Desde meados do século XX, numerosos discursos e práticas, dentro e fora das disciplinas científicas e filosóficas, têm apresentado o desenvolvimento da noção de ser humano como um ‘sujeito ...cerebral’. O cérebro é concebido como a única parte do corpo que devemos possuir, e que deve ser nossa, para que sejamos nós mesmos. Já que a personalidade é a qualidade ou condição para ser considerado um indivíduo, a ‘cerebralidade’ é, dessa forma, a qualidade ou condição de ser um cérebro. Esta propriedade define o sujeito cerebral. A antropologia da ‘cerebralidade’ pode parecer uma conseqüência natural do progresso das neurociências – mas procede de desenvolvimentos das filosofias da matéria e da identidade pessoal do século XVII. As neurociências confirmam e reforçam esta perspectiva. O autor delineia a narrativa histórica relacionada ao desenvolvimento do sujeito cerebral assim como alguns temas contemporâneos que surgem a partir das neurociências.
This paper presents a procedure for classifying objects based on their compliance with information gathered using tactile sensors. Specifically, smart tactile sensors provide the raw moments of the ...tactile image when the object is squeezed and desqueezed. A set of simple parameters from moment-versus-time graphs are proposed as features, to build the input vector of a classifier. The extraction of these features was implemented in the field programmable gate array (FPGA) of a system on chip (SoC), while the classifier was implemented in its ARM core. Many different options were realized and analyzed, depending on their complexity and performance in terms of resource usage and accuracy of classification. A classification accuracy of over 94% was achieved for a set of 42 different classes. The proposed approach is intended for developing architectures with preprocessing on the embedded FPGA of smart tactile sensors, to obtain high performance in real-time complex robotic systems.
This paper reports on the progress of a wearable assistive technology (AT) device designed to enhance the independent, safe, and efficient mobility of blind and visually impaired pedestrians in ...outdoor environments. Such device exploits the smartphone’s positioning and computing capabilities to locate and guide users along urban settings. The necessary navigation instructions to reach a destination are encoded as vibrating patterns which are conveyed to the user via a foot-placed tactile interface. To determine the performance of the proposed AT device, two user experiments were conducted. The first one requested a group of 20 voluntary normally sighted subjects to recognize the feedback provided by the tactile-foot interface. The results showed recognition rates over 93%. The second experiment involved two blind voluntary subjects which were assisted to find target destinations along public urban pathways. Results show that the subjects successfully accomplished the task and suggest that blind and visually impaired pedestrians might find the AT device and its concept approach useful, friendly, fast to master, and easy to use.
The effect of oxygen concentration in the gasification agent was studied by enriched–air–steam biomass gasification tests in a bubbling fluidised-bed gasification (FBG) plant. The oxygen content in ...the enriched air was varied from 21% (v/v, i.e. air) to 40% (v/v), aiming at simulating FBG where enriched air is produced by membranes. The stoichiometric ratio (ratio of actual to stoichiometric oxygen flow rates) and steam-to-biomass ratio (ratio of steam to biomass, dry and ash-free, flow rates) were varied from 0.24 to 0.38 and from 0 to 0.63, respectively. The tests were conducted under simulated adiabatic and autothermal conditions, to reproduce the behaviour of larger industrial FBG. The temperature of the inlet gasification mixture was fixed consistently at 400 °C for all tests, a value that can be achieved by energy recovery from the off-gas in large FBG without tar condensation. It was shown that the enrichment of air from 21 to 40% v/v made it possible to increase the gasification efficiency from 54% to 68% and the lower heating value of the gas from 5 to 9.3 MJ/Nm
3, while reaching a maximum carbon conversion of 97%. The best conditions were found at intermediate values of steam-to-biomass ratio, specifically within the range 0.25–0.35. The enriched-air–steam gasification concept explored in this work seems to be an interesting option for the improvement of standalone direct air–blown FBG because it considerably improves the process efficiency while maintaining the costs relatively low as compared to oxygen-steam gasification.
The economic valuation of environmental resources is of great interest to society in general and to public managers in particular. It can promote more sustainable environmental policies, as it ...clearly shows the high economic value of natural resources. Thus, these valuation tools can provide useful evidence to support such policies by quantifying the economic value associated with the protection of such resources. However, there is an inherent difficulty in the implementation of methods to assess the economic valuation of environmental resources, mainly as a result of the absence of a market and hence a price that explains its social demand. However, both the travel cost method and the contingent valuation method used in this paper offer an approach to the economic values of the recreational services for wetlands. The aim is to analyze whether these values have been influenced by the economic crisis, so two time periods are compared separated for a decade. Results do not show an unequivocal influence between values in both periods, with different behaviors among natural areas, although with a certain tendency to increase in the decade being analyzed.
Background
This study aimed to investigate the putative role of the triglyceride‐glucose index (TyG index) computed as lnTG (mg/dl) × glucose (mg/dl)/2 and derived proxies as predictors of adiposity ...and weight loss changes after a low‐calorie diet (LCD) intervention.
Methods
A total of 744 adult participants from the multicentre DIOGenes intervention study were prescribed a LCD (800 kcal/day) during 8 weeks. Body composition and fat content at baseline and after 8 weeks were estimated by DEXA/BIA. A multivariate analysis approach was used to estimate the difference in ΔWeight1–2 (kg), ΔBMI1–2 (kg/m2) or ΔFat1–2 (%) between the basal value (point 1) and after 8 weeks following a LCD (point 2), respectively. The TyG index at baseline (TyG1), after following the LCD for 8 weeks (TyG2) or the TyG index differences between both time points (ΔTyG1–2) were analysed as predictors of weight and fat changes.
Results
TyG1 was associated with ΔWeight1–2 (kg) and ΔBMI1‐2 (kg/m2), with β = 0.812 (p = .017) and β = 0.265 (p = .018), respectively. Also, TyG2 values were inversely related to ΔFat1–2 (%), β = −1.473 (p = .015). Moreover, ΔTyG1–2 was associated with ΔWeight1–2 (kg) and ΔFat1–2 (%), β = 0.689 (p = .045) and β = 1.764 (p = .002), respectively. Furthermore, an association between TyG2 and resistance to fat loss was found (p = .015).
Conclusion
TyG1 index is a good predictor of weight loss induced by LCD. Moreover, TyG2 was closely related to resistance to fat loss, while ΔTyG1–2 values were positively associated with body fat changes. Therefore, TyG index and derived estimations could be used as markers of individualized responses to energy restriction and a surrogate of body composition outcomes in clinical/epidemiological settings in obesity conditions.
The radiative decays of
b
-baryons facilitate the direct measurement of photon helicity in
b
→
s
γ
transitions thus serving as an important test of physics beyond the Standard Model. In this paper we ...analyze the complete angular distribution of ground state
b
-baryon radiative decays to multibody final states assuming an initially polarized
b
-baryon sample. Our sensitivity study suggests that the photon polarization asymmetry can be extracted to a good accuracy along with a simultaneous measurement of the initial
b
-baryon polarization. With higher yields of
b
-baryons, achievable in subsequent runs of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), we find that the photon polarization measurement can play a pivotal role in constraining different new physics scenarios.
Gait analysis has many applications, and specifically can improve the control of prosthesis, exoskeletons, or Functional Electrical Stimulation systems. The use of canes is common to complement the ...assistance in these cases, and the synergy between upper and lower limbs can be exploited to obtain information about the gait. This is interesting especially in the case of unilateral assistance, for instance in the case of one side lower limb exoskeletons. If the cane is instrumented, it can hold sensors that otherwise should be attached to the body of the impaired user. This can ease the use of the assistive system in daily life as well as its acceptance. Moreover, Force Sensing Resistors (FSRs) are common in gait phase detection systems, and force sensors are also common in user intention detection. Therefore, a cane that incorporates FSRs on the handle can take advantage from the direct interface with the human and provide valuable information to implement real-time control. This is done in this paper, and the results confirm that many events are detected from variables derived from the readings of the FSRs that provide rich information about gait. However, a large inter-subject variability points to the need of tailored control systems.
We designed two psychophysical experiments to compare the cutaneous rabbit tactile illusion with a cutaneous rabbit recreated using sequential funneling tactile illusions. These illusions were ...rendered between a pair of actuators held with the hands. A tactile illusion is a psychophysical phenomenon that arises when the real stimulus does not match the perceived sensation. Designers exploit tactile illusions to efficiently increase the resolution of vibrotactile displays for human-computer interaction applications. Initially, participants qualitatively compared both rendering methods. Subsequently, individuals reported the upper threshold of the Inter-Stimulus Onset Interval (ISOI) for the cutaneous rabbit and the Time Between Funneling (TBF) illusions of the recreated cutaneous rabbit using funneling, when the illusion broke apart. The primary differences reported between both methods for rendering the cutaneous rabbit illusion were related to the perceived amount of jumps and duration. Overall, funneling performed better at evoking the illusion of a hopping rabbit, while both methods effectively conveyed direction sensations. Finally, the upper ISOI threshold we found for the cutaneous rabbit was consistent with the value reported in the literature, approximately 200 milliseconds, and was surpassed by the TBF of the recreated cutaneous rabbit using funneling.
The use of thermo-reversible Lewis Pair (LP) interactions in the formation of transient polymer networks is still greatly underexplored. In this work, we describe the synthesis and characterization ...of polydimethylsiloxane/polystyrene (PDMS/PS) blends that form dynamic Lewis acid-Lewis base adducts resulting in reversible crosslinks. Linear PS containing 10 mol % of di-2-thienylboryl pendant groups randomly distributed was obtained in a two-step one-pot functionalization reaction from silyl-functionalized PS, while ditelechelic PDMS with pyridyl groups at the chain-termini was directly obtained via thiol-ene "click" chemistry from commercially available vinyl-terminated PDMS. The resulting soft gels, formed after mixing solutions containing the PDMS and PS polymers, behave at room temperature as elastomeric solid-like materials with very high viscosity (47,300 Pa·s). We applied rheological measurements to study the thermal and time dependence of the viscoelastic moduli, and also assessed the reprocessability and self-healing behavior of the dry gel.
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