295 research outputs found
The story of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet
No full textThesis (D. Mus. Arts)--University of Washington, 2000The Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet has been the wind quintet-in-residence at the University of Washington School of Music since 1968. Officially founded in 1962, when its members were on the faculty of the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, the group has had a long and stable history. Through their concerts, tours, and recordings, the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet has established an international reputation. Over the years, many distinguished composers have written works especially for the Soni Ventorum, thus expanding the repertoire of the wind quintet.This study traces the history of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet mainly through interviews with the quintet members themselves. This history includes antecedent quintets in which members of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet participated (namely, a student quintet at the Curtis Institute, The American Wind Ensemble of Vienna, and the U.S. Seventh Army Symphony Wind Quintet). It covers the founding of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet in 1962 at the Conservatory of Music in Puerto Rico through their tenure from 1968 through the present as the wind quintet-in-residence at the University of Washington in Seattle. It gives an account of the establishment of the Soni Ventorum's recording career, their approach to sound and ensemble, their many tours, participation in festivals and competitions, and personnel. The study details the Soni Ventorum's collaborations with colleagues at the University of Washington School of Music, especially the many composers who wrote pieces for the group. One chapter covers ensemble pieces that have been written for the members of the Son! Ventorum Wind Quintet, while another presents wind quintet and quartet arrangements that were prepared by the quintet members themselves. The final chapter provides biographies of the members of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet.The Introduction to the study is a brief history of wind quintets. The study concludes with detailed appendices cataloguing the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet's repertoire, concerts, residencies, tours and a complete discography.At the time of this writing, the author is aware of no other work detailing the history of an established wind quintet
Understanding Behavioural Adaptations of Human Drivers interacting with Automated Vehicles
No full textAdvancements in technology are bringing Automated vehicles (AVs) closer to reality and it is not so far in future when these vehicles will have a significant penetration rate in our existing transport network. However, in the early phases of automation, penetration rate of these vehicles will be very low. This would lead to a mixed traffic situation where AVs will coexist and interact with other human driven vehicles (HDVs). This one to one interaction might lead to change in driving behavior of HDVs when they interact with AVs. Thus it is crucial to understand the behavioral adaptation of HDVs due to their interaction with AVs. A field test was conducted to gain insights about such behavioral adaptation focusing on gap acceptance, car following, and overtaking behavior. Furthermore, learning effet over multiple interactions with AVs, effect of positive and negative information, stress during interaction and trust in AVs were also studies. This research concludes following findings. First, significantly lower critical gaps were accepted during interaction with AVs. Second, significantly lower headways were found at the end of overtaking during interaction with AVs. Third, higher trust was reported in AV scenarios. Fourth, positive information leaded to even closer interactions with AVs in comparison to HDVs. These findings indicate the potential exploitation of AV technology by HDV-drivers.SAMENCivil Engineering | Transport and Plannin
Design methodology of ash dyke using geosynthetics considering hydraulic conditions
No full textAsh dyke is an earthen embankment which is constructed at every thermal power plant for disposal of fly ash slurry. Seepage of water takes place into the dyke from the fly ash slurry. In order to control the seepage inside the dyke, conventionally ash dyke is provided with chimney and blanket drains, which required sand as a drainage material. Today sand is not often available at various sites in sufficient quantity and required quality. Hence, for dyke construction sand is transported from other locations. Transportation cost of such a huge quantity of sand from long distance can substantially increase the cost of construction. The deficit in availability of sand in dyke construction motivates to find an alternative solution. The various geosynthetics material like geotextile, geonet, geomembrane, geocomposite and perforated pipes are available. These materials are being used in various geotechnical structures like retaining wall, filter for rock toe, drainage trench for highway, liners for landfill and many more applications. In all the above structures functions performed by geosynthetics are similar to the function of chimney and blanket drain in ash dyke. The objective is to design ash dyke system such that, it does not require substantial amount of sand in dyke construction. Instead, it will use geosynthetics materials for proper functioning. Two alternative designs of ash dyke system have been proposed, and both of these have application of geosynthetics material to control the seepage in dyke body. These alternative designs are ash dyke with vertical drainage composite and ash dyke with horizontal drainage composite. The design of Ash dyke with vertical drainage composite is similar to the ash dyke with chimney drain. It consists of vertical drainage composite, drainage trench, horizontal drainage system and horizontal drainage composite. In this design a vertical drainage composite is placed at centre of the dyke to collect seepage water, which is connected to the drainage trench. A horizontal drainage system consisting of lateral pipes having initial portion perforated is connected to drainage trench, which collects seepage water from drainage trench and drain out from the dyke body. A drainage composite is also provided in downstream side of the dyke to collect seepage from foundation soil. Ash dyke with horizontal drainage composite consists of horizontal layers of drainage composite and down slope drainage system. Drainage composite in the dyke is installed in layers at different levels and top drainage composite is extended vertically up to height of fill slurry to collect seepage water. Arrangement of horizontal composite is depends upon the quantity of seepage. These drainage composites are connected to the downslope drainage system to drain out the seepage water. In both the alternate design raising of ash dyke is done by upstream method of raising. The methods proposed in this study have been developed to design each component of both the alternative ash dyke system by using the theories developed in the literature for the design of geosynthetics in above mentioned other structures. Also detailed specifications and various factors to be considered in the design of each component of ash dyke have been proposed. A step by step construction procedure for both the alternative designs has been proposed and a design example problem is solved for future reference
PULSE-SMART: Pulse-Based Arrhythmia Discrimination Using a Novel Smartphone Application
No full textCo-author Apurv Soni is a medical student in the MD/PhD Program at UMass Medical School.BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common and dangerous rhythm abnormality. Smartphones are increasingly used for mobile health applications by older patients at risk for AF and may be useful for AF screening. OBJECTIVES: To test whether an enhanced smartphone app for AF detection can discriminate between sinus rhythm (SR), AF, premature atrial contractions (PACs), and premature ventricular contractions (PVCs). METHODS: We analyzed two hundred and nineteen 2-minute pulse recordings from 121 participants with AF (n = 98), PACs (n = 15), or PVCs (n = 15) using an iPhone 4S. We obtained pulsatile time series recordings in 91 participants after successful cardioversion to sinus rhythm from preexisting AF. The PULSE-SMART app conducted pulse analysis using 3 methods (Root Mean Square of Successive RR Differences; Shannon Entropy; Poincare plot). We examined the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive accuracy of the app for AF, PAC, and PVC discrimination from sinus rhythm using the 12-lead EKG or 3-lead telemetry as the gold standard. We also administered a brief usability questionnaire to a subgroup (n = 65) of app users. RESULTS: The smartphone-based app demonstrated excellent sensitivity (0.970), specificity (0.935), and accuracy (0.951) for real-time identification of an irregular pulse during AF. The app also showed good accuracy for PAC (0.955) and PVC discrimination (0.960). The vast majority of surveyed app users (83%) reported that it was "useful" and "not complex" to use. CONCLUSION: A smartphone app can accurately discriminate pulse recordings during AF from sinus rhythm, PACs, and PVCs.MD/Ph
Design of Water Retaining Embankment Using Geosynthetics for Hydraulic Conditions
No full textSand is often used in chimney and blanket drain to control the seepage inside the water retaining embankment. On many sites it is not economical to find a sufficient quantity of good quality sand. The objective of the present study is to minimize use of sand in design of water-retaining embankment by using geosynthetics material to control the seepage. Accordingly, two alternative designs of water retaining embankment with internal drainage system have been proposed. These designs are ‘water retaining embankment with vertical drainage composite’ and ‘water retaining embankment with horizontal drainage composite’. The functions of geosynthetics in both the designs are filtration and drainage, and the geosynthetics material used are geotextile, drainage composite (geonet sandwiched by geotextile) and perforated pipe. The performance of geosynthetics for drainage and filtration in various structures like earth dam, retaining wall, highway drains and landfills provides confidence to use geosynthetics effectively in place of sand in water retaining embankment. A detailed methodology is set to determine the drainage and filtration requirement of geosynthetics material in each component of proposed alternative designs. The specifications required for geosynthetics material in each component of the proposed alternative design are also given. Depending upon the requirement any one of the alternatives can be used in place of the conventional system
Association of common mental disorder symptoms with health and healthcare factors among women in rural western India: results of a cross-sectional survey
No full textFirst author Apurv Soni is a medical student in the MD/PhD Program at UMass Medical School.OBJECTIVES: Information about common mental disorders (CMD) is needed to guide policy and clinical interventions in low-income and middle-income countries. This study's purpose was to characterise the association of CMD symptoms with 3 inter-related health and healthcare factors among women from rural western India based on a representative, cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Surveys were conducted in the waiting area of various outpatient clinics at a tertiary care hospital and in 16 rural villages in the Anand district of Gujarat, India. PARTICIPANTS: 700 Gujarati-speaking women between the ages of 18-45 years who resided in the Anand district of Gujarat, India, were recruited in a quasi-randomised manner. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES MEASURES: CMD symptoms, ascertained using WHO's Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20 (SRQ-20), were associated with self-reported (1) number of healthcare visits in the prior year; (2) health status and (3) portion of yearly income expended on healthcare. RESULTS: Data from 658 participants were used in this analysis; 19 surveys were excluded due to incompleteness, 18 surveys were excluded because the participants were visiting hospitalised patients and 5 surveys were classified as outliers. Overall, 155 (22·8%) participants screened positive for CMD symptoms (SRQ-20 score ≥8) with most (81.9%) not previously diagnosed despite contact with healthcare provider in the prior year. On adjusted analyses, screening positive for CMD symptoms was associated with worse category in self-reported health status (cumulative OR=9.39; 95% CI 5·97 to 14·76), higher portion of household income expended on healthcare (cumulative OR=2·31; 95% CL 1·52 to 3.52) and increased healthcare visits in the prior year (incidence rate ratio=1·24; 95% CI 1·07 to 1·44). CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of potential CMD among women in rural India that is unrecognised and associated with adverse health and financial indicators highlights the individual and public health burden of CMD.MD/Ph
Behavioral adaptations of human drivers interacting with automated vehicles
No full textAdvancements in technology are bringing automated vehicles (AVs) closer to wider deployment. However, in the early phases of their deployment, AVs will coexist and frequently interact with human-driven vehicles (HDVs). These interactions might lead to changes in the driving behavior of HDVs. A field test was conducted in the Netherlands with 18 participants focusing on gap acceptance, car-following, and overtaking behaviors to understand such behavioral adaptations. The participants were asked to drive their vehicles in a controlled environment, interacting with an HDV and a Wizard of Oz AV. The effects of positive and negative information regarding AV behavior on the participants’ driving behavior and their trust in AVs were also studied. The results show that human drivers adopted significantly smaller critical gaps when interacting with the approaching AV as compared to when interacting with the approaching HDV. Drivers also maintained a significantly shorter headway after overtaking the AV in comparison to overtaking the HDV. Positive information about the behavior of the AV led to closer interactions in comparison to HDVs. Additionally, drivers showed higher trust in the interacting AV when they were provided with positive information regarding the AV in comparison to scenarios where no information was provided. These findings suggest the potential exploitation of AV technology by HDV drivers.Transport and Plannin
Comparing Pre-trained Human Language Models: Is it Better with Human Context as Groups, Individual Traits, or Both?
No full textPre-trained language models consider the context of neighboring words and
documents but lack any author context of the human generating the text.
However, language depends on the author's states, traits, social, situational,
and environmental attributes, collectively referred to as human context (Soni
et al., 2024). Human-centered natural language processing requires
incorporating human context into language models. Currently, two methods exist:
pre-training with 1) group-wise attributes (e.g., over-45-year-olds) or 2)
individual traits. Group attributes are simple but coarse -- not all
45-year-olds write the same way -- while individual traits allow for more
personalized representations, but require more complex modeling and data. It is
unclear which approach benefits what tasks. We compare pre-training models with
human context via 1) group attributes, 2) individual users, and 3) a combined
approach on five user- and document-level tasks. Our results show that there is
no best approach, but that human-centered language modeling holds avenues for
different methods
Comparison of various methods for removing double antibiotic paste from root canal walls during regenerative endodontic therapy
No full textAim: This study investigated the efficacy of Endoactivator, Pro-agitator tip system (PATS) Vario, BF brush, and dual side-vented needle irrigation to remove double antibiotic paste (DAP) from the root canal.
Methods: Biomechanical preparation till size #25 (F2) was carried out utilizing the Protaper Universal System on 92 extracted teeth with single root and root canal. All the canals were filled with DAP for 21 days, and the roots were split into two halves (n = 20) and divided into four groups randomly based on the irrigation method, using either dual side-vented needle irrigation, BF brush, Endoactivator, or PATS Vario. Under a stereomicroscope, the quantity of medication still present at every root half was assessed using a four-grade scoring system.
Results: PATS Vario (0.46 ± 0.50) followed by Endoactivator (0.46 ± 0.52) groups were substantially more effective at eliminating DAP from the root canal than BF brush groups (0.98 ± 0.58) and dual side-vented irrigation tips (2.29 ± 0.53) (P < 0.05) However, none of the methods succeeded in entirely removing antibiotic paste from canal walls.
Conclusion: PATS Vario Group was more efficient than Endoactivator at eliminating DAP from root canal walls, but the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05)
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