Abstract: The hand is one of the essential parts of the body for
carrying out Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). Individuals use their
hands and fingers in everyday activities in the both the workplace
and home. Hand-intensive tasks require diverse and sometimes
extreme levels of exertion, depending on the action, movement or
manipulation involved. The authors have undertaken several studies
looking at grip choice and comfort. It is hoped that in providing
improved understanding of discomfort during ADLs this will aid in
the design of consumer products.
Previous work by the authors outlined a methodology for
calculating pain frequency and pain level for a range of tasks. From
an online survey undertaken by the authors with regards
manipulating objects during everyday tasks, tasks involving
gripping were seen to produce the highest levels of pain and
discomfort. Questioning of the participants showed that cleaning
tasks were seen to be ADL's that produced the highest levels of
discomfort, with women feeling higher levels of discomfort than
men.
This paper looks at the methodology for calculating pain
frequency and pain level with particular regards to gripping
activities. This methodology shows that activities such as mopping,
sweeping and hoovering shows the highest numbers of pain
frequency and pain level at 3112.5 frequency per month while the
pain level per person doing this action was 0.78.The study then uses
thin-film force sensors to analyze the force distribution in the hand
whilst hoovering and compares this for differing grip styles and
genders. Women were seen to have more of their hand under a
higher pressure than men when undertaking hoovering. This
suggests that women may feel greater discomfort than men since
their hand is at a higher pressure more of the time.
Abstract: In the classical buckling analysis of rectangular plates
subjected to the concurrent action of shear and uniaxial forces, the
Euler shear buckling stress is generally evaluated separately, so that
no influence on the shear buckling coefficient, due to the in-plane
tensile or compressive forces, is taken into account.
In this paper the buckling problem of simply supported rectangular
plates, under the combined action of shear and uniaxial forces, is
discussed from the beginning, in order to obtain new project formulas
for the shear buckling coefficient that take into account the presence
of uniaxial forces.
Furthermore, as the classical expression of the shear buckling
coefficient for simply supported rectangular plates is considered only
a “rough" approximation, as the exact one is defined by a system of
intersecting curves, the convergence and the goodness of the classical
solution are analyzed, too.
Finally, as the problem of the Euler shear buckling stress
evaluation is a very important topic for a variety of structures, (e.g.
ship ones), two numerical applications are carried out, in order to
highlight the role of the uniaxial stresses on the plating scantling
procedures and the goodness of the proposed formulas.
Abstract: We propose a fast and robust hierarchical face detection system which finds and localizes face images with a cascade of classifiers. Three modules contribute to the efficiency of our detector. First, heterogeneous feature descriptors are exploited to enrich feature types and feature numbers for face representation. Second, a PSO-Adaboost algorithm is proposed to efficiently select discriminative features from a large pool of available features and reinforce them into the final ensemble classifier. Compared with the standard exhaustive Adaboost for feature selection, the new PSOAdaboost algorithm reduces the training time up to 20 times. Finally, a three-stage hierarchical classifier framework is developed for rapid background removal. In particular, candidate face regions are detected more quickly by using a large size window in the first stage. Nonlinear SVM classifiers are used instead of decision stump functions in the last stage to remove those remaining complex nonface patterns that can not be rejected in the previous two stages. Experimental results show our detector achieves superior performance on the CMU+MIT frontal face dataset.
Abstract: The present study has been carried out with a view to calculate the coastal vulnerability index (CVI) to know the high and low sensitive areas and area of inundation due to future SLR. Both conventional and remotely sensed data were used and analyzed through the modelling technique. Out of the total study area, 8.26% is very high risk, 14.21% high, 9.36% medium, 22.46% low and 7.35% in the very low vulnerable category, due to costal components. Results of the inundation analysis indicate that 225.2 km² and 397 km² of the land area will be submerged by flooding at 1m and 10m inundation levels. The most severely affected sectors are expected to be the residential, industrial and recreational areas. As this coast is planned for future coastal developmental activities, measures such as industrializations, building regulation, urban growth planning and agriculture, development of an integrated coastal zone management, strict enforcement of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Act, monitoring of impacts and further research in this regard are recommended for the study area.
Abstract: Deformable active contours are widely used in
computer vision and image processing applications for image
segmentation, especially in biomedical image analysis. The active
contour or “snake" deforms towards a target object by controlling the
internal, image and constraint forces. However, if the contour
initialized with a lesser number of control points, there is a high
probability of surpassing the sharp corners of the object during
deformation of the contour. In this paper, a new technique is
proposed to construct the initial contour by incorporating prior
knowledge of significant corners of the object detected using the
Harris operator. This new reconstructed contour begins to deform, by
attracting the snake towards the targeted object, without missing the
corners. Experimental results with several synthetic images show the
ability of the new technique to deal with sharp corners with a high
accuracy than traditional methods.
Abstract: In this work a surgical simulator is produced which
enables a training otologist to conduct a virtual, real-time prosthetic
insertion. The simulator provides the Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon
with real-time visual and haptic responses during virtual cochlear
implantation into a 3D model of the human Scala Tympani (ST). The
parametric model is derived from measured data as published in the
literature and accounts for human morphological variance, such as
differences in cochlear shape, enabling patient-specific pre- operative
assessment. Haptic modeling techniques use real physical data and
insertion force measurements, to develop a force model which
mimics the physical behavior of an implant as it collides with the ST
walls during an insertion. Output force profiles are acquired from the
insertion studies conducted in the work, to validate the haptic model.
The simulator provides the user with real-time, quantitative insertion
force information and associated electrode position as user inserts the
virtual implant into the ST model. The information provided by this
study may also be of use to implant manufacturers for design
enhancements as well as for training specialists in optimal force
administration, using the simulator. The paper reports on the methods
for anatomical modeling and haptic algorithm development, with
focus on simulator design, development, optimization and validation.
The techniques may be transferrable to other medical applications
that involve prosthetic device insertions where user vision is
obstructed.
Abstract: The present paper proposes high performance nonlinear
force controllers for a servopneumatic real-time fatigue test
machine. A CompactRIO® controller was used, being fully
programmed using LabVIEW language. Fuzzy logic control
algorithms were evaluated to tune the integral and derivative
components in the development of hybrid controllers, namely a FLC
P and a hybrid FLC PID real-time-based controllers. Their
behaviours were described by using state diagrams. The main
contribution is to ensure a smooth transition between control states,
avoiding discrete transitions in controller outputs. Steady-state errors
lower than 1.5 N were reached, without retuning the controllers.
Good results were also obtained for sinusoidal tracking tasks from
1/¤Ç to 8/¤Ç Hz.
Abstract: This paper introduced the status quo of laws and
regulations of sustainable construction in China and investigated the
existing problems of current laws and regulations through
person-interviews in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Shenzhen in
China. The problems include incomplete legal system, lack of
guidance of higher-level laws, backward in some laws and regulations,
unclear legal liability and poor law enforcement. Aimed at these
problems, this paper also put forward some improvement approaches,
such as filling the legal gap, revising laws and regulations, establishing
incentive system and keeping pace with level of development.
Abstract: This paper studies the cultural creative industry's characteristics between the eastern and western of Zhejiang Province. Through the Comparative analysis, this paper works out that the cultural creative industry in western Zhejiang Province is mainly promoted by the inside force, and its level of development is obviously much lower than the eastern Zhejiang Province whose cultural creative industry is mainly pulled by outside forces. So this paper worked out some strategies for the development of cultural creative industry in western Zhejiang Province, which are based on the economic foundation and the cultural resource endowments. Finally these strategies will help to improve the whole development level of western Zhejiang Province, and contribute to the balance development between the west and east of Zhejiang Province.
Abstract: Time full of changes which is associated with globalization, tougher competition, changes in the structures of markets and economic downturn, that all force companies to think about their competitive advantages. These changes can bring the company a competitive advantage and that can help improve competitive position in the market. Policy of the European Union is focused on the fast growing innovative companies which quickly respond to market demands and consequently increase its competitiveness. To meet those objectives companies need the right conditions and support of their state.
Abstract: In this study, optimization is carried out to find the optimized design of a foam-filled column for the best Specific Energy Absorption (SEA) and Crush Force Efficiency (CFE). In order to maximize SEA, the optimization gives the value of 2.3 for column thickness and 151.7 for foam length. On the other hand to maximize CFE, the optimization gives the value of 1.1 for column thickness and 200 for foam length. Finite Element simulation is run by using this value and the SEA and CFE obtained 1237.76 J/kg and 0.92.
Abstract: The morphological parameter of a thin film surface
can be characterized by power spectral density (PSD) functions
which provides a better description to the topography than the RMS
roughness and imparts several useful information of the surface
including fractal and superstructure contributions. Through the
present study Nanoparticle copper/carbon composite films were
prepared by co-deposition of RF-Sputtering and RF-PECVD method
from acetylene gas and copper target. Surface morphology of thin
films is characterized by using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The
Carbon content of our films was obtained by Rutherford Back
Scattering (RBS) and it varied from .4% to 78%. The power values of
power spectral density (PSD) for the AFM data were determined by
the fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithms. We investigate the effect
of carbon on the roughness of thin films surface. Using such
information, roughness contributions of the surface have been
successfully extracted.