Magnetically guided capsule endoscopy is a promising technology for clinical application. A platform that simulates the magnetic capsule endoscope system is built to study the deformation process of the colon when its lumen suffers local forces. Force-displacement curves of the porcine large intestine under various experiment conditions, including different loading positions (haustra or taeniae coli)

A left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is a surgically implanted mechanical pump being used for patients with end-stage heart failure (HF). One of the significant clinical challenges in using LVADs is its remarkable changes in hemodynamic parameters during a change in body position from supine to standing. In standing position, vasodilatation of veins occurs in the legs, which decreases left ventricular

The main objective of this work is to study the effect of blood pressure and viscosity on flow in a pathological and healthy anatomy. The method chosen for this project is the numerical simulation of fluid dynamics. First, a radiological database from Tlemcen hospital was studied in order to select a patient whose aortic anatomy is representative of the pathology studied in this research project. The

Quantification of segment-inertial uniqueness can provide a relevant foundation for motion analysis, biomechanical modeling and human motor skill optimization of both normal and amputated athletes. It is known that previous studies focused on quantifying Body Segment Inertial Parameters (BSIP) of non-amputated people in order to establish regression equations for calculating BSIPs. Until now, no anthropometrical

The morbidity of cardiovascular disease increasingly rises, which makes great impact upon people’s health and life. Electrocardiogram (ECG) beat classification is of great significance to clinical diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. Traditional ECG signal classification algorithm relies heavily on the accuracy of feature extraction or increases the complexity of the calculation process by means of

The biofilm wrinkle evolution is the growth mechanism by which bacteria regulate their physiological state in response to the environmental change. We use the parameter of surface complexity to describe different wrinkle patterns. The surface complexity is defined that the biofilm surface area contact with the air is divided by the projected area of the biofilm. We find that the biofilm surface complexity

Complication rates of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACL-R) were reported to be around 15%. Although it is a very common arthroscopic surgery with good outcomes, breakage and migration of fixators are still possible to occur due to stability issue. One of the factors that affects the mechanical stability of fixators is its length. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze the biomechanical

Background: Patellar height has been related to anterior knee pain and Osgood–Schlatter disease. To study the influence of patellar height on knee biomechanics, a bidimensional photoelastic prototype of the patellofemoral joint was developed. Methods: Nine tests were performed at different knee flexion angles and patellar heights. A free body diagram was constructed for each test. The following parameters

Recently, we introduced magnetophoretic circuits, composed of overlaid magnetic and metallic layers, as a novel single-cell analysis (SCA) tool. We showed the ability of these circuits in organizing large single-particle and particle-pair arrays. Assembling the cells in microarrays is performed with the ultimate goal of running temporal phenotypic analyses. However, for long-term studies, a suitable

Muscle strength may vary depending on the pathological issues and static life habits. These conditions lead to abnormal spinal loads and change muscle strength as well as activation patterns, thereby causing spinal disorders. In this study, the effects of muscle strength on the spine stabilization exercise were analyzed using a whole-body tilt device. Musculoskeletal modeling was performed and the

Skeletal muscle energy metabolism plays a very important role in controlling movement of the whole body and has important theoretical guidance for making exercise training plans and losing weight. In this paper, we developed a mathematical model of skeletal muscle excitation–contraction pathway based on the energy metabolism that links excitation to contraction to explore the effects of different metabolic

The CT scan protocol optimization for peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) syndrome was performed by organizing seven CT factors [kVp, mAs, pitch, field of view (FOV) (mm), time of rotation (s), slice thickness (mm), and matrix size] into Taguchi unique L18 orthogonal array. The minimum detectable difference (MDD) in the optimizing process was quantified by adopting a customized line group

Mobile robots working in special environment have to adapt for unknown and complex environment characteristics, so high mobility, functional versatility and robustness of mobile robots are required. Different from specialized robot designed for single function in single environment, single unit of modular reconfigurable robots has simple mechanical structure, flexible movement and maneuverability;

Background: Recently, new methods have emerged that encourage voluntary participation by allowing patients to perform tasks, including exercises or treatments, in a virtual reality (VR) environment. Aim: This study aimed to examine the effects of full immersion virtual reality training on balance and knee function in patients who had undergone total knee replacement. Design: Single blind randomized

Rehabilitation robots are playing an important role in restoring movement ability of hemiplegic patients. However, most of these robots adopt motors as actuators. Considering human body is a flexible organism, rigid motors lack compliance when getting in touch with patients. This paper designs an ankle rehabilitation robot by employing pneumatic muscle actuators which are soft and have similar compliance

We aimed to investigate the effect of basic fitness function according to whole-body vibration (WBV) stimulus with slope during deadlift in adults. A total of 15 subjects performed deadlift exercise with a sound-wave vibrator. The subjects consisted of three groups: no slope and WBV group (control), WBV only group (group 1), and slope and WBV group (group 2). Slope was set at 5∘, and the frequency

Hyperpronation of the foot is believed to contribute to ankle hypermobility and associated stiffness reduction, but the underlying biomechanical mechanisms remain unknown. This study aimsed to investigate multidirectional ankle displacement and associated stiffness when a posterior–anterior impact force was applied to the posterior knee compartment. Forty healthy adults with and without foot hyperpronation

Objective: Animal experiments and clinical trials were carried out to evaluate the efficiency of a new stent for the treatment of iliac vein stenosis. Methods: The new iliac vein stent and the control stent were implanted, respectively, into the 12 experimental pigs. Digital Subtraction Angiography was done separately at the same day, 14th, 30th, 60th and 90th day after stent implantation to observe

In this study, we compare the effects of vibration on the knee and ankle torques after performing leg-press exercises for four weeks. A total of 20 participants were randomly assigned to a group for leg-press with vibration (VLP group; nine males, one female, 25.8 years old, 172.3cm, and 73.8kg) and another group for regular leg-press (LP group; eight males, two females, 25.6 years old, 169.6cm, and

This study proposes a method to distinguish between healthy people and Parkinson’s disease patients using sole pressure sensor data, neural network with weighted fuzzy membership (NEWFM), and preprocessing techniques. The preprocessing techniques include fast Fourier transform (FFT), Euclidean distance, and principal component analysis (PCA), to remove noise in the data for performance enhancement

The high-order nonlinear terms are applied to express the strain–stress curves of shape memory alloy (SMA) materials, and a new type of SMA model is proposed. Cough process is regarded as a strong stochastic process, and the mechanical model of an SMA tracheal stent in cough process is proposed where the large deformation caused by cough is considered. The system’s natural frequency is obtained, and

In this study, lift chair was developed to reduce safety accidents in the daily lives of elderly people with reduced muscle strength as the importance of health and well-being of the elderly was emphasized by the increase in the elderly population. In addition, muscle strength characteristics of the elderly and those in their 20s were compared and analyzed when using lift chair. The lift chair used

This study proposes the inverse problem algorithm (IPA) with five risk factors applied to the semi-quantitative analysis of carotid stenosis 272 patients with suspected ischemic stroke. The IPA is known to provide a substantiated machine learning-based prediction of the expected outcomes by solving an inverse matrix of variable coefficients. In case of carotid stenosis prediction, such risk factors

Objective: The present study analyzed the fetal−placental hemodynamic parameters in women with severe preeclampsia in second- and third-trimester pregnancy with a view to developing effective predictive indicators for preeclampsia and providing support for the prenatal clinical treatment of preeclampsia. Materials and Methods: From January 2015 to January 2019, 160 pregnant women diagnosed with severe

Based on the standard Marching Cubes (MC) algorithm, this paper proposes an improved MC algorithm. First, the original 15 topological configurations in the MC algorithm are increased to 24, which effectively avoid the generation of voids phenomenon. To further improve the speed of three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction, in this paper, the midpoint selection method is used instead of the linear interpolation

Gait assessment is important for identification of potential faller among the elderly populations. Slope walking is associated with fall risk factor and elderly women have higher fall rate compared with elderly men. Therefore, this study investigated gait characteristics of elderly women in overground and slope walkway conditions. Thirty healthy elderly women (15 younger-elderly women and 15 older-elderly

In sliding mechanics, resistance to sliding (RS), including friction, binding, and notching, generated at a wire-bracket interface has a bearing on the force transmitted to the teeth and further influences the biomechanical behavior associated with tooth movement efficiency. Objective: This study aimed to propose and verify the insertion of a rectangular thin-walled sleeve between an archwire and a

Differentiating scans without evidence of dopaminergic deficits (SWEDDs) from Parkinson’s disease (PD) is very important to avoid costly and inappropriate interventions. The postural balance strategy patients with SWEDDs are not clear. This study investigates the difference in static postural balance between patients with SWEDDs and PD. Twenty-two patients (11 SWEDDs and 11 PD groups) and 11 control

This study investigates somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) patterns in the C3 somatosensory area with varying frequency and intensity of vibrotactile stimuli. The study subjects included 13 men (23.2±0.8 years) and seven women (22.3±1.5 years) who were right-handed and had normal cognitive function. The participants were subjected to three intensity levels (0.25, 0.38 and 1.3g) and eight frequencies

Whether gait assessment can distinguish patients with scans without evidence of dopaminergic deficit (SWEDD) from normal individuals remains unclear. In the present study, the gait patterns in SWEDD patients and normal individuals were investigated. 10 patients with SWEDD and 10 healthy normal subjects were recruited. A GaitRite linear walkway was used to quantitatively assess level walking. Eight

Biodegradable zinc alloy stents offer a prospective solution to mitigate incompatibility between artery and permanent stents. However, biodegradable stents are restricted in clinical therapy mainly because of their insufficient support for opening of stenotic vessel. As an effort to resolve this challenging problem, a novel structure of zinc alloy stent which significantly enhanced scaffold performance

Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are widely used as an effective method for epilepsy analysis and diagnosis. For the establishment of an accurate and efficient epilepsy EEG identification system, it is very important to properly extract the features of EEG signals and select appropriate combination features. This paper proposes an automatic epileptic EEG identification method based on hybrid feature

Accident data show that lower limb is one of the most frequently injured body parts for cyclists in vehicle collisions. However, studies of cyclist lower limb injuries and protection are still sparse. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the kinematics and injury mechanism of cyclist lower limb in vehicle-to-bicycle collisions considering different impact boundary conditions. To achieve

Brain tumor segmentation from magnetic resonance (MR) image is vital for both the diagnosis and treatment of brain cancers. To alleviate noise sensitivity and improve stability of segmentation, an effective hybrid clustering algorithm combined with fast guided filter is proposed for brain tumor segmentation in this paper. Preprocessing is performed using adaptive Wiener filtering combined with a fast

In this paper, the monophasic catalytic reaction in the microreactor is studied. Several factors that may affect the catalytic reaction are discussed, including the pressure drop, the size of catalyst particles, and the channel structure. Finally, some important conclusions can be reached. The change of pressure drop has an effect on the reaction. For example, the C3H6 conversion rate is 62.88% when

In the real world, traumatic injuries are measured using the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS), however, such a scale cannot be computed to date or the injury precisely located by using human computer models. These models use stresses and strains to evaluate whether serious or fatal injuries are reached, which unfortunately bear no direct relation to AIS. This paper proposes to overcome this deficiency

The Computer-Aided Diagnostic (CAD) system is an important tool that helps radiologists to provide a second opinion for the early detection of breast cancer and therefore, aids to reduce the mortality rates. In this work, we try to develop a new (CAD) system to classify mammograms into benign or malignant. The proposed system consists of three main steps. The preprocessing stage consists of noise filtering

Recently, photoplethysmography (PPG)-based techniques have been extensively used for cuff-less, automated estimation of blood pressure because of their inexpensive and effortless acquisition technology compared to other conventional approaches. However, most of the reported PPG-based, generalized BP estimation methods often lack the desired accuracy due to pathophysiological diversity. Moreover, some

Purpose anterior cervical decompression and fusion is a common surgical procedure. Traditionally, experienced doctors observe X-ray films regularly examined by patients to determine postoperative conditions by observing the tiny movements between the limited vertebral bodies. But it is not accurate. This may lead to error diagnostics and serious deterioration of the condition and secondary injury to

Deploying a stent to restore blood flow in the coronary artery is very complicated, as its internal diameter is smaller than 3mm. It has already been proven that mechanical stresses induced on stent and artery during deployment make the placement of stent very difficult, besides the development of complications due to artery damage. Various stent designs have already been developed, especially in the

Cardiovascular diseases have become one of the world’s leading causes of death today. Several decision-making systems have been developed with computer-aided support to help the cardiologists in detecting heart disease and thereby minimizing the mortality rate. This paper uses an unexplored sub-domain related to textural features for classifying phonocardiogram (PCG) as normal or abnormal using Grey

Objective: Understand the cognition of mobile internet active population on the risk factors of diabetes. Methods: The internet survey through anonymous questionnaires with independent IP was carried out, in which the mobile internet active population were evaluated on their cognition degree to the risk factors of diabetes. Results: The awareness of the risk factors of diabetes in mobile internet active

In this paper, problems concerning the uniaxial experimental investigation of the human abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) biomechanical characteristics, concomitant values of the associated Cauchy stress, failure (ultimate) stress in AAA, and the constitutive modeling of AAA are considered. The aim of this paper is to review and compare the disposable experimental data, to reveal the reasons for the

Objective: The main objective of this study was to assess the accuracy of bottom-up solution for three-dimensional (3D) inverse dynamics analysis of squat lifting using a 3D full body linked segment model. Least squares solution was used in this study as reference for assessment of the accuracy of bottom-up solution. Findings of this study may clarify how much the bottom-up solution can be reliable

Background: Adequate research is not reported so far to underline the influence of commonly used polycentric knee joints on gait performance of subjects with trans-femoral amputation. Objective: The intent of this investigation is to analyze prosthetic gait of unilateral traumatic trans-femoral amputees with polycentric four-bar linkage knee and compare it with normal subjects for evaluating any asymmetry

In this study, we developed an equi-load biaxial tensile tester and applied it to a series of mechanical tests using specimens obtained from the porcine spinal dura mater. The dural sample exhibited a nonlinear and anisotropic behavior as it was more deformable in the longitudinal direction rather than in the circumferential direction at lower strains; i.e., mechanical response of the longitudinal

To assist bedridden patients to do rehabilitation exercise in bed, a kind of adjustable rehabilitation training device was designed and kinematic analysis was performed on the model of this device. It is shown that this device can generate trajectory similar to the ankle trajectory of normal gait. Based on the analysis, the human–machine integrated model was then built and biomechanical analysis was

This study explores whether an on-water kayak-specific resistance exercise (KSRE) performed during the warm-up period can induce postactivation potentiation (PAP) to improve subsequent kayak-sprint performance. The KSRE involves stringing several tennis balls around the boat’s hull to induce drag while paddling. In a laboratory setting, 10 well-trained male (N=6) and female (N=4) kayakers performed

Nowadays, the investigation of aortic wall biomechanics is a fundamental tool in clinical research and vascular prosthesis design. This study aims at analyzing the biomechanical behavior of aortic tissues using a coupled experimental and computational approach. Considering the typical fiber-reinforced configuration of aortic tissues, uni-axial tensile tests along six different loading directions were

Background: The complicated basilar invagination and atlantoaxial dislocation (BI-AAD) can cause a variety of neurological symptoms. Active treatment should be given. The main method of surgical treatment is to relieve the compression of the ventral bone of the brain stem and to fix the unstable spinal segments for fusion. At present, more surgical methods choose modified posterior cervical reduction

Purpose: The main aim of this paper is to study the influence of temperature on multiscale entropy (MSE) and multiscale time irreversibility (MTI) through the use of short-term measurements. Methods: A total of 12 physically active, healthy, and nonsmoker individuals (25.6±3.9 years old; 174.2±7.5cm of height; and 68.6±11.1kg of body mass) voluntarily participated in this study. Two beat-to-beat recordings

Understanding the deformation of arterial walls under loading is essential for the definition of some new therapeutic protocols. This requires the modeling of the mechanical behavior of the artery wall. In this work, in order to account for the microstructure, each of the conventional three layers of the artery is assumed to behave like a dilatation elastic solid. The resulting compound is then submitted

Load dependence must be kept in mind when evaluating mattress pressure redistribution, to prevent the development of pressure ulcers at bony prominences. However, there is no standardized method for analyzing load-dependent behavior after mattress pressure redistribution. In this study, a portable palmtop device with a simple load-sensing mechanism was developed for measuring the mean pressure exerted

Individuals with transtibial amputation exhibit altered movement strategy to sustain stability during quiet standing due to reduced proprioception on the amputated limb. The aim of this study is to determine the movement strategies in anterior–posterior and medial–lateral directions in predicting the overall postural stability. In this crossover study, postural stability of ten transtibial amputees

Study of biomechanical characteristics of muscles can provide an effective reference for the training of athletes. Football is a vigorous sport, and physical collision and damage are frequent during competition and training. In order to improve football skills and prevent sports injuries, 10 athletes from Sport College of Shaoyang University, Hunan, China, were tested for isokinetic muscle strength

The orthodontists generally do not recommend application of force system above the archwire level owing to additional attachments and patient’s discomfort. Hence, the present research study focusses on application of retraction force system at the archwire level. The objective of this study is to specify an optimum combination of archwire and bracket slot size for en-masse (simultaneous) parallel retraction

Dentin, the main tissue of the tooth, is made of tubules surrounded by peri-tubular dentin (PTD), embedded in a matrix of inter-tubular dentin (ITD). The PTD and the ITD have different relative fractions of collagen and hydroxyapatite crystals. The ITD is typically less rigid than the PTD, which can be seen as a set of parallel hollow cylindrical reinforcements in the ITD matrix. In this paper, we

This work focuses on the Lacunar–Canalicular Porosity (PLC) of cortical bone which includes the osteons. Osteons are semicylindrical porous structures saturated with fluid within the bone and are approximately 250μm in diameter. The outer boundary of the osteon is called the cement line. Some studies suggested that the cement line is less highly mineralized and produced evidence that it has less calcium

Background: In coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), the patency of venous sequential graft remains controversial. Hemodynamic factors have been proved to be the important factors influencing graft patency. The objective of this study is to compare the patency of sequential grafts and normal grafts by hemodynamic environment. Methods: This study used a patient’s clinical data to construct a 0D/3D

The study of lower limb movements plays an important role in many fields, such as rehabilitation and treatment of disabled patients, detection, and monitoring of daily life, as well as the interaction between people and machine, like the application of intelligent prosthetics. In this paper, the wireless device was used to collect the mechanomyography (MMG) signals of four thigh muscles (rectus femoris