions, we will discuss the universal long-term behavior of the multiple SLE and its hull K_t in the hydrodynamic limit.

  20. Modeling and design of radiative hydrodynamic experiments with X-ray Thomson Scattering measurements on NIF

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, K. H.; Lefevre, H. J.; Belancourt, P. X.; MacDonald, M. J.; Doeppner, T.; Keiter, P. A.; Kuranz, C. C.; Johnsen, E.

    2017-10-01

    Recent experiments at the National Ignition Facility studied the effect of radiation on shock-driven hydrodynamic instability growth. X-ray radiography images from these experiments indicate that perturbation growth is lower in highly radiative shocks compared to shocks with negligible radiation flux. The reduction in instability growth is attributed to ablation from higher temperatures in the foam for highly radiative shocks. The proposed design implements the X-ray Thomson Scattering (XRTS) technique in the radiative shock tube platform to measure electron temperatures and densities in the shocked foam. We model these experiments with CRASH, an Eulerian radiation hydrodynamics code with block-adaptive mesh refinement, multi-group radiation transport and electron heat conduction. Simulations are presented with SiO2 and carbon foams for both the high temperature, radiative shock and the low-temperature, hydrodynamic shock cases. Calculations from CRASH give estimations for shock speed, electron temperature, effective ionization, and other quantities necessary for designing the XRTS diagnostic measurement. This work is funded by the LLNL under subcontract B614207, and was performed under the auspices of the U.S. DOE by LLNL under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344.

  1. Application of Hydrodynamic Cavitation for Food and Bioprocessing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gogate, Parag R.

    Hydrodynamic cavitation can be simply generated by the alterations in the flow field in high speed/high pressure devices and also by passage of the liquid through a constriction such as orifice plate, venturi, or throttling valve. Hydrodynamic cavitation results in the formation of local hot spots, release of highly reactive free radicals, and enhanced mass transfer rates due to turbulence generated as a result of liquid circulation currents. These conditions can be suitably applied for intensification of different bioprocessing applications in an energy-efficient manner as compared to conventionally used ultrasound-based reactors. The current chapter aims at highlighting different aspects related to hydrodynamic cavitation, including the theoretical aspects for optimization of operating parameters, reactor designs, and overview of applications relevant to food and bioprocessing. Some case studies highlighting the comparison of hydrodynamic cavitation and acoustic cavitation reactors will also be discussed.

  2. Mobile touch: NFC-like interaction with yesterday's phones

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Klos, V.; Deventer, M.O. van; Staalduinen, M. van; Hartog, F.T.H. den

    2009-01-01

    Near Field Communication (NFC) enables fast interactive mobile services as it allows two mobile devices to quickly and securely exchange information when they are within touching range. However, NFC-enabled phones are virtually absent on the market today, which impedes the break-through of these

  3. Annual Report: Hydrodynamics and Radiative Hydrodynamics with Astrophysical Applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    R. Paul Drake

    2005-12-01

    We report the ongoing work of our group in hydrodynamics and radiative hydrodynamics with astrophysical applications. During the period of the existing grant, we have carried out two types of experiments at the Omega laser. One set of experiments has studied radiatively collapsing shocks, obtaining high-quality scaling data using a backlit pinhole and obtaining the first (ever, anywhere) Thomson-scattering data from a radiative shock. Other experiments have studied the deeply nonlinear development of the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability from complex initial conditions, obtaining the first (ever, anywhere) dual-axis radiographic data using backlit pinholes and ungated detectors. All these experiments have applications to astrophysics, discussed in the corresponding papers either in print or in preparation. We also have obtained preliminary radiographs of experimental targets using our x-ray source. The targets for the experiments have been assembled at Michigan, where we also prepare many of the simple components. The above activities, in addition to a variety of data analysis and design projects, provide good experience for graduate and undergraduates students. In the process of doing this research we have built a research group that uses such work to train junior scientists.

  4. Experimental study of oscillating plates in viscous fluids: Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the flow physics and hydrodynamic forces

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shrestha, Bishwash; Ahsan, Syed N.; Aureli, Matteo

    2018-01-01

    In this paper, we present a comprehensive experimental study on harmonic oscillations of a submerged rigid plate in a quiescent, incompressible, Newtonian, viscous fluid. The fluid-structure interaction problem is analyzed from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives via a detailed particle image velocimetry (PIV) experimental campaign conducted over a broad range of oscillation frequency and amplitude parameters. Our primary goal is to identify the effect of the oscillation characteristics on the mechanisms of fluid-structure interaction and on the dynamics of vortex shedding and convection and to elucidate the behavior of hydrodynamic forces on the oscillating structure. Towards this goal, we study the flow in terms of qualitative aspects of its pathlines, vortex shedding, and symmetry breaking phenomena and identify distinct hydrodynamic regimes in the vicinity of the oscillating structure. Based on these experimental observations, we produce a novel phase diagram detailing the occurrence of distinct hydrodynamic regimes as a function of relevant governing nondimensional parameters. We further study the hydrodynamic forces associated with each regime using both PIV and direct force measurement via a load cell. Our quantitative results on experimental estimation of hydrodynamic forces show good agreement against predictions from the literature, where numerical and semi-analytical models are available. The findings and observations in this work shed light on the relationship between flow physics, vortex shedding, and convection mechanisms and the hydrodynamic forces acting on a rigid oscillating plate and, as such, have relevance to various engineering applications, including energy harvesting devices, biomimetic robotic system, and micro-mechanical sensors and actuators.

  5. Model of Collective Fish Behavior with Hydrodynamic Interactions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Filella, Audrey; Nadal, François; Sire, Clément; Kanso, Eva; Eloy, Christophe

    2018-05-01

    Fish schooling is often modeled with self-propelled particles subject to phenomenological behavioral rules. Although fish are known to sense and exploit flow features, these models usually neglect hydrodynamics. Here, we propose a novel model that couples behavioral rules with far-field hydrodynamic interactions. We show that (1) a new "collective turning" phase emerges, (2) on average, individuals swim faster thanks to the fluid, and (3) the flow enhances behavioral noise. The results of this model suggest that hydrodynamic effects should be considered to fully understand the collective dynamics of fish.

  6. Anisotropic hydrodynamics: Motivation and methodology

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Strickland, Michael

    2014-06-15

    In this proceedings contribution I review recent progress in our understanding of the bulk dynamics of relativistic systems that possess potentially large local rest frame momentum-space anisotropies. In order to deal with these momentum-space anisotropies, a reorganization of relativistic viscous hydrodynamics can be made around an anisotropic background, and the resulting dynamical framework has been dubbed “anisotropic hydrodynamics”. I also discuss expectations for the degree of momentum-space anisotropy of the quark–gluon plasma generated in relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC from second-order viscous hydrodynamics, strong-coupling approaches, and weak-coupling approaches.

  7. Hydrodynamics of quark-gluon plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blaizot, J.P.

    1986-06-01

    This paper reviews some aspects of the hydrodynamics of quark-gluon plasmas. Various stages of ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions are described. Several estimates of the maximum energy density expected to be achieved in these collisions are compared. Discontinuities which may be induced in the hydrodynamic flow by a phase transition are described and a convenient numerical method designed to deal with such discontinuous flows is briefly presented. Finally, the correlations between particle transverse momenta and multiplicities are analyzed and one discusses to which extent these correlations could signal the occurrence of a phase transition in heavy ion collisions

  8. Hydrodynamic constants from cosmic censorship

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakamura, Shin

    2008-01-01

    We study a gravity dual of Bjorken flow of N=4 SYM-theory plasma. We point out that the cosmic censorship hypothesis may explain why the regularity of the dual geometry constrains the hydrodynamic constants. We also investigate the apparent horizon of the dual geometry. We find that the dual geometry constructed on Fefferman-Graham (FG) coordinates is not appropriate for examination of the apparent horizon since the coordinates do not cover the trapped region. However, the preliminary analysis on FG coordinates suggests that the location of the apparent horizon is very sensitive to the hydrodynamic parameters. (author)

  9. Looking and touching: what extant approaches reveal about the structure of early word knowledge.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hendrickson, Kristi; Mitsven, Samantha; Poulin-Dubois, Diane; Zesiger, Pascal; Friend, Margaret

    2015-09-01

    The goal of the current study is to assess the temporal dynamics of vision and action to evaluate the underlying word representations that guide infants' responses. Sixteen-month-old infants participated in a two-alternative forced-choice word-picture matching task. We conducted a moment-by-moment analysis of looking and reaching behaviors as they occurred in tandem to assess the speed with which a prompted word was processed (visual reaction time) as a function of the type of haptic response: Target, Distractor, or No Touch. Visual reaction times (visual RTs) were significantly slower during No Touches compared to Distractor and Target Touches, which were statistically indistinguishable. The finding that visual RTs were significantly faster during Distractor Touches compared to No Touches suggests that incorrect and absent haptic responses appear to index distinct knowledge states: incorrect responses are associated with partial knowledge whereas absent responses appear to reflect a true failure to map lexical items to their target referents. Further, we found that those children who were faster at processing words were also those children who exhibited better haptic performance. This research provides a methodological clarification on knowledge measured by the visual and haptic modalities and new evidence for a continuum of word knowledge in the second year of life. © 2014 The Authors Developmental Science Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  10. Seeing is not feeling: posterior parietal but not somatosensory cortex engagement during touch observation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Annie W-Y; Baker, Chris I

    2015-01-28

    Observing touch has been reported to elicit activation in human primary and secondary somatosensory cortices and is suggested to underlie our ability to interpret other's behavior and potentially empathy. However, despite these reports, there are a large number of inconsistencies in terms of the precise topography of activation, the extent of hemispheric lateralization, and what aspects of the stimulus are necessary to drive responses. To address these issues, we investigated the localization and functional properties of regions responsive to observed touch in a large group of participants (n = 40). Surprisingly, even with a lenient contrast of hand brushing versus brushing alone, we did not find any selective activation for observed touch in the hand regions of somatosensory cortex but rather in superior and inferior portions of neighboring posterior parietal cortex, predominantly in the left hemisphere. These regions in the posterior parietal cortex required the presence of both brush and hand to elicit strong responses and showed some selectivity for the form of the object or agent of touch. Furthermore, the inferior parietal region showed nonspecific tactile and motor responses, suggesting some similarity to area PFG in the monkey. Collectively, our findings challenge the automatic engagement of somatosensory cortex when observing touch, suggest mislocalization in previous studies, and instead highlight the role of posterior parietal cortex. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/351468-13$15.00/0.

  11. Facilitating mathematics learning for students with upper extremity disabilities using touch-input system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Kup-Sze; Chan, Tak-Yin

    2015-03-01

    To investigate the feasibility of using tablet device as user interface for students with upper extremity disabilities to input mathematics efficiently into computer. A touch-input system using tablet device as user interface was proposed to assist these students to write mathematics. User-switchable and context-specific keyboard layouts were designed to streamline the input process. The system could be integrated with conventional computer systems only with minor software setup. A two-week pre-post test study involving five participants was conducted to evaluate the performance of the system and collect user feedback. The mathematics input efficiency of the participants was found to improve during the experiment sessions. In particular, their performance in entering trigonometric expressions by using the touch-input system was significantly better than that by using conventional mathematics editing software with keyboard and mouse. The participants rated the touch-input system positively and were confident that they could operate at ease with more practice. The proposed touch-input system provides a convenient way for the students with hand impairment to write mathematics and has the potential to facilitate their mathematics learning. Implications for Rehabilitation Students with upper extremity disabilities often face barriers to learning mathematics which is largely based on handwriting. Conventional computer user interfaces are inefficient for them to input mathematics into computer. A touch-input system with context-specific and user-switchable keyboard layouts was designed to improve the efficiency of mathematics input. Experimental results and user feedback suggested that the system has the potential to facilitate mathematics learning for the students.

  12. Touch and Gesture-Based Language Learning: Some Possible Avenues for Research and Classroom Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reinders, Hayo

    2014-01-01

    Our interaction with digital resources is becoming increasingly based on touch, gestures, and now also eye movement. Many everyday consumer electronics products already include touch-based interfaces, from e-book readers to tablets, and from the last personal computers to the GPS system in your car. What implications do these new forms of…

  13. Effectiveness of the Touch Math Technique in Teaching Basic Addition to Children with Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yikmis, Ahmet

    2016-01-01

    This study aims to reveal whether the touch math technique is effective in teaching basic addition to children with autism. The dependent variable of this study is the children's skills to solve addition problems correctly, whereas teaching with the touch math technique is the independent variable. Among the single-subject research models, a…

  14. Developing Mixed Reality Educational Applications: The Virtual Touch Toolkit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mateu, Juan; Lasala, María José; Alamán, Xavier

    2015-08-31

    In this paper, we present Virtual Touch, a toolkit that allows the development of educational activities through a mixed reality environment such that, using various tangible elements, the interconnection of a virtual world with the real world is enabled. The main goal of Virtual Touch is to facilitate the installation, configuration and programming of different types of technologies, abstracting the creator of educational applications from the technical details involving the use of tangible interfaces and virtual worlds. Therefore, it is specially designed to enable teachers to themselves create educational activities for their students in a simple way, taking into account that teachers generally lack advanced knowledge in computer programming and electronics. The toolkit has been used to develop various educational applications that have been tested in two secondary education high schools in Spain.

  15. Developing Mixed Reality Educational Applications: The Virtual Touch Toolkit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mateu, Juan; Lasala, María José; Alamán, Xavier

    2015-01-01

    In this paper, we present Virtual Touch, a toolkit that allows the development of educational activities through a mixed reality environment such that, using various tangible elements, the interconnection of a virtual world with the real world is enabled. The main goal of Virtual Touch is to facilitate the installation, configuration and programming of different types of technologies, abstracting the creator of educational applications from the technical details involving the use of tangible interfaces and virtual worlds. Therefore, it is specially designed to enable teachers to themselves create educational activities for their students in a simple way, taking into account that teachers generally lack advanced knowledge in computer programming and electronics. The toolkit has been used to develop various educational applications that have been tested in two secondary education high schools in Spain. PMID:26334275

  16. [Effects of self-touching behavior on the performance of lexical retrieval].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujii, M

    1997-08-01

    In this study, effects of self-touching behavior on the performance of lexical retrieval were investigated. In Experiment 1, 52 women were required to retrieve Japanese idioms, and to recall them approximately 2 minutes after the retrieval. The participants were randomly assigned into two groups; in one group, they were tested with the restriction of their hand movement, whereas in the other group, they were allowed to move their hands freely. Results revealed that when the movement was restricted, their performance in the retrieval task was significantly deteriorated. In Experiment 2, after the presentation of tape-recorded verbal stimuli, 26 women were required to recall them either with an interval of 2 minutes or with an interval of 2 weeks. The self-touching behavior was found to occur more often when the recall was performed with the interval of 2 weeks than when it took place immediately after the stimulus presentation. Thus self-touching is considered to serve as a cue to retrieve information stored in the long term memory.

  17. A theoretical study of hydrodynamic cavitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arrojo, S; Benito, Y

    2008-03-01

    The optimization of hydrodynamic cavitation as an AOP requires identifying the key parameters and studying their effects on the process. Specific simulations of hydrodynamic bubbles reveal that time scales play a major role on the process. Rarefaction/compression periods generate a number of opposing effects which have demonstrated to be quantitatively different from those found in ultrasonic cavitation. Hydrodynamic cavitation can be upscaled and offers an energy efficient way of generating cavitation. On the other hand, the large characteristic time scales hinder bubble collapse and generate a low number of cavitation cycles per unit time. By controlling the pressure pulse through a flexible cavitation chamber design these limitations can be partially compensated. The chemical processes promoted by this technique are also different from those found in ultrasonic cavitation. Properties such as volatility or hydrophobicity determine the potential applicability of HC and therefore have to be taken into account.

  18. Stimulus-dependent modulation of visual neglect in a touch-screen cancellation task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keller, Ingo; Volkening, Katharina; Garbacenkaite, Ruta

    2015-05-01

    Patients with left-sided neglect frequently show omissions and repetitive behavior on cancellation tests. Using a touch-screen-based cancellation task, we tested how visual feedback and distracters influence the number of omissions and perseverations. Eighteen patients with left-sided visual neglect and 18 healthy controls performed four different cancellation tasks on an iPad touch screen: no feedback (the display did not change during the task), visual feedback (touched targets changed their color from black to green), visual feedback with distracters (20 distracters were evenly embedded in the display; detected targets changed their color from black to green), vanishing targets (touched targets disappeared from the screen). Except for the condition with vanishing targets, neglect patients had significantly more omissions and perseverations than healthy controls in the remaining three subtests. Both conditions providing feedback by changing the target color showed the highest number of omissions. Erasure of targets nearly diminished omissions completely. The highest rate of perseverations was observed in the no-feedback condition. The implementation of distracters led to a moderate number of perseverations. Visual feedback without distracters and vanishing targets abolished perseverations nearly completely. Visual feedback and the presence of distracters aggravated hemispatial neglect. This finding is compatible with impaired disengagement from the ipsilesional side as an important factor of visual neglect. Improvement of cancellation behavior with vanishing targets could have therapeutic implications. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  19. 'Not a job for a man': factors in the use of touch by male nursing staff.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whiteside, James; Butcher, Dan

    While the numbers of male nursing staff are growing in both the UK and the USA, there remains a significant imbalance both in terms of the total number and the specialities in which male staff choose to work. Management, education and technology-dominated roles, characterised as 'high-tech, low-touch' specialities attract disproportionately larger numbers of male nursing staff. The aim of this narrative literature review was to explore and critically review the factors that influence the perception and use of touch by male nursing staff in contemporary healthcare settings. A comprehensive review of the literature was undertaken using significant online databases focusing on evidence from peer-reviewed journals published in English. Key influential factors arising from 11 selected studies included male nurses' definitions of touch; fear of touch misinterpretation; coping strategies employed; the assessment of certain groups of patients; gender-derived stressors; the emotional experiences of male staff; and the limited consideration of these issues in the pre-registration nursing curriculum. A range of factors regarding touch impact on the way male nurses use touch when caring for patients. A lack of research-based education in the preparation of male students leads to the development of various protective strategies. There is a need for the particular challenges facing male students and staff to be explicitly addressed within undergraduate and post-qualifying education and training programmes.

  20. Touch Receptors Undergo Rapid Remodeling in Healthy Skin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kara L. Marshall

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Sensory tissues exposed to the environment, such as skin, olfactory epithelia, and taste buds, continuously renew; therefore, peripheral neurons must have mechanisms to maintain appropriate innervation patterns. Although somatosensory neurons regenerate after injury, little is known about how these neurons cope with normal target organ changes. To elucidate neuronal plasticity in healthy skin, we analyzed the structure of Merkel-cell afferents, which are gentle touch receptors, during skin remodeling that accompanies mouse hair-follicle regeneration. The number of Merkel cells is reduced by 90% and axonal arbors are simplified during active hair growth. These structures rebound within just days. Computational modeling predicts that Merkel-cell changes are probabilistic, but myelinated branch stability depends on Merkel-cell inputs. Electrophysiology and behavior demonstrate that tactile responsiveness is less reliable during active growth than in resting skin. These results reveal that somatosensory neurons display structural plasticity at the cost of impairment in the reliability of encoding gentle touch.

  1. Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Hydrodynamics and Stresses in the PhEur/USP Disintegration Tester Under Fed and Fasted Fluid Characteristics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kindgen, Sarah; Wachtel, Herbert; Abrahamsson, Bertil; Langguth, Peter

    2015-09-01

    Disintegration of oral solid dosage forms is a prerequisite for drug dissolution and absorption and is to a large extent dependent on the pressures and hydrodynamic conditions in the solution that the dosage form is exposed to. In this work, the hydrodynamics in the PhEur/USP disintegration tester were investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Particle image velocimetry was used to validate the CFD predictions. The CFD simulations were performed with different Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids, representing fasted and fed states. The results indicate that the current design and operating conditions of the disintegration test device, given by the pharmacopoeias, are not reproducing the in vivo situation. This holds true for the hydrodynamics in the disintegration tester that generates Reynolds numbers dissimilar to the reported in vivo situation. Also, when using homogenized US FDA meal, representing the fed state, too high viscosities and relative pressures are generated. The forces acting on the dosage form are too small for all fluids compared to the in vivo situation. The lack of peristaltic contractions, which generate hydrodynamics and shear stress in vivo, might be the major drawback of the compendial device resulting in the observed differences between predicted and in vivo measured hydrodynamics. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association.

  2. Unsteady hydrodynamic forces acting on a robotic hand and its flow field.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takagi, Hideki; Nakashima, Motomu; Ozaki, Takashi; Matsuuchi, Kazuo

    2013-07-26

    This study aims to clarify the mechanism of generating unsteady hydrodynamic forces acting on a hand during swimming in order to directly measure the forces, pressure distribution, and flow field around the hand by using a robotic arm and particle image velocimetry (PIV). The robotic arm consisted of the trunk, shoulder, upper arm, forearm, and hand, and it was independently computer controllable in five degrees of freedom. The elbow-joint angle of the robotic arm was fixed at 90°, and the arm was moved in semicircles around the shoulder joint in a plane perpendicular to the water surface. Two-component PIV was used for flow visualization around the hand. The data of the forces and pressure acting on the hand were sampled at 200Hz and stored on a PC. When the maximum resultant force acting on the hand was observed, a pair of counter-rotating vortices appeared on the dorsal surface of the hand. A vortex attached to the hand increased the flow velocity, which led to decreased surface pressure, increasing the hydrodynamic forces. This phenomenon is known as the unsteady mechanism of force generation. We found that the drag force was 72% greater and the lift force was 4.8 times greater than the values estimated under steady flow conditions. Therefore, it is presumable that swimmers receive the benefits of this unsteady hydrodynamic force. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Mechanical touch responses of Arabidopsis TCH1-3 mutant roots on inclined hard-agar surface

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zha, Guodong; Wang, Bochu; Liu, Junyu; Yan, Jie; Zhu, Liqing; Yang, Xingyan

    2016-01-01

    The gravity-induced mechanical touch stimulus can affect plant root architecture. Mechanical touch responses of plant roots are an important aspect of plant root growth and development. Previous studies have reported that Arabidopsis TCH1-3 genes are involved in mechano-related events, how-ever, the physiological functions of TCH1-3 genes in Arabidopsis root mechanoresponses remain unclear. In the present study, we applied an inclined hard agar plate method to produce mechanical touch stimulus, and provided evidence that altered mechanical environment could influence root growth. Furthermore, tch1-3 Arabidopsis mutants were investigated on inclined agar surfaces to explore the functions of TCH1-3 genes on Arabidopsis root mechanoresponses. The results showed that two tch2 mutants, cml24-2 and cml24-4, exhibited significantly reduced root length, biased skewing, and decreased density of lateral root. In addition, primary root length and density of lateral root of tch3 (cml12-2) was significantly decreased on inclined agar surfaces. This study indicates that the tch2 and tch3 mutants are hypersensitive to mechanical touch stimulus, and TCH2 (CML24-2 and CML24-4) and TCH3 (CML12-2) genes may participate in the mechanical touch response of Arabidopsis roots.

  4. Hydrodynamic suppression of phase separation in active suspensions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matas-Navarro, Ricard; Golestanian, Ramin; Liverpool, Tanniemola B; Fielding, Suzanne M

    2014-09-01

    We simulate with hydrodynamics a suspension of active disks squirming through a Newtonian fluid. We explore numerically the full range of squirmer area fractions from dilute to close packed and show that "motility induced phase separation," which was recently proposed to arise generically in active matter, and which has been seen in simulations of active Brownian disks, is strongly suppressed by hydrodynamic interactions. We give an argument for why this should be the case and support it with counterpart simulations of active Brownian disks in a parameter regime that provides a closer counterpart to hydrodynamic suspensions than in previous studies.

  5. Dynamic structurization in solutions of hydrodynamically active polymers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pogrebnyak, V.G.; Tverdokhleb, S.V.; Naumchuk, N.V.

    1993-01-01

    The processes of ordering and self-regulation in nonlinear systems have attracted great attention because understanding the principles of self-regulation and its thermodynamics can become a clue to many physical phenomena. In this work, it is experimentally established that, under the condition of elongational flows, dynamic structurization and periodic processes may originate in the solutions of flexible, hydrodynamically-active polymers due to self-regulation in these systems. The hydrodynamic elongational field was created using the flow of a Newtonian liquid (water, acetone, dioxane) converging to a small opening. The hydrodynamically-active polymers were polyethylene oxide or hydrolyzed polyacrylamide

  6. arXiv On higher order and anisotropic hydrodynamics for Bjorken and Gubser flows

    CERN Document Server

    Chattopadhyay, Chandrodoy; Pal, Subrata; Vujanovic, Gojko

    2018-06-15

    We study the evolution of hydrodynamic and nonhydrodynamic moments of the distribution function using anisotropic and third-order Chapman-Enskog hydrodynamics for systems undergoing Bjorken and Gubser flows. The hydrodynamic results are compared with the exact solution of the Boltzmann equation with a collision term in relaxation time approximation. While the evolution of the hydrodynamic moments of the distribution function (i.e., of the energy momentum tensor) can be described with high accuracy by both hydrodynamic approximation schemes, their description of the evolution of the entropy of the system is much less precise. We attribute this to large contributions from nonhydrodynamic modes coupling into the entropy evolution, which are not well captured by the hydrodynamic approximations. The differences between the exact solution and the hydrodynamic approximations are larger for the third-order Chapman-Enskog hydrodynamics than for anisotropic hydrodynamics, which effectively resums some of the dissipativ...

  7. First impressions and beyond: marketing your practice in touch points--Part I.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bisera, Cheryl

    2012-01-01

    Often medical administrators or providers call in a marketing expert when they feel the practice is lacking the growth they want. What's on their mind is usually how to bring in more patients, and they automatically look to external marketing strategies. However, one of the most important elements to successfully marketing a practice is making sure you haven't created a turnstile, where new patients are coming often but not returning or being converted into loyal, referring patients. When new patients are going as quickly as they are coming, you aren't building solid growth. Loyal, referring patients are powerful marketing assets-they are in the community speaking good of you and your practice from first-hand experience. You can create this atmosphere of loyal, referring patients by providing positive touch points that fulfill the needs of your patients. Touch points are the groundwork supporting other types of marketing. This article covers three important touch points that are crucial to a positive patient experience.

  8. Complement the touch information given by the smartphone's capacitive screens with the information received by the accelerometer and gyroscope

    OpenAIRE

    Joaquim José Silva Faria Oliveira

    2014-01-01

    Currently it only is possible to obtain information about a tap on the smartphone's screen using the touch sensor. The goal of this project is to complement the information given by the smartphones touch screen with information given by the accelerometer and gyroscope and this way to extend the smartphone's touch capabilities with data such as tap strength, smartphone's holding position while taping (if it is on the users hands or laying on a hard surface) or which finger the touch was perfor...

  9. Abnormal pressures as hydrodynamic phenomena

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neuzil, C.E.

    1995-01-01

    So-called abnormal pressures, subsurface fluid pressures significantly higher or lower than hydrostatic, have excited speculation about their origin since subsurface exploration first encountered them. Two distinct conceptual models for abnormal pressures have gained currency among earth scientists. The static model sees abnormal pressures generally as relict features preserved by a virtual absence of fluid flow over geologic time. The hydrodynamic model instead envisions abnormal pressures as phenomena in which flow usually plays an important role. This paper develops the theoretical framework for abnormal pressures as hydrodynamic phenomena, shows that it explains the manifold occurrences of abnormal pressures, and examines the implications of this approach. -from Author

  10. 78 FR 6835 - Certain Mobile Handset Devices and Related Touch Keyboard Software; Institution of Investigation

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-31

    ... INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION [Investigation No. 337-TA-864] Certain Mobile Handset Devices and... importation of certain mobile handset devices and related touch keyboard software by reason of infringement of... certain mobile handset devices and related touch keyboard software that infringe one or more of claims 36...

  11. Bend, stretch, and touch: Locating a finger on an actively deformed transparent sensor array.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarwar, Mirza Saquib; Dobashi, Yuta; Preston, Claire; Wyss, Justin K M; Mirabbasi, Shahriar; Madden, John David Wyndham

    2017-03-01

    The development of bendable, stretchable, and transparent touch sensors is an emerging technological goal in a variety of fields, including electronic skin, wearables, and flexible handheld devices. Although transparent tactile sensors based on metal mesh, carbon nanotubes, and silver nanowires demonstrate operation in bent configurations, we present a technology that extends the operation modes to the sensing of finger proximity including light touch during active bending and even stretching. This is accomplished using stretchable and ionically conductive hydrogel electrodes, which project electric field above the sensor to couple with and sense a finger. The polyacrylamide electrodes are embedded in silicone. These two widely available, low-cost, transparent materials are combined in a three-step manufacturing technique that is amenable to large-area fabrication. The approach is demonstrated using a proof-of-concept 4 × 4 cross-grid sensor array with a 5-mm pitch. The approach of a finger hovering a few centimeters above the array is readily detectable. Light touch produces a localized decrease in capacitance of 15%. The movement of a finger can be followed across the array, and the location of multiple fingers can be detected. Touch is detectable during bending and stretch, an important feature of any wearable device. The capacitive sensor design can be made more or less sensitive to bending by shifting it relative to the neutral axis. Ultimately, the approach is adaptable to the detection of proximity, touch, pressure, and even the conformation of the sensor surface.

  12. Neuromorphic circuits impart a sense of touch

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartolozzi, Chiara

    2018-06-01

    The sense of touch is the ability to perceive consistency, texture, and shape of objects that we manipulate, and the forces we exchange with them. Touch is a source of information that we effortlessly decode to smoothly and naturally grasp and manipulate objects, maintain our posture while walking, or avoid stumbling into obstacles, allowing us to plan, adapt, and correct actions in an ever-changing external world. As such, artificial devices, such as robots or prostheses, that aim to accomplish similar tasks must possess artificial tactile-sensing systems. On page 998 of this issue, Kim et al. (1) report on a “neuromorphic” tactile sensory system based on organic, flexible, electronic circuits that can measure the force applied on the sensing regions. The encoding of the signal is similar to that used by human nerves that are sensitive to tactile stimuli (mechanoreceptors), so the device outputs can substitute for them and communicate with other nerves (e.g., residual nerve fibers of amputees or motor neurons). The proposed system exploits organic electronics that allow for three-dimensional printing of flexible structures that conform to large curved surfaces, as required for placing sensors on robots (2) and prostheses.

  13. Developing Mixed Reality Educational Applications: The Virtual Touch Toolkit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan Mateu

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we present Virtual Touch, a toolkit that allows the development of educational activities through a mixed reality environment such that, using various tangible elements, the interconnection of a virtual world with the real world is enabled. The main goal of Virtual Touch is to facilitate the installation, configuration and programming of different types of technologies, abstracting the creator of educational applications from the technical details involving the use of tangible interfaces and virtual worlds. Therefore, it is specially designed to enable teachers to themselves create educational activities for their students in a simple way, taking into account that teachers generally lack advanced knowledge in computer programming and electronics. The toolkit has been used to develop various educational applications that have been tested in two secondary education high schools in Spain.

  14. Vision holds a greater share in visuo-haptic object recognition than touch

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kassuba, Tanja; Klinge, Corinna; Hölig, Cordula

    2013-01-01

    approach of multisensory integration would predict that haptics as the less efficient sense for object recognition gains more from integrating additional visual information than vice versa. To test for asymmetries between vision and touch in visuo-haptic interactions, we measured regional changes in brain...... processed the target object, being more pronounced for haptic than visual targets. This preferential response of visuo-haptic regions indicates a modality-specific asymmetry in crossmodal matching of visual and haptic object features, suggesting a functional primacy of vision over touch in visuo...

  15. Atmospheric pressure plasma jets interacting with liquid covered tissue: touching and not-touching the liquid

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Norberg, Seth A; Johnsen, Eric; Tian, Wei; Kushner, Mark J

    2014-01-01

    In the use of atmospheric pressure plasma jets in biological applications, the plasma-produced charged and neutral species in the plume of the jet often interact with a thin layer of liquid covering the tissue being treated. The plasma-produced reactivity must then penetrate through the liquid layer to reach the tissue. In this computational investigation, a plasma jet created by a single discharge pulse at three different voltages was directed onto a 200 µm water layer covering tissue followed by a 10 s afterglow. The magnitude of the voltage and its pulse length determined if the ionization wave producing the plasma plume reached the surface of the liquid. When the ionization wave touches the surface, significantly more charged species were created in the water layer with H 3 O + aq , O 3 − aq , and O 2 − aq being the dominant terminal species. More aqueous OH aq , H 2 O 2aq , and O 3aq were also formed when the plasma plume touches the surface. The single pulse examined here corresponds to a low repetition rate plasma jet where reactive species would be blown out of the volume between pulses and there is not recirculation of flow or turbulence. For these conditions, N x O y species do not accumulate in the volume. As a result, aqueous nitrites, nitrates, and peroxynitrite, and the HNO 3aq and HOONO aq , which trace their origin to solvated N x O y , have low densities. (paper)

  16. A Cascade of Wnt, Eda, and Shh Signaling Is Essential for Touch Dome Merkel Cell Development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiao, Ying; Thoresen, Daniel T; Miao, Lingling; Williams, Jonathan S; Wang, Chaochen; Atit, Radhika P; Wong, Sunny Y; Brownell, Isaac

    2016-07-01

    The Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling pathway regulates developmental, homeostatic, and repair processes throughout the body. In the skin, touch domes develop in tandem with primary hair follicles and contain sensory Merkel cells. The developmental signaling requirements for touch dome specification are largely unknown. We found dermal Wnt signaling and subsequent epidermal Eda/Edar signaling promoted Merkel cell morphogenesis by inducing Shh expression in early follicles. Lineage-specific gene deletions revealed intraepithelial Shh signaling was necessary for Merkel cell specification. Additionally, a Shh signaling agonist was sufficient to rescue Merkel cell differentiation in Edar-deficient skin. Moreover, Merkel cells formed in Fgf20 mutant skin where primary hair formation was defective but Shh production was preserved. Although developmentally associated with hair follicles, fate mapping demonstrated Merkel cells primarily originated outside the hair follicle lineage. These findings suggest that touch dome development requires Wnt-dependent mesenchymal signals to establish reciprocal signaling within the developing ectoderm, including Eda signaling to primary hair placodes and ultimately Shh signaling from primary follicles to extrafollicular Merkel cell progenitors. Shh signaling often demonstrates pleiotropic effects within a structure over time. In postnatal skin, Shh is known to regulate the self-renewal, but not the differentiation, of touch dome stem cells. Our findings relate the varied effects of Shh in the touch dome to the ligand source, with locally produced Shh acting as a morphogen essential for lineage specification during development and neural Shh regulating postnatal touch dome stem cell maintenance.

  17. A Cascade of Wnt, Eda, and Shh Signaling Is Essential for Touch Dome Merkel Cell Development.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ying Xiao

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The Sonic hedgehog (Shh signaling pathway regulates developmental, homeostatic, and repair processes throughout the body. In the skin, touch domes develop in tandem with primary hair follicles and contain sensory Merkel cells. The developmental signaling requirements for touch dome specification are largely unknown. We found dermal Wnt signaling and subsequent epidermal Eda/Edar signaling promoted Merkel cell morphogenesis by inducing Shh expression in early follicles. Lineage-specific gene deletions revealed intraepithelial Shh signaling was necessary for Merkel cell specification. Additionally, a Shh signaling agonist was sufficient to rescue Merkel cell differentiation in Edar-deficient skin. Moreover, Merkel cells formed in Fgf20 mutant skin where primary hair formation was defective but Shh production was preserved. Although developmentally associated with hair follicles, fate mapping demonstrated Merkel cells primarily originated outside the hair follicle lineage. These findings suggest that touch dome development requires Wnt-dependent mesenchymal signals to establish reciprocal signaling within the developing ectoderm, including Eda signaling to primary hair placodes and ultimately Shh signaling from primary follicles to extrafollicular Merkel cell progenitors. Shh signaling often demonstrates pleiotropic effects within a structure over time. In postnatal skin, Shh is known to regulate the self-renewal, but not the differentiation, of touch dome stem cells. Our findings relate the varied effects of Shh in the touch dome to the ligand source, with locally produced Shh acting as a morphogen essential for lineage specification during development and neural Shh regulating postnatal touch dome stem cell maintenance.

  18. An overview of relativistic hydrodynamics as applied to heavy ion reactions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Strottman, D.D.

    1989-01-01

    The application of relativistic hydrodynamics as applied to heavy ions is reviewed. Constraints on the nuclear equation of state, as well as the form of the hydrodynamic equations imposed by causality are discussed. Successes (flow, side-splash, scaling) and shortcomings of one-fluid hydrodynamics are reviewed. Models for pion production within hydrodynamics and reasons for disagreement with experiment are assessed. Finally, the motivations for and the implementations of multi-fluid models are presented. 74 refs., 11 figs

  19. Hydrodynamics of ponderomotive interactions in a collisionless plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kono, M.; Skoric, M.M.; ter Haar, D.

    1987-01-01

    A hydrodynamic treatment of ponderomotive interactions in a collisionless plasma is presented and it is shown that consistent hydrodynamics leads to the correct expression for the solenoidal ponderomotive electron current density, a result previously thought to be derivable only in the framework of the warm-plasma kinetic theory

  20. Hydrodynamic Simulations of Kepler's Supernova Remnant

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sullivan, Jessica; Blondin, John; Borkowski, Kazik; Reynolds, Stephen

    2018-01-01

    Kepler’s supernova remnant contains unusual features that strongly suggest an origin in a single-degenerate Type Ia explosion, including anisotropic circumstellar medium (CSM), a strong brightness gradient, and spatially varying expansion proper motions. We present 3Dhydrodynamic simulations to test a picture in which Kepler's progenitor binary emitted a strong asymmetric wind, densest in the orbital plane, while the system moved at high velocity through the ISM. We simulate the creation of the presupernova environment as well as the supernova blast wave, using the VH-1 grid-based hydrodynamics code. We first modeled an anisotropic wind to create an asymmetric bowshock around the progenitor, then the blast wave from thesupernova. The final simulation places both previous model pieces onto a single grid and allows the blast wave to expand into the bowshock. Models were completed on a Yin-Yang grids with matching angular resolutions. By manipulating parameters that control the asymmetry of the system, we attempted to find conditions that recreated the current state of Kepler. We analyzed these models by comparing images of Kepler from the Chandra X-ray Observatory to line-of-sight projections from the model results. We also present comparisons of simulated expansion velocities with recent observations of X-ray proper motions from Chandra images. We were able to produce models that contained similar features to those seen in Kepler. We find the greatest resemblance to Kepler images with a presupernova wind with an equator-to-pole density contrast of 3 and a moderately disk-like CSM at a 5° angle between equatorial plane and system motion.