Design and development of a weight support device for upper limb stroke rehabilitation

Upper limb recovery following a stroke is generally quite poor. Upper limb therapy at clinic is usually limited due to lack of time and resources to accommodate the growing stroke population. Consequently, a small percentage of therapy is spent on improving upper limb movement and is generally limited to range of motion and stretching exercises. As a result, upper limb exercises are prescribed to stroke survivors to perform at home. Subsequently, the potential to facilitate self-practice at home has been realized leading to the development of numerous rehabilitative and assistive devices for the upper limb. However, commercially available devices do not tend to be adopted for home use due to practical and economic factors. This thesis details the design, development, and evaluation of a weight support device for home-based upper limb rehabilitation, driven through a user-designed approach. This was achieved through engaging with stakeholders (i.e. stroke survivors, therapists) throughout the design process via informal interviews, focus groups, and prototype testing, ensuring that their desired requirements were incorporated into the final device. From this process, a low-cost, portable, weight support device was manufactured with supports for both the upper arm and forearm. Furthermore, an external feedback system was created to provide real-time feedback to the user to help motivate and encourage them to engage in independent practice at home with the weight support device. Testing the device and feedback system with participants in their home environment showed that it was acceptable for home use, suggesting that it could be feasible for aiding with the facilitation of self-practice. Further refinements towards range of motion and portability of the device will be required as desired by participants in addition to providing a diverse range of feedback applications to engage with.Upper limb recovery following a stroke is generally quite poor. Upper limb therapy at clinic is usually limited due to lack of time and resources to accommodate the growing stroke population. Consequently, a small percentage of therapy is spent on improving upper limb movement and is generally limited to range of motion and stretching exercises. As a result, upper limb exercises are prescribed to stroke survivors to perform at home. Subsequently, the potential to facilitate self-practice at home has been realized leading to the development of numerous rehabilitative and assistive devices for the upper limb. However, commercially available devices do not tend to be adopted for home use due to practical and economic factors. This thesis details the design, development, and evaluation of a weight support device for home-based upper limb rehabilitation, driven through a user-designed approach. This was achieved through engaging with stakeholders (i.e. stroke survivors, therapists) throughout the design process via informal interviews, focus groups, and prototype testing, ensuring that their desired requirements were incorporated into the final device. From this process, a low-cost, portable, weight support device was manufactured with supports for both the upper arm and forearm. Furthermore, an external feedback system was created to provide real-time feedback to the user to help motivate and encourage them to engage in independent practice at home with the weight support device. Testing the device and feedback system with participants in their home environment showed that it was acceptable for home use, suggesting that it could be feasible for aiding with the facilitation of self-practice. Further refinements towards range of motion and portability of the device will be required as desired by participants in addition to providing a diverse range of feedback applications to engage with

Reclosable packaging

A package comprises a flexible bag (1) and a label (2), the bag having a closed end (3). The closed end is openable to provide an opening (12) for access to the contents of the package and reclosable by means of the label (2). The label (2) has on one face two areas (8, 9) of adhesive separated by a non-adhesive area (10), the adhesive areas (8, 9) being adapted to adhere to the package (1) one to each side of the opening (12) such that said non-adhesive area (10) extends over the opening

A finite element conjugate gradient FFT method for scattering

Validated results are presented for the new 3D body of revolution finite element boundary integral code. A Fourier series expansion of the vector electric and mangnetic fields is employed to reduce the dimensionality of the system, and the exact boundary condition is employed to terminate the finite element mesh. The mesh termination boundary is chosen such that is leads to convolutional boundary operatores of low O(n) memory demand. Improvements of this code are discussed along with the proposed formulation for a full 3D implementation of the finite element boundary integral method in conjunction with a conjugate gradiant fast Fourier transformation (CGFFT) solution

A systematic review of the asymmetric inheritance of cellular organelles in eukaryotes : A critique of basic science validity and imprecision

We performed a systematic review to identify all original publications describing the asymmetric inheritance of cellular organelles in normal animal eukaryotic cells and to critique the validity and imprecision of the evidence. Searches were performed in Embase, MEDLINE and Pubmed up to November 2015. Screening of titles, abstracts and full papers was performed by two independent reviewers. Data extraction and validity were performed by one reviewer and checked by a second reviewer. Study quality was assessed using the SYRCLE risk of bias tool, for animal studies and by developing validity tools for the experimental model, organelle markers and imprecision. A narrative data synthesis was performed. We identified 31 studies (34 publications) of the asymmetric inheritance of organelles after mitotic or meiotic division. Studies for the asymmetric inheritance of centrosomes (n = 9); endosomes (n = 6), P granules (n = 4), the midbody (n = 3), mitochondria (n = 3), proteosomes (n = 2), spectrosomes (n = 2), cilia (n = 2) and endoplasmic reticulum (n = 2) were identified. Asymmetry was defined and quantified by variable methods. Assessment of the statistical reliability of the results indicated only two studies (7%) were judged to have low concern, the majority of studies (77%) were 'unclear' and five (16%) were judged to have 'high concerns'; the main reasons were low technical repeats (<10). Assessment of model validity indicated that the majority of studies (61%) were judged to be valid, ten studies (32%) were unclear and two studies (7%) were judged to have 'high concerns'; both described 'stem cells' without providing experimental evidence to confirm this (pluripotency and self-renewal). Assessment of marker validity indicated that no studies had low concern, most studies were unclear (96.5%), indicating there were insufficient details to judge if the markers were appropriate. One study had high concern for marker validity due to the contradictory results of two markers for the same organelle. For most studies the validity and imprecision of results could not be confirmed. In particular, data were limited due to a lack of reporting of interassay variability, sample size calculations, controls and functional validation of organelle markers. An evaluation of 16 systematic reviews containing cell assays found that only 50% reported adherence to PRISMA or ARRIVE reporting guidelines and 38% reported a formal risk of bias assessment. 44% of the reviews did not consider how relevant or valid the models were to the research question. 75% reviews did not consider how valid the markers were. 69% of reviews did not consider the impact of the statistical reliability of the results. Future systematic reviews in basic or preclinical research should ensure the rigorous reporting of the statistical reliability of the results in addition to the validity of the methods. Increased awareness of the importance of reporting guidelines and validation tools is needed for the scientific community

Savings bank depositors in a crisis: Glasgow 1847 and 1857

Savings banks were created as a means to encourage the newly created working class to save for the uncertainties of urban industrial life. This article explores the success of the Savings Bank of Glasgow, and pays particular attention to the response of savers to the financial and commercial crises of 1847 and 1857. The crisis of 1847 was shallower but longer lasting in Glasgow, while that of 1857 was greatly exacerbated by local conditions in the short term, but of little long-term importance to savers. It suggests that, in both crises, some elements of contagion may have been present but that those who panicked in 1857 were systematically different from those who did not

X-ray Scaling Properties of Early-type Galaxies

We present an analysis of 39 X-ray luminous early-type galaxies observed with the ROSAT PSPC. Using multi-component spectral and spatial fits to these data we have measured halo abundance, temperature, luminosity and surface brightness profile. We compare these measurements to similar results from galaxy groups and clusters, fitting a number of relations commonly used in the study of these larger objects. In particular, we find that the sigma:Tx relation for our sample is similar to that reported for clusters, consistent with beta_{spec}=1, and that the Lx:Tx relation has a steep slope (gradient 4.8+-0.7) comparable with that found for galaxy groups. Assuming isothermality, we construct 3-dimensional models of our galaxies, allowing us to measure gas entropy. We find no correlation between gas entropy and system mass, but do find a trend for low temperature systems to have reduced gas fractions. We conclude that the galaxies in our sample are likely to have developed their halos through galaxy winds, influenced by their surrounding environment.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 26 pages incl.14 postscript figure

Traversing the Reality Gap via Simulator Tuning

The large demand for simulated data has made the reality gap a problem on the forefront of robotics. We propose a method to traverse the gap by tuning available simulation parameters. Through the optimisation of physics engine parameters, we show that we are able to narrow the gap between simulated solutions and a real world dataset, and thus allow more ready transfer of leaned behaviours between the two. We subsequently gain understanding as to the importance of specific simulator parameters, which is of broad interest to the robotic machine learning community. We find that even optimised for different tasks that different physics engine perform better in certain scenarios and that friction and maximum actuator velocity are tightly bounded parameters that greatly impact the transference of simulated solutions.Comment: 8 Pages, Submitted to IROS202

Falling Far from the Tree: Transitions to Adulthood and the Social History of Twentieth-Century America

Employing the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series of the University of Minnesota, we chronicle the changing timing and duration of transitions to adulthood in the twentieth century. Successive generations of young Americans reinvented the transition to adulthood to accommodate shifts in the economy and the American state. The patterned choices of young people delineate three eras of social history in the twentieth century: the era of reciprocity (1900–1950), the era of dependence (1950–70s), and the era of autonomy (1970s-2000). We also explain why African Americans differed from the general trend; they developed distinctive transitions to adulthood in response to persistent inequality