Design, fabrication and control of soft robots

Conventionally, engineers have employed rigid materials to fabricate precise, predictable robotic systems, which are easily modelled as rigid members connected at discrete joints. Natural systems, however, often match or exceed the performance of robotic systems with deformable bodies. Cephalopods, for example, achieve amazing feats of manipulation and locomotion without a skeleton; even vertebrates such as humans achieve dynamic gaits by storing elastic energy in their compliant bones and soft tissues. Inspired by nature, engineers have begun to explore the design and control of soft-bodied robots composed of compliant materials. This Review discusses recent developments in the emerging field of soft robotics.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant IIS-1226883

A systematic review of the effectiveness of self-management interventions in people with multiple sclerosis at improving depression, anxiety and quality of life.

BACKGROUND: Self-management interventions have become increasingly popular in the management of long-term health conditions; however, little is known about their impact on psychological well-being in people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). PURPOSE: To examine the effectiveness of self-management interventions on improving depression, anxiety and health related quality of life in people with MS. METHOD: A structured literature search was conducted for the years 2000 to 2016. The review process followed the PRISMA guidelines, and is registered with PROSPERO (no. CRD42016033925). RESULTS: The review identified 10 RCT trials that fulfilled selection criteria and quality appraisal. Self-management interventions improved health-related quality of life in 6 out of 7 studies, with some evidence of improvement in depression and anxiety symptoms. CONCLUSION: Although the results are promising more robust evaluation is required in order to determine the effectiveness of self-management interventions on depression, anxiety and quality of life in people with MS. Evaluation of the data was impeded by a number of methodological issues including incomplete content and delivery information for the intervention and the exclusion of participants representing the disease spectrum. Recommendations are made for service development and research quality improvement

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Not AvailableThe present study revealed the gene action and inheritance of yield and different yield attributing characters in bitter gourd. Six generations including P1 (DBGS-2) and P2 (Pusa Purvi), F1, F2, back cross 1 and back cross 2, were subjected to the generation mean analysis, scaling and joint scaling test. The results showed the presence of positive and significant additive effect (d) for the traits like days taken to first lateral, leaf length and width, peduncle length, pericarp thickness, seed number per fruit and yield. Among the two parents, DBGS-2 was observed as the higher yielding (25.86 tonne/ ha). Among the three inter-allelic interactions, the additive × additive [i] was observed significant for the traits like number of primary branches (2.71±1.21), leaf width (2.48±0.30), peduncle length (2.72±0.33), seed number per fruit (12.20±1.20) and yield (38.75±3.82). The duplicate type of epistasis was the observed as the predominant type for various traits studied. The correlation analysis revealed that yield was having significant, positive correlation with peduncle length (0.295) and seed number per fruit (0.269). It was observed that yield is a polygenic and complex trait, governed by many genes in a cumulative manner showing both additive and non-additive gene interaction.Not Availabl

Extrusion-Spheronization of Talc using Microcrystalline Cellulose as a Pellet Aid: Part I

NoThe aims of the present work were to pelletize talc by extrusion-spheronization technique using microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) as a pelletization aid and to study its performance as a neutral substrate for coating. A 32 factorial design was used to study the effect of independent variables (X1, amount of talc, and X2, MCC) on pellet properties