Query: Affordances as a Framework for Robot Control

Relevant passages:
The learning and use of traversability affordance using range images on a mobile robot <=SEP=> We are interested in how the concept of affordances can affect our view to autonomous robot control, and how the results obtained from autonomous robotics can be reflected back upon the discussion and studies on the concept of affordances. In this paper, we studied how a mobile robot, equipped with a 3D laser scanner, can learn to perceive the traversability affordance and use it to wander in a room tilled with spheres, cylinders and boxes. The results showed that after learning, the robot can wander around avoiding contact with non-traversable objects (i.e. boxes, upright cylinders, or lying cylinders in certain orientation), but moving over traversable objects (such as spheres, and lying cylinders in a rollable orientation with respect to the robot) rolling them out of its way. We have shown that for each action approximately 1% of the perceptual features were relevant to determine whether it is afforded or not and that these relevant features are positioned in certain regions of the range image. The experiments are conducted both using a physics-based simulator and on a real robot.

Action recognition in the premotor cortex. <=SEP=> We recorded electrical activity from 532 neurons in the rostral part of inferior area 6 (area F5) of two macaque monkeys. Previous data had shown that neurons of this area discharge during goal-directed hand and mouth movements. We describe here the properties of a newly discovered set of F5 neurons ("mirror neurons', n = 92) all of which became active both when the monkey performed a given action and when it observed a similar action performed by the experimenter. Mirror neurons, in order to be visually triggered, required an interaction between the agent of the action and the object of it. The sight of the agent alone or of the object alone (three-dimensional objects, food) were ineffective. Hand and the mouth were by far the most effective agents. The actions most represented among those activating mirror neurons were grasping, manipulating and placing. In most mirror neurons (92%) there was a clear relation between the visual action they responded to and the motor response they coded. In approximately 30% of mirror neurons the congruence was very strict and the effective observed and executed actions corresponded both in terms of general action (e.g. grasping) and in terms of the way in which that action was executed (e.g. precision grip). We conclude by proposing that mirror neurons form a system for matching observation and execution of motor actions. We discuss the possible role of this system in action recognition and, given the proposed homology between F5 and human Brocca's region, we posit that a matching system, similar to that of mirror neurons exists in humans and could be involved in recognition of actions as well as phonetic gestures.

The Cog Project : Building a Humanoid Robot <=SEP=> To explore issues of developmental structure, physical embodiment, integration of multiple sensory and motor systems, and social interaction, we have constructed an upper-torso humanoid robot called Cog. The robot has twenty-one degrees of freedom and a variety of sensory systems, including visual, auditory, vestibular, kinesthetic, and tactile senses. This chapter gives a background on the methodology that we have used in our investigations, highlights the research issues that have been raised during this project, and provides a summary of both the current state of the project and our long-term goals. We report on a variety of implemented visual-motor routines (smooth-pursuit tracking, saccades, binocular vergence, and vestibular-ocular and opto-kinetic reflexes), orientation behaviors, motor control techniques, and social behaviors (pointing to a visual target, recognizing joint attention through face and eye finding, imitation of head nods, and regulating interaction through expressive feedback). We further outline a number of areas for future research that will be necessary to build a complete embodied system.

The role of tutoring in problem solving. <=SEP=> THIS PAPER is concerned with the nature of the tutorial process; the means whereby an adult or "expert" helps somebody who is less adult or less expert. Though its aim is general, it is expressed in terms of a particular task: a tutor seeks to teach children aged 3, 4 and 5 yr to build a particular three-dimensional structure that requires a degree of skill that is initially beyond them. It is the usual type of tutoring situation in which one member "knows the answer" and the other does not, rather like a "practical" in which only the instructor "knows how". The changing interaction of tutor and children provide our data. A great deal of early problem solving by the developing child is of this order. Although from the earliest months of life he is a "natural" problem solver in his own right (e.g. Bruner, 1973) it is often the ease that his efforts are assisted and fostered by others who are more skilful than he is (Kaye, 1970). Whether he is learning the procedures that constitute the skills of attending, communicating, manipulating objects, locomoting, or, indeed, a more effective problem solving procedure itself, there are usually others in attendance who help him on his way. Tutorial interactions are, in short, a crucial feature of infancy and childhood. Our species, moreover, appears to be the only one in which any "intentional" tutoring goes on (Bruner, 1972; Hinde, 1971). For although it is true that many of the higher primate species learn by observation of their elders (Hamburg, 1968; van Lawick-Goodall, 1968), there is no evidence that those elders do anything to instruct their charges in the performance of the skill in question. What distinguishes man as a species is not only his capacity for learning, but for teaching as well. It is the main aim of this paper to examine some of the major implications of this interactive, instructional relationship between the developing child and his elders for the study of skill acquisition and problem solving. The acquisition of skill in the human child can be fruitfully conceived as a hierarchical program in which component skills are combined into "higher skills" by appropriate orchestration to meet new, more complex task requirements (Bruner, 1973). The process is analogous to problem solving in which mastery of "lower order" or constituent problems in a sine qua non for success with a larger jjroblcm, each level influencing the other—as with reading where the deciphering of words makes possible the deciphering of sentences, and sentences then aid in the deciphering of particular words (F. Smith, 1971). Given persistent intention in the young learner, given a "lexicon" of constituent skills, the crucial task is often one of com-

Increasing fruit and vegetable intake by changing environments, policy and pricing: restaurant-based research, strategies, and recommendations. <=SEP=> BACKGROUND
Restaurants are among the most important and promising venues for environmental, policy, and pricing initiatives to increase fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake. This article reviews restaurant-based environmental, policy and pricing strategies for increasing intake of fruits and vegetables and identifies promising strategies, research needs, and innovative opportunities for the future.


METHODS
The strategies, examples, and research reported here were identified through an extensive search of published journal articles, government documents, the internet, and inquiries to leaders in the field. Recommendations were expanded based on discussion by participants in the CDC/ACS-sponsored Fruit and Vegetable, Environment Policy and Pricing Workshop held in September of 2002.


RESULTS
Six separate types of restaurant-based interventions were identified: increased availability, increased access, reduced prices and coupons, catering policies, point-of-purchase (POP) information, and promotion and communication. Combination approaches have also been implemented. Evaluation data on these interventions show some significant impact on healthful diets, particularly with point-of-purchase information. However, most published reports emphasize low-fat eating, and there is a need to translate and evaluate interventions focused on increasing fruit and vegetable intake.


CONCLUSIONS
Several models for changing environments, policy and pricing to increase fruit and vegetable availability, access, attractiveness and consumption in restaurants have been tested and found to have some promise. There is a need to evaluate fruit and vegetable-specific strategies; to obtain data from industry; to disseminate promising programs; and to enhance public-private partnerships and collaboration to expand on current knowledge.

Many regression algorithms, one unified model: A review <=SEP=> Regression is the process of learning relationships between inputs and continuous outputs from example data, which enables predictions for novel inputs. The history of regression is closely related to the history of artificial neural networks since the seminal work of Rosenblatt (1958). The aims of this paper are to provide an overview of many regression algorithms, and to demonstrate how the function representation whose parameters they regress fall into two classes: a weighted sum of basis functions, or a mixture of linear models. Furthermore, we show that the former is a special case of the latter. Our ambition is thus to provide a deep understanding of the relationship between these algorithms, that, despite being derived from very different principles, use a function representation that can be captured within one unified model. Finally, step-by-step derivations of the algorithms from first principles and visualizations of their inner workings allow this article to be used as a tutorial for those new to regression.

User Models for Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Educational Systems <=SEP=> One distinctive feature of any adaptive system is the user model that represents essential information about each user. This chapter complements other chapters of this book in reviewing user models and user modeling approaches applied in adaptive Web systems. The presentation is structured along three dimensions: what is being modeled, how it is modeled, and how the models are maintained. After a broad overview of the nature of the information presented in these various user models, the chapter focuses on two groups of approaches to user model representation and maintenance: the overlay approach to user model representation and the uncertainty-based approach to user

Multimedia Question Answering <=SEP=> By surveying recent research in multimedia question answering, this article explores QA's evolution from text to multimedia and identifies the challenges in the field.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data Collection in Clinical Settings and in Electronic Health Records: A Key to Ending LGBT Health Disparities. <=SEP=> The Institute of Medicine's (IOM's) 2011 report on the health of LGBT people pointed out that there are limited health data on these populations and that we need more research. It also described what we do know about LGBT health disparities, including lower rates of cervical cancer screening among lesbians, and mental health issues related to minority stress. Patient disclosure of LGBT identity enables provider-patient conversations about risk factors and can help us reduce and better understand disparities. It is essential to the success of Healthy People 2020's goal of eliminating LGBT health disparities. This is why the IOM's report recommended data collection in clinical settings and on electronic health records (EHRs). The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology rejected including sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) questions in meaningful use guidelines for EHRs in 2012 but are considering this issue again in 2013. There is overwhelming community support for the routine collection of SOGI data in clinical settings, as evidenced by comments jointly submitted by 145 leading LGBT and HIV/AIDS organizations in January 2013. Gathering SOGI data in EHRs is supported by the 2011 IOM's report on LGBT health, Healthy People 2020, the Affordable Care Act, and the Joint Commission. Data collection has long been central to the quality assurance process. Preventive health care from providers knowledgeable of their patients' SOGI can lead to improved access, quality of care, and outcomes. Medical and nursing schools should expand their attention to LGBT health issues so that all clinicians can appropriately care for LGBT patients.

The Gut Microbiota and Autism Spectrum Disorders <=SEP=> Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are a common comorbidity in patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Many studies have shown alterations in the composition of the fecal flora and metabolic products of the gut microbiome in patients with ASD. The gut microbiota influences brain development and behaviors through the neuroendocrine, neuroimmune and autonomic nervous systems. In addition, an abnormal gut microbiota is associated with several diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), ASD and mood disorders. Here, we review the bidirectional interactions between the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract (brain-gut axis) and the role of the gut microbiota in the central nervous system (CNS) and ASD. Microbiome-mediated therapies might be a safe and effective treatment for ASD.

Collision-free object movement using vector fields <=SEP=> The topics of computer animation and object collision detection and resolution have become increasingly desirable in a wide range of applications including autonomous vehicle navigation, robotics, and the movie industry. However, the techniques currently available are typically difficult to use or are restricted to a particular domain. This paper presents a technique for providing automatic animation and collision avoidance of arbitrary objects in a computer graphics system. The underlying construct used in this process is a surrounding volume octree vector field. The system automatically generates these structures around objects in the scene. By judicious creation and use of these vector fields, objects in the scene move and interact, but do not collide. The manner in which these vector fields are created is given. Two applications cloud movement over terrain and autonomous aircraft navigation are presented which show typical usage of this technique.

: Android Deobfuscation via “ Big Code ” <=SEP=> This work presents a new approach for deobfuscating Android APKs based on probabilistic learning of large code bases (termed “Big Code”). The key idea is to learn a probabilistic model over thousands of non-obfuscated Android applications and to use this probabilistic model to deobfuscate new, unseen Android APKs. The concrete focus of the paper is on reversing layout obfuscation, a popular transformation which renames key program elements such as classes, packages and methods, thus making it difficult to understand what the program does. Concretely, the paper: (i) phrases the layout deobfuscation problem of Android APKs as structured prediction in a probabilistic graphical model, (ii) instantiates this model with a rich set of features and constraints that capture the Android setting, ensuring both semantic equivalence and high prediction accuracy, and (iii) shows how to leverage powerful inference and learning algorithms to achieve overall precision and scalability of the probabilistic predictions. We implemented our approach in a tool called DeGuard and used it to: (i) reverse the layout obfuscation performed by the popular ProGuard system on benign, open-source applications, (ii) predict third-party libraries imported by benign APKs (also obfuscated by ProGuard), and (iii) rename obfuscated program elements of Android malware. The experimental results indicate that DeGuard is practically effective: it recovers 79.1% of the program element names obfuscated with ProGuard, it predicts third-party libraries with accuracy of 91.3%, and it reveals string decoders and classes that handle sensitive data in Android malware.

Implementation of the State of Charge Estimation with Adaptive Extended Kalman Filter for Lithium-Ion Batteries by Arduino <=SEP=> This study considers the use of Arduino to achieve state of charge (SOC) estimation of lithium-ion batteries by adaptive extended Kalman filter (AEKF). To implement a SOC estimator for the lithium-ion battery, we adopt a first-order RC equivalent circuit as the equivalent circuit model (ECM) of the battery. The parameters of the ECM will be identified through the designed experiments, and they will be approximated by the piecewise linear functions and then will be built into Arduino. The AEKF algorithm will also be programed into Arduino to estimate the SOC. To verify the accuracy of the SOC estimation, some lithium-ion batteries are tested at room temperature. Experimental results show that the absolute value of the steady-state SOC estimation error is small.

Detection of Slang Words in e-Data using semi-Supervised Learning <=SEP=> The proposed algorithmic approach deals with finding the sense of a word in an electronic data. Now a day, in different communication mediums like internet, mobile services etc. people use few words, which are slang in nature. This approach detects those abusive words using supervised learning procedure. But in the real life scenario, the slang words are not used in complete word forms always. Most of the times, those words are used in different abbreviated forms like sounds alike forms, taboo morphemes etc. This proposed approach can detect those abbreviated forms also using semi supervised learning procedure. Using the synset and concept analysis of the text, the probability of a suspicious word to be a slang word is also evaluated.

FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMERS ’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS E-COMMERCE PURCHASES THROUGH ONLINE SHOPPING <=SEP=> Online shopping is the process of buying goods and services from merchants who sell on the internet. Shoppers can visit web stores from the comfort of their homes and shop as they sit in front of the computer. The main purpose of this study is to determine the factors influencing consumers’ attitude towards e-commerce purchases through online shopping. The study also investigate how socio-demographic (age, income and occupation), pattern of online buying (types of goods, e-commerce experience and hours use on internet) and purchase perception (product perception, customers’ service and consumers’ risk) affect consumers’ attitude towards online shopping. Convenience sampling method was conducted in this study and the sample comparison of 100 respondents in Taman Tawas Permai, Ipoh. Data were collected via self-administered questionnaire which contains 15 questions in Part A (respondents’ background and their pattern of using internet and online buying), 34 questions in Part B (attitude towards online purchase) and 36 questions in Part C (purchase perception towards online shopping). One-way ANOVA were used to assess the differences between independent variable such as age, income, occupation and pattern of online buying (type of goods) and dependant variable such as attitude towards online shopping. The findings revealed that there is no significant difference in attitude towards online shopping among age group (F = 1.020, p < 0.05) but there is a significant difference in attitude towards online shopping among income group (F = 0.556, p > 0.05). The research finding also showed that there is no significant difference in attitude towards online shopping among occupation group (F = 1.607, p < 0.05) and types of goods group (F = 1.384, p < 0.05). Pearson’s correlation were used to assess the relationship between independent variable such as e-commerce experience, hours spent on internet, product perception, customers’ service and consumers’ risk and dependant variable such as attitude towards online shopping. The findings revealed that there is a significant relationship between e-commerce experience and attitude towards online shopping among the respondents (r = -0.236**, p < 0.05). However, there is no significant relationship between hours spent on internet and attitude towards online shopping among the respondents (r = 0.106, p > 0.05). This study also indicated that there is a significant relationship between product perception and attitude towards online shopping among the respondents (r = 0.471**, p < 0.01) and there is also a significant relationship between customers’ service and attitude towards online shopping among the respondents (r = 0.459**, p < 0.01). Lastly, this result showed that there is no significant relationship between consumers’ risk and attitude towards online shopping among the respondents (r = 0.153, p > 0.05). Further study should explore other factors that influencing consumers’ attitude towards e-commerce purchases through online shopping with a broader range of population and high representative sampling method.

Thermally Stable Enhancement-Mode GaN Metal-Isolator-Semiconductor High-Electron-Mobility Transistor With Partially Recessed Fluorine-Implanted Barrier <=SEP=> Al2O3/AlGaN/GaN enhancement-mode metalisolator-semiconductor high-electron-mobility transistor (MIS-HEMT) featuring a partially recessed (Al) GaN barrier was realized by a fluorine plasma implantation/etch technique. By properly adjusting the RF power driving the fluorine plasma, the fluorine plasma is able to produce two desirable results: 1) a well-controlled slow dry etching for gate recess and 2) implanting fluorine ions into the AlGaN barrier. The fluorine ions become negatively charged in the barrier layer and induce a positive shift in the threshold voltage. The proposed MIS-HEMT exhibits a threshold voltage (VTH) of +0.6 V at a drain current of 10 μA/mm, a maximum drive current of 730 mA/mm, an ON-resistance of 7.07 Ω · mm, and an OFF-state breakdown voltage of 703 V at an OFF-state drain leakage current of 1 μA/mm. From room temperature to 200 °C, the device exhibits a small negative shift of VTH (~0.5 V) that is attributed to the high-quality dielectric/F-implanted-(Al) GaN interface and the partially recessed barrier.

Inference and Design in Kuba and Zillij Art with Shape Grammars <=SEP=> We present a simple method for structural inference in African Kuba cloth, and Moorish zillij mosaics. Our work is based on Stiny and Gips’ formulation of “Shape Grammars”. It provides art scholars and geometers with a simple yet powerful medium to perform analysis of existing art and draw inspiration for new designs. The analysis involves studying an artwork and capturing its structure as simple shape grammar rules. We then show how interesting families of artworks could be generated using simple variations in their corresponding grammars.

Deep Learning for Fixed Model Reuse <=SEP=> Model reuse attempts to construct a model by utilizing existing available models, mostly trained for other tasks, rather than building a model from scratch. It is helpful to reduce the time cost, data amount, and expertise required. Deep learning has achieved great success in various tasks involving images, voices and videos. There are several studies have the sense of model reuse, by trying to reuse pre-trained deep networks architectures or deep model features to train a new deep model. They, however, neglect the fact that there are many other fixed models or features available. In this paper, we propose a more thorough model reuse scheme, FMR (Fixed Model Reuse). FMR utilizes the learning power of deep models to implicitly grab the useful discriminative information from fixed model/features that have been widely used in general tasks. We firstly arrange the convolution layers of a deep network and the provided fixed model/features in parallel, fully connecting to the output layer nodes. Then, the dependencies between the output layer nodes and the fixed model/features are knockdown such that only the raw feature inputs are needed when the model is being used for testing, though the helpful information in the fixed model/features have already been incorporated into the model. On one hand, by the FMR scheme, the required amount of training data can be significantly reduced because of the reuse of fixed model/features. On the other hand, the fixed model/features are not explicitly used in testing, and thus, the scheme can be quite useful in applications where the fixed model/features are protected by patents or commercial secrets. Experiments on five real-world datasets validate the effectiveness of FMR compared with state-of-the-art deep methods.

A mixture model for preferences data analysis <=SEP=> A mixture model for preferences data, which adequately represents the composite nature of the elicitation mechanism in ranking processes, is proposed. Both probabilistic features of the mixture distribution and inferential and computational issues arising from the maximum likelihood parameters estimation are addressed. Moreover, empirical evidence from different data sets confirming the goodness of fit of the proposed model to many real preferences data is shown. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Feature Analysis for Fake Review Detection through Supervised Classification <=SEP=> Nowadays, review sites are more and more confronted with the spread of misinformation, i.e., opinion spam, which aims at promoting or damaging some target businesses, by misleading either human readers, or automated opinion mining and sentiment analysis systems. For this reason, in the last years, several data-driven approaches have been proposed to assess the credibility of user-generated content diffused through social media in the form of on-line reviews. Distinct approaches often consider different subsets of characteristics, i.e., features, connected to both reviews and reviewers, as well as to the network structure linking distinct entities on the review-site in exam. This article aims at providing an analysis of the main review- and reviewer-centric features that have been proposed up to now in the literature to detect fake reviews, in particular from those approaches that employ supervised machine learning techniques. These solutions provide in general better results with respect to purely unsupervised approaches, which are often based on graph-based methods that consider relational ties in review sites. Furthermore, this work proposes and evaluates some additional new features that can be suitable to classify genuine and fake reviews. For this purpose, a supervised classifier based on Random Forests have been implemented, by considering both well-known and new features, and a large-scale labeled dataset from which all these features have been extracted. The good results obtained show the effectiveness of new features to detect in particular singleton fake reviews, and in general the utility of this study.

Affective outcomes of virtual reality exposure therapy for anxiety and specific phobias: a meta-analysis. <=SEP=> Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) is an increasingly common treatment for anxiety and specific phobias. Lacking is a quantitative meta-analysis that enhances understanding of the variability and clinical significance of anxiety reduction outcomes after VRET. Searches of electronic databases yielded 52 studies, and of these, 21 studies (300 subjects) met inclusion criteria. Although meta-analysis revealed large declines in anxiety symptoms following VRET, moderator analyses were limited due to inconsistent reporting in the VRET literature. This highlights the need for future research studies that report uniform and detailed information regarding presence, immersion, anxiety and/or phobia duration, and demographics.

A Recurrent Latent Variable Model for Sequential Data <=SEP=> In this paper, we explore the inclusion of latent random variables into the dynamic hidden state of a recurrent neural network (RNN) by combining elements of the variational autoencoder. We argue that through the use of high-level latent random variables, our variational RNN (VRNN) is able to learn to model the kind of variability observed in highly-structured sequential data (such as speech). We empirically evaluate the proposed model against related sequential models on five sequential datasets, four of speech and one of handwriting. Our results show the importance of the role that latent random variables can play in the RNN dynamic hidden state.

Least Squares Temporal Difference Learning and Galerkin ’ s Method <=SEP=> The problem of estimating the value function underlying a Markovian reward process is considered. As it is well known, the value function underlying a Markovian reward process satisfied a linear fixed point equation. One approach to learning the value function from finite data is to find a good approximation to the value function in a given (linear) subspace of the space of value functions. We review some of the issues that arise when following this approach, as well as some results that characterize the finite-sample performance of some of the algorithms. 1 Markovian Reward Processes Let X be a measurable space and consider a stochastic process (X0, R1, X1, R2, X2, . . .), where Xt ∈ X and Rt+1 ∈ R, t = 0, 1, 2, . . .. The process is called a Markovian Reward process if • (X0, X1, . . .) is a Markov process, and • for any t ≥ 0, given Xt, Xt+1 the distribution of Rt+1 is independent of the history of the process. Here, Xt is called the state of the system at time t, while Rt+1 is the reward associated to transitioning from Xt to Xt+1. We shall denote by P the Markovian kernel underlying the process: Thus, the distribution of (Xt+1, Rt+1) given Xt is given by P(·, ·|Xt), t = 0, 1, . . .. Fix the so-called discount factor 0 ≤ γ ≤ 1 and define the (total discounted) return associated to the process R = ∞ ∑

A Dual Path Deep Network for Single Image Super-Resolution Reconstruction <=SEP=> Super-resolution reconstruction based on deep learning has come a long way since the first proposed method in 2015. Numerous methods have been developed for this task using deep learning approaches. Among these methods, residual deep learning algorithms have shown better performance. Although all early proposed deep learning based super-resolution frameworks used bicubic upsampled versions of low resolution images as the main input, most of the current ones use the low resolution images directly by adding up-sampling layers to their networks. In this work, we propose a new method by using both low resolution and bicubic upsampled images as the inputs to our network. The final results confirm that decreasing the depth of the network in lower resolution space and adding the bicubic path lead to almost similar results to those of the deeper networks in terms of PSNR and SSIM, yet making the network computationally inexpensive and more efficient.

BLE Beacon Based Patient Tracking in Smart Care Facilities <=SEP=> Patient tracking is an important component toward creating smart cities. In this demo we use Bluetooth Low Energy beacons and single board computers to track patients in the emerging field of smart care facilities. Our model utilizes a fixed scanner moving transmitter method for wireless tracking of patients through the facility. The data collected by all scanners is stored within a central database that is designed to be efficiently queried. We show how inexpensive components in conjunction with free open source software can be used to implement a patient tracking system. We focus on the pipeline between acquisition and display of the location data. Additionally, we also discuss the manipulation of the data required for usability, and optional filtering operations that improve accuracy.

Immediate effect of a slow pace breathing exercise Bhramari pranayama on blood pressure and heart rate. <=SEP=> The study was carried out to evaluate the immediate effect Bhramari pranayama, a slow breathing exercise for 5 minutes on heart rate and blood pressure. Heart rate and blood pressure of volunteers were recorded. The subject was directed to inhale slowly up to the maximum for about 5 seconds and then to exhale slowly up to the maximum for about 15 sec keeping two thumbs on two external auditory canal, index and middle finger together on two closed eyes and ring finger on the two sides of the nose. During exhalation the subject must chant the word "O-U-Mmmma" with a humming nasal sound mimicking the sound of a humming wasp, so that the laryngeal walls and the inner walls of the nostril mildly vibrate (Bhramari pranayama, respiratory rate 3/min). After 5 minutes of this exercise, the blood pressure and heart rate were recorded again. Both the systolic and diastolic blood pressure were found to be'decreased with a slight fall in heart rate. Fall of diastolic pressure and mean pressure were significant. The result indicated that slow pace Bhramari pranayama for 5 minutes, induced parasympathetic dominance on cardiovascular system.

Deep Neural Networks for Object Detection <=SEP=> Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have recently shown outstanding performance on image classification tasks [14]. In this paper we go one step further and address the problem of object detection using DNNs, that is not only classifying but also precisely localizing objects of various classes. We present a simple and yet powerful formulation of object detection as a regression problem to object bounding box masks. We define a multi-scale inference procedure which is able to produce high-resolution object detections at a low cost by a few network applications. State-of-the-art performance of the approach is shown on Pascal VOC.

Influence of Some Parameters on the Effectiveness of Induction Heating <=SEP=> We have investigated the effectiveness of heating conductive plates by induction in low frequencies analytically and numerically, in relation to the shape of the plate, the area of the region exposed to the magnetic flux, and the position of the exposed region with respect to the center of the plate. We considered both uniform and nonuniform magnetic fields. For plates with equivalent area exposed to the same uniform magnetic flux, the one with the most symmetrical shape is heated most effectively. If a coil is employed for the excitation, the results depend on the shape of the plate, the shape of the coil section, and the coil lift-off. When only the central region of a plate is exposed to a variable magnetic flux, there is a specific value of the exposed area for which the power dissipated in the plate material reaches a maximum. The most effective heating of a plate partially exposed occurs when the axis of the exciting coil is at the plate center.

Point-and-shoot memories: the influence of taking photos on memory for a museum tour. <=SEP=> Two studies examined whether photographing objects impacts what is remembered about them. Participants were led on a guided tour of an art museum and were directed to observe some objects and to photograph others. Results showed a photo-taking-impairment effect: If participants took a photo of each object as a whole, they remembered fewer objects and remembered fewer details about the objects and the objects' locations in the museum than if they instead only observed the objects and did not photograph them. However, when participants zoomed in to photograph a specific part of the object, their subsequent recognition and detail memory was not impaired, and, in fact, memory for features that were not zoomed in on was just as strong as memory for features that were zoomed in on. This finding highlights key differences between people's memory and the camera's "memory" and suggests that the additional attentional and cognitive processes engaged by this focused activity can eliminate the photo-taking-impairment effect.