A longitudinal study of facial growth in infants using a three-dimensional imaging technique

This study aimed to measure the facial morphology and growth of 100 infants in the West of Scotland from the age of 3 months to 2 years using a three dimensional imaging system, C3D. One of the aims of the study was to validate the use of the C3D system to measure facial morphology in infants. Further aims were to establish references values for facial dimensions in infants, to establish the normal growth of facial parameters from 3 months to 2 years, to correlate facial and body growth, to ascertain any sexual dimorphism, to establish the degree of facial asymmetry and to determine any longitudinal changes in facial asymmetry in infant’s faces. Eighty three infants at 3 months, 93 infants at 6 months, 91 infants at 1 year and 92 infants at 2 years were successfully captured with a lips apart pose. Reference values for facial dimensions in infants at these ages were established. Significant gender differences were found for most facial measurements at all ages with the males being larger than the females. These differences were greatest for face height, depths and widths with mean differences ranging from 1.7 to 4.0 mm. No gender differences were found in any of the angles measured. Several dimensions on the right side of the face were found to be significantly larger than the left. This was most marked for face depths with mean differences of 0.8 mm. The range of normal facial asymmetry scores was determined. No significant difference in asymmetry was found between the males and females. The upper face was found to be the most asymmetric region studied and the nostrils were the least asymmetric. Correlation of facial measurements with body dimensions found weak but significant correlations with the highest correlation coefficient of 0.69 between face depth and body weight. Nasal tip protrusion, nostril dimensions and lip heights were not correlated with body dimensions. Seventy one infants, 37 males and 34 females, were successfully captured at all four ages with the lips apart and were included in the longitudinal analysis. The longitudinal changes in facial parameters were established from 3 months to 2 years and mean growth curves produced. The fastest growth was found from 3 to 6 months and the slowest from 1 to 2 years. There were no correlation between growth of the face and growth in body weight, length and head circumference. Significant reductions in the overall facial asymmetry score were found from 3 months to 2 years. The clinical significance of this reduction is still to be determined

Recent developments and advancements in solar air heaters: A detailed review

This is the final version. Available from MDPI via the DOI in this record. Data Availability Statement: Not applicable.The scientific literature extensively mentions the use of a solar air heater (SAH) by utilizing solar energy for heating purposes. The poor heat-transfer rate of an SAH with a flat plate is caused by developing a laminar sub-layer near the heated base plate. The plate temperatures improve significantly, resulting in losses and a decrease in performance. The passive approach entails the placement of fins/turbulators/pouring material/ribs to the surface where the boundary layer forms to disrupt it. Artificially roughened SAH for gathering and efficiently using solar radiations for thermal purposes is extensively described in the literature. This paper includes a thorough literature overview of the history, basics, roughness evolution, forms of SAH, and recent breakthroughs in thermal performance improvement techniques for SAH compiled by several researchers. This paper uses a comparative evaluation of several roughness geometries and kinds of SAH to uncover thermohydraulic performance factors that may be considered in future research to pick the optimal configuration

Adaptive and reconfigurable robotic gripper hands with a meso-scale gripping range

Grippers and robotic hands are essential and important end-effectors of robotic manipulators. Developing a gripper hand that can grasp a large variety of objects precisely and stably is still an aspiration even though research in this area has been carried out for several decades. This thesis provides a development approach and a series of gripper hands which can bridge the gap between micro-gripper and macro-gripper by extending the gripping range to the mesoscopic scale (meso-scale). Reconfigurable topology and variable mobility of the design offer versatility and adaptability for the changing environment and demands. By investigating human grasping behaviours and the unique structures of human hand, a CFB-based finger joint for anthropomorphic finger is developed to mimic a human finger with a large grasping range. The centrodes of CFB mechanism are explored and a contact-aided CFB mechanism is developed to increase stiffness of finger joints. An integrated gripper structure comprising cross four-bar (CFB) and remote-centre-of-motion (RCM) mechanisms is developed to mimic key functionalities of human hand. Kinematics and kinetostatic analyses of the CFB mechanism for multimode gripping are conducted to achieve passive-adjusting motion. A novel RCM-based finger with angular, parallel and underactuated motion is invented. Kinematics and stable gripping analyses of the RCM-based multi-motion finger are also investigated. The integrated design with CFB and RCM mechanisms provides a novel concept of a multi-mode gripper that aims to tackle the challenge of changing over for various sizes of objects gripping in mesoscopic scale range. Based on the novel designed mechanisms and design philosophy, a class of gripper hands in terms of adaptive meso-grippers, power-precision grippers and reconfigurable hands are developed. The novel features of the gripper hands are one degree of freedom (DoF), self-adaptive, reconfigurable and multi-mode. Prototypes are manufactured by 3D printing and the grasping abilities are tested to verify the design approach.EPSR

Computational model of the human urinary bladder

The proposal of an artificial bladder is still a challenge to overcome. Bladder cancer is among the most frequent cases of oncologic diseases in United States and Europe. It is considered a major medical problem once this disease has high rates of reoccurrence, often leading to the extirpation of this organ. The most refined solution to replace this organ is the ileal bladder, which consists of a neobladder made of the patient’s intestinal tissue. Unfortunately this solution presents not only functional mechanical problems, described on the literature as voiding and leaking problems, but also biological ones (i.e. bone loss, given the absorption by the intestine of substances that should be eliminated from the organism). Urged by the urological community of the Hospital Clinic de Barcelona and backgrounded by its experience in the numerical simulation of biomedical structures, the Center of Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) had the initiative to provide the research of the mechanics of the urinary bladder and the simulation of fluid structure interaction (FSI) to account for the filling and voiding of this organ with urine. The Finite Element Method (FEM) simulation of the real bladder and the comprehensive understanding of the mechanics of this organ and its interaction with urine will give the possibility to propose geometrical improvements and study suitable materials for an artificial solution to address the cases on which the bladder needs to be removed. To reach this goal, first we proceeded to the bibliographic review of mathematical models of the urinary apparatus and to a comprehensive study of the physiology and dynamics of the bladder. A review of the major urological structures, kidney, ureter and urethra, takes place. To consider boundary conditions other surrounding structures to the urinary system are also studied. In the second part of the thesis, we propose the numerical model to study the human urinary bladder. The behavior of the detrusor muscle during filling and voiding of the bladder with urine and its ability to promote the storage of urine under low pressure need to be accurately represented, requiring the implementation of a non-linear constitutive model. The mathematical model needs to be capable to simulate the mechanical variables that govern this organ and the properties of the urine. The nonlinear behavior of living tissues is implemented and validated with examples from the literature. The quasi-incompressibility property of urine and the navierstokes equations for the fluid are taken into account. The geometry of the bladder needs to be taken into account, and the implementation of a 3D computational model obtained from the computerized tomography of a cadaver male adult is considered. The data has been treated to consider boundary conditions. Two models have been conceived: one meshed with four nodes tetrahedral and another meshed with shell elements. FSI must work for the simulation of filling and voiding of the bladder. Due to the close densities of the materials the scheme used to solve fluid-structure needs to be carefully selected. The proposed numerical model and the filling and voiding analysis are finally validated with standardized urodynamic tests. The final part of the thesis, the simulation of a neobladder is presented, being the first step to simulate numerically artificial materials for bladder replacement

Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN

RESEARCH TOOLS AND THEIR USES FOR DETERMINING THE THERMAL INACTIVATION KINETICS OF SALMONELLA IN LOW-MOISTURE FOODS

The reputation of low-moisture foods as safe foods has been crumbling over the past decade due to repeated involvement in foodborne illness outbreaks. Although various pasteurization technologies exist, a majority are thermal processes and have not been well-characterized for pasteurizing low-moisture foods. In addition, the nature of a low-moisture food matrix introduces various experimental complications that are not encountered in high-moisture foods. In this dissertation, the development, building instructions, and characterization of various open source tools for studying the inactivation kinetics of microorganisms in low-moisture foods are described. The first tool is the TDT Sandwich, a dry heating device for measuring the thermal inactivation kinetics of microorganisms. The second tool is the HumidOSH, a self-contained environmental chamber for adjusting the water activity of food samples. Accompanying these tools are two studies that characterized the thermal inactivation kinetics of Salmonella and Enterococcus faecium NRRL-B2354 in whole milk powder and chia seeds. The TDT Sandwich was shown to produce thermal inactivation kinetics that are comparable with commonly used methods while also demonstrating less variation in microbial data collected with this tool. The comparison of model parameters using statistical tests of significance is discussed with the use of Monte Carlo simulations. E. faecium was shown to be a conservative surrogate to Salmonella in chia seeds. The variability between production lots of chia seeds was found to have a large impact on the inactivation kinetics of both Salmonella and E. faecium. The open source tools presented in this dissertation and the accompanying conclusions of the thermal inactivation studies can be used to accelerate scientific progress in understanding and improving the microbiological safety of low-moisture foods. Advisers: Dr. Curtis L. Weller and Dr. David D. Jone

Mission 73 - Summary and data catalog

Earth resources program geographic applications program summary, recommendations, and data catalog for remote sensor mission 7