Using Kinetic Energy with Potential Energy When Determining Power During the Stair Climbing Test

ABSTRACT Stair climbing is an important functional task that indicates independence, and generating power to climb stairs is a vital component of this task. Power during stair climbing is traditionally calculated using potential energy (PE), but it may be important to determine power expended using kinetic energy (KE). Purpose: The current study assessed power output for stair climbing with and without the inclusion of KE. Methods: Sixty participants (21-35 years) climbed a 12-step stairway with a 2-meter acceleration phase before the first step and a 2-meter deceleration phase after the last step. Participants completed 3 trials, and average time was used for calculating energy expended and power. Results: The mean difference between power from PE and total power was 6.16 W (SD = 2.50, t29 = 13.49, p \u3c 0.001) for males and 64.76 W (SD = 2.90, t29 = 8.99, p \u3c 0.001) for females. Agreement between power calculated from PE and total power was 0.99 (95% confidence interval = 0.98-1.0). Conclusion: Power calculated using PE and KE was significantly different from using PE alone, which may be clinically important. When conducting stair-climbing tests, both PE and KE may be necessary for the most accurate assessment of power

Efficient Design and Analysis of Lightweight Reinforced Core Sandwich and PRSEUS Structures

Design, analysis, and sizing methods for two novel structural panel concepts have been developed and incorporated into the HyperSizer Structural Sizing Software. Reinforced Core Sandwich (RCS) panels consist of a foam core with reinforcing composite webs connecting composite facesheets. Boeing s Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure (PRSEUS) panels use a pultruded unidirectional composite rod to provide axial stiffness along with integrated transverse frames and stitching. Both of these structural concepts are ovencured and have shown great promise applications in lightweight structures, but have suffered from the lack of efficient sizing capabilities similar to those that exist for honeycomb sandwich, foam sandwich, hat stiffened, and other, more traditional concepts. Now, with accurate design methods for RCS and PRSEUS panels available in HyperSizer, these concepts can be traded and used in designs as is done with the more traditional structural concepts. The methods developed to enable sizing of RCS and PRSEUS are outlined, as are results showing the validity and utility of the methods. Applications include several large NASA heavy lift launch vehicle structures

Sentinel : The Design, Fabrication, and Installation of the Monumental Sculpture by Albert Paley at Rochester Institute of Technology

Edited by James Yarrington.This book chronicles all aspects of the inception of former College at Brockport faculty member Albert Paley\u27s sculpture, Sentinel. Essays by Jim Yarrington, director of RIT campus planning, describe the sculpture’s place in RIT’s unique architectural environment. Sam Hunter, professor emeritus at Princeton University Department of Art and Archaeology, contributes an authoritative essay on the influence of Albert Paley’s work in the context of art history. The book also includes a candid interview with the artist himself, as he discusses his thought process and the engineering decisions that went into the design of the Sentinel. Photographs of the sculpture’s construction are woven throughout the text as compelling documents of its complex installation, culminating with stunning images of the finished artwork.https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/bookshelf/1147/thumbnail.jp

Personalized Synthetic Voices for AAC

The ModelTalker speech synthesis system creates individualized synthetic voices for augmentative communication devices. To emulate the voice of an individual, that person records an inventory of words and phrases. The recorded inventory is then converted to a speech database that is used by ModelTalker. The system presently can work with augmentative communicatio