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A Human-in-the-Loop Robot Grasping System with Grasp Quality Refinement
No full textThe goal of this dissertation is to develop a grasping system for assistive robots that can help people with disabilities and the elderly to perform tasks of daily living. In developing this robot grasping system, we maximize its reliability, accuracy, and autonomy. High reliability and accuracy are required for robots to perform tasks around human users and to safely interact with objects that might be fragile or have contents that could spill. High autonomy is desired as users with disabilities are usually not dexterous enough to directly operate the robot. In this dissertation, a human-in-the-loop (HitL) robot grasping system is developed using computer vision and deep learning-based grasp detection. A grasp pose refinement module was created to finetune the grasp poses before robot execution to increase the grasping system\u27s accuracy. A novel object movement-based grasp quality measure was developed to evaluate the grasp poses and provide indications for the grasp pose refinement. The grasping system includes the human user to supervise and provide corrections to increase reliability. While the default mode of the grasping system is highly automated, the user can directly control the robot in an assisted velocity control mode when the high autonomy mode fails. The scope of this work is object-oriented robot grasp planning, where we mainly use the object geometry features and the gripper-object contact properties to plan the object’s grasp pose. The main contributions of this dissertation are the grasp quality measure and the grasp pose refinement method. The secondary contributions include the development of a vision module, an initial grasp detection module, an assisted velocity control module, and a graphical user interface module. We tested the grasp quality measure with a real robot grasping experiment and a method comparison experiment. The results of the robot grasping experiment proved that the grasp quality scores calculated by the developed grasp quality measure closely match the real robot grasping results. The quality measure comparison experiment revealed that our grasp quality measure outperforms the state-of-the-art grasp quality measures in evaluating parallel-jaw gripper grasp poses when considering object movement. The HitL robot grasping system was tested by comparing its high autonomy mode with a state-of-the-art grasp detection network-based robot grasping system in real robot grasping. The results showed that our robot grasping system with the grasp refinement module works on a wider range of objects and could significantly improve the grasp success rate and reduce object movement compared to the grasp detection network-based robot grasping system
Standing Her Ground: Legal Constraints on Women Who have been Victims of Violence
No full textWomen who have been the victim of violence have always been at a disadvantage under the laws in the United States because these laws stem from a patriarchal, sexist, heteronormative, and racist ideology under which this country was founded. Self- defense laws have shown to be no different and serve as a constraint to women who attempt to protect themselves at the hands of an abuser. This dissertation focuses on women who have been the victim of violence at the hands of an abuser to show that the law is not doing an adequate job of protecting them. It accomplishes this in many ways. First, this Dissertation explores the existing literature to show that the inadequate justice women receive after being the victim of violence is not a new problem and it is, in fact, very well established. Second, a legal analysis is done to show that laws that protect men who defend themselves and those that protect women are not only separate, they are not equal and women are at an extreme disadvantage. Third, a case analysis is done to highlight Black women specifically and show that our system of justice uses many different tools to ensure these women do not receive justice, thereby creating an impossible system to overcome. Finally, interviews were conducted with key actors in the criminal justice system to highlight the ultimate finding that none of these processes work in a vacuum and without major change at every level of justice, these women will continue to be re-victimized by a system that should be working to protect them
Large area sintering test platform and associated method of use
No full textA large area sintering platform, system, and methodology. The system includes a convection oven with a projection window disposed within a top surface of the oven. A platform is disposed within the oven below the window at a spaced distance away from the window. A powder is positioned on top of the platform, with a thermocouple positioned within the powder on the platform. A high intensity projector moves in sync with the platform, and uses low intensities and long exposure times to project an image through the window onto the powder and sinter the powder to fabricate the desired model layer by layer
Evaluating children\u27s menus in theme park restaurants
No full textChildren who travel with their families eat in restaurants that usually offer special kid’s menus. The quality of those menus is often questioned and in the present context where children’s obesity and overweight are increasing, it is relevant to pay attention to the different environments where children eat. The present paper wants to analyse if specific restaurants menus in one of the most relevant theme park are healthy or unhealthy. Using a validated instrument to evaluate kids’ menu, restaurants in Disney Village (Disneyland Paris) are analysed. Results show that half of them are unhealthy and none of them are completely healthy. Future research can examine kid’s menus in other theme parks and inform how changes can be implemented on those menus to make them healthier and contribute to the children’s dietary habits development
An attempt to identify source areas of clastic deposits from selected caves of the Prokletije Mountains (Montenegro): a mineralogical and U-series geochemistry approach
No full textThe Prokletije Mountains/Albanian Alps are the highest part of the Dinaric Mountains. Paradoxically, these mountains and their cave areas remain among the most enigmatic in Europe, having only recently become subjects of scientific research and cave exploration. This paper focuses on the Kolata and Greben massifs, where the highest, and thus the oldest, cave systems are located. Through the analysis of heavy mineral composition, the apatite-tourmaline index, and cluster analysis for mineralogical composition and uranium isotopic data, it becomes possible to identify the source areas for the cave clastic deposits. It also allow to distinguish multiple paleoflow directions, each corresponding to different stages of cave development. The older paleoflow was probably from south to north, whereas the younger one is inferred to have flown from east to west. The change in the paleodirection of sediment transportation was probably caused by Neogene tectonic movements. In the later period, because of the subsequent uplift of the Prokletije Mts. and their fragmentation into individual massifs, the transport to the caves was local and related to deglaciations. The deposition of the speleothem from the oldest caves of the Prokletije Mts. took place in the periods c. 381 and 308 ka (MIS 11 and MIS 9), which suggests that these levels had already passed from the phreatic to the vadose stage. Considering the morphology of the caves studied, we believe that these caves may have begun to form at least in the Middle Pleistocene. There are two generations of younger speleothems first at 163 ± 4 ka (MIS 6) and second from 92 ± 2 to 39.4 ± 2 ka (Weichselian age)
Urban Disaster Wrought by Man: The Battle for Manila, 1945
No full textUrban warfare tends to be intimate. If soldiers do not see the faces of those they kill—and they frequently will—those men and women will hear the screams or muffled groans of the wounded. US forces waging the battle to recapture Manila in 1945 experienced these horrors. Yet it was the noncombatants who suffered far more; 100,000—approximately one of every ten Manileños at the time—died during the fighting. Thousands more suffered wounds, disease, or struggled with hunger and malnutrition. Recent fighting in Syria, Ukraine, Khartoum, and elsewhere tells us too little has changed three-quarters of a century later.
Though urban warfare is a special case of disaster, its lessons are relevant when floods, earthquakes, typhoons, or other forms of crisis strike a city. This article goes beyond confrontations between enemies and the resultant civilian suffering to identify the challenges inherent in preserving noncombatant life during and in the aftermath of these clashes. What is targeted will impact both immediate and longer-term recovery just as will decisions regarding how a force inflicts destruction. The lessons of 1945 have much to tell today’s and future leaders preparing for, responding to, and guiding recovery from combat and other forms of urban catastrophe
Evaluating Foot-drop Interventions for Multiple Sclerosis Using a Multimodal System
No full textThis dissertation explores how multimodal walking impacts quantitative and qualitative aspects of gait for persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) experiencing foot-drop. Foot-drop can dramatically impede mobility and clinicians routinely prescribe ankle-foot-orthosis (AFO) and functional electrical stimulation (FES) devices to alleviate its impacts on daily life. However, little is known about how these devices affect pwMS while traversing environments with real-world complexity. To explore this topic, an interventional, parallel assigned study was conducted. A realistic nature pathway containing changes in floor pitch, audiovisual stimulation, and during-trial tasks (for dual-tasking) was generated in an immersive virtual reality system called CAREN: Computer Assisted Rehabilitation ENvironment (Motek Medical, Netherlands). All participants wore a full-body set of 46 motion capture markers and had complete, passive control of their walking speeds. The primary outcome measures (OMs) of this study pertain to overall mobility and gait parameter symmetry. The secondary OMs are ratings of perceived exertion and confidence in walking ability. This study provides a normative cohort of thirteen participants aged 28 to 64 years; a case study of a pwMS, 58 years of age, who used two types of AFOs and an FES device; a cohort of three AFO-users aged 58 to 63 years, resulting in four AFO trials; a customized CAREN program that produces a realistic walking environment and collects full-body motion capture data; a detailed study protocol that can be modified for other populations, types of gait impediments, or types of interventions; anecdotal insights; and recommendations for future research
Bookends: Freemasonry in Russia, Past and Present
No full textThis thesis seeks to explore Russian Freemasonry in both the reign of Peter I and in theRussian Federation following the collapse of the Soviet Union, two periods where the relevant scholarship has largely fallen silent. The first chapter argues that early Masonic influences were both present at the court of Peter I and accepted by the Tsar. These intellectual trends, traceable in the libraries, social connections, and writings of individual Jacobites, would reemerge in the institutional Freemasonry in the reign of Catherine II. The printing and translation activities of Novikov and Lopukhin indicate a strong interest in these mystical ideas as well as a willingness to spread them among the Russian reading public. Thus, the esoteric ideas embraced by the Jacobites of the Petrine court reemerge in the nineteenth-century writings of Anna Labzina, whose entanglement with Freemasonry represented an intellectual adoption of the fraternity’s values even when she herself was barred from membership. The second chapter utilizes the extensive social media presence of the political technologist Andrey Bogdanov, the current Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Russia, as its primary source. Through a wide analysis of his travels, as well as a closer reading of his individual posts, it argues that Russian Freemasonry is used by Bogdanov to promote a pro-Kremlin worldview to an international audience while giving the Grand Master justification to increase his reach through global travel
Engaging in self-directed leisure activities during a homework-free holiday: Impacts on primary school children in Hong Kong
No full textHomework is a core pedagogical tool used by schools around the world. Yet concern for heavy homework load has been raised regarding stress on students and families and how it may overshadow opportunities for non-academic development. Drawing support from Self-Determination Theory and Hope Theory, an innovative intervention project was designed to create homework-free opportunities for school children to take part in freely chosen self-directed leisure activities. The project was implemented in four primary schools in Hong Kong during the Easter holiday in 2017 and 2018. A mixed-method evaluation was conducted to appraise the experiences of student participants as well as the project’s impact on holiday satisfaction, homework attitudes and self-directed outcomes. This study’s sample was comprised of 1,425 students enrolled in Primary levels 1 to 6. Participants reported in interviews that engagement in self-chosen, self-directed leisure activities were exciting and appealing. Pre- and post-holiday survey results with control-group comparisons confirmed that students who undertook self-directed leisure activities over a homework-free holiday gained enhanced agency thinking and academic competence while also becoming less inclined to see homework as meeting their immediate learning needs. Implications are also discussed regarding the benefits of self-directed leisure activities as well as school-based homework policies regarding assignment load
Improving global competence in classroom-based experiential learning activities
No full textThe purpose of this research was to develop learning activities to improve global competence for a classroom-based course in the field of clothing and textiles and explore how those activities affected the global competence of college students. To achieve this goal, the researchers proposed the following objectives: (a) develop learning activities on global competence and (b) explore the influences of newly proposed learning activities on the global competence of college students. The authors analyzed students’ reflective essays to identify themes through constant comparative analysis. The authors found participants learned about the Japanese culture through diverse aspects of global competence—affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions—throughout the semester via these learning activities. The authors also found informal writing could work as a starting point, where students were slowly exposed to a different culture, and reflective essays worked as a final summarizing phase where students could think further about their learning process related to global competence. This research is significant in terms of providing an empirical example of how to increase global competence in classroom-based courses. Additionally, scholars and teaching practitioners can gain insights from this study on how to improve global competence for the future workforce in a global economy