Stairs Lifting Device

Nowadays, multi-level condominiums have become many adults' choice of home. However, moving large and heavy objects such as a grand piano through the narrow stairwells requires the labor and effort of multiple people, and could potentially be dangerous. Our project developed a prototype for carrying a large and heavy object up and through narrow stairwells for homeowners and moving companies. To accomplish this, we researched and studied the specifications of standard stairs, contingent products in the market and iterated our designs to improve. We developed the Portable Stair Lift System that helps people move faster and easier by running the cart on the rail, and eliminates the potential injuries

A Lightweight Mobile Robot for Climbing Steel Structures With an Extending and Bending Tape Spring Limb

This paper details the design and preliminary demonstrations for a compact climbing robot named EEWOC (Extended-reach Enhanced Wheeled Orb for Climbing). This novel platform utilizes the EEMMMa limb (Elastic Extending Mechanism for Mobility and Manipulation), detailed in previous work. This highly extendable and bendable robotic limb utilizes a unique tape spring structure for long reach in a small, lightweight package. EEWOC combines this limb with additional degrees of freedom and two magnetic grippers to allow it to ascend vertical metal surfaces by consecutively extending and gripping. It is also equipped with wheels for horizontal mobility. A key advantage of this system is EEWOC's ability to bend to place its grippers around obstacles or corners and above ledges. The prototype is small and lightweight, with a profile of 25x30x30 cm and weight of 1.8 kg, while able to extend its limb up to 1.2 m away. With versatile movement options, EEWOC has the potential to fully traverse large metal structures such as ships or buildings for use in inspection tasks. This paper presents a detailed view of the overall system and mechanism design, and successful climbing demonstrations are shown on steel structures. The paper concludes by detailing EEWOC's future capabilities and additional tests and theories needed to refine its maneuvers and control

Implementation and Design of Webcam Systems for Traffic Monitoring in Acadia National Park

Because traffic congestion often has impacts on safety, visitor experience, resources, emergency response times, and park operations, reducing congestion is an important management topic for Acadia National Park. This project explores the use of remote webcams to monitor parking lots and other areas of interest within the park, with the ability to upload images in real time to the Acadia Park website where they can be viewed by the public and Acadia management personnel. This strategy is being explored to help mitigate traffic congestion

A track following visual navigation model car based on FPGA

Conference Name:2013 2nd International Conference on Measurement, Instrumentation and Automation, ICMIA 2013. Conference Address: Guilin, China. Time:April 23, 2013 - April 24, 2013.Korea Maritime University; Hong Kong Industrial Technology Research Centre; Inha UniversityA novel adaptive track finding algorithm is designed, which combines the function of track finding and image binarization. The combination of these two functions allows the system to determine the binarization threshold adaptively, and perform accurate visual navigation in diverse lighting and track conditions. A circular arc path planning strategy with a single measurable control parameter is used to guide the model car to the track. The circular arc path planning strategy is easy to implement and delivers fast and accurate responses to the track. ? (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland

A review of the cascade refrigeration system

This paper provides a literature review of the cascade refrigeration system (CRS). It is an important system that can achieve an evaporating temperature as low as −170 °C and broadens the refrigeration temperature range of conventional systems. In this paper, several research options such as various designs of CRS, studies on refrigerants, and optimization works on the systems are discussed. Moreover, the influence of parameters on system performance, the economic analysis, and applications are defined, followed by conclusions and suggestions for future studies

Preparation, Characterization and Performances of Powdered Polycarboxylate Superplasticizer with Bulk Polymerization

A polycarboxylate superplasticizer (PCE) was synthesized in a non-solvent system with bulk polymerization and then was pulverized into powdered form to achieve a rapid transportation and convenient preparation. PCE synthesized by using isopentenyl polyethylene glycol (TPEG) or isobutenyl polyethylene glycol (IPEG) as a macromonomer exhibited the best fluidities and retaining properties at 80 °C and 75 °C, respectively. Besides, azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) was suitable as an initiator, and the fumaric acid was suitable as the third monomer. The test results of 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) confirmed the occurrences of polymerization, and the measurement results of molecular weight and distribution showed that PCE molecular weight characteristics were in accordance with their fluidity properties in cement paste. The application performances in cement showed that PCEs with the best paste fluidity retentions had the longest final setting time and the shortest setting time interval, and the PCEs with good fluidity properties can obviously delay the hydration process and lower the hydration heat. Accordingly, this is a novel, energy-saving and economical method to prepare powdered PCE in the field of concrete admixtures

Topoisomerases inhibitory activities and DNA binding properties of 9-methoxycamptothecin from <i>Nothapodytes nimmoniana (J. Graham) Mabberly</i>

<p>We have reported previously that 9-methoxycamptothecin (MCPT) showed significant antitumor activity <i>in vitro</i>. Here, agarose gel electrophoresis experiments were performed to evaluate MCPT’s unwinding ability toward plasmid DNA and inhibitory activities against topoisomerases (Topo) I and II. Binding properties of MCPT to calf thymus DNA (CT-DNA) were evaluated by UV–vis, melting temperature, fluorescence, circular dichroism methodologies and molecular docking technique. Results showed that MCPT at 100 μM inhibited Topo I activity, but had no effect on Topo II. Studies on the binding properties indicated that minor groove binding was the most probable binding mode of MCPT to DNA. The abilities of MCPT to act as Topo I inhibitor and minor groove binding agent may be related to its strong antitumor activity.</p