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Engineering	50%

Selected Abstracts

MRI verified STN stimulation site , gait improvement and clinical outcome

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 5 2010
E. L. Johnsen
Background:, Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is effective in alleviating Parkinson's disease (PD) symptoms (tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia) and may improve gait and postural impairment associated with the disease. However, improvement of gait is not always as predictable as the clinical outcome. This may relate to the type of gait impairment or localization of the active DBS contact. Methods:, The active contact was visualized on peri-operative magnetic resonance imaging in 22 patients with idiopathic PD, consecutively treated with bilateral STN DBS. Stimulation site was grouped as either in the dorsal/ventral STN or medial/lateral hereof and anterior/posterior STN or medial/lateral hereof. The localization was compared with relative improvement of clinical outcome (UPDRS-III). In 10 patients, quantitative gait analyses were performed, and the improvement in gait performance was compared with stimulation site in the STN. Results:, Of 44 active contacts, 77% were inside the nucleus, 23% were medial hereof. Stimulation of the dorsal half improved UPDRS-III significantly more than ventral STN DBS (P = 0.02). However, there were no differences between anterior and posterior stimulation in the dorsal STN. Step velocity and length improved significantly more with dorsal stimulation compared with ventral stimulation (P = 0.03 and P = 0.02). Balance during gait was also more improved with dorsal stimulation compared with ventral stimulation. Conclusions:, Deep brain stimulation of the dorsal STN is superior to stimulation of the ventral STN. Possible different effects of stimulation inside the nucleus underline the need for exact knowledge of the active stimulation site position to target the most effective area. [source]

Prediction of cooling time in injection molding by means of a simplified semianalytical equation

ADVANCES IN POLYMER TECHNOLOGY, Issue 3 2003
D. M. Zarkadas
Abstract A simplified semianalytical equation, used successfully in food freezing/chilling time prediction, is proposed as a potential simple alternative for cooling time prediction in injection molding of polymer parts, amorphous or semicrystalline. This equation is based on a convective boundary condition for the mold-part interface and requires information on the thermal contact resistance (TCR) or thermal contact conductance (TCC) at this interface, as well as information on the initial and final product temperatures, the mold surface temperature, and the thermal properties of the part. Eighty-five data points for four polymers, Polystyrene (PS), Polycarbonate (PC), Polypropylene (PP), and Polyethylene (PE) were generated with C-MOLDÔ, a commercial injection molding design software, and the performance of the proposed equation was tested. The % mean error and its standard deviation (SD) in cooling time prediction were, respectively, ,11.61 and 2.27 for PS, ,6.04 and 2.13 for PC, ,7.27 and 6.55 for PP, and ,8.88 and 2.93 for PE. It was also shown that the accuracy of the proposed equation is not affected significantly by the exact knowledge of the TCC, provided that the latter is not smaller than 1000,2000 W m,2 K,1. Since in this comparison all necessary temperatures were obtained from C-MOLDÔ, methods of using the proposed equation independently were tested. The use of the inlet melt temperature as the initial product temperature increased the % mean error by mostly 1.5% while its SD remained practically the same. By incorporating a literature based heat balance method in the proposed equation, it was possible to use it as a stand-alone predictor of polymer cooling time. The % mean error and its SD calculated this way were, respectively, ,9.44 and 0.97 for PS, ,9.44 and 0.83 for PC, ,14.22 and 5 for PP, and ,20.12 and 1.38 for PE. The proposed equation, at least in a preliminary stage, can be used successfully to predict the cooling time of the selected semicrystalline or amorphous polymers with the accuracy being higher for amorphous polymers. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Adv Polym Techn 22: 188,208, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/adv.10048 [source]

Multi-objective learning control for robotic manipulator

JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS (FORMERLY JOURNAL OF ROBOTIC SYSTEMS), Issue 10 2004
Khin Kyu Kyu Win
Several types of learning controllers have been proposed in the literature to improve the tracking performance of robot manipulators. In most cases, the learning algorithms emphasize mainly on a single objective of learning a desired motion of the end-effector. In some applications, more than one objective may be specified at the same time. For example, a robot may be required to follow a desired trajectory (primary objective) and at the same time avoid an obstacle (secondary objective). Thus, multi-objective learning control can be more effective to realize the collision-free tasks. In this paper, a multi-objective learning control problem is formulated and solved. In the proposed learning control system, the primary objective is to track a desired end-effector's motion and several secondary objectives can be specified for the desired orientation and for obstacles avoidance. To avoid obstacles in the workspace, a new learning concept called "region learning control" is also proposed in this paper. The proposed learning controllers do not require the exact knowledge of robot kinematics and dynamics. Sufficient condition is presented to guarantee the convergence of the learning system. The proposed learning controllers are applied to a four-link planar redundant manipulator and simulation results are presented to illustrate the performance. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Untersuchung nichtlinearer Schwingungseigenschaften zur zerstörungsfreien Zustandsprüfung am Beispiel von Stahlbetonbalken

BETON- UND STAHLBETONBAU, Issue 9 2007
Markus Waltering Dipl.-Ing.
Ingenieurbauwerke, im Speziellen Straßen- und Bahnbrücken, sind ein unverzichtbarer Bestandteil der Infrastruktur eines Landes. Um eine möglichst lange und wirtschaftliche Nutzung dieser Bauwerke zu ermöglichen, werden an Brücken regelmäßige Inspektionen durchgeführt. Die herkömmliche und am weitesten verbreitete Methode der Zustandsanalyse ist die visuelle Prüfung durch erfahrene Ingenieure. Dabei können jedoch ausschließlich äußere Anzeichen einer Schädigung festgestellt werden. Je nach Bauwerksgröße kann eine entsprechende Prüfung Tage bis Wochen in Anspruch nehmen. In besonderen Fällen kommen sehr kosten- und zeitintensive Belastungsversuche zum Einsatz. Seit einigen Jahren kommen immer häufiger Methoden zur Anwendung, welche die dynamischen Eigenschaften zur Zustandsbewertung nutzen. Im Rahmen dieses Aufsatzes werden Versuche an Stahlbetonbalken vorgestellt, bei denen die Untersuchung nichtlinearen Schwingungsverhaltens im Vordergrund steht. Damit soll ein Beitrag für die mögliche und zukünftige Beurteilung des nichtlinearen Schwingungsverhaltens zur Zustandsbewertung im Rahmen von Brückeninspektionen geleistet werden. The Investigation of Nonlinear Dynamic Behaviour for Non-Destructive Damage Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Beams The detection of damages in civil engineering structures and bridges in particular is mainly done by visual examination. However, defects as for instance partial rupture of a prestressing cable or fatigue cracks in reinforcement can not be visually observed. It is well known that damage changes dynamic structural parameters like eigenfrequencies, eigenmodes and damping. However, the sensitivity to small damages is sometimes low. Therefore, as an alternative the occurrence and evaluation of non-linear dynamic behaviour is considered. The basic idea is that non-linear dynamic effects increase with growing cracks under forced excitation. The implementation of this idea in the regular inspection program of bridges presupposes exact knowledge of the eigenfrequencies of the undamaged structure that are also supposed to be force dependent. This paper presents the results of an experimental approach with three reinforced concrete beams of different damage states investigating the non-linear behaviour due to the excitation force. [source]