Reflections on Humanity from the Modern Vampirism

Vampirism is a very popular theme in modern novels, movies or other forms of literature genres. This paper tries to explore the development of vampirism literatures and by doing so makes some deep reflections on humanity from the modern vampirism.

Applications and research trends of digital human models in the manufacturing industry

Virtual reality(VR)has been widely used in various manufacturing industries,and VR-based virtual manufacturing has received significant attention in the current intelligent manufacturing era.Digital human models(DHMs)are essential for virtual manufacturing applications.Additionally,researching new applications of DHMs has developed into an important academic research field.This paper aims to identify the applications and research trends of DHMs in the manufacturing industry and to provide a reference for the continued development of virtual manufacturing and DHMs.We selected a total of 49 related articles from a large number of articles published between 2014 and 2019.The applications of DHMs in the manufacturing industry are analyzed from different perspectives and various relevant technical limitations are discussed.The results indicate that the applications of DHMs differ significantly between different types of fields.The automotive industry is the main application field for DHMs,and assembly/maintenance simulations and evaluations are the main application types.Additionally,there are still some limitations in the establishment of virtual environments,motion control,and DHM evaluation that should be addressed.Finally,research trends in the application of DHMs are illustrated and discussed,including the planning and assessment of human-robot collaboration systems,the combination of DHMs and augmented reality,and improved motion planning for DHMs.In summary,the application of DHMs can improve the realism and effectiveness of virtual manufacturing,and DHMs will be more widely and deeply studied and applied in various manufacturing industries in the near future.

3D Vector Reconstruction of the Typical Cervical Vertebra from Anatomical Sections of Korean Visible Human at the Laboratory of Clinical and Digital Anatomy of Paris Descartes University

Aim: To carry out a 3D vector reconstruction of the typical cervical vertebra from anatomical sections of the “Korean Visible Human” for educational purposes. Material and Methods: The anatomical subject was a 33-year-old Korean man who died of leukemia. He was 164 cm tall and weighed 55 kg. This man donated his body to science. Her body was frozen and cut into several anatomical sections after an MRI and CT scan. These anatomical sections were made using a special saw called a 0.2 mm thick cryomacrotome. Thus 8100 cuts were obtained. Only the sections numbered 940 to 1200 were used for our study. A segmentation by manual contouring of the different parts of the typical cervical vertebra was made using the software Winsurf version 3.5 on a laptop PC running Windows 7 equipped with a Ram of 8 gigas. Results: Our 3D vector model of the typical cervical vertebra is easily manipulated using the Acrobat 3DPDF interface. Each part of the vertebra accessible in a menu can be displayed, hidden or made transparent, and 3D labels are available as well as educational menus for learning anatomy. Conclusion: This original work constitutes a remarkable educational tool for the anatomical study of the typical cervical vertebra and can also be used as a 3D atlas for simulation purposes for training in therapeutic gestures.

Determination of the Deep Optical Properties of Healthy and Diseased Skin Using Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy

In this study, we focused on diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, a rapid and noninvasive spectroscopy technique that has considerable potential for medical diagnosis. In order to better understand and analyze the signals induced by this method, we performed a series of in vivo measurements on healthy and diseased skin. Measurement sites on a human hand and feet were chosen. Some preliminary results obtained on these sites show the feasibility of this technique in clinics.

Global Emerging Economies:Development Realities and Prospects

Economic globalization has catalyzed the global flow of economic factors and set the stage for the rise of fast-developing emerging economies with worldwide influence.Research has found that the emerging economies of China,Brazil,Russia,India,and South Africa have experienced significantly varying changes in their per capita GDP over time.Over the past decade,China has maintained a steady rate of economic growth with subdued volatility.In contrast,Brazil,Russia,India,and South Africa have all registered more volatility in their rates of growth.China has no significant correlation with other emerging economies in terms of imports and exports in goods and services and foreign direct investment(FDI),and their mutual influences are not evident.Going forward,for sustainable socio-economic development,China needs to optimize its industrial structure,promote the enhancement of ecological and institutional environments,and bring about all-round socio-economic progress,by initiating a new round of opening up at a higher level,broadening the space for international cooperation,building an open economy,promoting equal opportunity,and pursuing an inclusive path of growth.

At a Crossroad： The Human Imagination and Educating to Reality in Religious Education

There are many indications that prove that religious education, and the religious discourse to a large extent, have reached a critical crossroad. Demands for a non-religious common ground in society is having a strong impact on how conventional religious education is perceived. Further, the harsh criticism on the legitimacy of religious from humanistic and atheistic circles also points to the fact that religious education needs to be re-evaluated. The paper takes critical look at religion both as a historical and cultural phenomenon and as a construct of the human imagination. Based on this it aims at addressing the question： Can religious education be justified if the aim of education is to educate to reality？ The question will be answered by stating an argument that views religious education as an exercise in a healthy use of the human imagination as an intellectual reference, emotional nest, and the mind＇s eye. This argument will be analysed and debated and conclusion will be drawn.

Reflections on “Human Rights” and “Sense of Well-being”

Since the conceptual germina- tion of ＂human rights＂ in the modern age, the controversy over it and its connotationshave been constant. Scholars at home and abroad either attempt to interpret the connotation of human rights by em- phasizing the real social foundation of human rights from a political and eco- nomic perspective, or elaborate on the essence of human rights by focusing on traditional values and dignity from the angle of cultural and moral traditions. However, because of differences in sys- tem and culture in different countries,

On Naipaurs novels from reality and acuity

Naipaul＇s novels are real and acute, which reflect many countries and social realities, especially terrible lives and depressed emotions, including human interests, opinions, ideas, consciousnesses, self-acceptance, idea crisis, looking for identity, spiritual trouble, contradiction between religion and life, cultural conflict in colonized countries and post-colonized areas. Such novels are from actual realities, life facts, street matters with miscellaneous, vicissitudinous, and integrative skills and abilities.

The Criticism of Social Realities in the Human World of The Journey to the West

Given the descriptions of all those unworthy kings in the human world,The Journey to the West is more of a realistic work of fiction than a fantasy.Though the story comprises many superstitious elements,it is told in a very vivid and convincing way and it holds numerous indirect references to the conditions of the author's own day.The book is the author's most forceful means of criticizing the ugly appearances of the ruling classes of his time.

The Criticism of Social Realities in the Three Worlds after the Human World of The Journey to the West

The three worlds after the human world in The Journey to the West, in spite of their religious elements, their implicit moralizing, and their involved allegory, hold up a mirror to the social vices of the author's day, showing on the one hand the corruption, injustice, ava rice, lust, faction, perfidiousness and cruelty among the ruling classes, and on the other hand the miseries of the oppressed.

Evaluating the suitability of different terrains for sustaining human settlements according to the local elevation range in China using the ASTER GDEM

The topographical suitability assessment of human settlements(SAHS) creates a solid foundation for regional population distribution and socio-economic development. Local elevation range(LER) is an important factor that can be used to assess the suitability of different terrains for sustaining human settlements. However, current digital elevation model(DEM)-based LER products suffer from some challenges typically because of their subjectively selected neighborhood scales and coarser spatial resolution. In this study, we initially determined the optimal statistical window and then calculated the appropriate LER with the finer resolution data of the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global DEM(ASTER GDEM) products for China. Then, the appropriate LER was used to evaluate the topographical SAHS and its correlations with the national gridded population distribution(1 km × 1 km) in 2010. The results show that the optimal statistical window for calculating a 1 arc-second(about 30 m) resolution GDEM LER for China can be determined using a 51 × 51 grid unit(width × height) within a rectangular neighborhood, corresponding to an area of about 2.34 km^2. Secondly, the LER values in the southern and western China were greater than those of the north and east, showing a trend which consistently reflects the general spatial features of landforms. Finally, the relationship between GDEM LER and population density was highly correlated with the R^2 value of 0.81. It showed that 85.22% of the Chinese population was located in areas where the LER is lower than 500 m. The topographically suitable area within China decreased from the southeastern coastal zone towards the northwestern inland areas due to transition from plains and basins to plateaus and mountains. The total area of moderate to high suitable level was 423.84 × 10~4 km^2, or 44.15% of the total land area, with 88.17% of the national population. Our study demonstrates the usefulness of appropriate LER in evaluating the topographical SAHS as well as its significant impact on population distribution.

Image-based Virtual Exhibit and Its Extension to 3D

In this paper we introduce an image-based virtual exhibition system especially for clothing product. It can provide a powerful material substitution function, which is very useful for customization clothing-built. A novel color substitution algorithm and two texture morphing methods are designed to ensure realistic substitution result. To extend it to 3D, we need to do the model reconstruction based on photos. Thus we present an improved method for modeling human body. It deforms a generic model with shape details extracted from pictures to generate a new model. Our method begins with model image generation followed by silhouette extraction and segmentation. Then it builds a mapping between pixels inside every pair of silhouette segments in the model image and in the picture. Our mapping algorithm is based on a slice space representation that conforms to the natural features of human body.

The Application of Virtual Reality Technology to Ear Microsurgery

The broad application of virtual reality (VR) to medicine has been of great value. The virtual surgery is one of technically difficult applications. With the expansion of the increasingly fine and complicated ear microsurgery, new methods are required to train the doctors. It is necessary and of practical significance to apply VR to the ear micro-operation, which is a functional operation with high precision and great difficulties. In this article, medical VR applications were reviewed. The application of VR to the ear microsurgery was discussed and the virtual ear microsurgery system was designed.

Matlab Based Human & Hardware-in-Loop Simulation for the Study on Vehicle Stability Control

This paper described an effective method to implement human & hardware in the loop simulation(HHILS), which is based on MATLAB system and can be used to study human driving actions in the abrupt situation and vehicle stability control(VSC). A hybrid control algorithm, which makes full use of the advantages of robust control and fuzzy logic, was adopted in VSC system. The results of HHILS show that HHILS’ application on the vehicle handling and VSC resarch is feasible. These results also confirm that the handling performance of the vehicle with VSC is improved obviously compared to the vehicle without VSC.

Human Friendly Interface Design for Virtual Fitting Room Applications on Android Based Mobile Devices

This paper presents an image processing design flow for virtual fitting room (VFR) applications, targeting both personal computers and mobile devices. The proposed human friendly interface is implemented by a three-stage algorithm: Detection and sizing of the user's body, detection of reference points based on face detection and augmented reality markers, and superimposition of the clothing over the user's image. Compared to other existing VFR systems, key difference is the lack of any proprietary hardware components or peripherals. Proposed VFR is software based and designed to be universally compatible as long as the device has a camera. Furthermore, JAVA implementation on Android based mobile systems is computationally efficient and it can run in real-time on existing mobile devices.

Immersive Robot Control in Virtual Reality to Command Robots in Space Missions

We present an approach to control a semi-autonomous robot team remotely under low bandwidth conditions with a single operator. Our approach utilises virtual reality and autonomous robots to create an immersive user interface for multi-robot control. This saves a big amount of bandwidth, just because there is no need to transfer a constant steam of camera images. The virtual environment for control only has to be transferred once to the control station and only has to be updated when the map is out of date. Also, the camera position can easily be changed in virtual reality for more overview on the robots situation. The parts of this approach can easily be transferred to applications on earth e.g. for semi-autonomous robots in hazardous areas or under water applications.

Information in the Universal Triangle of Reality for Non-living/Living Structures:From Philosophy to Neuro/Life Sciences

With the purpose to understand better the role of information not only in communication systems,but actually in our environmental reality,this paper presented the model of Universal Triangle of Reality,composed by Matter,Energy and Information,as fundamental constitutive components of this reality.Arguments coming from the field of physics,both at the cosmic and microparticles scale are presented,showing undoubtable conclusions that information is a fundamental component of reality in our material world.At the cosmic level,where the unusual high concentration of mass in the black holes constitutes a special state of matter,suitable for analysis of their special properties,the problem of the conservation principle of information is discussed.At the quantum level,the special unusual characteristics derived from the non-localization principle are also highlighted,together with information-involved problems and solutions.The Universal Triangle of Reality in the living systems reveals the high role of the involved information,both as the informational common organization on the entire evolution scale,and as the info-dynamics processes inside of own structure and resulted from interaction with the environment.The relevant advances in the approaching and understanding of the functionality of the living systems from informational point of view are highlighted,showing the high contribution of information concepts in understanding/solving of various older/recent problems in philosophy,neuroscience/neurology/psychiatry,neuro-physics/neuropsychology/behavior sciences,geriatrics/gerontology,biology and life sciences.

Modeling and simulation of an anatomy teaching system

Specimen observation and dissection have been regarded as the best approach to teach anatomy,but due to the severe lack of anatomical specimens in recent years,the quality of anatomy teaching has been seriously affected.In order to disseminate anatomical knowledge effectively under such circumstances,this study discusses three key factors(modeling,perception,and interaction)involved in constructing virtual anatomy teaching systems in detail.To ensure the authenticity,integrity,and accuracy of modeling,detailed three-dimensional(3D)digital anatomical models are constructed using multi-scale data,such as the Chinese Visible Human dataset,clinical imaging data,tissue sections,and other sources.The anatomical knowledge ontology is built according to the needs of the particular teaching purposes.Various kinds of anatomical knowledge and 3D digital anatomical models are organically combined to construct virtual anatomy teaching system by means of virtual reality equipment and technology.The perception of knowledge is realized by the Yi Chuang Digital Human Anatomy Teaching System that we have created.The virtual interaction mode,which is similar to actual anatomical specimen observation and dissection,can enhance the transmissibility of anatomical knowledge.This virtual anatomy teaching system captures the three key factors.It can provide realistic and reusable teaching resources,expand the new medical education model,and effectively improve the quality of anatomy teaching.

The Skin Deformation of a 3D Virtual Human

This paper presents a skin deformation algorithm for creating 3D characters or virtual human models. The algorithm can be applied to rigid deformation, joint dependent localized deformation, skeleton driven deformation, cross contour deformation, and free-form deformation （FFD）. These deformations are computed and demonstrated with examples and the algorithm is applied to overcome the difficulties in mechanically simulating the motion of the human body by club-shape models. The techniques described in this article enables the reconstruction of dynamic human models that can be used in defining and representing the geometrical and kinematical characteristics of human motion.