Comparison between low-cost marker-less and high-end marker-based motion capture systems for the computer-aided assessment of working ergonomics.

Science.gov (United States)

Patrizi, Alfredo; Pennestrì, Ettore; Valentini, Pier Paolo

2016-01-01

The paper deals with the comparison between a high-end marker-based acquisition system and a low-cost marker-less methodology for the assessment of the human posture during working tasks. The low-cost methodology is based on the use of a single Microsoft Kinect V1 device. The high-end acquisition system is the BTS SMART that requires the use of reflective markers to be placed on the subject's body. Three practical working activities involving object lifting and displacement have been investigated. The operational risk has been evaluated according to the lifting equation proposed by the American National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The results of the study show that the risk multipliers computed from the two acquisition methodologies are very close for all the analysed activities. In agreement to this outcome, the marker-less methodology based on the Microsoft Kinect V1 device seems very promising to promote the dissemination of computer-aided assessment of ergonomics while maintaining good accuracy and affordable costs. PRACTITIONER’S SUMMARY: The study is motivated by the increasing interest for on-site working ergonomics assessment. We compared a low-cost marker-less methodology with a high-end marker-based system. We tested them on three different working tasks, assessing the working risk of lifting loads. The two methodologies showed comparable precision in all the investigations.

The Areva Group back-end division - challenges and prospects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-06-01

This document presents the Areva Group back-end division challenges and prospects. Areva, a world nuclear industry leader, analyzes in this document, the high-profile mix of complementary activities of the nuclear energy industry, concerning the back-end division the full range of services for the end of the fuel cycle, the fuel cycle back-end markets, the economic and financial associated considerations. (A.L.B.)

Multidisciplinary outpatient care program for patients with chronic low back pain: Design of a randomized controlled trial and cost-effectiveness study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lambeek, L.C.; Anema, J.R.; Royen, B.J van; Buijs, P.C.; Wuisman, P.I.; Tulder, M.W. van; Mechelen, W. van

2007-01-01

Background Chronic low back pain (LBP) is a major public and occupational health problem, which is associated with very high costs. Although medical costs for chronic LBP are high, most costs are related to productivity losses due to sick leave. In general, the prognosis for return to work (RTW) is

Miniature high speed compressor having embedded permanent magnet motor

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Lei (Inventor); Zheng, Liping (Inventor); Chow, Louis (Inventor); Kapat, Jayanta S. (Inventor); Wu, Thomas X. (Inventor); Kota, Krishna M. (Inventor); Li, Xiaoyi (Inventor); Acharya, Dipjyoti (Inventor)

2011-01-01

A high speed centrifugal compressor for compressing fluids includes a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) having a hollow shaft, the being supported on its ends by ball bearing supports. A permanent magnet core is embedded inside the shaft. A stator with a winding is located radially outward of the shaft. The PMSM includes a rotor including at least one impeller secured to the shaft or integrated with the shaft as a single piece. The rotor is a high rigidity rotor providing a bending mode speed of at least 100,000 RPM which advantageously permits implementation of relatively low-cost ball bearing supports.

Back end of the nuclear fuel cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shapar, H.K.

1986-01-01

Most of the nuclear spent fuel that is discharged from the reactors in OECD countries is destined currently for long term interim storage before final processing or direct disposal. There are at least three basic considerations affecting the dicision on spent fuel, that is, the capacity of prompt reprocessing is insufficient at present, reprocessing is not urgent for the reason of economy or plutonium availability, and the cooling of spent fuel in controlled storage is economically advantageous. The basic technology of reprocessing has been commercially available for several decades, but political problems and the lack of immediate incentive for reprocessing slowed the buildup of new capacity. To avoid the problems related to plutonium storage, it is reasonable to postpone reprocessing. Some OECD countries plan the direct disposal of spent fuel elements instead of reprocessing. The technology, supply and demand and cost of the storage and transport of spent fuel, reprocessing and waste disposal are discussed. The share of the back end in the total levelized fuel cycle cost is expected to be between 10 and 20 %. The impact of the choice of back end options on the cost of power generation will be only 2 %. (Kako, I.)

Re-Engineering a High Performance Electrical Series Elastic Actuator for Low-Cost Industrial Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kenan Isik

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Cost is an important consideration when transferring a technology from research to industrial and educational use. In this paper, we introduce the design of an industrial grade series elastic actuator (SEA performed via re-engineering a research grade version of it. Cost-constrained design requires careful consideration of the key performance parameters for an optimal performance-to-cost component selection. To optimize the performance of the new design, we started by matching the capabilities of a high-performance SEA while cutting down its production cost significantly. Our posit was that performing a re-engineering design process on an existing high-end device will significantly reduce the cost without compromising the performance drastically. As a case study of design for manufacturability, we selected the University of Texas Series Elastic Actuator (UT-SEA, a high-performance SEA, for its high power density, compact design, high efficiency and high speed properties. We partnered with an industrial corporation in China to research the best pricing options and to exploit the retail and production facilities provided by the Shenzhen region. We succeeded in producing a low-cost industrial grade actuator at one-third of the cost of the original device by re-engineering the UT-SEA with commercial off-the-shelf components and reducing the number of custom-made parts. Subsequently, we conducted performance tests to demonstrate that the re-engineered product achieves the same high-performance specifications found in the original device. With this paper, we aim to raise awareness in the robotics community on the possibility of low-cost realization of low-volume, high performance, industrial grade research and education hardware.

Tele-healthcare for diabetes management: A low cost automatic approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Benaissa, M; Malik, B; Kanakis, A; Wright, N P

2012-01-01

In this paper, a telemedicine system for managing diabetic patients with better care is presented. The system is an end to end solution which relies on the integration of front end (patient unit) and backend web server. A key feature of the system developed is the very low cost automated approach. The front-end of the system is capable of reading glucose measurements from any glucose meter and sending them automatically via existing networks to the back-end server. The back-end is designed and developed using n-tier web client architecture based on model-view-controller design pattern using open source technology, a cost effective solution. The back-end helps the health-care provider with data analysis; data visualization and decision support, and allows them to send feedback and therapeutic advice to patients from anywhere using a browser enabled device. This system will be evaluated during the trials which will be conducted in collaboration with a local hospital in phased manner.

Kinematics of Shooting in High School and Collegiate Lacrosse Players With and Without Low Back Pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Wasser, Joseph G; Chen, Cong; Vincent, Heather K

2016-07-01

Low back pain (LBP) and motion alterations can occur in athletes who engage in high-speed throwing motions. The relationship between LBP and shooting motion in lacrosse players is not yet known. To quantify the effects of LBP on key kinematic parameters of the lacrosse shot and determine the contribution of the severity of LBP on specific kinematic parameters of the shooting motion. Controlled laboratory study. High school and collegiate players (N = 24) were stratified into 2 groups based on back pain symptoms (LBP or no pain). Three-dimensional motion capture of overhead throws was used to collect data on knee, pelvis, trunk, and shoulder kinematics as well as crosse stick (the stick capped with a strung net) and ball speed. Mean low back numeric pain rating scale (NRSpain) score was 2.9. Knee flexion at ball release was greater in the LBP than no pain group, indicating a more bent knee (P = .04). The LBP group demonstrated less angular velocity transfer from pelvis to trunk than the no pain group (P = .05). Total range of motion of the pelvis and shoulders during the shot and follow-through were less in the LBP group than the no pain group (83.6° ± 24.5° vs 75.9° ± 24.5°, P = .05). Age- and sex-adjusted regression analyses revealed that the low back NRSpain rating contributed 6.3% to 25.0% of the variance to the models of shoulder transverse rotation range of motion, trunk and shoulder rotation angular velocities, and knee flexion angle (P core training and prehabilitation programs for high school and collegiate players may reduce pain in affected players as well as help them to attain appropriate motion parameters and avoid secondary musculoskeletal injuries. This research identified a prehabilitation need in the understudied lacrosse population. Therapeutic strategies can be developed to strengthen the throwing motion, which could control mechanical loading patterns on the low back and minimize pain symptoms in players with chronic LBP.

Comparison of high-speed transportation systems in special consideration of investment costs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Schach

2007-10-01

Full Text Available In this paper a substantial comparison of different high-speed transportation systems and an approach to stochastic cost estimations are provided. Starting from the developments in Europe, the high-speed traffic technical characteristics of high-speed railways and Maglev systems are compared. But for a comprehensive comparison more criterions must be included and led to a wider consideration and the development of a multi-criteria comparison of high-speed transportation systems. In the second part a stochastic approach to cost estimations of infrastructure projects is encouraged. Its advantages in comparison with the traditional proceeding are presented and exemplify the practical implementation.

Implementation of a guideline for low back pain management in primary care: a cost-effectiveness analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, Annette; Held, Heiko; Redaelli, Marcus; Chenot, Jean F; Leonhardt, Corinna; Keller, Stefan; Baum, Erika; Pfingsten, Michael; Hildebrandt, Jan; Basler, Heinz-Dieter; Kochen, Michael M; Donner-Banzhoff, Norbert; Strauch, Konstantin

2012-04-15

Cost-effectiveness analysis alongside a cluster randomized controlled trial. To study the cost-effectiveness of 2 low back pain guideline implementation (GI) strategies. Several evidence-based guidelines on management of low back pain have been published. However, there is still no consensus on the effective implementation strategy. Especially studies on the economic impact of different implementation strategies are lacking. This analysis was performed alongside a cluster randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of 2 GI strategies (physician education alone [GI] or physician education in combination with motivational counseling [MC] by practice nurses)--both compared with the postal dissemination of the guideline (control group, C). Sociodemographic data, pain characteristics, and cost data were collected by interview at baseline and after 6 and 12 months. low back pain-related health care costs were valued for 2004 from the societal perspective. For the cost analysis, 1322 patients from 126 general practices were included. Both interventions showed lower direct and indirect costs as well as better patient outcomes during follow-up compared with controls. In addition, both intervention arms showed superiority of cost-effectiveness to C. The effects attenuated when adjusting for differences of health care utilization prior to patient recruitment and for clustering of data. Trends in cost-effectiveness are visible but need to be confirmed in future studies. Researchers performing cost-evaluation studies should test for baseline imbalances of health care utilization data instead of judging on the randomization success by reviewing non-cost parameters like clinical data alone.

High-Speed Measurements on a Swept-Back Wing (Sweepback Angle phi = 35 Deg)

Science.gov (United States)

Goethert, B.

1947-01-01

In the following, high-speed measurements on a swept-back wing are reported. The curves of lift, moment, and drag have been determined up to Mach numbers of M = 0.87, and they are compared to a rectangular wing. Through measurements of the total-head loss behind the wing and through schlieren pictures, an insight into the formation of the compression shock at high Mach numbers has been obtained.

Flank wear analysing of high speed end milling for hardened steel D2 using Taguchi Method

Science.gov (United States)

Hazza Faizi Al-Hazza, Muataz; Ibrahim, Nur Asmawiyah bt; Adesta, Erry T. Y.; Khan, Ahsan Ali; Abdullah Sidek, Atiah Bt.

2017-03-01

One of the main challenges for any manufacturer is how to decrease the machining cost without affecting the final quality of the product. One of the new advanced machining processes in industry is the high speed hard end milling process that merges three advanced machining processes: high speed milling, hard milling and dry milling. However, one of the most important challenges in this process is to control the flank wear rate. Therefore a analyzing the flank wear rate during machining should be investigated in order to determine the best cutting levels that will not affect the final quality of the product. In this research Taguchi method has been used to investigate the effect of cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut and determine the best level s to minimize the flank wear rate up to total length of 0.3mm based on the ISO standard to maintain the finishing requirements.

A study on the design of a low-friction, high-speed pneumatic cylinder

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Do Tae; Kim, Dong Soo; Ju, Min Jin

2008-01-01

Of all of pneumatic components utilized in the make up of pneumatic circuits on either automatic assembly machine or industrial equipment, the pneumatic cylinder is more oriented toward being a structural as well as a pneumatic member. The structural design must be based to a large degree on the end of application of the cylinder on the equipment it is operating. In this paper, design studies of a double-acting pneumatic cushion type cylinder with low-friction and high-speed driving have been developed. Of interest here is to investigate the structural analysis of cylinder tube, piston rod, end cover, and to analyze the buckling of piston rod. Also, a relief valve type cushion mechanism is considered. This cushion mechanism is found to be adequate under a high-speed driving of pneumatic cylinders

Low-cost, high-precision micro-lensed optical fiber providing deep-micrometer to deep-nanometer-level light focusing.

Science.gov (United States)

Wen, Sy-Bor; Sundaram, Vijay M; McBride, Daniel; Yang, Yu

2016-04-15

A new type of micro-lensed optical fiber through stacking appropriate high-refractive microspheres at designed locations with respect to the cleaved end of an optical fiber is numerically and experimentally demonstrated. This new type of micro-lensed optical fiber can be precisely constructed with low cost and high speed. Deep micrometer-scale and submicrometer-scale far-field light spots can be achieved when the optical fibers are multimode and single mode, respectively. By placing an appropriate teardrop dielectric nanoscale scatterer at the far-field spot of this new type of micro-lensed optical fiber, a deep-nanometer near-field spot can also be generated with high intensity and minimum joule heating, which is valuable in high-speed, high-resolution, and high-power nanoscale detection compared with traditional near-field optical fibers containing a significant portion of metallic material.

Multidisciplinary outpatient care program for patients with chronic low back pain: design of a randomized controlled trial and cost-effectiveness study [ISRCTN28478651].

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lambeek, L.C.; Anema, J.R.; van Royen, B.J.; Buijs, P.C.; Wuisman, P.I.J.M.; van Tulder, M.W.; van Mechelen, W.

2007-01-01

Background. Chronic low back pain (LBP) is a major public and occupational health problem, which is associated with very high costs. Although medical costs for chronic LBP are high, most costs are related to productivity losses due to sick leave. In general, the prognosis for return to work (RTW) is

LFI 30 and 44 GHz receivers Back-End Modules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Artal, E; Aja, B; Fuente, M L de la; Pascual, J P; Mediavilla, A; Martinez-Gonzalez, E; Pradell, L; Paco, P de; Bara, M; Blanco, E; GarcIa, E; Davis, R; Kettle, D; Roddis, N; Wilkinson, A; Bersanelli, M; Mennella, A; Tomasi, M; Butler, R C; Cuttaia, F

2009-01-01

The 30 and 44 GHz Back End Modules (BEM) for the Planck Low Frequency Instrument are broadband receivers (20% relative bandwidth) working at room temperature. The signals coming from the Front End Module are amplified, band pass filtered and finally converted to DC by a detector diode. Each receiver has two identical branches following the differential scheme of the Planck radiometers. The BEM design is based on MMIC Low Noise Amplifiers using GaAs P-HEMT devices, microstrip filters and Schottky diode detectors. Their manufacturing development has included elegant breadboard prototypes and finally qualification and flight model units. Electrical, mechanical and environmental tests were carried out for the characterization and verification of the manufactured BEMs. A description of the 30 and 44 GHz Back End Modules of Planck-LFI radiometers is given, with details of the tests done to determine their electrical and environmental performances. The electrical performances of the 30 and 44 GHz Back End Modules: frequency response, effective bandwidth, equivalent noise temperature, 1/f noise and linearity are presented.

Lumbar CT findings of patients with low back pain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Yong Chul; Kim, Yang Soo; Kim, Kyun Sang

1986-01-01

Low back pain is probably the second most common disease entity to upper respiratory infection in developed country. We were missing at least 50% of the pathologic conditions by using conventional diagnostic modalities in low back pain. They did tell us nothing or little about facet abnormalities, lateral recesses, vertebral canal and soft tissue surrounding lumbar spines. High resolutional CT has been the biggest turning point in the diagnosis and management of low back pain. CT make a contribution to reducing the morbidity and probably the cost of evaluating patients with low back pain, and to increasing diagnostic accuracy. We observed 100 cases of lumbar CT using TCT 80A scanner for the evaluation of low back pain during the period from Apr. 1985 to Sept. 1985 at Chung-Ang University Hospital. Lumbar CT scan reveals high-positive findings (98%) in low back pain patients. Common low back disorders in CT are disc bulging (53%), herniated nucleus pulposus (32%), degenerative arthritis in posterior facet joints (27%), spinal stenosis (20%) and postoperative spines (15%). Uncommon low back disorders in CT are compression fracture of vertebral bodies, spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis, tropism, transitional vertebra, Scheueman's disease, limbic fracture, transverse process or articular process fracture, sacroiliac joint subluxation, conjoined nerve root and meningocele.

Lumbar CT findings of patients with low back pain

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Yong Chul; Kim, Yang Soo; Kim, Kyun Sang [Chung-Ang University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

1986-04-15

Low back pain is probably the second most common disease entity to upper respiratory infection in developed country. We were missing at least 50% of the pathologic conditions by using conventional diagnostic modalities in low back pain. They did tell us nothing or little about facet abnormalities, lateral recesses, vertebral canal and soft tissue surrounding lumbar spines. High resolutional CT has been the biggest turning point in the diagnosis and management of low back pain. CT make a contribution to reducing the morbidity and probably the cost of evaluating patients with low back pain, and to increasing diagnostic accuracy. We observed 100 cases of lumbar CT using TCT 80A scanner for the evaluation of low back pain during the period from Apr. 1985 to Sept. 1985 at Chung-Ang University Hospital. Lumbar CT scan reveals high-positive findings (98%) in low back pain patients. Common low back disorders in CT are disc bulging (53%), herniated nucleus pulposus (32%), degenerative arthritis in posterior facet joints (27%), spinal stenosis (20%) and postoperative spines (15%). Uncommon low back disorders in CT are compression fracture of vertebral bodies, spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis, tropism, transitional vertebra, Scheueman's disease, limbic fracture, transverse process or articular process fracture, sacroiliac joint subluxation, conjoined nerve root and meningocele.

Real-time high-speed motion blur compensation system based on back-and-forth motion control of galvanometer mirror.

Science.gov (United States)

Hayakawa, Tomohiko; Watanabe, Takanoshin; Ishikawa, Masatoshi

2015-12-14

We developed a novel real-time motion blur compensation system for the blur caused by high-speed one-dimensional motion between a camera and a target. The system consists of a galvanometer mirror and a high-speed color camera, without the need for any additional sensors. We controlled the galvanometer mirror with continuous back-and-forth oscillating motion synchronized to a high-speed camera. The angular speed of the mirror is given in real time within 10 ms based on the concept of background tracking and rapid raw Bayer block matching. Experiments demonstrated that our system captures motion-invariant images of objects moving at speeds up to 30 km/h.

Robust Spectrum Sensing Demonstration Using a Low-Cost Front-End Receiver

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniele Borio

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Spectrum Sensing (SS is an important function in Cognitive Radio (CR to detect primary users. The design of SS algorithms is one of the most challenging tasks in CR and requires innovative hardware and software solutions to enhance detection probability and minimize low false alarm probability. Although several SS algorithms have been developed in the specialized literature, limited work has been done to practically demonstrate the feasibility of this function on platforms with significant computational and hardware constraints. In this paper, SS is demonstrated using a low cost TV tuner as agile front-end for sensing a large portion of the Ultra-High Frequency (UHF spectrum. The problems encountered and the limitations imposed by the front-end are analysed along with the solutions adopted. Finally, the spectrum sensor developed is implemented on an Android device and SS implementation is demonstrated using a smartphone.

A High-Frequency Isolation (HFI Charging DC Port Combining a Front-End Three-Level Converter with a Back-End LLC Resonant Converter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guowei Cai

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The high-frequency isolation (HFI charging DC port can serve as the interface between unipolar/bipolar DC buses and electric vehicles (EVs through the two-power-stage system structure that combines the front-end three-level converter with the back-end logical link control (LLC resonant converter. The DC output voltage can be maintained within the desired voltage range by the front-end converter. The electrical isolation can be realized by the back-end LLC converter, which has the bus converter function. According to the three-level topology, the low-voltage rating power devices can be adapted for half-voltage stress of the total DC grid, and the PWM phase-shift control can double the equivalent switching frequency to greatly reduce the filter volume. LLC resonant converters have advance characteristics of inverter-side zero-voltage-switching (ZVS and rectifier-side zero-current switching (ZCS. In particular, it can achieve better performance under quasi-resonant frequency mode. Additionally, the magnetizing current can be modified following different DC output voltages, which have the self-adaptation ZVS condition for decreasing the circulating current. Here, the principles of the proposed topology are analyzed in detail, and the design conditions of the three-level output filter and high-frequency isolation transformer are explored. Finally, a 20 kW prototype with the 760 V input and 200–500 V output are designed and tested. The experimental results are demonstrated to verify the validity and performance of this charging DC port system structure.

Distributed Large Data-Object Environments: End-to-End Performance Analysis of High Speed Distributed Storage Systems in Wide Area ATM Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Johnston, William; Tierney, Brian; Lee, Jason; Hoo, Gary; Thompson, Mary

1996-01-01

We have developed and deployed a distributed-parallel storage system (DPSS) in several high speed asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) wide area networks (WAN) testbeds to support several different types of data-intensive applications. Architecturally, the DPSS is a network striped disk array, but is fairly unique in that its implementation allows applications complete freedom to determine optimal data layout, replication and/or coding redundancy strategy, security policy, and dynamic reconfiguration. In conjunction with the DPSS, we have developed a 'top-to-bottom, end-to-end' performance monitoring and analysis methodology that has allowed us to characterize all aspects of the DPSS operating in high speed ATM networks. In particular, we have run a variety of performance monitoring experiments involving the DPSS in the MAGIC testbed, which is a large scale, high speed, ATM network and we describe our experience using the monitoring methodology to identify and correct problems that limit the performance of high speed distributed applications. Finally, the DPSS is part of an overall architecture for using high speed, WAN's for enabling the routine, location independent use of large data-objects. Since this is part of the motivation for a distributed storage system, we describe this architecture.

Scalability of a Low-Cost Multi-Teraflop Linux Cluster for High-End Classical Atomistic and Quantum Mechanical Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Kikuchi, Hideaki; Kalia, Rajiv K.; Nakano, Aiichiro; Vashishta, Priya; Shimojo, Fuyuki; Saini, Subhash

2003-01-01

Scalability of a low-cost, Intel Xeon-based, multi-Teraflop Linux cluster is tested for two high-end scientific applications: Classical atomistic simulation based on the molecular dynamics method and quantum mechanical calculation based on the density functional theory. These scalable parallel applications use space-time multiresolution algorithms and feature computational-space decomposition, wavelet-based adaptive load balancing, and spacefilling-curve-based data compression for scalable I/O. Comparative performance tests are performed on a 1,024-processor Linux cluster and a conventional higher-end parallel supercomputer, 1,184-processor IBM SP4. The results show that the performance of the Linux cluster is comparable to that of the SP4. We also study various effects, such as the sharing of memory and L2 cache among processors, on the performance.

specific low back pain

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2015-09-01

Sep 1, 2015 ... SPECIFIC LOW BACK PAIN: IMPLICATION FOR DIRECT HEALTH. CARE COST ... abundant evidence suggesting the benefits of therapeu- tic exercise on pain and ... Exercise and behavioural therapies in chronic pain. 174.

What low back pain is and why we need to pay attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Hartvigsen, Jan; Hancock, Mark J; Kongsted, Alice; Louw, Quinette; Ferreira, Manuela L; Genevay, Stéphane; Hoy, Damian; Karppinen, Jaro; Pransky, Glenn; Sieper, Joachim; Smeets, Rob J; Underwood, Martin

2018-03-20

Low back pain is a very common symptom. It occurs in high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries and all age groups from children to the elderly population. Globally, years lived with disability caused by low back pain increased by 54% between 1990 and 2015, mainly because of population increase and ageing, with the biggest increase seen in low-income and middle-income countries. Low back pain is now the leading cause of disability worldwide. For nearly all people with low back pain, it is not possible to identify a specific nociceptive cause. Only a small proportion of people have a well understood pathological cause-eg, a vertebral fracture, malignancy, or infection. People with physically demanding jobs, physical and mental comorbidities, smokers, and obese individuals are at greatest risk of reporting low back pain. Disabling low back pain is over-represented among people with low socioeconomic status. Most people with new episodes of low back pain recover quickly; however, recurrence is common and in a small proportion of people, low back pain becomes persistent and disabling. Initial high pain intensity, psychological distress, and accompanying pain at multiple body sites increases the risk of persistent disabling low back pain. Increasing evidence shows that central pain-modulating mechanisms and pain cognitions have important roles in the development of persistent disabling low back pain. Cost, health-care use, and disability from low back pain vary substantially between countries and are influenced by local culture and social systems, as well as by beliefs about cause and effect. Disability and costs attributed to low back pain are projected to increase in coming decades, in particular in low-income and middle-income countries, where health and other systems are often fragile and not equipped to cope with this growing burden. Intensified research efforts and global initiatives are clearly needed to address the burden of low back pain as a public

Reconstruction of Low Speed Rear-End collisions - Technical Means of Assessing Cervical Spine Injuries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Hitzemann

2003-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, an increasing number of cervical spine injuries sustained by vehicle occupants in collisions at comparatively low speeds have been reported to insurance companies and in civil litigation. The reported injuries occur in both rear-end and side impact collisions. The paper describes how a detailed assessment of such cases requires interdisciplinary teamwork involving technical, biomechanical and medical experts.

Systematic review of conservative interventions for subacute low back pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Pengel, Heloise M; Maher, Chris G; Refshauge, Kathryn M

2002-12-01

To evaluate the effect of conservative interventions on clinically relevant outcome measures for patients with subacute low back pain. This is particularly important because effective treatment for subacute low back pain will prevent the transition to chronic low back pain, a condition that is largely responsible for the high health care costs of low back pain. Systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Methodological quality of each trial was assessed. Effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for pain and disability and risk ratios for return to work. Thirteen trials were located, evaluating the following interventions: manipulation, back school, exercise, advice, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), hydrotherapy, massage, corset, cognitive behavioural treatment and co-ordination of primary health care. Most studies were of low quality and did not show a statistically significant effect of intervention. For the strict duration of low back pain (six weeks to three months), no evidence of high internal validity was found but when other methodological criteria were considered, evidence was found for the efficacy of advice. Furthermore, there is evidence that when a broader view is taken of the duration of subacute low back pain (seven days to six months), other treatments (e.g. manipulation, exercise, TENS) may be effective. Our review identified a major gap in the evidence for interventions that are currently recommended in clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of subacute low back pain. Lack of a uniform definition of subacute low back pain further limited current evidence.

Investigation on Effect of Material Hardness in High Speed CNC End Milling Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. V. Dhandapani

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This research paper analyzes the effects of material properties on surface roughness, material removal rate, and tool wear on high speed CNC end milling process with various ferrous and nonferrous materials. The challenge of material specific decision on the process parameters of spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut, coolant flow rate, cutting tool material, and type of coating for the cutting tool for required quality and quantity of production is addressed. Generally, decision made by the operator on floor is based on suggested values of the tool manufacturer or by trial and error method. This paper describes effect of various parameters on the surface roughness characteristics of the precision machining part. The prediction method suggested is based on various experimental analysis of parameters in different compositions of input conditions which would benefit the industry on standardization of high speed CNC end milling processes. The results show a basis for selection of parameters to get better results of surface roughness values as predicted by the case study results.

Investigation on Effect of Material Hardness in High Speed CNC End Milling Process.

Science.gov (United States)

Dhandapani, N V; Thangarasu, V S; Sureshkannan, G

2015-01-01

This research paper analyzes the effects of material properties on surface roughness, material removal rate, and tool wear on high speed CNC end milling process with various ferrous and nonferrous materials. The challenge of material specific decision on the process parameters of spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut, coolant flow rate, cutting tool material, and type of coating for the cutting tool for required quality and quantity of production is addressed. Generally, decision made by the operator on floor is based on suggested values of the tool manufacturer or by trial and error method. This paper describes effect of various parameters on the surface roughness characteristics of the precision machining part. The prediction method suggested is based on various experimental analysis of parameters in different compositions of input conditions which would benefit the industry on standardization of high speed CNC end milling processes. The results show a basis for selection of parameters to get better results of surface roughness values as predicted by the case study results.

A Low Cost and High Speed Electrical Capacitance Tomography System Design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ruzairi ABDUL RAHIM

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Electrical capacitance tomography system is a system which can be used for imaging industrial multi-component processes involving non-conducting fluids in pipelines. In order to make an ECT system applicable in all kinds of industries, the cost factor of building an ECT system is essential. In this research, we focus on reducing the cost of the system while not affecting the quality of the results. In the past, most of the researches in tomography system have concentrated more on the design of the sensor, and use DAS card as the interface to the PC. This will increase the cost of the system. In this case, the cost of the data acquisition system will be needed to be taken into consideration. To develop a low cost and fast data acquisition system, a Universal Serial Bus (USB is found to be the most ideal technology. In order to further reduce the cost of the ECT system, a very low cost material, aluminium plates are used as the electrodes of the system. The information obtained in the PC will be reconstructed using iterative algorithm in order to obtain a precise image of the flow in the pipeline. The information obtained from the system will be useful for the purpose of controlling the flow in the pipeline.

Suppression of Noise to Obtain a High-Performance Low-Cost Optical Encoder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergio Alvarez-Rodríguez

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Currently, commercial encoders endowed with high precision are expensive sensors, and optical low-cost designs to measure the positioning angle have undesirable levels of system noise which reduce the good performance of devices. This research is devoted to the designing of mathematical filters to suppress noise in polarized transducers, in order to obtain high accuracy, precision, and resolution, along with an adaptive maximum response speed for low-cost optical encoders. This design was proved through a prototype inside a research platform, and experimental results show an accuracy of 3.9, a precision of 26, and a resolution of 17 [arc seconds], at least for the specified working conditions, for the sensing of the angular position of a rotary polarizer. From this work has been obtained a high-performance low-cost polyphase optical encoder, which uses filtering mathematical principles potentially generalizable to other inventions.

Dynamic model tracking design for low inertia, high speed permanent magnet ac motors.

Science.gov (United States)

Stewart, P; Kadirkamanathan, V

2004-01-01

Permanent magnet ac (PMAC) motors have existed in various configurations for many years. The advent of rare-earth magnets and their associated highly elevated levels of magnetic flux makes the permanent magnet motor attractive for many high performance applications from computer disk drives to all electric racing cars. The use of batteries as a prime storage element carries a cost penalty in terms of the unladen weight of the vehicle. Minimizing this cost function requires the minimum electric motor size and weight to be specified, while still retaining acceptable levels of output torque. This tradeoff can be achieved by applying a technique known as flux weakening which will be investigated in this paper. The technique allows the speed range of a PMAC motor to be greatly increased, giving a constant power range of more than 4:1. A dynamic model reference controller is presented which has advantages in ease of implementation, and is particularly suited to dynamic low inertia applications such as clutchless gear changing in high performance electric vehicles. The benefits of this approach are to maximize the torque speed envelope of the motor, particularly advantageous when considering low inertia operation. The controller is examined experimentally, confirming the predicted performance.

Development of low-cost high-performance multispectral camera system at Banpil

Science.gov (United States)

Oduor, Patrick; Mizuno, Genki; Olah, Robert; Dutta, Achyut K.

2014-05-01

Banpil Photonics (Banpil) has developed a low-cost high-performance multispectral camera system for Visible to Short- Wave Infrared (VIS-SWIR) imaging for the most demanding high-sensitivity and high-speed military, commercial and industrial applications. The 640x512 pixel InGaAs uncooled camera system is designed to provide a compact, smallform factor to within a cubic inch, high sensitivity needing less than 100 electrons, high dynamic range exceeding 190 dB, high-frame rates greater than 1000 frames per second (FPS) at full resolution, and low power consumption below 1W. This is practically all the feature benefits highly desirable in military imaging applications to expand deployment to every warfighter, while also maintaining a low-cost structure demanded for scaling into commercial markets. This paper describes Banpil's development of the camera system including the features of the image sensor with an innovation integrating advanced digital electronics functionality, which has made the confluence of high-performance capabilities on the same imaging platform practical at low cost. It discusses the strategies employed including innovations of the key components (e.g. focal plane array (FPA) and Read-Out Integrated Circuitry (ROIC)) within our control while maintaining a fabless model, and strategic collaboration with partners to attain additional cost reductions on optics, electronics, and packaging. We highlight the challenges and potential opportunities for further cost reductions to achieve a goal of a sub-$1000 uncooled high-performance camera system. Finally, a brief overview of emerging military, commercial and industrial applications that will benefit from this high performance imaging system and their forecast cost structure is presented.

Current enhancement in crystalline silicon photovoltaic by low-cost nickel silicide back contact

KAUST Repository

Bahabry, R. R.; Gumus, A.; Kutbee, A. T.; Wehbe, N.; Ahmed, S. M.; Ghoneim, M. T.; Lee, K. -T.; Rogers, J. A.; Hussain, M. M.

2016-01-01

We report short circuit current (Jsc) enhancement in crystalline silicon (C-Si) photovoltaic (PV) using low-cost Ohmic contact engineering by integration of Nickel mono-silicide (NiSi) for back contact metallization as an alternative to the status quo of using expensive screen printed silver (Ag). We show 2.6 mA/cm2 enhancement in the short circuit current (Jsc) and 1.2 % increment in the efficiency by improving the current collection due to the low specific contact resistance of the NiSi on the heavily Boron (B) doped Silicon (Si) interface.

Current enhancement in crystalline silicon photovoltaic by low-cost nickel silicide back contact

KAUST Repository

Bahabry, R. R.

2016-11-30

We report short circuit current (Jsc) enhancement in crystalline silicon (C-Si) photovoltaic (PV) using low-cost Ohmic contact engineering by integration of Nickel mono-silicide (NiSi) for back contact metallization as an alternative to the status quo of using expensive screen printed silver (Ag). We show 2.6 mA/cm2 enhancement in the short circuit current (Jsc) and 1.2 % increment in the efficiency by improving the current collection due to the low specific contact resistance of the NiSi on the heavily Boron (B) doped Silicon (Si) interface.

Investigation on Effect of Material Hardness in High Speed CNC End Milling Process

OpenAIRE

Dhandapani, N. V.; Thangarasu, V. S.; Sureshkannan, G.

2015-01-01

This research paper analyzes the effects of material properties on surface roughness, material removal rate, and tool wear on high speed CNC end milling process with various ferrous and nonferrous materials. The challenge of material specific decision on the process parameters of spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut, coolant flow rate, cutting tool material, and type of coating for the cutting tool for required quality and quantity of production is addressed. Generally, decision made by the...

Low-cost high purity production

Science.gov (United States)

Kapur, V. K.

1978-01-01

Economical process produces high-purity silicon crystals suitable for use in solar cells. Reaction is strongly exothermic and can be initiated at relatively low temperature, making it potentially suitable for development into low-cost commercial process. Important advantages include exothermic character and comparatively low process temperatures. These could lead to significant savings in equipment and energy costs.

Cutting Temperature Investigation of AISI H13 in High Speed End Milling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Riza

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Heat produced at the tool-chip interface during high speed milling operations have been known as a significant factor that affect to tool life and workpiece geometry or properties. This paper aims to investigate cutting temperature behaviours of AISI H13 (48 HRC under high speed machining circumstances during pocketing. The experiments were conducted on CNC vertical machining centre by using PVD coated carbide insert. Milling processes were done at cutting speeds 150, 200 and 250 m/min and feed rate were 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15 mm/tooth. Depths of cut applied were 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2 mm. Tool path method applied in this experiment was contour in. Results presented in this paper indicate that by increasing cutting speed the cutting temperature is lower than low cutting speed. However, by decreasing feed rate leads to cutting temperature low. Cutting temperature phenomena at the corner of pocket milling were also investigated. The phenomena showed that cutting temperature tends to decrease a moment when cutter comes to the corner of pocket and turning point of tool path and increase extremely a moment before leaving the corner and turning point.

The back end of the nuclear fuel cycle: technical and economic analysis-Part 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roglans-Ribas, J.; Spinrad, B.I.

1990-01-01

The back end of the nuclear fuel cycle has been analyzed under current conditions in the United States, taking into consideration the framework defined by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and its amendments. The different steps of the back end of the fuel cycle are studied and different alternatives are compared under technical and economic criteria. Several technical issues have been analyzed for their impact on the economics of the fuel cycle. The bases for the analysis are explained, and the results for a once-through cycle are presented. The results show that a repository in tuff represents the minimum cost situation. The economic model appears very sensitive to several parameters, in particular the period of retrievability and the storage costs

Back End Programming in .NET Framework

OpenAIRE

Sapkota, Dinesh

2013-01-01

The main goal of the project was to develop a web application which provides the services for both web and mobile client. The complete application development process was carried out by the team of four members and a supervisor. According to the interest of group members the whole project was divided into four parts; that is user interface design, mobile application development, back end development for mobile services and server side back end development of application. I got the task of ser...

Balneotherapy for chronic low back pain: a randomized, controlled study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kesiktas, Nur; Karakas, Sinem; Gun, Kerem; Gun, Nuran; Murat, Sadiye; Uludag, Murat

2012-10-01

A large number of treatments were used for patients with chronic low back pain. Frequent episodes have been reported very high. Although balneotherapy was found effective in this disease, there are not well-designed studies. We aimed to determine the effectiveness of balneotherapy versus physical therapy in patients with chronic low back pain. Exercise was added to both treatment programs. Sixty patients with chronic low back pain were randomly divided into two groups. Physical modalities plus exercise were applied to group 1, and group 2 was received balneotherapy plus exercise for ten sessions. The following parameters were measured: visual analogue scale at rest and movement for pain, paracetamol dose, manual muscle test for lumber muscles, modified Schoeber' test, Oswestry disability index, and Short-Form 36 at the beginning and end of the therapies and at the 3 months follow-up. The statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS 10.0 program. Both groups achieved significant improvements within themselves. But balneotherapy groups were improved at back extensor muscle test (P Balneotherapy combined with exercise therapy had advantages than therapy with physical modalities plus exercise in improving quality of life and flexibility of patients with chronic low back pain.

Benefits of sequential turbocharging in improving high torque/low speed operation of medium speed diesel engines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Danyluk, P.; Gutoski, G. [Coltec Industries Inc., Fairbanks Morse Engine Division (United States); Chen, S.K. [PEI Consultants (United States)

1998-12-31

This paper describes the benefits of sequential turbocharging in improving the operating envelope of a medium speed diesel engine. In particular, the high torque, low speed performance envelope can be greatly extended over that of a standard medium speed engine and, in addition, can offer improved operating range over what has been achieved with compressor air bypass/waste gate systems. This paper compares the three approaches on the basis of possible operating envelopes for a specific application, the new U.S. Navy LPD-17 amphibious assault ship, which has a very demanding requirement for high torque at low engine speed and low ambient temperatures. Comparison is made to the earlier approach to extend the operating envelope on the U.S. Navy LSD-41 class engines. The LSD-41 fleet has been in service since 1985 running with a compressor air bypass system developed jointly by Lockheed Shipyard and Coltec Industries for the U.S. Navy. (au)

Speed control at low wind speeds for a variable speed fixed pitch wind turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rosmin, N.; Watson, S.J.; Tompson, M. [Loughborough Univ., Loughborough, Leicestershire (United Kingdom)

2010-03-09

The maximum power regulation below rated wind speed is regulated by changing the rotor/generator speed at large frequency range in a fixed pitch, variable speed, stall-regulated wind turbine. In order to capture the power at a maximum value the power coefficient is kept at maximum peak point by maintaining the tip speed ratio at its optimum value. The wind industry is moving from stall regulated fixed speed wind turbines to newer improved innovative versions with better reliability. While a stall regulated fixed pitch wind turbine is among the most cost-effective wind turbine on the market, its problems include noise, severe vibrations, high thrust loads and low power efficiency. Therefore, in order to improve such drawbacks, the rotation of the generator speed is made flexible where the rotation can be controlled in variable speed. This paper discussed the development of a simulation model which represented the behaviour of a stall regulated variable speed wind turbine at low wind speed control region by using the closed loop scalar control with adjustable speed drive. The paper provided a description of each sub-model in the wind turbine system and described the scalar control of the induction machine. It was concluded that by using a constant voltage/frequency ratio of the generator's stator side control, the generator speed could be regulated and the generator torque could be controlled to ensure the power coefficient could be maintained close to its maximum value. 38 refs., 1 tab., 10 figs.

The back end of the nuclear fuel cycle: Technical and economic analysis-Part 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roglans-Ribas, J.; Spinrad, B.I.

1990-01-01

The back end of the nuclear fuel cycle has been analyzed under current conditions in the United States, including the constraints imposed by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and its amendments. The scenarios for two closed cycles, a regular reprocessing cycle and a reprocessing scheme with cesium and strontium fractionation, are described. The storage of spent fuel discharged from the reactors and the disposal of reprocessed waste are studied for both reprocessing cycles. The economics of waste storage and disposal for the two closed cycles are compared with each other and with the reference once-through cycle. The results show that a standard reprocessing cycle results in the minimum cost for storage and disposal. When reporcessing costs are considered, the closed cycles can compete economically with the once-through cycle only if net reprocessing costs are very low

Superconducting magnet suspensions in high speed ground transport

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alston, I A

1973-08-01

A technical and economic definition of high speed ground transport systems using magnetic suspensions is given. The full range of common superconducting suspensions and of propulsions are covered with designs produced for speeds ranging from 100 m/s (225 miles/hr) to 250 m/s (560 mile/hr). Technical descriptions of the vehicles, their suspensions, propulsions and tracks are given in some detail and operating costs are presented for all the systems together with details of the breakdown of costs and the capital costs involved. The design assumptions, the costing procedure and a cost sensitivity study are presented. It is concluded that the systems are technically feasible; that they are suited to existing duorail track for low speed running and that, in these circumstances, they would be economically viable over many routes.

Investigation of economics of back-end nuclear fuel cycle options in the Republic of Korea based on Once-through

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cho, Seok-Ki; Yim, Man-Sung [Korea Advance Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-05-15

The purpose of this study is to examine these questions and perform economic evaluations of various cases of Once-through back-end fuel cycles in the ROK. Therefore, the study is to support decision making in terms of how the long term spent nuclear fuel (SNF) management strategy should be developed. A spreadsheet model was developed to plan reactor construction, the interim storage and the HLW repository construction within engineered constraints, based on the estimation of the spent fuel flow and the energy supply of the nuclear power program. The model computes the back-end levelized costs for various fuel cycle choices. The scenarios assumed in the model include (1) 0 year/10year/20year of licensed operation period extension; (2) the phase-out of NPP program and the continuous use including the reunification of Korean peninsula; (3) reactor decommissioning and construction lead times - 10 years and 5 years respectively in this study; (4) geological constraints of siting for a new reactor - 38 for without the reunification and 70 for with the reunification; (5) the first initiation of reactor decommissioning and operation of HLW repository - assumed to be 2020 and 2050; and (6) capacity factor of reactor operation and the on-site wet storage pool capacity - 0.85 and 0.498 MTHM per MWe which is equivalent with APR1400. The capacity factor for PHWR reactors was assumed at 0.85 and the plan for PHWR was fixed as phase-out. The spreadsheet model conducts computation for annual expenditures of the back-end fuel cycle and calculates the levelized costs. Licensed operation period extension enhances not only economic efficiency, stable energy supply, but also reduces burden of siting for a new reactor and waste disposal. And regardless the reunification, continuous use of nuclear energy lowers the back-end fuel cycle cost. With projection that a large portion of social cost is included in the current back-end fuel cycle cost, nuclear energy likely has more competency in

High-Speed, High-Performance DQPSK Optical Links with Reduced Complexity VDFE Equalizers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maki Nanou

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Optical transmission technologies optimized for optical network segments sensitive to power consumption and cost, comprise modulation formats with direct detection technologies. Specifically, non-return to zero differential quaternary phase shift keying (NRZ-DQPSK in deployed fiber plants, combined with high-performance, low-complexity electronic equalizers to compensate residual impairments at the receiver end, can be proved as a viable solution for high-performance, high-capacity optical links. Joint processing of the constructive and the destructive signals at the single-ended DQPSK receiver provides improved performance compared to the balanced configuration, however, at the expense of higher hardware requirements, a fact that may not be neglected especially in the case of high-speed optical links. To overcome this bottleneck, the use of partially joint constructive/destructive DQPSK equalization is investigated in this paper. Symbol-by-symbol equalization is performed by means of Volterra decision feedback-type equalizers, driven by a reduced subset of signals selected from the constructive and the destructive ports of the optical detectors. The proposed approach offers a low-complexity alternative for electronic equalization, without sacrificing much of the performance compared to the fully-deployed counterpart. The efficiency of the proposed equalizers is demonstrated by means of computer simulation in a typical optical transmission scenario.

Economics of the back-end of fuel cycle: Controversy, uncertainties and the industrial evidence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guais, J.C.

1987-01-01

This paper underlines the usefulness of the document issued by OECD/NEA on the ''economics of the nuclear fuel cycle,'' as a reference methodology. As regards the technical and costs assumptions, we feel that COGEMA as the most important reprocessor to date has accumulated a large industrial experience allowing a better knowledge of the various costs included in the back-end operations, from spent fuel transportation handling and storage, to reprocessing and wastes conditioning. A comparative analysis of the two main options for the fuel cycle: reprocessing/recycling versus once-through, is performed on these grounds. In the economic conditions prevailing in Western Europe and in Japan, the resulting cost comparison is in favor of the reprocessing/recycling cycle. The authors conclude that economics is important as it is, is not the only criteria to be considered then assessing the back-end options: overall strategy, energy policy, environmental consideration and public acceptance are the other view-points to use to reach a sound decision in this field

Low Back Pain - Management Perspective Of A commonly Encountered Problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Parharaj S S

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Low Back pain is a very common symptom affecting the general population, incurring a huge annual societal cost. In spite of this, it remains very commonly misdiagnosed and maltreated. The majority of benign chronic low back pain patients suffer from a combination of myofascial frozen back syndrome with or without an overly of psychosocioeconomic factors. Neural compression causes are less frequent. A though evaluation of the patient to select the most rational therapeutic approach is necessary. In majority of the patients, a well planned out rehabilitation programme is useful. Surgery is indicated in a minority with neural compression or spinal instability, motivation is essential as rehabilitation and surgery have a high failure rate in inadequately motivated patients with psychosocioeconomic dysfunction.

Low cost alternative of high speed visible light camera for tokamak experiments

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Odstrčil, T.; Odstrčil, Michal; Grover, O.; Svoboda, V.; Ďuran, Ivan; Mlynář, Jan

2012-01-01

Roč. 83, č. 10 (2012), 10E505-10E505 ISSN 0034-6748. [Topical Conference High-Temperature Plasma Diagnostics/19./. Monterey, 06.05.2012-10.05.2012] Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z20430508 Keywords : Plasma * tokamak * diagnostic * high speed camera * GOLEM Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics Impact factor: 1.602, year: 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4731003

Practical End-to-End Performance Testing Tool for High Speed 3G-Based Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Shinbo, Hiroyuki; Tagami, Atsushi; Ano, Shigehiro; Hasegawa, Toru; Suzuki, Kenji

High speed IP communication is a killer application for 3rd generation (3G) mobile systems. Thus 3G network operators should perform extensive tests to check whether expected end-to-end performances are provided to customers under various environments. An important objective of such tests is to check whether network nodes fulfill requirements to durations of processing packets because a long duration of such processing causes performance degradation. This requires testers (persons who do tests) to precisely know how long a packet is hold by various network nodes. Without any tool's help, this task is time-consuming and error prone. Thus we propose a multi-point packet header analysis tool which extracts and records packet headers with synchronized timestamps at multiple observation points. Such recorded packet headers enable testers to calculate such holding durations. The notable feature of this tool is that it is implemented on off-the shelf hardware platforms, i.e., lap-top personal computers. The key challenges of the implementation are precise clock synchronization without any special hardware and a sophisticated header extraction algorithm without any drop.

MSGD: Scalable back-end for indoor magnetic field-based GraphSLAM

OpenAIRE

Gao, C; Harle, Robert Keith

2017-01-01

Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) systems that recover the trajectory of a robot or mobile device are characterised by a front-end and back-end. The front-end uses sensor observations to identify loop closures; the back-end optimises the estimated trajectory to be consistent with these closures. The GraphSLAM framework formulates the back-end problem as a graph-based optimisation on a pose graph. This paper describes a back-end system optimised for very dense sequence-based lo...

Back End of Line Nanorelays for Ultra-low Power Monolithic Integrated NEMS-CMOS Circuits

KAUST Repository

Lechuga Aranda, Jesus Javier

2016-05-01

Since the introduction of Complementary-Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) technology, the chip industry has enjoyed many benefits of transistor feature size scaling, including higher speed and device density and improved energy efficiency. However, in the recent years, the IC designers have encountered a few roadblocks, namely reaching the physical limits of scaling and also increased device leakage which has resulted in a slow-down of supply voltage and power density scaling. Therefore, there has been an extensive hunt for alternative circuit architectures and switching devices that can alleviate or eliminate the current crisis in the semiconductor industry. The Nano-Electro-Mechanical (NEM) relay is a promising alternative switch that offers zero leakage and abrupt turn-on behaviour. Even though these devices are intrinsically slower than CMOS transistors, new circuit design techniques tailored for the electromechanical properties of such devices can be leveraged to design medium performance, ultra-low power integrated circuits. In this thesis, we deal with a new generation of such devices that is built in the back end of line (BEOL) CMOS process and is an ideal option for full integration with current CMOS transistor technology. Simulation and verification at the circuit and system level is a critical step in the design flow of microelectronic circuits, and this is especially important for new technologies that lack the standard design infrastructure and well-known verification platforms. Although most of the physical and electrical properties of NEM structures can be simulated using standard electronic automation software, there is no report of a reliable behavioural model for NEMS switches that enable large circuit simulations. In this work, we present an optimised model of a BEOL nano relay that encompasses all the electromechanical characteristics of the device and is robust and lightweight enough for VLSI applications that require simulation of thousands of

Cost-effectiveness of minimally invasive versus open transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion for degenerative spondylolisthesis associated low-back and leg pain over two years.

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Scott L; Adogwa, Owoicho; Bydon, Ali; Cheng, Joseph; McGirt, Matthew J

2012-07-01

Minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF) for lumbar spondylolisthesis allows for surgical treatment of back and leg pain while theoretically minimizing tissue injury and accelerating overall recovery. Although the authors of previous studies have demonstrated shorter length of hospital stay and reduced blood loss with MIS versus open-TLIF, short- and long-term outcomes have been similar. No studies to date have evaluated the comprehensive health care costs associated with TLIF procedures or assessed the cost-utility of MIS- versus open-TLIF. As such, we set out to assess previously unstudied end points of health care cost and cost-utility associated with MIS- versus open-TLIF. Thirty patients undergoing MIS-TLIF (n=15) or open-TLIF (n=15) for grade I degenerative spondylolisthesis associated back and leg pain were prospectively studied. Total back-related medical resource use, missed work, and health-state values (quality-adjusted life years [QALYs], calculated from EQ-5D with U.S. valuation) were assessed after two-year follow-up. Two-year resource use was multiplied by unit costs on the basis of Medicare national allowable payment amounts (direct cost) and work-day losses were multiplied by the self-reported gross-of-tax wage rate (indirect cost). Difference in mean total cost per QALY gained for MIS- versus open-TLIF was assessed as incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER: COSTmis-COSTopen/QALYmis-QALYopen). MIS versus open-TLIF cohorts were similar at baseline. By two years postoperatively, patients undergoing MIS- versus open-TLIF reported similar mean QALYs gained (0.50 vs. 0.41, P=0.17). Mean total two-year cost of MIS- and open-TLIF was $35,996 and $44,727, respectively. The $8,731 two-year cost savings of MIS- versus open-TLIF did not reach statistical significance (P=0.18) for this sample size. Although our limited sample size prevented statistical significance, MIS- versus open-TLIF was associated with reduced costs over

Modeling and numerical techniques for high-speed digital simulation of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wulff, W.; Cheng, H.S.; Mallen, A.N.

1987-01-01

Conventional computing methods are contrasted with newly developed high-speed and low-cost computing techniques for simulating normal and accidental transients in nuclear power plants. Six principles are formulated for cost-effective high-fidelity simulation with emphasis on modeling of transient two-phase flow coolant dynamics in nuclear reactors. Available computing architectures are characterized. It is shown that the combination of the newly developed modeling and computing principles with the use of existing special-purpose peripheral processors is capable of achieving low-cost and high-speed simulation with high-fidelity and outstanding user convenience, suitable for detailed reactor plant response analyses

Low back pain - acute

Science.gov (United States)

Backache; Low back pain; Lumbar pain; Pain - back; Acute back pain; Back pain - new; Back pain - short-term; Back strain - new ... lower back supports most of your body's weight. Low back pain is the number two reason that Americans see ...

Comparison between Epidural Block vs. High Intensity Laser Therapy for Controlling Chronic Low Back Pain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Badiozaman Radpay

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Chronic low back pain is among a wide spread musculoskeletal conditions that is related to disability with high economy cost. There are several treatment modalities for controlling chronic low back pain (CLBP, among them high intensity laser therapy (HILT and epidural blocks (EB use more commonly. This study aimed to evaluate the benefits and hazards of each of these two methods.Materials and Methods: We designed a randomized controlled double blind study during 24 months.101 patients divided in 2 groups (52 in EB and 49 in HILT group. Pain intensity was assessed by using faces pain scales (FPS and LINKERT questionaries' before procedure and during one, four, 12, and 24 weeks after beginning the procedures.Results: There were no differences between two groups in FPS lumber tenderness, straight leg rising test (SLRT, paresthesia, deep tendon reflex (DTR, and imaging changes. Motor problems seem was less in HILT group comparing EB.Conclusion: This study showed both EB and HILT approaches can control the pain intensity and motor activities in CLBP patients. Future studies will clarify the precise importance of each these methods.

Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Different Weekly Frequencies of Pilates for Chronic Low Back Pain: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Miyamoto, Gisela Cristiane; Moura, Katherinne Ferro; Franco, Yuri Rafael dos Santos; Oliveira, Naiane Teixeira Bastos de; Amaral, Diego Diulgeroglo Vicco; Branco, Amanda Nery Castelo; Silva, Maria Liliane da; Lin, Christine; Cabral, Cristina Maria Nunes

2016-03-01

The Pilates method has been recommended to patients with low back pain, but the evidence on effectiveness is inconclusive. In addition, there is still no evidence for the cost-effectiveness of this method or for the ideal number of sessions to achieve the highest effectiveness. The aim of this study will be to investigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Pilates method with different weekly frequencies in the treatment of patients with nonspecific low back pain. This is a randomized controlled trial with blinded assessor. This study will be conducted at a physical therapy clinic in São Paulo, Brazil. Two hundred ninety-six patients with nonspecific low back pain between the ages of 18 and 80 years will be assessed and randomly allocated to 4 groups (n=74 patients per group). All groups will receive an educational booklet. The booklet group will not receive additional exercises. Pilates group 1 will follow a Pilates-based program once a week, Pilates group 2 will follow the same program twice a week, and Pilates group 3 will follow the same program 3 times a week. The intervention will last 6 weeks. A blinded assessor will evaluate pain, quality-adjusted life-years, general and specific disability, kinesiophobia, pain catastrophizing, and global perceived effect 6 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months after randomization. Therapists and patients will not be blinded. This will be the first study to investigate different weekly frequencies of treatment sessions for nonspecific low back pain. The results of this study will contribute to a better definition of treatment programs for this population. © 2016 American Physical Therapy Association.

Low-cost coherent receiver for long-reach optical access network using single-ended detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xuebing; Li, Zhaohui; Li, Jianping; Yu, Changyuan; Lau, Alan Pak Tao; Lu, Chao

2014-09-15

A low-cost coherent receiver using two 2×3 optical hybrids and single-ended detection is proposed for long-reach optical access network. This structure can detect the two polarization components of polarization division multiplexing (PDM) signals. Polarization de-multiplexing and signal-to-signal beat interference (SSBI) cancellation are realized by using only three photodiodes. Simulation results for 40 Gb/s PDM-OFDM transmissions indicate that the low-cost coherent receiver has 3.2 dB optical signal-to-noise ratio difference compared with the theoretical value.

Establishing Relationship between Process Parameters and Temperature during High Speed End Milling of Soda Lime Glass

Science.gov (United States)

Nasima Bagum, Mst.; Konneh, Mohamed; Yeakub Ali, Mohammad

2018-01-01

In glass machining crack free surface is required in biomedical and optical industry. Ductile mode machining allows materials removal from brittle materials in a ductile manner rather than by brittle fracture. Although end milling is a versatile process, it has not been applied frequently for machining soda lime glass. Soda lime glass is a strain rate and temperature sensitive material; especially around glass transition temperature Tg, ductility increased and strength decreased. Hence, it is envisaged that the generated temperature by high-speed end milling (HSEM) could be brought close to the glass transition temperature, which promote ductile machining. In this research, the objective is to investigate the effect of high speed machining parameters on generated temperature. The cutting parameters were optimized to generate temperature around glass transition temperature of soda lime using response surface methodology (RSM). Result showed that the most influencing process parameter is feed rate followed by spindle speed and depth of cut to generate temperature. Confirmation test showed that combination of spindle speed 30,173 rpm, feed rate 13.2 mm/min and depth of cut 37.68 µm generate 635°C, hence ductile chip removal with machined surface Ra 0.358 µm was possible to achieve.

Lombalgia ocupacional Occupational low back pain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Milton Helfenstein Junior

2010-01-01

Full Text Available A lombalgia ocupacional apresenta etiologia multifatorial, elevada prevalência e incidência. Caracterizada por quadro de dor de variada duração e intensidade, a dor lombar pode levar à incapacidade laborativa e à invalidez. A lombalgia acarreta sofrimento aos trabalhadores, custos às empresas, aos sistemas previdenciário e assistencial de saúde. Os autores, pela relevância do tema, elaboraram este artigo de revisão bibliográfica dando ênfase ao embasamento teorico-conceitual e à experiência de especialistas.The occupational low back pain presents multifactorial aetiology, important prevalence and incidence. Characterized by pain of varying duration and intensity, low back pain may lead to disability. Low back pain causes suffering to workers, implies costs to companies, to the social security and health assistance system. Because of the theme's relevance, the authors have elaborated this review of literature with emphasis on a theoretical and conceptual basis, as well as experience of experts.

Combined application of FBG and PZT sensors for plantar pressure monitoring at low and high speed walking.

Science.gov (United States)

Suresh, R; Bhalla, S; Singh, C; Kaur, N; Hao, J; Anand, S

2015-01-01

Clinical monitoring of planar pressure is vital in several pathological conditions, such as diabetes, where excess pressure might have serious repercussions on health of the patient, even to the extent of amputation. The main objective of this paper is to experimentally evaluate the combined application of the Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) and the lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoceramic sensors for plantar pressure monitoring during walk at low and high speeds. For fabrication of the pressure sensors, the FBGs are embedded within layers of carbon composite material and stacked in an arc shape. From this embedding technique, average pressure sensitivity of 1.3 pm/kPa and resolution of nearly 0.8 kPa is obtained. These sensors are found to be suitable for measuring the static and the low-speed walk generated foot pressure. Simultaneously, PZT patches of size 10 × 10 × 0.3 mm were used as sensors, utilizing the d_{33} (thickness) coupling mode. A sensitivity of 7.06 mV/kPa and a pressure resolution of 0.14 kPa is obtained from these sensors, which are found to be suitable for foot pressure measurement during high speed walking and running. Both types of sensors are attached to the underside of the sole of commercially available shoes. In the experiments, a healthy male subject walks/runs over the treadmill wearing the fabricated shoes at various speeds and the peak pressure is measured using both the sensors. Commercially available low-cost hardware is used for interrogation of the two sensor types. The test results clearly show the feasibility of the FBG and the PZT sensors for measurement of plantar pressure. The PZT sensors are more accurate for measurement of pressure during walking at high speeds. The FBG sensors, on the other hand, are found to be suitable for static and quasi-dynamic (slow walking) conditions. Typically, the measured pressure varied from 400 to 600 kPa below the forefoot and 100 to 1000 kPa below the heel as the walking speed varied from 1

Low cost back contact heterojunction solar cells on thin c-Si wafers. integrating laser and thin film processing for improved manufacturability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hegedus, Steven S. [Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)

2015-09-08

An interdigitated back contact (IBC) Si wafer solar cell with deposited a-Si heterojunction (HJ) emitter and contacts is considered the ultimate single junction Si solar cell design. This was confirmed in 2014 by both Panasonic and Sharp Solar producing IBC-HJ cells breaking the previous record Si solar cell efficiency of 25%. But manufacturability at low cost is a concern for the complex IBC-HJ device structure. In this research program, our goals were to addressed the broad industry need for a high-efficiency c-Si cell that overcomes the dominant module cost barriers by 1) developing thin Si wafers synthesized by innovative, kerfless techniques; 2) integrating laser-based processing into most aspects of solar cell fabrication, ensuring high speed and low thermal budgets ; 3) developing an all back contact cell structure compatible with thin wafers using a simplified, low-temperature fabrication process; and 4) designing the contact patterning to enable simplified module assembly. There were a number of significant achievements from this 3 year program. Regarding the front surface, we developed and applied new method to characterize critical interface recombination parameters including interface defect density Dit and hole and electron capture cross-section for use as input for 2D simulation of the IBC cell to guide design and loss analysis. We optimized the antireflection and passivation properties of the front surface texture and a-Si/a-SiN/a-SiC stack depositions to obtain a very low (< 6 mA/cm2) front surface optical losses (reflection and absorption) while maintaining excellent surface passivation (SRV<5 cm/s). We worked with kerfless wafer manufacturers to apply defect-engineering techniques to improve bulk minority-carrier lifetime of thin kerfless wafers by both reducing initial impurities during growth and developing post-growth gettering techniques. This led insights about the kinetics of nickel, chromium, and dislocations in PV-grade silicon and to

Low cost back contact heterojunction solar cells on thin c-Si wafers. Integrating laser and thin film processing for improved manufacturability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hegedus, Steven S. [Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)

2015-09-08

An interdigitated back contact (IBC) Si wafer solar cell with deposited a-Si heterojunction (HJ) emitter and contacts is considered the ultimate single junction Si solar cell design. This was confirmed in 2014 by both Panasonic and Sharp Solar producing IBC-HJ cells breaking the previous record Si solar cell efficiency of 25%. But manufacturability at low cost is a concern for the complex IBC-HJ device structure. In this research program, our goals were to addressed the broad industry need for a high-efficiency c-Si cell that overcomes the dominant module cost barriers by 1) developing thin Si wafers synthesized by innovative, kerfless techniques; 2) integrating laser-based processing into most aspects of solar cell fabrication, ensuring high speed and low thermal budgets ; 3) developing an all back contact cell structure compatible with thin wafers using a simplified, low-temperature fabrication process; and 4) designing the contact patterning to enable simplified module assembly. There were a number of significant achievements from this 3 year program. Regarding the front surface, we developed and applied new method to characterize critical interface recombination parameters including interface defect density Dit and hole and electron capture cross-section for use as input for 2D simulation of the IBC cell to guide design and loss analysis. We optimized the antireflection and passivation properties of the front surface texture and a-Si/a-SiN/a-SiC stack depositions to obtain a very low (< 6 mA/cm2) front surface optical losses (reflection and absorption) while maintaining excellent surface passivation (SRV<5 cm/s). We worked with kerfless wafer manufacturers to apply defect-engineering techniques to improve bulk minority-carrier lifetime of thin kerfless wafers by both reducing initial impurities during growth and developing post-growth gettering techniques. This led insights about the kinetics of nickel, chromium, and dislocations in PV-grade silicon and to

Novel Low Cost, High Reliability Wind Turbine Drivetrain

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chobot, Anthony; Das, Debarshi; Mayer, Tyler; Markey, Zach; Martinson, Tim; Reeve, Hayden; Attridge, Paul; El-Wardany, Tahany

2012-09-13

Clipper Windpower, in collaboration with United Technologies Research Center, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation, developed a low-cost, deflection-compliant, reliable, and serviceable chain drive speed increaser. This chain and sprocket drivetrain design offers significant breakthroughs in the areas of cost and serviceability and addresses the key challenges of current geared and direct-drive systems. The use of gearboxes has proven to be challenging; the large torques and bending loads associated with use in large multi-MW wind applications have generally limited demonstrated lifetime to 8-10 years [1]. The large cost of gearbox replacement and the required use of large, expensive cranes can result in gearbox replacement costs on the order of $1M, representing a significant impact to overall cost of energy (COE). Direct-drive machines eliminate the gearbox, thereby targeting increased reliability and reduced life-cycle cost. However, the slow rotational speeds require very large and costly generators, which also typically have an undesirable dependence on expensive rare-earth magnet materials and large structural penalties for precise air gap control. The cost of rare-earth materials has increased 20X in the last 8 years representing a key risk to ever realizing the promised cost of energy reductions from direct-drive generators. A common challenge to both geared and direct drive architectures is a limited ability to manage input shaft deflections. The proposed Clipper drivetrain is deflection-compliant, insulating later drivetrain stages and generators from off-axis loads. The system is modular, allowing for all key parts to be removed and replaced without the use of a high capacity crane. Finally, the technology modularity allows for scalability and many possible drivetrain topologies. These benefits enable reductions in drivetrain capital cost by 10.0%, levelized replacement and O&M costs by 26.7%, and overall cost of

Scalable Light Module for Low-Cost, High-Efficiency Light- Emitting Diode Luminaires

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tarsa, Eric [Cree, Inc., Goleta, CA (United States)

2015-08-31

During this two-year program Cree developed a scalable, modular optical architecture for low-cost, high-efficacy light emitting diode (LED) luminaires. Stated simply, the goal of this architecture was to efficiently and cost-effectively convey light from LEDs (point sources) to broad luminaire surfaces (area sources). By simultaneously developing warm-white LED components and low-cost, scalable optical elements, a high system optical efficiency resulted. To meet program goals, Cree evaluated novel approaches to improve LED component efficacy at high color quality while not sacrificing LED optical efficiency relative to conventional packages. Meanwhile, efficiently coupling light from LEDs into modular optical elements, followed by optimally distributing and extracting this light, were challenges that were addressed via novel optical design coupled with frequent experimental evaluations. Minimizing luminaire bill of materials and assembly costs were two guiding principles for all design work, in the effort to achieve luminaires with significantly lower normalized cost ($/klm) than existing LED fixtures. Chief project accomplishments included the achievement of >150 lm/W warm-white LEDs having primary optics compatible with low-cost modular optical elements. In addition, a prototype Light Module optical efficiency of over 90% was measured, demonstrating the potential of this scalable architecture for ultra-high-efficacy LED luminaires. Since the project ended, Cree has continued to evaluate optical element fabrication and assembly methods in an effort to rapidly transfer this scalable, cost-effective technology to Cree production development groups. The Light Module concept is likely to make a strong contribution to the development of new cost-effective, high-efficacy luminaries, thereby accelerating widespread adoption of energy-saving SSL in the U.S.

Cost-effectiveness of providing patients with information on managing mild low-back symptoms in an occupational health setting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Rantonen

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Evidence shows that low back specific patient information is effective in sub-acute low back pain (LBP, but effectiveness and cost-effectiveness (CE of information in early phase symptoms is not clear. We assessed effectiveness and CE of patient information in mild LBP in the occupational health (OH setting in a quasi-experimental study. Methods A cohort of employees (N = 312, aged <57 with non-specific, mild LBP (Visual Analogue Scale between 10–34 mm was selected from the respondents of an employee survey (N = 2480; response rate 71 %. A random sample, representing the natural course of LBP (NC, N = 83; no intervention, was extracted as a control group. Remaining employees were invited (181 included, 47 declined, one excluded into a randomised controlled study with two 1:1 allocated parallel intervention arms (“Booklet”, N = 92; “Combined”, N = 89. All participants received the “Back Book” patient information booklet and the Combined also an individual verbal review of the booklet. Physical impairment (PHI, LBP, health care (HC utilisation, and all-cause sickness absence (SA were assessed at two years. CE of the interventions on SA days was analysed by using direct HC costs in one year, two years from baseline. Multiple imputation was used for missing values. Results Compared to NC, the Booklet reduced HC costs by 196€ and SA by 3.5 days per year. In 81 % of the bootstrapped cases the Booklet was both cost saving and effective on SA. Compared to NC, in the Combined arm, the figures were 107€, 0.4 days, and 54 %, respectively. PHI decreased in both interventions. Conclusions Booklet information alone was cost-effective in comparison to natural course of mild LBP. Combined information reduced HC costs. Both interventions reduced physical impairment. Mere booklet information is beneficial for employees who report mild LBP in the OH setting, and is also cost saving for the health care

Energy Efficient Control of High Speed IPMSM Drives - A Generalized PSO Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

GECIC, M.

2016-02-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a generalized particle swarm optimization (GPSO algorithm was applied to the problems of optimal control of high speed low cost interior permanent magnet motor (IPMSM drives. In order to minimize the total controllable electrical losses and to increase the efficiency, the optimum current vector references are calculated offline based on GPSO for the wide speed range and for different load conditions. The voltage and current limits of the drive system and the variation of stator inductances are all included in the optimization method. The stored optimal current vector references are used during the real time control and the proposed algorithm is compared with the conventional high speed control algorithm, which is mostly voltage limit based. The computer simulations and experimental results on 1 kW low cost high speed IPMSM drive are discussed in details.

Is a history of work-related low back injury associated with prevalent low back pain and depression in the general population?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cassidy J David

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Little is known about the role of prior occupational low back injury in future episodes of low back pain and disability in the general population. We conducted a study to determine if a lifetime history of work-related low back injury is associated with prevalent severity-graded low back pain, depressive symptoms, or both, in the general population. Methods We used data from the Saskatchewan Health and Back Pain Survey – a population-based cross-sectional survey mailed to a random, stratified sample of 2,184 Saskatchewan adults 20 to 69 years of age in 1995. Information on the main independent variable was gathered by asking respondents whether they had ever injured their low back at work. Our outcomes, the 6-month period prevalence of severity-graded low back pain and depressive symptoms during the past week, were measured with valid and reliable questionnaires. The associations between prior work-related low back injury and our outcomes were estimated through multinomial and binary multivariable logistic regression with adjustment for age, gender, and other important covariates. Results Fifty-five percent of the eligible population participated. Of the 1,086 participants who responded to the question about the main independent variable, 38.0% reported a history of work-related low back injury. A history of work-related low back injury was positively associated with low intensity/low disability low back pain (OR, 3.66; 95%CI, 2.48–5.42, with high intensity/low disability low back pain (OR, 4.03; 95%CI, 2.41–6.76, and with high disability low back pain (OR, 6.76; 95%CI, 3.80–12.01. No association was found between a history of work-related low back injury and depression (OR, 0.85; 95%CI, 0.55–1.30. Conclusion Our analysis shows an association between past occupational low back injury and increasing severity of prevalent low back pain, but not depression. These results suggest that past work-related low back injury

Multimode polymer waveguides for high-speed optical interconnects

Science.gov (United States)

Bamiedakis, N.; Ingham, J. D.; Penty, R. V.; White, I. H.; DeGroot, J. V.; Clapp, T. V.

2017-11-01

Polymeric multimode waveguides are of particular interest for optical interconnections in short-reach data links. In some applications, for example in space-borne systems, the use of advanced materials with outstanding performance in extreme environments is required (temperature and radiation). In this paper therefore, we present novel siloxane polymers suitable for these applications. The materials are used to form straight, 90° bent and spiral polymer waveguides by low-cost conventional photolithographic techniques on FR4 substrates. The samples have been tested to investigate their propagation characteristics and demonstrate their potential for high-speed data links. Overall, there is strong evidence that these multimode waveguides can be successfully employed as high-speed short-reach data links. Their excellent thermal properties, their low cost and the simple fabrication process indicate their suitability for a wide range of space applications.

Loss reduction in axial-flow compressors through low-speed model testing

Science.gov (United States)

Wisler, D. C.

1984-01-01

A systematic procedure for reducing losses in axial-flow compressors is presented. In this procedure, a large, low-speed, aerodynamic model of a high-speed core compressor is designed and fabricated based on aerodynamic similarity principles. This model is then tested at low speed where high-loss regions associated with three-dimensional endwall boundary layers flow separation, leakage, and secondary flows can be located, detailed measurements made, and loss mechanisms determined with much greater accuracy and much lower cost and risk than is possible in small, high-speed compressors. Design modifications are made by using custom-tailored airfoils and vector diagrams, airfoil endbends, and modified wall geometries in the high-loss regions. The design improvements resulting in reduced loss or increased stall margin are then scaled to high speed. This paper describes the procedure and presents experimental results to show that in some cases endwall loss has been reduced by as much as 10 percent, flow separation has been reduced or eliminated, and stall margin has been substantially improved by using these techniques.

Users’ Perceptions Using Low-End and High-End Mobile-Rendered HMDs: A Comparative Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.-Carmen Juan

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Currently, it is possible to combine Mobile-Rendered Head-Mounted Displays (MR HMDs with smartphones to have Augmented Reality platforms. The differences between these types of platforms can affect the user’s experiences and satisfaction. This paper presents a study that analyses the user’s perception when using the same Augmented Reality app with two MR HMD (low-end and high-end. Our study evaluates the user’s experience taking into account several factors (control, sensory, distraction, ergonomics and realism. An Augmalpha-lowerented Reality app was developed to carry out the comparison for two MR HMDs. The application had exactly the same visual appearance and functionality for both devices. Forty adults participated in our study. From the results, there were no statistically significant differences for the users’ experience for the different factors when using the two MR HMDs, except for the ergonomic factors in favour of the high-end MR HMD. Even though the scores for the high-end MR HMD were higher in nearly all of the questions, both MR HMDs provided a very satisfying viewing experience with very high scores. The results were independent of gender and age. The participants rated the high-end MR HMD as the best one. Nevertheless, when they were asked which MR HMD they would buy, the participants chose the low-end MR HMD taking into account its price.

Low Cost, Low Power, High Sensitivity Magnetometer

Science.gov (United States)

2008-12-01

which are used to measure the small magnetic signals from brain. Other types of vector magnetometers are fluxgate , coil based, and magnetoresistance...concentrator with the magnetometer currently used in Army multimodal sensor systems, the Brown fluxgate . One sees the MEMS fluxgate magnetometer is...Guedes, A.; et al., 2008: Hybrid - LOW COST, LOW POWER, HIGH SENSITIVITY MAGNETOMETER A.S. Edelstein*, James E. Burnette, Greg A. Fischer, M.G

Low-Speed Stability-and-Control and Ground-Effects Measurements on the Industry Reference High Speed Civil Transport

Science.gov (United States)

Kemmerly, Guy T.; Campbell, Bryan A.; Banks, Daniel W.; Yaros, Steven F.

1999-01-01

As a part of a national effort to develop an economically feasible High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT), a single configuration has been accepted as the testing baseline by the organizations working in the High Speed Research (HSR) program. The configuration is based on a design developed by the Boeing Company and is referred to as the Reference H (Ref H). The data contained in this report are low-speed stability-and-control and ground-effect measurements obtained on a 0.06 scale model of the Ref H in a subsonic tunnel.

OECD/NEA study on economics of the Back-end of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lokhov, Alexey; Urso, Maria Elena; Cameron, Ron

2013-01-01

Recommendations: 1. While there may be reasons to extend the interim storage of SNF, these should not prevent governments from maintaining vigorous efforts towards the establishment of deep geological repositories, thereby addressing legitimate public expectations and fulfilling the “intergenerational equity” principle. 2. Public involvement in the establishment and implementation of the SNF management strategy is considered vital: mechanisms to improve stakeholder participation and transparency should be a high priority. 3. Governments should continue to be vigilant in ensuring that the funding systems adopted are stable and robust and that financial resources accrued by waste producers for the management of their waste will be adequate and available at the time they are needed. The following features are considered essential: – Regular and frequent reviews to allow for newly accrued knowledge on technical aspects and actual fund developments, as well as other qualitative factors (e.g. sociopolitical), to be taken into account, and, importantly, for emerging shortfalls to be swiftly addressed through the necessary corrective actions. – Ring-fencing of funds to ensure that resources are only used for the intended purposes. 4. For countries that are committed to ongoing use or development of nuclear energy, comparisons of the costs of different strategies for managing the back end should be drawn on the basis of the full fuel cycle cost. For countries which are phasing out or have already exited nuclear power, a direct back-end cost comparison may be more appropriate. In any case, assessments made for total or partial FC cost comparisons should be transparent about the assumptions made and the scope of the analysis. 5. In any decision-making process regarding the choice of SNF management strategy, a multicriteria approach should be adopted at the national level that expands the quantitative economic considerations to include qualitative factors. These can

Low back pain

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buchbinder, Rachelle; van Tulder, Maurits; Öberg, Birgitta

2018-01-01

Low back pain is the leading worldwide cause of years lost to disability and its burden is growing alongside the increasing and ageing population.1 Because these population shifts are more rapid in low-income and middle-income countries, where adequate resources to address the problem might...... not exist, the effects will probably be more extreme in these regions. Most low back pain is unrelated to specific identifiable spinal abnormalities, and our Viewpoint, the third paper in this Lancet Series,2,3 is a call for action on this global problem of low back pain....

A High Gain-Bandwidth Product Distributed Transimpedance Amplifier IC for High-Speed Optical Transmission Using Low-Cost GaAs Technology.

OpenAIRE

Giannini, F.; Limiti, E.; Orengo, G.; Serino, A.; De Dominicis, M.

2002-01-01

This paper reports a distributed baseband transimpedance amplifier for optical links up to 10 Gb/s. The amplifier operates as a baseband amplifier with a transimpedance gain of 48 dB Ω and a DC-to-9 GHz bandwidth. Some innovative design techniques to improve gain-bandwidth performance at low and high frequency with an available low-cost GaAs MESFET technology have been developed.

Can cost utility evaluations inform decision making about interventions for low back pain?

Science.gov (United States)

Dagenais, Simon; Roffey, Darren M; Wai, Eugene K; Haldeman, Scott; Caro, Jaime

2009-11-01

Low back pain (LBP) is associated with high health-care utilization and lost productivity. Numerous interventions are routinely used, although few are supported by strong evidence. Cost utility analyses (CUAs) may be helpful to inform decision makers. To conduct a systematic review of CUAs of interventions for LBP. Systematic review. A search strategy combining medical subject headings and free text related to LBP and health economic evaluations was executed in MEDLINE. Cost utility analyses combined with randomized controlled trials for LBP were included. Studies that were published before 1998, non-English, decision analyses, and duplicate reports were excluded. Search results were evaluated by two reviewers, who extracted data independently related to clinical study design, economic study design, direct cost components, utility results, cost results, and CUA results. The search produced 319 citations, and of these 15 met eligibility criteria. Most were from the United Kingdom (n=8), published in the past 3 years (n=12), studied chronic LBP or radiculopathy (n=13), and had a follow-up >12 months (n=13). Combined, there were 33 study groups who received a mean 2.1 interventions, most commonly education (n=17), exercise therapy (n=13), spinal manipulation therapy (n=7), surgery (n=7), and usual care from a general practitioner (n=7). Mean baseline utility was 0.57, improving to 0.67 at follow-up; the mean difference in utility improvement between study groups was 0.04. Based on available data and converted to US dollars, the cost per quality-adjusted life year ranged from $304 to 579,527 dollars, with a median of 13,015 dollars. Few CUAs were identified for LBP, and there was heterogeneity in the interventions compared, direct cost components measured, indirect costs, other methods, and results. Reporting quality was mixed. Currently published CUAs do not provide sufficient information to assist decision makers. Future CUAs should attempt to measure all known

MoS2: a two-dimensional hole-transporting material for high-efficiency, low-cost perovskite solar cells

Science.gov (United States)

Kohnehpoushi, Saman; Nazari, Pariya; Abdollahi Nejand, Bahram; Eskandari, Mehdi

2018-05-01

In this work MoS2 thin film was studied as a potential two-dimensional (2D) hole-transporting material for fabrication of low-cost, durable and efficient perovskite solar cells. The thickness of MoS2 was studied as a potential factor in reaching high power conversion efficiency in perovskite solar cells. The thickness of the perovskite layer and the different metal back contacts gave distinct photovoltaic properties to the designed cells. The results show that a single sheet of MoS2 could considerably improve the power conversion efficacy of the device from 10.41% for a hole transport material (HTM)-free device to 20.43% for a device prepared with a 0.67 nm thick MoS2 layer as a HTM. On the back, Ag and Al collected the carriers more efficiently than Au due to the value of their metal contact work function with the TiO2 conduction band. The present work proposes a new architecture for the fabrication of low-cost, durable and efficient perovskite solar cells made from a low-cost and robust inorganic HTM and electron transport material.

High Speed/ Low Effluent Process for Ethanol

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

M. Clark Dale

2006-10-30

n this project, BPI demonstrated a new ethanol fermentation technology, termed the High Speed/ Low Effluent (HS/LE) process on both lab and large pilot scale as it would apply to wet mill and/or dry mill corn ethanol production. The HS/LE process allows very rapid fermentations, with 18 to 22% sugar syrups converted to 9 to 11% ethanol ‘beers’ in 6 to 12 hours using either a ‘consecutive batch’ or ‘continuous cascade’ implementation. This represents a 5 to 8X increase in fermentation speeds over conventional 72 hour batch fermentations which are the norm in the fuel ethanol industry today. The ‘consecutive batch’ technology was demonstrated on a large pilot scale (4,800 L) in a dry mill corn ethanol plant near Cedar Rapids, IA (Xethanol Biofuels). The pilot demonstrated that 12 hour fermentations can be accomplished on an industrial scale in a non-sterile industrial environment. Other objectives met in this project included development of a Low Energy (LE) Distillation process which reduces the energy requirements for distillation from about 14,000 BTU/gal steam ($0.126/gal with natural gas @ $9.00 MCF) to as low as 0.40 KW/gal electrical requirements ($0.022/gal with electricity @ $0.055/KWH). BPI also worked on the development of processes that would allow application of the HS/LE fermentation process to dry mill ethanol plants. A High-Value Corn ethanol plant concept was developed to produce 1) corn germ/oil, 2) corn bran, 3) ethanol, 4) zein protein, and 5) nutritional protein, giving multiple higher value products from the incoming corn stream.

Prevention of low back pain in the military cluster randomized trial: effects of brief psychosocial education on total and low back pain-related health care costs.

Science.gov (United States)

Childs, John D; Wu, Samuel S; Teyhen, Deydre S; Robinson, Michael E; George, Steven Z

2014-04-01

Effective strategies for preventing low back pain (LBP) have remained elusive, despite annual direct health care costs exceeding $85 billion dollars annually. In our recently completed Prevention of Low Back Pain in the Military (POLM) trial, a brief psychosocial education program (PSEP) that reduced fear and threat of LBP reduced the incidence of health care-seeking for LBP. The purpose of this cost analysis was to determine if soldiers who received psychosocial education experienced lower health care costs compared with soldiers who did not receive psychosocial education. The POLM trial was a cluster randomized trial with four intervention arms and a 2-year follow-up. Consecutive subjects (n=4,295) entering a 16-week training program at Fort Sam Houston, TX, to become a combat medic in the U.S. Army were considered for participation. In addition to an assigned exercise program, soldiers were cluster randomized to receive or not receive a brief psychosocial education program delivered in a group setting. The Military Health System Management Analysis and Reporting Tool was used to extract total and LBP-related health care costs associated with LBP incidence over a 2-year follow-up period. After adjusting for postrandomization differences between the groups, the median total LBP-related health care costs for soldiers who received PSEP and incurred LBP-related costs during the 2-year follow-up period were $26 per soldier lower than for those who did not receive PSEP ($60 vs. $86, respectively, p=.034). The adjusted median total health care costs for soldiers who received PSEP and incurred at least some health care costs during the 2-year follow-up period were estimated at $2 per soldier lower than for those who did not receive PSEP ($2,439 vs. $2,441, respectively, p=.242). The results from this analysis demonstrate that a brief psychosocial education program was only marginally effective in reducing LBP-related health care costs and was not effective in reducing

Cost-effectiveness of a multifaceted implementation strategy for the Dutch multidisciplinary guideline for nonspecific low back pain: design of a stepped-wedge cluster randomised controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Suman, Arnela; Schaafsma, Frederieke G; Elders, Petra J M; van Tulder, Maurits W; Anema, Johannes R

2015-05-31

Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most prevalent and expensive health care problems in industrialised countries. LBP leads to high health care utility and productivity losses; leaving the individual, the employer, and society with substantial costs. To improve the care for LBP patients and reduce the high societal and financial burden of LBP, in 2010 the 'Multidisciplinary care guideline for nonspecific low back pain' was developed in the Netherlands. The current paper describes the design of a study aiming to evaluate the (cost-) effectiveness of a multifaceted strategy to implement this guideline. In a cluster-randomised controlled trial, the (cost-) effectiveness of a multifaceted implementation strategy will be compared to passive guideline dissemination. Using a stepped-wedge approach, participating general practitioners, physiotherapists, and occupational physicians are allocated into clusters and will attend a multidisciplinary continuing medical education training session. The timing these clusters receive the training is the unit of randomisation. LBP patients visiting the participating health care providers are invited to participate in the trial and will receive access to a multimedia intervention aimed at improving beliefs, cognitions, and self-management. The primary outcome measure of this study is patient back beliefs. Secondary outcome measures on patient level include pain, functional status, quality of life, health care utility, and productivity losses. Outcome measures on professional level include knowledge and attitude towards the guideline, and guideline adherence. A process evaluation for the implementation strategy will be performed among the health care providers and the patients. Furthermore, a qualitative subgroup analysis among patients with various ethnic backgrounds will be performed. This study will give insight into the (cost-) effectiveness of a multifaceted implementation strategy for the Dutch multidisciplinary guideline for non

Evaluation of the crash mitigation effect of low-speed automated emergency braking systems based on insurance claims data.

Science.gov (United States)

Isaksson-Hellman, Irene; Lindman, Magdalena

2016-09-01

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the crash mitigation performance of low-speed automated emergency braking collision avoidance technologies by examining crash rates, car damage, and personal injuries. Insurance claims data were used to identify rear-end frontal collisions, the specific situations where the low-speed automated emergency braking system intervenes. We compared cars of the same model (Volvo V70) with and without the low-speed automated emergency braking system (AEB and no AEB, respectively). Distributions of spare parts required for car repair were analyzed to identify car damage, and crash severity was estimated by comparing the results with laboratory crash tests. Repair costs and occupant injuries were investigated for both the striking and the struck vehicle. Rear-end frontal collisions were reduced by 27% for cars with low-speed AEB compared to cars without the system. Those of low severity were reduced by 37%, though more severe crashes were not reduced. Accordingly, the number of injured occupants in vehicles struck by low-speed AEB cars was reduced in low-severity crashes. In offset crash configurations, the system was found to be less effective. This study adds important information about the safety performance of collision avoidance technologies, beyond the number of crashes avoided. By combining insurance claims data and information from spare parts used, the study demonstrates a mitigating effect of low-speed AEB in real-world traffic.

A high speed, low power consumption LVDS interface for CMOS pixel sensors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shi, Zhan, E-mail: sz1134@163.com [Dalian University of Technology, No. 2 Linggong Road, 116024 Dalian (China); Tang, Zhenan, E-mail: tangza@dlut.edu.cn [Dalian University of Technology, No. 2 Linggong Road, 116024 Dalian (China); Tian, Yong [Dalian University of Technology, No. 2 Linggong Road, 116024 Dalian (China); Pham, Hung; Valin, Isabelle; Jaaskelainen, Kimmo [IPHC, 23 rue du Loess 67037 Strasbourg (France); CNRS, UMR7178, 67037 Strasbourg (France)

2015-01-01

The use of CMOS Pixel Sensors (CPSs) offers a promising approach to the design of vertex detectors in High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments. As the CPS equipping the upgraded Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR) pixel detector, ULTIMATE perfectly illustrates the potential of CPSs for HEP applications. However, further development of CPSs with respect to readout speed is required to fulfill the readout time requirement of the next generation HEP detectors, such as the upgrade of A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE) Inner Tracking System (ITS), the International Linear Collider (ILC), and the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) vertex detectors. One actual limitation of CPSs is related to the speed of the Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) circuitry implementing the interface between the sensor and the Data Acquisition (DAQ) system. To improve the transmission rate while keeping the power consumption at a low level, a source termination technique and a special current comparator were adopted for the LVDS driver and receiver, respectively. Moreover, hardening techniques are used. The circuitry was designed and submitted for fabrication in a 0.18-µm CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) process at the end of 2011. The test results indicated that the LVDS driver and receiver can operate properly at the data rate of 1.2 Gb/s with power consumption of 19.6 mW.

A design technique of low cost but high quality peak stretcher

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lo, H Y; Su, C S; Hsu, J Y; Wang, L

1981-03-01

This paper presents the design of low cost but high quality pulse peak stretcher incorporated with a LSI of 12 bit ADC and SKD-85 microcomputer. The conflict between the capacitor high charging speed and longer holding time for realizing a high quality stretcher is discussed and solved. For a lager number of channels available in a dual ramp Wilkinson-type ADC, two-stage stretchers connected in series are designed. The first stage is a fast-discharge to keep the output stretched pulse follow-up the input quickly and the second-stage (main stretcher) is a slow-discharge to keep the transient of the circuit minimum. Both of these two peak stretchers are described and the experiment results are photographically recorded.

An FPGA-Based High-Speed Error Resilient Data Aggregation and Control for High Energy Physics Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Mandal, Swagata; Saini, Jogender; Zabołotny, Wojciech M.; Sau, Suman; Chakrabarti, Amlan; Chattopadhyay, Subhasis

2017-03-01

Due to the dramatic increase of data volume in modern high energy physics (HEP) experiments, a robust high-speed data acquisition (DAQ) system is very much needed to gather the data generated during different nuclear interactions. As the DAQ works under harsh radiation environment, there is a fair chance of data corruption due to various energetic particles like alpha, beta, or neutron. Hence, a major challenge in the development of DAQ in the HEP experiment is to establish an error resilient communication system between front-end sensors or detectors and back-end data processing computing nodes. Here, we have implemented the DAQ using field-programmable gate array (FPGA) due to some of its inherent advantages over the application-specific integrated circuit. A novel orthogonal concatenated code and cyclic redundancy check (CRC) have been used to mitigate the effects of data corruption in the user data. Scrubbing with a 32-b CRC has been used against error in the configuration memory of FPGA. Data from front-end sensors will reach to the back-end processing nodes through multiple stages that may add an uncertain amount of delay to the different data packets. We have also proposed a novel memory management algorithm that helps to process the data at the back-end computing nodes removing the added path delays. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed FPGA-based DAQ utilizing optical link with channel coding and efficient memory management modules can be considered as first of its kind. Performance estimation of the implemented DAQ system is done based on resource utilization, bit error rate, efficiency, and robustness to radiation.

Cost-effectiveness of an intensive group training protocol compared to physiotherapy guideline care for sub-acute and chronic low back pain: design of a randomised controlled trial with an economic evaluation. [ISRCTN45641649

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Franken Willemien K

2004-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Low back pain is a common disorder in western industrialised countries and the type of treatments for low back pain vary considerably. Methods In a randomised controlled trial the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of an intensive group training protocol versus physiotherapy guideline care for sub-acute and chronic low back pain patients is evaluated. Patients with back pain for longer than 6 weeks who are referred to physiotherapy care by their general practitioner or medical specialist are included in the study. The intensive group training protocol combines exercise therapy with principles of behavioural therapy ("graded activity" and back school. This training protocol is compared to physiotherapy care according to the recently published Low Back Pain Guidelines of the Royal Dutch College for Physiotherapy. Primary outcome measures are general improvement, pain intensity, functional status, work absenteeism and quality of life. The direct and indirect costs will be assessed using cost diaries. Patients will complete questionnaires at baseline and 6, 13, 26 and 52 weeks after randomisation. Discussion No trials are yet available that have evaluated the effect of an intensive group training protocol including behavioural principles and back school in a primary physiotherapy care setting and no data on cost-effectiveness and cost-utility are available.

The back-end management of fissile material at SCK-CEN

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noynaert, L.; Massaut, V.; Braeckeveldt, M.

1999-01-01

The back-end management of fissile materials at SCK-CEN mainly concerns the HEU spent fuel of the BR2 (MTR) and the LEU and MOX spent fuel of the BR3, the first PWR installed in Western Europe and in decommissioning since 1987. It also concerns the experimental fuels tested in the SCK-CEN facilities. Furthermore as a result of its R and D programs in reprocessing and characterisation of spent fuel, considerable amounts of fissile materials in all kinds of forms and characteristics are stored in the different laboratories. For these, six main types of fissile materials are identified: highly enriched uranium, experimental spent fuel from the fast breeder programmes, MOX fuel, low enriched fuel, natural uranium and lab fissile materials. For the BR2 and BR3 spent fuel, various options, i.e. reprocessing, dry storage in casks and dry storage in canisters were evaluated against criteria, e.g. available techniques, safety, waste production, overall costs and policies. As a result of these studies, it was decided to opt in the case of the HEU from the BR2 reactor for the reprocessing without recovery of uranium while for the LEU and MOX fuel from the BR3 reactor, the dry storage in containers was chosen. For the others, the studies are still in progress. (author)

Flicker Mitigation by Active Power Control of Variable-Speed Wind Turbines With Full-Scale Back-to-Back Power Converters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hu, Weihao; Chen, Zhe; Wang, Zhaoan

2009-01-01

/EMTDC. Flicker emission of this system is investigated. Reactive power compensation is mostly adopted for flicker mitigation. However, the flicker mitigation technique shows its limits, when the grid impedance angle is low in some distribution networks. A new method of flicker mitigation by controlling active...... power is proposed. It smoothes the 3p active power oscillations from wind shear and tower shadow effects of the wind turbine by varying the dc-link voltage of the full-scale converter. Simulation results show that damping the 3p active power oscillation by using the flicker mitigation controller...... is an effective means for flicker mitigation of variable-speed wind turbines with full-scale back-to-back power converters during continuous operation....

EFFICACY OF YOGA ON LOW BACK PAIN AND DISABILITY IN PRIMI GRAVIDAS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prem Kumar B N

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Background: Low back pain is the most undesirable phase of women. Every pregnant woman would suffer from low back pain with mild or severe intensity. Various methods and forms of treatment have been practised to relive low back pain during child bearing phase without causing any harm to the developing foetus. This study has focussed on yoga to relieve the pain and disabilities due to low back pain in primi gravida women. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of yoga postures in reducing the low back pain and disability due to low back pain in second trimester of prima gravidas. Methods: Primi gravida women with low back pain were randomised to 2 groups, group-1 and group-2. The study was conducted for 8weeks and included 70 patients with 35 in group-1 and 30 in group-2. There were 5 drop outs. The selection criteria were based on patients suffering from low back pain which was further restricting their normal daily activities. The pain was assessed with VAS score of 0-10 with mean of 5.6 and 6.2 respectively in experimental and control group respectively before the treatment and disabilities were assessed with MODI with mean score 52% and 57 % respectively before treatment. The Group-1 was treated with yoga postures and group-2 by gynaecologists’ advice with acetaminophen, external topical gel and moist heat modalities. Results: The study concluded that there was significant reduction of pain on VAS score (p<0.001 and reduced disabilities on MODI (p<0.001 in both the groups. The statistical analysis showed there was significance within the interventional group and also within control group. Whereas the analysis done between the groups showed high significance of the interventional group having better recovery than the control group at the end of 8 weeks. Conclusion: Yoga postures had higher benefits in alleviating the low back pain and reducing disabilities related to low back pain in primi gravidas.

Study protocol of cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of a biopsychosocial multidisciplinary intervention in the evolution of non-specific sub-acute low back pain in the working population: cluster randomised trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

de Kort Nelleke

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Low back pain (LBP, with high incidence and prevalence rate, is one of the most common reasons to consult the health system and is responsible for a significant amount of sick leave, leading to high health and social costs. The objective of the study is to assess the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis of a multidisciplinary biopsychosocial educational group intervention (MBEGI of non-specific sub-acute LBP in comparison with the usual care in the working population recruited in primary healthcare centres. Methods/design The study design is a cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis of a MBEGI in comparison with the usual care of non-specific sub-acute LBP. Measures on effectiveness and costs of both interventions will be obtained from a cluster randomised controlled clinical trial carried out in 38 Catalan primary health care centres, enrolling 932 patients between 18 and 65 years old with a diagnosis of non-specific sub-acute LBP. Effectiveness measures are: pharmaceutical treatments, work sick leave (% and duration in days, Roland Morris disability, McGill pain intensity, Fear Avoidance Beliefs (FAB and Golberg Questionnaires. Utility measures will be calculated from the SF-12. The analysis will be performed from a social perspective. The temporal horizon is at 3 months (change to chronic LBP and 12 months (evaluate the outcomes at long term. Assessment of outcomes will be blinded and will follow the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion We hope to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of MBEGI, see an improvement in the patients' quality of life, achieve a reduction in the duration of episodes and the chronicity of non-specific low back pain, and be able to report a decrease in the social costs. If the intervention is cost-effectiveness and cost-utility, it could be applied to Primary Health Care Centres. Trial registration ISRCTN: ISRCTN58719694

The economics of the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cameron, Ron; Urso, Maria Elena; Lokhov, Alexey

2014-01-01

Spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste from the fuel cycle of commercial nuclear power plants represent a small proportion of the radioactive waste produced globally by various industries (including medicine, agriculture and research), but they account for the greatest radioactivity content and longevity. While technologies are well developed and widely employed for the treatment and disposal of the much larger volumes of less radioactive low-level and short-lived intermediate-level waste, no final disposal facilities have yet been fully implemented for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level waste (HLW). A lack of experience in the construction and operation of deep geological repositories, combined with the extensive periods required for the implementation of back-end solutions, have thus contributed to growing uncertainties about the costs associated with managing SNF and HLW. The issue has become a central challenge for the nuclear industry and a matter of public concern and debate. Using official data supplied by national authorities, a descriptive overview [1] was developed of general principles and frameworks for the long-term management of SNF, current national policies and practices, as well as available and prospective technology options, including: - Direct disposal, where the fuel is used once and then regarded as waste for disposal. - Partial recycling, where the spent fuel is reprocessed to recover unused uranium and plutonium for recycling in light water reactors (LWRs). Once irradiated, the recycled fuel bundles can be either stored (with the perspective of their reprocessing and recycling in future fast reactors - FRs) or disposed of after encapsulation. - Advanced systems and fuel cycle concepts for the longer-term future, studied theoretically or on a pilot scale, with the dual objective of reducing the mass and radioactivity of waste destined to final disposal and optimising the use of natural resources. In addition, a cost analysis of these

Pulse-burst PIV in a high-speed wind tunnel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beresh, Steven; Kearney, Sean; Wagner, Justin; Guildenbecher, Daniel; Henfling, John; Spillers, Russell; Pruett, Brian; Jiang, Naibo; Slipchenko, Mikhail; Mance, Jason; Roy, Sukesh

2015-01-01

Time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TR-PIV) has been achieved in a high-speed wind tunnel, providing velocity field movies of compressible turbulence events. The requirements of high-speed flows demand greater energy at faster pulse rates than possible with the TR-PIV systems developed for low-speed flows. This has been realized using a pulse-burst laser to obtain movies at up to 50 kHz, with higher speeds possible at the cost of spatial resolution. The constraints imposed by use of a pulse-burst laser are limited burst duration of 10.2 ms and a low duty cycle for data acquisition. Pulse-burst PIV has been demonstrated in a supersonic jet exhausting into a transonic crossflow and in transonic flow over a rectangular cavity. The velocity field sequences reveal the passage of turbulent structures and can be used to find velocity power spectra at every point in the field, providing spatial distributions of acoustic modes. The present work represents the first use of TR-PIV in a high-speed ground-test facility. (paper)

End-user perspective of low-cost sensors for outdoor air pollution monitoring

OpenAIRE

Rai, Aakash C.; Kumar, Prashant; Pilla, Francesco; Skouloudis, Andreas N.; Di Sabatino, Silvana; Ratti, Carlo; Yasar, Ansar; Rickerby, David

2017-01-01

Low-cost sensor technology can potentially revolutionise the area of air pollution monitoring by providing high-density spatiotemporal pollution data. Such data can be utilised for supplementing traditional pollution monitoring, improving exposure estimates, and raising community awareness about air pollution. However, data quality remains a major concern that hinders the widespread adoption of low-cost sensor technology. Unreliable data may mislead unsuspecting users and potentially lead to ...

High-level physical activity in childhood seems to protect against low back pain in early adolescence.

Science.gov (United States)

Wedderkopp, N; Kjaer, P; Hestbaek, L; Korsholm, L; Leboeuf-Yde, C

2009-02-01

The evidence on the impact of physical activity on back pain in children and adolescents has been contradicting. It has also been shown that the physical activity cannot accurately be estimated in children using questionnaires. The aim of this study was to establish if physical activity in childhood had any impact on back pain reporting in early adolescence (3 years later), using an objective instrumental measurement of physical activity. Prospective cohort study. Representative random sample of Danish children from the city of Odense sampled at age 9 years and followed-up at age 12 years. The 1-month period prevalence of back pain (neck pain, mid back pain, and low back pain) was established using a structured interview. Physical activity was assessed with the MTI-accelerometer. The accelerometer provides a minute-by-minute measure of the physical activity performed. An overall measure of physical activity and time spent in high activity were studied in relation to back pain using logistic regression. The analyses were performed on the total sample and then stratified on back pain (yes/no) at baseline. High physical activity (HPA) levels seem to protect against future low back pain and appear to actually "treat" and reduce the odds of future mid back pain. When comparing the least active children to the most active children, the least active had a multivariate odds ratio of 3.3 of getting low back pain and 2.7 of getting mid back pain 3 years later. When stratified on back pain at baseline, this effect on mid back pain was especially noticeable in children who had had mid back pain already at baseline, with an odds ratio of 7.2. HPA in childhood seems to protect against low back pain and mid back pain in early adolescence. Larger prospective studies with repetitive follow-ups and preferably intervention studies should be performed, to see if these findings can be reproduced.

An End-to-End System to Enable Quick, Easy and Inexpensive Deployment of Hydrometeorological Stations

Science.gov (United States)

Celicourt, P.; Piasecki, M.

2014-12-01

The high cost of hydro-meteorological data acquisition, communication and publication systems along with limited qualified human resources is considered as the main reason why hydro-meteorological data collection remains a challenge especially in developing countries. Despite significant advances in sensor network technologies which gave birth to open hardware and software, low-cost (less than $50) and low-power (in the order of a few miliWatts) sensor platforms in the last two decades, sensors and sensor network deployment remains a labor-intensive, time consuming, cumbersome, and thus expensive task. These factors give rise for the need to develop a affordable, simple to deploy, scalable and self-organizing end-to-end (from sensor to publication) system suitable for deployment in such countries. The design of the envisioned system will consist of a few Sensed-And-Programmed Arduino-based sensor nodes with low-cost sensors measuring parameters relevant to hydrological processes and a Raspberry Pi micro-computer hosting the in-the-field back-end data management. This latter comprises the Python/Django model of the CUAHSI Observations Data Model (ODM) namely DjangODM backed by a PostgreSQL Database Server. We are also developing a Python-based data processing script which will be paired with the data autoloading capability of Django to populate the DjangODM database with the incoming data. To publish the data, the WOFpy (WaterOneFlow Web Services in Python) developed by the Texas Water Development Board for 'Water Data for Texas' which can produce WaterML web services from a variety of back-end database installations such as SQLite, MySQL, and PostgreSQL will be used. A step further would be the development of an appealing online visualization tool using Python statistics and analytics tools (Scipy, Numpy, Pandas) showing the spatial distribution of variables across an entire watershed as a time variant layer on top of a basemap.

French industrial capabilities for the back-end operations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caspar, Gilles A.

1988-01-01

Based upon processes initiated by the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique and its industrial partners, France has been elaborating for about thirty years a steady and consistent programme for the back-end fuel cycle. French industrial actors for each segment of this cycle are shown in annex. The CEA is the research and development national entity sustaining the industrial efforts of the French companies involved in all stages of the fuel cycle : enrichment, fabrication, reprocessing, radwaste management. Such a cooperation assistance is devoted to processes developments, equipment qualification, engineering back up, as this will be reviewed along present communication. As well known, mastering a new technology from fundamental research to full scale industrial deployment, requires time and considerable financial commitments. Both CEA and COGEMA have devoted the requested time and funds to reach an effective industrialization of the closed fuel cycle. This industrial achievement is now completed. UP2 La Hague reprocessing unit produces effectively over 40 T per month and its capacity will be doubled to reach a nominal production of 800 T per year available in 1993 for our EDF domestic utility. It has recently reprocessed the two thousandth ton of LWR fuel and treated in 1987 over 400 T of the same, thus exceeding the nominal capacity. On the same site our UP3 unit under construction will be operating next year with a capacity of also 800 tons per year devoted to foreign utilities. Last year, in view of our excellent operational experience, Cogema reassessed the whole financial scheme for both plants including maintenance and refurbishing expenses. We may confirm that the reprocessing cost, after base load period ending in year 1999, will be reduced by 30 to 40%. The once through option does not effectively solve the spent fuel problem since to-day nobody has qualified an ultimate repository site associated with a licensed reliable process for irradiated fuel embedding

The Areva Group back-end division - challenges and prospects; Le pole aval dans le groupe Areva - enjeux et perspectives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2004-06-01

This document presents the Areva Group back-end division challenges and prospects. Areva, a world nuclear industry leader, analyzes in this document, the high-profile mix of complementary activities of the nuclear energy industry, concerning the back-end division the full range of services for the end of the fuel cycle, the fuel cycle back-end markets, the economic and financial associated considerations. (A.L.B.)

Optimizing low-light microscopy with back-illuminated electron multiplying charge-coupled device: enhanced sensitivity, speed, and resolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Coates, Colin G; Denvir, Donal J; McHale, Noel G; Thornbury, Keith D; Hollywood, Mark A

2004-01-01

The back-illuminated electron multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD) camera is having a profound influence on the field of low-light dynamic cellular microscopy, combining highest possible photon collection efficiency with the ability to virtually eliminate the readout noise detection limit. We report here the use of this camera, in 512 x 512 frame-transfer chip format at 10-MHz pixel readout speed, in optimizing a demanding ultra-low-light intracellular calcium flux microscopy setup. The arrangement employed includes a spinning confocal Nipkow disk, which, while facilitating the need to both generate images at very rapid frame rates and minimize background photons, yields very weak signals. The challenge for the camera lies not just in detecting as many of these scarce photons as possible, but also in operating at a frame rate that meets the temporal resolution requirements of many low-light microscopy approaches, a particular demand of smooth muscle calcium flux microscopy. Results presented illustrate both the significant sensitivity improvement offered by this technology over the previous standard in ultra-low-light CCD detection, the GenIII+intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD), and also portray the advanced temporal and spatial resolution capabilities of the EMCCD. Copyright 2004 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

IMPACT OF REFLEXOLOGY ON MECHANICAL LOW BACK PAIN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Salwa El-Gendy

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Background: Low-back pain (LBP is one of the highest common and costly musculoskeletal conditions in current society. Seventy to 85% of the populations will exhibits LBP at some time in their lives. There is little known about specific manual therapy techniques used to treat chronic LBP. Reflexology is a treatment that involves using gentle pressure to reflex points located on all of the outsides of the feet and hands. The aim of the study was to investigate the efficacy of reflexology technique in subjects with chronic low back pain (CLBP. Methods: Twenty patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain were included in the study and were assessed regarding range of motion via goniometer and pain threshold (via modified Oswestery scale and visual analogue scale, the 20 patients were allocated into two groups 10 patients in each group. Group A received reflexology sittings at rate of 3 days per week, and the duration of each sitting was 30 minutes. While group B were control. The study was continued for 3 weeks Results: According to VAS, the results revealed a non-significant variance between the study group and control group before intervention (p= 0.43. While after intervention, there was a significant decline of pain in the study group compared to that of the control group (p=0.000. Moreover, there was a very highly significant decrease in pain within the study group after treatment (p= 0.005. Conclusion: The present study indicated that the reflexology technique was effective and safe to be applied for cases of mechanical low back pain. It results in a significant decrease in pain within the study group after treatment.

a Study on the Mechanism of OCCUPANT'S Cervical Injury by Low Speed Rear-End Collision of Automobiles

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Wonhak; Kim, Yongchul; Choi, Hyeonki

Neck injury in rear-end car collisions is an increasing concern in the field of traffic safety. This injury commonly occurs at rear-end impact, however the injury mechanisms for whiplash remain a mystery. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively analyze the head and neck kinematics during the low-speed rear-end impact of automobiles. It is important to produce data that is related as closely as possible to the in vivo situation. So, we performed a sled test which simulated rear-end impacts with a velocity of 0.6 m/s with five normal healthy male subjects. 3-D motion analysis system was used to document motion data of two situations. When we compare the values of angular velocity and acceleration of head and neck, the peak magnitudes of inclined seated posture were smaller than those of upright seated posture. The result of this study is expected to provide insight that will aid in determining the mechanism of whiplash which is crucial to the identification of possible injury mechanisms.

Low-latency video transmission over high-speed WPANs based on low-power video compression

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Belyaev, Evgeny; Turlikov, Andrey; Ukhanova, Ann

2010-01-01

This paper presents latency-constrained video transmission over high-speed wireless personal area networks (WPANs). Low-power video compression is proposed as an alternative to uncompressed video transmission. A video source rate control based on MINMAX quality criteria is introduced. Practical...

Back to Back: A Focus on Reducing the Logistics Costs and Tax

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rogério João Lunkes

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The objective is to identify the main aspects related to the operation of Back to Back set out in international trade, which enables reduction of logistics costs and taxes. The operation of Back to Back is an excellent opportunity to increase foreign exchange gain and offer greater flexibility to commercial operations that the business requires. The methodology used in preparing this study was qualitative research according to the characteristics and nature of the problem. From the use of descriptive research study aims to demonstrate the main theoretical aspects underlying the subject in reference. This study aimed to identify the main aspects related to the operation of Back to Back set out in international trade and tax effects in an organization and logistics of industrial electronics segment of the State of Santa Catarina. The study demonstrated that the benefits of the operation of Back to Back is of paramount importance for companies having a positive impact in financial terms by reducing the need for tax payments and logistics costs which affect the processes of import and export. The results presented showed that the company studied the operation of Back to Back is essential for international negotiations.

Evaluation of End Mill Coatings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

L. J. Lazarus; R. L. Hester,

2005-08-01

Milling tests were run on families of High Speed Steel (HSS) end mills to determine their lives while machining 304 Stainless Steel. The end mills tested were made from M7, M42 and T15-CPM High Speed Steels. The end mills were also evaluated with no coatings as well as with Titanium Nitride (TiN) and Titanium Carbo-Nitride (TiCN) coatings to determine which combination of HSS and coating provided the highest increase in end mill life while increasing the cost of the tool the least. We found end mill made from M42 gave us the largest increase in tool life with the least increase in cost. The results of this study will be used by Cutting Tool Engineering in determining which end mill descriptions will be dropped from our tool catalog.

Stay@Work : Participatory Ergonomics to prevent low back and neck pain among workers : Design of a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the (cost-)effectiveness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Driessen, M.T.; Anema, J.R.; Proper, K.I.; Bongers, P.M.; Beek, A.J.van der

2008-01-01

Background. Low back pain (LBP) and neck pain (NP) are a major public health problem with considerable costs for individuals, companies and society. Therefore, prevention is imperative. The Stay@Work study investigates the (cost-)effectiveness of Participatory Ergonomics (PE) to prevent LBP and NP

Stay@Work: Participatory Ergonomics to prevent low back and neck pain among workers: design of a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the (cost-)effectiveness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Driessen, M.T.; Anema, J.R.; Proper, K.I.; Bongers, P.M.; van der Beek, A.J.

2008-01-01

Background. Low back pain (LBP) and neck pain (NP) are a major public health problem with considerable costs for individuals, companies and society. Therefore, prevention is imperative. The Stay@Work study investigates the (cost-)effectiveness of Participatory Ergonomics (PE) to prevent LBP and NP

DO PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN EXPERIENCE PAIN REDUCTION AND FUNCTIONAL IMPROVEMENT AFTER TREATMENT AT A MULTIDISCIPLINARY OUTPATIENT CLINIC?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Norbye Anja

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Background: Low back pain is the most common affliction of the musculoskeletal system. Patients with chronic low back pain cost the society great expenses in treatments and other social benefits; however, the effects of interventions are discussed. The purpose of this study was to determine whether patients with chronic low back pain experience pain reduction and functional improvement after treatment at a multidisciplinary outpatient clinic. Methods: A prospective study design was used, including 446 patients who participated in follow-up questionnaires with data collection at 6 and 12 months after treatment. The primary outcome was alterations in pain and function. Result: By 12 months after treatment, 71.3 % of the included patients had completed the follow-up questionnaires. Based on these questionnaires, we identified statistically significant changes from baseline at all end points, with clinically significant changes in approximately half of the participants (p = 0.000. Conclusion: Treatment of chronic low back pain at a multidisciplinary outpatient clinic resulted in clinically significant pain reduction and functional improvement within 12 months for approximately half of affected patients.

Commercial Motion Sensor Based Low-Cost and Convenient Interactive Treadmill

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonghyun Kim

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Interactive treadmills were developed to improve the simulation of overground walking when compared to conventional treadmills. However, currently available interactive treadmills are expensive and inconvenient, which limits their use. We propose a low-cost and convenient version of the interactive treadmill that does not require expensive equipment and a complicated setup. As a substitute for high-cost sensors, such as motion capture systems, a low-cost motion sensor was used to recognize the subject’s intention for speed changing. Moreover, the sensor enables the subject to make a convenient and safe stop using gesture recognition. For further cost reduction, the novel interactive treadmill was based on an inexpensive treadmill platform and a novel high-level speed control scheme was applied to maximize performance for simulating overground walking. Pilot tests with ten healthy subjects were conducted and results demonstrated that the proposed treadmill achieves similar performance to a typical, costly, interactive treadmill that contains a motion capture system and an instrumented treadmill, while providing a convenient and safe method for stopping.

High-Efficient Low-Cost Photovoltaics Recent Developments

CERN Document Server

Petrova-Koch, Vesselinka; Goetzberger, Adolf

2009-01-01

A bird's-eye view of the development and problems of recent photovoltaic cells and systems and prospects for Si feedstock is presented. High-efficient low-cost PV modules, making use of novel efficient solar cells (based on c-Si or III-V materials), and low cost solar concentrators are in the focus of this book. Recent developments of organic photovoltaics, which is expected to overcome its difficulties and to enter the market soon, are also included.

Cosmic ray nucleonic intensity in low-amplitude days during the passage of high-speed solar wind streams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agarwal, R.; Mishra, R.K.; Tiwari, S.; or rm_jbp@yahoo.co.in

2008-01-01

One of the most striking features of solar wind is its organization into high- and low- speed streams. It is now well established that the passage over the Earth of high-speed solar wind streams leads to geomagnetic disturbances. The high-speed plasma streams are thus a key element in the complex chain of events that link geomagnetic activity to the solar activity and are therefore of great interest to the solar terrestrial physics. Two types of high-speed solar wind streams - coronal-hole-associated (or corotating) and flare-generated - were studied based on magnetic field and solar wind plasma parameters. In the work, the dependence was obtained for cosmic ray (CR) depressions due to high-speed solar wind streams during low-amplitude days. The CR nucleonic intensity data were subjected to the superposed epoch analysis with respect to the start time of high-speed solar wind streams. It was found that streams of both types produce significant deviations in the CR intensity during low-amplitude anisotropic wave train events. At the onset of such streams the CR intensity reaches its minimum during low-amplitude events and then increases statistically. (Authors)

High speed drying of saturated steam

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marty, C.; Peyrelongue, J.P.

1993-01-01

This paper describes the development of the drying process for the saturated steam used in the PWR nuclear plant turbines in order to prevent negative effects of water on turbine efficiency, maintenance costs and equipment lifetime. The high speed drying concept is based on rotating the incoming saturated steam in order to separate water which is more denser than the steam; the water film is then extracted through an annular slot. A multicellular modular equipment has been tested. Applications on high and low pressure extraction of various PWR plants are described (Bugey, Loviisa)

Trajectories of low back pain

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Axén, Iben; Leboeuf-Yde, Charlotte

2013-01-01

Low back pain is not a self-limiting problem, but rather a recurrent and sometimes persistent disorder. To understand the course over time, detailed investigation, preferably using repeated measurements over extended periods of time, is needed. New knowledge concerning short-term trajectories...... indicates that the low back pain 'episode' is short lived, at least in the primary care setting, with most patients improving. Nevertheless, in the long term, low back pain often runs a persistent course with around two-thirds of patients estimated to be in pain after 12 months. Some individuals never have...... low back pain, but most have it on and off or persistently. Thus, the low back pain 'condition' is usually a lifelong experience. However, subgroups of patients with different back pain trajectories have been identified and linked to clinical parameters. Further investigation is warranted...

HIGH SPEED RAILWAY LINES – FUTURE PART OF CZECH RAILWAY NETWORK?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lukáš Týfa

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The paper first describes high speed rail generally and explains the relationship between high speed and conventional railway networks (according to the vehicle types in operation on the network. The core of the paper is comprised of the methodology for choosing the best route for a railway line and its application to the high speed railway connection Praha – Brno. The Algorithm used assumes the existence of more route proposals, which could be different in terms of the operational conception, line routing or types of vehicles used. The optimal variant is the one with the lowest daily cost, which includes infrastructure and vehicle costs; investment and operational costs. The results from applying this model confirmed the assumption, that a dedicated high speed railway line, only for high speed trains, has the same or lower investment costs than a line for both high speed and conventional trains. Furthermore, a dedicated high line also has a lower cost for infrastructure maintenance but a higher cost for buying high speed multiple units.

Low back pain - chronic

Science.gov (United States)

... this page: //medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007422.htm Low back pain - chronic To use the sharing features on this page, please enable JavaScript. Low back pain refers to pain that you feel in your ...

Balancing High-Speed Rotors at Low Speed

Science.gov (United States)

Giordano, J.; Zorzi, E.

1986-01-01

Flexible balancing reduces vibrations at operating speeds. Highspeed rotors in turbomachines dynamically balanced at fraction of operating rotor speed. New method takes into account rotor flexible rather than rigid.

A low cost, high performance, 1.2m off-axis telescope built with NG-Xinetics silicon carbide

Science.gov (United States)

Rey, Justin J.; Wellman, John A.; Egan, Richard G.; Wollensak, Richard J.

2011-09-01

The search for extrasolar habitable planets is one of three major astrophysics priorities identified for the next decade. These missions demand very high performance visible-wavelength optical imaging systems. Such high performance space telescopes are typically extremely expensive and can be difficult for government agencies to afford in today's economic climate, and most lower cost systems offer little benefit because they fall short on at least one of the following three key performance parameters: imaging wavelength, total system-level wavefront error and aperture diameter. Northrop Grumman Xinetics has developed a simple, lightweight, low-cost telescope design that will address the near-term science objectives of this astrophysics theme with the required optical performance, while reducing the telescope cost by an order of magnitude. Breakthroughs in SiC mirror manufacturing, integrated wavefront sensing, and high TRL deformable mirror technology have finally been combined within the same organization to offer a complete end-to-end telescope system in the lower end of the Class D cost range. This paper presents the latest results of real OAP polishing and metrology data, an optimized optical design, and finite element derived WFE

Back pain and low back pain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cotta, H.; Niethard, F.U.

1983-01-01

In patients with back pain there is only a poor correlation between clinical and radiological symptoms. Therefore the interpretation of radiological findings is only possible with respect to the natural history of the disease. Indication for radiological examination is given for early diagnosis and treatment of malinformation of the spine; diagnosis and treatment of functional disturbances of the spine with back- and low back pain and diagnosis and treatment of diseases which affect the stability of the vertebrae. (orig.)

Materials reliability in the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1987-05-01

Operating experience of nuclear fuel cycle facilities has proved that the performance and availability of key equipment largely depend on the reliability of its construction materials. In general, the materials of construction have performed well in accordance with the design criteria of equipment. In some cases, however, materials failure problems have been encountered, the causes of which are related to their corrosion and mechanical degradation. In response to the growing interest in these topics, the IAEA convened the Technical Committee Meeting on ''Materials Reliability in the Back-End of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle'' at its Headquarters from September 2 to 5, 1986. This Technical Document contains the 15 papers presented during the Meeting. Material aspects of the following fields of the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle are covered: interim and long-term storage of spent fuel; final disposal of spent fuel; storage and vitrification of High Level Liquid Wastes (HLLW); long-term storage of High Level Wastes (HLW); and spent fuel treatment

Ultra-wideband wireless receiver front-end for high-speed indoor applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhe-Yang Huang

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Low-noise, ultra-wideband (UWB wireless receiver front-end circuits were presented in this study. A two-stage common-source low-noise amplifier with wideband input impedance matching network, an active-balun and a double-balanced down-conversion mixer were adopted in the UWB wireless receiver front-end. The proposed wireless receiver front-end circuits were implemented in 0.18 μm radio-frequency-CMOS process. The maximum down-conversion power gain of the front-end is 25.8 dB; minimum single-sideband noise figure of the front-end is 4.9 dB over complete UWB band ranging from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. Power consumption including buffers is 39.2 mW.

EFFECTS OF HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING IN PATIENTS WITH NON-SPECIFIC CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN: A CLINICAL PILOT TRIAL

OpenAIRE

Agten, Anouk; Verbrugghe, Jonas; Eijnde, Bert O.; Timmermans, Annick; Vandenabeele, Frank

2016-01-01

Introduction Nonspecific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP), is the most common musculoskeletal cause of disability and has a major socio-economic impact on today’s western society1. The rehabilitation of chronic low back pain requires a multidisciplinary approach with both education and exercise therapy. Since physical deconditioning is often observed in patients with chronic low back pain, physical reconditioning is an important component of the exercise therapy during rehabilitation2. High ...

Low speed hybrid generalized predictive control of a gasoline-propelled car.

Science.gov (United States)

Romero, M; de Madrid, A P; Mañoso, C; Milanés, V

2015-07-01

Low-speed driving in traffic jams causes significant pollution and wasted time for commuters. Additionally, from the passengers׳ standpoint, this is an uncomfortable, stressful and tedious scene that is suitable to be automated. The highly nonlinear dynamics of car engines at low-speed turn its automation in a complex problem that still remains as unsolved. Considering the hybrid nature of the vehicle longitudinal control at low-speed, constantly switching between throttle and brake pedal actions, hybrid control is a good candidate to solve this problem. This work presents the analytical formulation of a hybrid predictive controller for automated low-speed driving. It takes advantage of valuable characteristics supplied by predictive control strategies both for compensating un-modeled dynamics and for keeping passengers security and comfort analytically by means of the treatment of constraints. The proposed controller was implemented in a gas-propelled vehicle to experimentally validate the adopted solution. To this end, different scenarios were analyzed varying road layouts and vehicle speeds within a private test track. The production vehicle is a commercial Citroën C3 Pluriel which has been modified to automatically act over its throttle and brake pedals. Copyright © 2015 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sleep-related vehicle crashes on low speed roads.

Science.gov (United States)

Filtness, A J; Armstrong, K A; Watson, A; Smith, S S

2017-02-01

Very little is known about the characteristics of sleep related (SR) crashes occurring on low speed roads compared with current understanding of the role of sleep in crashes occurring on high speed roads e.g. motorways. To address this gap, analyses were undertaken to identify the differences and similarities between (1) SR crashes occurring on roads with low (≤60km/h) and high (≥100km/h) speed limits, and (2) SR crashes and not-SR crashes occurring on roads with low speed limits. Police reports of all crashes occurring on low and high speed roads over a ten year period between 2000 and 2009 were examined for Queensland, Australia. Attending police officers identified all crash attributes, including 'fatigue/fell asleep', which indicates that the police believe the crash to have a causal factor relating to falling asleep, sleepiness due to sleep loss, time of day, or fatigue. Driver or rider involvement in crashes was classified as SR or not-SR. All crash-associated variables were compared using Chi-square tests (Cramer's V=effect size). A series of logistic regression was performed, with driver and crash characteristics as predictors of crash category. A conservative alpha level of 0.001 determined statistical significance. There were 440,855 drivers or riders involved in a crash during this time; 6923 (1.6%) were attributed as SR. SR crashes on low speed roads have similar characteristics to those on high speed roads with young (16-24y) males consistently over represented. SR crashes on low speed roads are noticeably different to not-SR crashes in the same speed zone in that male and young novice drivers are over represented and outcomes are more severe. Of all the SR crashes identified, 41% occurred on low speed roads. SR crashes are not confined to high speed roads. Low speed SR crashes warrant specific investigation because they occur in densely populated areas, exposing a greater number of people to risk and have more severe outcomes than not-SR crashes

Cost-effectiveness of lumbar supports for home care workers with recurrent low back pain: an economic evaluation alongside a randomized controlled trial

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roelofs, P.D.D.M.; Bierma-Zeinstra, S.M.A.; van Poppel, M.N.M.; van Mechelen, W.; Koes, B.W.; van Tulder, M.W.

2010-01-01

Study Design.: Economic evaluation from a societal perspective alongside a 12-months randomized-controlled trial. Objective.: To determine the cost-effectiveness of wearing a lumbar support for home care workers with recurrent low back pain (LBP) (secondary prevention). Summary of Background Data.:

High-speed low-complexity video coding with EDiCTius: a DCT coding proposal for JPEG XS

Science.gov (United States)

Richter, Thomas; Fößel, Siegfried; Keinert, Joachim; Scherl, Christian

2017-09-01

In its 71th meeting, the JPEG committee issued a call for low complexity, high speed image coding, designed to address the needs of low-cost video-over-ip applications. As an answer to this call, Fraunhofer IIS and the Computing Center of the University of Stuttgart jointly developed an embedded DCT image codec requiring only minimal resources while maximizing throughput on FPGA and GPU implementations. Objective and subjective tests performed for the 73rd meeting confirmed its excellent performance and suitability for its purpose, and it was selected as one of the two key contributions for the development of a joined test model. In this paper, its authors describe the design principles of the codec, provide a high-level overview of the encoder and decoder chain and provide evaluation results on the test corpus selected by the JPEG committee.

Reducing the cost of MWT module technology based on conductive back-sheet foils

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bennett, I.J.; Goris, M.J.A.A.; Eerenstein, W. [ECN Solar Energy, P.O. Box 1, 1755 ZG Petten (Netherlands)

2013-10-15

MWT cell and module technology has shown to result in modules with a higher power output than H-pattern modules and to be suitable for use with thin and fragile cells. In this work, the use of low-cost module materials and their effect on module performance and reliability has been assessed. These materials include a conductive back-sheet patterned by milling with no silver plating at the contacts on the foil and no isolation coating on the copper and a low-silver content conductive adhesive. The sensitivity of module performance for the anti-corrosion coating on the copper of the conductive back-sheet is measured, as is the reliability in climate chamber testing of mini-modules made with these materials. The results show that these low cost materials can be used to manufacture module with good performance and reliability. Options are given for further cost reduction.

Structural changes of carbides in a high-speed steel - M2 - after hardness and drawing back

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santos, D.B.; Luz Ferreira, O. da; Ribeiro, O.L.R.

1984-01-01

The microstructure of a high-speed steel was studied through the scanning electron microscope. The carbide chemical composition was determined by the X-ray energy spectroscopy. The analyses were done in situ and in precipitate extracted from carbon replica. The phases were shown through the X-ray diffraction in the wastes from electrolytic use. In the annealed structure, some carbides as M 6 C, MC and M 23 C 6 and in the annealed and drawing back structure, carbide as M 6 C and MC were seen. The volumetric fraction of each type was calculated by quantitative metalography. The utilization of the replica technique allows the analysis of carbides smaller than 1 μm without the matrix interference. (E.G.) [pt

An innovative design of small low head hydropower units for low cost decentralized production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holmen, E.; Dennehy, T.

1991-01-01

Design allowing turbine operation at heads as low as 1m and operating at a rotational speed of 500 RPM at a flow of 2.6m 3 /s and a runner diameter of 700 mm. This eliminates the need for a gear box and helps in achieving efficiency of 60% in the case of a 21 kW installation at a 1m head site and 85% with a 69 kW 3.2m head site. Present turbine designs for such low head sites are very expensive to produce and have a low efficiency. The design uses an all plastic waterway, guide vane assembly and reinforced plastic runner blades. There will be a short pay-back period, for example 4.5 years in the case of a 21 kW unit and 2.0 years in case of the 69 kW unit. These payback periods assume a cost per kW of 0.00 ECU. Design is attractive for decentralized production. 3 figs

Combination of taping with Back School in patients with chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled clinical trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andres Tana

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Introduction: 70-85% of the general population suffers from back pain. Back School programs have being effective in the treatment of chronic low back pain. Taping may be useful in reducing pain and normalizing muscle function. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the combination of taping with Back School at short- and long-term. Methods: Randomized controlled clinical trial. The experimental group used tape and made Back Scholl and the control group only made Back School. At the beginning and the end of treatment, pain was evaluated with a visual analogue scale, the flexibility determined with the Modified Finger Tip-to-Floor Test and functionality was calculated with the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire. Depression was recorded with the Depression Beck Inventory just at the beginning. Results: 220 patients were enrolled, only 42 in the experimental group and 33 in the control group completed the treatment. The variation of pain between the first and the fifth session showed no differences between groups regardless of time (p = 0.329. There were no differences between groups in functionality (p = 0.75, flexibility (p = 0.20 and depression. Conclusion: The combination of taping and Back School compared with only Back School was not more effective in reducing pain, increasing functionality and flexibility in patients with chronic low back pain. Key words: Taping; chronic low back pain; spine school; therapy exercises; flexibility; depression.

Imaging-guided hyperstimulation analgesia in low back pain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gorenberg M

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Miguel Gorenberg,1,2 Kobi Schwartz31Department of Nuclear Medicine, B'nai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel; 2The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel; 3Department of Physical Therapy, B'nai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, IsraelAbstract: Low back pain in patients with myofascial pain syndrome is characterized by painful active myofascial trigger points (ATPs in muscles. This article reviews a novel, noninvasive modality that combines simultaneous imaging and treatment, thus taking advantage of the electrodermal information available from imaged ATPs to deliver localized neurostimulation, to stimulate peripheral nerve endings (Aδ fibers and in turn, to release endogenous endorphins. "Hyperstimulation analgesia" with localized, intense, low-rate electrical pulses applied to painful ATPs was found to be effective in 95% patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain, in a clinical validation study.Keywords: myofascial, noninvasive, electrical, impedance

Capital cost: high and low sulfur coal plants-1200 MWe. [High sulfur coal

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1977-01-01

This Commercial Electric Power Cost Study for 1200 MWe (Nominal) high and low sulfur coal plants consists of three volumes. The high sulfur coal plant is described in Volumes I and II, while Volume III describes the low sulfur coal plant. The design basis and cost estimate for the 1232 MWe high sulfur coal plant is presented in Volume I, and the drawings, equipment list and site description are contained in Volume II. The reference design includes a lime flue gas desulfurization system. A regenerative sulfur dioxide removal system using magnesium oxide is also presented as an alternate in Section 7 Volume II. The design basis, drawings and summary cost estimate for a 1243 MWe low sulfur coal plant are presented in Volume III. This information was developed by redesigning the high sulfur coal plant for burning low sulfur sub-bituminous coal. These coal plants utilize a mechanical draft (wet) cooling tower system for condenser heat removal. Costs of alternate cooling systems are provided in Report No. 7 in this series of studies of costs of commercial electrical power plants.

Lumbar supports and education for the prevention of low back pain in industry: a randomized controlled trial.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Poppel, M N; Koes, B W; van der Ploeg, T; Smid, T; Bouter, L M

1998-01-01

CONTEXT Low back pain is a frequent and costly health problem. Prevention of low back pain is important both for the individual patient and from an economic perspective. OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy of lumbar supports and education in the prevention of low back pain in industry. DESIGN A

Brunkow exercises and low back pain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emela Mujić Skikić

2004-11-01

Full Text Available Brunkow exercises starting with dynamic contraction of hands and feet with fixed point on the wrist or/and heal. Dynamic contraction from the beginning, transferring through kinetic chain, leads to isometric contraction of the group of muscles, which has to be included in the exercise. Starting positions determine the group of muscles to be trained. The purpose of this study is to investigate influence of Brunkow exercises on spinal motion improvement and pain relief and to evaluate use of Brunkow exercises, as a routine method for lower back pain in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Centres. Thirty-four patients with symptoms of low back pain were included in study. Patients received a mean of 14.9 treatments with standard deviation of 8.96. All patients were assessed before and after the treatment for spinal mobility and flexibility as well as pain intensity. All parameters for spinal movements showed statistically significant improvement in patients with low back pain who practiced Brunkow exercise program at the end of treatment in relations to pre-treatment values, with significant difference of p<0.01 for all motions. Pain was reduced on VAS for X=1.,7 with S.D. 1.97. Difference Test was t=6.020 with significant difference p<0.01. Flexibility of spine increased, so average difference in values before and after treatment for Shober test was 0.5 cm with SD 0.65. Difference test was t=3.794 with significant difference p<0.01. Brunkow exercises for low back pain are beneficial treatment for increasing flexibility and mobility of spine and improving the pain.

The PRESLO study: evaluation of a global secondary low back pain prevention program for health care personnel in a hospital setting. Multicenter, randomized intervention trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Denis Angélique

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Common low back pain represents a major public health problem in terms of its direct cost to health care and its socio-economic repercussions. Ten percent of individuals who suffer from low back pain evolve toward a chronic case and as such are responsible for 75 to 80% of the direct cost of low back pain. It is therefore imperative to highlight the predictive factors of low back pain chronification in order to lighten the economic burden of low back pain-related invalidity. Despite being particularly affected by low back pain, Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL personnel have never been offered a specific, tailor-made treatment plan. The PRESLO study (with PRESLO referring to Secondary Low Back Pain Prevention, or in French, PREvention Secondaire de la LOmbalgie, proposed by HCL occupational health services and the Centre Médico-Chirurgical et de Réadaptation des Massues – Croix Rouge Française, is a randomized trial that aims to evaluate the feasibility and efficiency of a global secondary low back pain prevention program for the low back pain sufferers among HCL hospital personnel, a population at risk for recurrence and chronification. This program, which is based on the concept of physical retraining, employs a multidisciplinary approach uniting physical activity, cognitive education about low back pain and lumbopelvic morphotype analysis. No study targeting populations at risk for low back pain chronification has as yet evaluated the efficiency of lighter secondary prevention programs. Methods/Design This study is a two-arm parallel randomized controlled trial proposed to all low back pain sufferers among HCL workers, included between October 2008 and July 2011 and followed over two years. The personnel following their usual treatment (control group and those following the global prevention program in addition to their usual treatment (intervention group are compared in terms of low back pain recurrence and the

A global standardization trend for high-speed client and line side transceivers

Science.gov (United States)

Isono, Hideki

2015-03-01

Seeing the recent vast data increase in information industry, IT society will move into the new era of Zettabyte in a few years. Under these circumstances, high-speed and high-capacity optical communication systems have been deployed in the industry. Especially high speed optical transceivers are key devices to realize high-speed systems, and the practical development is accelerated. In order to develop these leading edge products timely, the global standard criteria are strongly required in the industry. Based on these backgrounds, the forum standardization bodies such as OIF PLLWG/ IEEE802.3 are energetically creating the de-fact standards. With regard to 100G/400G standardization activities, IEEE802.3 leads the client side, and OIF PLL-WG leads the line side, and both of them play important roles in the industry. In the previous Photonics West conferences, the activities of these standardization bodies till 2013 were reported. In 2014, the discussions of 400G client side transceiver projects have made some progress in IEEE802.3, whose baseline technologies are about to be fixed. Also 100G transceiver projects for metro applications in the line side, whose target profile is CFP2 form factor, have been discussed in OIF PLL-WG. In this paper, these high-end standardization topics are introduced and the future products direction is also discussed from the technical point of view. In order to realize these small form factor and cost effective transceivers, the device integration technologies, the low power device/electrical circuit technologies, and the development of high speed electrical interface such as 25G/50G are key factors.

Study of Cutting Edge Temperature and Cutting Force of End Mill Tool in High Speed Machining

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kiprawi Mohammad Ashaari

2017-01-01

Full Text Available A wear of cutting tools during machining process is unavoidable due to the presence of frictional forces during removing process of unwanted material of workpiece. It is unavoidable but can be controlled at slower rate if the cutting speed is fixed at certain point in order to achieve optimum cutting conditions. The wear of cutting tools is closely related with the thermal deformations that occurred between the frictional contact point of cutting edge of cutting tool and workpiece. This research paper is focused on determinations of relationship among cutting temperature, cutting speed, cutting forces and radial depth of cutting parameters. The cutting temperature is determined by using the Indium Arsenide (InAs and Indium Antimonide (InSb photocells to measure infrared radiation that are emitted from cutting tools and cutting forces is determined by using dynamometer. The high speed machining process is done by end milling the outer surface of carbon steel. The signal from the photocell is digitally visualized in the digital oscilloscope. Based on the results, the cutting temperature increased as the radial depth and cutting speed increased. The cutting forces increased when radial depth increased but decreased when cutting speed is increased. The setup for calibration and discussion of the experiment will be explained in this paper.

Cost-Benefit Analysis of High-Speed Rail Link between Hong Kong and Mainland China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Tao

2011-07-01

Full Text Available The Legislative Council in Hong Kong has approved a funding of USD$8.60 billion to build the high-speed rail (HSR line linking mainland China. HSR is a break-through technology that allows trains running at a speed over 250 km per hour. The most controversial part of the HSR investment is whether its cost could be compensated by the social benefits. In this study, a cost-benefit analysis of the Hong Kong to mainland HSR (HKM-HSR line is carried out. First, all the direct and indirect costs, and social benefits are defined; then, monetary equivalents are assigned to these elements; third, all the future values are discounted into present values and aggregated. The results show that the project has a positive net present value (NPV up to USD$2,068.49 million, which proves that the investment is worth. In addition, other transport alternatives, i.e. the existing roadway and conventional railway, are examined and compared with HKM-HSR, which unveils that HSR has the largest positive NPV among these three passenger transportation modes because of its excellent performance in ticket revenue, travel time savings and safety improvement.

Low-cost multicrystalline back-contact silicon solar cells with screen printed metallization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Neu, W.; Kress, A.; Jooss, W.; Fath, P.; Bucher, E.

2002-01-01

Adaptation to market requirements is a permanent challenge in industrial solar-cell production. Both increase of cell efficiency as well as lowering costs is demanded. Back-contacted solar cells offer multiple advantages in terms of reducing module assembling costs and enhanced cell efficiency. The investigated emitter-wrap-through (EWT) design [1] has a collecting emitter on front and rear side. These emitter areas are electrically connected by small holes. Due to the double-sided collecting junction, this cell design is favourable for materials with a low-minority charge carrier diffusion length leading to a higher short circuit current density. Until now most investigations on EWT solar cells were performed on Cz or even FZ silicon. This was justified as long as different processing techniques had to be developed and compared. But as an industrially applicable process sequence has recently been developed [2], the advantages of the EWT concept compared to conventionally processed cells have to be shown on multicrystalline material. In the following, a manufacturing process of EWT solar cells is presented which is especially adapted to the requirements of multicrystalline silicon. Effective surface texturization was reached by mechanical V-texturization and bulk passivation by a hydrogen plasma treatment. The efficiency of the best solar cells within this process reached 14.2% which is the highest efficiency reported so far for mc-Si 10x10 cm 2 EWT solar cells [3]. (author)

Low cost digital wind speed meter with wind direction using PIC16F877A

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sujod, M.Z.; Ismail, M.M. [Malaysia Pahang Univ., Pahang (Malaysia). Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

2008-07-01

Weather measurement tools are necessary to determine the actual weather and forecasting. Wind is one of the weather elements that can be measured using an anemometer which is a device for measuring the velocity or the pressure of the wind. It is one of the instruments used in weather stations. This paper described a circuit design for speed and direction of the meter and created a suitable programming to measure and display the wind speed meter and direction. A microcontroller (PIC16F877A) was employed as the central processing unit for digital wind speed and direction meter. The paper presented and discussed the hardware and software implementation as well as the calibration and results. The paper also discussed cost estimation and future recommendations. It was concluded that the hardware and software implementation were carefully selected after considering the development cost where the cost was much lower than the market prices. 4 refs., 8 figs.

Cost-effectiveness of exercise therapy in the treatment of non-specific neck pain and low back pain : a systematic review with meta-analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Miyamoto, Gisela Cristiane; Lin, Chung-Wei Christine; Cabral, Cristina Maria Nunes; van Dongen, Johanna M; van Tulder, Maurits W

2018-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the cost-effectiveness of exercise therapy in the treatment of patients with non-specific neck pain and low back pain. DESIGN: Systematic review of economic evaluations. DATA SOURCES: The search was performed in 5 clinical and 3 economic electronic databases. ELIGIBILITY

High-speed high-sensitivity infrared spectroscopy using mid-infrared swept lasers (Conference Presentation)

Science.gov (United States)

Childs, David T. D.; Groom, Kristian M.; Hogg, Richard A.; Revin, Dmitry G.; Cockburn, John W.; Rehman, Ihtesham U.; Matcher, Stephen J.

2016-03-01

Infrared spectroscopy is a highly attractive read-out technology for compositional analysis of biomedical specimens because of its unique combination of high molecular sensitivity without the need for exogenous labels. Traditional techniques such as FTIR and Raman have suffered from comparatively low speed and sensitivity however recent innovations are challenging this situation. Direct mid-IR spectroscopy is being speeded up by innovations such as MEMS-based FTIR instruments with very high mirror speeds and supercontinuum sources producing very high sample irradiation levels. Here we explore another possible method - external cavity quantum cascade lasers (EC-QCL's) with high cavity tuning speeds (mid-IR swept lasers). Swept lasers have been heavily developed in the near-infrared where they are used for non-destructive low-coherence imaging (OCT). We adapt these concepts in two ways. Firstly by combining mid-IR quantum cascade gain chips with external cavity designs adapted from OCT we achieve spectral acquisition rates approaching 1 kHz and demonstrate potential to reach 100 kHz. Secondly we show that mid-IR swept lasers share a fundamental sensitivity advantage with near-IR OCT swept lasers. This makes them potentially able to achieve the same spectral SNR as an FTIR instrument in a time x N shorter (N being the number of spectral points) under otherwise matched conditions. This effect is demonstrated using measurements of a PDMS sample. The combination of potentially very high spectral acquisition rates, fundamental SNR advantage and the use of low-cost detector systems could make mid-IR swept lasers a powerful technology for high-throughput biomedical spectroscopy.

Yoga versus education for Veterans with chronic low back pain: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Saper, Robert B; Lemaster, Chelsey M; Elwy, A Rani; Paris, Ruth; Herman, Patricia M; Plumb, Dorothy N; Sherman, Karen J; Groessl, Erik J; Lynch, Susan; Wang, Shihwe; Weinberg, Janice

2016-04-29

Chronic low back pain is the most frequent pain condition in Veterans and causes substantial suffering, decreased functional capacity, and lower quality of life. Symptoms of post-traumatic stress, depression, and mild traumatic brain injury are highly prevalent in Veterans with back pain. Yoga for low back pain has been demonstrated to be effective for civilians in randomized controlled trials. However, it is unknown if results from previously published trials generalize to military populations. This study is a parallel randomized controlled trial comparing yoga to education for 120 Veterans with chronic low back pain. Participants are Veterans ≥18 years old with low back pain present on at least half the days in the past six months and a self-reported average pain intensity in the previous week of ≥4 on a 0-10 scale. The 24-week study has an initial 12-week intervention period, where participants are randomized equally into (1) a standardized weekly group yoga class with home practice or (2) education delivered with a self-care book. Primary outcome measures are change at 12 weeks in low back pain intensity measured by the Defense and Veterans Pain Rating Scale (0-10) and back-related function using the 23-point Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire. In the subsequent 12-week follow-up period, yoga participants are encouraged to continue home yoga practice and education participants continue following recommendations from the book. Qualitative interviews with Veterans in the yoga group and their partners explore the impact of chronic low back pain and yoga on family relationships. We also assess cost-effectiveness from three perspectives: the Veteran, the Veterans Health Administration, and society using electronic medical records, self-reported cost data, and study records. This study will help determine if yoga can become an effective treatment for Veterans with chronic low back pain and psychological comorbidities. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02224183.

Navigating Earthquake Physics with High-Resolution Array Back-Projection

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Lingsen

Understanding earthquake source dynamics is a fundamental goal of geophysics. Progress toward this goal has been slow due to the gap between state-of-art earthquake simulations and the limited source imaging techniques based on conventional low-frequency finite fault inversions. Seismic array processing is an alternative source imaging technique that employs the higher frequency content of the earthquakes and provides finer detail of the source process with few prior assumptions. While the back-projection provides key observations of previous large earthquakes, the standard beamforming back-projection suffers from low resolution and severe artifacts. This thesis introduces the MUSIC technique, a high-resolution array processing method that aims to narrow the gap between the seismic observations and earthquake simulations. The MUSIC is a high-resolution method taking advantage of the higher order signal statistics. The method has not been widely used in seismology yet because of the nonstationary and incoherent nature of the seismic signal. We adapt MUSIC to transient seismic signal by incorporating the Multitaper cross-spectrum estimates. We also adopt a "reference window" strategy that mitigates the "swimming artifact," a systematic drift effect in back projection. The improved MUSIC back projections allow the imaging of recent large earthquakes in finer details which give rise to new perspectives on dynamic simulations. In the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake, we observe frequency-dependent rupture behaviors which relate to the material variation along the dip of the subduction interface. In the 2012 off-Sumatra earthquake, we image the complicated ruptures involving orthogonal fault system and an usual branching direction. This result along with our complementary dynamic simulations probes the pressure-insensitive strength of the deep oceanic lithosphere. In another example, back projection is applied to the 2010 M7 Haiti earthquake recorded at regional distance. The

Low back pain in military recruits in relation to social background and previous low back pain. A cross-sectional and prospective observational survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Weidick Flemming

2005-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Traditionally, studies on the etiology of low back pain have been carried out in adult populations. However, since low back pain often appears early in life, more research on young populations is needed. This study focuses on the importance of social background factors and previous low back pain in the development of low back pain in military recruits. Methods During a three-month period, Danish military recruits with different social backgrounds live and work under the same conditions. Thus, there is an opportunity to investigate the influence of social background on the development of low back pain, when persons are removed from their usual environment and submitted to a number of new stressors. In addition, the importance of the recruits' previous low back pain history in relation to low back pain during military service was studied. This was done by means of questionnaires to 1,711 recruits before and after this three-month period. Results Sedentary occupation was negatively associated with long-lasting low back pain (>30 days during the past year at baseline with an odds ratios of 0.55 (95% CI: 0.33–0.90. This effect vanished during service. Having parents with higher education increased the risk of low back pain during service (OR: 1.9;1.2–3.0, for the highest educated group, but not of the consequences (leg pain and exemption from duty, whereas high IQ decreased the risk of these consequences (odds ratios as low as 0.2;0.1–0.8 for exemption from duty in the group with highest IQ. Long-lasting low back pain prior to service increased the risk of long-lasting low back pain (OR: 4.8;2.1–10.8, leg pain (OR: 3.3;1.3–8.3 and exemption from duty during service (OR: 5.9;2.4–14.8. Conclusion Sedentary occupation is negatively associated with low back pain at baseline. This protective effect disappears, when the person becomes physically active. For predicting trouble related to the low back during service, the

Decreased Opioid Utilization and Cost at One Year in Chronic Low Back Pain Patients Treated with Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation (TENS).

Science.gov (United States)

Pivec, Robert; Minshall, Michael E; Mistry, Jaydev B; Chughtai, Morad; Elmallah, Randa K; Mont, Michael A

2015-11-01

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) may be treated without opioids through the use of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). However, no study has evaluated its clinical effect and economic impact as measured by opioid utilization and costs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate patients who were given TENS for CLBP compared to a matched group without TENS at one-year follow-up, to determine differences between opioid consumption. Opioid utilization and costs in patients who did and did not receive TENS were extracted from a Medicare supplemental administrative claims database. Patients were selected if they had at least two ICD-9-CM coded claims for low back pain in a three-month period and were then propensity score matched at a 1:1 ratio between patients who received TENS and those who did not. There were 22,913 patients in each group who had a minimum follow-up of one year. There were no significant demographic or comorbidity differences with the exception that TENS patients had more episodes of back pain. Significantly fewer patients in the TENS group required opioids at final follow-up (57.7 vs. 60.3%). TENS patients also had significantly fewer annual per-patient opioid costs compared to non-TENS patients ($169 vs. $192). There were significantly lower event rates in TENS patients compared to non-TENS patients when measured by opioid utilization (characterized by frequency of prescription refills) (3.82 vs. 4.08, respectively) or pharmacy utilization (31.67 vs. 32.25). The TENS group also demonstrated a significantly lower cost of these utilization events ($44 vs. $49) and avoided more opioid events (20.4 events fewer per 100 patients annually). Treatment of CLBP with TENS demonstrated significantly fewer patients requiring opioids, fewer events where a patient required an opioid prescription, and lower per-patient costs. Since TENS is both non-invasive and a non-narcotic, it may potentially allow physicians to be more aggressive in treating CLBP

Relationship between workload and low back pain in assembly line workers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reza Kalantari

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Work pressure and excessive workload can jeopardize and impair the people’s health. One of these impairments is musculoskeletal disorders. Among these disorders, low back pain is the most common and most costly problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between workload and prevalence of low back pain in assembly line workers of a car manufacturing factory. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 69 workers working in the assembly line of a factory. Data collection tools included three questionnaires: demographic questionnaire, NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX and Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (CMDQ. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential (T-test and One-way ANOVA statistics. Results: Of the workers, 72.5% were female. The average total workload was 71.42% and the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in low back was 43.37%. The results of the analysis of relationship between workload and the prevalence of low back pain showed a significant relationship between physical/ mental workload and the incidence of low back pain (P<0.05. Conclusion: The more is the workload on the person, the greater is the risk of low back pain. Measures such as increasing the number of workers to distribute the workload, slowing the work pace, having work-rest periods for workers, improving psychological conditions of work, etc. can be useful in this regard.

System Level Power Optimization of Digital Audio Back End for Hearing Aids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pracny, Peter; Jørgensen, Ivan Harald Holger; Bruun, Erik

2017-01-01

This work deals with power optimization of the audio processing back end for hearing aids - the interpolation filter (IF), the sigma-delta (SD modulator and the Class D power amplifier (PA) as a whole. Specifications are derived and insight into the tradeoffs involved is used to optimize...... the interpolation filter and the SD modulator on the system level so that the switching frequency of the Class D PA - the main power consumer in the back end - is minimized. A figure-of-merit (FOM) which allows judging the power consumption of the digital part of the back end early in the design process is used...

Comparison of interbody fusion approaches for disabling low back pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Hacker, R J

1997-03-15

This is a study comparing two groups of patients surgically treated for disabling low back pain. One group was treated with lumbar anteroposterior fusion (360 degrees fusion), the other with posterior lumbar interbody fusion and an interbody fixation device. To determine which approach provided the best and most cost-effective outcome using similar patient selection criteria. Others have shown that certain patients with disabling low back pain benefit from lumbar fusion. Although rarely reported, the costs of different surgical treatments appear to vary significantly, whereas the patient outcome may vary little. Since 1991, 75 patients have been treated Starting in 1993, posterior lumbar interbody fusion BAK was offered to patients as an alternative to 360 degrees fusion. The treating surgeon reviewed the cases. The interbody fixation device used (BAK; Spine-Tech, Inc., Minneapolis, MN) was part of a Food and Drug Administration study. Patient selection criteria included examination, response to conservative therapy, imaging, psychological profile, and discography. North American Spine Society outcome questionnaires, BAK investigation data radiographs, chart entries, billing records and patient interviews were the basis for assessment. Age, sex compensable injury history and history of previous surgery were similar. Operative time; blood loss, hospitalization time, and total costs were significantly different. There was a quicker return to work and closure of workers compensation claims for the posterior lumbar interbody fusion-BAK group. Patient satisfaction was comparable at last follow-up. Posterior lumbar interbody fusion-BAK achieves equal patient satisfaction but fiscally surpasses the 360 degrees fusion approach. Today's environment of regulated medical practice requires the surgeon to consider cost effectiveness when performing fusion for low back pain.

The effect of chronic low back pain on tactile suppression during back movements.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Damme, Stefaan; Van Hulle, Lore; Danneels, Lieven; Spence, Charles; Crombez, Geert

2014-10-01

The aim of the present study was to examine whether tactile suppression, the phenomenon whereby tactile perception is suppressed during movement, would occur in the context of back movements. Of particular interest, it was investigated if tactile suppression in the back would be attenuated in those suffering from chronic low back pain. Individuals with chronic low back pain (N = 30) and a matched control group (N = 24) detected tactile stimuli on three possible locations (back, arm, chest) while performing a back or arm movement, or no movement. We hypothesized that the movements would induce tactile suppression, and that this effect would be largest for low-intense stimuli on the moving body part. We further hypothesized that, during back movements, tactile suppression on the back would be less pronounced in the chronic low back pain group than in the control group. The results showed the expected general tactile suppression effects. The hypothesis of back-specific attenuation of tactile suppression in the chronic low back pain group was not supported. However, back-specific tactile suppression in the chronic low back pain group was less pronounced in those who performed the back movements more slowly. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Low back pain during pregnancy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Emília Coelho Costa Carvalho

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Objective: Low back pain is a common complaint among pregnant women. It is estimated that about 50% of pregnant women complain of some form of back pain at some point in pregnancy or during the postpartum period. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of low back pain during pregnancy and its characteristics. Methods: Cross-sectional study with low-risk pregnant women. After approval by the Human Research Ethics Committee and receiving written informed consent, we included pregnant women over 18 years of age and excluded those with psychiatric disorders, previous lumbar pathologies, and receiving treatment for low back pain. Results: We interviewed 97 pregnant women. The frequency of low back pain was 68%. The mean age was 26.2 years and the median gestational age was 30 weeks. Fifty-eight pregnant women declared themselves as brown (58%. Most (88.6% were married or living in common-law marriage, 56 (57.7% worked outside the home, and 71 (73.2% had completed high school. Low back pain was more frequent during the second trimester of pregnancy (43.9%, referred to as a “burning” sensation in 37.8% of patients, with intermittent frequency in 96.9% of the women. The symptoms got worse at night (71.2%. Resting reduced low back pain in 43.9% of pregnant women, while the standing position for a long time worsened it in 27.2% of patients. Conclusion: Low back pain is common in pregnant women, has specific characteristics, and is more frequent in the second trimester of pregnancy. This indicates the need for prevention strategies that enable better quality of life for pregnant women. Resumo: Objetivo: A lombalgia é uma queixa comum entre grávidas. Estima-se que cerca de 50% das gestantes queixam-se de algum tipo de dor lombar em algum momento da gravidez ou durante o puerpério. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a frequência da lombalgia na gestação e suas características. Método: Estudo de corte transversal com gestantes de

Back Schools for chronic non-specific low back pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Parreira, Patrícia; Heymans, Martijn W; van Tulder, Maurits W; Esmail, Rosmin; Koes, Bart W; Poquet, Nolwenn; Lin, Chung-Wei Christine; Maher, Christopher G

2017-08-03

Many people with low back pain (LBP) become frequent users of healthcare services in their attempt to find treatments that minimise the severity of their symptoms. Back School consists of a therapeutic programme given to groups of people that includes both education and exercise. However, the content of Back School has changed over time and appears to vary widely today. This review is an update of a Cochrane review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the effectiveness of Back School. We split the Cochrane review into two reviews, one focusing on acute and subacute LBP, and one on chronic LBP. The objective of this systematic review was to determine the effect of Back School on pain and disability for adults with chronic non-specific LBP; we included adverse events as a secondary outcome. In trials that solely recruited workers, we also examined the effect on work status. We searched for trials in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, two other databases and two trials registers to 15 November 2016. We also searched the reference lists of eligible papers and consulted experts in the field of LBP management to identify any potentially relevant studies we may have missed. We placed no limitations on language or date of publication. We included only RCTs and quasi-RCTs evaluating pain, disability, and/or work status as outcomes. The primary outcomes for this update were pain and disability, and the secondary outcomes were work status and adverse events. Two review authors independently performed the 'Risk of bias' assessment of the included studies using the 'Risk of bias' assessment tool recommended by The Cochrane Collaboration. We summarised the results for the short-, intermediate-, and long-term follow-ups. We evaluated the overall quality of evidence using the GRADE approach. For the outcome pain, at short-term follow-up, we found very low-quality evidence that Back School is more effective than no

Photovoltaic manufacturing cost and throughput improvements for thin-film CIGS-based modules: Phase 1 technical report, July 1998--July 1999

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wiedeman, S.; Wendt, R.G.

2000-03-01

The primary objectives of the Global Solar Energy (GSE) Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology (PVMaT) subcontract are directed toward reducing cost and expanding the production rate of thin-film CuInGaSe{sub 2} (CIGS)-based PV modules on flexible substrates. Improvements will be implemented in monolithic integration, CIGS deposition, contact deposition, and in-situ CIGS control and monitoring. In Phase 1, GSE has successfully attacked many of the highest risk aspects of each task. All-laser, selective scribing processes for CIGS have been developed, and many end-of-contract goals for scribing speed have been exceeded in the first year. High-speed ink-jet deposition of insulating material in the scribes now appears to be a viable technique, again exceeding some end-of-contract goals in the first year. Absorber deposition of CIGS was reduced corresponding to throughput speeds of up to 24-in/min, also exceeding an end-of-contract goal. Alternate back-contact materials have been identified that show potential as candidates for replacement of higher-cost molybdenum, and a novel, real-time monitoring technique (parallel-detector spectroscopic ellipsometry) has shown remarkable sensitivity to relevant properties of the CIGS absorber layer for use as a diagnostic tool. Currently, one of the bilayers has been baselined by GSE for flexible CIGS on polymeric substrates. Resultant back-contacts meet sheet-resistance goals and exhibit much less intrinsic stress than Mo. CIGS has been deposited, and resultant devices are comparable in performance to pure Mo back-contacts. Debris in the chamber has been substantially reduced, allowing longer roll-length between system cleaning.

The high cost of low-acuity ICU outliers.

Science.gov (United States)

Dahl, Deborah; Wojtal, Greg G; Breslow, Michael J; Holl, Randy; Huguez, Debra; Stone, David; Korpi, Gloria

2012-01-01

Direct variable costs were determined on each hospital day for all patients with an intensive care unit (ICU) stay in four Phoenix-area hospital ICUs. Average daily direct variable cost in the four ICUs ranged from $1,436 to $1,759 and represented 69.4 percent and 45.7 percent of total hospital stay cost for medical and surgical patients, respectively. Daily ICU cost and length of stay (LOS) were higher in patients with higher ICU admission acuity of illness as measured by the APACHE risk prediction methodology; 16.2 percent of patients had an ICU stay in excess of six days, and these LOS outliers accounted for 56.7 percent of total ICU cost. While higher-acuity patients were more likely to be ICU LOS outliers, 11.1 percent of low-risk patients were outliers. The low-risk group included 69.4 percent of the ICU population and accounted for 47 percent of all LOS outliers. Low-risk LOS outliers accounted for 25.3 percent of ICU cost and incurred fivefold higher hospital stay costs and mortality rates. These data suggest that severity of illness is an important determinant of daily resource consumption and LOS, regardless of whether the patient arrives in the ICU with high acuity or develops complications that increase acuity. The finding that a substantial number of long-stay patients come into the ICU with low acuity and deteriorate after ICU admission is not widely recognized and represents an important opportunity to improve patient outcomes and lower costs. ICUs should consider adding low-risk LOS data to their quality and financial performance reports.

Spinal Manipulation for Low-Back Pain

Science.gov (United States)

... V W X Y Z Spinal Manipulation for Low-Back Pain Share: On This Page Introduction Key Points About ... will help ensure coordinated and safe care. About Low-Back Pain Back pain is one of the most common ...

Back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, J.S.

2002-01-01

Current strategies of the back-end nuclear fuel cycles are: (1) direct-disposal of spent fuel (Open Cycle), and (2) reprocessing of the spent fuel and recycling of the recovered nuclear materials (Closed Cycle). The selection of these strategies is country-specific, and factors affecting selection of strategy are identified and discussed in this paper. (author)

Real time data compactor (sparsifier) and 8 megabyte high speed FIFO for HEP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baumbaugh, A.E.; Knickerbocker, K.L.; Wegner, C.R.; Baumbaugh, B.W.; Ruchti, R.

1985-10-01

A Video-Data-Acquisition-System (VDAS) has been developed to record image data from a scintillating glass fiber-optic target developed for High Energy Physics. The major components of the VDAS are a flash ADC, a ''real time'' high speed data compactor, and high speed 8 megabyte FIFO memory. The data rates through the system are in excess of 30 megabytes/second. The compactor is capable of reducing the amount of data needed to reconstruct typical images by as much as a factor of 20. The FIFO uses only standard NMOS DRAMS and TTL components to achieve its large size and high speed at relatively low power and cost

High-Speed, Low-Power ADC for Digital Beam Forming (DBF) Systems, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Ridgetop Group will design a high-speed, low-power silicon germanium (SiGe)-based, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to be a key element for digital beam forming...

A tailored, dialogue-based health communication application for patients with chronic low back pain: study protocol of a randomised controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Dirmaier, Jörg; Härter, Martin; Weymann, Nina

2013-06-14

Chronic low back pain is a common chronic condition whose treatment success can be improved by active involvement of patients. Patient involvement can be fostered by web-based applications combining health information with decision support or behaviour change support. These so-called Interactive Health Communication Applications (IHCAs) can reach great numbers of patients at low financial cost and provide information and support at the time, place and learning speed patients prefer. However, high attrition often seems to decrease the effects of web-based interventions. Tailoring content and tone of IHCAs to the individual patient ́s needs might improve usage and therefore effectiveness. This study aims to evaluate a tailored IHCA for people with chronic low back pain combining health information with decision support and behaviour change support. The tailored IHCA will be tested regarding effectiveness and usage against a standard website with identical content in a single-blinded randomized trial with a parallel design. The IHCA contains information on chronic low back pain and its treatment options including health behaviour change recommendations. In the intervention group the content is delivered in dialogue form, tailored to relevant patient characteristics (health literacy, coping style). In the control group there is no tailoring, a standard web-page is used for presenting the content. Participants are unaware of group assignment. Eligibility criteria are age ≥ 18 years , self- reported chronic low back pain, and Internet access. To detect the expected small effect (Cohen's d = 0.2), the sample aims to include 414 patients, with assessments at baseline, directly after the first on-page visit, and at 3-month follow-up using online self-report questionnaires. It is expected that the tailored IHCA has larger effects on knowledge and patient empowerment (primary outcomes) compared to a standard website. Secondary outcomes are website usage

SEAL FOR HIGH SPEED CENTRIFUGE

Science.gov (United States)

Skarstrom, C.W.

1957-12-17

A seal is described for a high speed centrifuge wherein the centrifugal force of rotation acts on the gasket to form a tight seal. The cylindrical rotating bowl of the centrifuge contains a closure member resting on a shoulder in the bowl wall having a lower surface containing bands of gasket material, parallel and adjacent to the cylinder wall. As the centrifuge speed increases, centrifugal force acts on the bands of gasket material forcing them in to a sealing contact against the cylinder wall. This arrangememt forms a simple and effective seal for high speed centrifuges, replacing more costly methods such as welding a closure in place.

EFFECTS OF UNSTABLE SHOES ON ENERGY COST DURING TREADMILL WALKING AT VARIOUS SPEEDS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keiji Koyama

2012-12-01

Full Text Available In recent years, shoes having rounded soles in the anterior- posterior direction have been commercially introduced, which are commonly known as unstable shoes (US. However, physiological responses during walking in US, particularly at various speeds, have not been extensively studied to date. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of wearing unstable shoes while walking at low to high speeds on the rate of perceived exertion (RPE, muscle activation, oxygen consumption (VO2, and optimum speed. Healthy male adults wore US or normal walking shoes (WS, and walked at various speeds on a treadmill with no inclination. In experiment 1, subjects walked at 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 km·h-1 (duration, 3 min for all speeds and were recorded on video from the right sagittal plane to calculate the step length and cadence. Simultaneously, electromyogram (EMG was recorded from six different thigh and calf muscles, and the integrated EMG (iEMG was calculated. In experiment 2, RPE, heart rate and VO2 were measured with the walking speed being increased from 3.6 to 7.2 km·h-1 incrementally by 0.9 km·h-1 every 6 min. The optimum speed, defined by the least oxygen cost, was calculated from the fitted quadratic relationship between walking speed and oxygen cost. Wearing US resulted in significantly longer step length and lower cadence compared with WS condition at any given speed. For all speeds, iEMG in the medial gastrocnemius and soleus muscles, heart rate, and VO2 were significantly higher in US than WS. However, RPE and optimum speed (US, 4.75 ± 0.32 km·h-1; WS, 4. 79 ± 0.18 km·h-1 did not differ significantly between the two conditions. These results suggest that unstable shoes can increase muscle activity of lower legs and energy cost without influencing RPE and optimum speed during walking at various speeds

Experimental Study of Low Speed Sensorless Control of PMSM Drive Using High Frequency Signal Injection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jyoti Agrawal

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Conventional techniques for sensorless control of permanent magnet synchronous motor drive (PMSM, which requires information on rotor position, are reviewed, and recent developments in this area are introduced in this paper along with their inherent advantages and drawbacks. The paper presents an improved method for sensorless speed control of PMSM drive with emphasis placed on signal injection method. This signal injection method examines the control performance of sensorless PMSM drive by injecting signal externally and thereby sensing the rotor position. The main objective of this drive system is to have speed control at standstill and low speed regions. Several tests are carried out to demonstrate the ability of proposed models at different operating conditions with the help of simulation results in Matlab/Simulink environment. Simulation results confirm that the proposed sensorless control approach of PMSM can achieve high performance at standstill and low speeds but not at very high speeds. An experimental setup is implemented using a 1HP surface mounted (SM PMSM and DsPICDEM^TM MCHV-2 development board, to check the validity of simulation results.

A high speed low power low offset dynamic comparator used in SHA-less pipelined ADC

Science.gov (United States)

Shubin, Liu; Zhangming, Zhu; Yintang, Yang; Lianxi, Liu

2014-05-01

A novel fully differential high speed high resolution low offset CMOS dynamic comparator has been implemented in the SMIC 0.18 μm process used for a sample-and-hold amplifier (SHA)-less pipelined analog-to-digital converters (ADC). Based on the analysis and optimization between delay time and offset, an enhanced reset architecture with transmission gate was introduced to speed up the comparison and reset procedure. Four inputs with two cross coupled differential pairs, reconstituted bias circuit for tail current transistor and common centroid layouts make the comparator more robust against mismatch and process variations. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed design achieves 1 mV sensitivity at 2.2 GHz sampling rate with a power consumption of 510 μW, while the mean offset voltage is equal to 10.244 mV.

Environment, renewable sources and NPPs: Strategy of Slovak Republic for the back end of nuclear power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Timulak, J.

2009-01-01

The term 'back end of nuclear power' means set of activities corresponding to the final stage of utilizing the nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, or at the border of nuclear facilities with the environment. Strategy of back end of nuclear power is a basic document that specifies strategy of the Slovak Republic and all relevant subjects for the next five years in detail and for the period up to 2025 in general terms, with the prospect till the end of 21 st century. It provides proposals for implementation of the back end strategy in accordance with requirements for the health and environmental protection so that its consequences are not unacceptably transferred to next generations. The goal of the back end strategy is: - to set acceptable bases back end of nuclear power in Slovakia; - to create framework for decision-making in financial covering of the strategy activities; - to provide information on conceptual solutions of back end of nuclear power to all relevant subjects and to the public. (author)

High-Speed, Low-Power ADC for Digital Beam Forming (DBF) Systems, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — In Phase 1, Ridgetop Group designed a high-speed, yet low-power silicon germanium (SiGe)-based, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to be a key element for digital...

Highly integrated image sensors enable low-cost imaging systems

Science.gov (United States)

Gallagher, Paul K.; Lake, Don; Chalmers, David; Hurwitz, J. E. D.

1997-09-01

The highest barriers to wide scale implementation of vision systems have been cost. This is closely followed by the level of difficulty of putting a complete imaging system together. As anyone who has every been in the position of creating a vision system knows, the various bits and pieces supplied by the many vendors are not under any type of standardization control. In short, unless you are an expert in imaging, electrical interfacing, computers, digital signal processing, and high speed storage techniques, you will likely spend more money trying to do it yourself rather than to buy the exceedingly expensive systems available. Another alternative is making headway into the imaging market however. The growing investment in highly integrated CMOS based imagers is addressing both the cost and the system integration difficulties. This paper discusses the benefits gained from CMOS based imaging, and how these benefits are already being applied.

Copper infiltrated high speed steels based composites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Madej, M.; Lezanski, J.

2003-01-01

High hardness, mechanical strength, heat resistance and wear resistance of M3/2 high speed steel (HSS) make it an attractive material. Since technological and economical considerations are equally important, infiltration of high-speed steel skeleton with liquid cooper has proved to be a suitable technique whereby fully dense material is produced at low cost. Attempts have been made to describe the influence of the production process parameters and alloying additives, such as tungsten carbide on the microstructure and mechanical properties of copper infiltrated HSS based composites. The compositions of powder mixtures are 100% M3/2, M3/2+10% Wc, M3/2=30% WC. The powders were uniaxially cold compacted in a cylindrical die at 800 MPa. The green compacts were sintered in vacuum at 1150 o C for 60 minutes. Thereby obtained porous skeletons were subsequently infiltrated with cooper, by gravity method, in vacuum furnace at 1150 o C for 15 minutes. (author)

A High-Speed Design of Montgomery Multiplier

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Yibo; Ikenaga, Takeshi; Goto, Satoshi

With the increase of key length used in public cryptographic algorithms such as RSA and ECC, the speed of Montgomery multiplication becomes a bottleneck. This paper proposes a high speed design of Montgomery multiplier. Firstly, a modified scalable high-radix Montgomery algorithm is proposed to reduce critical path. Secondly, a high-radix clock-saving dataflow is proposed to support high-radix operation and one clock cycle delay in dataflow. Finally, a hardware-reused architecture is proposed to reduce the hardware cost and a parallel radix-16 design of data path is proposed to accelerate the speed. By using HHNEC 0.25μm standard cell library, the implementation results show that the total cost of Montgomery multiplier is 130 KGates, the clock frequency is 180MHz and the throughput of 1024-bit RSA encryption is 352kbps. This design is suitable to be used in high speed RSA or ECC encryption/decryption. As a scalable design, it supports any key-length encryption/decryption up to the size of on-chip memory.

A Low Cost Bluetooth Low Energy Transceiver for Wireless Sensor Network Applications with a Front-end Receiver-Matching Network-Reusing Power Amplifier Load Inductor.

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Zhen; Li, Bin; Huang, Mo; Zheng, Yanqi; Ye, Hui; Xu, Ken; Deng, Fangming

2017-04-19

In this work, a low cost Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) transceiver for wireless sensor network (WSN) applications, with a receiver (RX)-matching network-reusing power amplifier (PA) load inductor, is presented. In order to decrease the die area, only two inductors were used in this work. Besides the one used in the voltage control oscillator (VCO), the PA load inductor was reused as the RX impedance matching component in the front-end. Proper controls have been applied to achieve high transmitter (TX) input impedance when the transceiver is in the receiving mode, and vice versa. This allows the TRX-switch/matching network integration without significant performance degradation. The RX adopted a low-IF structure and integrated a single-ended low noise amplifier (LNA), a current bleeding mixer, a 4th complex filter and a delta-sigma continuous time (CT) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The TX employed a two-point PLL-based architecture with a non-linear PA. The RX achieved a sensitivity of -93 dBm and consumes 9.7 mW, while the TX achieved a 2.97% error vector magnitude (EVM) with 9.4 mW at 0 dBm output power. This design was fabricated in a 0.11 μm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology and the front-end circuit only occupies 0.24 mm². The measurement results verify the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed BLE transceiver for WSN applications.

High-precision and low-cost vibration generator for low-frequency calibration system

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Rui-Jun; Lei, Ying-Jun; Zhang, Lian-Sheng; Chang, Zhen-Xin; Fan, Kuang-Chao; Cheng, Zhen-Ying; Hu, Peng-Hao

2018-03-01

Low-frequency vibration is one of the harmful factors that affect the accuracy of micro-/nano-measuring machines because its amplitude is significantly small and it is very difficult to avoid. In this paper, a low-cost and high-precision vibration generator was developed to calibrate an optical accelerometer, which is self-designed to detect low-frequency vibration. A piezoelectric actuator is used as vibration exciter, a leaf spring made of beryllium copper is used as an elastic component, and a high-resolution, low-thermal-drift eddy current sensor is applied to investigate the vibrator’s performance. Experimental results demonstrate that the vibration generator can achieve steady output displacement with frequency range from 0.6 Hz to 50 Hz, an analytical displacement resolution of 3.1 nm and an acceleration range from 3.72 mm s-2 to 1935.41 mm s-2 with a relative standard deviation less than 1.79%. The effectiveness of the high-precision and low-cost vibration generator was verified by calibrating our optical accelerometer.

[Possible changes in energy-minimizer mechanisms of locomotion due to chronic low back pain - a literature review].

Science.gov (United States)

de Carvalho, Alberito Rodrigo; Andrade, Alexandro; Peyré-Tartaruga, Leonardo Alexandre

2015-01-01

One goal of the locomotion is to move the body in the space at the most economical way possible. However, little is known about the mechanical and energetic aspects of locomotion that are affected by low back pain. And in case of occurring some damage, little is known about how the mechanical and energetic characteristics of the locomotion are manifested in functional activities, especially with respect to the energy-minimizer mechanisms during locomotion. This study aimed: a) to describe the main energy-minimizer mechanisms of locomotion; b) to check if there are signs of damage on the mechanical and energetic characteristics of the locomotion due to chronic low back pain (CLBP) which may endanger the energy-minimizer mechanisms. This study is characterized as a narrative literature review. The main theory that explains the minimization of energy expenditure during the locomotion is the inverted pendulum mechanism, by which the energy-minimizer mechanism converts kinetic energy into potential energy of the center of mass and vice-versa during the step. This mechanism is strongly influenced by spatio-temporal gait (locomotion) parameters such as step length and preferred walking speed, which, in turn, may be severely altered in patients with chronic low back pain. However, much remains to be understood about the effects of chronic low back pain on the individual's ability to practice an economic locomotion, because functional impairment may compromise the mechanical and energetic characteristics of this type of gait, making it more costly. Thus, there are indications that such changes may compromise the functional energy-minimizer mechanisms. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

Automated packaging platform for low-cost high-performance optical components manufacturing

Science.gov (United States)

Ku, Robert T.

2004-05-01

Delivering high performance integrated optical components at low cost is critical to the continuing recovery and growth of the optical communications industry. In today's market, network equipment vendors need to provide their customers with new solutions that reduce operating expenses and enable new revenue generating IP services. They must depend on the availability of highly integrated optical modules exhibiting high performance, small package size, low power consumption, and most importantly, low cost. The cost of typical optical system hardware is dominated by linecards that are in turn cost-dominated by transmitters and receivers or transceivers and transponders. Cost effective packaging of optical components in these small size modules is becoming the biggest challenge to be addressed. For many traditional component suppliers in our industry, the combination of small size, high performance, and low cost appears to be in conflict and not feasible with conventional product design concepts and labor intensive manual assembly and test. With the advent of photonic integration, there are a variety of materials, optics, substrates, active/passive devices, and mechanical/RF piece parts to manage in manufacturing to achieve high performance at low cost. The use of automation has been demonstrated to surpass manual operation in cost (even with very low labor cost) as well as product uniformity and quality. In this paper, we will discuss the value of using an automated packaging platform.for the assembly and test of high performance active components, such as 2.5Gb/s and 10 Gb/s sources and receivers. Low cost, high performance manufacturing can best be achieved by leveraging a flexible packaging platform to address a multitude of laser and detector devices, integration of electronics and handle various package bodies and fiber configurations. This paper describes the operation and results of working robotic assemblers in the manufacture of a Laser Optical Subassembly

Comparison of different back end fuel cycle concepts and evaluation of their feasibility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baetke, K.; Baumgaertel, G.; Bechthold, W.; Becker, R.; Closs, K.D.; Dippel, T.; Engelmann, H.J.; Fischer, P.M.; Fischer, U.; Haug, H.O.

1980-09-01

The study represents a comparison between the two alternative back end fuel cycle concepts, i.e., the 'integrated back end fuel cycle concept', (reprocessing, recycling of uranium and plutonium) and the 'spent fuel disposal concept', under aspects of technical feasibility, radiation accidents, radiological impact, and energy policy as well as with respect of the proliferation hazards issuing from each of these concepts. An overall comparison of the two back end fuel cycle concepts and the two fuel cycles, respectively, is not yet feasible at the present time, pending clarification of a number of problems of detail. For this reason, the Study also indicates the research activities that must still be carried out on spent fuel disposal in the next few years, in order to allow the comparison of the two back end fuel cycle alternatives to be carried out with respect to safety, as demanded by the heads of government of the Federal Republic and the Federal States for the mid-eighties. (orig./HP) [de

Sliver Solar Cells: High-Efficiency, Low-Cost PV Technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Evan Franklin

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Sliver cells are thin, single-crystal silicon solar cells fabricated using standard fabrication technology. Sliver modules, composed of several thousand individual Sliver cells, can be efficient, low-cost, bifacial, transparent, flexible, shadow tolerant, and lightweight. Compared with current PV technology, mature Sliver technology will need 10% of the pure silicon and fewer than 5% of the wafer starts per MW of factory output. This paper deals with two distinct challenges related to Sliver cell and Sliver module production: providing a mature and robust Sliver cell fabrication method which produces a high yield of highly efficient Sliver cells, and which is suitable for transfer to industry; and, handling, electrically interconnecting, and encapsulating billions of sliver cells at low cost. Sliver cells with efficiencies of 20% have been fabricated at ANU using a reliable, optimised processing sequence, while low-cost encapsulation methods have been demonstrated using a submodule technique.

Winding Design for Minimum Power Loss and Low-Cost Manufacture in Application to Fixed-Speed PM Generator

OpenAIRE

Wrobel, Rafal; Staton, David; Lock, Richard J; Booker, Julian D; Drury, David

2015-01-01

This paper presents the results from a coupled thermal and power loss analysis of an open-slot permanent-magnet (PM) generator. The research focus has been placed on the winding design providing minimum power loss at an ac operation, together with low-cost manufacture. The analyzed PM generator is intended to operate at a fixed speed, allowing for the winding design to be finely tuned for a single operating point. Such a design approach has not been widely reported in literature, and the exis...

The OPERA RPCs front end electronics; a novel application of LVDS line receiver as low cost discriminator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balsamo, E; Bergnoli, A; Bertolin, A; Brugnera, R; Carrara, E; Ciesielski, R; Dal Corso, F; Dusini, S; Garfagnini, A; Kose, U; Longhin, A; Medinaceli, E; Stanco, L

2012-01-01

The OPERA spectrometer is built from two large dipoles instrumented with around 1000 Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs), covering a surface of about 3350 m 2 , and digitally read out by means of almost 27000 strips. The huge number of channels, the inaccessibility of many parts of the detector and the wide uncertainty about the signal amplitude pushed to study a low cost, high sensitivity discriminator, and a very carefully designed layout for the read out system. Here we will present a novel application of LVDS line receiver as discriminator, showing that it exceeds the requirements of a large RPC based detector and offers the intrinsic advantages of a mature technology in terms of costs, reliability and integration scale. We will also present the layout of the read out system showing as the sensitivity and the noise immunity were preserved in a system where the front end electronics is far away from the detector.

Towards low cost, efficient and stable organic photovoltaic modules

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andriessen, R. [Holst Centre - Solliance, PO Box 8550, 5605 KN Eindhoven (Netherlands); Kroon, J.M. [ECN - Solliance, Petten (Netherlands); Aernouts, T. [Imec, Solliance, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001 Leuven (Belgium); Janssen, R. [Eindhoven University of Technology, Solliance, Eindhoven (Netherlands)

2012-09-15

This article describes how the Solliance Organic PhotoVoltaics (OPV) shared research Program addresses efficiency, lifetime and production costs for (near) future OPV applications. The balance of these three parameters depends of the envisaged application, but at the end, OPV should be able to compete somehow with Si PV in the future. Efficiency improvements are realized by developing new materials, by exploring and optimizing new device structures and novel interconnection technologies. Lifetime improvements are realized by using stabilized device stacks and materials and by applying high end flexible barriers. Production cost control is done by using a home made Cost of Ownership tool which guides towards the use of low-cost materials and processes.

DIFFERENCES IN THE KNEE TORQUE BETWEEN HIGH- AND LOW-BAR BACK SQUAT TECHNIQUES. A PILOT STUDY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janez Logar

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The squat is one of the most frequently used exercises in sports training and competitions. There are several squat variations: i the front squat (FS, ii the high-bar back squat (HBS and iii the low-bar back squat (LBS. As the biomechanics of the LBS technique have been studied to a lesser extent, therefore the purpose of this pilot study was to analyze the differences in knee joint net muscle torque between the HBS and LBS. Methods: One healthy male subject (180.0 cm, 76.0 kg, 26 years performed 10 steady paced squats (5 HBS and 5 LBS with additional weight (40.4 kg to a 90° knee angle. Kinematic and kinetic data were gathered using a high-speed camcorder and a force plate, respectively. The maximal and average knee joint net muscle torques (Mmax and Mavg were then calculated via 2-dimensional inverse dynamics. Results: A significantly greater Mavg was observed using the HBS technique as compared to the LBS, both during the entire range of the squat (MavgHBS = 221.6 ± 5.1 Nm, MavgLBS= 203.3 ± 10.2 Nm; p = 0.026 as well as during the eccentric (MavgHBS = 226.0 ± 5.9 Nm, MavgLBS= 202.0 ± 14.0 Nm; p = 0.043 and concentric (MavgHBS = 216.2 ± 3.6 Nm, MavgLBS= 205.0 ± 7.9 Nm; p = 0.021 phase separately. Conclusions: It can be concluded that the lower Mavg during the LBS could be due to the load transfer to the hip joint, most likely because of the greater anterior tilt of the torso, which is a direct response to a lower and more posterior bar placement on the back to finally maintain an unchanged centre of mass. Confirmation of these findings in a larger sample would imply that the LBS could be a more appropriate squat technique when knee joint relief is desired.

Low-Cost High-Performance MRI

Science.gov (United States)

Sarracanie, Mathieu; Lapierre, Cristen D.; Salameh, Najat; Waddington, David E. J.; Witzel, Thomas; Rosen, Matthew S.

2015-10-01

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is unparalleled in its ability to visualize anatomical structure and function non-invasively with high spatial and temporal resolution. Yet to overcome the low sensitivity inherent in inductive detection of weakly polarized nuclear spins, the vast majority of clinical MRI scanners employ superconducting magnets producing very high magnetic fields. Commonly found at 1.5-3 tesla (T), these powerful magnets are massive and have very strict infrastructure demands that preclude operation in many environments. MRI scanners are costly to purchase, site, and maintain, with the purchase price approaching $1 M per tesla (T) of magnetic field. We present here a remarkably simple, non-cryogenic approach to high-performance human MRI at ultra-low magnetic field, whereby modern under-sampling strategies are combined with fully-refocused dynamic spin control using steady-state free precession techniques. At 6.5 mT (more than 450 times lower than clinical MRI scanners) we demonstrate (2.5 × 3.5 × 8.5) mm3 imaging resolution in the living human brain using a simple, open-geometry electromagnet, with 3D image acquisition over the entire brain in 6 minutes. We contend that these practical ultra-low magnetic field implementations of MRI (standards for affordable (<$50,000) and robust portable devices.

A multifaceted implementation strategy versus passive implementation of low back pain guidelines in general practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Riis, Allan; Jensen, Cathrine Elgaard; Bro, Flemming

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: Guidelines are often slowly adapted into clinical practice. However, actively supporting healthcare professionals in evidence-based treatment may speed up guideline implementation. Danish low back pain (LBP) guidelines focus on primary care treatment of LBP, to reduce referrals from p...

Strategy and Economic Prospect of Back-end Cycle through ATW

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hendri Firman Windarto; Siti Alimah

2003-01-01

Strategy and economic prospect of back-end cycle through ATW has been studied. Nuclear fuel cycle through ATW is a single stratum of back-end cycle. By ATW, volume of spent fuel which should be disposed in long term can be reduced from 70,000 MHTM to 3,000 MHTM and half-life of spent fuel can be reduced from 15,700,000 years to 300 years. Strategic values of the ATW cycle are to prevent proliferation risk and to reduce the uncertainty of long term dispose. Economic prospect of the ATW cycle will give some advantages on reducing of spent fuel volume and its disposal period, and producing electricity. (author)

Low-cost, highly transparent flexible low-e coating film to enable electrochromic windows with increased energy savings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berland, Brian [ITN Energy Systems, Inc., Littleton, CO (United States); Hollingsworth, Russell [ITN Energy Systems, Inc., Littleton, CO (United States)

2015-03-31

Five Quads of energy are lost through windows annually in the U.S. Low-e coatings are increasingly employed to reduce the wasted energy. Most commonly, the low-e coating is an oxide material applied directly to the glass at high temperature. With over 100,000,000 existing homes, a retrofit product is crucial to achieve widespread energy savings. Low-e films, i.e. coatings on polymeric substrates, are now also available to meet this need. However, the traditional oxide materials and process is incompatible with low temperature plastics. Alternate high performing low-e films typically incorporate materials that limit visible transmission to 35% or less. Further, the cost is high. The objective of this award was to develop a retrofit, integrated low-e/electrochromic window film to dramatically reduce energy lost through windows. While field testing of state-of-the-art electrochromic (EC) windows show the energy savings are maximized if a low-e coating is used in conjunction with the EC, available low-e films have a low visible transmission (~70% or less) that limits the achievable clear state and therefore, appearance and energy savings potential. Comprehensive energy savings models were completed at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL). A parametric approach was used to project energy usage for windows with a large range of low-e properties across all U.S. climate zones, without limiting the study to materials that had already been produced commercially or made in a lab. The model enables projection of energy savings for low-e films as well as integrated low-e/EC products. This project developed a novel low-e film, optimized for compatibility with EC windows, using low temperature, high deposition rate processes for the growth of low-e coatings on plastic films by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Silica films with good density and optical properties were demonstrated at deposition rates as high as 130Å/sec. A simple bi-layer low-e stack of

The course of low back pain from adolescence to adulthood

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hestbaek, Lise; Leboeuf-Yde, Charlotte; Kyvik, Kirsten Ohm

2006-01-01

STUDY DESIGN: Prospective study with 8-year follow-up. OBJECTIVE: To describe the evolution of low back pain from adolescence into adulthood. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: High prevalence rates of low back pain among children and adolescents have been demonstrated in several studies, and it has bee...

Back-end and interface implementation of the STS-XYTER2 prototype ASIC for the CBM experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kasinski, K.; Szczygiel, R.; Zabolotny, W.

2016-01-01

Each front-end readout ASIC for the High-Energy Physics experiments requires robust and effective hit data streaming and control mechanism. A new STS-XYTER2 full-size prototype chip for the Silicon Tracking System and Muon Chamber detectors in the Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR, Germany) is a 128-channel time and amplitude measuring solution for silicon microstrip and gas detectors. It operates at 250 kHit/s/channel hit rate, each hit producing 27 bits of information (5-bit amplitude, 14-bit timestamp, position and diagnostics data). The chip back-end implements fast front-end channel read-out, timestamp-wise hit sorting, and data streaming via a scalable interface implementing the dedicated protocol (STS-HCTSP) for chip control and hit transfer with data bandwidth from 9.7 MHit/s up to 47 MHit/s. It also includes multiple options for link diagnostics, failure detection, and throttling features. The back-end is designed to operate with the data acquisition architecture based on the CERN GBTx transceivers. This paper presents the details of the back-end and interface design and its implementation in the UMC 180 nm CMOS process.

Cutting force model for high speed machining process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haber, R. E.; Jimenez, J. E.; Jimenez, A.; Lopez-Coronado, J.

2004-01-01

This paper presents cutting force-based models able to describe a high speed machining process. The model considers the cutting force as output variable, essential for the physical processes that are taking place in high speed machining. Moreover, this paper shows the mathematical development to derive the integral-differential equations, and the algorithms implemented in MATLAB to predict the cutting force in real time MATLAB is a software tool for doing numerical computations with matrices and vectors. It can also display information graphically and includes many toolboxes for several research and applications areas. Two end mill shapes are considered (i. e. cylindrical and ball end mill) for real-time implementation of the developed algorithms. the developed models are validated in slot milling operations. The results corroborate the importance of the cutting force variable for predicting tool wear in high speed machining operations. The developed models are the starting point for future work related with vibration analysis, process stability and dimensional surface finish in high speed machining processes. (Author) 19 refs

How to quantify the transition phase during golf swing performance: Torsional load affects low back complaints during the transition phase.

Science.gov (United States)

Sim, Taeyong; Choi, Ahnryul; Lee, Soeun; Mun, Joung Hwan

2017-10-01

The transition phase of a golf swing is considered to be a decisive instant required for a powerful swing. However, at the same time, the low back torsional loads during this phase can have a considerable effect on golf-related low back pain (LBP). Previous efforts to quantify the transition phase were hampered by problems with accuracy due to methodological limitations. In this study, vector-coding technique (VCT) method was proposed as a comprehensive methodology to quantify the precise transition phase and examine low back torsional load. Towards this end, transition phases were assessed using three different methods (VCT, lead hand speed and X-factor stretch) and compared; then, low back torsional load during the transition phase was examined. As a result, the importance of accurate transition phase quantification has been documented. The largest torsional loads were observed in healthy professional golfers (10.23 ± 1.69 N · kg -1 ), followed by professional golfers with a history of LBP (7.93 ± 1.79 N · kg -1 ), healthy amateur golfers (1.79 ± 1.05 N · kg -1 ) and amateur golfers with a history of LBP (0.99 ± 0.87 N · kg -1 ), which order was equal to that of the transition phase magnitudes of each group. These results indicate the relationship between the transition phase and LBP history and the dependency of the torsional load magnitude on the transition phase.

High-Speed and Low-Energy Flip-Flop Operation of Asymmetric Active-Multimode Interferometer Bi-Stable Laser Diodes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jiang, Haisong; Chaen, Yutaka; Hagio, Takuma

2011-01-01

High-speed (121/25 ps rise/fall time) and low-switching energy (7.1 and 3.4 fJ) alloptical flip-flop operation of single-wavelength high-mesa asymmetric active-MMI bi-stable laser diodes is demonstrated for the first time using 25 ps long switching pulses.......High-speed (121/25 ps rise/fall time) and low-switching energy (7.1 and 3.4 fJ) alloptical flip-flop operation of single-wavelength high-mesa asymmetric active-MMI bi-stable laser diodes is demonstrated for the first time using 25 ps long switching pulses....

CERNET - A high-speed packet-switching network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gerard, J.M.

1981-01-01

A general mesh-structured high-speed computer network has been designed and built. This network provides communication between any pair of connected user computers over distances of upto 6 km and at line speeds of 1 to 5 Mbit/second. The network is composed of a communication subnet providing a datagram service, complemented by tasks in the connected machines to implement an end-to-end logical link protocol. Details are given of the overall structure as well as the specific modules of which the system is composed. (orig.)

Study on application of a high-speed trigger-type SFCL (TSFCL) for interconnection of power systems with different reliabilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Hye Ji; Yoon, Yong Tae

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Application of TSFCL to interconnect systems with different reliabilities is proposed. • TSFCL protects a grid by preventing detrimental effects from being delivered through the interconnection line. • A high-speed TSFCL with high impedance for transmission systems is required to be developed. - Abstract: Interconnection of power systems is one effective way to improve power supply reliability. However, differences in the reliability of each power system create a greater obstacle for the stable interconnection of power systems, as after interconnection a high-reliability system is affected by frequent faults in low reliability side systems. Several power system interconnection methods, such as the back-to-back method and the installation of either transformers or series reactors, have been investigated to counteract the damage caused by faults in the other neighboring systems. However, these methods are uneconomical and require complex operational management plans. In this work, a high-speed trigger-type superconducting fault current limiter (TSFCL) with large-impedance is proposed as a solution to maintain reliability and power quality when a high reliability power system is interconnected with a low reliability power system. Through analysis of the reliability index for the numerical examples obtained from a PSCAD/EMTDC simulator, a high-speed TSFCL with a large-impedance is confirmed to be effective for the interconnection between power systems with different reliabilities.

Low-cost high-quality crystalline germanium based flexible devices

KAUST Repository

Nassar, Joanna M.

2014-06-16

High performance flexible electronics promise innovative future technology for various interactive applications for the pursuit of low-cost, light-weight, and multi-functional devices. Thus, here we show a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible fabrication of flexible metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors (MOSCAPs) with high-κ/metal gate stack, using a physical vapor deposition (PVD) cost-effective technique to obtain a high-quality Ge channel. We report outstanding bending radius ~1.25 mm and semi-transparency of 30%.

Low-cost high-quality crystalline germanium based flexible devices

KAUST Repository

Nassar, Joanna M.; Hussain, Aftab M.; Rojas, Jhonathan Prieto; Hussain, Muhammad Mustafa

2014-01-01

High performance flexible electronics promise innovative future technology for various interactive applications for the pursuit of low-cost, light-weight, and multi-functional devices. Thus, here we show a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible fabrication of flexible metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors (MOSCAPs) with high-κ/metal gate stack, using a physical vapor deposition (PVD) cost-effective technique to obtain a high-quality Ge channel. We report outstanding bending radius ~1.25 mm and semi-transparency of 30%.

Lanthanide - actinide separation: a challenge in the back end of nuclear fuel cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohapatra, P.K.

2015-01-01

Due to their similar size and chemical state, separation of trivalent lanthanide and actinide ions has always been a challenging topic of research. Of late, the growing concern for the radioactive waste management in the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle has led to the possibility of transmuting the long-lived transuranides in high flux reactors. This necessitates the development of processes for the separation of lanthanides and actinides in acidic/low pH media. In view of the high absorption cross section of few lanthanides, their presence in relatively large proportion (10-100 times) impedes the transmutation process. Processes such as the TRAMEX and TALSPEAK have been used for the separation of lanthanides from trivalent actinides. Of late soft donor ligands containing S and N donor atoms have been used for the selective extraction of trivalent actinide ions. The commercially available S-donor compound, CYANEX 301 (bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl) dithiophosphinic acid) has been used to yield separation factor (S.F.) values in the excess of 6000. Synergistic extraction with N-donor ligands such as 2,2'-bipyridyl and 1,10-phenanthroline have yielded S.F. values close to 40,000. N-donor ligands such as BTP (bis-triazinylpyridine), BTBP (bis-triazinylbipyridyl) and BTPhen (bis-triazinyl-phenanthroline) have been particularly effective from relatively acidic feed conditions. The present lecture will give a brief outline of the separation processes and experimental results of studies carried out using various S and N donor ligands. Use of room temperature ionic liquids for more favorable separations will be highlighted. Liquid membrane separation results for application to back end nuclear fuel cycle will also be discussed. (author)

Additional therapeutic effect of balneotherapy in low back pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Dogan, Murat; Sahin, Ozlem; Elden, Hasan; Hayta, Emrullah; Kaptanoglu, Ece

2011-08-01

Balneotherapy has been widely used for treatment of chronic low back pain recently. However there are only a few clinical controlled trials on balneotherapy. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of balneotherapy in patients with chronic low back pain. Sixty patients with lumbar spondylosis were included in the study. In Group 1, patients received both balneotherapy and physiotherapy and in Group 2, patients received only physiotherapy for three weeks. The intensity of the pain was evaluated by Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and functional disability was scored according to Revised Oswestry Index (ROI). Spinal mobility was assessed by the Schober and lateral flexion tests. Variables were evaluated before and after the three weeks of treatment. The groups were comparable regarding age (P = 0.970) and sex (P = 0.357). There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups for baseline VAS (P = 0.838), Schober test (P = 0.226), and right (P = 0.642) and left (P = 0.674) lateral flexion measurements, and ROI scores (P = 0.798). At the end of the therapy, all clinical parameters significantly improved in patients in both of the groups (P balneotherapy may be effective in the treatment of patients with chronic low back pain.

A multimedia campaign to improve back beliefs in patients with non-specific low back pain : a process evaluation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Suman, Arnela; Schaafsma, Frederieke G.; Bamarni, Jiman; Van Tulder, Maurits W.; Anema, Johannes R.

2017-01-01

Background: Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most prevalent and costly disorders worldwide. To reduce its burden in the Netherlands, implementation of a multidisciplinary guideline for LBP was supported by a multifaceted eHealth campaign for patients with LBP. The current study aims 1) to evaluate

A multimedia campaign to improve back beliefs in patients with non-specific low back pain: a process evaluation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Suman, A.; Schaafsma, F.G.; Bamarni, J.; Tulder, M.W. van; Anema, J.R.

2017-01-01

BACKGROUND: Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most prevalent and costly disorders worldwide. To reduce its burden in the Netherlands, implementation of a multidisciplinary guideline for LBP was supported by a multifaceted eHealth campaign for patients with LBP. The current study aims 1) to evaluate

Do functional tests predict low back pain?

Science.gov (United States)

Takala, E P; Viikari-Juntura, E

2000-08-15

A cohort of 307 nonsymptomatic workers and another cohort of 123 workers with previous episodes of low back pain were followed up for 2 years. The outcomes were measured by symptoms, medical consultations, and sick leaves due to low back disorders. To study the predictive value of a set of tests measuring the physical performance of the back in a working population. The hypothesis was that subjects with poor functional capacity are liable to back disorders. Reduced functional performance has been associated with back pain. There are few data to show whether reduced functional capacity is a cause or a consequence of pain. Mobility of the trunk in forward and side bending, maximal isokinetic trunk extension, flexion and lifting strength, and static endurance of back extension were measured. Standing balance and foot reaction time were recorded with a force plate. Clinical tests for the provocation of back or leg pain were performed. Gender, workload, age, and anthropometrics were managed as potential confounders in the analysis. Marked overlapping was seen in the measures of the subjects with different outcomes. Among the nonsymptomatic subjects, low performance in tests of mobility and standing balance was associated with future back disorders. Among workers with previous episodes of back pain, low isokinetic extension strength, poor standing balance, and positive clinical signs predicted future pain. Some associations were found between the functional tests and future low back pain. The wide variation in the results questions the value of the tests in health examinations (e.g., in screening or surveillance of low back disorders).

A Comparison of High- and Low-Distress Marriages that End in Divorce

Science.gov (United States)

Amato, Paul R.; Hohmann-Marriott, Bryndl

2007-01-01

We used data from Waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households to study high- and low-distress marriages that end in divorce. A cluster analysis of 509 couples who divorced between waves revealed that about half were in high-distress relationships and the rest in low-distress relationships. These 2 groups were not artifacts of…

Fundamental understanding and development of low-cost, high-efficiency silicon solar cells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

ROHATGI,A.; NARASIMHA,S.; MOSCHER,J.; EBONG,A.; KAMRA,S.; KRYGOWSKI,T.; DOSHI,P.; RISTOW,A.; YELUNDUR,V.; RUBY,DOUGLAS S.

2000-05-01

The overall objectives of this program are (1) to develop rapid and low-cost processes for manufacturing that can improve yield, throughput, and performance of silicon photovoltaic devices, (2) to design and fabricate high-efficiency solar cells on promising low-cost materials, and (3) to improve the fundamental understanding of advanced photovoltaic devices. Several rapid and potentially low-cost technologies are described in this report that were developed and applied toward the fabrication of high-efficiency silicon solar cells.

High Speed, Low Cost Telemetry Access from Space Development Update on Programmable Ultra Lightweight System Adaptable Radio (PULSAR)

Science.gov (United States)

Simms, William Herbert, III; Varnavas, Kosta; Eberly, Eric

2014-01-01

Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology has been proven in the commercial sector since the early 1990's. Today's rapid advancement in mobile telephone reliability and power management capabilities exemplifies the effectiveness of the SDR technology for the modern communications market. In contrast, the foundations of transponder technology presently qualified for satellite applications were developed during the early space program of the 1960's. Conventional transponders are built to a specific platform and must be redesigned for every new bus while the SDR is adaptive in nature and can fit numerous applications with no hardware modifications. A SDR uses a minimum amount of analog / Radio Frequency (RF) components to up/down-convert the RF signal to/from a digital format. Once the signal is digitized, all processing is performed using hardware or software logic. Typical SDR digital processes include; filtering, modulation, up/down converting and demodulation. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Programmable Ultra Lightweight System Adaptable Radio (PULSAR) leverages existing MSFC SDR designs and commercial sector enhanced capabilities to provide a path to a radiation tolerant SDR transponder. These innovations (1) reduce the cost of NASA Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Deep Space standard transponders, (2) decrease power requirements, and (3) commensurately reduce volume. A second pay-off is the increased SDR flexibility by allowing the same hardware to implement multiple transponder types simply by altering hardware logic - no change of hardware is required - all of which will ultimately be accomplished in orbit. Development of SDR technology for space applications will provide a highly capable, low cost transponder to programs of all sizes. The MSFC PULSAR Project results in a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7 low-cost telemetry system available to Smallsat and CubeSat missions, as well as other platforms. This paper documents the continued development and

High speed heterostructure devices

CERN Document Server

Beer, Albert C; Willardson, R K; Kiehl, Richard A; Sollner, T C L Gerhard

1994-01-01

Volume 41 includes an in-depth review of the most important, high-speed switches made with heterojunction technology. This volume is aimed at the graduate student or working researcher who needs a broad overview andan introduction to current literature. Key Features * The first complete review of InP-based HFETs and complementary HFETs, which promise very low power and high speed * Offers a complete, three-chapter review of resonant tunneling * Provides an emphasis on circuits as well as devices.

Pilates for low back pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Yamato, Tiê P; Maher, Christopher G; Saragiotto, Bruno T; Hancock, Mark J; Ostelo, Raymond W J G; Cabral, Cristina M N; Costa, Luciola C Menezes; Costa, Leonardo O P

2016-01-01

-term follow-up (MD 0.10, 95% CI -2.44 to 2.64), but there was a significant effect in favour of other exercises for intermediate-term function, with a small effect size (MD -3.60, 95% CI -7.00 to -0.20). Global impression of recovery was not assessed in this comparison and none of the trials included quality of life outcomes. Two trials assessed adverse events in this review, one did not find any adverse events, and another reported minor events. We did not find any high quality evidence for any of the treatment comparisons, outcomes or follow-up periods investigated. However, there is low to moderate quality evidence that Pilates is more effective than minimal intervention for pain and disability. When Pilates was compared with other exercises we found a small effect for function at intermediate-term follow-up. Thus, while there is some evidence for the effectiveness of Pilates for low back pain, there is no conclusive evidence that it is superior to other forms of exercises. The decision to use Pilates for low back pain may be based on the patient's or care provider's preferences, and costs.

Pharmacists' views on implementing a disease state management program for low back pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Abdel Shaheed, Christina; Maher, Christopher G; Williams, Kylie A; McLachlan, Andrew J

2016-01-01

Pharmacists have the potential to take a lead role in the primary care management of people with acute low back pain. The aim of this study was to investigate pharmacists' views on implementing a care program for people with acute low back pain in the community pharmacy. Recruitment of pharmacists for this study took place between July 2012 and March 2013. A convenience sample of 30 pharmacists who collaborated in recruiting participants for a low back pain clinical trial in Sydney (n=15 pharmacist recruiters and n=15 non-recruiters) completed an open-ended questionnaire. There was no marked variation in responses between the two groups. Participating pharmacists were receptive to the idea of implementing a care program for people with low back pain, highlighting the need for adequate reimbursement and adequate training of staff to ensure it is successful. Pharmacists identified that the follow up of people receiving such a service is dependent on several factors such as effective reminder systems and the proximity of patients to the pharmacy.

FTA low-speed urban Maglev research program : updated lessons learned.

Science.gov (United States)

2012-11-01

In 1999, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) initiated the Low-Speed Urban Magnetic Levitation (Urban Maglev) Program to develop magnetic levitation technology that offers a cost-effective, reliable, and environmentally-sound transit option for ...

A wireless high-speed data acquisition system for geotechnical centrifuge model testing

Science.gov (United States)

Gaudin, C.; White, D. J.; Boylan, N.; Breen, J.; Brown, T.; DeCatania, S.; Hortin, P.

2009-09-01

This paper describes a novel high-speed wireless data acquisition system (WDAS) developed at the University of Western Australia for operation onboard a geotechnical centrifuge, in an enhanced gravitational field of up to 300 times Earth's gravity. The WDAS system consists of up to eight separate miniature units distributed around the circumference of a 0.8 m diameter drum centrifuge, communicating with the control room via wireless Ethernet. Each unit is capable of powering and monitoring eight instrument channels at a sampling rate of up to 1 MHz at 16-bit resolution. The data are stored within the logging unit in solid-state memory, but may also be streamed in real-time at low frequency (up to 10 Hz) to the centrifuge control room, via wireless transmission. The high-speed logging runs continuously within a circular memory (buffer), allowing for storage of a pre-trigger segment of data prior to an event. To suit typical geotechnical modelling applications, the system can record low-speed data continuously, until a burst of high-speed acquisition is triggered when an experimental event occurs, after which the system reverts back to low-speed acquisition to monitor the aftermath of the event. Unlike PC-based data acquisition solutions, this system performs the full sequence of amplification, conditioning, digitization and storage on a single circuit board via an independent micro-controller allocated to each pair of instrumented channels. This arrangement is efficient, compact and physically robust to suit the centrifuge environment. This paper details the design specification of the WDAS along with the software interface developed to control the units. Results from a centrifuge test of a submarine landslide are used to illustrate the performance of the new WDAS.

A wireless high-speed data acquisition system for geotechnical centrifuge model testing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaudin, C; White, D J; Boylan, N; Breen, J; Brown, T; De Catania, S; Hortin, P

2009-01-01

This paper describes a novel high-speed wireless data acquisition system (WDAS) developed at the University of Western Australia for operation onboard a geotechnical centrifuge, in an enhanced gravitational field of up to 300 times Earth's gravity. The WDAS system consists of up to eight separate miniature units distributed around the circumference of a 0.8 m diameter drum centrifuge, communicating with the control room via wireless Ethernet. Each unit is capable of powering and monitoring eight instrument channels at a sampling rate of up to 1 MHz at 16-bit resolution. The data are stored within the logging unit in solid-state memory, but may also be streamed in real-time at low frequency (up to 10 Hz) to the centrifuge control room, via wireless transmission. The high-speed logging runs continuously within a circular memory (buffer), allowing for storage of a pre-trigger segment of data prior to an event. To suit typical geotechnical modelling applications, the system can record low-speed data continuously, until a burst of high-speed acquisition is triggered when an experimental event occurs, after which the system reverts back to low-speed acquisition to monitor the aftermath of the event. Unlike PC-based data acquisition solutions, this system performs the full sequence of amplification, conditioning, digitization and storage on a single circuit board via an independent micro-controller allocated to each pair of instrumented channels. This arrangement is efficient, compact and physically robust to suit the centrifuge environment. This paper details the design specification of the WDAS along with the software interface developed to control the units. Results from a centrifuge test of a submarine landslide are used to illustrate the performance of the new WDAS

Optimization of Trip-end Networks and Ride Price for Express Coach Systems in the High-speed Rail Era

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhongzhen Yang

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Express coach (EC lost a considerable share of passengers after high-speed rail (HSR was implemented. This paper proposes a door-to-door operation mode for the EC system and builds a model to design an EC trip-end network in the origin city with the aim of maximizing the EC’s daily operating profit. A case study is undertaken, and the results show that the operating profit of the EC system first increases and then decreases with the growth of the trip-end routes. In the HSR era, door-to-door operation can effectively guarantee the market share and operating profits of the EC.

Individualized chiropractic and integrative care for low back pain: the design of a randomized clinical trial using a mixed-methods approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Evans Roni L

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Low back pain (LBP is a prevalent and costly condition in the United States. Evidence suggests there is no one treatment which is best for all patients, but instead several viable treatment options. Additionally, multidisciplinary management of LBP may be more effective than monodisciplinary care. An integrative model that includes both complementary and alternative medicine (CAM and conventional therapies, while also incorporating patient choice, has yet to be tested for chronic LBP. The primary aim of this study is to determine the relative clinical effectiveness of 1 monodisciplinary chiropractic care and 2 multidisciplinary integrative care in 200 adults with non-acute LBP, in both the short-term (after 12 weeks and long-term (after 52 weeks. The primary outcome measure is patient-rated back pain. Secondary aims compare the treatment approaches in terms of frequency of symptoms, low back disability, fear avoidance, self-efficacy, general health status, improvement, satisfaction, work loss, medication use, lumbar dynamic motion, and torso muscle endurance. Patients' and providers' perceptions of treatment will be described using qualitative methods, and cost-effectiveness and cost utility will be assessed. Methods and Design This paper describes the design of a randomized clinical trial (RCT, with cost-effectiveness and qualitative studies conducted alongside the RCT. Two hundred participants ages 18 and older are being recruited and randomized to one of two 12-week treatment interventions. Patient-rated outcome measures are collected via self-report questionnaires at baseline, and at 4, 12, 26, and 52 weeks post-randomization. Objective outcome measures are assessed at baseline and 12 weeks by examiners blinded to treatment assignment. Health care cost data is collected by self-report questionnaires and treatment records during the intervention phase and by monthly phone interviews thereafter. Qualitative interviews

Prediction of peak back compressive forces as a function of lifting speed and compressive forces at lift origin and destination - a pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Greenland, Kasey O; Merryweather, Andrew S; Bloswick, Donald S

2011-09-01

To determine the feasibility of predicting static and dynamic peak back-compressive forces based on (1) static back compressive force values at the lift origin and destination and (2) lifting speed. Ten male subjects performed symmetric mid-sagittal floor-to-shoulder, floor-to-waist, and waist-to-shoulder lifts at three different speeds (slow, medium, and fast), and with two different loads (light and heavy). Two-dimensional kinematics and kinetics were captured. Linear regression analyses were used to develop prediction equations, the amount of predictability, and significance for static and dynamic peak back-compressive forces based on a static origin and destination average (SODA) back-compressive force. Static and dynamic peak back-compressive forces were highly predicted by the SODA, with R(2) values ranging from 0.830 to 0.947. Slopes were significantly different between slow and fast lifting speeds (p assessments at the origin and destination of a lifting task. This could be valuable for enhancing job design and analysis in the workplace and for large-scale studies where a full analysis of each lifting task is not feasible.

Low-Cost Superconducting Wire for Wind Generators: High Performance, Low Cost Superconducting Wires and Coils for High Power Wind Generators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

2012-01-01

REACT Project: The University of Houston will develop a low-cost, high-current superconducting wire that could be used in high-power wind generators. Superconducting wire currently transports 600 times more electric current than a similarly sized copper wire, but is significantly more expensive. The University of Houston’s innovation is based on engineering nanoscale defects in the superconducting film. This could quadruple the current relative to today’s superconducting wires, supporting the same amount of current using 25% of the material. This would make wind generators lighter, more powerful and more efficient. The design could result in a several-fold reduction in wire costs and enable their commercial viability of high-power wind generators for use in offshore applications.

Handgrip strength is associated with, but poorly predicts, disability in older women with acute low back pain: A 12-month follow-up study.

Science.gov (United States)

Felício, Diogo Carvalho; Diz, Juliano Bergamaschine Mata; Pereira, Daniele Sirineu; Queiroz, Bárbara Zille de; Silva, Juscélio Pereira de; Moreira, Bruno de Souza; Oliveira, Vinícius Cunha; Pereira, Leani Souza Máximo

2017-10-01

Older women with low back pain (LBP) constitute a special subpopulation at risk of severe and permanent disability. It is important to identify factors limiting functionality in this population in order to reduce costs and improve both prevention and intervention. Handgrip strength (HGS) is a biomarker of aging associated with several adverse health outcomes, but long-term associations with disability in older patients with LBP are not known. To examine whether HGS predicts disability in older women with acute low back pain (LBP). Longitudinal analyses were conducted with a sample of 135 older women from the international multicenter study Back Complaints in the Elders (BACE-Brazil). Women aged 60 years and over with a new episode of acute LBP were included. HGS was assessed with Jamar ® dynamometer, and disability was assessed using the Roland Morris questionnaire and gait speed test. Variables were assessed at baseline and at 12-month follow-up. Linear regression models explored associations between HGS and disability measures. Significant association was found between HGS at baseline and gait speed at 12-month follow-up (r=-0.24; p=0.004). A multivariable-adjusted model showed that this association was independent of age, body mass index, and pain intensity (adjusted R 2 =0.13; pinclusion of HGS as an independent variable. No association was found between HGS and score on the Roland Morris questionnaire. Caution is needed regarding the use of HGS as a predictive measure of disability in older women with acute LBP. Changes in gait speed were very small and unlikely to be of clinical relevance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

CMOS continuous-time adaptive equalizers for high-speed serial links

CERN Document Server

Gimeno Gasca, Cecilia; Aldea Chagoyen, Concepción

2015-01-01

This book introduces readers to the design of adaptive equalization solutions integrated in standard CMOS technology for high-speed serial links. Since continuous-time equalizers offer various advantages as an alternative to discrete-time equalizers at multi-gigabit rates, this book provides a detailed description of continuous-time adaptive equalizers design - both at transistor and system levels-, their main characteristics and performances. The authors begin with a complete review and analysis of the state of the art of equalizers for wireline applications, describing why they are necessary, their types, and their main applications. Next, theoretical fundamentals of continuous-time adaptive equalizers are explored. Then, new structures are proposed to implement the different building blocks of the adaptive equalizer: line equalizer, loop-filters, power comparator, etc.  The authors demonstrate the design of a complete low-power, low-voltage, high-speed, continuous-time adaptive equalizer. Finally, a cost-...

High-speed resistance training is more effective than low-speed resistance training to increase functional capacity and muscle performance in older women.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramírez-Campillo, Rodrigo; Castillo, Angélica; de la Fuente, Carlos I; Campos-Jara, Christian; Andrade, David C; Álvarez, Cristian; Martínez, Cristian; Castro-Sepúlveda, Mauricio; Pereira, Ana; Marques, Mário C; Izquierdo, Mikel

2014-10-01

To examine the effects of 12 weeks of high-speed resistance training (RT) versus low-speed RT on muscle strength [one repetition of maximum leg-press (1RMLP) and bench-press (1RMBP), plus dominant (HGd) and non-dominant maximum isometric handgrip], power [counter-movement jump (CMJ), ball throwing (BT) and 10-m walking sprint (S10)], functional performance [8-foot up-and-go test (UG) and sit-to-stand test (STS)], and perceived quality of life in older women. 45 older women were divided into a high-speed RT group [EG, n=15, age=66.3±3.7y], a low-speed RT group [SG, n=15, age=68.7±6.4y] and a control group [CG, n=15, age=66.7±4.9y]. The SG and EG were submitted to a similar 12-week RT program [3 sets of 8 reps at 40-75% of the one-repetition maximum (1work per exercise without CMJ and BT). Over the 12-week training period, both RT groups showed small to large clinically significant improvements in the dependent variables; however, a significant difference was found between the EG and SG for the performance changes in BT, S10 and UG (20% vs. 11%, pperformance and quality of life in older women, although a high-speed RT program induces greater improvements in muscle power and functional capacity. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Compact, Low-Power, and High-Speed Graphene-Based Integrated Photonic Modulator Technology

Science.gov (United States)

2017-11-02

Compact, Low-Power, and High-Speed Graphene- Based Integrated Photonic Modulator Technology The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this...Graphene-Based Integrated Photonic Modulator Technology Report Term: 0-Other Email: sorger@gwu.edu Distribution Statement: 1-Approved for public release...which is an all-time record at Georgia Tech. Protocol Activity Status: Technology Transfer: Nothing to Report PARTICIPANTS: Person Months Worked

The Influence of Ergonomic Training on Low Back and Neck Pains in Female Hospital Personnel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saeidi

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Background Prevalence of low back pain (LBP and neck pain (NP in workers, especially in nurses is high, but their knowledge of ergonomics is not enough. Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of ergonomic training on low back pain and neck pain, posture, and function in female hospital personnel of Najaf-Abad, Iran. Patients and Methods In this queasy experimental study, 47 female staffs with LBP or NP were selected through a simple consecutive sampling method. The subjects completed a questionnaire on LBP and NP and were evaluated for posture, back tests, and cost of related treatments. Afterward, they participated in an ergonomic training program, including face to face and group education sessions on ergonomic risk factors for LBP and NP, in the work place. After six months of follow up, all the tests and data collection were repeated and data was analyzed using paired t-test and regression analysis. Results Prevalence of LBP and NP were 87% and 45.7%, respectively. Repetitive motions were the most frequent cause of pain (67%. Pain intensity, posture, risk of musculoskeletal disorders, weight, waist circumference, sick leaves, and the costs of treatments reduced significantly after intervention (P < 0.05. Conclusions With regards to the influence of ergonomic training on improving LBP and NP and decreasing the treatment costs, this intervention beside others can be useful for controlling musculoskeletal disorders in hospital personnel.

High-speed readout of high-Z pixel detectors with the LAMBDA detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pennicard, D.; Smoljanin, S.; Sheviakov, I.; Xia, Q.; Rothkirch, A.; Yu, Y.; Struth, B.; Hirsemann, H.; Graafsma, H.

2014-01-01

High-frame-rate X-ray pixel detectors make it possible to perform time-resolved experiments at synchrotron beamlines, and to make better use of these sources by shortening experiment times. LAMBDA is a photon-counting hybrid pixel detector based on the Medipix3 chip, designed to combine a small pixel size of 55 μm, a large tileable module design, high speed, and compatibility with ''high-Z'' sensors for hard X-ray detection. This technical paper focuses on LAMBDA's high-speed-readout functionality, which allows a frame rate of 2000 frames per second with no deadtime between successive images. This takes advantage of the Medipix3 chip's ''continuous read-write'' function and highly parallelised readout. The readout electronics serialise this data and send it back to a server PC over two 10 Gigabit Ethernet links. The server PC controls the detector and receives, processes and stores the data using software designed for the Tango control system. As a demonstration of high-speed readout of a high-Z sensor, a GaAs LAMBDA detector was used to make a high-speed X-ray video of a computer fan

Low Cost, High-Throughput 3-D Pulmonary Imager Using Hyperpolarized Contrast Agents and Low-Field MRI

Science.gov (United States)

2017-10-01

greater gas polarizations and production amounts/ throughputs- benefiting in particular from the advent of com- pact, high-power, relatively low- cost ...Award Number: W81XWH-15-1-0271 TITLE: Low- Cost , High-Throughput 3-D Pulmonary Imager Using Hyperpolarized Contrast Agents and Low-Field MRI...DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT: Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this report are those of the

Changes of indicators of high-speed and high-speed and power preparedness at volleyball players of 12–13 years old

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oleg Shevchenko

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose: to define changes of indicators of high-speed and high-speed and power preparedness of volleyball players of 12–13 years old. Material & Methods: the test exercises, which are recommended by the training program of CYSS on volleyball, were used for the definition of the level of development of high-speed and high-speed and power abilities of volleyball players. 25 young volleyball players from the group of the previous basic preparation took part in the experiment. Sports experience of sportsmen is 3–4 years. The analysis of scientifically-methodical literature, pedagogical testing, pedagogical experiment, methods of mathematical statistics were carried out. Results: the analyzed level of high-speed and high-speed and power abilities of volleyball players. Conclusions: the results had reliable changes (t=2,2–2,4 at р<0,05 of the level of high-speed and high-speed and power abilities of volleyball players of 12–13years old in the experimental group at the end of the experiment, except run on 30 m that demonstrates a positive influence of application of special exercises in the educational-training process.

High-speed VCSEL-based optical interconnects

Science.gov (United States)

Ishak, Waguih S.

2001-11-01

Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSEL) have made significant inroads into commercial realization especially in the area of data communications. Single VCSEL devices are key components in Gb Ethernet Transceivers. A multi-element VCSEL array is the key enabling technology for high-speed multi Gb/s parallel optical interconnect modules. In 1996, several companies introduced a new generation of fiber optic products based VCSEL technology such as multimode fiber transceivers for the ANSI Fiber Channel and Gigabit Ethernet IEEE 802.3 standards. VCSELs offer unique advantages over its edge-emitting counterparts in several areas. These include low-cost (LED-like) manufacturability, low current operation and array integrability. As data rates continue to increase, VCSELs offer the advantage of being able to provide the highest modulation bandwidth per milliamp of modulation current. Currently, most of the VCSEL-based products use short (780 - 980 nm) wavelength lasers. However, significant research efforts are taking place at universities and industrial research labs around the world to develop reliable, manufacturable and high-power long (1300 - 1550 nm) wavelength VCSELs. These lasers will allow longer (several km) transmission distances and will help alleviate some of the eye-safety issues. Perhaps, the most important advantage of VCSELs is the ability to form two-dimensional arrays much easier than in the case of edge-emitting lasers. These arrays (single and two-dimensional) will allow a whole new family of applications, specifically in very high-speed computer and switch interconnects.

A Review of the Biomechanical Differences Between the High-Bar and Low-Bar Back-Squat.

Science.gov (United States)

Glassbrook, Daniel J; Helms, Eric R; Brown, Scott R; Storey, Adam G

2017-09-01

Glassbrook, DJ, Helms, ER, Brown, SR, and Storey, AG. A review of the biomechanical differences between the high-bar and low-bar back-squat. J Strength Cond Res 31(9): 2618-2634, 2017-The back-squat is a common exercise in strength and conditioning for a variety of sports. It is widely regarded as a fundamental movement to increase and measure lower-body and trunk function, as well as an effective injury rehabilitation exercise. There are typically 2 different bar positions used when performing the back-squat: the traditional "high-bar" back-squat (HBBS) and the "low-bar" back-squat (LBBS). Different movement strategies are used to ensure that the center of mass remains in the base of support for balance during the execution of these lifts. These movement strategies manifest as differences in (a) joint angles, (b) vertical ground reaction forces, and (c) the activity of key muscles. This review showed that the HBBS is characterized by greater knee flexion, lesser hip flexion, a more upright torso, and a deeper squat. The LBBS is characterized by greater hip flexion and, therefore, a greater forward lean. However, there are limited differences in vertical ground reaction forces between the HBBS and LBBS. The LBBS can also be characterized by a greater muscle activity of the erector spinae, adductors, and gluteal muscles, whereas the HBBS can be characterized by greater quadriceps muscle activity. Practitioners seeking to develop the posterior-chain hip musculature (i.e., gluteal, hamstring, and erector muscle groups) may seek to use the LBBS. In comparison, those seeking to replicate movements with a more upright torso and contribution from the quadriceps may rather seek to use the HBBS in training.

A Rapid and Low-Cost PCR Thermal Cycler for Infectious Disease Diagnostics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kamfai Chan

Full Text Available The ability to make rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases broadly available in a portable, low-cost format would mark a great step forward in global health. Many molecular diagnostic assays are developed based on using thermal cyclers to carry out polymerase chain reaction (PCR and reverse-transcription PCR for DNA and RNA amplification and detection, respectively. Unfortunately, most commercial thermal cyclers are expensive and need continuous electrical power supply, so they are not suitable for uses in low-resource settings. We have previously reported a low-cost and simple approach to amplify DNA using vacuum insulated stainless steel thermoses food cans, which we have named it thermos thermal cycler or TTC. Here, we describe the use of an improved set up to enable the detection of viral RNA targets by reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR, thus expanding the TTC's ability to identify highly infectious, RNA virus-based diseases in low resource settings. The TTC was successful in demonstrating high-speed and sensitive detection of DNA or RNA targets of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, and dengue fever. Our innovative TTC costs less than $200 to build and has a capacity of at least eight tubes. In terms of speed, the TTC's performance exceeded that of commercial thermal cyclers tested. When coupled with low-cost endpoint detection technologies such as nucleic acid lateral-flow assay or a cell-phone-based fluorescence detector, the TTC will increase the availability of on-site molecular diagnostics in low-resource settings.

Radiation-recall myositis presenting as low-back pain (2010: 4b)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heirwegh, Geert; Bruyeer, Eveline; Demaerel, Philippe; Renard, Marleen; Uyttebroeck, Anne

2010-01-01

We report on a patient with a history of Ewing sarcoma who underwent surgery and subsequent adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He developed low-back pain 6 months after the end of the radiotherapy and during consolidation chemotherapy. Magnetic resonance imaging showed evidence of myositis corresponding to the 'radiation-recall phenomenon', an inflammatory reaction of irradiated tissue. (orig.)

Radiation-recall myositis presenting as low-back pain (2010: 4b)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Heirwegh, Geert [AZ Damiaanziekenhuis, Department of Radiology, Oostende (Belgium); University Hospital K.U. Leuven, Department of Radiology, Leuven (Belgium); Bruyeer, Eveline; Demaerel, Philippe [University Hospital K.U. Leuven, Department of Radiology, Leuven (Belgium); Renard, Marleen; Uyttebroeck, Anne [University Hospital K.U. Leuven, Department of Paediatrics, Leuven (Belgium)

2010-07-15

We report on a patient with a history of Ewing sarcoma who underwent surgery and subsequent adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He developed low-back pain 6 months after the end of the radiotherapy and during consolidation chemotherapy. Magnetic resonance imaging showed evidence of myositis corresponding to the 'radiation-recall phenomenon', an inflammatory reaction of irradiated tissue. (orig.)

Cost-benefit study of consumer product take-back programs using IBM's WIT reverse logistics optimization tool

Science.gov (United States)

Veerakamolmal, Pitipong; Lee, Yung-Joon; Fasano, J. P.; Hale, Rhea; Jacques, Mary

2002-02-01

In recent years, there has been increased focus by regulators, manufacturers, and consumers on the issue of product end of life management for electronics. This paper presents an overview of a conceptual study designed to examine the costs and benefits of several different Product Take Back (PTB) scenarios for used electronics equipment. The study utilized a reverse logistics supply chain model to examine the effects of several different factors in PTB programs. The model was done using the IBM supply chain optimization tool known as WIT (Watson Implosion Technology). Using the WIT tool, we were able to determine a theoretical optimal cost scenario for PTB programs. The study was designed to assist IBM internally in determining theoretical optimal Product Take Back program models and determining potential incentives for increasing participation rates.

Predictors of communication preferences in patients with chronic low back pain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Farin E

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Erik Farin, Lukas Gramm, Erika SchmidtUniversity Freiburg, Medical Center, Department of Quality Management and Social Medicine, Freiburg, GermanyBackground: The objective of this exploratory study was to identify patient-related predictors of communication preferences in patients with chronic low back pain for various dimensions of patient-physician communication (patient participation and orientation, effective and open communication, emotionally supportive communication, communication about personal circumstances.Methods: Eleven rehabilitation centers from various parts of Germany participated in collection of data between 2009 and 2011. A total of 701 patients with chronic low back pain were surveyed at the start of rehabilitation. The patient questionnaire captured communication preferences, pain impact, pain intensity, and psychologic variables (fear avoidance beliefs, illness coherence, control beliefs, communication self-efficacy, and personality characteristics. The rehabilitation physicians filled out a documentation sheet containing information on diagnosis, inability to work, duration of the illness, and comorbidity at the beginning and end of rehabilitation. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed.Results: On average, effective, open, and patient-centered communication was very important for patients with back pain, emotionally supportive communication was important, and communication about personal circumstances was somewhat important. The variance in communication preferences explained by the predictors studied here was 8%–19%. Older patients showed a lower preference for patient-centered and open communication, but a higher preference for communication about personal circumstances. Patients with psychologic risk factors (eg, fear avoidance beliefs, extroverted patients, and patients with high self-efficacy in patient-physician interaction generally had higher expectations of the physician's communicative behavior

Are low back pain and low physical capacity risk indicators for dropout among recently qualified eldercare workers?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Faber, Anne; Giver, Hanne; Strøyer, Jesper

2010-01-01

BACKGROUND: A high job turnover and dropout among eldercare workers has led to a significant shortage of qualified manpower in the Danish eldercare sector. OBJECTIVES: The predictive effect of some non-work-related causes for leaving the eldercare sector 2 years after qualification, physical...... either in the eldercare sector, in other health- and welfare sectors, in all other sectors, under education, or outside labour market, 2 years after qualification. RESULTS: Disability due to and duration of low back pain were significant predictors for dropout from the eldercare sector 2 years after...... qualification. Low physical capacity was not. Data on duration of low back pain suggest a trend towards a dose-response relationship: The longer the duration of low back pain, the higher odds for dropout. CONCLUSIONS: Low back pain and disability due to low back pain during the last year of education were...

Preliminary tests of a high speed vertical axis windmill model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

South, P; Rangi, R S

1971-01-01

This report discusses a fixed-pitch vertical axis windmill that combines the inherent simplicity of this type of machine with a high aerodynamic efficiency and a high relative velocity. A three-bladed rotor was selected as the basic design, having constant chord symmetric airfoil blades configured in a catenary curve such that the rotor diameter is equal to the rotor height. In wind tunnel tests using a 30 inch scale model, it was found that once this rotor was given a very low rotational speed, it picked up speed and ran at a rotor tip velocity/wind speed ratio greater than 1. The number of blades was varied in the testing. A maximum power coefficient of 0.67 was achieved at 17 ft/s wind speed at a tip speed/wind speed ratio of 7.25 for a 2-bladed rotor. Increasing the number of blades above 3 did not result in higher power. The rotor could operate in gusts which double the mean wind velocity. Examination of Reynolds number effects, and taking into account the scale of the model, it was concluded that a full-scale windmill could run at lower velocity ratios than those predicted by the model tests, and that it could self-start under no-load conditions if the cut-in rpm are at least half the rpm for maximum power at the prevailing wind speed. Preliminary estimates show that a 15 ft diameter windmill of this design, designed to operate with a safety factor of 2.5 up to a maximum wind speed of 60 ft/s, would weigh ca 150 lb and could be marketed for ca $60.00, excluding the driven unit, if sufficient quantities were produced to make tooling costs negligible. Similarly, a 30 ft windmill would weigh ca 1000 lb and cost ca $400.00. 2 refs., 6 figs.

Low-Cost, High-Throughput 3-D Pulmonary Imager Using Hyperpolarized Contrast Agents and Low-Field MRI

Science.gov (United States)

2017-10-01

low- cost and high-throughput was a key element proposed for this project, which we believe will be of significant benefit to the patients suffering...Award Number: W81XWH-15-1-0272 TITLE: Low- Cost , High-Throughput 3-D Pulmonary Imager Using Hyperpolarized Contrast Agents and Low-Field MRI...STATEMENT: Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this report are those of the author(s

Ultra High Brightness/Low Cost Fiber Coupled Packaging, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — High peak power, high efficiency, high reliability lightweight, low cost QCW laser diode pump modules with up to 1000W of QCW output become possible with nLight's...

Implementing the Keele stratified care model for patients with low back pain: an observational impact study.

Science.gov (United States)

Bamford, Adrian; Nation, Andy; Durrell, Susie; Andronis, Lazaros; Rule, Ellen; McLeod, Hugh

2017-02-03

The Keele stratified care model for management of low back pain comprises use of the prognostic STarT Back Screening Tool to allocate patients into one of three risk-defined categories leading to associated risk-specific treatment pathways, such that high-risk patients receive enhanced treatment and more sessions than medium- and low-risk patients. The Keele model is associated with economic benefits and is being widely implemented. The objective was to assess the use of the stratified model following its introduction in an acute hospital physiotherapy department setting in Gloucestershire, England. Physiotherapists recorded data on 201 patients treated using the Keele model in two audits in 2013 and 2014. To assess whether implementation of the stratified model was associated with the anticipated range of treatment sessions, regression analysis of the audit data was used to determine whether high- or medium-risk patients received significantly more treatment sessions than low-risk patients. The analysis controlled for patient characteristics, year, physiotherapists' seniority and physiotherapist. To assess the physiotherapists' views on the usefulness of the stratified model, audit data on this were analysed using framework methods. To assess the potential economic consequences of introducing the stratified care model in Gloucestershire, published economic evaluation findings on back-related National Health Service (NHS) costs, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and societal productivity losses were applied to audit data on the proportion of patients by risk classification and estimates of local incidence. When the Keele model was implemented, patients received significantly more treatment sessions as the risk-rating increased, in line with the anticipated impact of targeted treatment pathways. Physiotherapists were largely positive about using the model. The potential annual impact of rolling out the model across Gloucestershire is a gain in approximately 30

An Airbreathing Launch Vehicle Design with Turbine-Based Low-Speed Propulsion and Dual Mode Scramjet High-Speed Propulsion

Science.gov (United States)

Moses, P. L.; Bouchard, K. A.; Vause, R. F.; Pinckney, S. Z.; Ferlemann, S. M.; Leonard, C. P.; Taylor, L. W., III; Robinson, J. S.; Martin, J. G.; Petley, D. H.

1999-01-01

Airbreathing launch vehicles continue to be a subject of great interest in the space access community. In particular, horizontal takeoff and horizontal landing vehicles are attractive with their airplane-like benefits and flexibility for future space launch requirements. The most promising of these concepts involve airframe integrated propulsion systems, in which the external undersurface of the vehicle forms part of the propulsion flowpath. Combining of airframe and engine functions in this manner involves all of the design disciplines interacting at once. Design and optimization of these configurations is a most difficult activity, requiring a multi-discipline process to analytically resolve the numerous interactions among the design variables. This paper describes the design and optimization of one configuration in this vehicle class, a lifting body with turbine-based low-speed propulsion. The integration of propulsion and airframe, both from an aero-propulsive and mechanical perspective are addressed. This paper primarily focuses on the design details of the preferred configuration and the analyses performed to assess its performance. The integration of both low-speed and high-speed propulsion is covered. Structural and mechanical designs are described along with materials and technologies used. Propellant and systems packaging are shown and the mission-sized vehicle weights are disclosed.

The Design of a High Speed Low Power Phase Locked Loop

CERN Document Server

Liu, Tiankuan; Hou, Suen; Liang, Zhihua; Liu, Chonghan; Su, Da-Shung; Teng, Ping-Kun; Xiang, Annie C; Ye, Jingbo

2009-01-01

The upgrade of the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter readout system calls for the development of radiation tolerant, high speed and low power serializer ASIC. We have designed a phase locked loop using a commercial 0.25-μm Silicon-on- Sapphire (SoS) CMOS technology. Post-layout simulation indicates that tuning range is 3.79 – 5.01 GHz and power consumption is 104 mW. The PLL has been submitted for fabrication. The design and simulation results are presented.

A novel 2 T P-channel nano-crystal memory for low power/high speed embedded NVM applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Junyu; Wang Yong; Liu Jing; Zhang Manhong; Xu Zhongguang; Huo Zongliang; Liu Ming

2012-01-01

We introduce a novel 2 T P-channel nano-crystal memory structure for low power and high speed embedded non-volatile memory (NVM) applications. By using the band-to-band tunneling-induced hot-electron (BTBTIHE) injection scheme, both high-speed and low power programming can be achieved at the same time. Due to the use of a select transistor, the 'erased states' can be set to below 0 V, so that the periphery HV circuit (high-voltage generating and management) and read-out circuit can be simplified. Good memory cell performance has also been achieved, including a fast program/erase (P/E) speed (a 1.15 V memory window under 10 μs program pulse), an excellent data retention (only 20% charge loss for 10 years). The data shows that the device has strong potential for future embedded NVM applications. (semiconductor devices)

The injection equipment of future high-speed DI diesel engines with respect to power and pollution requirements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dolenc, A. (Monobloc Dieselmotoren GmbH, Vienna (AT))

1990-01-01

The development of high specific output DI diesel engines started at the low-speed end some 50 years ago primarily for marine and traction applications. Movement towards the high-speed end has been slow but steady with the majority of truck engines being very conservatively rated. There has been recent major effort on the automotive car and light commercial vehicle diesel application leading to lightweight DI diesel engines with an engine speed of 4000-5000 r/min and a rated power of 50 kW/litre displacement. These are expected to be on the market in a short period of time. The key point of this development has been the injection equipment including combustion control. In this area the use of modulated injection has the possibility of solving power and pollution requirements. (author).

Low-cost synchronization of high-speed audio and video recordings in bio-acoustic experiments.

Science.gov (United States)

Laurijssen, Dennis; Verreycken, Erik; Geipel, Inga; Daems, Walter; Peremans, Herbert; Steckel, Jan

2018-02-27

In this paper, we present a method for synchronizing high-speed audio and video recordings of bio-acoustic experiments. By embedding a random signal into the recorded video and audio data, robust synchronization of a diverse set of sensor streams can be performed without the need to keep detailed records. The synchronization can be performed using recording devices without dedicated synchronization inputs. We demonstrate the efficacy of the approach in two sets of experiments: behavioral experiments on different species of echolocating bats and the recordings of field crickets. We present the general operating principle of the synchronization method, discuss its synchronization strength and provide insights into how to construct such a device using off-the-shelf components. © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Effectiveness of thermal annular procedures in treating discogenic low back pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Helm Ii, Standiford; Deer, Timothy R; Manchikanti, Laxmaiah; Datta, Sukdeb; Chopra, Pradeep; Singh, Vijay; Hirsch, Joshua A

2012-01-01

Persistent low back pain refractory to conservative treatment is a common problem that leads to widespread impairment, resulting in significant costs to society. The intervertebral disc is a major source of persistent low back pain. Technologies developed to treat this problem, including various surgical instrumentation and fusion techniques, have not reliably provided satisfactory results in terms of either pain relief or increased function. Thermal annular procedures (TAPs) were first developed in the late 1990s in an attempt to treat discogenic pain. The hope was that they would provide greater value than fusion in terms of efficacy, morbidity, and cost. Three technologies have been developed to apply heat to the annulus: intradiscal electrothermal therapy (IDET), discTRODE, and biacuplasty. Since nerve ingrowth and tissue regeneration in the annulus is felt to be the source of pain in discogenic low back pain, when describing the 3 above techniques we use the term "thermal annular procedures" rather than "thermal intradiscal procedures." We have specifically excluded studies treating the nucleus. TAPs have been the subject of significant controversy. Multiple reviews have been conducted resulting in varying conclusions. A systematic review of TAPs for the treatment of discogenic low back pain. To evaluate the effectiveness of TAPs in treating discogenic low back pain and to assess complications associated with those procedures. The available literature on TAPs in treating discogenic low back pain was reviewed. The quality assessment and clinical relevance criteria utilized were the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Review Group criteria for interventional techniques for randomized trials, and the criteria developed by the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale criteria for observational studies. The level of evidence was classified as good, fair, or poor based on the quality of evidence developed by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Data sources included relevant literature

A high-performance, low-cost, leading edge discriminator

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Abstract. A high-performance, low-cost, leading edge discriminator has been designed with a timing performance comparable to state-of-the-art, commercially available discrim- inators. A timing error of 16 ps is achieved under ideal operating conditions. Under more realistic operating conditions the discriminator displays a ...

Low back pain among nurses in Slovenian hospitals: cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Skela-Savič, B; Pesjak, K; Hvalič-Touzery, S

2017-12-01

The study investigated the prevalence and factors predicting low back pain among nurses in Slovenian hospitals. The risk factors for low back pain are physical and psychosocial. Implementation of interventions for reducing low back pain calls for management support, accessible equipment, education, knowledge and risk assessment. Low back pain prevalence and incidence among healthcare workers is very high compared to the general population and is a strong risk factor for long-term sickness absence. A cross-sectional study design was utilized. We used validated instruments: Nordic Musculoskeletal Disorder Questionnaire, Stanford Presenteeism Scale and Perceived Stress Scale. The sample included 1744 nursing employees from 16 Slovenian hospitals, ranging from practical nurses, registered nurses, nurses with a bachelor's degree and those with a master's degree. Results revealed a prevalence of low back pain among 85.9% of respondents. Relevant risk factors included female gender, age, length of employment, years in current position, shift work and the number of nurses per shift. In the regression model, factors predicting low back pain included presenteeism with a negative effect on work, presenteeism and maintaining work productivity, inability to control daily life, number of nurses per shift and respondents' age. Future activities should be oriented towards eliminating or reducing risks for low back pain incidents and towards different strategies, guidelines and actions which empower individuals and provide knowledge to manage and prevent low back pain. Slovenian healthcare system planning needs a national strategy to successfully promote LBP preventive and controlling strategies. Management can plan preventive and curative measures to reduce low back pain prevalence among nursing personnel. Management should also implement policies reflecting research findings. © 2017 International Council of Nurses.

Grey Wolf based control for speed ripple reduction at low speed operation of PMSM drives.

Science.gov (United States)

Djerioui, Ali; Houari, Azeddine; Ait-Ahmed, Mourad; Benkhoris, Mohamed-Fouad; Chouder, Aissa; Machmoum, Mohamed

2018-03-01

Speed ripple at low speed-high torque operation of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM) drives is considered as one of the major issues to be treated. The presented work proposes an efficient PMSM speed controller based on Grey Wolf (GW) algorithm to ensure a high-performance control for speed ripple reduction at low speed operation. The main idea of the proposed control algorithm is to propose a specific objective function in order to incorporate the advantage of fast optimization process of the GW optimizer. The role of GW optimizer is to find the optimal input controls that satisfy the speed tracking requirements. The synthesis methodology of the proposed control algorithm is detailed and the feasibility and performances of the proposed speed controller is confirmed by simulation and experimental results. The GW algorithm is a model-free controller and the parameters of its objective function are easy to be tuned. The GW controller is compared to PI one on real test bench. Then, the superiority of the first algorithm is highlighted. Copyright © 2018 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

High-Speed Data Recorder for Space, Geodesy, and Other High-Speed Recording Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Taveniku, Mikael

2013-01-01

A high-speed data recorder and replay equipment has been developed for reliable high-data-rate recording to disk media. It solves problems with slow or faulty disks, multiple disk insertions, high-altitude operation, reliable performance using COTS hardware, and long-term maintenance and upgrade path challenges. The current generation data recor - ders used within the VLBI community are aging, special-purpose machines that are both slow (do not meet today's requirements) and are very expensive to maintain and operate. Furthermore, they are not easily upgraded to take advantage of commercial technology development, and are not scalable to multiple 10s of Gbit/s data rates required by new applications. The innovation provides a softwaredefined, high-speed data recorder that is scalable with technology advances in the commercial space. It maximally utilizes current technologies without being locked to a particular hardware platform. The innovation also provides a cost-effective way of streaming large amounts of data from sensors to disk, enabling many applications to store raw sensor data and perform post and signal processing offline. This recording system will be applicable to many applications needing realworld, high-speed data collection, including electronic warfare, softwaredefined radar, signal history storage of multispectral sensors, development of autonomous vehicles, and more.

A high speed PE-ALD ZnO Schottky diode rectifier with low interface-state density

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Jidong; Zhang, Jiawei; Shaw, Andrew; Kudina, Valeriya N.; Mitrovic, Ivona Z.; Wrench, Jacqueline S.; Chalker, Paul R.; Balocco, Claudio; Song, Aimin; Hall, Steve

2018-02-01

Zinc oxide (ZnO) has recently attracted attention for its potential application to high speed electronics. In this work, a high speed Schottky diode rectifier was fabricated based on a ZnO thin film deposited by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition and a PtOx Schottky contact deposited by reactive radio-frequency sputtering. The rectifier shows an ideality factor of 1.31, an effective barrier height of 0.79 eV, a rectification ratio of 1.17  ×  107, and cut-off frequency as high as 550 MHz. Low frequency noise measurements reveal that the rectifier has a low interface-state density of 5.13  ×  1012 cm-2 eV-1, and the noise is dominated by the mechanism of a random walk of electrons at the PtO x /ZnO interface. The work shows that the rectifier can be used for both noise sensitive and high frequency electronics applications.

Low-back pain at the emergency department: still not being managed?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rizzardo A

2016-02-01

patient with LBP with clear criteria for an ED visit. It is to this end that we need a clinical pathway for the prehospital management of LBP syndrome and consequently for an in-hospital time-saving therapeutic approach to the patient.Keywords: low-back pain, health policies, emergency department, cost analysis

Throughput, latency and cost comparisons of microcontroller-based implementations of wireless sensor network (WSN) in high jump sports

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmad, Afandi; Roslan, Muhammad Faris; Amira, Abbes

2017-09-01

In high jump sports, approach take-off speed and force during the take-off are two (2) main important parts to gain maximum jump. To measure both parameters, wireless sensor network (WSN) that contains microcontroller and sensor are needed to describe the results of speed and force for jumpers. Most of the microcontroller exhibit transmission issues in terms of throughput, latency and cost. Thus, this study presents the comparison of wireless microcontrollers in terms of throughput, latency and cost, and the microcontroller that have best performances and cost will be implemented in high jump wearable device. In the experiments, three (3) parts have been integrated - input, process and output. Force (for ankle) and global positioning system (GPS) sensor (for body waist) acts as an input for data transmission. These data were then being processed by both microcontrollers, ESP8266 and Arduino Yun Mini to transmit the data from sensors to the server (host-PC) via message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) protocol. The server acts as receiver and the results was calculated from the MQTT log files. At the end, results obtained have shown ESP8266 microcontroller had been chosen since it achieved high throughput, low latency and 11 times cheaper in term of prices compared to Arduino Yun Mini microcontroller.

What low back pain is and why we need to pay attention

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hartvigsen, Jan; Hancock, Mark J; Kongsted, Alice

2018-01-01

Low back pain is a very common symptom. It occurs in high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries and all age groups from children to the elderly population. Globally, years lived with disability caused by low back pain increased by 54% between 1990 and 2015, mainly because of population ...

A low-cost, high-efficiency and high-flexibility surface modification technology for a black bisphenol A polycarbonate board

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Suhuan; Liu, Jianguo, E-mail: Liujg@mail.hust.edu.cn; Lv, Ming; Zeng, Xiaoyan

2014-09-30

Highlights: • A low-cost, high-efficiency, high-flexibility surface modification technology was achieved. • Different laser modification parameters resulted in different surface microstructures. • These special microstructures played a deciding role in the surface properties. • After the modification, the surface energy was found to have a significant increase. • The technology would be advantageous to fabricate high-quality micro devices and systems. - Abstract: In this paper, a low-cost, high-efficiency and high-flexibility surface modification technology for polymer materials was achieved at high laser scanning speeds (600–1000 mm s{sup −1}) and using an all-solid state, Q-switched, high-average power, and nanosecond pulse ultraviolet (355 nm wavelength) laser. During the surface modification of a very important engineering plastic, i.e., black bisphenol A polycarbonate (BAPC) board, it was found that different laser parameters (e.g., laser fluence and pulse frequency) were able to result in different surface microstructures (e.g., many tiny protuberances or a porous microstructure with periodical V-type grooves). After the modification, although the total relative content of the oxygen-containing groups (e.g., C-O and COO{sup −}) on the BAPC surface increased, however, the special microstructures played a deciding role in the surface properties (e.g., contact angle and surface energy) of the BAPC. The change trend of the water contact angle on the BAPC surface was with an obvious increase, that of the diiodomethane contact angle was with a most decrease, and that of the ethylene glycol contact angle was between the above two. It showed that the wetting properties of the three liquids on the modified BAPC surface were different. Basing on the measurements of the contact angles of the three liquids, and according to the Young equation and the Lifshitz van der Waals and Lewis acid–base theory, the BAPC surface energy after the modification was

A low-cost, high-efficiency and high-flexibility surface modification technology for a black bisphenol A polycarbonate board

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Suhuan; Liu, Jianguo; Lv, Ming; Zeng, Xiaoyan

2014-01-01

Highlights: • A low-cost, high-efficiency, high-flexibility surface modification technology was achieved. • Different laser modification parameters resulted in different surface microstructures. • These special microstructures played a deciding role in the surface properties. • After the modification, the surface energy was found to have a significant increase. • The technology would be advantageous to fabricate high-quality micro devices and systems. - Abstract: In this paper, a low-cost, high-efficiency and high-flexibility surface modification technology for polymer materials was achieved at high laser scanning speeds (600–1000 mm s −1 ) and using an all-solid state, Q-switched, high-average power, and nanosecond pulse ultraviolet (355 nm wavelength) laser. During the surface modification of a very important engineering plastic, i.e., black bisphenol A polycarbonate (BAPC) board, it was found that different laser parameters (e.g., laser fluence and pulse frequency) were able to result in different surface microstructures (e.g., many tiny protuberances or a porous microstructure with periodical V-type grooves). After the modification, although the total relative content of the oxygen-containing groups (e.g., C-O and COO − ) on the BAPC surface increased, however, the special microstructures played a deciding role in the surface properties (e.g., contact angle and surface energy) of the BAPC. The change trend of the water contact angle on the BAPC surface was with an obvious increase, that of the diiodomethane contact angle was with a most decrease, and that of the ethylene glycol contact angle was between the above two. It showed that the wetting properties of the three liquids on the modified BAPC surface were different. Basing on the measurements of the contact angles of the three liquids, and according to the Young equation and the Lifshitz van der Waals and Lewis acid–base theory, the BAPC surface energy after the modification was calculated

PREVALENCE OF LOW BACK PAIN AND BACK ERGONOMICS AWARENESS AMONG TEACHERS OF SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KANO METROPOLIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Farida Garba Sumaila

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Background: Low back pain (LBP is regarded as the commonest musculoskeletal problem in the world which affects people across various strata of the society from lay men on the street to teachers as well as health care providers in health institutions. Therefore the purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of low back pain and back education awareness among secondary school teachers in Kano Metropolis. Methodos: 200 questionnaires were distributed and only 157 were retrieved, one out of which 4 were invalid because of incomplete data so that only 153 were relevant and used for analysis giving a return rate of 76.5%. The study revealed that 96 out of 153 respondents have low back pain implying 62.7% prevalence. The level of back ergonomic awareness on the other hand was found to be moderate (43.1%. Results: Based on the outcomes of the study, it was concluded that there is a high prevalence of low back pain among secondary school teachers in Kano metropolis. However, the level of back ergonomic awareness is moderate. Conclusion: Therefore proper intervention to prevent exposure to LBP among school teachers should be enhanced and teachers should be well educated on the importance of ergonomic intervention in their working environments.

40 CFR 63.495 - Back-end process provisions-procedures to determine compliance using stripping technology.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 9 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Back-end process provisions-procedures to determine compliance using stripping technology. 63.495 Section 63.495 Protection of Environment...: Group I Polymers and Resins § 63.495 Back-end process provisions—procedures to determine compliance...

Scientific research on the back-end of the fuel cycle for the 21. century

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-01-01

The aim of the Atalante-2000 conference is to present the major research axis concerning the nuclear fuel cycle back-end. The different topics are: - Present options concerning fuel cycle back-end; - Reprocessing of spent fuel; - Advanced separation for transmutation; - Processing and packaging of radioactive wastes; - Design and fabrication of targets for transmutation; and - Conversion of military plutonium into MOX fuels

High-speed elevators controlled by inverters

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sakai, Yoshio; Takahashi, Hideaki; Nakamura, Kiyoshi; Kinoshita, Hiroshi

1988-10-25

The super-high-speed elevator with superiority to 300m/min of speed, requires both the large capacity power and wide range speed controls. Therefore, in order to materialize the smooth and quiet operation characteristics, by applying the inverter control, the low torque ripple control in the low frequency range and high frequency large capacity inverting for lowering the motor in noise are necessary with their being assured of reliability. To satisfy the above necessary items, together with the development of a sine wave pulse width and frequency modulation (PWM/PFM) control system, to more precisely enable the sine wave electric current control, and 3kHz switching power converter, using a 800A power transistor module, a supervoltage control circuit under the extraordinary condition was designed. As a result of commercializing a 360m/min super-high speed inverter elevator, the power source unit, due to the effect of high power factor, could be reduced by 30% in capacity and also the higher harmonic wave including ratio could be considerably lowered to the inferiority to 5%. 2 references, 7 figures, 1 table.

High-speed solar wind flow parameters at 1 AU

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feldman, W.C.; Asbridge, J.R.; Bame, S.J.; Gosling, J.T.

1976-01-01

To develop a set of constraints for theories of solar wind high-speed streams, a detailed study was made of the fastest streams observed at 1 AU during the time period spanning March 1971 through July 1974. Streams were accepted for study only if (1) the maximum speed exceeded 650 km s -1 ; (2) effects of stream-stream dynamical interaction on the flow parameters could be safely separated from the intrinsic characteristics of the high-speed regions; (3) the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the stream when mapped back to 20 solar radii by using a constant speed approximation was greater than 45degree in Carrington longitude; and (4) there were no obvious solar-activity-induced contaminating effects. Nineteen streams during this time interval satisfied these criteria. Average parameters at 1 AU for those portions of these streams above V=650 km s -1 are given.Not only is it not presently known why electrons are significantly cooler than the protons within high-speed regions, but also observed particle fluxes and convected energy fluxes for speed greater than 650 km s -1 are substantially larger than those values predicted by any of the existing theories of solar wind high-speed streams. More work is therefore needed in refining present solar wind models to see whether suitable modifications and/or combinations of existing theories based on reasonable coronal conditions can accommodate the above high-speed flow parameters

Producing optical (contact) lenses by a novel low cost process

Science.gov (United States)

Skipper, Richard S.; Spencer, Ian D.

2005-09-01

The rapid and impressive growth of China has been achieved on the back of highly labour intensive industries, often in manufacturing, and at the cost of companies and jobs in Europe and America. Approaches that worked well in the 1990's to reduce production costs in the developed countries are no longer effective when confronted with the low labour costs of China and India. We have looked at contact lenses as a product that has become highly available to consumers here but as an industry that has reduced costs by moving to low labour cost countries. The question to be answered was, "Do we have the skill to still make the product in the UK, and can we make it cheap enough to export to China?" if we do not, then contact lens manufacture will move to China sooner or later. The challenge to enter the markets of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries is extremely exciting as here is the new money, high growth and here is a product that sells to those with disposable incomes. To succeed we knew we had to be radical in our approach; the radical step was very simple: to devise a process in which each step added value to the customer and not cost to the product. The presentation examines the processes used by the major producers and how, by applying good manufacturing practice sound scientific principles to them, the opportunity to design a new low cost patented process was identified.

FTA Low-speed urban maglev research program lessons learned : March 2009.

Science.gov (United States)

2009-03-01

In 1999, the Federal Transit Administration initiated the Low-Speed Urban Magnetic Levitation (UML) Program to develop magnetic levitation technology that offers a cost effective, reliable, and environmentally sound transit option for urban mass tran...

Rehabilitation of Low Back Pain in Golfers

OpenAIRE

Finn, Christopher

2013-01-01

Context: Low back injuries are the most common injury in golf. Best practice guidelines for rehabilitation and prevention of these injuries are helpful for health care professionals and all golfers. Objective: To establish a best practice clinical model for low back pain in golfers from diagnosis through treatment and rehabilitation to return to golf. Evidence Acquisition: The PubMed database and Google Scholar were searched from 1993 to 2012 with the following keywords: golf and low back inj...

Investigation of the effect of cutting speed on the Surface Roughness parameters in CNC End Milling using Artificial Neural Network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Al Hazza, Muataz H F; Adesta, Erry Y T

2013-01-01

This research presents the effect of high cutting speed on the surface roughness in the end milling process by using the Artificial Neural Network (ANN). An experimental investigation was conducted to measure the surface roughness for end milling. A set of sparse experimental data for finish end milling on AISI H13 at hardness of 48 HRC have been conducted. The artificial neural network (ANN) was applied to simulate and study the effect of high cutting speed on the surface roughness

Participatory ergonomic intervention for prevention of low back pain: assembly line redesign case.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernardes, João Marcos; Wanderck, Claudia; Moro, Antônio Renato Pereira

2012-01-01

This paper gives an overview of a participatory ergonomic intervention aimed at reducing low back pain cases in the dispatch department of a catalogue and e-commerce retail company. Based on the findings of the ergonomic analysis and design committee, the company's own employees redesigned the assembly line's layout. As a result of these changes two job tasks that involved manual material handling of boxes, identified by the revised NIOSH equation as posing an increased risk for lifting-related low back pain, were totally eliminated, and the employees responsible for moving boxes from the end of the assembly line to pallets on the ground were given more control over their jobs, and these jobs were also enriched with a new, less heavy task. These results demonstrate that participatory ergonomic interventions are a viable and effective strategy to reduce the exposure to work-related physical and psychosocial risk factors for low back pain.

Computational Model for Impact-Resisting Critical Thickness of High-Speed Machine Outer Protective Plate

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Huaying; Wang, Li Zhong; Wang, Yantao; Yuan, Xiaolei

2018-05-01

The blade or surface grinding blade of the hypervelocity grinding wheel may be damaged due to too high rotation rate of the spindle of the machine and then fly out. Its speed as a projectile may severely endanger the field persons. Critical thickness model of the protective plate of the high-speed machine is studied in this paper. For easy analysis, the shapes of the possible impact objects flying from the high-speed machine are simplified as sharp-nose model, ball-nose model and flat-nose model. Whose front ending shape to represent point, line and surface contacting. Impact analysis based on J-C model is performed for the low-carbon steel plate with different thicknesses in this paper. One critical thickness computational model for the protective plate of high-speed machine is established according to the damage characteristics of the thin plate to get relation among plate thickness and mass, shape and size and impact speed of impact object. The air cannon is used for impact test. The model accuracy is validated. This model can guide identification of the thickness of single-layer outer protective plate of a high-speed machine.

Low Speed Control for Automatic Welding

Science.gov (United States)

Iceland, W. E.

1982-01-01

Amplifier module allows rotating positioner of automatic welding machine to operate at speeds below normal range. Low speeds are precisely regulated by a servomechanism as are normal-range speeds. Addition of module to standard welding machine makes it unnecessary to purchase new equipment for low-speed welding.

MTR spent fuel back-end - Cogema's long-term commitment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thomasson, J.

1998-01-01

MTR spent fuel back end has been subject to many reversal and uncertainties in the past 10 years. Until the end of 1988, US obligated materials were subject to the Off site Fuels Policy (OFP). Under this policy, spent fuels were returned to USA, and were reprocessed there. This OFP took end the 31th of December 1988, and Research Reactor's operators had to implement others solutions: On site storage or Reprocessing in Europe. Meanwhile the RERTR Program was leading to a new LEU fuel to replace HEU aluminide. This new silicide fuel has one main drawback: it cannot be reprocessed in working plants without some process main line modifications. Fortunately, a new Research Reactors spent fuels return policy has been set up by the US in the early 1996. This new policy applies to all reactors converted or that have agreed to convert to LEU, and reactors operating with HEU for which no suitable LEU is available. It covers all the spent fuels discharged until 2006/05/12. But after that period of time, each reactor will be fully responsible for its spent fuels. Since the end of 1996, COGEMA is proposing reprocessing services for Aluminides spent fuels, based on the La Hague capability. This COGEMA answer is for the long term, as the La Hague plant has a good load for the coming years, including the first decade of the next century. Further, this activity benefits from a strong R and D support, that allowed fulfilling the evolutive needs of our customers, and gives us the ability to adapt the plant to the future market. Taking advantage of this flexibility, COGEMA offers Research Reactors' operators a long-term commitment. Already two reactors' operators have chosen to contract with COGEMA for the whole life of their reactors. The contracts execution is under progress and the first transportation will take place soon. Beside today's services, COGEMA is involved in R and D activities to support new fuels development enhancing present LEU performances and having the ability to

Comparison of low back mobility and stability exercises from Pilates in non-specific low back pain: A study protocol of a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Miranda, Iã Ferreira; Souza, Catiane; Schneider, Alexandre Tavares; Chagas, Leandro Campos; Loss, Jefferson Fagundes

2018-05-01

There is some evidence in the literature about the effectiveness of the Pilates methods in the low back pain. Moreover, Pilates focus on exercises that empathizes the stability and/or mobility of the spine. Therefore, it is discussed in the literature whether higher levels of stability or mobility of the lumbar spine generates better results, both in performance and rehabilitation for low back pain. Compare the effects of the low back mobility and stability exercises from Pilates Method on low back pain, disability and movement functionality in individuals with non-specific chronic low back pain. 28 participants will be randomized into two exercise protocol from Pilates methods, one focusing on low back stability and other on low back mobility. Low back pain (visual analogic scale), low back disability (Oswestry) and movement functionality (7 functional movement tasks) will be evaluated before and after 10 sessions of Pilates exercise by the same trained assessor. A mixed designed ANOVA with two factors will be used. This study is the first to compare these outcomes for chronic low back pain participants with two exercises protocol focusing on low back mobility and stability and the results will evaluate what to prioritize with Pilates exercises to give better results for that population. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

High Intensity Laser Therapy (HILT) versus TENS and NSAIDs in low back pain: clinical study

Science.gov (United States)

Zati, Allesandro; Fortuna, Damiano; Valent, A.; Filippi, M. V.; Bilotta, Teresa W.

2004-09-01

Low back pain, caused by lumbar disc herniation, is prevalently treated with a conservative approach. In this study we valued the efficacy of High Intensity Laser Therapy (HILT), compared with accepted therapies such as TENS and NSAIDs. Laser therapy obtained similar results in the short term, but better clinical effect over time than TENS and NSAIDs. In conclusion high intensity laser therapy appears to be a interesting new treatment, worthy of further research.

High-Speed RaPToRS

Science.gov (United States)

Henchen, Robert; Esham, Benjamin; Becker, William; Pogozelski, Edward; Padalino, Stephen; Sangster, Thomas; Glebov, Vladimir

2008-11-01

The High-Speed Rapid Pneumatic Transport of Radioactive Samples (HS-RaPToRS) system, designed to quickly and safely move radioactive materials, was assembled and tested at the Mercury facility of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington D.C. A sample, which is placed inside a four-inch-diameter carrier, is activated before being transported through a PVC tube via airflow. The carrier travels from the reaction chamber to the end station where it pneumatically brakes prior to the gate. A magnetic latch releases the gate when the carrier arrives and comes to rest. The airflow, optical carrier-monitoring devices, and end gate are controlled manually or automatically with LabView software. The installation and testing of the RaPToRS system at NRL was successfully completed with transport times of less than 3 seconds. The speed of the carrier averaged 16 m/s. Prospective facilities for similar systems include the Laboratory for Laser Energetics and the National Ignition Facility.

Silicon nitride back-end optics for biosensor applications

Science.gov (United States)

Romero-García, Sebastian; Merget, Florian; Zhong, Frank C.; Finkelstein, Hod; Witzens, Jeremy

2013-05-01

Silicon nitride (SiN) is a promising candidate material for becoming a standard high-performance solution for integrated biophotonics applications in the visible spectrum. As a key feature, its compatibility with the complementary-oxidemetal- semiconductor (CMOS) technology permits cost reduction at large manufacturing volumes that is particularly advantageous for manufacturing consumables. In this work, we show that the back-end deposition of a thin SiN film enables the large light-cladding interaction desirable for biosensing applications while the refractive index contrast of the technology (Δn ≍ 0.5) also enables a considerable level of integration with reduced waveguide bend radii. Design and experimental validation also show that several advantages are derived from the moderate SiN/SiO2 refractive index contrast, such as lower scattering losses in interconnection waveguides and relaxed tolerances to fabrication imperfections as compared to higher refractive index contrast material systems. As a drawback, a moderate refractive index contrast also makes the implementation of compact grating couplers more challenging, due to the fact that only a relatively weak scattering strength can be achieved. Thereby, the beam diffracted by the grating tends to be rather large and consequently exhibit stringent angular alignment tolerances. Here, we experimentally demonstrate how a proper design of the bottom and top cladding oxide thicknesses allows reduction of the full-width at half maximum (FWHM) and alleviates this problem. Additionally, the inclusion of a CMOS-compatible AlCu/TiN bottom reflector further decreases the FWHM and increases the coupling efficiency. Finally, we show that focusing grating designs greatly reduce the device footprint without penalizing the device metrics.

Exercise therapy for chronic nonspecific low-back pain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Middelkoop, Marienke; Rubinstein, Sidney M; Verhagen, Arianne P; Ostelo, Raymond W; Koes, Bart W; van Tulder, Maurits W

Exercise therapy is the most widely used type of conservative treatment for low back pain. Systematic reviews have shown that exercise therapy is effective for chronic but not for acute low back pain. During the past 5 years, many additional trials have been published on chronic low back pain. This

A study of National Health Service management of chronic osteoarthritis and low back pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, Oliver R; Uden, Ruth M; McMullan, James E; Ritchie, Mark S; Williams, Timothy D; Smith, Blair H

2015-04-01

To describe treatment and referral patterns and National Health Service resource use in patients with chronic pain associated with low back pain or osteoarthritis, from a Primary Care perspective. Osteoarthritis and low back pain are the two commonest debilitating causes of chronic pain, with high health and social costs, and particularly important in primary care. Understanding current practice and resource use in their management will inform health service and educational requirements and the design and optimisation of future care. Multi-centre, retrospective, descriptive study of adults (⩾18 years) with chronic pain arising from low back pain or osteoarthritis, identified through primary care records. Five general practices in Scotland, England (two), Northern Ireland and Wales. All patients with a diagnosis of low back pain or osteoarthritis made on or before 01/09/2006 who had received three or more prescriptions for pain medication were identified and a sub-sample randomly selected then consented to an in-depth review of their medical records (n=264). Data on management of chronic pain were collected retrospectively from patients' records for three years from diagnosis ('newly diagnosed' patients) or for the most recent three years ('established' patients). Patients received a wide variety of pain medications with no overall common prescribing pattern. GP visits represented the majority of the resource use and 'newly diagnosed' patients were significantly more likely to visit their GP for pain management than 'established' patients. Although 'newly diagnosed' patients had more referrals outside the GP practice, the number of visits to secondary care for pain management was similar for both groups. This retrospective study confirmed the complexity of managing these causes of chronic pain and the associated high resource use. It provides an in-depth picture of prescribing and referral patterns and of resource use.

PERFORMANCE OF DIFFERENT CMOS LOGIC STYLES FOR LOW POWER AND HIGH SPEED

OpenAIRE

Sreenivasa Rao.Ijjada; Ayyanna.G; G.Sekhar Reddy; Dr.V.Malleswara Rao

2011-01-01

Designing high-speed low-power circuits with CMOS technology has been a major research problem for many years. Several logic families have been proposed and used to improve circuit performance beyond that of conventional static CMOS family. Fast circuit families are becoming attractive in deep sub micron technologies since the performance benefits obtained from process scaling are decreasing as feature size decreases. This paper presents CMOS differential circuit families such as Dual rail do...

Whole-Body Vibrations Associated With Alpine Skiing: A Risk Factor for Low Back Pain?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matej Supej

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Alpine skiing, both recreational and competitive, is associated with high rates of injury. Numerous studies have shown that occupational exposure to whole-body vibrations is strongly related to lower back pain and some suggest that, in particular, vibrations of lower frequencies could lead to overuse injuries of the back in connection with alpine ski racing. However, it is not yet known which forms of skiing involve stronger vibrations and whether these exceed safety thresholds set by existing standards and directives. Therefore, this study was designed to examine whole-body vibrations connected with different types of skiing and the associated potential risk of developing low back pain. Eight highly skilled ski instructors, all former competitive ski racers and equipped with five accelerometers and a Global Satellite Navigation System to measure vibrations and speed, respectively, performed six different forms of skiing: straight running, plowing, snow-plow swinging, basic swinging, short swinging, and carved turns. To estimate exposure to periodic, random and transient vibrations the power spectrum density (PSD and standard ISO 2631-1:1997 parameters [i.e., the weighted root-mean-square acceleration (RMS, crest factor, maximum transient vibration value and the fourth-power vibration dose value (VDV] were calculated. Ground reaction forces were estimated from data provided by accelerometers attached to the pelvis. The major novel findings were that all of the forms of skiing tested produced whole-body vibrations, with highest PSD values of 1.5–8 Hz. Intensified PSD between 8.5 and 35 Hz was observed only when skidding was involved. The RMS values for 10 min of short swinging or carved turns, as well as all 10-min equivalent VDV values exceeded the limits set by European Directive 2002/44/EC for health and safety. Thus, whole-body vibrations, particularly in connection with high ground reaction forces, contribute to a high risk for low back

The complex spine: the multidimensional system of causal pathways for low-back disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Marras, William S

2012-12-01

The aim of this study was to examine the logic behind the knowledge of low-back problem causal pathways. Low-back pain and low-back disorders (LBDs) continue to represent the major musculoskeletal risk problem in the workplace,with the prevalence and costs of such disorders increasing over time. In recent years, there has been much criticism of the ability of ergonomics methods to control the risk of LBDs. Logical assessment of the systems logic associated with our understanding and prevention of LBDs. Current spine loading as well as spine tolerance research efforts are bringing the field to the point where there is a better systems understanding of the inextricable link between the musculoskeletal system and the cognitive system. Loading is influenced by both the physical environment factors as well as mental demands, whereas tolerances are defined by both physical tissue tolerance and biochemically based tissue sensitivities to pain. However, the logic used in many low-back risk assessment tools may be overly simplistic, given what is understood about causal pathways. Current tools typically assess only load or position in a very cursory manner. Efforts must work toward satisfying both the physical environment and the cognitive environment for the worker if one is to reliably lower the risk of low-back problems. This systems representation of LBD development may serve as a guide to identify gaps in our understanding of LBDs.

Return to work in a cohort of low back pain patients: development and validation of a clinical prediction rule

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heymans, M.W.; Anema, J.R.; van Buuren, S.; Knol, D.L.; van Mechelen, W.; de Vet, H.C.W.

2009-01-01

BACKGROUND: From the viewpoint of cost prevention, it is necessary to identify patients that are of high risk for long-term work disability, production loss and sick-leave. METHODS: Secondary data analysis in a cohort of 628 workers on sick-leave between 3 and 6 weeks due to low back pain (LBP). The

Return to work in a cohort of low back pain patients: Development and validation of a clinical prediction rule

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heymans, M.W.; Anema, J.R.; Buuren, S. van; Knol, D.L.; Mechelen, W. van; Vet, H.C.W. de

2009-01-01

Background From the viewpoint of cost prevention, it is necessary to identify patients that are of high risk for long-term work disability, production loss and sick-leave. Methods Secondary data analysis in a cohort of 628 workers on sick-leave between 3 and 6 weeks due to low back pain (LBP). The

A low-cost, high-resolution, video-rate imaging optical radar

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sackos, J.T.; Nellums, R.O.; Lebien, S.M.; Diegert, C.F. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Grantham, J.W.; Monson, T. [Air Force Research Lab., Eglin AFB, FL (United States)

1998-04-01

Sandia National Laboratories has developed a unique type of portable low-cost range imaging optical radar (laser radar or LADAR). This innovative sensor is comprised of an active floodlight scene illuminator and an image intensified CCD camera receiver. It is a solid-state device (no moving parts) that offers significant size, performance, reliability, and simplicity advantages over other types of 3-D imaging sensors. This unique flash LADAR is based on low cost, commercially available hardware, and is well suited for many government and commercial uses. This paper presents an update of Sandia`s development of the Scannerless Range Imager technology and applications, and discusses the progress that has been made in evolving the sensor into a compact, low, cost, high-resolution, video rate Laser Dynamic Range Imager.

Flexible multimode polymer waveguides for high-speed short-reach communication links

Science.gov (United States)

Bamiedakis, N.; Shi, F.; Chu, D.; Penty, R. V.; White, I. H.

2018-02-01

Multimode polymer waveguides have attracted great interest for use in high-speed short-reach communication links as they can be cost-effectively integrated onto standard PCBs using conventional methods of the electronics industry and provide low loss (30 GHz×m) interconnection. The formation of such waveguides on flexible substrates can further provide flexible low-weight low-thickness interconnects and offer additional freedom in the implementation of high-speed short-reach optical links. These attributes make these flexible waveguides particularly attractive for use in low-cost detachable chip-to-chip links and in environments where weight and shape conformity become important, such as in cars and aircraft. However, the highly-multimoded nature of these waveguides raises important questions about their performance under severe flex due to mode loss and mode coupling. In this work therefore, we investigate the loss, crosstalk and bandwidth performance of such waveguides under out-of plane bending and in-plane twisting under different launch conditions and carry out data transmission tests at 40 Gb/s on a 1 m long spiral flexible waveguide under flexure. Excellent optical transmission characteristics are obtained while robust loss, crosstalk and bandwidth performance are demonstrated under flexure. Error-free (BER<10-12) 40 Gb/s data transmission is achieved over the 1 m long spiral waveguide for a 180° bend with a 4 mm radius. The obtained results demonstrate the excellent optical and mechanical properties of this technology and highlight its potential for use in real-world systems.

Front-end and back-end electrochemistry of molten salt in accelerator-driven transmutation systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Williamson, M.A.; Venneri, F.

1995-01-01

The objective of this work is to develop preparation and clean-up processes for the fuel and carrier salt in the Los Alamos Accelerator-Driven Transmutation Technology molten salt nuclear system. The front-end or fuel preparation process focuses on the removal of fission products, uranium, and zirconium from spent nuclear fuel by utilizing electrochemical methods (i.e., electrowinning). The same method provides the separation of the so-called noble metal fission products at the back-end of the fuel cycle. Both implementations would have important diversion safeguards. The proposed separation processes and a thermodynamic analysis of the electrochemical separation method are presented

Highball: A high speed, reserved-access, wide area network

Science.gov (United States)

Mills, David L.; Boncelet, Charles G.; Elias, John G.; Schragger, Paul A.; Jackson, Alden W.

1990-01-01

A network architecture called Highball and a preliminary design for a prototype, wide-area data network designed to operate at speeds of 1 Gbps and beyond are described. It is intended for applications requiring high speed burst transmissions where some latency between requesting a transmission and granting the request can be anticipated and tolerated. Examples include real-time video and disk-disk transfers, national filestore access, remote sensing, and similar applications. The network nodes include an intelligent crossbar switch, but have no buffering capabilities; thus, data must be queued at the end nodes. There are no restrictions on the network topology, link speeds, or end-end protocols. The end system, nodes, and links can operate at any speed up to the limits imposed by the physical facilities. An overview of an initial design approach is presented and is intended as a benchmark upon which a detailed design can be developed. It describes the network architecture and proposed access protocols, as well as functional descriptions of the hardware and software components that could be used in a prototype implementation. It concludes with a discussion of additional issues to be resolved in continuing stages of this project.

A low-cost high-performance embedded platform for accelerator controls

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cleva, Stefano; Bogani, Alessio Igor; Pivetta, Lorenzo

2012-01-01

Over the last years the mobile and hand-held device market has seen a dramatic performance improvement of the microprocessors employed for these systems. As an interesting side effect, this brings the opportunity of adopting these microprocessors to build small low-cost embedded boards, featuring lots of processing power and input/output capabilities. Moreover, being capable of running a full featured operating system such as Gnu/Linux, and even a control system toolkit such as Tango, these boards can also be used in control systems as front-end or embedded computers. In order to evaluate the feasibility of this idea, an activity has started at Elettra to select, evaluate and validate a commercial embedded device able to guarantee production grade reliability, competitive costs and an open source platform. The preliminary results of this work are presented. (author)

High Efficiency, Low Cost Scintillators for PET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kanai Shah

2007-01-01

Inorganic scintillation detectors coupled to PMTs are an important element of medical imaging applications such as positron emission tomography (PET). Performance as well as cost of these systems is limited by the properties of the scintillation detectors available at present. The Phase I project was aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of producing high performance scintillators using a low cost fabrication approach. Samples of these scintillators were produced and their performance was evaluated. Overall, the Phase I effort was very successful. The Phase II project will be aimed at advancing the new scintillation technology for PET. Large samples of the new scintillators will be produced and their performance will be evaluated. PET modules based on the new scintillators will also be built and characterized

Design concepts and advanced telerobotics development for facilities in the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feldman, M.J.

1987-01-01

In the Fuel Recycle Division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a comprehensive remote systems development program has existed for the past seven years. The new remote technology under development is expected to significantly improve remote operations by extending the range of tasks accomplished by remote means and increasing the efficiency of remote work undertaken. Five areas of the development effort are primary contributors to the goal of higher operating efficiency for major facilities for the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. These areas are the single-cell concept, the low-flow ventilation concept, television viewing, equipment-mounting racks, and force-reflecting manipulation. These somewhat innovative directions are products of a design process where the technical scenario to be accomplished, the remote equipment to accomplish the scenario, and the facility design to house the equipment, are considered in an iterative design process to optimize performance, maximize long-term costs effectiveness, and minimize initial capital outlay. 14 refs., 3 figs

Design concepts and advanced telerobotics development for facilities in the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feldman, M.J.

1987-01-01

In the Fuel Recycle Division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), a comprehensive remote systems development program has existed for the past seven years. The new remote technology under development is expected to significantly improve remote operations by extending the range of tasks accomplished by remote means and increasing the efficiency of remote work undertaken. Five areas of the development effort are primary contributors to the goal of higher operating efficiency for major facilities for the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. These areas are (1) the single-cell concept, (2) the low-flow ventilation concept, (3) television viewing, (4) equipment-mounting racks, and (5) force-reflecting manipulation. These somewhat innovative directions are products of a design process where the technical scenario to be accomplished, the remote equipment to accomplish the scenario, and the facility design to house the equipment, are considered in an iterative design process to optimize performance, maximize long-term costs effectiveness, and minimize initial capital outlay. (author)

High speed printing with polygon scan heads

Science.gov (United States)

Stutz, Glenn

2016-03-01

To reduce and in many cases eliminate the costs associated with high volume printing of consumer and industrial products, this paper investigates and validates the use of the new generation of high speed pulse on demand (POD) lasers in concert with high speed (HS) polygon scan heads (PSH). Associated costs include consumables such as printing ink and nozzles, provisioning labor, maintenance and repair expense as well as reduction of printing lines due to high through put. Targets that are applicable and investigated include direct printing on plastics, printing on paper/cardboard as well as printing on labels. Market segments would include consumer products (CPG), medical and pharmaceutical products, universal ID (UID), and industrial products. In regards to the POD lasers employed, the wavelengths include UV(355nm), Green (532nm) and IR (1064nm) operating within the repetition range of 180 to 250 KHz.

Making Sense of Low Back Pain and Pain-Related Fear.

Science.gov (United States)

Bunzli, Samantha; Smith, Anne; Schütze, Robert; Lin, Ivan; O'Sullivan, Peter

2017-09-01

Synopsis Pain-related fear is implicated in the transition from acute to chronic low back pain and the persistence of disabling low back pain, making it a key target for physical therapy intervention. The current understanding of pain-related fear is that it is a psychopathological problem, whereby people who catastrophize about the meaning of pain become trapped in a vicious cycle of avoidance behavior, pain, and disability, as recognized in the fear-avoidance model. However, there is evidence that pain-related fear can also be seen as a common-sense response to deal with low back pain, for example, when one is told that one's back is vulnerable, degenerating, or damaged. In this instance, avoidance is a common-sense response to protect a "damaged" back. While the fear-avoidance model proposes that when someone first develops low back pain, the confrontation of normal activity in the absence of catastrophizing leads to recovery, the pathway to recovery for individuals trapped in the fear-avoidance cycle is less clear. Understanding pain-related fear from a common-sense perspective enables physical therapists to offer individuals with low back pain and high fear a pathway to recovery by altering how they make sense of their pain. Drawing on a body of published work exploring the lived experience of pain-related fear in people with low back pain, this clinical commentary illustrates how Leventhal's common-sense model may assist physical therapists to understand the broader sense-making processes involved in the fear-avoidance cycle, and how they can be altered to facilitate fear reduction by applying strategies established in the behavioral medicine literature. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2017;47(9):628-636. Epub 13 Jul 2017. doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.7434.

Low back pain in military recruits in relation to social background and previous low back pain. A cross-sectional and prospective observational survey

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hestbæk, Lise; Larsen, K.; Weidich, F.

2005-01-01

back pain in the development of low back pain in military recruits. METHODS: During a three-month period, Danish military recruits with different social backgrounds live and work under the same conditions. Thus, there is an opportunity to investigate the influence of social background......BACKGROUND: Traditionally, studies on the etiology of low back pain have been carried out in adult populations. However, since low back pain often appears early in life, more research on young populations is needed. This study focuses on the importance of social background factors and previous low...... on the development of low back pain, when persons are removed from their usual environment and submitted to a number of new stressors. In addition, the importance of the recruits' previous low back pain history in relation to low back pain during military service was studied. This was done by means of questionnaires...

Cost characteristics of tilt-rotor, conventional air and high speed rail short-haul intercity passenger service

Science.gov (United States)

Schoendorfer, David L.; Morlok, Edward K.

1985-01-01

The cost analysis done to support an assessment of the potential for a small tilt-rotor aircraft to operate in short-haul intercity passenger service is described in detail. Anticipated costs of tilt-rotor air service were compared to the costs of two alternatives: conventional air and high speed rail (HSR). Costs were developed for corridor service, varying key market characteristics including distance, passenger volumes, and minimum frequency standards. The resulting cost vs output information can then be used to compare modal costs for essentially identical service quality and passenger volume or for different service levels and volumes for each mode, as appropriate. Extensive sensitivity analyses are performed. The cost-output features of these technologies are compared. Tilt-rotor is very attractive compared to HSR in terms of costs over the entire range of volume. It also has costs not dramatically different from conventional air, but tilt-rotor costs are generally higher. Thus some of its other advantages, such as the VTOL capability, must offset the cost disadvantage for it to be a preferred or competitive mode in any given market. These issues are addressed in the companion report which considers strategies for tilt-rotor development in commercial air service.

The Intention in Speeding Behavior between Low and High Intended Young Driver in Urban University

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamad Ghazali Masuri,

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The number of road traffic accidents among young adult aged under 25 years old is an alarming issue in Malaysia. A five pages self-reported questionnaire was distributed to 384 young drivers' to investigate their intention in speeding while driving. Results have shown, the intention to speed among low and high intended based line group revealed a significant difference when it was compared with four types of scenario. Correct stimulation while driving could help drivers to change their intention to speed. This stimulation may be able to reduce the drivers' potential to involve with an accident and will save peoples' life.

Do illness perceptions of people with chronic low back pain differ from people without chronic low back pain?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Wilgen, C. Paul; van Ittersum, Miriam W.; Kaptein, Ad A.

Objectives To determine why some people develop chronic low back pain, and whether illness perceptions are an important risk factor in the transition from acute to chronic low back pain. Design Cross-sectional study. Participants Four hundred and two members of the general Dutch population, with and

Trajectories of acute low back pain: a latent class growth analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Downie, Aron S; Hancock, Mark J; Rzewuska, Magdalena; Williams, Christopher M; Lin, Chung-Wei Christine; Maher, Christopher G

2016-01-01

Characterising the clinical course of back pain by mean pain scores over time may not adequately reflect the complexity of the clinical course of acute low back pain. We analysed pain scores over 12 weeks for 1585 patients with acute low back pain presenting to primary care to identify distinct pain trajectory groups and baseline patient characteristics associated with membership of each cluster. This was a secondary analysis of the PACE trial that evaluated paracetamol for acute low back pain. Latent class growth analysis determined a 5 cluster model, which comprised 567 (35.8%) patients who recovered by week 2 (cluster 1, rapid pain recovery); 543 (34.3%) patients who recovered by week 12 (cluster 2, pain recovery by week 12); 222 (14.0%) patients whose pain reduced but did not recover (cluster 3, incomplete pain recovery); 167 (10.5%) patients whose pain initially decreased but then increased by week 12 (cluster 4, fluctuating pain); and 86 (5.4%) patients who experienced high-level pain for the whole 12 weeks (cluster 5, persistent high pain). Patients with longer pain duration were more likely to experience delayed recovery or nonrecovery. Belief in greater risk of persistence was associated with nonrecovery, but not delayed recovery. Higher pain intensity, longer duration, and workers' compensation were associated with persistent high pain, whereas older age and increased number of episodes were associated with fluctuating pain. Identification of discrete pain trajectory groups offers the potential to better manage acute low back pain.

Analysis of factors affecting the implementation of back-end nuclear fuel cycle policy in Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Yung Myung; Yang, Maeng Ho; Kim, Hyun Joon; Chung, Hwan Sam; Oh, Keun Bae; Lee, Byung OoK; Ko, Han Suk; Song, Ki Dong; Lee, Man Ki; Moon, Ki Hwan; Lee, Han Myung

1994-01-01

In this study, the back-end nuclear fuel cycle acceptability is surveyed and analyzed in the following three aspects. To begin with, the future political situation and energy-environmental issues are analyzed as part of the socio-economic aspect. Secondly, the domestic situation of nuclear industries and the fuel cycle policy of foreign countries are surveyed as the technical aspect. Finally, NPT, IAEA safeguards and nuclear export control regimes are analyzed as the institutional aspect. The unification period of South and North Korea also will greatly affect the implementation of back-end fuel cycle policy, and public attitudes will affect the acquisition of site, construction, and operation of nuclear facilities. An effort to release international restrictions on the back-end fuel cycle is also required to accelerate the implementation of the policy. In this regard, the back-end fuel cycle policy should be clear-cut to avoid misunderstanding with respect to nuclear proliferation. Importantly, agreements with foreign countries should be amended at a mutual equivalent level. (Author) 30 refs., 5 figs., 25 tabs

Analysis of factors affecting the implementation of back-end nuclear fuel cycle policy in Korea

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choi, Yung Myung; Yang, Maeng Ho; Kim, Hyun Joon; Chung, Hwan Sam; Oh, Keun Bae; Lee, Byung OoK; Ko, Han Suk; Song, Ki Dong; Lee, Man Ki; Moon, Ki Hwan; Lee, Han Myung [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

1994-01-01

In this study, the back-end nuclear fuel cycle acceptability is surveyed and analyzed in the following three aspects. To begin with, the future political situation and energy-environmental issues are analyzed as part of the socio-economic aspect. Secondly, the domestic situation of nuclear industries and the fuel cycle policy of foreign countries are surveyed as the technical aspect. Finally, NPT, IAEA safeguards and nuclear export control regimes are analyzed as the institutional aspect. The unification period of South and North Korea also will greatly affect the implementation of back-end fuel cycle policy, and public attitudes will affect the acquisition of site, construction, and operation of nuclear facilities. An effort to release international restrictions on the back-end fuel cycle is also required to accelerate the implementation of the policy. In this regard, the back-end fuel cycle policy should be clear-cut to avoid misunderstanding with respect to nuclear proliferation. Importantly, agreements with foreign countries should be amended at a mutual equivalent level. (Author) 30 refs., 5 figs., 25 tabs.

High-speed and high-fidelity system and method for collecting network traffic

Science.gov (United States)

Weigle, Eric H [Los Alamos, NM

2010-08-24

A system is provided for the high-speed and high-fidelity collection of network traffic. The system can collect traffic at gigabit-per-second (Gbps) speeds, scale to terabit-per-second (Tbps) speeds, and support additional functions such as real-time network intrusion detection. The present system uses a dedicated operating system for traffic collection to maximize efficiency, scalability, and performance. A scalable infrastructure and apparatus for the present system is provided by splitting the work performed on one host onto multiple hosts. The present system simultaneously addresses the issues of scalability, performance, cost, and adaptability with respect to network monitoring, collection, and other network tasks. In addition to high-speed and high-fidelity network collection, the present system provides a flexible infrastructure to perform virtually any function at high speeds such as real-time network intrusion detection and wide-area network emulation for research purposes.

PREVALENCE OF WORK RELATED LOW BACK PAIN IN PHYSICAL THERAPIST PROFESSIONAL FROM THE CITY OF TAIF, KSA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emad T. Ahmed

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Background: Physical therapy often is used in the management of work-related low back pain (LBP. Little information, however, is known about work related low back pain that may occur in physical therapy experts themselves. Work related low back agony speaks to one of the real wellbeing issues that happen in well-beings experts. The point of this study is to examine the pervasiveness of work related low back pain in physical therapy experts, and its connection to the way of work. Methods: One hundred and seven physical therapy experts working at general hospitals at Taif, KSA took part in this study, their age ranged from 25 to 60 years, and they were complaining from low back pain for more than 3 months and their current pain for at least three or more weeks. Every subject was requested to finish the Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Index Questionnaires that comprised of 15 close-ended inquiries. Results: We analyzed Data by utilizing descriptive statistics to gauge the predominance of low back pain in physical therapy experts and to explore connection between back pain and hospital facility work. Out of two hundred thirty physical therapist advisor, one hundred and ten (47.8% physical specialists finished/gave back the surveys. three polls were rejected from investigation since members had missed a few things in filling the survey. In this manner, just information from 107 members was utilized to figure the predominance rates. It was found that the commonness of work related low back pain in physical therapy expert is equivalent 72%. It was found that a connection between the works related low back pain and age, proficient rank, and specialty. Conclusion: There is a higher occurrence of work related back pain among physiotherapist expert and this may be impacted by age, proficient rank and specialty.

Impact of an Advanced Imaging Utilization Review Program on Downstream Health Care Utilization and Costs for Low Back Pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Graves, Janessa M; Fulton-Kehoe, Deborah; Jarvik, Jeffrey G; Franklin, Gary M

2018-06-01

Early magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for acute low back pain (LBP) has been associated with increased costs, greater health care utilization, and longer disability duration in workers' compensation claimants. To assess the impact of a state policy implemented in June 2010 that required prospective utilization review (UR) for early MRI among workers' compensation claimants with LBP. Interrupted time series. In total, 76,119 Washington State workers' compensation claimants with LBP between 2006 and 2014. Proportion of workers receiving imaging per month (MRI, computed tomography, radiographs) and lumbosacral injections and surgery; mean total health care costs per worker; mean duration of disability per worker. Measures were aggregated monthly and attributed to injury month. After accounting for secular trends, decreases in early MRI [level change: -5.27 (95% confidence interval, -4.22 to -6.31); trend change: -0.06 (-0.01 to -0.12)], any MRI [-4.34 (-3.01 to -5.67); -0.10 (-0.04 to -0.17)], and injection [trend change: -0.12 (-0.06 to -0.18)] utilization were associated with the policy. Radiograph utilization increased in parallel [level change: 2.46 (1.24-3.67)]. In addition, the policy resulted in significant decreasing changes in mean costs per claim, mean disability duration, and proportion of workers who received disability benefits. The policy had no effect on computed tomography or surgery utilization. The UR policy had discernable effects on health care utilization, costs, and disability. Integrating evidence-based guidelines with UR can improve quality of care and patient outcomes, while reducing use of low-value health services.

Low back injuries related to nursing professionals working conditions: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Schlossmacher, Roberta; Amaral, Fernando Gonçalves

2012-01-01

Identify the prevalence of low back disorders and associated risks, as well as the characteristics and ergonomic factors present in the work of nursing professionals. Systematic review based on the search of terms such as low back pain, professionals, hospital ergonomics, work organization, nursing found in national and international databases. The prevalence of low back pain symptoms was between 14.7% and 72% and the main cause, that is, the transference of the patient from bed to chair, leaded to the profession abandonment as a main consequence. it was possible to conclude that the prevalence of low back injury is high among nursing professionals and its causes are related to occupational factors - physical or psychological, which are in many cases permanent and disabling.

Low Cost Lithography Tool for High Brightness LED Manufacturing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andrew Hawryluk; Emily True

2012-06-30

The objective of this activity was to address the need for improved manufacturing tools for LEDs. Improvements include lower cost (both capital equipment cost reductions and cost-ofownership reductions), better automation and better yields. To meet the DOE objective of $1- 2/kilolumen, it will be necessary to develop these highly automated manufacturing tools. Lithography is used extensively in the fabrication of high-brightness LEDs, but the tools used to date are not scalable to high-volume manufacturing. This activity addressed the LED lithography process. During R&D and low volume manufacturing, most LED companies use contact-printers. However, several industries have shown that these printers are incompatible with high volume manufacturing and the LED industry needs to evolve to projection steppers. The need for projection lithography tools for LED manufacturing is identified in the Solid State Lighting Manufacturing Roadmap Draft, June 2009. The Roadmap states that Projection tools are needed by 2011. This work will modify a stepper, originally designed for semiconductor manufacturing, for use in LED manufacturing. This work addresses improvements to yield, material handling, automation and throughput for LED manufacturing while reducing the capital equipment cost.

Clean utilization of low-rank coals for low-cost power generation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sondreal, E.A.

1992-01-01

Despite the unique utilization problems of low-rank coals, the ten US steam electric plants having the lowest operating cost in 1990 were all fueled on either lignite or subbituminous coal. Ash deposition problems, which have been a major barrier to sustaining high load on US boilers burning high-sodium low-rank coals, have been substantially reduced by improvements in coal selection, boiler design, on-line cleaning, operating conditions, and additives. Advantages of low-rank coals in advanced systems are their noncaking behavior when heated, their high reactivity allowing more complete reaction at lower temperatures, and the low sulfur content of selected deposits. The principal barrier issues are the high-temperature behavior of ash and volatile alkali derived from the coal-bound sodium found in some low-rank coals. Successful upgrading of low-rank coals requires that the product be both stable and suitable for end use in conventional and advanced systems. Coal-water fuel produced by hydrothermal processing of high-moisture low-rank coal meets these criteria, whereas most dry products from drying or carbonizing in hot gas tend to create dust and spontaneous ignition problems unless coated, agglomerated, briquetted, or afforded special handling

ECONOMIC REASONING MAXIMUM SLOPE IN DESIGN HIGH-SPEED LINES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

CHERNYSHOVA O. S.

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Raising of problem The worldwide design standards high-speed lines are somewhat different. This is due to several reasons: different levels of design speed, differences of characteristics of rolling stock and, in particular, the features of the design plan and longitudinal profile, that are associated primarily with the conditions of the relief. In the design of high-speed railways in Ukraine should take into account these features and determine what the maximum slope values can be used in difficult conditions, as well as how it will affect the operational and capital costs. Purpose. To determine the optimal design parameters of the longitudinal profile. Conclusion. The results are based not only on technical, but also economic indicators and allow the assessment of the necessary capital expenditures and expected cost of the railway in the future. Analytical dependences, to predict the expected operating costs of the railway, depending on the maximum slope, its length and the total length of the section.

Mediators of Yoga and Stretching for Chronic Low Back Pain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karen J. Sherman

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Although yoga is an effective treatment for chronic low back pain, little is known about the mechanisms responsible for its benefits. In a trial comparing yoga to intensive stretching and self-care, we explored whether physical (hours of back exercise/week, cognitive (fear avoidance, body awareness, and self-efficacy, affective (psychological distress, perceived stress, positive states of mind, and sleep, and physiological factors (cortisol, DHEA mediated the effects of yoga or stretching on back-related dysfunction (Roland-Morris Disability Scale (RDQ. For yoga, 36% of the effect on 12-week RDQ was mediated by increased self-efficacy, 18% by sleep disturbance, 9% by hours of back exercise, and 61% by the best combination of all possible mediators (6 mediators. For stretching, 23% of the effect was mediated by increased self-efficacy, 14% by days of back exercise, and 50% by the best combination of all possible mediators (7 mediators. In open-ended questions, ≥20% of participants noted the following treatment benefits: learning new exercises (both groups, relaxation, increased awareness, and the benefits of breathing (yoga, benefits of regular practice (stretching. Although both self-efficacy and hours of back exercise were the strongest mediators for each intervention, compared to self-care, qualitative data suggest that they may exert their benefits through partially distinct mechanisms.

Promoting Best Practices for Managing Acute Low Back Pain in an Occupational Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Slaughter, Amanda Lynn; Frith, Karen; O'Keefe, Louise; Alexander, Susan; Stoll, Regina

2015-09-01

Providers treating low back pain must be confident and knowledgeable in evidence-based practice (EBP) to provide the best outcomes. An online education course was created in an effort to increase knowledge and confidence in EBP and clinical practice guidelines specific to low back pain in an occupational setting. There were 80 participants who completed the pre-test and post-test. The results showed a statistically significant improvement in knowledge and confidence scores after completion of the course. An online education course was shown to be a cost-effective, accessible tool to increase knowledge and confidence of EBP for different health care providers. © 2015 The Author(s).

Performance of Front-End Readout System for PHENIX RICH

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oyama, K.; Hamagaki, H.; Nishimura, S.; Shigaki, K.; Hayano, R.S.; Hibino, M.; Kametani, S.; Kikuchi, J.; Matsumoto, T.; Sakaguchi, T.; Ebisu, K.; Hara, H.; Tanaka, Y.; Ushiroda, T.; Moscone, C.G.; Wintenberg, A.L.; Young, G.R.

1999-01-01

A front-end electronics system has been developed for the Ring Imaging Cerenkov (RICH) detector of the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). A high speed custom back-plane with source synchronous bus architecture, a full custom analog ASIC, and board modules with FPGA's and CPLD's were developed for high performance real time data acquisition. The transfer rate of the back-lane has reached 640 MB/s with 128 bits data bus. Total transaction time is estimated to be less than 30 micros per event. The design specifications and test results of the system are presented in this paper

Mathematical and numerical models to achieve high speed with special-purpose parallel processors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cheng, H.S.; Wulff, W.; Mallen, A.N.

1986-01-01

Historically, safety analyses and plant dynamic simulations have been and still are being carried out be means of detailed FORTRAN codes on expensive mainframe computers in time-consuming batch processing mode. These codes have grown to be so expensive to execute that their utilization depends increasingly on the availability of very expensive supercomputers. Thus, advanced technology for high-speed, low-cost, and accurate plant dynamic simulations is very much needed. Ideally, a low-cost facility based on a modern minicomputer can be dedicated to the staff of a power plant, which is easy and convenient to use, and which can simulate realistically plant transients at faster than real-time speeds. Such a simulation capability can enhance safety and plant utilization. One such simulation facility that has been developed is the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) Plant Analyzer, currently set up for boiling water reactor plant simulations at up to seven times faster than real-time process speeds. The principal hardware components of the BNL Plant Analyzer are two units of special-purpose parallel processors, the AD10 of Applied Dynamics International and a PDP-11/34 host computer

A low cost PSD-based monocular motion capture system

Science.gov (United States)

Ryu, Young Kee; Oh, Choonsuk

2007-10-01

This paper describes a monocular PSD-based motion capture sensor to employ with commercial video game systems such as Microsoft's XBOX and Sony's Playstation II. The system is compact, low-cost, and only requires a one-time calibration at the factory. The system includes a PSD(Position Sensitive Detector) and active infrared (IR) LED markers that are placed on the object to be tracked. The PSD sensor is placed in the focal plane of a wide-angle lens. The micro-controller calculates the 3D position of the markers using only the measured intensity and the 2D position on the PSD. A series of experiments were performed to evaluate the performance of our prototype system. From the experimental results we see that the proposed system has the advantages of the compact size, the low cost, the easy installation, and the high frame rates to be suitable for high speed motion tracking in games.

CONSTRUCTION OF A DIFFERENTIAL ISOTHERMAL CALORIMETER OF HIGH SENSITIVITY AND LOW COST.

OpenAIRE

Trinca, RB; Perles, CE; Volpe, PLO

2009-01-01

CONSTRUCTION OF A DIFFERENTIAL ISOTHERMAL CALORIMETER OF HIGH SENSITIVITY AND LOW COST The high cost of sensitivity commercial calorimeters may represent an obstacle for many calorimetric research groups. This work describes (fie construction and calibration of a batch differential heat conduction calorimeter with sample cells volumes of about 400 mu L. The calorimeter was built using two small high sensibility square Peltier thermoelectric sensors and the total cost was estimated to be about...

Inverted end-Hall-type low-energy high-current gaseous ion source

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oks, E. M.; Vizir, A. V.; Shandrikov, M. V.; Yushkov, G. Yu.; Grishin, D. M.; Anders, A.; Baldwin, D. A.

2008-01-01

A novel approach to low-energy, high-current, gaseous ion beam generation was explored and an ion source based on this technique has been developed. The source utilizes a dc high-current (up to 20 A) gaseous discharge with electron injection into the region of ion generation. Compared to the conventional end-Hall ion source, the locations of the discharge anode and cathode are inverted: the cathode is placed inside the source and the anode outside, and correspondingly, the discharge current is in the opposite direction. The discharge operates in a diverging axial magnetic field, similar to the end-Hall source. Electron generation and injection is accomplished by using an additional arc discharge with a ''cold'' (filamentless) hollow cathode. Low plasma contamination is achieved by using a low discharge voltage (avoidance of sputtering), as well as by a special geometric configuration of the emitter discharge electrodes, thereby filtering (removing) the erosion products stemming from the emitter cathode. The device produces a dc ion flow with energy below 20 eV and current up to 2.5 A onto a collector of 500 cm 2 at 25 cm from the source edge, at a pressure ≥0.02 Pa and gas flow rate ≥14 SCCM. The ion energy spread is 2 to 3 eV (rms). The source is characterized by high reliability, low maintenance, and long lifetime. The beam contains less than 0.1% of metallic ions. The specific electric energy consumption is 400 eV per ion registered at the collector. The source operates with noble gases, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrocarbons. Utilizing biasing, it can be used for plasma sputtering, etching, and other ion technologies

Antidepressants for non-specific low back pain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Urquhart, D. M.; Hoving, J. L.; Assendelft, W. W. J. J.; Roland, M.; van Tulder, M. W.

2008-01-01

BACKGROUND: Antidepressants are commonly used in the management of low-back pain. However, their use is controversial. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this review was to determine whether antidepressants are more effective than placebo for the treatment of non-specific low-back pain. SEARCH STRATEGY:

Economic evaluation of an intensive group training protocol compared with usual care physiotherapy in patients with chronic low back pain.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Roer, Nicole; van Tulder, Maurits; van Mechelen, Willem; de Vet, Henrica

2008-02-15

Economic evaluation from a societal perspective conducted alongside a randomized controlled trial with a follow-up of 52 weeks. To evaluate the cost effectiveness and cost utility of an intensive group training protocol compared with usual care physiotherapy in patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain. The intensive group training protocol combines exercise therapy, back school, and behavioral principles. Two studies found a significant reduction in absenteeism for a graded activity program in occupational health care. This program has not yet been evaluated in a primary care physiotherapy setting. Participating physical therapists in primary care recruited 114 patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain. Eligible patients were randomized to either the protocol group or the guideline group. Outcome measures included functional status (Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire), pain intensity (11-point numerical rating scale), general perceived effect and quality of life (EuroQol-5D). Cost data were measured with cost diaries and included direct and indirect costs related to low back pain. After 52 weeks, the direct health care costs were significantly higher for patients in the protocol group, largely due to the costs of the intervention. The mean difference in total costs amounted to [Euro sign] 233 (95% confidence interval: [Euro sign] -2.185; [Euro sign] 2.764). The cost-effectiveness planes indicated no significant differences in cost effectiveness between the 2 groups. The results of this economic evaluation showed no difference in total costs between the protocol group and the guideline group. The differences in effects were small and not statistically significant. At present, national implementation of the protocol is not recommended.

Novel high speed fiber-optic pressure sensor systems.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-03-01

The goal of this project is to develop a complete test of this technology for high-speed, high-accuracy applications, specifically cost-effective data acquisition techniques and practical mounting methods tailored for the subject environment. The sec...

High-end encroachment patterns of new products

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rhee, van der B.; Schmidt, G.; Orden, van J.

2012-01-01

Previous research describes two key ways in which a new product may encroach on an existing market. In high-end encroachment, the new product first sells to high-end customers and then diffuses down-market; in low-end encroachment, the new product enters at the low end and encroaches up-market. This

Field-scale forward and back diffusion through low-permeability zones

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Minjune; Annable, Michael D.; Jawitz, James W.

2017-07-01

Understanding the effects of back diffusion of groundwater contaminants from low-permeability zones to aquifers is critical to making site management decisions related to remedial actions. Here, we combine aquifer and aquitard data to develop recommended site characterization strategies using a three-stage classification of plume life cycle based on the solute origins: aquifer source zone dissolution, source zone dissolution combined with back diffusion from an aquitard, and only back diffusion. We use measured aquitard concentration profile data from three field sites to identify signature shapes that are characteristic of these three stages. We find good fits to the measured data with analytical solutions that include the effects of advection and forward and back diffusion through low-permeability zones, and linearly and exponentially decreasing flux resulting from source dissolution in the aquifer. Aquifer contaminant time series data at monitoring wells from a mature site were well described using analytical solutions representing the combined case of source zone and back diffusion, while data from a site where the source had been isolated were well described solely by back diffusion. The modeling approach presented in this study is designed to enable site managers to implement appropriate remediation technologies at a proper timing for high- and low-permeability zones, considering estimated plume life cycle.

[Rehabilitation for the patients with low-back pain].

Science.gov (United States)

Shirado, Osamu; Watanabe, Yasuyuki; Kawase, Masafumi

2005-03-01

The first choice for the treatment of low-back pain should be physical therapy, or rehabilitation. These are mainly divided into two modalities; passive and active modality. The former includes bed rest, hot pack, massage, and brace. The latter includes therapeutic exercise. The modality used should be dependent of the stages in each patient. Bed rest is indicated in the acute stage within a week after the occurrence low-back pain. The rest longer than a week is basically contraindicated, because of disuse syndrome such as muscle weakness, osteoporosis, and soft tissue contracture. Therapeutic exercise is the mainstay in the chronic stage. It includes trunk muscles strengthening exercise and stretching. Lumbar stabilization exercise has currently drawn attention for the treatment of low-back pain. Patient education such as back-school also plays an important role to manage low-back pain.

Design and characterization of high-speed CMOS pseudo-LVDS transceivers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kondratenko, S V

2016-01-01

High-speed transceiver for on-board systems of data collection and processing need to meet additional requirements, such as low power consumption and increased radiation hardness. It is therefore necessary to compare and search for alternative variants of transceivers on the physical layer, where high transfer speed is not achieved at the cost of a significant increase in power consumption or a limitation of transmission distance by the size of a printed circuit board. For on-board applications, it is also necessary to solve the problem of increasing the radiation hardness without going to expensive types of technology. In this paper, we studied some variants of implementation of pseudo-LVDS transceivers and analyzed their achievable quantitative characteristics. According to the results of calculations and analysis of the literature, specialized transceivers of this type, intended for the manufacture or manufactured according to the bulk CMOS technology processes in the range of 250-80 nm, can provide data speeds up to 6 Gbps at a specific power consumption of less than 4 mW/Gbps. (paper)

Design and characterization of high-speed CMOS pseudo-LVDS transceivers

Science.gov (United States)

Kondratenko, S. V.

2016-02-01

High-speed transceiver for on-board systems of data collection and processing need to meet additional requirements, such as low power consumption and increased radiation hardness. It is therefore necessary to compare and search for alternative variants of transceivers on the physical layer, where high transfer speed is not achieved at the cost of a significant increase in power consumption or a limitation of transmission distance by the size of a printed circuit board. For on-board applications, it is also necessary to solve the problem of increasing the radiation hardness without going to expensive types of technology. In this paper, we studied some variants of implementation of pseudo-LVDS transceivers and analyzed their achievable quantitative characteristics. According to the results of calculations and analysis of the literature, specialized transceivers of this type, intended for the manufacture or manufactured according to the bulk CMOS technology processes in the range of 250-80 nm, can provide data speeds up to 6 Gbps at a specific power consumption of less than 4 mW/Gbps.

Laser beam welding quality monitoring system based in high-speed (10 kHz) uncooled MWIR imaging sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Linares, Rodrigo; Vergara, German; Gutiérrez, Raúl; Fernández, Carlos; Villamayor, Víctor; Gómez, Luis; González-Camino, Maria; Baldasano, Arturo; Castro, G.; Arias, R.; Lapido, Y.; Rodríguez, J.; Romero, Pablo

2015-05-01

The combination of flexibility, productivity, precision and zero-defect manufacturing in future laser-based equipment are a major challenge that faces this enabling technology. New sensors for online monitoring and real-time control of laserbased processes are necessary for improving products quality and increasing manufacture yields. New approaches to fully automate processes towards zero-defect manufacturing demand smarter heads where lasers, optics, actuators, sensors and electronics will be integrated in a unique compact and affordable device. Many defects arising in laser-based manufacturing processes come from instabilities in the dynamics of the laser process. Temperature and heat dynamics are key parameters to be monitored. Low cost infrared imagers with high-speed of response will constitute the next generation of sensors to be implemented in future monitoring and control systems for laser-based processes, capable to provide simultaneous information about heat dynamics and spatial distribution. This work describes the result of using an innovative low-cost high-speed infrared imager based on the first quantum infrared imager monolithically integrated with Si-CMOS ROIC of the market. The sensor is able to provide low resolution images at frame rates up to 10 KHz in uncooled operation at the same cost as traditional infrared spot detectors. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the new sensor technology, a low-cost camera was assembled on a standard production laser welding head, allowing to register melting pool images at frame rates of 10 kHz. In addition, a specific software was developed for defect detection and classification. Multiple laser welding processes were recorded with the aim to study the performance of the system and its application to the real-time monitoring of laser welding processes. During the experiments, different types of defects were produced and monitored. The classifier was fed with the experimental images obtained. Self

Improved interoceptive awareness in chronic low back pain: a comparison of Back school versus Feldenkrais method.

Science.gov (United States)

Paolucci, Teresa; Zangrando, Federico; Iosa, Marco; De Angelis, Simona; Marzoli, Caterina; Piccinini, Giulia; Saraceni, Vincenzo Maria

2017-05-01

To determine the efficacy of the Feldenkrais method for relieving pain in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) and the improvement of interoceptive awareness. This study was designed as a single-blind randomized controlled trial. Fifty-three patients with a diagnosis of CLBP for at least 3 months were randomly allocated to the Feldenkrais (mean age 61.21 ± 11.53 years) or Back School group (mean age 60.70 ± 11.72 years). Pain was assessed using the visual analog scale (VAS) and McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ), disability was evaluated with the Waddel Disability Index, quality of life was measured with the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36), and mind-body interactions were studied using the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness Questionnaire (MAIA). Data were collected at baseline, at the end of treatment, and at the 3-month follow-up. The two groups were matched at baseline for all the computed parameters. At the end of treatment (Tend), there were no significant differences between groups regarding chronic pain reduction (p = 0.290); VAS and MAIA-N sub scores correlated at Tend (R = 0.296, p = 0.037). By the Friedman analysis, both groups experienced significant changes in pain (p Back School in CLBP. Implications for rehabilitation The Feldenkrais method is a mind-body therapy that is based on awareness through movement lessons, which are verbally guided explorations of movement that are conducted by a physiotherapist who is experienced and trained in this method. It aims to increase self-awareness, expand a person's repertoire of movements, and to promote increased functioning in contexts in which the entire body cooperates in the execution of movements. Interoceptive awareness, which improves with rehabilitation, has a complex function in the perception of chronic pain and should be investigated further in future research. The efficacy of the Feldenkrais method is comparable with that of BS for nonspecific chronic

Cost of Mastitis in Scottish Dairy Herds with Low and High Subclinical Mastitis Problems

OpenAIRE

YALÇIN, Cengiz

2000-01-01

The aim of this study was to estimate the cost of mastitis and the contribution of each cost component of mastitis to the total mastitis induced cost in herds with low and high levels of subclinical mastitis under Scottish field conditions. It was estimated that mastitis cost £140 per cow/year to the average Scottish dairy farmer in 1996. However, this figure was as low as £69 per cow/year in herds with lower levels of subclinical mastitis, and as high as £228 cow/year in herds with high s...

Low-cost inertial measurement unit.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Deyle, Travis Jay

2005-03-01

Sandia National Laboratories performs many expensive tests using inertial measurement units (IMUs)--systems that use accelerometers, gyroscopes, and other sensors to measure flight dynamics in three dimensions. For the purpose of this report, the metrics used to evaluate an IMU are cost, size, performance, resolution, upgradeability and testing. The cost of a precision IMU is very high and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thus the goals and results of this project are as follows: (1) Examine the data flow in an IMU and determine a generic IMU design. (2) Discuss a high cost IMU implementation and its theoretically achievable results. (3) Discuss design modifications that would save money for suited applications. (4) Design and implement a low cost IMU and discuss its theoretically achievable results. (5) Test the low cost IMU and compare theoretical results with empirical results. (6) Construct a more streamlined printed circuit board design reducing noise, increasing capabilities, and constructing a self-contained unit. Using these results, we can compare a high cost IMU versus a low cost IMU using the metrics from above. Further, we can examine and suggest situations where a low cost IMU could be used instead of a high cost IMU for saving cost, size, or both.

Daily Practice Clinic of Scientific Evidence in the Physiotherapy Management of Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Constanza Trillos Chacón

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction: 80 % of adults experience back pain at least once in their life. Back pain is the third leading cause of consultation in the emergency room, the fourth in general practice, the second of disability pension and the first job relocation. Objective: To compare the criteria that guide decision making of a group of physiotherapists in Bogota Colombia for the management of chronic nonspecific low back pain management criteria contained in the guide COST B13 (European Guidelines For The Management Of Chronic Non- specific Low Back Pain, 2004. Material and methods: This was a descriptive study, for which clinical practice guideline COST B13 for the management of chronic nonspecific low back pain through the AGREE tool is selected and a survey was applied to 50 physiotherapists through a convenience sample with to compare the clinical practices that are performed with the recommendations given guidance. Results: 56 % of respondents had some type of training for the management of chronic nonspecific low back pain (DLCI. 94 % of patients with DLCI served range in age from 40 to 59, with female predominance. In 80 % of respondents stated that physiotherapists diagnostic help with counting for the management of patients is the radiological image. 80 % of physiotherapists evaluated variable lumbar pain experienced by the patient and 54 % stance. Other aspects were reported in lower percentage. In the treatment of DLCI, physiotherapists reported use of stretching in 80 % of cases, the superficial thermotherapy in 70 % and isometric muscle strength in 70 %, all with favorable results.Conclusion: There are differences between clinical practice of physiotherapists and guidelines contained in the recommendations of the guide in the cost DLCI B13. Mainly in the processes of physiotherapy assessment of the surveyed population as they are often focused on observation and not always in the rigorous measurement, which makes it difficult to establish

A stable high-speed rotational transmission system based on nanotubes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cai, Kun; Yin, Hang; Wei, Ning; Chen, Zhen; Shi, Jiao

2015-01-01

A stable rotational transmission system is designed with a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)-based motor and double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs)-based bearing. The system response is investigated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. It is found that the rotating motor can actuate the rotation of the inner tube in bearing because of the attraction between the two adjacent coaxial ends of motor and rotor (the inner tube in bearing). To have a stable nanostructure, each carbon atom on the adjacent ends of motor and rotor is bonded with a hydrogen atom. To obtain a stable high-speed rotational transmission system, both an armchair and a zigzag model are used in MD simulation. In each model, the motor with different diameters and rotational speeds is employed to examine the rotational transmission of corresponding DWCNTs. It is demonstrated that the long range van der Waals interaction between the adjacent ends of motor and rotor leads to a stable configuration of the adjacent ends, and further leads to a stable rotation of rotor when driven by a high-speed motor. As compared with the armchair model, the rotor in the zigzag model could reach a stable rotation mode much easier

a Variant of Lsd-Slam Capable of Processing High-Speed Low-Framerate Monocular Datasets

Science.gov (United States)

Schmid, S.; Fritsch, D.

2017-11-01

We develop a new variant of LSD-SLAM, called C-LSD-SLAM, which is capable of performing monocular tracking and mapping in high-speed low-framerate situations such as those of the KITTI datasets. The methods used here are robust against the influence of erronously triangulated points near the epipolar direction, which otherwise causes tracking divergence.

Effect of Tip-Speed Constraints on the Optimized Design of a Wind Turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dykes, K.; Resor, B.; Platt, A.; Guo, Y.; Ning, A.; King, R.; Parsons, T.; Petch, D.; Veers, P.

2014-10-01

This study investigates the effect of tip-velocity constraints on system levelized cost of energy (LCOE). The results indicate that a change in maximum tip speed from 80 to 100~m/s could produce a 32% decrease in gearbox weight (a 33% reduction in cost) which would result in an overall reduction of 1%-9% in system LCOE depending on the design approach. Three 100~m/s design cases were considered including a low tip-speed ratio/high-solidity rotor design, a high tip-speed ratio/ low-solidity rotor design, and finally a flexible blade design in which a high tip-speed ratio was used along with removing the tip deflection constraint on the rotor design. In all three cases, the significant reduction in gearbox weight caused by the higher tip-speed and lower overall gear ratio was counterbalanced by increased weights for the rotor and/or other drivetrain components and the tower. As a result, the increased costs of either the rotor or drivetrain components offset the overall reduction in turbine costs from down-sizing the gearbox. Other system costs were not significantly affected, whereas energy production was slightly reduced in the 100~m/s case low tip-speed ratio case and increased in the high tip-speed ratio case. This resulted in system cost of energy reductions moving from the 80~m/s design to the 100~m/s designs of 1.2% for the low tip-speed ratio, 4.6% for the high tip-speed ratio, and 9.5% for the final flexible case (the latter result is optimistic because the impact of deflection of the flexible blade on power production was not modeled). Overall, the results demonstrate that there is a trade-off in system design between the maximum tip velocity and the overall wind plant cost of energy, and there are many trade-offs within the overall system in designing a turbine for a high maximum tip velocity.

Lifting index of the niosh lifting equation and low back pain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eliana Remor Teixeira

2011-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship of the Lifting Index obtained through the application of the NIOSH Lifting Equation and the incidence of low back pain among forty-eight workers involved in manual lifting tasks. It was applied the equation in eleven tasks and the workers were interviewed. The most unfavorable conditions presented themselves in the lifting destination. The variables that most contributed to the inadequate values of the Lifting Index were: the horizontal location, the lifting frequency and the vertical distance, beyond the high weight of the load. The incidence of low back pain in the last twelve months was 19%, whereas the incidence of work-related low back pain in the same period was 10%. In 72.7% of the tasks evaluated the Composite Lifting Index was more than three, which are considered as high ergonomic risk.

Back pain's association with vertebral end-plate signal changes in sciatica.

Science.gov (United States)

el Barzouhi, Abdelilah; Vleggeert-Lankamp, Carmen L A M; van der Kallen, Bas F; Lycklama à Nijeholt, Geert J; van den Hout, Wilbert B; Koes, Bart W; Peul, Wilco C

2014-02-01

Patients with sciatica frequently experience disabling back pain. One of the proposed causes for back pain is vertebral end-plate signal changes (VESC) as visualized by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). To report on VESC findings, changes of VESC findings over time, and the correlation between VESC and disabling back pain in patients with sciatica. A randomized clinical trial with 1 year of follow-up. Patients with 6 to 12 weeks of sciatica who participated in a multicenter, randomized clinical trial comparing an early surgery strategy with prolonged conservative care with surgery if needed. Patients were assessed by means of the 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS) for back pain (with 0 representing no pain and 100 the worst pain ever experienced) at baseline and 1 year. Disabling back pain was defined as a VAS score of at least 40 mm. Patients underwent MRI both at baseline and after 1 year follow-up. Presence and change of VESC was correlated with disabling back pain using chi-square tests and logistic regression analysis. At baseline, 39% of patients had disabling back pain. Of the patients with VESC at baseline, 40% had disabling back pain compared with 38% of the patients with no VESC (p=.67). The prevalence of type 1 VESC increased from 1% at baseline to 35% 1 year later in the surgical group compared with an increase from 3% to 11% in the conservative group. The prevalence of type 2 VESC decreased from 40% to 29% in the surgical group while remaining almost stable in the conservative group at 41%. The prevalence of disabling back pain at 1 year was 12% in patients with no VESC at 1 year, 16% in patients with type 1 VESC, 11% in patients with type 2 VESC, and 3% in patients with both types 1 and 2 VESC (p=.36). Undergoing surgery was associated with increase in the extent of VESC (odds ratio [OR], 8.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.7-15.7; psciatica was highly associated with the development of VESC after 1 year. However, in contrast with the intuitive feeling

Kummer strikes back : new DH speed records

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bernstein, D.J.; Chuengsatiansup, C.; Lange, T.; Schwabe, P.; Sarkar, P.; Iwata, T.

2014-01-01

This paper sets new speed records for high-security constant-time variable-base-point Diffie-Hellman software: 305395 Cortex-A8-slow cycles; 273349 Cortex-A8-fast cycles; 88916 Sandy Bridge cycles; 88448 Ivy Bridge cycles; 54389 Haswell cycles. There are no higher speeds in the literature for any of

Strategies to fight low-cost rivals.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Nirmalya

2006-12-01

Companies find it challenging and yet strangely reassuring to take on opponents whose strategies, strengths, and weaknesses resemble their own. Their obsession with familiar rivals, however, has blinded them to threats from disruptive, low-cost competitors. Successful price warriors, such as the German retailer Aldi, are changing the nature of competition by employing several tactics: focusing on just one or a few consumer segments, delivering the basic product or providing one benefit better than rivals do, and backing low prices with superefficient operations. Ignoring cutprice rivals is a mistake because they eventually force companies to vacate entire market segments. Price wars are not the answer, either: Slashing prices usually lowers profits for incumbents without driving the low-cost entrants out of business. Companies take various approaches to competing against cut-price players. Some differentiate their products--a strategy that works only in certain circumstances. Others launch low-cost businesses of their own, as many airlines did in the 1990s--a so-called dual strategy that succeeds only if companies can generate synergies between the existing businesses and the new ventures, as the financial service providers HSBC and ING did. Without synergies, corporations are better off trying to transform themselves into low-cost players, a difficult feat that Ryanair accomplished in the 1990s, or into solution providers. There will always be room for both low-cost and value-added players. How much room each will have depends not only on the industry and customers' preferences, but also on the strategies traditional businesses deploy.

Treatment-Based Classification versus Usual Care for Management of Low Back Pain

Science.gov (United States)

2017-10-01

tion with low back pain, it has been shown to be a valid and reliable tool [33] for assessing sleep in other settings and populations [32, 34–37...chronic back pain and quality of sleep [38, 39]. Sleep deprivation is com- monly seen in the active duty population with a high operational tempo...treatment-based classification system for subgrouping people with low back pain. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2012;42:797–805. 18. Fairbank JC, Couper J

Low Cost, Open-Source, and Low-Power: But What to Do with the Data?

Science.gov (United States)

Horsburgh, J. S.; Aufdenkampe, A. K.; Arscott, D.; Damiano, S. G.; Hicks, S. D.

2017-12-01

There are now many ongoing efforts to develop low-cost, open-source, low-power sensors and datalogging solutions for environmental applications. Many of these have advanced to the point that high quality scientific measurements can be made using relatively inexpensive and increasingly off-the-shelf components. With the development of these innovative systems, however, comes the ability to generate large volumes of high-frequency monitoring data and the challenge of how to log, transmit, store, and share the resulting data. This presentation will focus on a new, web-based system http://data.envirodiy.org that was designed to enable citizen scientists to stream sensor data from a network of EnviroDIY Mayfly Arduino-based dataloggers. This system enables registration of new sensor nodes through a website. Once registered, any Internet connected device (e.g., cellular or WIFI) can then post data to the data.envirodiy.org website through a web service programming interface. Data are stored in a back-end data store that implements Version 2 of the Observations Data Model (ODM2). Live data can then be viewed and downloaded from the data.envirodiy.org website in a simple text format. While this system was purpose built to support an emerging network of Arduino-based sensor nodes deployed by citizen scientists in the Delaware River Basin, the architecture and components are generic and could be used by any Internet connected device capable of making measurements and formulating an HTTP POST request to send them to data.envirodiy.org.

Optical fiber imaging for high speed plasma motion diagnostics: Applied to low voltage circuit breakers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McBride, J. W.; Balestrero, A.; Tribulato, G.; Ghezzi, L.; Cross, K. J.

2010-01-01

An integrated portable measurement system is described for the study of high speed and high temperature unsteady plasma flows such as those found in the vicinity of high current switching arcs. An array of optical fibers allows the formation of low spatial resolution images, with a maximum capture rate of 1x10 6 images per second (1 MHz), with 8 bit intensity resolution. Novel software techniques are reported to allow imaging of the arc; and to measure arc trajectories. Results are presented on high current (2 kA) discharge events in a model test fixture and on the application to a commercial low voltage circuit breaker.

Performance of a fast low noise front-end preamplifier for the MAGIC imaging Cherenkov telescope

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blanch, O.; Blanchot, G.; Bosman, M.

1999-01-01

The observation of high energy cosmic gamma rays with an energy threshold of 15 GeV using the proposed MAGIC ground based air imaging Cherenkov telescope requires the development of new low noise fast preamplifiers for the camera photosensors. The speed and noise performance of a transimpedance preamplifier that resolves the multi photoelectron peaks from a hybrid photomultiplier with a peaking time below 7 ns is presented. The new front-end circuit is designed with RF low noise bipolar transistors and provides fast output pulses that allow for fast trigger settings

Dual N-Back Working Memory Training in Healthy Adults: A Randomized Comparison to Processing Speed Training

Science.gov (United States)

Lawlor-Savage, Linette; Goghari, Vina M.

2016-01-01

Enhancing cognitive ability is an attractive concept, particularly for middle-aged adults interested in maintaining cognitive functioning and preventing age-related declines. Computerized working memory training has been investigated as a safe method of cognitive enhancement in younger and older adults, although few studies have considered the potential impact of working memory training on middle-aged adults. This study investigated dual n-back working memory training in healthy adults aged 30–60. Fifty-seven adults completed measures of working memory, processing speed, and fluid intelligence before and after a 5-week web-based dual n-back or active control (processing speed) training program. Results: Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance failed to identify improvements across the three cognitive composites, working memory, processing speed, and fluid intelligence, after training. Follow-up Bayesian analyses supported null findings for training effects for each individual composite. Findings suggest that dual n-back working memory training may not benefit working memory or fluid intelligence in healthy adults. Further investigation is necessary to clarify if other forms of working memory training may be beneficial, and what factors impact training-related benefits, should they occur, in this population. PMID:27043141

Dual N-Back Working Memory Training in Healthy Adults: A Randomized Comparison to Processing Speed Training.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Linette Lawlor-Savage

Full Text Available Enhancing cognitive ability is an attractive concept, particularly for middle-aged adults interested in maintaining cognitive functioning and preventing age-related declines. Computerized working memory training has been investigated as a safe method of cognitive enhancement in younger and older adults, although few studies have considered the potential impact of working memory training on middle-aged adults. This study investigated dual n-back working memory training in healthy adults aged 30-60. Fifty-seven adults completed measures of working memory, processing speed, and fluid intelligence before and after a 5-week web-based dual n-back or active control (processing speed training program.Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance failed to identify improvements across the three cognitive composites, working memory, processing speed, and fluid intelligence, after training. Follow-up Bayesian analyses supported null findings for training effects for each individual composite. Findings suggest that dual n-back working memory training may not benefit working memory or fluid intelligence in healthy adults. Further investigation is necessary to clarify if other forms of working memory training may be beneficial, and what factors impact training-related benefits, should they occur, in this population.

Electromyographic activity of the erector spinae: The short-effect of one workday for welders with nonspecific chronic low back pain, an observational study.

Science.gov (United States)

Mendes, André Augusto M T; de Freitas, Sandra Maria Sbeghen Ferreira; Amorin, César Ferreira; Cabral, Cristina Maria Nunes; Padula, Rosimeire Simprini

2018-02-06

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of one workday on pain and perceived exertion, muscular strength, and electromyographic activity of the erector spinae muscles in welders with and without low back pain. This is an observational cohort study. Twenty-two welders, metallurgical shipbuilding, were equally divided into 2 groups: low back pain and no low back pain. Pain and perceived exertion. Muscular strength by maximal voluntary contractions and electromyographic activity of right and left erector spinae muscles during maximal voluntary contractions and in the 3 welding positions for 2 periods of the workday (in the morning and at the end of the workday). At the end of workday, the pain increased significantly for the low back pain group (t(22) = 2.448; P= 0.023). The perceived exertion also increased significantly for both groups at the end of workday groups (F(1,22) = 8.570, P= 0.000) and periods (F(1,22) = 8.142, P= 0.000). There were no significant differences between groups and workday periods for muscular strength and electromyographic activity during maximal voluntary contractions of the erector spinae. There was no significance difference for electromyographic activity between groups and workday period and in the 3 welding positions. Although the pain and perceived exertion increased at the end of the workday, these results did not interfere in muscular strength and electromyographic activity of right and left erector spinae muscles. Thus, we can conclude that welders with chronic low back pain had a good physical capacity (muscular strength) and that muscle performance was maintained.

Is TENS purely a placebo effect? A controlled study on chronic low back pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Marchand, S; Charest, J; Li, J; Chenard, J R; Lavignolle, B; Laurencelle, L

1993-07-01

Although high-frequency low-intensity transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) has been extensively used to relieve low back pain, experimental studies of its effectiveness have yielded contradictory findings mainly due to methodological problems in pain evaluation and placebo control. In the present study, separate visual analog scales (VAS) were used to measure the sensory-discriminative and motivational-affective components of low back pain. Forty-two subjects were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: TENS, placebo-TENS, and no treatment (control). In order to measure the short-term effect of TENS, VAS pain ratings were taken before and after each treatment session. Also, to measure long-term effects, patients rated their pain at home every 2 h throughout a 3-day period before and 1 week, 3 months and 6 months after the treatment sessions. In comparing the pain evaluations made immediately before and after each treatment session, TENS and placebo-TENS significantly reduced both the intensity and unpleasantness of chronic low back pain. TENS was significantly more efficient than placebo-TENS in reducing pain intensity but not pain unpleasantness. TENS also produced a significant additive effect over repetitive treatment sessions for pain intensity and relative pain unpleasantness. This additive effect was not found for placebo-TENS. When evaluated at home, pain intensity was significantly reduced more by TENS than placebo-TENS 1 week after the end of treatment, but not 3 months and 6 months later. At home evaluation of pain unpleasantness in the TENS group was never different from the placebo-TENS group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Back surgery: Modern medical pitfall.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Jc

2002-01-01

Medical iatrogenesis is at an all-time high with increasing deaths, disability, and costs compounded by unnecessary and ineffective surgeries despite the warnings from WHO, the US Public Health Service, and the Institute of Medicine. One area in particular, failed back surgeries, has drawn increasing attention by researchers due to disproved medical theories and surgical treatments. Paradoxically, while spinal manipulative therapy has been shown to achieve better results for this epidemic of low back pain in particular, medical and insurance programs often limit or boycott this inexpensive and effective treatment, indicating the solution to lowering medical costs and iatrogenesis now rests with political and economic factors primarily.

Adolescent low back pain among secondary school students in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Adolescent low back pain among secondary school students in Ibadan, Nigeria. BOA Adegoke, AC Odole, AA Adeyinka. Abstract. Background: Adolescent low back pain (ALBP) can be considered a signal or precursor of a serious organic disease or telltale sign of future incidence of low back pain in adulthood. Published ...

Nuclear power production costs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Erramuspe, H.J.

1988-01-01

The economic competitiveness of nuclear power in different highly developed countries is shown, by reviewing various international studies made on the subject. Generation costs (historical values) of Atucha I and Embalse Nuclear Power Plants, which are of the type used in those countries, are also included. The results of an international study on the economic aspects of the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle are also reviewed. This study shows its relatively low incidence in the generation costs. The conclusion is that if in Argentina the same principles of economic racionality were followed, nuclear energy would be economically competitive in the future, as it is today. This is of great importance in view of its almost unavoidable character of alternative source of energy, and specially since we have to expect an important growth in the consumption of electricity, due to its low share in the total consumption of energy, and the low energy consumption per capita in Argentina. (Author) [es

Low cost photomultiplier high-voltage readout system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oxoby, G.J.; Kunz, P.F.

1976-10-01

The Large Aperture Solenoid Spectrometer (LASS) at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) requires monitoring over 300 voltages. This data is recorded on magnetic tapes along with the event data. It must also be displayed so that operators can easily monitor and adjust the voltages. A low-cost high-voltage readout system has been implemented to offer stand-alone digital readout capability as well as fast data transfer to a host computer. The system is flexible enough to permit use of a DVM or ADC and commercially available analogue multiplexers

Prosthetic design directives: Low-cost hands within reach.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, G K; Rosendo, A; Stopforth, R

2017-07-01

Although three million people around the world suffer from the lack of one or both upper limbs 80% of this number is located within developing countries. While prosthetic prices soar with technology 3D printing and low cost electronics present a sensible solution for those that cannot afford expensive prosthetics. The electronic and control design of a low-cost prosthetic hand, the Touch Hand II, is discussed. This paper shows that sensorless techniques can be used to reduce design complexities, costs, and provide easier access to the electronics. A closing and opening finite state machine (COFSM) was developed to handle the actuated digit joint control state and a supervisory switching control scheme, used for speed and grip strength control. Three torque and speed settings were created to be preset for specific grasps. The hand was able to replicate ten frequently used grasps and grip some common objects. Future work is necessary to enable a user to control it with myoelectric signals (MESs) and to solve operational problems related to electromagnetic interference (EMI).

Comparison of Cardiorespiratory fitness of Nigerians with Low back ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The objective of this study was to compare Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) of Nigerians with low back pain (LBP) and apparently healthy counterparts. A total of Seventy (70) subjects participated in the study; 35 of them were low back pain patients, while the remaining 35 were apparently healthy adults. For low back pain ...

The effect of a low-speed automatic brake system estimated from real life data.

Science.gov (United States)

Isaksson-Hellman, Irene; Lindman, Magdalena

2012-01-01

A substantial part of all traffic accidents involving passenger cars are rear-end collisions and most of them occur at low speed. Auto Brake is a feature that has been launched in several passenger car models during the last few years. City Safety is a technology designed to help the driver mitigate, and in certain situations avoid, rear-end collisions at low speed by automatically braking the vehicle.Studies have been presented that predict promising benefits from these kinds of systems, but few attempts have been made to show the actual effect of Auto Brake. In this study, the effect of City Safety, a standard feature on the Volvo XC60 model, is calculated based on insurance claims data from cars in real traffic crashes in Sweden. The estimated claim frequency of rear-end frontal collisions measured in claims per 1,000 insured vehicle years was 23% lower for the City Safety equipped XC60 model than for other Volvo models without the system.

IMPaCT Back study protocol. Implementation of subgrouping for targeted treatment systems for low back pain patients in primary care: a prospective population-based sequential comparison

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Foster Nadine E

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Prognostic assessment tools to identify subgroups of patients at risk of persistent low back pain who may benefit from targeted treatments have been developed and validated in primary care. The IMPaCT Back study is investigating the effects of introducing and supporting a subgrouping for targeted treatment system in primary care. Methods/Design A prospective, population-based, quality improvement study in one Primary Care Trust in England with a before and after design. Phases 1 and 3 collect data on current practice, attitudes and behaviour of health care practitioners, patients' outcomes and health care costs. Phase 2 introduces and supports the subgrouping for targeted treatment system, via a multi-component, quality improvement intervention that includes educational courses and outreach visits led by opinion leaders, audit/feedback, mentoring and organisational support to embed the subgrouping tools within IT and clinical management systems. We aim to recruit 1000 low back pain patients aged 18 years and over consulting 7 GP practices within one Primary Care Trust in England, UK. The study includes GPs in participating practices and physiotherapists in associated services. The primary objective is to determine the effect of the subgrouping for targeted treatment system on back pain related disability and catastrophising at 2 and 6 months, comparing data from phase 1 with phase 3. Key secondary objectives are to determine the impact on: a GPs' and physiotherapists' attitudes and behaviour regarding low back pain; b The process of care that patients receive; c The cost-effectiveness and sustainability of the new clinical system. Discussion This paper details the rationale, design, methods, planned analysis and operational aspects of the IMPaCT Back study. We aim to determine whether the new subgrouping for targeted treatment system is implemented and sustained in primary care, and evaluate its impact on clinical decision

A new architecture for low-power high-speed pipelined ADCs using double-sampling and opamp-sharing techniques

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Abdinia, S.; Yavari, M.

2009-01-01

This paper presents a low-voltage low-power pipelined ADC with 1V supply voltage in a 90nm CMOS process. A new architecture is proposed to reduce the power consumption in high-speed pipelined analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). The presented architecture utilizes a combination of two current

[Economic rehabilitation management among patients with chronic low back pain].

Science.gov (United States)

Seitz, R; Schweikert, B; Jacobi, E; Tschirdewahn, B; Leidl, R

2001-12-01

Back pain causes high costs to society. In Germany, these amount to an estimated total of 5 billion euro of direct costs per year and 13 billion euro of indirect costs, the latter being caused by incapacity to work. The purpose of this study is to develop a concept for economic rehabilitation management. This concept is based on the managed care approach and aims at improving efficiency of care. The concept development consists of a theoretical and an empirical part. The method of the theoretical part is based on a systematic literature review on managed care (not included in this article), health systems research and the analysis of economic incentives. For the empirical investigation, long term effects and costs were calculated. For the evaluation of effects, we psychometrically tested and used the EuroQol (EQ-5D) as a measure of health-related quality of life (HRQL). The calculation of costs (both direct and indirect) is based on routine data of payers, a cost diary and the internal cost accounting systems of rehabilitation clinics. We statistically analysed the cost distribution and identified predictors of the management targets (e.g., costs of care) by means of regression analyses. The market-driven managed care approach is based on three tools: (1) a primary care system with case management and gatekeeping, (2) direct influence on providers by utilisation review and setting guidelines, and (3) indirect influence by setting supply-side economic incentives via the remuneration mode. The third managed care tool is most important when managing the rehabilitation of working age patients with chronic low back pain from an economic point of view. This concept consists of three components: (1) a case-based budget for direct costs; this is a prospective remuneration mode for an integrated primary care network including a rehabilitation facility, (2) retrospective bonus payments which are related to savings of indirect costs, and (3) retrospective bonus payments which

High-Speed Videography Instrumentation And Procedures

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, C. E.

1982-02-01

High-speed videography has been an electronic analog of low-speed film cameras, but having the advantages of instant-replay and simplicity of operation. Recent advances have pushed frame-rates into the realm of the rotating prism camera. Some characteristics of videography systems are discussed in conjunction with applications in sports analysis, and with sports equipment testing.

Low Wind Speed Turbine Developments in Convoloid Gearing: Final Technical Report, June 2005 - October 2008

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Genesis Partners LP

2010-08-01

This report presents the results of a study conducted by Genesis Partners LP as part of the United States Department of Energy Wind Energy Research Program to develop wind technology that will enable wind systems to compete in regions having low wind speeds. The purpose of the program is to reduce the cost of electricity from large wind systems in areas having Class 4 winds to 3 cents per kWh for onshore systems or 5 cents per kWh for offshore systems. This work builds upon previous activities under the WindPACT project, the Next Generation Turbine project, and Phase I of the Low Wind Speed Turbine (LWST) project. This project is concerned with the development of more cost-effective gearing for speed increasers for wind turbines.

Low-Cost energy contraption design using playground seesaw

Science.gov (United States)

Banlawe, I. A. P.; Acosta, N. J. E. L.

2017-05-01

The study was conducted at Western Philippines University, San Juan, Aborlan, Palawan. The study used the mechanical motion of playground seesaw as a means to produce electrical energy. The study aimed to design a low-cost prototype energy contraption using playground seesaw using locally available and recycled materials, to measure the voltage, current and power outputs produced at different situations and estimate the cost of the prototype. Using principle of pneumatics, two hand air pumps were employed on the two end sides of the playground seesaw and the mechanical motion of the seesaw up and down produces air that is used to rotate a DC motor to produce electrical energy. This electricity can be utilized for powering basic or low-power appliances. There were two trials of testing, each trial tests the different pressure level of the air tank and tests the opening of on-off valve (Full open and half open) when the compressed air was released. Results showed that all pressure level at full open produced significantly higher voltage, than the half open. However, the mean values of the current and power produced in all pressure level at full and half open have negligible variation. These results signify that the energy contraption using playground seesaw is an alternative viable source of electrical energy in the playgrounds, parks and other places and can be used as an auxiliary or back-up source for electricity.

Holistic design in high-speed optical interconnects

Science.gov (United States)

Saeedi, Saman

Integrated circuit scaling has enabled a huge growth in processing capability, which necessitates a corresponding increase in inter-chip communication bandwidth. As bandwidth requirements for chip-to-chip interconnection scale, deficiencies of electrical channels become more apparent. Optical links present a viable alternative due to their low frequency-dependent loss and higher bandwidth density in the form of wavelength division multiplexing. As integrated photonics and bonding technologies are maturing, commercialization of hybrid-integrated optical links are becoming a reality. Increasing silicon integration leads to better performance in optical links but necessitates a corresponding co-design strategy in both electronics and photonics. In this light, holistic design of high-speed optical links with an in-depth understanding of photonics and state-of-the-art electronics brings their performance to unprecedented levels. This thesis presents developments in high-speed optical links by co-designing and co-integrating the primary elements of an optical link: receiver, transmitter, and clocking. In the first part of this thesis a 3D-integrated CMOS/Silicon-photonic receiver will be presented. The electronic chip features a novel design that employs a low-bandwidth TIA front-end, double-sampling and equalization through dynamic offset modulation. Measured results show -14.9dBm of sensitivity and energy eciency of 170fJ/b at 25Gb/s. The same receiver front-end is also used to implement source-synchronous 4-channel WDM-based parallel optical receiver. Quadrature ILO-based clocking is employed for synchronization and a novel frequency-tracking method that exploits the dynamics of IL in a quadrature ring oscillator to increase the effective locking range. An adaptive body-biasing circuit is designed to maintain the per-bit-energy consumption constant across wide data-rates. The prototype measurements indicate a record-low power consumption of 153fJ/b at 32Gb/s. The

A health economic lifetime treatment pathway model for low back pain in Sweden.

Science.gov (United States)

Olafsson, Gylfi; Jonsson, Emma; Fritzell, Peter; Hägg, Olle; Borgström, Fredrik

2017-12-01

To develop a health economic model to evaluate the long-term costs and outcomes over the healthcare treatment pathway for patients with low back pain (LBP). A health economic model, consisting of a decision tree structure with a Markov microsimulation model at the end of each branch, was created. Patients were followed from first observed clinical presentation with LBP until the age of 100 years or death. The underlying data to populate the model were based on Swedish national and regional registry data on healthcare resource use and sickness insurance in patients presenting with LBP in the Swedish region Västra Götaland during 2008-2012. Costs (outpatient healthcare visits, inpatient bed days, pharmaceuticals, productivity loss), EUR 2016, and quality-of-life based on EQ-5D data from the registries and published estimates were summarized over the lifetime of the patients with 3% annual discount. A lost quality-adjusted life year (QALY) was valued at €70,000. Mean lifetime total cost was estimated at €47,452/patient, of which indirect costs were 57%. Total lifetime economic burden for all patients coming to clinical presentation in Sweden per year was €8.8bn. The average LBP patient was estimated to face a loss of 2.7 QALYs over their lifetime compared with the general population. For all patients in Sweden coming to clinical presentation in 1 year this gives 505,407 QALYs lost, valued at €35.3bn. Adding the economic burden, the total societal burden amounts to €44.1bn. This pathway model shows that most patients with LBP receive conservative care, and a minority consume high-cost healthcare interventions like surgery. The model could be used to see broad economic effects of different patterns of healthcare provision in sub-groups with LBP and to estimate where it is possible to influence these pathways to increase utility for patients and for society.

Low-Cost Bio-Based Carbon Fibers for High Temperature Processing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paul, Ryan Michael [GrafTech International, Brooklyn Heights, OH (United States); Naskar, Amit [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2017-08-03

lignin, prior to purification, had greater than 4X the ash level needed for this project, and prior to this work there was not a clear path of how to achieve the purity target. The lab scale development of LBCF was performed with a specific functional application in mind, specifically for high temperature rigid insulation. GTI is a consumer of foreign-sourced pitch and rayon based carbon fibers for use in its high temperature insulation products, and the motivation was that LBCF had potential to decrease costs and increase product competitiveness in the marketplace through lowered raw material costs, lowered energy costs, and decreased environmental footprint. At the end of this project, the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) remained at 5 for LBCF in high temperature insulation.

Self-selected speeds and metabolic cost of longboard skateboarding.

Science.gov (United States)

Board, Wayne J; Browning, Raymond C

2014-11-01

The purpose of this study was to determine self-selected speeds, metabolic rate, and gross metabolic cost during longboard skateboarding. We measured overground speed and metabolic rate while 15 experienced longboarders traveled at their self-selected slow, typical and fast speeds. Mean longboarding speeds were 3.7, 4.5 and 5.1 m s(-1), during slow, typical and fast trials, respectively. Mean rates of oxygen consumption were 24.1, 29.1 and 37.2 ml kg(-1) min(-1) and mean rates of energy expenditure were 33.5, 41.8 and 52.7 kJ min(-1) at the slow, typical and fast speeds, respectively. At typical speeds, average intensity was ~8.5 METs. There was a significant positive relationship between oxygen consumption and energy expenditure versus speed (R(2) = 0.69 (P < 0.001), and R(2) = 0.78 (P < 0.001), respectively). The gross metabolic cost was ~2.2 J kg(-1) m(-1) at the typical speed, greater than that reported for cycling and ~50% smaller than that of walking. These results suggest that longboarding is a novel form of physical activity that elicits vigorous intensity, yet is economical compared to walking.

The high intensity solar cell: Key to low cost photovoltaic power

Science.gov (United States)

Sater, B. L.; Goradia, C.

1975-01-01

The design considerations and performance characteristics of the 'high intensity' (HI) solar cell are presented. A high intensity solar system was analyzed to determine its cost effectiveness and to assess the benefits of further improving HI cell efficiency. It is shown that residential sized systems can be produced at less than $1000/kW peak electric power. Due to their superior high intensity performance characteristics compared to the conventional and VMJ cells, HI cells and light concentrators may be the key to low cost photovoltaic power.

Performance and scalability of the back-end sub-system in the ATLAS DAQ/EF prototype

CERN Document Server

Alexandrov, I N; Badescu, E; Burckhart, Doris; Caprini, M; Cohen, L; Duval, P Y; Hart, R; Jones, R; Kazarov, A; Kolos, S; Kotov, V; Laugier, D; Mapelli, Livio P; Moneta, L; Qian, Z; Radu, A A; Ribeiro, C A; Roumiantsev, V; Ryabov, Yu; Schweiger, D; Soloviev, I V

2000-01-01

The DAQ group of the future ATLAS experiment has developed a prototype system based on the trigger/DAQ architecture described in the ATLAS Technical Proposal to support studies of the full system functionality, architecture as well as available hardware and software technologies. One sub-system of this prototype is the back- end which encompasses the software needed to configure, control and monitor the DAQ, but excludes the processing and transportation of physics data. The back-end consists of a number of components including run control, configuration databases and message reporting system. The software has been developed using standard, external software technologies such as OO databases and CORBA. It has been ported to several C++ compilers and operating systems including Solaris, Linux, WNT and LynxOS. This paper gives an overview of the back-end software, its performance, scalability and current status. (17 refs).

A Rapid and Low-Cost PCR Thermal Cycler for Low Resource Settings.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grace Wong

Full Text Available Many modern molecular diagnostic assays targeting nucleic acids are typically confined to developed countries or to the national reference laboratories of developing-world countries. The ability to make technologies for the rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases broadly available in a portable, low-cost format would mark a revolutionary step forward in global health. Many molecular assays are also developed based on polymerase chain reactions (PCR, which require thermal cyclers that are relatively heavy (>20 pounds and need continuous electrical power. The temperature ramping speed of most economical thermal cyclers are relatively slow (2 to 3 °C/s so a polymerase chain reaction can take 1 to 2 hours. Most of all, these thermal cyclers are still too expensive ($2k to $4k for low-resource setting uses.In this article, we demonstrate the development of a low-cost and rapid water bath based thermal cycler that does not require active temperature control or continuous power supply during PCR. This unit costs $130 to build using commercial off-the-shelf items. The use of two or three vacuum-insulated stainless-steel Thermos food jars containing heated water (for denaturation and annealing/extension steps and a layer of oil on top of the water allow for significantly stabilized temperatures for PCR to take place. Using an Arduino-based microcontroller, we automate the "archaic" method of hand-transferring PCR tubes between water baths.We demonstrate that this innovative unit can deliver high speed PCR (17 s per PCR cycle with the potential to go beyond the 1,522 bp long amplicons tested in this study and can amplify from templates down to at least 20 copies per reaction. The unit also accepts regular PCR tubes and glass capillary tubes. The PCR efficiency of our thermal cycler is not different from other commercial thermal cyclers. When combined with a rapid nucleic acid detection approach, the thermos thermal cycler (TTC can enable on-site molecular

Numerical simulation and experiments of precision bar cutting based on high speed and restrained state

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Song, J.L.; Li, Y.T.; Liu, Z.Q.; Fu, J.H.; Ting, K.L.

2009-01-01

According to the disadvantages of conventional bar cutting technology such as low-cutting speed, inferior section quality, high-processing cost and so on, a kind of novel precision bar cutting technology has been proposed. The cutting mechanism has also been analyzed. Finite element numerical simulation of the bar cutting process under different working conditions has been carried out with DEFORM. The stress and strain fields at different cutting speed and the variation curves of the cutting force and appropriate cutting parameters have been obtained. Scanning electron microscopy analysis of the cutting surface showed that the finite-element simulation result is correct and better cutting quality can be obtained with the developed bar cutting technology and equipment based on high speed and restrained state

Effects of Pilates and Classical Kinesiotherapy on chronic low back pain: a case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivanna Avila Ribeiro

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction : Chronic low back pain (LBP is characterized by daily lower back pain lasting more than three consecutive months. It may lead to functional disability and can be treated by several physical therapy techniques, including therapeutic exercise. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of pilates and classical kinesiotherapy on the treatment of pain and functional disability in patients with chronic low back pain. Materials and methods : The study sample consisted of five patients with a diagnosis of chronic low back pain and a mean age of 32.4 ± 15.6 years. A Visual Analogue Scale (VAS was used for pain assessment, and the Oswestry Disability Index was used to assess functional disability at the beginning and at the end of the intervention. Patients were divided into two groups and received 20 individual sessions of therapeutic exercise at a frequency of two sessions per week. Group A was treated with classical kinesiotherapy and group B was treated with pilates exercises. Statistical analysis was performed using Wilcoxon's test. The significance level was set at 5%. Results : There was a significant reduction in pain (p = 043 and functional disability (p = 042 in both groups. We found no significant differences between the effects of pilates and classical kinesiotherapy on pain and functional disability. Conclusions : We conclude that, in the population studied here, both pilates and classical kinesiotherapy were effective in treating chronic low back pain symptoms, with no significant difference between them.

[Correlation between both neck/shoulder and low back pain and daily behavioral habits among middle school students in Shenzhen].

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, L; Huang, Y Y; Chen, D Y; Zhang, D; Luo, Q S; Wang, Y; Wu, Y

2018-04-10

Objective: To study the relations between neck/shoulder or low back pain and their daily behavioral habits among middle school students in Shenzhen. Methods: We randomly chose 3 952 students from 10 high schools in Shenzhen to complete the questionnaires. Data was gathered and analyzed, using the IBM SPSS 23.0. Results: Of the 3 952 participants, 20.3% had neck/shoulder pain and 15.2% had low back pain. Among students experienced neck/shoulder pain, female (25.3%), high school (24.5%) and boarding students (24.4%) experienced higher rates of neck/shoulder pain ( P low back pain ( P pain ( P low back pain ( P pain and low back pain were both commonly seen while high self-perceived stress, sedentary behaviors and poor sleeping habits were associated with both neck/shoulder and low back pain in high school students in Shenzhen.

Control of interior surface materials for speech privacy in high-speed train cabins.

Science.gov (United States)

Jang, H S; Lim, H; Jeon, J Y

2017-05-01

The effect of interior materials with various absorption coefficients on speech privacy was investigated in a 1:10 scale model of one high-speed train cabin geometry. The speech transmission index (STI) and privacy distance (r P ) were measured in the train cabin to quantify speech privacy. Measurement cases were selected for the ceiling, sidewall, and front and back walls and were classified as high-, medium- and low-absorption coefficient cases. Interior materials with high absorption coefficients yielded a low r P , and the ceiling had the largest impact on both the STI and r P among the interior elements. Combinations of the three cases were measured, and the maximum reduction in r P by the absorptive surfaces was 2.4 m, which exceeds the space between two rows of chairs in the high-speed train. Additionally, the contribution of the interior elements to speech privacy was analyzed using recorded impulse responses and a multiple regression model for r P using the equivalent absorption area. The analysis confirmed that the ceiling was the most important interior element for improving speech privacy. These results can be used to find the relative decrease in r P in the acoustic design of interior materials to improve speech privacy in train cabins. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Prevalence and impacts of low back pain among peasant farmers in South-West Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bosede Abidemi Tella

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Objectives: A relationship between low back pain (LBP and poor postures has been previously established with a high prevalence observed in many occupations. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of LBP, associated risk factors and impacts on farmers in South-West Nigeria. Materials and Methods: Six hundred and four farmers completed a 36-item closed-ended questionnaire which was translated to Yoruba language with content validity and back translation done afterwards. The questionnaire sought information on demographic data, 12-month prevalence, severity, history, causes and management of LBP, and its impacts on farm activities and the activities of daily living. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 17. Data was summarized using descriptive statistics of mean, range, frequency, standard deviation, percentage. Chi2 and Mann-Whitney-U test were used to find association between variables. The level of significance was set at α = 0.05. Results: The 12-month prevalence of LBP among the respondents was 74.4%. Low back pain was described as moderate in 53.4%. Prolonged bending (51.3% was the most related risk factor. A considerable proportion (65.9% of the respondents were unable to continue some of the previously enjoyed activities. Males had significantly higher (p < 0.05 prevalence, recurrence and duration of LBP than the females. Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of LBP among farmers in South-West Nigeria. Age, sex and years of involvement in farming have a significant influence on the prevalence of LBP.

Physical activity associate low back pain and intervention program: Review

Science.gov (United States)

Ibrahim, Muhamad Aizat Mat; Hasbollah, Hasif Rafidee; Ibrahim, Mohd Asrul Hery; Marican, Nor Dalila; Halim, Muhd Hafzal Abdul; Rashid, Ahmad Faezi Ab.; Yasin, Nurul Hafizah Mohd

2017-10-01

The person who have low back pain often report impaired disability to performance daily activities which passive movement of daily life. The effects of low back pain on daily function of patients can describe as a patients level of disability or reduction in physical function it interferes with the movement of patients for running a daily lives. Therefore, the aim of this study was to conduct a review to examine the relationship between physical activity and low back pain. Besides that, the suggestion prevention program to patient who has low back pain. This systematic review study was used internet to find databases and search engines. Data were collected using Wiley online library, Bioline International, SAGE, Science Direct, NCBI, ProQuest, Biomed central, American Diabetes Association, PLOS One and Springer. The search was performed using keywords of "physical activity", "low back pain", "back pain", "activity level" and "intervention". The study was reviewed the resources and the results were classified in different section The results were classified based on several sections including years of reporting, who were reporting, the origins of articles and their health criteria about physical activity and low back pain. There are positive associate physical activity and low back pain from the systematic review. Future intervention treatment can reduce associate physical activity to low back pain.