2,773 research outputs found
Simulation of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Deficiency in a Musculoskeletal Model with Anatomical Knees
Abnormal knee kinematics and meniscus injury resulting from anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficiency are often implicated in joint degeneration even though changes in tibio-femoral contact location after injury are small, typically only a few millimeters. Ligament reconstruction surgery does not significantly reduce the incidence of early onset osteoarthritis. Increased knowledge of knee contact mechanics would increase our understanding of the effects of ACL injury and help guide ACL reconstruction methods. Presented here is a cadaver specific computational knee model combined with a body-level musculoskeletal model from a subject of similar height and weight as the cadaver donor. The knee model was developed in the multi-body framework and includes representation of the menisci. Experimental body-level measurements provided input to the musculoskeletal model. The location of tibio-menisco-femoral contact as well as contact pressures were compared for models with an intact ACL, partial ACL transection (posterolateral bundle transection), and full ACL transection during a muscle driven forward dynamics simulation of a dual limb squat. During the squat, small changes in femur motion relative to the tibia for both partial and full ACL transection push the lateral meniscus in the posterior direction at extension. The central-anterior region of the lateral meniscus then becomes âwedgedâ between the tibia and femur during knee flexion. This âwedgingâ effect does not occur for the intact knee. Peak contact pressure and contact locations are similar for the partial tear and complete ACL transection during the deep flexion portion of the squat, particularly on the lateral side. The tibio-femoral contact location on the tibia plateau shifts slightly to the posterior and lateral direction with ACL transection
Two-phase homogeneous diffusion model for the fixed bed sorption of heavy metals on natural zeolites
In this work, the fixed bed removal kinetics of Pb2+, Zn2+, Mn2+, Cr3+, Fe3+ and Cu2+ from aqueous solutions on natural zeolites was studied. For this aim, a non-dimensional two-phase homogeneous solid diffusion model including axial dispersion and equipped with a universal double-selectivity equilibrium model is developed and applied. In total 9 isotherms, representing 128 experimental points and 25 breakthrough curves, representing 764 experimental points are used in modeling. The application of the model is satisfactory resulted in an average deviation from the experimental data of 11.19 ± 5.53%. The solid phase diffusion coefficients are between 10â7 and 10â9 cm2/s depending on the metal, flow rate and particle size in the decreasing order of Cu > Fe, Cr > Zn, Pb > Mn. The study is supplemented by an extended literature review on fixed bed models and experimentally derived solid phase diffusion coefficients in zeolites
Bird detection in audio : a survey and a challenge
Many biological monitoring projects rely on acoustic detection of birds. Despite increasingly large datasets, this detection is often manual or semi-automatic, requiring manual tuning/postprocessing. We review the state of the art in automatic bird sound detection, and identify a widespread need for tuning-free and species-agnostic approaches. We introduce new datasets and an IEEE research challenge to address this need, to make possible the development of fully automatic algorithms for bird sound detection
Renormalization constants of local operators for Wilson type improved fermions
Perturbative and non-perturbative results are presented on the
renormalization constants of the quark field and the vector, axial-vector,
pseudoscalar, scalar and tensor currents. The perturbative computation, carried
out at one-loop level and up to second order in the lattice spacing, is
performed for a fermion action, which includes the clover term and the twisted
mass parameter yielding results that are applicable for unimproved Wilson
fermions, as well as for improved clover and twisted mass fermions. We consider
ten variants of the Symanzik improved gauge action corresponding to ten
different values of the plaquette coefficients. Non-perturbative results are
obtained using the twisted mass Wilson fermion formulation employing two
degenerate dynamical quarks and the tree-level Symanzik improved gluon action.
The simulations are performed for pion masses in the range of 480 MeV to 260
MeV and at three values of the lattice spacing, a, corresponding to beta=3.9,
4.05, 4.20. For each renormalization factor computed non-perturbatively we
subtract its perturbative O(a^2) terms so that we eliminate part of the cut-off
artifacts. The renormalization constants are converted to MS-bar at a scale of
mu=2 GeV. The perturbative results depend on a large number of parameters and
are made easily accessible to the reader by including them in the distribution
package of this paper, as a Mathematica input file.Comment: 36 pages, 11 figures and 6 tables. The results are included in
electronic form (Mathematica files
The Serums Tool-Chain:Ensuring Security and Privacy of Medical Data in Smart Patient-Centric Healthcare Systems
Digital technology is permeating all aspects of human society and life. This leads to humans becoming highly dependent on digital devices, including upon digital: assistance, intelligence, and decisions. A major concern of this digital dependence is the lack of human oversight or intervention in many of the ways humans use this technology. This dependence and reliance on digital technology raises concerns in how humans trust such systems, and how to ensure digital technology behaves appropriately. This works considers recent developments and projects that combine digital technology and artificial intelligence with human society. The focus is on critical scenarios where failure of digital technology can lead to significant harm or even death. We explore how to build trust for users of digital technology in such scenarios and considering many different challenges for digital technology. The approaches applied and proposed here address user trust along many dimensions and aim to build collaborative and empowering use of digital technologies in critical aspects of human society
Cryptocurrency Competition and Market Concentration in the Presence of Network Effects
When network products and services become more valuable as their userbase grows (network effects), this tendency can become a major determinant of how they compete with each other in the market and how the market is structured. Network effects are traditionally linked to high market concentration, early-mover advantages, and entry barriers, and in the market they have also been used as a valuation tool. The recent resurgence of Bitcoin has been partly attributed to network effects, too. We study the existence of network effects in six cryptocurrencies from their inception to obtain a high-level overview of the application of network effects in the cryptocurrency market. We show that, contrary to the usual implications of network effects, they do not serve to concentrate the cryptocurrency market, nor do they accord any one cryptocurrency a definitive competitive advantage, nor are they consistent enough to be reliable valuation tools. Therefore, while network effects do occur in cryptocurrency networks, they are not (yet) a defining feature of the cryptocurrency market as a whole
One-dimensional metal-organic framework photonic crystals used as platforms for vapor sorption.
We present the fabrication of one-dimensional photonic crystals (Bragg stacks) based on a microporous metalâorganic framework material and mesoporous titanium dioxide. The Bragg stack heterostructures were obtained using two complementary synthesis approaches utilizing the bottom-up assembly of heterogeneous, i.e. two-component photonic crystal multilayer structures. Zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF-8 and mesoporous titanium dioxide were chosen as functional components with different refractive indices. While ZIF-8 is intended to impart molecular selectivity, mesoporous TiO2 is used to ensure high refractive index contrast and to guarantee molecular diffusion within the Bragg stack. The combination of micro- and mesoporosity within one scaffold endows the 1D-MOF PC with characteristic adsorption properties upon exposure to various organic vapors. In this context, the sorption behavior of the photonic material was studied as a function of partial pressure of organic vapors. The results show that the multilayered photonic heterostructures are sensitive and selective towards a series of chemically similar solvent vapors. It is thus anticipated that the concept of multilayer heterogeneous photonic structures will provide a versatile platform for future selective, label-free optical sensors
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