On the correct determination of rotational angles for twisted-profiled sweep objects

In the context of the paper of V. Akman and A. Arslan, "Sweeping with All Graphical Ingredients in a Topological Picturebook" [Computers & Graphics, Vol. 16(3), pp. 273-281, 1992], a new construction of the rotational matrix is presented. This fixes a bug discovered by the first author. © 1994

Improving the validity of shod human footstrike modelling with dynamic loading conditions determined from biomechanical motion capture trials

This thesis presents and evaluates a number of finite element footstrike models developed to allow the performance of prospective athletic footwear designs to be evaluated in a virtual environment. Successful implementation of such models would reduce the industry’s traditional reliance on physical prototyping and therefore reduce the time and associated costs required to develop a product. All boundary conditions defined in each of the footstrike models reported were directly determined from biomechanical motion capture trials to ensure that the loading applied was representative of shod human running. Similarly, the results obtained with each model were compared to digitised high speed video footage of experimental trials and validated against biomechanical measures such as foot segment kinematics, ground reaction force and centre of pressure location. A simple model loaded with triaxial force profiles determined from the analysis of plantar pressure data was found to be capable of applying highly representative load magnitudes but the distribution of applied loading was found to be less accurate. Greater success at emulating the deformation that occurs in the footwear during an entire running footstrike was achieved with models employing kinematic foot segment boundary conditions although this approach was found to be highly sensitive to the initial orientation of the foot and footwear components, thus limiting the predictive capacity of such a methodology. A subsequent model was therefore developed to utilise exclusively kinetic load conditions determined from an inverse dynamic analysis of an experimental trial and demonstrated the greatest predictive capacity of all reported models. This was because the kinematics of the foot were allowed to adapt to the footwear conditions defined in the analysis with this approach. Finally, the reported finite element footstrike models were integrated with automated product optimisation techniques. A topology optimisation approach was first utilised to generate lightweight midsole components optimised for subject‐specific loading conditions whilst a similar shape optimisation methodology was subsequently used to refine the geometry of a novel footwear design in order to minimise the peak material strains predicted

Accurate Targeting of Liver Tumors in Stereotactic Radiation Therapy

This doctoral thesis concerns the treatment of liver cancer patients using external beam radiotherapy. The quality of this treatment greatly depends on delivering a high radiation dose to the tumor while keeping the dose as low as possible to surrounding healthy tissues. One of the major challenges is locating the tumor at the moment of dose delivery. In this ork, the uncertainty of locating the tumor was investigated. For this purpose, gold markers were implanted in the liver tissue and visualized on X-ray images. The markers were used to measure day-to-day tumor mobility and motion due to respiration. Furthermore, it was found that major improvements in the targeting accuracy can be achieved by using the markers for guiding the treatment procedure