Development and Optimisation of 3D Printed Compliant Joint Mechanisms for Hypermobile Robots

Hypermobile robots are an area of robotics that are often used as exploratory robots, but have facets that feature in other areas of the field. Hypermobile robots are robots that feature multiple body segments or modules, with joints between each. These robots are often used for exploratory purposes due to being able to maintain contact with the ground due to their flexible bodies. Wormbot was a hypermobile robot developed at the University of Leeds, which used a locomotion gait based on that of a Caenorhabditis elegans nematode worm, otherwise known as C.elegans. This movement pattern is reliant on compliance; a mechanism where the joints are slightly sprung and comply to the environment. The next iteration of Wormbot needs to be reduced in size, which would also require a new actuation and compliance system. This thesis describes the process of investigating a method of compliance to be used in the next version of Wormbot, while utilising the multi-material 3D printing capabilities available at the University. 3D printing provides quick manufacturing, allowing for fast changes to made to prototype components if required. During the process of this research, two 3D printed compliant actuation systems were produced; a pneumatic bellow and a Series Elastic Element (SEE) to be used in tandem with a servo motor. Both methods were tested to analyse their performance. The bellow was produced to utilise the capabilities of multi-material printing to strengthening suspected weak areas of the actuator. However, the performance of the bellow was unsatisfactory, failing twice in two actuation tests tests due to the device breaking. The SEE on the other hand, designed with two stiffer plates and a rubber-like spring element in the middle, initially proved to be reliable and repeatable in performance, with potential to behave linearly to a set spring constant. These results were acquired by performing rotational step response tests and fitting a spring-damper model to the results. However, issues with the plastic material were discovered when it was found to deform much more than anticipated, behaving in a similar manner to an additional spring element, complicating the model. Simulation work to explore the potential for using different spring constants of joint compliance in varying environments was also explored. This involved testing a virtual Wormbot in a range of environments while altering joint compliance. These simulations revealed that softer joints allow for favourable performance in constricting environments, while stiffer joints lend themselves more to quicker movement

Preparing TELEMAC-2D for extremely large simulations

Water Qualit

Tropical moist forests

No abstract available

Reproductive Failure in UK Harbour Porpoises Phocoena phocoena : Legacy of Pollutant Exposure?

This research was supported by a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship within the Seventh European Community Framework Programme (Project Cetacean-stressors, PIOF-GA-2010-276145 to PDJ and SM). Additional funding was provided through the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (ASCOBANS) (Grants SSFA/2008 and SSFA / ASCOBANS / 2010 / 5 to SM). Analysis of Scottish reproductive and teeth samples was funded by the EC-funded BIOCET project (BIOaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants in small CETaceans in European waters: transport pathways and impact on reproduction, grant EVK3-2000-00027 to GJP), and Marine Scotland (GJP). Samples examined in this research were collected under the collaborative Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (http://ukstrandings.org/), which is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the UK’s Devolved Administrations in Scotland and Wales (http://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/Defaul​t.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=No​ne&Completed=0&ProjectID=15331) (grants to PDJ, RD). UK Defra also funded the chemical analysis under a service-level agreement with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (grants to RJL, JB). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging in dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVE: Changes in the white matter of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been reported using diffusion weighted MRI, though few longitudinal studies have been done. METHODS: We performed diffusion weighted MRI twice, a year apart on 23 AD, 14 DLB, and 32 healthy control subjects. Mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) were calculated. RESULTS: In AD, there were widespread regions where the longitudinal MD increase was greater than in controls, and small areas in the parietal and temporal lobes where it was greater in AD than DLB. In AD, decrease in brain volume correlated with increased MD. There were no significant differences in progression between DLB and controls. CONCLUSIONS: In AD the white matter continues to degenerate during the disease process, whereas in DLB, changes in the white matter structure are a relatively early feature. Different mechanisms are likely to underpin changes in diffusivity.The study was supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Dementia and the Biomedical Research Centre awarded to Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge, and the NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Dementia and the Biomedical Research Centre awarded to Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle University. Elijah Mak was in receipt of a Gates Cambridge PhD studentship.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.parkreldis.2016.01.00

Map My Murder: A Digital Forensic Study of Mobile Health and Fitness Applications

The ongoing popularity of health and fitness applications catalyzes the need for exploring forensic artifacts produced by them. Sensitive Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is requested by the applications during account creation. Augmenting that with ongoing user activities, such as the user’s walking paths, could potentially create exculpatory or inculpatory digital evidence. We conducted extensive manual analysis and explored forensic artifacts produced by (n = 13) popular Android mobile health and fitness applications. We also developed and implemented a tool that aided in the timely acquisition and identification of artifacts from the examined applications. Additionally, our work explored the type of data that may be collected from health and fitness web platforms, and Web Scraping mechanisms for data aggregation. The results clearly show that numerous artifacts may be recoverable, and that the tested web platforms pose serious privacy threats

Symptomatic hemorrhage after alteplase therapy not due to silent ischemia

BACKGROUND: Stroke thrombolysis-related intracerebral hemorrhage may occur remotely from the anatomical site of ischemia. One postulated mechanism for this is simultaneous multiple embolization with hemorrhage into a "silent" area of ischemia. RESULTS: A patient suffered a disabling stroke affecting the right cerebral hemisphere. He was treated with intravenous alteplase and underwent extensive early imaging with multimodal MRI. Several hours after treatment he developed a brainstem hemorrhage despite having no evidence of ischemia on DWI MRI in the brainstem. CONCLUSION: Not all occurrences of remote ICH after stroke thrombolysis are secondary to multiple emboli with silent ischemia

In the dedicated pursuit of dedicated capital: restoring an indigenous investment ethic to British capitalism

Tony Blair’s landslide electoral victory on May 1 (New Labour Day?) presents the party in power with a rare, perhaps even unprecedented, opportunity to revitalise and modernise Britain’s ailing and antiquated manufacturing economy.* If it is to do so, it must remain true to its long-standing (indeed, historic) commitment to restore an indigenous investment ethic to British capitalism. In this paper we argue that this in turn requires that the party reject the very neo-liberal orthodoxies which it offered to the electorate as evidence of its competence, moderation and ‘modernisation’, which is has internalised, and which it apparently now views as circumscribing the parameters of the politically and economically possible