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The Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2) is the second generation of ROS representing a step forward in the robotic framework. Several new types of nodes and executor models are integral to control where, how, and when information is processed in the computational graph. This paper explores and benchmarks one of these new node types -- the Component node -- which allows nodes to be composed manually or dynamically into processes while retaining separation of concerns in a codebase for distributed development. Composition is shown to achieve a high degree of performance optimization, particularly valuable for resource-constrained systems and sensor processing pipelines, enabling distributed tasks that would not be otherwise possible in ROS 2. In this work, we briefly introduce the significance and design of node composition, then our contribution of benchmarking is provided to analyze its impact on robotic systems. Its compelling influence on performance is shown through several experiments on the latest Long Term Support (LTS) ROS 2 distribution, Humble Hawksbill., Comment: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2023

With the increasing availability of modern virtual reality (VR) headsets, the use and applications of VR technology for gaming purposes have become more pervasive than ever. Despite the growing popularity of VR gaming, user studies into how it might affect the player experience (PX) during the gameplay are scarce. Accordingly, the current study investigated the effects of VR gaming and game genre on PX. We compared PX metrics for two game genres, strategy (more interactive) and racing (less interactive), across two gaming platforms, VR and traditional desktop gaming. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the gaming platforms, played both a strategy and racing game on their corresponding platform, and provided PX ratings. Results revealed that, regardless of the game genre, participants in the VR gaming condition experienced a greater level of sense of presence than did those in the desktop gaming condition. That said, results showed that the two gaming platforms did not significantly differ from one another in PX ratings. As for the effect of game genre, participants provided greater PX ratings for the strategy game than for the racing game, regardless of whether the game was played on a VR headset or desktop computer. Collectively, these results indicate that although VR gaming affords a greater sense of presence in the game environment, this increase in presence does not seem to translate into a more satisfactory PX when playing either a strategy or racing game., Comment: 2019 IEEE Games, Entertainment, Media Conference (GEM)

Clinicians face several significant barriers to search and synthesize accurate, succinct, updated, and trustworthy medical information from several literature sources during the practice of medicine and patient care. In this talk, we will be presenting our research behind the development of a Focused Clinical Search Service, powered by a Healthcare Knowledge Graph, to interpret the query intent behind clinical search queries and retrieve relevant medical snippets from a diverse corpus of medical literature., Comment: Under Review as a Podium Talk at the AMIA Informatics Summit 2021

We investigate the distribution of major and trace elements in apatite crystals hosted in granular alkaline rocks composed mainly of leucite and clinopyroxene, representative of the hypabyssal crystallization of a magma body in the Quaternary ultra-potassic Colli Albani Volcanic District (CAVD), which was emplaced into thick limestone units along the Tyrrhenian margin of Italy. Results show that the analyzed crystals are the SrO-richest (up to 4.6 wt%) fluorapatite (F =2.6-3.7 wt%) of the Italian alkaline rocks. The strontium enrichment is caused by the lack of other Sr-compatible mineral phases, such as plagioclase, alkali feldspar and melilite, in these leucite- and clinopyroxene-bearing rocks. The studied samples show core-rim zoning with rims enriched in Si, S, and REE whereas the cores are enriched in Ca and P. The LREE-oxides contents of apatite, reaching 4.2 wt%, represent more than 95% of the total REE budget; SiO2 contents range from 1.3 to 3.6 wt%, and SO3 concentrations between 0.6 and 1.4 wt%.

Medical research is one area where collecting data is usually hard and expensive. With the launch of ResearchKit, Apple and Sage Bionetworks made large-scale personal data collection increasingly popular via simple text-based survey apps running on mobile phones. But such surveys can be a barrier in terms of usability and richness of the data being collected. In this paper, we present SDL-R X , a powerful software library designed for ResearchKit that enables study-specific, personalized, and rich visual surveys, for both iOS and Android platforms., Comment: Presented at the Data For Good Exchange 2016

This paper presents a graded hierarchy or chain of binary operations on the reals and the complex numbers. The operations are related distributively in the sense that any one of them distributes over the next lower operation in the chain. For one particular operation we explore specific properties and derive results, including several useful formulas and identities. Next, the operation is extended to the complex numbers and a new kind of derivative is defined based on this binary operation. Some basic formulae analogous to standard classical ones are proven for this new derivative. Finally, the derivative is generalized to the point that the new derivative, the classical one, and countably many others are seen to be special cases., Comment: 17 pages