Colored polydimethylsiloxane micropillar arrays for high throughput measurements of forces applied by genetic model organisms

Measuring forces applied by multi-cellular organisms is valuable in investigating biomechanics of their locomotion. Several technologies have been developed to measure such forces, for example, strain gauges, micro-machined sensors, and calibrated cantilevers. We introduce an innovative combination of techniques as a high throughput screening tool to assess forces applied by multiple genetic model organisms. First, we fabricated colored Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micropillars where the color enhances contrast making it easier to detect and track pillar displacement driven by the organism. Second, we developed a semiautomated graphical user interface to analyze the images for pillar displacement, thus reducing the analysis time for each animal to minutes. The addition of color reduced the Young's modulus of PDMS. Therefore, the dye-PDMS composite was characterized using Yeoh's hyperelastic model and the pillars were calibrated using a silicon based force sensor. We used our device to measure forces exerted by wild type and mutant Caenorhabditis elegans moving on an agarose surface. Wild type C. elegans exert an average force of similar to 1 mu N on an individual pillar and a total average force of similar to 7.68 mu N. We show that the middle of C. elegans exerts more force than its extremities. We find that C. elegans mutants with defective body wall muscles apply significantly lower force on individual pillars, while mutants defective in sensing externally applied mechanical forces still apply the same average force per pillar compared to wild type animals. Average forces applied per pillar are independent of the length, diameter, or cuticle stiffness of the animal. We also used the device to measure, for the first time, forces applied by Drosophila melanogaster larvae. Peristaltic waves occurred at 0.4Hz applying an average force of similar to 1.58 mu N on a single pillar. Our colored microfluidic device along with its displacement tracking software allows us to measure forces applied by multiple model organisms that crawl or slither to travel through their environment. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

Aireztapenen maiztasunaren neurketa bihotz biriketako berpiztean kapnografia erabiliz.

[EN]Hyperventilation, which is common both in-hospital and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, decreases coronary and cerebral perfusion contributing to poorer survival rates in both animals and humans. Current resucitation guidelines recommend continuous monitoring of exhaled carbon dioxide (CO2) during cardiopulmonary resucitation (CPR) and emphasize good quality of CPR, including ventilations at 8-10 min1. Most of commercial monitors/de- brilators incorporate methods to compute the respiratory rate based on capnography since it shows uctuations caused by ventilations. Chest compressions may induce artifacts in this signal making the calculation of the respiratory rate di cult. Nevertheless, the accuracy of these methods during CPR has not been documented yet. The aim of this project is to analyze whether the capnogram is reliable to compute ventilation rate during CPR. A total of 91 episodes, 63 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest episodes ( rst database) and 28 in-hospital cardiac arrest episodes (second database) were used to develop an algorithm to detect ventilations in the capnogram, and the nal aim is to provide an accurate ventilation rate for feedback purposes during CPR. Two graphic user interfaces were developed to make the analysis easier and another two were adapted to carry out this project. The use of this interfaces facilitates the managment of the databases and the calculation of the algorithm accuracy. In the rst database, as gold standard every ventilation was marked by visual inspection of both the impedance, which shows uctuations with every ventilation, and the capnography signal. In the second database, volume of the respiratory ow signal was used as gold standard to mark ventilation instants since it is not a ected by chest compressions. The capnogram was preprocessed to remove high frequency noise, and the rst di erence was computed to de ne the onset of inspiration and expiration. Then, morphological features were extracted and a decission algorithm built based on the extracted features to detect ventilation instants. Finally, ventilation rate was calculated using the detected instants of ventilation. According to the results obtained in this project, the capnogram can be reliably used to give feedback ventilation rate, and therefore, on hyperventilation in a resucitation scenario.

Report on the 1993 IFAC World Congress standards and guidelines session

This brief note reviews five papers which were presented at the 1993 IFAC World Congress, on the theme 'standards and guidelines for computer-aided control engineering (CACE)'. This session was organized as part of the CACE Software Standardization Initiative, a combined effort of the IFAC and IEEE Control System Society committees on standards. The motivation of this report is to note the substantial progress that was made in this initiative, and to provide the basis for further discussion and work. The papers under review were concerned with integrated design environments, the use of the EXPRESS language for defining standard data structures, database management, user interfaces, and the modeling and simulation of hybrid systems.

Evaluation of Setup Procedures on Mobile Devices Based on Users’ Initial Experience

Users’ initial perceptions of their competence are key motivational factors for further use. However, initial tasks on a mobile operating system (OS) require setup procedures, which are currently largely inconsistent, do not provide users with clear, visible and immediate feedback on their actions, and require significant adjustment time for first-time users. This paper reports on a study with ten users, carried out to better understand how both prior experience and initial interaction with two touchscreen mobile interfaces (Apple iOS and Google Android) affected setup task performance and motivation. The results show that the reactions to setup on mobile interfaces appear to be partially dependent on which device was experienced first. Initial experience with lower-complexity devices improves performance on higher-complexity devices, but not vice versa. Based on these results, the paper proposes six guidelines for designers to design more intuitive and motivating user interfaces (UI) for setup procedures. The preliminary results indicate that these guidelines can contribute to the design of more inclusive mobile platforms and further work to validate these findings is proposed.

基于混合自动机的Post-WIMP界面的建模

Post- WIMP界面作为继当前的主流界面范式—— WIMP界面后的下一代界面范式 ,它和 WIMP界面有着很大的不同 ,通过使用虚拟现实、语音交互、手势交互等技术 ,它能够提供更加自然高效的交互方式 .然而 ,它却难以构造 .为了有效地构造 Post- WIMP界面 ,在构造之前不考虑实现细节 ,而在一个抽象的层次上描述它是一个较好的方法 .首先 ,分析了 Post- WIMP界面的交互本质 ,交互混合性是 Post- WIMP界面一个最为重要的特点 .从形式化系统的角度分析 Post- WIMP界面 ,通过将 Post- WIMP界面抽象为混合系统能够更为准确和严格地分析Post- WIMP界面的特性 .混合自动机是用于描述混合系统的形式化工具 ,将 Post- WIMP界面建模为一组相互协作的混合自动机 .设计了一基于混合自动机理论的半形式化语言 L EAFF作为 Post- WIMP界面的描述工具 .LEAFF通过结合文本描述和图形描述描述 Post- WIMP界面中的交互行为 ,能够准确地反映交互中的控制关系、时序关系 .给出了对两个典型 Post- WIMP界面——虚拟现实交互和笔式交互的描述实例 ,同时讨论了 Post- WIMP界面中交互并行性的描述、交互实时性的验证和从描述到实际交互系统构造的转换 .

图形用户界面系统国际化的研究

国际化的GUI系统不仅仅要能够正确地显现多语言文本，而且要能够产生与文字书写方向相应的用户界面。目前主要的GUI库仅支持镜像，还不存在一个GUI框架既支持垂直文字又支持双向文字。在本文中，分析了开发国际化GUI系统过程中面临的问题，给出了一个层次模型来实现动态用户界面风格。

基于Qt的国际化图形用户界面设计与实现

一次开发多语言使用是国际化软件开发的主要目标。但是世界上的文字多种多样，它们的书写方向也有所不同，除了水平从左向右书写的英文、水平从右往左书写的阿拉伯文外，还有类似蒙古文这样垂直排列的文字，这对计算机图形用户界面提出了更高的要求，现有的计算机系统将这类垂直排列的文字沿水平方向输出，极不符合少数民族人民的习惯。在分析现有Qt库对类似阿拉伯文这样从右向左书写的文字的部分支持机制的基础上，我们设计并实现了支持四种方向模式的国际化的图形用户界面，现在它已经能够适应世界上几乎所有的文字。这对于软件国际化以及民族语言信息处理有重要意义。