Apparatus for monitoring load bearing rehabilitation exercises of a transfemoral amputee fitted with an osseointegrated fixation : a proof-of-concept study

The purpose of this proof-of-concept study was to determine the relevance of direct measurements to monitor the load applied on the osseointegrated fixation of transfemoral amputees during static load bearing exercises. The objectives were (A) to introduce an apparatus using a three-dimensional load transducer, (B) to present a range of derived information relevant to clinicians, (C) to report on the outcomes of a pilot study and (D) to compare the measurements from the transducer with those from the current method using a weighing scale. One transfemoral amputee fitted with an osseointegrated implant was asked to apply 10 kg, 20 kg, 40 kg and 80 kg on the fixation, using self-monitoring with the weighing scale. The loading was directly measured with a portable kinetic system including a six-channel transducer, external interface circuitry and a laptop. As the load prescribed increased from 10 kg to 80 kg, the forces and moments applied on and around the antero-posterior axis increased by 4 fold anteriorly and 14 fold medially, respectively. The forces and moments applied on and around the medio-lateral axis increased by 9 fold laterally and 16 fold from anterior to posterior, respectively. The long axis of the fixation was overloaded and underloaded in 17 % and 83 % of the trials, respectively, by up to ±10 %. This proof-of-concept study presents an apparatus that can be used by clinicians facing the challenge of improving basic knowledge on osseointegration, for the design of equipment for load bearing exercises and for rehabilitation programs.

Improvement of stability and load sharing in an autonomous microgrid using supplementary droop control loop

This paper investigates the problem of appropriate load sharing in an autonomous microgrid. High gain angle droop control ensures proper load sharing, especially under weak system conditions. However it has a negative impact on overall stability. Frequency domain modeling, eigenvalue analysis and time domain simulations are used to demonstrate this conflict. A supplementary loop is proposed around a conventional droop control of each DG converter to stabilize the system while using high angle droop gains. Control loops are based on local power measurement and modulation of the d-axis voltage reference of each converter. Coordinated design of supplementary control loops for each DG is formulated as a parameter optimization problem and solved using an evolutionary technique. The sup-plementary droop control loop is shown to stabilize the system for a range of operating conditions while ensuring satisfactory load sharing.

Load sharing and power quality enhanced operation of a distributed microgrid

This paper describes control methods for proper load sharing between parallel converters connected in a microgrid and supplied by distributed generators (DGs). It is assumed that the microgrid spans a large area and it supplies loads in both in grid connected and islanded modes. A control strategy is proposed to improve power quality and proper load sharing in both islanded and grid connected modes. It is assumed that each of the DGs has a local load connected to it which can be unbalanced and/or nonlinear. The DGs compensate the effects of unbalance and nonlinearity of the local loads. Common loads are also connected to the microgrid, which are supplied by the utility grid under normal conditions. However during islanding, each of the DGs supplies its local load and shares the common load through droop characteristics. Both impedance and motor loads are considered to verify the system response. The efficacy of the controller has been validated through simulation for various operating conditions using PSCAD. It has been found through simulation that the total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the of the microgrid voltage is about 10% and the negative and zero sequence component are around 20% of the positive sequence component before compensation. After compensation, the THD remain below 0.5%, whereas, negative and zero sequence components of the voltages remain below 0.02% of the positive sequence component.

Composite load model decomposition : induction motor contribution

In this thesis, a new technique has been developed for determining the composition of a collection of loads including induction motors. The application would be to provide a representation of the dynamic electrical load of Brisbane so that the ability of the power system to survive a given fault can be predicted. Most of the work on load modelling to date has been on post disturbance analysis, not on continuous on-line models for loads. The post disturbance methods are unsuitable for load modelling where the aim is to determine the control action or a safety margin for a specific disturbance. This thesis is based on on-line load models. Dr. Tania Parveen considers 10 induction motors with different power ratings, inertia and torque damping constants to validate the approach, and their composite models are developed with different percentage contributions for each motor. This thesis also shows how measurements of a composite load respond to normal power system variations and this information can be used to continuously decompose the load continuously and to characterize regarding the load into different sizes and amounts of motor loads.

Load on osseointegrated fixation of a transfemoral amputee during a fall : loading, descent, impact and recovery analysis

Falling represents a health risk for lower limb amputees fitted with an osseointegrated fixation mainly because of the potential damage to the fixation. The purpose of this study was to characterise a real forward fall that occurred inadvertently to a transfemoral amputee fitted with an osseointegrated fixation while attending a gait measurement session to assess the load applied on the residuum. The objective was to analyse the load applied on the fixation with an emphasis on the sequence of events, the pattern and the magnitude of the forces and moments. The load was measured directly at 200 Hz using a six-channel transducer. Complementary video footage was also studied. The fall was divided into four phases: loading (240 ms), descent (620 ms), impact (365 ms) and recovery (2495 ms). The main impact forces and moments occurred 870 ms and 915 ms after the heel contact, and corresponded to 133 %BW and 17 %BWm, or 1.2 and 11.2 times the maximum forces and moments applied during the previous steps of the participant, respectively. This study provided key information to engineers and clinicians facing the challenge to design equipment, and rehabilitation and exercise programs to restore safely the locomotion of lower limb amputees.

Impact of cognitive load and frustration on drivers’ speech [Abstract]

Secondary tasks such as cell phone calls or interaction with automated speech dialog systems (SDSs) increase the driver’s cognitive load as well as the probability of driving errors. This study analyzes speech production variations due to cognitive load and emotional state of drivers in real driving conditions. Speech samples were acquired from 24 female and 17 male subjects (approximately 8.5 h of data) while talking to a co-driver and communicating with two automated call centers, with emotional states (neutral, negative) and the number of necessary SDS query repetitions also labeled. A consistent shift in a number of speech production parameters (pitch, first format center frequency, spectral center of gravity, spectral energy spread, and duration of voiced segments) was observed when comparing SDS interaction against co-driver interaction; further increases were observed when considering negative emotion segments and the number of requested SDS query repetitions. A mel frequency cepstral coefficient based Gaussian mixture classifier trained on 10 male and 10 female sessions provided 91% accuracy in the open test set task of distinguishing co-driver interactions from SDS interactions, suggesting—together with the acoustic analysis—that it is possible to monitor the level of driver distraction directly from their speech.

A general approach to control a positive buck-boost converter to achieve robustness against input voltage fluctuations and load changes

A Positive Buck-Boost converter is a known DC-DC converter which may be controlled to act as Buck or Boost converter with same polarity of the input voltage. This converter has four switching states which include all the switching states of the above mentioned DC-DC converters. In addition there is one switching state which provides a degree of freedom for the positive Buck-Boost converter in comparison to the Buck, Boost, and inverting Buck-Boost converters. In other words the Positive Buck-Boost Converter shows a higher level of flexibility for its inductor current control compared to the other DC-DC converters. In this paper this extra degree of freedom is utilised to increase the robustness against input voltage fluctuations and load changes. To address this capacity of the positive Buck-Boost converter, two different control strategies are proposed which control the inductor current and output voltage against any fluctuations in input voltage and load changes. Mathematical analysis for dynamic and steady state conditions are presented in this paper and simulation results verify the proposed method.

Multi-output buck-boost converter with enhanced dynamic response to load and input voltage changes

This paper presents a new multi-output DC/DC converter topology that has step-up and step-down conversion capabilities. In this topology, several output voltages can be generated which can be used in different applications such as multilevel converters with diode-clamped topology or power supplies with several voltage levels. Steady state and dynamic equations of the proposed multi-output converter have been developed, that can be used for steady state and transient analysis. Two control techniques have been proposed for this topology based on constant and dynamic hysteresis band height control to address different applications. Simulations have been performed for different operating modes and load conditions to verify the proposed topology and its control technique. Additionally, a laboratory prototype is designed and implemented to verify the simulation results.

Decomposition of aggregated load : finding induction motor fraction in real load

The main contribution of this paper is decomposition/separation of the compositie induction motors load from measurement at a system bus. In power system transmission buses load is represented by static and dynamic loads. The induction motor is considered as the main dynamic loads and in the practice for major transmission buses there will be many and various induction motors contributing. Particularly at an industrial bus most of the load is dynamic types. Rather than traing to extract models of many machines this paper seeks to identify three groups of induction motors to represent the dynamic loads. Three groups of induction motors used to characterize the load. These are the small groups (4kw to 11kw), the medium groups (15kw to 180kw) and the large groups (above 630kw). At first these groups with different percentage contribution of each group is composite. After that from the composite models, each motor percentage contribution is decomposed by using the least square algorithms. In power system commercial and the residential buses static loads percentage is higher than the dynamic loads percentage. To apply this theory to other types of buses such as residential and commerical it is good practice to represent the total load as a combination of composite motor loads, constant impedence loads and constant power loads. To validate the theory, the 24hrs of Sydney West data is decomposed according to the three groups of motor models.

Dynamic load sharing for heavy vehicles : a new metric

Dynamic load sharing can be defined as a measure of the ability of a heavy vehicle multi-axle group to equalise load across its wheels under typical travel conditions; i.e. in the dynamic sense at typical travel speeds and operating conditions of that vehicle. Various attempts have been made to quantify the ability of heavy vehicles to equalise the load across their wheels during travel. One of these was the concept of the load sharing coefficient (LSC). Other metrics such as the dynamic load coefficient (DLC) have been used to compare one heavy vehicle suspension with another for potential road damage. This paper compares these metrics and determines a relationship between DLC and LSC with sensitivity analysis of this relationship. The shortcomings of these presently-available metrics are discussed with a new metric proposed - the dynamic load equalisation (DLE) measure.

Analysis and detection of cognitive load and frustration in drivers' speech

Non-driving related cognitive load and variations of emotional state may impact a driver’s capability to control a vehicle and introduces driving errors. Availability of reliable cognitive load and emotion detection in drivers would benefit the design of active safety systems and other intelligent in-vehicle interfaces. In this study, speech produced by 68 subjects while driving in urban areas is analyzed. A particular focus is on speech production differences in two secondary cognitive tasks, interactions with a co-driver and calls to automated spoken dialog systems (SDS), and two emotional states during the SDS interactions - neutral/negative. A number of speech parameters are found to vary across the cognitive/emotion classes. Suitability of selected cepstral- and production-based features for automatic cognitive task/emotion classification is investigated. A fusion of GMM/SVM classifiers yields an accuracy of 94.3% in cognitive task and 81.3% in emotion classification.

A vibration based method to update axial shortening of load bearing elements

Axial shortening in vertical load bearing elements of reinforced concrete high-rise buildings is caused by the time dependent effects of shrinkage, creep and elastic shortening of concrete under loads. Such phenomenon has to be predicted at design stage and then updated during and after construction of the buildings in order to provide mitigation against the adverse effects of differential axial shortening among the elements. Existing measuring methods for updating previous predictions of axial shortening pose problems. With this in mind, a innovative procedure with a vibration based parameter called axial shortening index is proposed to update axial shortening of vertical elements based on variations in vibration characteristics of the buildings. This paper presents the development of the procedure and illustrates it through a numerical example of an unsymmetrical high-rise building with two outrigger and belt systems. Results indicate that the method has the capability to capture influence of different tributary areas, shear walls of outrigger and belt systems as well as the geometric complexity of the building.

Zinc supplementation at conventional doses does not improve the disturbance of taste perception in hemodialysis patients

Objective: To determine the effect of zinc supplementation on taste perception in a group of hemodialysis patients. Design and Setting: Double-blind randomized placebo-controlled study in a teaching hospital dialysis unit. Patients: Fifteen stable hemodialysis patients randomized to placebo (6 male, 2 female; median age, 67; range, 30 to 72 years) or treatment (5 male, 2 female; median age, 60; range, 31 to 76 years). Intervention: Treatment group received zinc sulfate 220 mg per day for 6 weeks, and the placebo group received an apparently identical dummy pill. Main Outcome Measures: Taste scores by visual analogue scales, normalized protein catabolic rate and plasma, whole blood and red cell zinc levels. Results: At baseline, sweet and salt tastes were identified correctly by both groups. Sour was often confused with salt. Sour solutions of different concentrations were not distinguishable. Taste scores were not different after 6 weeks for either group. There was no significant increment in zinc levels or normalized protein catabolic rate for either group. Conclusion: We found a disturbance of taste perception in hemodialysis patients, particularly for the sour modality, which was not corrected by this regimen of zinc supplementation. These results cast doubts on the conclusions of earlier studies that indicated an improvement in taste after zinc supplementation.