Optimization of all-textile capacitive sensor array for smart chair

All-textile capacitive sensor arrays made of a polyurethane foam, fabric and electrically-conducting yarn were fabricated for a 'smart chair'. Polyurethane foam slab that functioned as a dielectric medium was encased between two pieces of commercially available fabric. The electrically-conducting yarn was used to embroider the capacitor electrodes on both fabric pieces. The completed sensor arrays were investigated under normal compressive load with the targeted pressure range of 2 to 30 kPa for the chair seat and 2 to 8 kPa for the backrest. The sensor capacitance versus normal compressive load exhibited a load/unload hysteresis for all sensor arrays. The hysteresis was modelled with sigmoid function and much narrower hysteresis was observed when all sensors were loaded simultaneously, as opposed to their individual loading, allowing development of a phenomenological model for the former. Among the studied sensor arrays, the array with dimensions of 30 cm 30 cm made of a 10-mm-thick polyurethane foam with density of 18.6 kg/m3 was the most suitable for the following reasons: (a) unloaded sensor capacitance was ~2.7 pF, (b) the sensor location did not affect its response, (c) ~10 kg load applied across individual sensor raised its capacitance by ~12 pF, and (d) 60 kg load applied uniformly across the whole sensor array increased the capacitance by ~5 pF. During the compression of the individual sensors the top fabric affected the sensor's electro-mechanical response and elastic fabric would be favored for applications with non-uniform pressure distribution

Low back pain in patients hospitalised with liver cirrhosis- a retrospective study

Abstract Background Lower back pain is a common issue, but little is known about the prevalence of pain in patients with liver cirrhosis during hospitalisation. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine lower back pain in patients with liver cirrhosis. Methods The sample consisted of patients with liver cirrhosis (n = 79; men n = 55; women n = 24; mean age = 55.79 ± 12.52 years). The hospitalised patients were mobile. The presence and intensity of pain were assessed in the lumbar spine during hospitalisation. The presence of pain was assessed using the visual analogue pain scale (0–10). The range of motion of the lower spine was assessed using the Schober and Stibor tests. Frailty was measured by Liver Frailty Index (LFI). The condition of liver disease was evaluated using The Model For the End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) and Child–Pugh score (CPS) and ascites classification. Student’s t test and Mann–Whitney test were used for analysis of the difference of group. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the Tukey post hoc test was used to test differences between categories of liver frailty index. The Kruskal–Wallis test was used to test pain distribution. Statistical significance was determined at the α-0.05 significance level. Result The prevalence of pain in patients with liver cirrhosis was 13.92% (n = 11), and the mean intensity of pain according to the visual analogue scale was 3.73 (± 1.90). Lower back pain was present in patients with ascites (15.91%; n = 7) and without ascites (11.43%; n = 4). The prevalence of lower back pain was not statistically significant between patients with and without ascites (p = 0,426). The base of Schober’s assessment mean score was 3.74 cm (± 1.81), and based on Stibor’s assessment mean score was 5.84 cm (± 2.23). Conclusion Lower back pain in patients with liver cirrhosis is a problem that requires attention. Restricted spinal mobility has been reported in patients with back pain, according to Stibor, compared to patients without pain. There was no difference in the incidence of pain in patients with and without ascites

Development of a reference material for analysing naturally occurring radioactive material from the steel industry

Accurate measurement of naturally occurring radionuclides in blast furnace slag, a by-product of the steel industry, is required for compliance with building regulations where it is often used as an ingredient in cement. A matrix reference blast furnace slag material has been developed to support traceability in these measurements. Raw material provided by a commercial producer underwent stability and homogeneity testing, as well as characterisation of matrix constituents, to provide a final candidate reference material. The radionuclide content was then determined during a comparison exercise that included 23 laboratories from 14 countries. Participants determined the activity per unit mass for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K using a range of techniques. The consensus values obtained from the power-moderated mean of the reported participant results were used as indicative activity per unit mass values for the three radionuclides: A0(226Ra) = 106.3 (34) Bq·kg−1, A0(232Th) = 130.0 (48) Bq·kg−1 and A0(40K) = 161 (11) Bq·kg−1 (where the number in parentheses is the numerical value of the combined standard uncertainty referred to the corresponding last digits of the quoted result). This exercise helps to address the current shortage of NORM industry reference materials, putting in place infrastructure for production of further reference materials.[Display omitted]•Current availability of reference materials for naturally occurring radioactive material has been expanded upon.•A blast furnace slag reference material has been developed to support the steel industry and regulations regarding its use in building materials.•A comparison exercise of 23 laboratories was used to determine consensus values for the activity per unit mass of selected radionuclides.•Infrastructure has been built for future development of reference materials in support of naturally occurring radioactive materials

State Of the Art Report in the fields of numerical analysis and scientific computing

This document provides an assessment of the current state-of-the-art for the DONUT work package. It is intended as a reference for the involved actors in EURAD and will be updated at the end of the project as new information becomes available. The prupose of this work package is to improve/develop methods or numerical tools in order to go a step further in development of (i) relevant, performant and cutting-edge numerical methods that can easily be implemented in existing or new tools, in order to carry out high-performance computing to facilitate the study of highly coupled processes in large systems. These methods and their implementation in tools will be mainly applied to reactive transport, 2-phase flow, and THM modelling in porous and fractured media; (ii) numerical scale transition schemes for coupled processes (meso1 to macro scale), supporting the study of specific multi-scale couplings such as chemo-mechanics; (iii) innovative numerical methods to carry out uncertainty and sensitivity analyses coupled processes.The readers have to keep in mind that this report is not reviewing all the existing codes, methods or tools that are available in the literature. It is rather written and oriented in the perspective of the research program that will be conducted by the different partners within DONUT. While some general statement are given, the research direction that will be followed by partners are outlined