Mechanisms Of Fracturing In Structures Built From Topologically Interlocked Blocks

Failure of materials is in many cases associated with initiation and subsequent propagation of macroscopic fractures. Consequently, in order to increase the strength, one needs to inhibit either crack initiation or propagation. The principle of topological interlocking provides a unique opportunity to construct materials and structures in which both routes of the strength increase can be realised. Materials and structures built on the basis of this principle consist of many elements which are hold together by the special geometry of their shape, together with an external constrain. The absence of the binder phase between the elements allows the interfaces to arrest macroscopic crack propagation. In addition, with sufficiently small size of the elements an increase in local strength and, possibly, in the stress for crack initiation can be achieved by capitalising on the size effect. Furthermore, the ability of some interlocking structures to tolerate missing elements can serve to prevent the avalanche-type failure initiated by failure of one of the elements. In this paper, experimental results and a theoretical analysis with regard to this possibility are presented

An Evolutionary Algorithm with Advanced Goal and Priority Specification for Multi-objective Optimization

This paper presents an evolutionary algorithm with a new goal-sequence domination scheme for better decision support in multi-objective optimization. The approach allows the inclusion of advanced hard/soft priority and constraint information on each objective component, and is capable of incorporating multiple specifications with overlapping or non-overlapping objective functions via logical 'OR' and 'AND' connectives to drive the search towards multiple regions of trade-off. In addition, we propose a dynamic sharing scheme that is simple and adaptively estimated according to the on-line population distribution without needing any a priori parameter setting. Each feature in the proposed algorithm is examined to show its respective contribution, and the performance of the algorithm is compared with other evolutionary optimization methods. It is shown that the proposed algorithm has performed well in the diversity of evolutionary search and uniform distribution of non-dominated individuals along the final trade-offs, without significant computational effort. The algorithm is also applied to the design optimization of a practical servo control system for hard disk drives with a single voice-coil-motor actuator. Results of the evolutionary designed servo control system show a superior closed-loop performance compared to classical PID or RPT approaches

Important Parameters for Hand Function Assessment of Stroke Patients

Clinical scales such as Fugl-Meyer Assessment and Motor Assessment Scale are widely used to evaluate stroke patient's motor performance. However, the scoring systems of these assessments provide only rough estimation, making it difficult to objectively quantify impairment and disability or even rehabilitation progress throughout their rehabilitation period. In contrast, robot-based assessments are objective, repeatable, and could potentially reduce the assessment time. However, robot-based assessment scales are not as well established as conventional assessment scale and the correlation to conventional assessment scale is unclear. This paper discusses the important parameters in order to assess the hand function of stroke patients. This knowledge will provide a contribution to the development of a new robot-based assessment device effectively by including the important parameters in the device. The important parameters were included in development of iRest and yielded promising results that illustrate the potential of the important parameters in assessing the hand function of stroke patients

Myocardial collagen deposition and inflammatory cell infiltration in cats with pre-clinical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

The histological features of feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) have been well documented, but there are no reports describing the histological features in mild pre-clinical disease, since cats are rarely screened for the disease in the early stages before clinical signs are apparent. Histological changes at the early stage of the disease in pre-clinical cats could contribute to an improved understanding of disease aetiology or progression. The aim of this study was to evaluate the histological features of HCM in the left ventricular (LV) myocardium of cats diagnosed with pre-clinical HCM. Clinically healthy cats with normal (n = 11) and pre-clinical HCM (n = 6) were identified on the basis of echocardiography; LV free wall dimensions (LVFWd) and/or interventricular septal wall (IVSd) dimensions during diastole of 6–7 mm were defined as HCM, while equivalent dimension

Packaging Improvement for Unit Cell Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (V-RFB)

Packaging for vanadium redox flow battery is one of the key elements for successful implementation of flow battery in the electrical energy storage system. Usually the bulky battery size and low energy densities make this technology not available for mobility application. Therefore RFB with improved packaging size and energy capacity are highly desirable. This paper focuses on the study of packaging improvement for unit cell V-RFB to the application on Series Hybrid Electric Vehicle. Two different designs of 25 cm2 and 100 cm2 unit cell V-RFB at same current density are used for the sample in this investigation. Further suggestions on packaging improvement are highlighted

Important parameters for hand function assessment of stroke patients

Clinical scales such as Fugl-Meyer Assessment and Motor Assessment Scale are widely used to evaluate stroke patient's motor performance. However, the scoring systems of these assessments provide only rough estimation, making it difficult to objectively quantify impairment and disability or even rehabilitation progress throughout their rehabilitation period. In contrast, robot-based assessments are objective, repeatable, and could potentially reduce the assessment time. However, robot-based assessment scales are not as well established as conventional assessment scale and the correlation to conventional assessment scale is unclear. This paper discusses the important parameters in order to assess the hand function of stroke patients. This knowledge will provide a contribution to the development of a new robot-based assessment device effectively by including the important parameters in the device. The important parameters were included in development of iRest and yielded promising results that illustrate the potential of the important parameters in assessing the hand function of stroke patients

Global gene expression profiling identifies new therapeutic targets in acute Kawasaki disease.

BACKGROUND: Global gene expression profiling can provide insight into the underlying pathophysiology of disease processes. Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute, self-limited vasculitis whose etiology remains unknown. Although the clinical illness shares certain features with other pediatric infectious diseases, the occurrence of coronary artery aneurysms in 25% of untreated patients is unique to KD. METHODS: To gain further insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying KD, we investigated the acute and convalescent whole blood transcriptional profiles of 146 KD subjects and compared them with the transcriptional profiles of pediatric patients with confirmed bacterial or viral infection, and with healthy control children. We also investigated the transcript abundance in patients with different intravenous immunoglobulin treatment responses and different coronary artery outcomes. RESULTS: The overwhelming signature for acute KD involved signaling pathways of the innate immune system. Comparison with other acute pediatric infections highlighted the importance of pathways involved in cell motility including paxillin, relaxin, actin, integrins, and matrix metalloproteinases. Most importantly, the IL1β pathway was identified as a potential therapeutic target. CONCLUSION: Our study revealed the importance of the IL-1 signaling pathway and a prominent signature of innate immunity and cell migration in the acute phase of the illness

The training and development needs of nurses in Indonesia: paper 3 of 3

BACKGROUND: Indonesia's recent economic and political history has left a legacy of widespread poverty and serious health problems, and has contributed to marked inequalities in health care. One means of responding to these challenges has been through a reconsideration of the professional roles of nurses, to enable them to deal with the range and complexity of health problems. However, there are currently a number of obstacles to achieving these aims: there is a serious shortfall in trained nurses; the majority of nurses have only limited education and preparation for the role; and there is no central registration of nurses, which means that it is impossible to regulate either the profession or the standards of care. This study aimed to establish the occupational profiles of each grade of nurse, identify their training and development needs and ascertain whether any differences existed between nurses working in different regions or within hospital or community settings. METHODS: An established and psychometrically valid questionnaire was administered to 524 nurses, covering three grades and coming from five provinces. RESULTS: Significant differences in job profile were found in nurses from different provinces, suggesting that the nature of the role is determined to some degree by the geographical location of practice. The roles of hospital and community nurses, and the different grades of nurse, were fairly similar. All nurses reported significant training needs for all 40 tasks, although these did not vary greatly between grade of nurse. The training needs of nurses from each of the provinces were quite distinct, while those of hospital nurses were greater than those of community nurses. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the role of the nurse is not as diverse as might be expected, given the different levels of preparation and training and the diversity of their work environments. This may reflect the lack of a central registration system and quality framework, which would normally regulate clinical activities according to qualifications. The differences in training needs between subsections of the sample highlight the importance of identifying skills deficits and using this information to develop customized post-registration education programmes. Together, these results provide a rigorous and reliable approach to defining the occupational roles and continuing education needs of Indonesian nurses

Water Network Optimization with Wastewater Regeneration Models

The conventional water network synthesis approach greatly simplifies wastewater treatment units by using fixed recoveries, creating a gap for their applicability to industrial processes. This work describes a unifying approach combining various technologies capable of removing all the major types of contaminants through the use of more realistic models. The following improvements are made over the typical superstructure-based water network models. First, unit-specific shortcut models are developed in place of the fixed contaminant removal model to describe contaminant mass transfer in wastewater treatment units. Shortcut wastewater treatment cost functions are also incorporated into the model. In addition, uncertainty in mass load of contaminants is considered to account for the range of operating conditions. Furthermore, the superstructure is modified to accommodate realistic potential structures. We present a modified Lagrangean-based decomposition algorithm in order to solve the resulting nonconvex mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem efficiently. Several examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and limitations of the algorithm for obtaining the global optimal solutions.The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation for financial support under grant CBET-1437668, the program “Estancias de movilidad en el extranjero “Jose Castillejo” para jóvenes doctores” (JC2011-0051) of the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, and from the University of Alicante (GRE11-19)