scholarly journals DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF A MEDICAL WRIST REHABILITATION DEVICE

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (05) ◽  
pp. 8-16
Author(s):  
Eurico Seabra

The research and development of new kinds of technologies to support the recovery of human injuries have orientated the design, development and construction of new devices for the treatment and rehabilitation of wrist injuries. With limited founds, the construction of a new prototype was carried out with off-the-shelf components. After a detailed research and design work, the obtained device can be divided into two main components: it is capable to provide an adequate rehabilitation of the wrist and adequate proprioception exercises, allowing the patient to relax and to decrease the focus of pain. The development and construction of the device upholds the idea of portability, multifunctional operation and special designed hardware and software control, so it can be simple and user-friendly, allowing the control over the progress of rehabilitation with data recording for later analysis by physiotherapists and/or patients without any special training. The mentioned multifunctional operation, low-cost, user-friendly and portability makes it a good choice when compared to other complex robotic rehabilitation devices. This paper will present, discuss and analyse the proposed portable device, as well as its ability for the purpose of wrist rehabilitation.

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Peter Mortensen

This essay takes its cue from second-wave ecocriticism and from recent scholarly interest in the “appropriate technology” movement that evolved during the 1960s and 1970s in California and elsewhere. “Appropriate technology” (or AT) refers to a loosely-knit group of writers, engineers and designers active in the years around 1970, and more generally to the counterculture’s promotion, development and application of technologies that were small-scale, low-cost, user-friendly, human-empowering and environmentally sound. Focusing on two roughly contemporary but now largely forgotten American texts Sidney Goldfarb’s lyric poem “Solar-Heated-Rhombic-Dodecahedron” (1969) and Gurney Norman’s novel Divine Right’s Trip (1971)—I consider how “hip” literary writers contributed to eco-technological discourse and argue for the 1960s counterculture’s relevance to present-day ecological concerns. Goldfarb’s and Norman’s texts interest me because they conceptualize iconic 1960s technologies—especially the Buckminster Fuller-inspired geodesic dome and the Volkswagen van—not as inherently alienating machines but as tools of profound individual, social and environmental transformation. Synthesizing antimodernist back-to-nature desires with modernist enthusiasm for (certain kinds of) machinery, these texts adumbrate a humanity- and modernity-centered post-wilderness model of environmentalism that resonates with the dilemmas that we face in our increasingly resource-impoverished, rapidly warming and densely populated world.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yehe Liu ◽  
Andrew M. Rollins ◽  
Richard M. Levenson ◽  
Farzad Fereidouni ◽  
Michael W. Jenkins

AbstractSmartphone microscopes can be useful tools for a broad range of imaging applications. This manuscript demonstrates the first practical implementation of Microscopy with Ultraviolet Surface Excitation (MUSE) in a compact smartphone microscope called Pocket MUSE, resulting in a remarkably effective design. Fabricated with parts from consumer electronics that are readily available at low cost, the small optical module attaches directly over the rear lens in a smartphone. It enables high-quality multichannel fluorescence microscopy with submicron resolution over a 10× equivalent field of view. In addition to the novel optical configuration, Pocket MUSE is compatible with a series of simple, portable, and user-friendly sample preparation strategies that can be directly implemented for various microscopy applications for point-of-care diagnostics, at-home health monitoring, plant biology, STEM education, environmental studies, etc.


Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 697
Author(s):  
Siming Lu ◽  
Sha Lin ◽  
Hongrui Zhang ◽  
Liguo Liang ◽  
Shien Shen

Respiratory viral infections threaten human life and inflict an enormous healthcare burden worldwide. Frequent monitoring of viral antibodies and viral load can effectively help to control the spread of the virus and make timely interventions. However, current methods for detecting viral load require dedicated personnel and are time-consuming. Additionally, COVID-19 detection is generally relied on an automated PCR analyzer, which is highly instrument-dependent and expensive. As such, emerging technologies in the development of respiratory viral load assays for point-of-care (POC) testing are urgently needed for viral screening. Recent advances in loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), biosensors, nanotechnology-based paper strips and microfluidics offer new strategies to develop a rapid, low-cost, and user-friendly respiratory viral monitoring platform. In this review, we summarized the traditional methods in respiratory virus detection and present the state-of-art technologies in the monitoring of respiratory virus at POC.


Author(s):  
P. A. Phillips ◽  
Peter Spear

After briefly summarizing worldwide automotive gas turbine activity, the paper analyses the power plant requirements of a wide range of vehicle applications in order to formulate the design criteria for acceptable vehicle gas turbines. Ample data are available on the thermodynamic merits of various gas turbine cycles; however, the low cost of its piston engine competitor tends to eliminate all but the simplest cycles from vehicle gas turbine considerations. In order to improve the part load fuel economy, some complexity is inevitable, but this is limited to the addition of a glass ceramic regenerator in the 150 b.h.p. engine which is described in some detail. The alternative further complications necessary to achieve satisfactory vehicle response at various power/weight ratios are examined. Further improvement in engine performance will come by increasing the maximum cycle temperature. This can be achieved at lower cost by the extension of the use of ceramics. The paper is intended to stimulate the design application of the gas turbine engine.


Author(s):  
Jing Li ◽  
Dingyong Yu ◽  
Huaxing Liu

The passive acoustic-based wave measurement via hydrophones is presented in this paper. It has the potential to measure non-intrusively, implement with low cost and with higher resolution. Details of experiments, real-time data recording and processing are described respectively. Particularly, the portable data acquisition system based on virtual instrument technique is designed to make the in situ measurement convenient and user-friendly. Special emphasis is put on FFT filtering technique to band pass the signal fast and efficiently. The key wave parameters, i.e. the mean wave period and the significant wave height, can be obtained from the comparatively safe and stable underwater by means of submerged hydrophones. Considering the pressure sensor has been widely used in the ocean wave measurement, it is deployed simultaneously to test the feasibility of the new system. The result shows that the present measuring system can give satisfactory measurement of significant wave heights and average wave periods in shallow water despite of the little deviation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazimierz Drabczyk ◽  
Edyta Wróbel ◽  
Grazyna Kulesza-Matlak ◽  
Wojciech Filipowski ◽  
Krzysztof Waczynski ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this study is comparison of the diffusion processes performed using the commercial available dopant paste made by Filmtronics and the original prepared liquid dopant solution. To decrease prices of industrially produced silicon-based solar cells, the new low-cost production processes are necessary. The main components of most popular silicon solar cells are with diffused emitter layer, passivation, anti-reflective layers and metal electrodes. This type of cells is prepared usually using phosphorus oxychloride diffusion source and metal pastes for screen printing. The diffusion process in diffusion furnace with quartz tube is slow, complicated and requires expensive equipment. The alternative for this technology is very fast in-line processing using the belt furnaces as an equipment. This approach requires different dopant sources. Design/methodology/approach In this work, the diffusion processes were made for two different types of dopant sources. The first one was the commercial available dopant paste from Filmtronics and the second one was the original prepared liquid dopant solution. The investigation was focused on dopant sources fabrication and diffusion processes. The doping solution was made in two stages. In the first stage, a base solution (without dopants) was made: dropwise deionized (DI) water and ethyl alcohol were added to a solution consisting of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and 99.8 per cent ethyl alcohol. Next, to the base solution, orthophosphoric acid dissolved in ethyl alcohol was added. Findings Diffused emitter layers with sheet resistance around 60 Ω/sq were produced on solar grade monocrystalline silicon wafers using two types of dopant sources. Originality/value In this work, the diffusion processes were made for two different types of dopant sources. The first one was the commercial available dopant paste from Filmtronics and the second one was the original prepared liquid dopant solution.


2012 ◽  
Vol 619 ◽  
pp. 325-328
Author(s):  
You Jun Huang ◽  
Ze Lun Li ◽  
Zhi Cheng Huang

A teaching robot with three degree of freedom is designed. The three degrees of freedom are: waist rotation, lifting and stretching of the arm and opening and closing of the gripper. The designs of the main components are: a mobile chassis, parallel rails, horizontal rails and manipulator. The teaching robot designed has the features of low cost, easy to regulation, good repeatability and it has good promotion and application prospects in the field of teaching.


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