The influence of frontal alignment in the advanced reciprocating gait orthosis on energy cost and crutch force requirements during paraplegic gait

Reduction of energy cost and upper body load during paraplegic walking is considered to be an important criterion in future developments of walking systems. A high energy cost limits the maximum walking distance in the current devices, whereas wrist and shoulder pathology can deteriorate because of the high upper body load. A change in alignment of the mechanical brace in the frontal plane, i.e. abduction, can contribute to a more efficient gait pattern with sufficient foot clearance with less pelvic lateral sway. A decrease in pelvic lateral sway after aligning in abduction results in a shift of the centre of mass to the swing leg crutch which may result in a decrease in required crutch force on stance side to maintain foot clearance. Five paraplegic subjects were provided with a standard Advanced Reciprocating Gait Orthosis (ARGO) and an ARGO aligned in 4 different degrees of abduction (0°, 3°, 6° and 9°). After determining an optimal abduction angle for each of the subjects, a cross over design was used to compare the ARGO with the individually optimised abducted orthosis. An abduction angle between 0° and 3° was chosen as optimal abduction angle. Subjects were not able to walk satisfactory with abduction angles 6° and 9°. A significant reduction in crutch peak force on stance side was found (approx. 12% , p < 0.01) in the abducted orthosis. Reduction in crutch force time integral (15%) as well as crutch peak force on swing side (5%) was not significant. No differences in oxygen uptake as well as oxygen cost was found. We concluded that an abduction angle between 0° and 3° is beneficial with respect to upper boHy load, whereas energy requirements did not change

Evidence for saturation of channel transmission from conductance fluctuations in atomic-size point contacts

The conductance of atomic size contacts has a small, random, voltage dependent component analogous to conductance fluctuations observed in diffusive wires (UCF). A new effect is observed in gold contacts, consisting of a marked suppression of these fluctuations when the conductance of the contact is close to integer multiples of the conductance quantum. Using a model based on the Landauer-Buettiker formalism we interpret this effect as evidence that the conductance tends to be built up from fully transmitted (i.e., saturated) channels plus a single, which is partially transmitted.Comment: An error in Eq.(2) was corrected, where a square root was added to the factor (1-cos(gamma)). This results in a revised estimate for the mean free path of 5 nm, which is now fully consistent with the estimates from the series resistance and the thermopowe

Visuospatial perception is not affected by self-related information

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Antonia F. ten Brink was supported by a Rubicon grant (019.173SG.019) from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The funder had no role in study design, analysis, and interpretation of data, writing the report, and the decision to submit the article for publication. CRediT authorship contribution statement Antonia F. Ten Brink: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – review & editing, Supervision. Rebecca de Haan: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft. Daan R. Amelink: Methodology, Investigation, Writing – review & editing. Anniek N. Holweg: Methodology, Investigation, Writing – review & editing. Jie Sui: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing. Janet H. Bultitude: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing – review & editing, Supervision.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Towards eco-efficient lean production systems

Lean Production has proved itself a worthwhile production strategy in many distinct industries across all regions of the planet by achieving higher levels of production efficiency. Several authors identified that Lean inadvertently has had significant environmental gains. Such achievements are considered of special relevance in a global and highly competitive economy which is progressively both tied-up and driven by an environmental agenda. The main goal of the present study is to enlighten the contribution of Lean for achieving a better environmental performance of production systems and identify this as an emergent business model for supporting eco-efficiency

Visuospatial perception is not affected by self-related information

Previous research suggests that attention is drawn by self-related information. Three online experiments were conducted to investigate whether self-related stimuli alter visuospatial perceptual judgments. In a matching task, associations were learned between labels ('Yourself'/friend/stranger's name) paired with cues. Cues were coloured outlines (Experiment 1, N = 135), geometric shapes (Experiment 2, N = 102), or coloured gradients (Experiment 3, N = 110). Visuospatial perception bias was measured with a greyscales task. Cues were presented prior to, and/or alongside greyscales. We hypothesized there would be a bias towards the self-related cue. In all experiments, we found a self-related bias in the matching task. Furthermore, there was an overall leftward visuospatial perceptual bias (pseudoneglect). However, we found anecdotal to moderate evidence for the absence of an effect of self-related cues on visuospatial perception judgments. Although self-related stimuli influence how our attention is oriented to stimuli, attention mechanisms that influence perceptual judgements are seemingly not affected by a self-bias

Performance measurement of cross-culture supply chain partnership: a case study in the Chinese automotive industry

This study explores a performance measurement system for a dynamic supply chain partnership in a cross-cultural context. An initial framework is constructed by reviewing the existing literature, followed by an in-depth case study in the Chinese automotive industry, where the framework is refined to address the multi-cultural setting. A performance measurement, system which includes the relationship strategy and operational measurement criteria for a supply chain partnership, has been developed. The relationship strategy contains elements of strategy orientation, management style, interdependence, mutual organisational characteristics and common goals. The operational measurement criteria consist of commitment, trust, communication behaviour, information sharing, participation decision, quality, production performance, delivery, cost, supplier strength, attitude, compromise and loyalty. The last three operational measurement criteria are found to be particularly relevant to the cross-cultural feature. While existing studies tend to focus on either specific measures or individual organisations, this paper for the first time proposes a comprehensive framework to measure the performance of supply chain partnerships. The cross-cultural perspective provides a further unique view on how a performance measurement system can be responsive to the dynamics in practice

Business process management and supply chain collaboration: a critical comparison

The link between a firm and supply chain (SC) members has been recognised as one of the key issues for ensuring business success and achieving competitive advantage. Indeed, working across organisational boundaries is required to accomplish effective responses to customers’ needs. Our preliminary research confirmed that there are positive relationships between business process management (BPM), supply chain collaboration (SCC), collaborative advantage and organisational performance. This study is a step further and uses a multiple case design to illuminate the results and gain a greater understanding from extensive discussions about these relationships. By means of semi-structured interviews, the three main issues were identified as: (1) the link between BPM and organisational performance; (2) the link between BPM and SCC; and (3) the contextual factors and benefits achieved from working collaboratively with SC partners. The different scenarios of the link between BPM and SCC were developed in a taxonomy, and the case studies were used to illustrate the experience of intra- and inter-organisational practices in the developing economy of Thailand. The case studies’ results explain in depth that both BPM and SCC are important for improving organisational performance and competitiveness. BPM not only improves organisational performance directly, but also assists with collaborative activities that in turn help to improve internal capabilities. Additionally, the comparisons in issues relating to firm size, industry type, relationship closeness and relationship length were also included in this study