Volume 2 Issue 2
Authors: Frank Liou; Amogh Shenoy
Abstract: This paper focuses on the design and development of a fine microwire feeder for laser applications. The use of metallic wires as a medium of deposition has been popular in aerospace and car manufacturing industries. These micro sized wires are also gaining importance in medical and semi-conductor industries. The use of wire-feeders in laser welding and electrical discharge machining applications has been prominent. There are devices used in laser applications which can handle wires from 0.25mm to 10.0 mm in diameter. The handling of microsized wire in laser application is often considered difficult due to its low buckling strength exposure to harsh environment. The primary function of the microwire feeder described in this paper was to feed wires of varying microdiameters to a desired location with high accuracy and precision to be used in a laser aided manufacturing processes. This can be designed by dividing the microwire feeder into four basic sub-mechanisms: (1) feeding mechanism (2) transfer mechanism (3) precision guidance mechanism (4) adjustment mechanism. These sub-mechanisms are integrated to account for compactness, flexibility and precision. This microwire feeder is capable of handling wires as low as 0.05 mm in diameter. The precision and accuracy of the device was experimentally tested prior to its practical application. A case study on laser deposition was presented; where; a 316 stainless steel microwire of 0.125 mm diameter was fed into a melt pool of 0.2 mm. The wire feed and the traverse speed of the table were varied to achieve a uniformly distributed clad. The effect of wire feed and traverse speed were studied and a deposition process window was developed for future experimentation.
Keywords: Microwire Feeder, Design, Laser Metal Deposition
Authors: Hashem Yousefi; Mahmoud Baniasadi; Mostafa Rostami
Abstract: Myofascial force transmission was explained in different studies via extra, inter, and intramuscular pathways. In this work the role of fascia tissue around patellar tendon in force transmission was studied. In standard quasi static tension tests external loads were applied to stifle joint samples. Two types of experiments were performed, in which at the first one intact patellar tendon with tissue milieu was used as tissue sample, and at the second one its fascia tissue carefully removed. With applying a 5 mm axial displacement in both steps, results for force-displacement diagrams are collected. Compared results determined the linear distribution of transmitted force during the process. More than 15-20% decrement in total force transmission was observed by carefully removing the fascia tissue around the patellar tendon.
Keywords: Fascia Tissue; Patellar Tendon; Force Transmission; Tension Test; Axial Displacement
Authors: Siau-Chuin Liew; Syifak Izhar Hisham; Jasni Mohd Zain
Abstract: Digital watermarking is seen as a necessary and important field to be developed since the attacks and manipulations of digital documents and media are actively done. This paper surveys and reviews some basic theory about digital watermarking, such as the technique classification, requirements and possible attacks nowadays. Since all data in medical images are significantly important, the demand for the authentication is high. Therefore, this paper also focuses on a specific application of digital image watermarking for medical images which are tamper localization.
Keywords: Digital Watermarking; Tamper Localization; Medical Image; Tampering Detection; Review
Authors: C. Donald Combs
Abstract: The U.S. healthcare and higher education systems face long-standing challenges concerning effectiveness and cost-effectiveness that could be addressed by modeling and simulation. This will require the modeling and simulation industry to adapt through diversification, experimentation and the engagement of the leaders of these systems in effecting solutions.
Keywords: U.S. Healthcare System; U.S. Higher Education System; Modeling and Simulation; Business Competitiveness
Authors: M. Cerrolaza; M. Rupcich; R. Bravo
Abstract: The purpose of this work was to study the response of the gait of children who have had a hip arthrodesis. Nine patients (5 female - 4 male) whose average age is11 years and follow up of 2 to 6 year after the fusion, were evaluated. The gait analysis shows an increase of movement in both the sagittal and transverse plane. The 0°rotation of hip fusion is an ideal position to increase the step length of the contralateral hip as coping response, keeping the ipsilateral pelvis in external rotation.
Keywords: Hip Kinetics; Hip Kinematics; Gait Biomechanics; Joints; Arthrodesis
Authors: Mita Nasipuri; Dipak Kumar Basu; Pramit Ghosh; Debotosh Bhattacharjee
Abstract: Due to urban life style and nuclear family culture, overweight or obesity becomes an epidemic for the future generation, i.e. children. Due to fast lifestyle parents have not enough time to play with their children. As a consequence children are addicted with TV programs or computer games to fulfil their fantasy. The future generation of the society is not at all interested on the physical exercise, which causes the obesity, because extra calorie is deposited on the fat cells. This game addiction cannot be removed. The objective of this work is to control child overweight or obesity by means of introducing physical activity into computer or video game. The proposed system achieved 96% accuracy for the test sets used to test this system.
Keywords: BMI; Dilation; Erosion; Fuzzy Logic; HSI Colour Format; Laplacian Filter
Authors: Robert Malkin
Abstract: Many children become HIV+ due to mother-to-child transmission during home birth. This risk can be largely eliminated if infants ingest antiretroviral (ARV) medications immediately after birth. Unfortunately, there is currently no mechanism to provide dosed medication at a mothers first and perhaps only, antenatal care visit, months before delivery. We propose a foilized, polyethylene pouch to preserve pre-dosed ARV’s. In this work we show that pharmacists can fill and seal the pouch, the pouch can preserve the medication and HIV+ mothers can empty the pouch into a simulated infant’s mouth. A pharmacists in Moshi Tanzania was trained and then filled and sealed 60 pouches which were tested for their effect on the medication, their mechanical strength (burst and leakage) and their volume accuracy. Under laboratory conditions, pouches from two manufacturers were filled with AZT and NVP (two common ARV’s) and stored in conditions ranging from 25ºC/60% relative humidity (RH) to 40ºC/75% RH for twelve (AZT) or four (NVP) months. Sixty-one HIV+ mothers were asked to tear open pouches and empty the contents into plastic cups of approximately the size and shape of an infant’s mouth. No pharmacist sealed pouches burst or leaked (average percent weight loss maximum 0.080%). The AZT (102.2% of labeled concentration) and NVP (96.4%) in the pharmacist sealed pouches were stable. Pharmacist handling of the mediation did consume some of the sacrificial preservatives (72.4% remaining in AZT and 40.2% remaining for NVP) but not enough to affect the active ingredient. The same impurities were identified in the NVP and AZT samples sealed in Africa and the NVP and AZT samples removed from the bottles indicating that the pouches do not introduce impurities that are not already introduced from the bottle. The pharmacist filled pouches with an overall volume error of 0.13% +/- 6.6%. When the pouches were filled under laboratory conditions, there was no significant change in AZT (97.4% to 97.9%) or NVP (102.3% to 101.9%) concentrations after months of storage. All tested mothers were easily able to empty the contents of the pouch (89.8%: NVP, 89.7%, AZT) into the simulated mouth. We conclude that the pouch can be sealed by pharmacists in in realistic settings, the pouch can preserve the medication for months and HIV+ mothers can open the pouch and empty its contents.
Keywords: PMTCT; HIV; AIDS; Anti-Retroviral Preservation; Home Birth
Authors: Changmin Liao
Abstract: Today, there have been many protein databases available on the Internet, and different databases possess different missions and functions. To submit or search easily desired protein-related data, two most commonly employed protein databases were introduced in detail, including wwPDB (the Worldwide Protein Data Bank) and UniProt (the Universal Protein Resource). Additionally, several other protein databases were also mentioned simply. This paper is beneficial for these researchers working on protein-related studies.
Keywords: Protein; Database; wwPDB; UniProt