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Myoelectric Robotic Hand to Play Guitar
Get PDFAround 5.6 million people in the US have had an amputation or were born with limb difference. Some of these people find prostheses to be useful devices that allow them to perform desired activities that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to carry out. One form of prosthetic that, as far as I have found, has not been developed, is one for fretting chords on a guitar. Such a prosthetic would require multiple degrees of freedom for each finger, fine motor control, as well as quick actuation and signal interpretation. Most general purpose robotic prostheses today are either far too expensive, medically invasive, otherwise inaccessible, or unsuited for this task. The goal of this project was to design a low-cost, noninvasive robotic hand able to play chords on the guitar, and could be adapted into a terminal device of a robotic prosthesis. The robotic hand was constructed, as well as software for controlling the device, and it was able to play chords on the guitar on command. Due to time constraints, the system for biological control of the hand was only partially completed. The finalization of this aspect of the project is a focus for future work
Flavors of Change: Redefining Meat, Masculinity, and Mongolian
Get PDFThere is a saying among Mongolians that Mongolia was built on the four hoofs of livestock. Following this sentiment, Mongolians take pride in being raised on meat and milk. My thesis explores the multifaceted role of meat in Mongolia, tracing its significance at the intersection of social connections, gender dynamics, and national identity against the backdrop of rapid socio-economic transformations over the past century.
In my research project, I followed a thread of changes that Mongolians have come to accept as their everyday reality. The past 100 years have been characterized by a widespread shift from a nomadic to a sedentary urban way of life. Mongolia, as a nation, has gone through a massive transition to a market economy in the past three decades, after being a satellite to the USSR for nearly 70 years. This study aims to examine the contemporary role of meat in shaping national identity and the expression of masculinity among men from different age groups and backgrounds. By conducting interviews with five men from rural and urban backgrounds, as well as one herder woman, I uncover how post-socialist urbanization has removed many men from the very core of performing their masculinity - nomadic lifestyle and nomadic meat consumption.
A key dimension of this study revolves around a comprehensive analysis of the changing paradigms of meat and masculinity in Mongolia, weaving historical legacies with contemporary socio-cultural shifts. Through a multifaceted methodology, I aim to shed light on the intricate interplay between meat, identity, and gender within the nation\u27s evolving landscape
La négociation de l’altérité aux marges : l’agentivité des aventuriers dans \u3cem\u3eLes Sauteurs et The Land Between\u3c/em\u3e
No full textFrom Crisis to Care: Non-Profit Approaches to Homelessness and Mental Health in Philadelphia Throughout COVID-19
Get PDFIn this study, I explore the intersection of homelessness and mental health in Philadelphia through the lens of three non-profit organizations dedicated to addressing these challenges. Central questions guiding this research include: “How do these organizations understand and integrate mental health considerations into their missions and services? How did the Covid-19 pandemic impact their services?” My methodology involves analyzing data from the City of Philadelphia\u27s Office of Homeless Services to understand homelessness trends, while also examining non-profit organizations\u27 responses to COVID-19 challenges. This includes assessing mission alignment, financial management, and service provision through mission statement analysis, financial allocation, and comparing service provision with funding. Limitations acknowledged include incomplete data from organizations and the inability to directly engage with service recipients due to time constraints. I discovered that the efforts undertaken by these organizations are indeed making a difference, yet there is still considerable work to be done. This includes placing a greater emphasis on adopting a housing-first approach, which has proven effective in assisting homeless individuals in securing and maintaining long-term housing while enhancing their capacity to access and utilize mental health treatments when necessary
“When Does Human Life Begin?” Teaching Human Embryology In The Context Of The American Abortion Debate
No full textThe Dobbs decision of the United States Supreme Court and the actions of several state legislatures have made it risky, if not outright dangerous, to teach factual material concerning human embryology. At some state universities, for instance, if a professor\u27s lecture is felt to teach or discuss abortion (as it might when teaching about tubal pregnancies, hydatidiform moles, or eneuploidy), that instructor risks imprisonment for up to 14 years (Gyori, 2023). Some states\u27 new censorship rules have thus caused professors to drop modules on abortion from numerous science and humanities courses. In most states, instructors can still teach about human embryonic development and not risk putting their careers or livelihoods in jeopardy. However, even in many of these institutions, students can bring a professor to a disciplinary hearing by claiming that the instructor failed to provide ample trigger warnings on such issues. This essay attempts to provide some strategies wherein human embryology and the ethical issues surrounding it might be taught and students may be given resources to counter unscientific falsehoods about fertilization and human development. This essay provides evidence for teaching the following propositions. Mis-information about human biology and medicine is rampant on the internet, and there are skills that can be taught to students that will help them determine which sites should trusted. This is a skill that needs to be taught as part of science courses
Yiddish Intelligibility Retention Across The Jewish Diaspora: A Comparison Between Argentina and The U.S.
Get PDFU.S. Ashkenazi Jews may call their grandma “bubbe” ([bʊbi]) in Yiddish, but in Argentina they usually call her “bobe” ([βoβe]). Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants brought Yiddish to the U.S. and Argentina, where the language was exposed to English and Spanish and Yiddish speakers lost touch with each other as they assimilated to different cultures far away from one another. This study attempts to answer whether English-Yiddish speakers can understand Yiddish words as produced by a Spanish-Yiddish speaker. U.S. participants completed a perception test, listening to a list of 20 words gathered from two Argentinian consultants and answering a series of questions on recognition, meaning of words, and phonetic differences. The study found that participants only recognized words 36.9% of the time, with Religious Hebrew-origin words and the word for “non-Jew” being the most recognizable. A detailed analysis of the words which were highly recognizable, moderately recognizable and those not recognized at all suggests that lexical and phonological differences are likely contributing to the loss in intelligibility
From Visual Data to Auditory Landscapes in ArcGIS Pro
Get PDFData visualization is a central component to understanding spatial information in ArcGIS Pro. However, visualization creates an accessibility issue for visually impaired users. While ArcGIS supports two screen readers, JAWS and Microsoft Narrator, their ability to convey spatial relationships is limited to reading textual summaries and textual pop ups of spatial data [1]. This Senior Design project explores using data sonification to map ArcGIS data to piano pitches to create an auditory model of visually displayed map data. This auditory model allowed users to find facts and discover geospatial data trends. Ensuring fair access to information is essential for an equitable and inclusive workforce, and this project represents a significant stride towards enhancing the accessibility of ArcGIS Pro for the visually impaired
Design & Implementation of a More Precise Competition Timer in Ware Pool
Get PDFThis project represents the culmination of an effort to redesign the timing system for competitive swim meets to record a swimmer’s precise time to the thousandth of a second, eclipsing the current standard competition precision tenfold. This required a redesign of the traditional swimming pool timing system to account for minute variations in the size of the pool and the length of the pool’s lanes. The scope of this project includes designing a system for obtaining precise measurement of the lengths along Swarthmore’s Ware Pool, the use of statistical analysis to determine the conformation of the pool’s lengths to NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association) standards, the selection of a detection method capable of recording one thousand measurements per second, and the implementation of this method in conjunction with a system capable of adjustments to account for the variation in pool/lane lengths and race distances. This project was implemented successfully, with results that indicate a precision three times greater than current timing systems, accounting for all possible sources of uncertainty or imprecision. Further suggested work includes the integration of this new system with pre-existing timing equipment at the pool and upgrading the camera system to obtain better resolution, data writing, and capture methods that were not possible with the given budget