In the past two years my paintings have fluctuated from figuration to abstraction. Dense surfaces, physical weight, and sense of touch have been dominant characteristics of my work. I have tried to animate oil paint by pushing it to the outer edges of the painting support and by using it to perform unorthodox tasks. I have stretched the limits of oil paint, creating works that reference flesh and the figure even while the forms remain amorphous and minimal. My work is a way for me to question the meaning of material and spiritual transformation.

Title: Stereognosis assessment in the hands area of physiotherapy students. Objectives of work: The main objective of this dissertation is an evaluation of stereognosis functions of hands and also the influence from the practise of palpation skills on the stereognosis at a group of thirty physiotherapy students from the first-year bachelor's degree during two measurements at an interval of six months. Next aim is to compare results of these measurements and to evaluate potential changes. Methods: This dissertation work was made by form of clinical study. The evaluation criterion was time and perfection in performed tests. For the assessment of hand stereognosis at the research group were used 4 simple tests without using sight: test by Petrie - sort the balls by size, to recognise a foam made letters and to determine the roughness of sandpaper. Results: The results show that during the study of physiotherapy at students there has been a slight development in the stereognosis functions. The influence of somatosensory learning during the six months period helped to reduce the number of errors which have been made by probands while taking the assigned tests. Results indicate that regular and careful practise of palpation ability has a particular influence for development and improvement of...

Diversos estudos têm demonstrado a participação da ocitocina em promover a interação social presente no comportamento materno, sexual e interpessoal, bem como em processos de memória e aprendizagem. Recentemente, a influência da ocitocina sobre a modulação da percepção da dor também tem sido discutida. Estudos histológicos mostraram a presença de receptores de ocitocina em diferentes áreas cerebrais, como a substância cinzenta periaquedutal, envolvida no controle descendente da dor e o hipocampo, envolvido nos mecanismos de memória e aprendizagem aversiva. Este trabalho teve como objetivo investigar os efeitos centrais da ocitocina intranasal sobre a percepção somatossensorial e a memória da dor em humanos. O estudo foi realizado com 31 voluntários do sexo masculino, possuindo idades entre 18 e 45 anos. Para avaliar a influência da ocitocina sobre a percepção e a memória da dor, grupos placebo (solução salina) e experimental (ocitocina intranasal 24 UI ou 40 UI) foram submetidos a Testes de Quantificação Sensorial- QST, que envolveram a aplicação de estímulos térmicos (frio e calor) e mecânicos, a fim de identificar os limiares de detecção e de dor. A memória da dor percebida foi acessada pela Escala Visual Analógica, apresentada após a administração de ocitocina. Os resultados encontrados foram significativos para o efeito da ocitocina sobre o limiar de detecção mecânico (p<0,05), para o grupo ocitocina 40 UI. Ainda, foi possível observar uma tendência à atenuação da memória, frente ao estímulo doloroso frio (p= 0.09). Os demais testes realizados não apresentaram resultados significativos. Estes dados sugerem que a ocitocina, que também é liberada pelo toque não-nocivo, pode aumentar a percepção do toque cutâneo, favorecendo o estabelecimento de vínculos sociais, que são fortemente modulados pela ocitocina. Entretanto, não influencia na detecção de estímulos térmicos inócuos ou na detecção de dor mecânica e térmica, bem como na memória da dor ao calor e ao frio, apesar da clara tendência a uma possível modulação da memória da dor ao frio, o que sugere que os efeitos centrais da ocitocina podem influenciar seletivamente a memória da dor, dependendo da relevância psicobiológica do estímulo / In addition to its role in childbirth labor and lactation, oxytocin is a well-known neurohormone, having several prosocial effects. Moreover, oxytocin seems to play a significant modulatory role in painful experiences, due to its participation in central and peripheral processing of nociceptive somatosensory information. Histological studies have shown the presence of oxytocin receptors in different brain areas, such as periaqueductal gray matter, involved in descending pain control and the hippocampus, involved in memory mechanisms and aversive learning. This work aimed to investigate the effects of intranasal oxytocin on somatosensory perception and pain memory in humans. The participants were 31 healthy men (ages ranging from 18 to 45 years old). To evaluate the influence of oxytocin on the perception and memory of pain, placebo (saline) and experimental groups (intranasal oxytocin 24 IU or 40 IU) were submitted to QST- Quantitative Sensory Testing, which involved the application of thermal stimuli (cold and heat) and mechanical, in order to identify the thresholds of detection and pain. The memory of perceived pain was accessed by the Visual Analog Scale, presented after the administration of oxytocin. The results were significant for the effect of oxytocin on the mechanical detection threshold (p <0.05) for the oxytocin group 40 IU. The data showed a significant increase in tactile perception in an experimental 40 IU oxytocin group. We suggest that this effect could be the basis for the oxytocin-bonding effect via touch. Also, it was possible to observe a tendency to attenuation of the memory, in front of the cold painful stimulus (p = 0.09). The other tests performed did not present significant results. However, it does not influence the detection of harmless thermal stimuli or the detection of mechanical and thermal pain, as well as the memory of pain to heat and cold, despite the clear tendency to a possible modulation of pain memory to cold, suggesting that the central effects of oxytocin may selectively influence pain memory, depending on the psychobiological relevance of the stimulus

A dor é um dos sintomas que mais comprometem a produtividade, o bem estar e a qualidade de vida das pessoas, sobretudo dos idosos. Com o crescimento da utilização de Terapias Complementares para o seu tratamento surge a necessidade da realização de pesquisas que forneçam evidências sobre sua indicação e efetividade. Considerando a ampla utilização do Toque Terapêutico (TT) no tratamento complementar da dor decorrente de diversas condições clínicas e as críticas metodológicas aos resultados encontrados pelos autores, esta pesquisa buscou responder ao seguinte questionamento: Quais os efeitos do Toque Terapêutico sobre a dor inflamatória? Para tanto foi realizado um experimento utilizando o modelo de edema de pata induzido por Adjuvante Completo de Freund (CFA) em camundongos machos. A ação anti-inflamatória do TT foi verificada por meio de variação na dor, edema e migração de neutrófilos, antes e após a intervenção, aplicada durante 15 minutos, uma vez ao dia, por quatro dias. Os resultados apontaram aumento significativo no limiar nociceptivo mecânico e aumento na área do edema nas patas dos animais tratados com TT, no segundo dia de aplicação (p ? 0,05). A redução observada na migração de neutrófilos não foi estatisticamente significativa. Concluímos que a redução na dor corrobora os dados obtidos em estudos com seres humanos, com controle do efeito placebo. O modelo de edema de pata induzido por CFA é adequado à investigação experimental dos efeitos do TT sobre a dor inflamatória. Sugerimos a realização de novos experimentos para a elucidação dos mecanismos fisiológicos de ação envolvidos nos achados, sobretudo em decorrência do aumento do edema no grupo tratado com TT. / Pain is one of the symptoms that most endanger productivity, welfare and life quality of people, especially the elderly. With the increasing use of Complementary Therapies for its treatment there is the need to conduct studies that provide evidence about its indication and effectiveness. Considering the wide use of Therapeutic Touch (TT) in the adjunctive treatment of pain as a result of various clinical conditions and the methodological criticisms of the authors\' results, this research seeks to answer the following question: What are the effects of the Therapeutic Touch on inflammatory pain? For such, it was conducted an experiment using the model of paw edema induced by Freund\'s Complete Adjuvant (FCA) in male mice. The anti-inflammatory action of TT was verified by means of variation in pain, edema and neutrophilic migration, before and after the intervention, it was applied for 15 minutes once a day for four days. The results showed a significant increase in mechanical nociceptive threshold and an increase in the edema area in the paws of animals treated with TT, in the second day of treatment (p < 0.05). The observed reduction of neutrophilic migration was not statistically significant. It was concluded that the reduction in pain corroborates the data obtained in human studies, with control of the placebo effect. The model of paw edema induced by FCA is suitable for experimental investigation of the effects of TT on inflammatory pain. It is suggested further experiments to elucidate the physiological mechanisms of action underlying the findings, mainly due to the increase of edema in the group treated with TT.

We are studying the use of tilt-enabled handheld touchscreen devices as an interface for top-down strategy games. We will explore how using different input modes (tilt and touch) compare for certain tasks in terms of efficiency and comfort. Real-time and turn-based strategy games are a popular form of electronic gaming, though these games currently have only minor representation on tablets. This genre of game requires both a wide variety of input and the display of a wealth of information. We are exploring whether, with suitable interface developments, this genre can become as accessible on tablet devices as on traditional computers. These interface approaches may also prove useful for expanding the presence of other game genres in the mobile space.

Composed for the JACK Quartet during their Spring residency at BU during the week of Febuary 19-23, 2018. Recorded at the BU Concert Hall on Febuary 21, 2018. Composed between September 2016 - February 2018. duration: approx. 30 min. “ ccidentall , r’s finger touches Ch e’s, their feet, under the table, happen to against each other. W might be eng by the mean of these accidents; e might concentrate ph on these slight zones of contact and d l t in this fragm nt of inert finger or f , fet i tically, without concern for the re- sponse (like od——as t etym y of the word t lls us——the Fe does not reply). But in fact erthe is not pe e, he is in lov : h creates meaning, al ays and ev ry here, out of nothing, a it is meaning wh th ll im: is in crucible of meaning. Every contact, f r t lover, raises qu st on of n answer: the skin s asked to reply. “ Quand mon doigt par mégarde… ” (A squeeze of the hand——enormous documentation——a tiny gesture within the palm, a knee which doesn’t move away, an arm extended, as if quite naturally, along the back of a sofa and against which the other’s head gradu- ally comes to rest——this is the paradisiac realm of subtle and clandestine signs: a kind of festival not of the senses but of meaning.) ” Roland Barthes, A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments

Humans in the modern world can survive without the Aristotelian senses of vision, hearing, smell or taste, but no one is completely without the ability to sense touch. This sense is essential for everything from basic tasks like tool manipulation to the complex interactions that underlie social bonding, sexual reproduction and pleasure. Touch receptors are embedded in the skin, at the interface of our bodies and the world. A remarkable array of varied receptor types tile our skin to signal different features of the objects we touch and alert us to their shape and texture. An early investigator of the neurological basis of touch, Maximillian von Frey, proposed in 1895 that the morphological diversity of neural endings in the skin could represent functional specificity. It is indeed the evolution of diverse receptor structures that has endowed the sensory organ of our skin with remarkable somatosensory functions. Here I explore the evolution of mechanosensing, and discuss how diversity in form and organization of touch receptors, from the cellular to organismal level, can shape the function of touch reception.

The aim of this thesis was to examine fetal behavioural responses to auditory and tactile stimulation. Responses were examined for the second- and third-trimester fetuses (second-trimester ≤ 27 gestational weeks (wGA), third- trimester >27 wGA), in both experiments, respectively. Experiment 1 of this thesis examined fetal behavioural responses to the mother’s recorded and live voice, contrasting findings to an environmental sound and silent control conditions. Behavioural responses of 30 fetuses trimester (20-33 wGA, N = 13 in the 2nd and N = 17 in the 3rd trimester) Were examined in the following conditions were explored: (1) mother’s live, (2) and recorded voice, (3) an environmental sound, and (4) a silent control condition. Findings showed the strongest responses to maternal sounds as well as differential responses between gestational age groups. Younger fetuses displayed an arousal response to maternal voice, whereas third-trimester fetuses displayed an orientating response. The aim of Experiment 2 was to examine whether fetuses can differentiate between different human sources of tactile stimulation of the maternal abdomen. Behavioural responses of 28 fetuses (20-33 wGA, N = 15 in the 2nd and N = 13 in the 3rd trimester) were examined across four conditions: (1) mother’s, (2) father’s, and (3) stranger’s touch, as well as a (4) silent control condition. Differential responses to the tactile stimulation were found, especially in reaching of the uterine wall, and self- touch across the four conditions. Third- trimester fetuses touched the uterus wall for significantly longer than fetuses in the second-trimester. The strongest responses were found to the mother’s touch. Further differential responses were found between age groups, with third-trimester fetuses clearly differentiating between different sources of tactile stimulation, while second-trimester fetuses hardly showed differentiated responses. It is suggested that maturational differences in both experiments are due to the fetal development of the central nervous system, and might indicate the emergence of a proprioceptive self-awareness by the 3rd trimester.

In comparison with other methods assuming that multi-contacts between tool and object are point or line based contacts, our body-based haptic interaction model involves the intrinsic contacts with different tool/object materials acquired from the real world for the realistic haptic simulation. Our studies in interactive haptic deformations is to marry the merits of traditional deformable modeling techniques in computer graphics with force-enabled deformations guided by real-world physics laws, simulating the realistic tangible sensation of interactive haptic manipulation with user-specified constraints in touch-enabled virtual environments. The multi-resolution rendering framework developed in our system unifies the graphics/haptics rendering processes based on the construction of hierarchical imposter representations of surface and volumetric models, and the optimal haptic-scene performance at run time is employed to meet both the visual and haptic perceptual qualities. The proposed work is extensible to support users perceptually experience the virtual objects with different materials through the tangible interfaces in the augmented virtual worlds. In general, haptic perception and manipulation can be further constructed uniformly in the multi-resolution rendering framework. The future work includes investigating multiple force evaluation methods and haptic contact models and in addition integrating them into the unified haptic-scene framework, for the rich and dexterous experiences in large, touch-enable virtual environments. / The body-based haptic interaction model is proposed and developed for simulating the contacted forces between the haptic tools and interacting object, based on Hertz's theory establishing the intrinsic stress distribution related to real material properties. In comparison with the common force evaluation models, the proposed body-based haptic interaction model involves the intrinsic contacts with different tool/object materials acquired from the real world for the realistic haptics simulation. For adding the haptic sensations with touch-enabled soft objects, the thesis first studies multiple force-reflecting deformable objects in volume sculpting, then soft object deformation of Loop subdivision surfaces, and further the soft object freeform deformation through mass-spring Bezier volume lattice. The constrained haptic deformations based on the metaballs are experimented to effectively control the interactive force distribution within the influence range, making the deformable simulation of objects easy to control and manipulate. Lastly, the unified multi-resolution rendering framework of touch-enabled virtual environments is proposed and developed, with level-of-detail imposter representations of both graphics and haptics perceptions. The hierarchical graphics/haptics imposter descriptions of hybrid models (e.g. surfaces/volumes) within the virtual environment are constructed in advance, to maximize the optimal performance of the rendering processes during the interactive haptic-scene navigation and explorations. / This thesis dissertation is mainly devoted to investigate the realistic haptics techniques in touch-enabled virtual environments. It has three major parts: the body-based haptic interaction model to simulate the realistic, physical tool-object interactions based on Hertz's contact theory and applications; the realization of interactive haptic manipulation of deformable objects with volume/surface representations, and further development of constrained haptic deformations based on the metaballs; the integration of multi-resolution rendering framework with level-of-detail impostor representations of graphics and haptics objects, to support the optimal rendering performance during the interactive navigation of touch-enabled virtual environments. / Virtual Reality (VR) applications strive to simulate real or imaginary scenes with which users can interact and perceive the effects of their actions in real time. Adding haptic information such as vibration, tactile array, force feedback simulation enhances the sense of presence in virtual environments. Realistic haptic modeling & rendering is the core component in feeling and manipulating virtual objects within the virtual environments. Haptics interfaces present new challenges in data processing analysis, physical modeling, interactive visualization and tangible simulations, especially in the situation where it is crucial for the operators to touch, grasp and manipulate rigid/soft objects in the virtual worlds. / Chen Hui. / "April 2006." / Adviser: Hanqiu Sun. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: B, page: 6498. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-185). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Tactile sensors are the last frontier to robots that can handle everyday objects and interact with humans through contact. Robots are expected to recognize the properties of objects in order to handle them safely and efficiently in a variety of applications, such as health- and elder care, manufacturing, or high-risk environments. To be effective, such sensors have to sense the geometry of touched surfaces and objects, as well as any other relevant information for their tasks, such as forces, vibrations, and temperature, that allow them to safely and securely interact within an environment. Given the capability of humans to easily capture and interpret tactile data, one promising direction in order to produce enhanced robotic tactile sensors is to explore and imitate human tactile sensing capabilities. In this context, this thesis presents the design and hardware implementation issues related to the construction of a novel multimodal bio-inspired skin module for dynamic and static tactile surface characterization. Drawing inspiration from the type, functionality, and organization of cutaneous tactile elements in the human skin, the proposed solution determines the placement of two shallow sensors (a tactile array and a nine DOF magnetic, angular rate, and gravity system) and a deep pressure sensor within a flexible compliant structure, similar to the receptive field of the Pacinian mechanoreceptor. The benefit of using a compliant structure is tri-folded. First, the module has the capability of performing touch tasks on unknown surfaces, tackling the tactile inversion problem. The compliant structure guides deforming forces from its surface to the deep pressure sensor, while keeping track of the deformation of the structure using advantageously placed shallow sensors. Second, the module’s compliant structure and its embedded sensor placement provide useful data to overcome the problem of estimating non-normal forces, a significant challenge for the current generation of tactile sensing technologies. This capability allows accommodating sensing modalities essential for acquiring tactile images and classifying surfaces by vibrations and accelerations. Third, the compliant structure of the module also contributes to the relaxation of orientation constraints of end-effectors or other robotic parts carrying the module to contact surfaces of unknown objects. Issues related to the module calibration, its sensing capabilities and possible real-world applications are also presented.