A brief glimpse at a haptic target is sufficient for multisensory integration in reaching movements

In the planning of a movement, the brain has the opportunity to delay the incorporation of accuracy requirements of the motor plan in order to reduce the reaction time by up to 100 ms (average: 32 ms). Such shortening of reaction time is observed here when the first phase of the movement consists of a transport phase. This forces us to reconsider the hypothesis that motor plans are fully defined before movement onset.

Most existing tracking methods try to represent the target by exploiting visual information as much as possible based on the various deep networks. However, the appearance model hardly describes the attribute feature of the target well, which makes the trackers fail to adapt to the complex visual surrounding. In this article, inspired by brain-like intelligence, we propose an One-stream Vision-Language Memory network (OVLM) for object tracking. Firstly, we use the combination of vision and language to build the target model and use the semantic information in the language to compensate for the instability of visual information, making the target model more stable in the face of complex appearance changes. Secondly, to build a more compact target model, we propose a memory token selection mechanism that utilizes linguistic information to eliminate tokens that do not contain target information. Furthermore, to provide better visual information for target modeling, we propose a language-based evaluation method to select high-quality target samples to be stored in the memory. Finally, OVLM achieves a 64.7% success rate on the large-scale tracking benchmark dataset TNL2K, outperforming the previous best result (VLT) by 11.6%. By exposing the possibility of the vision-language memory network, we aim to draw greater attention to it and open up new avenues for vision-language tracking.

The utilization of visual information for the control of ongoing voluntary limb movements has been investigated for more than a century. Recently, online sensorimotor processes for the control of upper-limb reaches were hypothesized to include a distinct process related to the comparison of limb and target positions (i.e., limb-target regulation processes: Elliott et al. in Psychol Bull 136:1023-1044. doi: 10.1037/a0020958 , 2010). In the current study, this hypothesis was tested by presenting participants with brief windows of vision (20ms) when the real-time velocity of the reaching limb rose above selected velocity criteria. One experiment tested the perceptual judgments of endpoint bias (i.e., under- vs. over-shoot), and another experiment tested the shifts in endpoint distributions following an imperceptible target jump. Both experiments revealed that limb-target regulation processes take place at an optimal velocity or "sweet spot" between movement onset and peak limb velocity (i.e., 1.0m/s with the employed movement amplitude and duration). In contrast with pseudo-continuous models of online control (e.g., Elliott et al. in Hum Mov Sci 10:393-418. doi: 10.1016/0167-9457(91)90013-N , 1991), humans likely optimize online limb-target regulation processes by gathering visual information at a rather limited period of time, well in advance of peak limb velocity.

Introduction: Recent views posit that precise control of the interceptive timing can be achieved by combining on-line processing of visual information with predictions based on prior experience. Indeed, for interception of free-falling objects under gravity's effects, experimental evidence shows that time-to-contact predictions can be derived from an internal gravity representation in the vestibular cortex. However, whether the internal gravity model is fully engaged at the target motion outset or reinforced by visual motion processing at later stages of motion is not yet clear. Moreover, there is no conclusive evidence about the relative contribution of internalized gravity and optical information in determining the time-to-contact estimates. Methods: We sought to gain insight on this issue by asking 32 participants to intercept free falling objects approaching directly from above in virtual reality. Object motion had durations comprised between 800 and 1100ms and it could be either congruent with gravity (1g accelerated motion) or not (constant velocity or -1g decelerated motion). We analyzed accuracy and precision of the interceptive responses, and fitted them to Bayesian regression models, which included predictors related to the recruitment of a priori gravity information at different times during the target motion, as well as based on available optical information. Results: Consistent with the use of internalized gravity information, interception accuracy and precision were significantly higher with 1g motion. Moreover, Bayesian regression indicated that interceptive responses were predicted very closely by assuming engagement of the gravity prior 450ms after the motion onset, and that adding a predictor related to on-line processing of optical information improved only slightly the model predictive power. Discussion: Thus, engagement of a priori gravity information depended critically on the processing of the first 450 ms of visual motion information, exerting a predominant influence on the interceptive timing, compared to continuously available optical information. Finally, these results may support a parallel processing scheme for the control of interceptive timing.

This paper evaluates a system or system component, by manual or automated means to verify that the system satisfies specified set of requirements. The Test Management and Control involves three major activities; test planning, test execution and defect management which needs to be planned and monitored in a structured manner to ensure delivery of quality product adhering to all project timelines. The purpose of this document is to present the methods, procedures, and approach to be used in the verification and validation for Test Management & Control. It consists of important activities like defining all the testing methodologies in detail for the test planning and lay down a process and procedure so that test plan will reflect all the activities which are going to get executed during the execution phase. The Test execution phase is the actual verification phase where you need to monitor the test case execution closely, and make sure that you are well within the defined Upper Control Limit (UCL) and Lower Control Limit (LCL). During the test execution phase which is clearly planned during the test planning phase, any deviation from these UCL & LCL requires a revised plan so that the deliverables are not going to jeopardy. So once we have clearly defined all the rules of the game during the planning phase and work on the same during the execution phase, we can certainly make sure that the product delivered will of high quality product. Managing Defects is also one of the very important phases all along the testing cycle. We need to pay extra attention to the defects getting fixed during the last few days of the testing cycle, so as to maintain the stability of the product. Do not fix the minor defects at the end of the testing cycle, unless they are critical and severe.

The consistently successful delivery of projects remains an ambition that many organisations do not achieve. Whilst the reasons behind project failure are many, one recognised factor is the ‘planning fallacy’ – over-optimism in the planning phase of a project. Whilst the planning phase of a project may be a battle for acceptance and resource allocation, the execution phase is a battle for delivery. Based on both qualitative and quantitative data gathered from a project management simulation, this study set out to establish whether optimism bias persists beyond the planning phase and into the execution phase, and, if so, to explore the reasons why. The results confirm the extent and impact of optimism bias in initial project planning. More importantly, the contribution of this study is to demonstrate on-going or sustained false optimism.

Successful navigation through an environment requires precise monitoring of direction and distance traveled ("path integration" or "dead reckoning"). Previous studies in blindfolded human subjects showed that velocity information arising from vestibular and somatosensory signals can be used to reproduce passive linear displacements. In these studies, visual information was excluded as sensory cue. Yet, in our everyday life, visual information is very important and usually dominates vestibular and somatosensory cues. In the present study, we investigated whether visual signals can be used to discriminate and reproduce simulated linear displacements. In a first set of experiments, subjects viewed two sequences of linear motion and were asked in a 2AFC task to judge whether the travel distance in the second sequence was larger or shorter than in the first. Displacements in either movement sequence could be forward (f) or backward (b). Subjects were very accurate in discriminating travel distances. Average error was less than 3% and did not depend on displacements being into the same (ff, bb) or opposite direction (fb, bf). In a second set of experiments, subjects had to reproduce a previously seen forward motion (passive condition), either in light or in darkness, i.e., with or without visual feedback. Passive displacements had different velocity profiles (constant, sinusoidal, complex) and speeds and were performed across a textured ground plane, a 2-D plane of dots or through a 3-D cloud of dots. With visual feedback, subjects reproduced distances accurately. Accuracy did not depend on the kind of velocity profile in the passive condition. Subjects tended to reproduce distance by replicating the velocity profile of the passive displacement. Finally, in the condition without visual feedback, subjects reproduced the shape of the velocity profile, but used much higher speeds, resulting in a substantial overshoot of travel distance. Our results show that visual, vestibular, and somatosensory signals are used for path integration, following a common strategy: the use of the velocity profile during self-motion.

P 60. Using TMS to investigate the role of EBA during action planning

Visual information from talkers facilitates speech intelligibility for listeners when audibility is challenged by environmental noise and hearing loss. Less is known about how listeners actively process and attend to visual information from different talkers in complex multi-talker environments. This study tracked looking behavior in children with normal hearing (NH), mild bilateral hearing loss (MBHL), and unilateral hearing loss (UHL) in a complex multi-talker environment to examine the extent to which children look at talkers and whether looking patterns relate to performance on a speech-understanding task. It was hypothesized that performance would decrease as perceptual complexity increased and that children with hearing loss would perform more poorly than their peers with NH. Children with MBHL or UHL were expected to demonstrate greater attention to individual talkers during multi-talker exchanges, indicating that they were more likely to attempt to use visual information from talkers to assist in speech understanding in adverse acoustics. It also was of interest to examine whether MBHL, versus UHL, would differentially affect performance and looking behavior. Eighteen children with NH, eight children with MBHL, and 10 children with UHL participated (8-12 years). They followed audiovisual instructions for placing objects on a mat under three conditions: a single talker providing instructions via a video monitor, four possible talkers alternately providing instructions on separate monitors in front of the listener, and the same four talkers providing both target and nontarget information. Multi-talker background noise was presented at a 5 dB signal-to-noise ratio during testing. An eye tracker monitored looking behavior while children performed the experimental task. Behavioral task performance was higher for children with NH than for either group of children with hearing loss. There were no differences in performance between children with UHL and children with MBHL. Eye-tracker analysis revealed that children with NH looked more at the screens overall than did children with MBHL or UHL, though individual differences were greater in the groups with hearing loss. Listeners in all groups spent a small proportion of time looking at relevant screens as talkers spoke. Although looking was distributed across all screens, there was a bias toward the right side of the display. There was no relationship between overall looking behavior and performance on the task. The present study examined the processing of audiovisual speech in the context of a naturalistic task. Results demonstrated that children distributed their looking to a variety of sources during the task, but that children with NH were more likely to look at screens than were those with MBHL/UHL. However, all groups looked at the relevant talkers as they were speaking only a small proportion of the time. Despite variability in looking behavior, listeners were able to follow the audiovisual instructions and children with NH demonstrated better performance than children with MBHL/UHL. These results suggest that performance on some challenging multi-talker audiovisual tasks is not dependent on visual fixation to relevant talkers for children with NH or with MBHL/UHL.

Design concerns of room and pillar retreat panels

Planning and execution of voluntary movement depend on the contribution of distinct classes of neurons in primary motor and premotor areas. However, timing and pattern of activation of GABAergic cells during specific motor behaviors remain only partly understood. Here, we directly compared the response properties of putative pyramidal neurons (PNs) and GABAergic fast-spiking neurons (FSNs) during spontaneous licking and forelimb movements in male mice. Recordings centered on the face/mouth motor field of the anterolateral motor cortex (ALM) revealed that FSNs fire longer than PNs and earlier for licking, but not for forelimb movements. Computational analysis revealed that FSNs carry vastly more information than PNs about the onset of movement. While PNs differently modulate their discharge during distinct motor acts, most FSNs respond with a stereotyped increase in firing rate. Accordingly, the informational redundancy was greater among FSNs than PNs. Finally, optogenetic silencing of a subset of FSNs reduced spontaneous licking movement. These data suggest that a global rise of inhibition contributes to the initiation and execution of spontaneous motor actions.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Our study contributes to clarifying the causal role of fast-spiking neurons (FSNs) in driving initiation and execution of specific, spontaneous movements. Within the face/mouth motor field of mice premotor cortex, FSNs fire before pyramidal neurons (PNs) with a specific activation pattern: they reach their peak of activity earlier than PNs during the initiation of licking, but not of forelimb, movements; duration of FSNs activity is also greater and exhibits less selectivity for the movement type, as compared with that of PNs. Accordingly, FSNs appear to carry more redundant information than PNs. Optogenetic silencing of FSNs reduced spontaneous licking movement, suggesting that FSNs contribute to the initiation and execution of specific spontaneous movements, possibly by sculpting response selectivity of nearby PNs.

Technology Focus Our industry has overcome many difficulties during recent years. Successes have been achieved with drilling projects in sensitive environments, remote-access areas, and high-technological-demand projects. New technologies have been developed at a fast pace to fill the needs. Technologies that achieve better recovery with a simultaneous reduction in capital expenditure are preferred. The use of extended-reach and multilateral wells aligned with good drilling performance will reduce capital expenditures. Although the profiles of those wells become more complex, with long horizontal sections or multiple legs, better performance is possible through deployment of an integrated project team that appropriately addresses the drilling and completion challenges during the planning phase. Subjects such as wellbore stability, well cleanliness, multilateral junctions, appropriate sand control, openhole completions, inflow-control completions, and inflow-performance relationship must be analyzed carefully during the well-design phase. The project-team assessment during the execution phase must include the latest techniques in seismic interpretation, deployment of real-time logging tools to deal with reservoir heterogeneity, and real-time update of the Earth model. Real-time data are essential for management of equivalent circulating density because of the narrow margin between pore pressure and fracture gradient. The well-planning process must be complemented by an improvement in operational performance. New approaches with good quality control must be implemented urgently to reduce the nonproductive time (NPT) while drilling wells. Our industry faces performance problems with wells reaching an NPT index of more than 40% in the Gulf of Mexico. The responsibility for such a high NPT index can be shared equally by drilling contractors, service companies, and opera-tors. Today, NPT in offshore wells can reach an annual cost of approximately USD 70−90 million per rig, and this will be reduced only with improvement in maintenance, better engineering practice, and qualified personnel. Integrating the drilling engineers into the project team early, use of the latest technology, and focusing on operational excellence are essential for the industry success. Multilateral/Extended Reach additional reading available at the SPE eLibrary: www.spe.org SPE 115099 • "Technical, Economic, and Risk Analysis for a Multilateral Well" by D. Arcos, Texas A&M University, et al. SPE 119506 • "How Continuous Improvement Led to the Longest Horizontal Well in the World" by Kumud Sonowal, Maersk Oil Qatar, et al. SPE 116138 • "Multilaterals Drilling and Sustainable Openhole Production From Theory to Field Case Studies" by Son K. Hoang, University of Oklahoma, et al. SPE 115742 • "Advanced Wells: How To Make a Choice Between Passive and Active Inflow-Control Completions" by V.M. Birchenko, Heriot Watt University, et al.

_ This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 207011, “Healthy Caspian Experience Helps Boost Drilling Performance in Turkey’s Onshore UGS Project,” by Elchin Akbarli and Rufat Mammadbayli, SPE, SOCAR AQS. The paper has not been peer reviewed. _ In the complete paper, the authors describe an operator’s underground gas storage (UGS) project. The intent of the paper is to demonstrate the execution methodology and technologies that the company used to deliver the work on time and under budget. The authors outline planning, design, and drilling and completion strategies used during the execution phase. The authors add that the company’s experience in Caspian operations was of great benefit to the project. Introduction A plan was developed to expand a UGS facility in a salt cavern field. The main challenge of the project was the requirement to complete all wells within a short time frame with a limited budget while keeping the project economically feasible for the company without compromising safety and environmental protection. Geological risks and uncertainties required additional preliminary considerations, leading to a focus on the best methods available for the drilling and completion of 40 planned wells. A comprehensive cost analysis was performed to evaluate the approach. The operations were divided into three stages: tophole drilling, main drilling, and completion. Different types of rigs, with different capabilities depending upon the range of the work, were assigned for each phase. The plan involved three small truck-mounted mobile rigs to begin tophole drilling and run 30-in. conductor casings to isolate unconsolidated formations and freshwater zones. Then, six main rigs would be mobilized to perform the main stages of drilling; three completion rigs would finalize the project. The company’s Caspian experience applied to several technical aspects of the project, from optimization of drilling activities to planning and execution. The project presented many technical challenges, including geological hazards, deviation control, and strict requirements of well integrity for a long period of time. Rig Specifications for Drilling Stages A major decision point in the planning phase was to select different types of rigs to implement various drilling operations in a staged manner. Initially, 125-ton-capacity truck-mounted rigs began to drill 36-in. tophole sections and run 30-in. casings; then, the task was passed to main drilling rigs with installed 30-in. conductor casing. Top holes were drilled with three low-cost, low-capacity rigs to combat the high potential of lost-circulation problems that could be experienced with high-cost main drilling rigs. In the second stage, main drilling rigs with 225-ton and 300-ton capacity were involved for the next 26- and 17½-in. sections. In the third stage, low-capacity rigs were moved to the well locations to complete wells, either running the last leaching string of 10- and 7-in. casings or underreaming 12-in. to 17½-in. sections before running leaching strings.

PTB Reports,2021,7,2,40-43.DOI:10.5530/PTB.2021.7.8Published:September 2021Type:Review ArticleAuthors:Yousef Ahmed Alomi, and Anhar Mohammed Alyousef Author(s) affiliations:Yousef Ahmed Alomi*, BSc. Pharm, MSc. Clin Pharm, BCPS, BCNSP, DiBA, CDE, Critical Care Clinical Pharmacists, TPN Clinical Pharmacist, Freelancer Business Planner, Content Editor and Data Analyst, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Anhar Mohammed Alyousef, Pharm D. Innova health care company Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Abstract:Objectives: To declare the Infection control pharmacist as new initiatives in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methods: It is a new initiative project drove by national and international Infection control regulations and guidelines. The projects are formulated from the global business model, pharmacy project guidelines and professional project management elements. The initial project followed the project management professionals, including the initial phase, the planning phase, the execution phase and the monitoring and controlling phase. Results: The vision, mission and goals of the Infection control pharmacist are explored. The services had various benefits, including clinical and economical, on patients, as illustrated in the review. The continuous of the project revised by the risk management model description. Moreover, the monitoring and controlling of the services as declared. The transition to operation project through closing project stage explored in the analysis. Conclusion: The Infection control pharmacist is a new initiative and part of the clinical pharmacy specialties and pharmacy infection control services. The Infection control pharmacist meet the demand of pharmacy infection control, prevent infection control related problems and contribute during epidemic or pandemic and medical disaster; it is highly suggested to implement in Saudi Arabia Keywords:Infection control, Initiative, Pharmacist, Pharmacy, Saudi Arabia, ServicesView:PDF (155.96 KB) PDF PDF Images Infection Control Pharmacist: A New Initiative Project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Drilling operations in a deepwater environment is faced with several challenges in all phases, and the most common types of drilling problems encountered in deepwater are similar to those found in shallow water or land. Although water depth in itself does not create new sets of problems, it however introduces additional complexities and limits problem-solving options in some instances. The most notable of these complexities is the narrow pore pressure/fracture gradient margin that is frequently encountered in deepwater environments. The complexity of narrow margin is compounded in mature fields as depletion occurs, regardless of the production support mechanism. In extreme cases, the safe drilling window is narrower or non-existent, and as such necessitates appropriate mud weight selection and careful control of Equivalent Circulating Densities (ECD). Low mud weight can result in a kick or wellbore instability when the radial stress acting on the wellbore is insufficient. On the other end of the spectrum, high mud weight can cause formation fracture, exposing the wellbore to losses and well control event if not properly controlled. In the late life of the field, it transcends and exceeds the application of conventional drilling methods to deliver an economically viable deepwater well. While drilling with the added complexity of a narrow drilling margin in mature fields, conventional methods tend to be inefficient and cost-ineffective and as such changes in the magnitude of a paradigm shift are required. This paper presents some innovative approaches that can be employed in managing narrow margin drilling from the planning to execution phase of well delivery. It shows the collaboration and contribution of a cross-functional team in the planning phase, implementation of advanced drilling practices during execution phase and post drill optimization methods to deliver wells safely and within approved budget.