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Companions, Virtual Butlers, Assistive Robots: Empirical and Theoretical Insights for Building Long-Term Social Relationships.
No full textRobots and agents are becoming increasingly prominent in everyday life, e.g. as companions, user interfaces to smart homes, household robots, or for lifestyle reassurance. In these roles, they have to interact with their users in a complex social world, and must build and maintain long-term relationships with them. A symposium at EMCSR 2010 dealt with theoretical and empirical research on long-term relationships of humans with humans, animals, and machines that show complex interactive behaviours, and with methodologies to create knowledge about interaction with companions, virtual butlers and assistive robots. This technical report brings together the five papers presented at this symposium
Representation and computation
No full textThis is an encyclopedia entry and does not include an abstract
Web GIS and Public Health
No full textBoth government and private sector organizations are seeking ways to maintain and improve the health of the public in the world to control the costs at the same time. For this aim internet and use of georeferenced public health information for Geographic Information System application is an important and exciting development for the nation’s Department of Health and Human Services and other health agencies. Technological progress towards public health geospatial data integration, analysis, and visualization of space-time events using the Web portends eventual robust use of Geographic Information System by public health and other sectors of the economy. Increasing Web resources from distributed spatial data portals and global geospatial libraries, and a growing suite of Web integration tools, will provide new opportunities to advance disease surveillance, control and prevention, and insure public access and community empowerment in public health decision making
Effect of Neem Oil on Sperm Mitochondrial Activity
No full textIt is a known fact that neem oil has some effect on motility of sperm. Motility of sperm depends on mitochondrial activity present in mid-piece of sperm. In the present study, the mitochondrial activity of sperm was evaluated after treating semen with the different quantities of neem oil. The mitochondrial activity was also evaluated after subjecting the semen samples for different incubation periods keeping the quantity of semen as well as that of neem oil same. Tests were done on thirty normozoospermic semen samples with motile score more than 75%. It was found that as the quantity of neem oil increases, the mitochondrial activity decreases significantly (P < 0.001). Similar results were found, when same quantity of neem oil was treated with same quantity of semen, but incubating for different time durations. The mitochondrial activity decreases significantly (P < 0.001) from one minute to twenty minutes. So, it indicates that as the contact period between neem oil and semen increases the mitochondrial activity decreases significantl
Evaluation of functioning of ICDS project areas under Indore and Ujjain divisions of the state of Madhya Pradesh
No full textBackground: Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is recognized worldwide as one of the most efficient community based programmes promoting early childhood care. Regular evaluations of the programme have been conducted to make it more effective and adequate for the beneficiaries. Objectives: To evaluate the functioning of the Anganwadi Centers under different project areas of Indore and Ujjain Divisions. Methods: Under the present evaluation system one ICDS project and five Anganwadi Centers under the project area (AWCs) were visited on a monthly basis and services provided reviewed. Findings reported are from nine project areas under Indore and Ujjain Divisions in the state of Madhya Pradesh from October 2008 – June 2009. Results: A total of 45 centers were evaluated. 29 centers were operating from rented buildings and storage facilities were lacking at 19 of the centers. Though the quality of food was acceptable to the beneficiaries shortage of food was a problem at the centers. Absence of Pre-School Education (PSE) and Nutrition and Health Education (NHED) Kits compromised PSE and NHED activities at the centers. Unavailability of medicine kits, lack of regular visits by the ANMs to the centers and absence of routine health check up of beneficiaries were other problems encountered under the project areas surveyed. Availability of a doctor under each project area was stated as a major need by the workers. Conclusion: Coordinated steps catering to different services provided at the centers are needed to optimize the functioning of the ICDS scheme
Knowledge, Atitude and Perception regarding National Health Programmes among villagers of Chauras, Tehri-Garhwal, Uttarakhand
No full textBackground and Objective: Since India became independent, several measures have been undertaken by the national government to improve the health of the people. Prominent among these measures are the national health programmes. The main objective of these National Health programmes are protection and promotion of national and individual health. The main objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and perception regarding various national health programmes among the villagers. Methods: It is a descriptive and observational study. The study subjects comprised 273 respondents belonging to 15 to 64 years age group. The collection tool used was a pre designed questionnaire, which was pre-tested. Results: 60% of respondents were adults, about 16 percent were educated up to primary level and more than 40% belonged to scheduled castes. Nearly 20% were aware about National AIDS Control Programme and 6.59% had clear knowledge about HIV/AIDS. Only 4.02% knew about the national vector borne disease control programme and 24% women clearly knew about exclusive breast feeding. Peripheral health workers were the most common source of information regarding these programmes. 64% of respondents opined that these national health programmes are good. Conclusion: Low level of knowledge was observed among the respondents regarding National Health Programmes
Nutritional Status and Morbidity among School going Adolescents in Wardha, a Peri-Urban area
No full textObjectives: To assess the nutritional status and morbidity among the school going adolescents in peri urban area Wardha. Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted in the year 2008. 116 children in the age group of 10 to 19 years studying in high school of peri urban area Wardha were examined. Nutritional status of the adolescents was assessed through weight for age (wasting) and height for age (stunting) according to WHO criteria. Data was entered and analyzed by using Epi Info 6.04 software package. Chi- square value was used for testing statistical significance. Results: Mean age of the adolescents was 13.16+ 1.99. 48.3% of the adolescents were found to be normal and 51.7% were underweight. Early adolescents were at highest risk of underweight significantly more 73.3% ( p < 0.05 ) as compared to late adolescents 26.7%. Overall 34.5% of the adolescents were stunted with boys suffering more 72.5% as compared to girls 27.5%. 28.45% of the school going adolescents had anaemia with girls suffering significantly more 38.89% (p < 0.05) as compared to boys 23.75%. 35.34% adolescents had dental caries. 13.79% adolescents were found to be suffering from refractive error. 7.76% adolescents had worm infestation. 6.9% adolescents had skin problems. 2.59% adolescents had tonsillitis and 2.59% had wax in the ear. Conclusion: The study shows the poor health and nutritional status among the adolescents. A periodical and regular health check-up with concerted efforts towards their nutrition along with focused health education will improve the health and nutritional status of these school going adolescents in peri urban area Wardha
Glutathione-S-Transferase and Thiol Stress in patients with acute renal failure
No full textIntroduction: Tubular damage is common finding in acute renal failure (ARF). Various etiologies have been put forth to explain the tubular damage in ARF, one important mechanism among them is oxidative damage to renal tubules. Several biomolecules including low-molecular weight peptides and enzymes in urine have been proposed as early markers of renal failure. Current study has been undertaken to study the thiol stress and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) levels in ARF patients. Method: 58 ARF patients and 55 healthy controls were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Serum thiols, GST, malanoldehyde (MDA) and urine thiols were determined by spectrophotometer based methods. Results: Serum thiols and urine thiols were significantly decreased (p<0.0001), and serum GST and MDA levels were significantly increased (p<0.0001) in ARF patients compared to healthy controls. Serum GST and MDA correlated positively in ARF cases (r2 = 0.6938, p<0.0001). Conclusion: There is significant thiol stress and increased lipid peroxidation in ARF patients which leads to tubular cell membrane damage and release of GST into blood stream and into urine. This may be possible mechanism for the increased presence of GST in urine (enzymuria) found in other studie
Empathische Reaktionen gegenüber einem Roboter
No full textEs ist bereits bekannt, dass Menschen soziale Reaktionen auf Computer und artifizielle Wesen wie virtuelle Agenten zeigen. Auch für die Mensch-Roboter-Interaktion konnten erste Studien zeigen, dass Menschen Verhalten zeigen, das man lediglich in der Mensch-Mensch-Kommunikation erwarten würde. Ob auch empathische Reaktionen gegenüber Robotern gezeigt werden, wurde bislang nicht untersucht. In einem 2x2 laborexperimentellen Design betrachteten die Probanden (N=40) zwei Filme, in denen ein Spielzeugroboter in Dinosaurierform entweder gequält oder gestreichelt wird (Treatmentfaktor 1, within subjects). Der einen Hälfte der Probanden wurde der Roboter vorab vorgestellt und 10 Minuten zum Kennenlernen überlassen, während der anderen Hälfte der Probanden der Roboter vollkommen fremd war (Treatment Faktor 2, between subjects). Nach jedem Video wurde das emotionale Befinden mit Hilfe der PANAS erhoben und die Probanden füllten am Ende einen Fragebogen zur Bewertung des Roboters aus. Nach der Rezeption des Videos, in dem der Roboter gequält wird, fühlten die Probanden sich signifikant schlechter (F(1/39)=26,946; p=.000). Die Bedingungsvariation der vorherigen Interaktion zeigte jedoch keinen Einfluss auf das emotionale Befinden nach der Rezeption des Videos oder die empfundene Empathie. Somit konnte gezeigt werden, dass eine negative Behandlung eines Roboters das eigene Empfinden beeinflusst, dass eine kurzzeitige Interaktion mit dem Roboter das Mitleiden aber nicht verstärkt
Octology
No full textThe manuscript describes a new sciencific discipline called Octology, which should unify morphogenetic linguistics and neurobiology to investigate the development of the words, cognition and behavior