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Analysis of the Effects of 3DP Parameters on Part Feature Dimensional Accuracy
3D printing (3DP) is a widely investigated scaffold manufacturing process for Tissue
Engineering (TE). Useful scaffold geometries should have high porosity (60-80%) with small
(100-500 μm) interconnected pores. Therefore dimensional accuracy on the micron level is one
of the crucial parameters of the bone scaffolds. Previously it was shown that the behavior of
scaffold geometries can be well simulated with Finite Element Modeling (FEM) however the
prediction of actual strength and stiffness values are dependent on dimensional accuracy. This
accuracy is in turn dependent on several parameters including particle size and shape, powderbinder interaction, and machine setup. In this work different scaffold strut sizes (0.3 - 0.5 mm)
have been fabricated using two different plaster powders (zp102 and zp130) with variations in
shell saturation levels, part print position, and part print orientation. The parameters for each
powder were analyzed using a full 35
factorial experimental design. It was found that the part size
and orientation had a significant effect on the dimensional accuracy while the influence of the
shell saturation and position was relatively small. The results allow for better dimensional
specification for scaffold geometry fabrication by defining the process parameters in 3DP that
may be used further in scaffold accuracy optimization.Mechanical Engineerin
Composing Control Barrier Functions for Complex Safety Specifications
The increasing complexity of control systems necessitates control laws that
guarantee safety w.r.t. complex combinations of constraints. In this letter, we
propose a framework to describe compositional safety specifications with
control barrier functions (CBFs). The specifications are formulated as Boolean
compositions of state constraints, and we propose an algorithmic way to create
a single continuously differentiable CBF that captures these constraints and
enables safety-critical control. We describe the properties of the proposed
CBF, and we demonstrate its efficacy by numerical simulations.Comment: Submitted to the IEEE Control System Letters (L-CSS) and the 2024
American Control Conference (ACC). 6 pages, 3 figure
Using the Change Manager Model for the Hippocampal System to Predict Connectivity and Neurophysiological Parameters in the Perirhinal Cortex
Theoretical arguments demonstrate that practical considerations, including the needs to limit physiological resources and to learn without interference with prior learning, severely constrain the anatomical architecture of the brain. These arguments identify the hippocampal system as the change manager for the cortex, with the role of selecting the most appropriate locations for cortical receptive field changes at each point in time and driving those changes. This role results in the hippocampal system recording the identities of groups of cortical receptive fields that changed at the same time. These types of records can also be used to reactivate the receptive fields active during individual unique past events, providing mechanisms for episodic memory retrieval. Our theoretical arguments identify the perirhinal cortex as one important focal point both for driving changes and for recording and retrieving episodic memories. The retrieval of episodic memories must not drive unnecessary receptive field changes, and this consideration places strong constraints on neuron properties and connectivity within and between the perirhinal cortex and regular cortex. Hence the model predicts a number of such properties and connectivity. Experimental test of these falsifiable predictions would clarify how change is managed in the cortex and how episodic memories are retrieved
On the Safety of Connected Cruise Control: Analysis and Synthesis with Control Barrier Functions
Connected automated vehicles have shown great potential to improve the
efficiency of transportation systems in terms of passenger comfort, fuel
economy, stability of driving behavior and mitigation of traffic congestions.
Yet, to deploy these vehicles and leverage their benefits, the underlying
algorithms must ensure their safe operation. In this paper, we address the
safety of connected cruise control strategies for longitudinal car following
using control barrier function (CBF) theory. In particular, we consider various
safety measures such as minimum distance, time headway and time to conflict,
and provide a formal analysis of these measures through the lens of CBFs.
Additionally, motivated by how stability charts facilitate stable controller
design, we derive safety charts for existing connected cruise controllers to
identify safe choices of controller parameters. Finally, we combine the
analysis of safety measures and the corresponding stability charts to
synthesize safety-critical connected cruise controllers using CBFs. We verify
our theoretical results by numerical simulations.Comment: Accepted to the 62nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control. 6
pages, 5 figure
Frailty in older people living with HIV: current status and clinical management
This paper will update care providers on the clinical and scientific aspects of frailty which affects an increasing proportion of older people living with HIV (PLWH). The successful use of combination antiretroviral therapy has improved long-term survival in PLWH. This has increased the proportion of PLWH older than 50 to more than 50% of the HIV population. Concurrently, there has been an increase in the premature development of age-related comorbidities as well as geriatric syndromes, especially frailty, which affects an important minority of older PLWH. As the number of frail older PLWH increases, this will have an important impact on their health care delivery. Frailty negatively affects a PLWH's clinical status, and increases their risk of adverse outcomes, impacting quality of life and health-span. The biologic constructs underlying the development of frailty integrate interrelated pathways which are affected by the process of aging and those factors which accelerate aging. The negative impact of sarcopenia in maintaining musculoskeletal integrity and thereby functional status may represent a bidirectional interaction with frailty in PLWH. Furthermore, there is a growing body of literature that frailty states may be transitional. The recognition and management of related risk factors will help to mitigate the development of frailty. The application of interdisciplinary geriatric management principles to the care of older PLWH allows reliable screening and care practices for frailty. Insight into frailty, increasingly recognized as an important marker of biologic age, will help to understand the diversity of clinical status occurring in PLWH, which therefore represents a fundamentally new and important aspect to be evaluated in their health care
Verifying Safe Transitions between Dynamic Motion Primitives on Legged Robots
Functional autonomous systems often realize complex tasks by utilizing state
machines comprised of discrete primitive behaviors and transitions between
these behaviors. This architecture has been widely studied in the context of
quasi-static and dynamics-independent systems. However, applications of this
concept to dynamical systems are relatively sparse, despite extensive research
on individual dynamic primitive behaviors, which we refer to as "motion
primitives." This paper formalizes a process to determine dynamic-state aware
conditions for transitions between motion primitives in the context of safety.
The result is framed as a "motion primitive graph" that can be traversed by
standard graph search and planning algorithms to realize functional autonomy.
To demonstrate this framework, dynamic motion primitives -- including standing
up, walking, and jumping -- and the transitions between these behaviors are
experimentally realized on a quadrupedal robot
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