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Advances in digital fabrication have simultaneously created new capabilities while reinforcing outdated workflows that constrain how, and by whom, these fabrication tools are used. In this paper, we investigate how a new class of hybrid-controlled machines can collaborate with novice and expert users alike to yield a more lucid making experience. We demonstrate these ideas through our system, Turn-by-Wire. By combining the capabilities of a traditional lathe with haptic input controllers that modulate both position and force, we detail a series of novel interaction metaphors that invite a more fluid making process spanning digital, model-centric, computer control, and embodied, adaptive, human control. We evaluate our system through a user study and discuss how these concepts generalize to other fabrication tools.

Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) are increasingly threatening public health. Most animal models of AD consist of transgenic mice that are usually housed singly or in unisexual groups in small barren cages. Such restricted environments, however, prevent the mice from showing a variety of species-specific behaviors and consequently may constrain comprehensive behavioral phenotyping. On the other hand, allowing the animals to freely organize their lives in a spacious physically and socially enriched environment makes behavioral phenotyping laborious and time consuming. Radio frequency identification (RFID) using a network of antennae and small glass-coated transponders labeling each individual allows for gathering spatiotemporal information about a large number of individuals in parallel. The aim of this project was to use the RFID technique to facilitate the characterization of mice carrying a genetic disposition to develop AD-like pathology and of their wild-type conspecifics in a spacious seminaturalistic environment.

Objective: To determine the ability to recover human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) from the plasma and mononuclear cell (MNC) fractions of postmortem blood samples from patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome., Design: Blood was randomly cultured post mortem from 41 patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Plasma and MNC cultures were performed as well as serum antigen assays. Evaluation parameters included MNC recovery, MNC viability, time of sample collection after death, time of inoculation of coculture following sample acquisition, and storage conditions of the body (ie, refrigeration vs nonrefrigeration)., Setting: Blood samples were obtained from patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome being prepared for burial at metropolitan area funeral homes., Patients: Postmortem samples were obtained from 41 patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome., Main Outcome Measure: Virus recovery from either cells or plasma., Results: Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 was recovered from 21 (51%) of 41 patients at 0.5 to 21.25 hours postmortem. Recovery of HIV-1 from plasma and/or MNC fractions was variable with 6 (15%) of 41 plasma+/MNC+, 12 (29%) of 41 plasma-/MNC+, three (7%) of 41 plasma+/MNC-, and 20 (49%) of 41 plasma-/MNC-. Plasma p24 levels (> 30 pg/mL) were detectable in 14 (48%) of 37 samples tested. Of those culture-positive patients, seven (33%) of 21 were refrigerated compared with the culture-negative group in which 10 (50%) of 20 were refrigerated. Time from death until specimen acquisition was the only factor significantly associated with recovery of HIV-1., Conclusion: These results should be useful for health care workers and others exposed to postmortem blood from HIV-infected individuals and should lead to changes in the processing practices of morticians and/or pathologists for HIV-1-infected cadavers.