Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Printed Paper Actuator: A Low-cost Reversible Actuation and Sensing Method for Shape Changing Interfaces

We present a printed paper actuator as a low cost, reversible and electrical actuation and sensing method. This is a novel but easily accessible enabling technology that expands upon the library of actuation-sensing materials in HCI. By integrating three physical phenomena, including the bilayer bending actuation, the shape memory effect of the thermoplastic and the current-driven joule heating via conductive printing filament, we developed the actuator by simply printing a single layer conductive Polylactide (PLA) on a piece of copy paper via a desktop fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer. This paper describes the fabrication process, the material mechanism, and the transformation primitives, followed by the electronic sensing and control methods. A software tool that assists the design, simulation and printing toolpath generation is introduced. Finally, we explored applications under four contexts: robotics, interactive art, entertainment and home environment.
Patterns of Narcotic Prescribing by Orthopedic Surgeons for Medicare Patients

In recent years, narcotics have been subject to increased regulation and monitoring because of their side effects and potential for misuse. Currently, variation in prescribing patterns of narcotics among orthopedic surgeons is unknown. The Medicare Part D claims database was used to identify orthopedic surgeons who prescribed at least one schedule II or III narcotic during 2014. The median duration of a narcotic prescription was 8.2 days. The median prescription duration was shortest for hand surgeons (5.6 days) and longest for spine surgeons (12.6 days). Orthopedic surgeons in New York (10.1 days) provided the most narcotics per prescription, with physicians in Vermont (6.2 days) providing the least. Substantial variation exists in narcotic prescribing patterns for orthopedic surgeons at the individual, subspecialty, and statewide levels. With public health focus on reducing narcotics abuse, physician stewardship of these medications will become increasingly relevant.
X-Ray Refine: Supporting the Exploration and Refinement of Information Exposure Resulting from Smartphone Apps

Most smartphone apps collect and share information with various first and third parties; yet, such data collection practices remain largely unbeknownst to, and outside the control of, end-users. In this paper, we seek to understand the potential for tools to help people refine their exposure to third parties, resulting from their app usage. We designed an interactive, focus-plus-context display called X-Ray Refine (Refine) that uses models of over 1 million Android apps to visualise a person's exposure profile based on their durations of app use. To support exploration of mitigation strategies, emphRefine can simulate actions such as app usage reduction, removal, and substitution. A lab study of emphRefine found participants achieved a high-level understanding of their exposure, and identified data collection behaviours that violated both their expectations and privacy preferences. Participants also devised bespoke strategies to achieve privacy goals, identifying the key barriers to achieving them.
Controlling Maximal Voluntary Contraction of the Upper Limb Muscles by Facial Electrical Stimulation

In this paper, we propose to use facial electrical stimulation to control maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) of the upper limbs. The method is based on a body mechanism in which the contraction of the masseter muscles enhances MVC of the limb muscles. Facial electrical stimulation is applied to the masseter muscles and the lips. The former is to enhance the MVC by causing involuntary contraction of the masseter muscles, and the latter is to suppress the MVC by interfering with voluntary contraction of the masseter muscles. In a user study, we used electromyography sensors on the upper limbs to evaluate the effects of the facial electrical stimulation on the MVC of the upper limbs. The experimental results show that the MVC was controlled by the facial electrical stimulation. We assume that the proposed method is useful for sports athletes because the MVC is linked to sports performance.
Flying Drone Base Stations for Macro Hotspots

We study a scenario where multiple drone-mounted base stations cruise freely over a macro hotspot to serve mobile users on the ground. The drone base stations move constantly and update their moving directions following our proposed mobility control algorithm. The constant movement of drones reduces the distance between the base stations and users, which in turn improves the probability of having a line of sight connection. We consider a practical user association scheme for the moving base stations, which enables user equipments to switch their serving base stations based only on the received signal strength. via extensive simulations, we demonstrate that the drone base stations moving according to our proposed algorithms can improve the average packet throughput by 82% and the 5th-percentile packet throughput by 430% compared to a baseline scenario, where drones hover over fixed locations. These improvements can be realized regardless of users’ and base stations’ density. The constant movement of the drones also helps reduce the total number of drones required to cover the macro hotspot.
Purification and characterization of two protein kinases acting on the aquaporin SoPIP 2 ; 1

Aquaporins are water channel proteins that facilitate the movement of water and other small solutes across biological membranes. Plants usually have large aquaporin families, providing themwith many ways to regulate the water transport. Some aquaporins are regulated post-translationally by phosphorylation.We have previously shown that the water channel activity of SoPIP2;1, an aquaporin in the plasmamembrane of spinach leaves, was enhanced by phosphorylation at Ser115 and Ser274. These two serine residues are highly conserved in all plasma membrane aquaporins of the PIP2 subgroup. In this study we have purified and characterized two protein kinases phosphorylating Ser115 and Ser274 in SoPIP2;1. By anion exchange chromatography, the Ser115 kinase was purified from the soluble protein fraction isolated from spinach leaves. The Ca-dependent Ser274 kinase was purified by peptide affinity chromatography using plasma membranes isolated from spinach leaves. When characterized, the Ser115 kinase was Mg-dependent, Ca-independent and had a pH-optimum at 6.5. In accordance with previous studies using the oocyte expression system, sitedirected mutagenesis and kinase and phosphatase inhibitors, the phosphorylation of Ser274, but not of Ser115, was increased in the presence of phosphatase inhibitors while kinase inhibitors decreased the phosphorylation of both Ser274 and Ser115. The molecular weight of the Ser274 kinase was approximately 50 kDa. The identification and characterization of these two protein kinases is an important step towards elucidating the signal transduction pathway for gating of the aquaporin SoPIP2;1. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Effects of Estradiol on Autophagy and Nrf-2/ARE Signals after Cerebral Ischemia

Background/Aims: Estradiol (EST) reduces the risk of stroke and decreases the incidence and progression of the disease because of its neuroprotective roles in inhibiting cell death that occurs in response to a variety of neuronal stimuli such as inflammation and oxidative stress. In this study, we determined the role played by autophagy and Nrf2-ARE signal pathways in the hippocampus regions in modulating cerebral ischemia under different EST conditions. Methods: Western blot analysis and ELISA were used to determine the protein expression of autophagy and Nrf2-ARE pathways; and the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (PICs) and a key marker of oxidative stress. Results: Lacking of EST amplifies autophagy and attenuates Nrf2-ARE pathway in the hippocampus CA1 region. Blocking autophagy alleviates neurological deficits following cerebral ischemia with lacking of EST levels and the effects of autophagy are associated with PIC and oxidative stress. Conclusions: EST influences the protein expression of autophagy and Nrf2-ARE signaling in the brain, which is linked to the pathophysiological processes of PICs and oxidative stress. Moreover, inhibition of autophagy plays a beneficial role in modulating neurological deficits after cerebral ischemia observed under conditions of a lower level of EST.
Sensing from the Bottom: Smart Insole Enabled Patient Handling Activity Recognition Through Manifold Learning

The risk of overexertion injury caused by patient handling and movement activities causes chronic pain and severe social issues among the nursing force. The accurate recognition of patient handling activities (PHA) is the first step to reduce injury risk for caregivers. In this paper, we propose a novel solution comprising a smart footwear device and an action manifold learning framework to address the challenge. The wearable device, called Smart Insole, is equipped with a rich set of sensors and can provide an unobtrusive approach to obtain and characterize the action information of patient handling activities. Our proposed action manifold learning (AML) framework extracts the intrinsic signature structure by projecting raw pressure data from a high-dimensional input space to a low-dimensional manifold space. We performed a pilot study with eight subjects including eight common activities in a nursing room. The experimental results show the overall classification accuracy achieves 86.6%. Meanwhile, the qualitative profile and load level can also be classified with accuracies of 98.9% and 88.3%, respectively.
(2018). Morphees+: Studying Everyday Reconfigurable Objects for the Design and Taxonomy of Reconfigurable Uls. In CHI '18: Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2018) (pp. 1-14).

Users interact with many reconfigurable objects in daily life. These objects embed reconfigurations and shape-changing features that users are familiar with. For this reason, everyday reconfigurable objects have informed the design and taxonomy of shape changing UI. However, they have never been explored systematically. In this paper, we present a data set of 82 everyday reconfigurable objects that we collected in a workshop. We discuss how they can inspire the design of reconfigurable interfaces. We particularly focus on taxonomies of reconfigurable interfaces. Taxonomies have been suggested to help design and communication among researchers, however despite their extensive use, taxonomies are rarely evaluated. This paper analyses two established taxonomies — Rasmussen’s and Roudaut’s — using daily reconfigurable objects. We show relationships between the taxonomies and area for improvements. We propose Morphees+, a refined taxonomy based on Roudaut’s Shape Resolution Taxonomy.
Beating the urine drug test – a case report on niacin toxicity

ABSTRACT Niacin is a form of vitamin B3 which is used for the medical treatment of hyperlipidemia and niacin deficiency. However, within the last few years, it is being advertised on the Internet as a quick way to detoxify the human body in an attempt to evade urine drug tests. This claim is without any medical or scientific evidence and as a result, many cases have been reported where young adults have ended up with niacin toxicity. In this case report, we discuss a rare presentation of niacin toxicity and the effects Internet has had on the healthcare being practised by both the physicians and the patients themselves.
Big Data Techniques for Public Health: A Case Study

Public health researchers increasingly recognize that to advance their field they must grapple with the availability of increasingly large (i.e., thousands of variables) traditional population-level datasets (e.g., electronic medical records), while at the same time integrating additional large datasets (e.g., data on genomics, the microbiome, environmental exposures, socioeconomic factors, and health behaviors). Leveraging these multiple forms of data might well provide unique and unexpected discoveries about the determinants of health and wellbeing. However, we are in the very early stages of advancing the techniques required to understand and analyze big population-level data for public health research. To address this problem, this paper describes how we propose that big data can be efficiently used for public health discoveries. We show that data analytics techniques traditionally employed in public health studies are not up to the task of the data we now have in hand. Instead we present techniques adapted from big data visualization and analytics approaches used in other domains that can be used to answer important public health questions utilizing these existing and new datasets. Our findings are based on an exploratory big data case study carried out in San Diego County, California where we analyzed thousands of variables related to health to gain interesting insights on the determinants of several health outcomes, including life expectancy and anxiety disorders. These findings provide a promising early indication that public health research will benefit from the larger set of activities in contemporary big data research.
Analyzing the Effect of Avatar Self-Similarity on Men and Women in a Search and Rescue Game

A crucial aspect of virtual gaming experiences is the avatar: the player's virtual self-representation. While research has demonstrated benefits to using self-similar avatars in some virtual experiences, such avatars sometimes produce a more negative experience for women. To help researchers and game designers assess the cost-benefit tradeoffs of self-similar avatars, we compared players' performance and subjective experience in a search and rescue computer game when using two different photorealistic avatars: their own self or a friend, and when playing either a social (rescuing people) or a nonsocial (rescuing gems) version of the game. There was no effect of avatar appearance on players' performance or subjective experience in either game version, but we also found that women's experience with self-similar avatars was no more negative than men's. Our results suggest that avatar appearance may not make a difference to players in certain game contexts.
Investigating the Impact of Gender on Rank in Resume Search Engines

In this work we investigate gender-based inequalities in the context of resume search engines, which are tools that allow recruiters to proactively search for candidates based on keywords and filters. If these ranking algorithms take demographic features into account (directly or indirectly), they may produce rankings that disadvantage some candidates. We collect search results from Indeed, Monster, and CareerBuilder based on 35 job titles in 20 U. S. cities, resulting in data on 855K job candidates. Using statistical tests, we examine whether these search engines produce rankings that exhibit two types of indirect discrimination: individual and group unfairness. Furthermore, we use controlled experiments to show that these websites do not use inferred gender of candidates as explicit features in their ranking algorithms.
Hydathode trichomes actively secreting water from leaves play a key role in the physiology and evolution of root-parasitic rhinanthoid Orobanchaceae.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Root hemiparasites from the rhinanthoid clade of Orobanchaceae possess metabolically active glandular trichomes that have been suggested to function as hydathode trichomes actively secreting water, a process that may facilitate resource acquisition from the host plant's root xylem. However, no direct evidence relating the trichomes to water secretion exists, and carbon budgets associated with this energy-demanding process have not been determined. METHODS Macro- and microscopic observations of the leaves of hemiparasitic Rhinanthus alectorolophus were conducted and night-time gas exchange was measured. Correlations were examined among the intensity of guttation, respiration and transpiration, and analysis of these correlations allowed the carbon budget of the trichome activity to be quantified. We examined the intensity of guttation, respiration and transpiration, correlations among which indicate active water secretion. KEY RESULTS Guttation was observed on the leaves of 50 % of the young, non-flowering plants that were examined, and microscopic observations revealed water secretion from the glandular trichomes present on the abaxial leaf side. Night-time rates of respiration and transpiration and the presence of guttation drops were positively correlated, which is a clear indicator of hydathode trichome activity. Subsequent physiological measurements on older, flowering plants indicated neither intense guttation nor the presence of correlations, which suggests that the peak activity of hydathodes is in the juvenile stage. CONCLUSIONS This study provides the first unequivocal evidence for the physiological role of the hydathode trichomes in active water secretion in the rhinanthoid Orobanchaceae. Depending on the concentration of organic elements calculated to be in the host xylem sap, the direct effect of water secretion on carbon balance ranges from close to neutral to positive. However, it is likely to be positive in the xylem-only feeding holoparasites of the genus Lathraea, which is closely related to Rhinanthus. Thus, water secretion by the hydathodes might be viewed as a physiological pre-adaptation in the evolution of holoparasitism in the rhinanthoid lineage of Orobanchaceae.
SurfaceConstellations: A Modular Hardware Platform for Ad-Hoc Reconfigurable Cross-Device Workspaces

We contribute SurfaceConstellations, a modular hardware platform for linking multiple mobile devices to easily create novel cross-device workspace environments. Our platform combines the advantages of multi-monitor workspaces and multi-surface environments with the flexibility and extensibility of more recent cross-device setups. The SurfaceConstellations platform includes a comprehensive library of 3D-printed link modules to connect and arrange tablets into new workspaces, several strategies for designing setups, and a visual configuration tool for automatically generating link modules. We contribute a detailed design space of cross-device workspaces, a technique for capacitive links between tablets for automatic recognition of connected devices, designs of flexible joint connections, detailed explanations of the physical design of 3D printed brackets and support structures, and the design of a web-based tool for creating new SurfaceConstellation setups.
Exploring Co-design with Breastfeeding Mothers

Designing mobile applications for breastfeeding mothers can be challenging; creating spaces to foster co-design -- when a mother's primary focus is on her child rather than on design activities - is even more so. In this paper we discuss the development of the Milk Matters mobile application, a tool developed to motivate women to donate their surplus breast milk to the local milk bank. We look at the importance of different approaches to understanding the mothers, comparing workshops, surveys, and cultural probes. Through our work we identify three factors to consider when co-designing with and for mothers: 1) interrupted interactions 2) elements that might distract a baby and 3) the importance of empowering mothers through positive reinforcement. Based on these factors we examine our methodological approaches, suggesting ways to make future research with breastfeeding mothers more productive.
Pushing the boundaries of Brain-Computer Interface technology: challenges in novel applications and large-scale studies

Since the first studies in the 70s, Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) research has had an exponential development thanks to the high potential in improving life of severely impaired people. In the last years, the applicability of BCI extended also to non-medical applications as a complementary tool to provide interesting insights into the brain processes correlated with behavior. One of the most exploited measurement techniques used in BCI is Electroencephalography (EEG), because of its portability, contained costs and direct recording of neural activity. This thesis focuses on EEG-based BCI, with the aim of investigating cutting-edge applications, novel designs and the possibility of broadening this technology on large scale. According to the specific application, different brain features were analyzed, from visual to higher cognitive event-related potentials (ERPs), from the modulation of spontaneous oscillatory brain rhythms to that of the sensorimotor rhythm (SMR). Signal processing and machine learning algorithms were tailored to extract representative features and predict the user’s state or the user’s intention for the BCI operation. This thesis extends the boundaries of state-of-art BCI applications from several points of view. Firstly, the feasibility of a steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based paradigm for video quality assessment was proven, which led to the collection of informative neural features in a much faster way than previous ERP-based paradigms. Secondly, two novel ERP-BCIs for mental typewriting independent of gaze-shifts were developed, which could be operated online with high performance by healthy users and could represent a valid alternative for patients with severely impaired oculomotor control. Thirdly, a revised version of the standard BCI design was investigated for the study of subjective relevance in the scope of information retrieval (IR) systems, bringing new insight into brain processes that can enhance the interaction between man and machine. Lastly, the widely employed SMR-BCI paradigm was applied on large scale and in a fully automatic way. The aim was to test how co-adaptive machine learning algorithms, successful when user-tailored, would perform in a realistic scenario without any manipulation from BCI-experts. The overall work shows the versatility of BCI as a successful supplement of the existing technology and as a tool to improve the lives of people, also pointing out the main limitations with critical view to trigger new research developments.
Pocket Transfers: Interaction Techniques for Transferring Content from Situated Displays to Mobile Devices

We present Pocket Transfers: interaction techniques that allow users to transfer content from situated displays to a personal mobile device while keeping the device in a pocket or bag. Existing content transfer solutions require direct manipulation of the mobile device, making inter-action slower and less flexible. Our introduced tech-niques employ touch, mid-air gestures, gaze, and a mul-timodal combination of gaze and mid-air gestures. We evaluated the techniques in a novel user study (N=20), where we considered dynamic scenarios where the user approaches the display, completes the task, and leaves. We show that all pocket transfer techniques are fast and seen as highly convenient. Mid-air gestures are the most efficient touchless method for transferring a single item, while the multimodal method is the fastest touchless method when multiple items are transferred. We provide guidelines to help researchers and practitioners choose the most suitable content transfer techniques for their systems.