The Dynamics of Perception in Caregiving: How Infants Change the Way We See the World.

Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in the American Midwest

The paper develops peripheralization as an approach to analyzing socio-spatial processes. Peripheralization refers to the social “making” of peripheral cities and regions. This is in contrast to definitions of spatial “peripheries”, which see them as a static and natural reality and refer mainly to thinly populated rural areas. Against this, the approach of peripheralization encompasses cities and city regions. For this purpose, out-migration, disconnection and dependence are distinguished in the fields of local/regional economy, infrastructure and politics. Policy-makers are challenged to react to these processes that can be seen as the complementary side to the centralization of economic and political headquarters, gateways, population, employment and services in metropolitan areas. In the second part, the paper describes strategic (re-)actions by local politicians and planners that have been analyzed empirically in six midsized cities in Germany. In the general context of economic globalization and the financial crises of most German municipalities, the authors discuss opportunities and problems for strategic planning in medium-sized cities to cope with peripheralization processes. English Title: Peripheralization – Processes, Problems and Strategies in Mid-Sized Cities

Compared with traditional robot laboratory, virtual robot laboratory integrates programming, modeling and controlling, which can assist related learning of robot courses more efficiently and directly under the condition of saving time and equipment cost. A concept of virtual robotics laboratory based on virtual robot platform V-REP is proposed in this paper. The laboratory is divided into coordinate transformation, positive and inverse kinematics, dynamics and trajectory planning. At the same time, virtual teaching tasks of comprehensive course design for robotics is also proposed to improve students’ capacity for designing virtual robots comprehensively and improve teaching quality.

MazeSuite 3: A design, presentation and analysis platform for spatial navigation, cognitive neuroscience and neuroengineering applications

Experiences of racism are linked to negative physical and mental health outcomes among those exposed. According to quantitative research derived mainly from the United States, these negative outcomes can have cascading effects in families, when parents' experiences of racism indirectly impact offspring. New research is warranted for families in the United Kingdom, informed by a qualitative approach to canvassing community knowledge and perspectives, exploring how existing findings relate to lived experiences. We conducted four online focus groups with 14 parents of school-aged children and 14 adolescents who had experienced racism in the United Kingdom. Participants were asked what children know of parents' experiences of racism, and how these experiences can impact parent-child interactions, mental health and well-being. Focus group recordings were transcribed, data coded and analysed through iterative categorisation. Analyses drew four themes from participants' insights. Together, themes illuminated the pervasive nature of racism experienced by some families in the United Kingdom. Parent and child experiences of racism were connected and co-occurring, with indirect effects impacting mental health and well-being in both generations. These experiences were linked to both positive and negative changes in parenting behaviour and parent-child relationships, which could be moderated by intersecting identities such as the parent's generational status for immigration to the United Kingdom. Social cohesion, safe spaces and education programmes were highlighted for future intervention. Findings corroborate existing literature, while further emphasising a broader bidirectional picture, requiring a family system and intersectional approach to understanding the mental health impact of racism in families. Avenues for future research are discussed to support development of equitable intervention and support strategies to prevent racism and support those affected.

This chapter investigates elites’ perceptions of potential external and internal threats to a cohesive Europe (enlargement of the EU to include Turkey, close relationships between some EU countries and the United States, interference of Russia in European affairs, increase in nationalism, immigration from non-EU states, negative effects of globalization on welfare, and economic and social differences among the EU member states). Results show nationalism and socio-economic differences to be perceived as the highest threats. Significant differences are found between perceptions of elites from EU founding member states and the new post-socialist EU member states; the perception of threats is not systematically stronger among political elites than among economic elites, although elites’ left–right political identification is a powerful predictor. Threat perception is also related to elites’ visions of Europe and articulated along three lines: cultural heritage, socio-economic order, and governance. Elites’ trust in the EU institutions decreases their perception of threats.

Not everyone engages in COVID‐19 related preventative health behaviors (PHB; e.g., mask wearing, social distancing) despite their demonstrated effectiveness for mitigating the spread of COVID‐19. In the United States, for instance, PHBs emerged as (and remain) a partisan issue. The current work examines partisan gaps in PHB by considering both informational and perceptual factors related to COVID‐19. Specifically, we focus on politically motivated belief in COVID‐19 (mis)information and simultaneously consider the roles of physical threat and disgust perception. We find that poor performance in misinformation accuracy judgments and subsequently lower COVID‐19 threat perceptions sequentially predict less PHB engagement. In Study 1 (N = 87 US undergraduate students), higher conservatism predicted lower COVID‐19 threat perceptions but not COVID‐19 disgust perceptions. Study 2 (N = 168 US undergraduate students) replicated this effect, while demonstrating that the relationship between stronger conservatism and lower engagement in PHB was mediated by higher accuracy judgments of COVID‐19 misinformation and, in turn, lower perceptions of COVID‐19 threat but not disgust. This suggests that considering threat perception is essential to understanding how politically motivated endorsement of COVID‐19 misinformation shapes PHB.

Complete sensorimotor integration and user acceptance of a neural prosthesis relies on system embodiment - the incorporation of an external system into one's own body schema and representation. Embodiment of neural prostheses is an ambiguous concept with limited approaches for quantifying human and machine integration in a meaningful way. In an attempt to understand human sensory integration with external systems, we measured neural activity in the somatosensory cortex of a participant with chronically implanted microelectrode arrays during sensory events tied to either a virtual robotic hand touching an object or a virtual lamp lighting up. Sensory stimulation was delivered using either skin vibration or intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) and was mapped to the virtual systems. Through the brain-machine interface, we observed quantifiable cortical activity corresponding to tactile sensations perceived during the virtual tasks and even during instances when neural stimulation was expected but not delivered, demonstrating the presence of sensory-related neural activity even in the absence of tactile stimulation. Evoked sensory expectation signals were also observed in the motor cortex, although at reduced amplitudes. Evoked cortical activity corresponding to expectation of a sensory input could serve as objective cortical markers for better understanding sensori-motor integration and perceptual experiences when connecting humans with external systems.

A predictive display method and man-virtual robot interaction based on augmented reality are applied to control a telerobot. We first discuss the process of the augmented reality environment development. Then, we present the advantages of predictive display. Simulation of virtual robot's tasks in the augmented environment improves the safety of the telerobot when it executes the planned tasks. In addition, the immediate feedback from the virtual robot avoids the exacerbation of maneuverability caused by time-delay. For a more natural operation process, we apply multi man-virtual robot interactive methods. Lastly, the experiment of pick & place is conducted to validate the system.

We present a suite of tools to model a robot, its sensors, and the surrounding environment in VR, with the goal of collecting training data for real-world robots. The virtual robot observes a rigged avatar created in our photogrammetry facility and embodying a VR user. We are particularly interested in verbal human/robot interactions, which can be combined with the robot's sensor data for grounded language learning. Because virtual scenes, tasks, and robots are easily reconfigured compared to their physical analogs, our approach proves extremely versatile in preparing a wide range of robot scenarios for an array of use cases.

Evolutionary programming of many systems has been demonstrated in the literature. In This work we use these techniques to program a virtual robot to build a wall out of blocks that impede progress in one direction across a grid of squares. Specifically, two methods for automatic program induction are compared on this task. Virtual blocks are presented one at a time in a fixed location on the grid. The robot must move the currently presented block to enable presentation of the next block as well as using the blocks to build the wall. An evolutionary algorithm operating on strings of actions for the task is used for baseline performance measurement. Evolutionary algorithms operating on GP-Automata and ISAc lists are then applied to the wall building task. In addition to broadening the palette of virtual robotics task, this permits us to compare these two representations for program induction. We study two versions of the wall building problem. The first, in which there are impenetrable walls at the boundary of the virtual world, is much easier than the second method that takes place on a virtual table-top where blocks and the robot may fall off. In addition to the usual randomized initialization, a technique for initializing evolutionary runs with already evolved solutions is presented for the string baseline and both program induction representations.

We analysed the spatial conditions for Car Dependency (CD) in three European cities and their suburbs, to investigate the following research question: What are the potential travel mode alternatives to the car, and how do they relate to actual travel behaviour? We defined CD as the lack of alternative transport modes to the car for reaching daily destinations. We selected three mid-sized city regions with different planning traditions and travel behaviour: Eindhoven, Southampton and Aachen. The results demonstrate that the differences in CD in the three cities are not substantial. The suburbs show a substantially higher CD than the city proper; however, when considering the e-bicycle as an alternative transport mode, this difference decreases. Daily amenities are largely within walking distance, in cities as well as in suburbs. For the daily commute there seems to be great potential for the (e)-bicycle as most employees, living both in the cities and their suburbs, currently live within 15 km of their jobs. Overall, our research shows that the differences in the actual modal split in the three cities cannot be explained by differences in the spatial conditions for CD.

Robot-assisted rehabilitation often makes use of virtual environments to present the therapy tasks. Virtual reality has the ability of providing valuable visual feedback and enjoyable interaction to the patients; therefore, the way they are displayed to users becomes crucial. Is the monitor size an important feature that influences how the task is perceived and thus affects patients’ performance?This study on healthy participants investigates the influence of displays in perceiving haptic effects. The participants performed an experiment using an end-effector robot, where they followed a moving target around a trajectory while disturbed by a simulated perturbation and assisted by an adaptive algorithm. The experiment was presented on two different monitors to assess whether a different size affects their performance. Statistically significant results show that the performance achieved with the large monitor features lower error compared to the small monitor, implying that large monitors might be a better solution for rehabilitation with virtual tasks and assistive robots.

IntroductionUse clinician perceptions to estimate the impact of a health information exchange (HIE) on emergency department (ED) care at four major hospital systems (HS) within a region. Use survey data provided by ED clinicians to estimate reduction in Medicare-allowable reimbursements (MARs) resulting from use of an HIE.MethodsWe conducted the study during a one-year period beginning in February 2012. Study sites included eleven EDs operated by four major HS in the region of a mid-sized Southeastern city, including one academic ED, five community hospital EDs, four free-standing EDs and 1 ED/Chest Pain Center (CPC) all of which participated in an HIE. The study design was observational, prospective using a voluntary, anonymous, online survey. Eligible participants included attending emergency physicians, residents, and mid-level providers (PA & NP). Survey items asked clinicians whether information obtained from the HIE changed resource use while caring for patients at the study sites and used branching logic to ascertain specific types of services avoided including laboratory/microbiology, radiology, consultations, and hospital admissions. Additional items asked how use of the HIE affected quality of care and length of stay. The survey was automated using a survey construction tool (REDCap Survey Software © 2010 Vanderbilt University). We calculated avoided MARs by multiplying the numbers and types of services reported to have been avoided. Average cost of an admission from the ED was based on direct cost trends for ED admissions within the region.ResultsDuring the 12-month study period we had 325,740 patient encounters and 7,525 logons to the HIE (utilization rate of 2.3%) by 231 ED clinicians practicing at the study sites. We collected 621 surveys representing 8.25% of logons of which 532 (85.7% of surveys) reported on patients who had information available in the HIE. Within this group the following services and MARs were reported to have been avoided [type of service: number of services; MARs]: Laboratory/Microbiology:187; $2,073, Radiology: 298; $475,840, Consultations: 61; $6,461, Hospital Admissions: 56; $551,282. Grand total of MARs avoided: $1,035,654; average $1,947 per patient who had information available in the HIE (Range: $1,491 – $2,395 between HS). Changes in management other than avoidance of a service were reported by 32.2% of participants. Participants stated that quality of care was improved for 89% of patients with information in the HIE. Eighty-two percent of participants reported that valuable time was saved with a mean time saved of 105 minutes.ConclusionObservational data provided by ED clinicians practicing at eleven EDs in a mid-sized Southeastern city showed an average reduction in MARs of $1,947 per patient who had information available in an HIE. The majority of reduced MARs were due to avoided radiology studies and hospital admissions. Over 80% of participants reported that quality of care was improved and valuable time was saved.

Background/Objectives: Despite extensive research on the outcomes faced by parents in contexts of political violence, as well as the protective factors that enhance their well-being, the experiences of single parents by choice (SPCs) in such circumstances have largely been neglected. This study sought to address this gap by examining the experiences of SPCs during the current phase of the Israel–Hamas war that began on 7 October 2023. Method: This qualitative study used a context-informed approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 Israeli SPCs (5 fathers and 6 mothers), including 2 displaced due to the destruction of their homes. All participants were secular Jews, predominantly middle- to upper-middle-class, aged 40–58, and had at least one child aged 15 months to 17 years. A thematic analysis method was utilized. Results: Two overarching themes emerged from the interviews, shaping participants’ wartime experiences: (1) the intensified challenges associated with parenting alone in the context of armed conflict and (2) the factors that mediated the impact of these challenges. Three key challenges identified by participants included: (1) persistent perceptions of danger and threat to life; (2) heightened financial insecurity; and (3) significant disruptions to daily routines. Three systemic-level protective factors were identified as instrumental in mitigating these challenges: (1) engagement in joint familial activities; (2) the presence of a supportive work environment; and (3) social and political engagement. These factors appeared to foster resilience and enhance participants’ psychological coping capacities amidst ongoing conflict. Conclusions: By highlighting the distinct stressors faced by SPCs in wartime and the factors mediating their impact on well-being, our findings extend the Stress Process Model to conflict settings, enhancing understanding of how single parenting is contextually shaped during major community crises. The findings may encourage clinicians and social workers to adopt a more nuanced approach when working with parents in conflict zones, enabling them to tailor interventions to the specific needs of different family structures. For SPCs, such interventions may include tele-counseling to provide psychosocial support and guidance for parents in supporting their children, without the need for childcare or travel, as well as advocacy for workplace policies that reduce financial and emotional vulnerabilities.