Explosion Of Ideas Research Articles

Characterizing Continuous Manipulation Families for Dexterous Soft Robot Hands.

There has been an explosion of ideas in soft robotics over the past decade, resulting in unprecedented opportunities for end effector design. Soft robot hands offer benefits of low-cost, compliance, and customized design, with the promise of dexterity and robustness. The space of opportunities is vast and exciting. However, new tools are needed to understand the capabilities of such manipulators and to facilitate manipulation planning with soft manipulators that exhibit free-form deformations. To address this challenge, we introduce a sampling based approach to discover and model continuous families of manipulations for soft robot hands. We give an overview of the soft foam robots in production in our lab and describe novel algorithms developed to characterize manipulation families for such robots. Our approach consists of sampling a space of manipulation actions, constructing Gaussian Mixture Model representations covering successful regions, and refining the results to create continuous successful regions representing the manipulation family. The space of manipulation actions is very high dimensional; we consider models with and without dimensionality reduction and provide a rigorous approach to compare models across different dimensions by comparing coverage of an unbiased test dataset in the full dimensional parameter space. Results show that some dimensionality reduction is typically useful in populating the models, but without our technique, the amount of dimensionality reduction to use is difficult to predict ahead of time and can depend on the hand and task. The models we produce can be used to plan and carry out successful, robust manipulation actions and to compare competing robot hand designs.

Guest editorial: Nonlinear sensing

The past three decades have seen an explosion of ideas in the general field of nonlinear dynamics. In fact, it has become increasingly clear that areas as diverse as signal processing, lasers, molecular motors, and biomedical anomalies have a common underlying thread: the dynamics that underpin these systems are inherently nonlinear. Yet, while there has been significant progress in the theory of nonlinear phenomena under an assortment of system boundary conditions and preparations, there exist comparatively few measurement and instrumentation devices that actually take this rich behavior into account.

The physiological legacy of the Fenn, Rahn, and Otis school

Extraordinary advances in respiratory physiology occurred between 1941 and 1956 in the Department of Physiology, University of Rochester. These were principally the result of a collaboration between Wallace Fenn, Hermann Rahn, and Arthur Otis. Remarkably, all three scientists had worked in very dissimilar areas of physiology before and, by their own admission, were largely ignorant of respiratory physiology. However, because of the exigencies of war they were brought together to study the physiology of pressure breathing. The result was that they laid much of the foundations of pulmonary gas exchange and pulmonary mechanics and some of their work is still cited today. In pulmonary gas exchange they exploited the new oxygen-carbon dioxide diagram; clarified the effects of changes of altitude, hyperventilation, and pressure breathing; and pioneered the analysis of ventilation-perfusion relationships. In respiratory mechanics, they carried out groundbreaking work on the pressure-volume behavior of the lung and chest wall and went on to analyze aspects of gas flow and work of breathing. This explosion of ideas from what initially appeared to be a poorly prepared group has lessons for us today.

Art and the Moving Image

Designed to celebrate the Reina Sofia Museum's newly acquired collection of video, First Generation Art and Moving Image (1963-1986) is more than an exhibition--it is an experience. (1) There are thirty-two installations and wall projections along with a database of eighty videos that viewers can browse. exhibition and collection address the range of approaches artists used to explore the possibilities of this new time-based medium utilizing all of the entrances and exits on the third floor of the museum to channel the viewer through a historic survey that is international and inclusive, placing impressive works by lesser known artists next to those by household names. Both collection and exhibition are curated by Berta Sichel, director of the Audio Visual Department at the museum, which is located in Madrid. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the first room, the 1963 work by Wolf Vostell, 6-TV-De-Collage (reconstructed by Vostell in 1995), is paired with three works by Nam June Paik from the same year, when both artists were manipulating television signals. importance of their contributions to this very early phase is clearly recognized. Although Robert Whitman's 1953 installation The Bathroom Sink is a 16 mm film later transferred to video, it is included in this space to acknowledge his role in introducing the moving image to the art world. This sensitivity characterizes the exhibition. Each narrative is examined from multiple perspectives as if to question the very history it is presenting. It is a nonlinear journey through an explosion of ideas that are still fresh. Most of the works are from the 1970s, an era when popular culture and media culture were pivotal influences on artists who were seeking alternatives to high modernism. became a playground for video artists who manipulated the physical object and critiqued its content. Mary Lucier's Untitled Display System For Burned Vidicon Tubes (1975-77) uses monitors to display abstractions created by scarring the tubes while Eugenia Balcells's forty-eight channels of abstract images in TV Weave (1985) reduces broadcast television to a system of signs and symbols. Antoni Muntadas's Between Lines (1979) reinterprets the news by fragmenting the image, thus asking the viewer to question the information received. Dara Birnbaum's PM Magazine (1982) appropriates images, turning them into hyper media moments that ridicule their sources while seducing the viewer. David Hall's TV Interruptions appeared on Scottish television in 1971 unexplained and unexpected. large selection of works by women (twelve of the thirty-two installations) speaks to the vitality of feminism in challenging the status quo. In works by Marina Abramovic, Ana Bella Geiger, Joan Jonas, Ana Mendieta, Ulrike Rosenbach, Carolee Schneeman, and Hannah Wilke, the body is used in performance to define an emotional space as aggressive as it is urgent. These works, situated in close proximity to the minimalist approach of Gary Hill and Thierry Kuntzel, underline the gender politics of the era. In conjunction with the exhibition, there was a series of lectures on creating, collecting, and conserving video. There is also a catalog with eight essays, some of them reprints of seminal articles on video art. Primera Generacion, distinguished by impeccable research and an enlightening installation, presents an all too rare opportunity to experience the energy of a formative period whose ideas and influence are critical. I interviewed Sichel in Madrid in late January. I was curious how an institution begins a collection of historic works forty-five years into that history and how a curator's point of view expresses itself within that construct. PERRY BARD: Tell me about your background. When did you become interested in media? What were you looking at? BERTA SICHEL: In a way I was always interested in media because I have a BA in Journalism and a Master's degree in communications systems from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. …

The Early Innovators of Today's Resurfacing Condylar Knees

The 1970s saw an explosion of ideas in the field of prosthetic knee arthroplasty. This paper is an effort to identify the innovators who contributed to the development of today's condylar total knee prostheses and the surgical techniques used to insert them. The 1970s were selected because most innovations occurred during those years. Two different design approaches were undertaken simultaneously. One was a functional approach whereas the other was a strictly anatomical approach. Initially, these 2 approaches led to very different designs. But the common goal of recreating human knee function eventually led to more similarities than differences. The author describes how, when, and why these dedicated individuals came to their ideas. The work is largely based on interviews and correspondence with those involved as well as on reviews of patents and papers pertaining to their work.

Learning to compete: the value of internal benchmarking

It is becoming increasingly apparent that to remain competitive organizations need a high rate of internal learning. Successful organizational learning and knowledge management require internal processes to support them and a vision that values learning and knowledge. This paper examines learning by auditing in two manufacturing businesses and draws out lessons for managers. The two case studies presented are an aerospace component manufacturer wholly based in Australia and a global food packager with multiple plants around the world. The findings reinforce that knowledge management exposes an explosion of ideas that needs selective action and experienced facilitators if the organization is to benefit from learning by auditing. To stimulate learning data need to be converted to knowledge and couched in the language of the organization. The data must be collected in a meaningful way that is understood and accepted by the people involved and they need to be used to change existing practices in the organization.

Hot Topics: Globalization and Climate Change

Considering climate change and globalization together as a research topic can illuminate the structures and processes of both. Globalization and climate change theories can be categorized as economic, political, and cultural on one dimension, and on another dimension as emphasizing the conflicts between the global and national/local levels, the dominance of the global, or the hybrids and pastiches created by mixing the global and local. Climate change, as an issue that creates and is created by a global sense of the world, is bound up in both its analysis and its policy proposals with the same issues that confront globalization theorists. The proliferation of theories and analyses in globalization and climate change reflects the emerging nature of both areas of social scientific thought. Activities and 'flows are changing too rapidly to be satisfactorily categorized and mapped. Moreover, there are no clear advantages to one form of action, since all phenomena are multifaceted, with bundled positive, neutral, and negative characteristics. However, the very explosion of ideas and proposals reflects the energy and willingness to seek future directions that will bring increased well-being for both humans and the environment.

Expression of hematopoietic growth factor receptors on early hematopoietic precursors: detection and regulation.

Since the original isolation of colony-stimulating factors from human serum, conditioned medium of murine or human cell lines, or freshly isolated human mononuclear cells, a revolutionary explosion of ideas has occurred in our understanding of molecular controls of the hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. With the availability of techniques of molecular cloning in the early 1 980s, the first hematopoietically activated cytokines led to molecular clones expressed in bacteria, yeast, or mammalian cellular systems. There then followed a development of techniques leading to the molecular cloning and expression of many hematopoietic growth factors and their receptors, as well as the primary, secondary, and tertiary molecules in signal transduction into activation of specific genes for differentiation or self-renewal. The clinical use of these factors in the diagnosis, treatment, and incorporation into new cell therapies for a variety of diseases is a subject of current interest.

Invited essay: the challenge of differentiating normal and disordered personality.

By separating personality disorders from other psychiatric conditions and requiring mental health professionals to assess the personalities of all their patients, DSM-III Axis II created an explosion of ideas and research on the nature and structure of personality. Since 1980, theorists and researchers from previously segregated camps have come together to address a number of important taxonomic issues, including the relationship between normal and disordered character. In this article, we place the challenge of differentiating normal and abnormal personality in historical perspective, and outline major theories, models, and methods that inform personologists in their quest. The complexity of personality, and the differences in the way people view the subject matter, ensure that there will be several research lines in the next generation. Progress in the field can be quickened by refinements in theory, the development of more assessment instruments that tap both normal and abnormal traits, and empirical studies that follow well-match groups of normals and patients over significant time periods.

Conflict Resolution in Schools: An Explosion of Ideas

(1996). Conflict Resolution in Schools: An Explosion of Ideas. Pastoral Care in Education: Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 3-6.

Materials Education—A Renewal

Materials have always been interwoven throughout the very fabric of man's history. The present reawakening to the value and importance of materials, however, has become a dominant factor in manufacturing, national security, international competition and trade, consumer products (quality and reliability), and even education. Other renewals of interest have occurred over the centuries, probably beginning with the formation of the first pot from clay. These renewals were associated with discoveries such as copper, iron, and the transistor. However, in the past 40 years the base for renewed interest has broadened.A true coupling of science and engineering into the field of materials was probably initiated in the 1940s and 1950s. Emphasis at that time was on metals and the “new” semiconductors, with an interest that incubated and grew to where their central position in national economies and man's daily life was recognized. In 1970 the National Academy of Sciences appointed a committee to conduct a comprehensive analysis and assessment of the field of “materials science and engineering.” The COSMAT report which resulted from that study had a dramatic impact on the field and has been a frame of reference for the past 17 years. These years have seen a virtual explosion of ideas, processes, and materials in the field.