Manual Manipulation Research Articles

The design of an inkjet drive waveform using machine learning

A drive waveform, which needs to be optimized with ink’s fluid properties, is critical to reliable inkjet printing. A generally adopted rule of thumb for its design is mostly dependent on time-consuming and repetitive manual manipulation of its parameters. This work presents a closed-loop machine learning approach to designing an optimal drive waveform for satellite-free inkjet printing at a target velocity. Each of the representative 11 model inks with different fluid properties was ink-jetted with 1100 distinct waveform designs. The high-speed images of their jetting behaviors were acquired and the big datasets of the resulting drop formation and velocity were extracted from the jetting images. Five machine learning models were examined and compared to predict the characteristics of jetting behavior. Among a variety of machine learning models, Multi-layer Perceptron affords the highest prediction accuracy. A closed-loop prediction algorithm that determined the optimal set of waveform parameters for satellite-free drop formation at a target velocity and employed the most superior learning model was established. The proposed method was confirmed through the printing of an unknown model ink with a recommended waveform.

24 Prevalence, Usage, and Perceptions of Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy (PEMF) in the Equine Industry

Abstract The use of alternative therapies in the equine industry is increasing in popularity and spans manual manipulation to more progressive forms of technology. Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF) has shown to reduce pain and increase range of motion within human and canine medicine. Often, PEMF is touted to improve performance and reduce stress prior to competition, yet little information exists on effectiveness, perceptions, treatment protocols, and therapeutic response within equids. Our objective was to assess how PEMF is administered and perceived therapy impact on equine patients. An online survey (Qualtrics) was disseminated to United States residents over 18 years of age and deemed exempt by the institutional review board. Data were analyzed using the frequency procedure in SAS (v9.4). Three groups within the equine industry were targeted: equine owners and leasers (OL, n = 350); trainers, coaches, grooms, and jockeys (TC, n = 80); and administrators of PEMF therapy (AD, n = 237). Across all survey respondents (n = 355), 86% (n = 305) exercise or ride their horses and 85.08% (n = 268) of individuals who ride have used PEMF therapy on their performance horse. Among TC, 96.25% (n = 77) respondents reported the use of PEMF therapy on a horse under their care. Whole body therapy was the most commonly reported location for PEMF by OL (91.6%, n = 240) and AD (96.12%, n = 223), followed by back and loin(47.33%, 124) for OL and front legs (56.47%, n = 131) for AD. Most frequent session length reported by OL was 45-90 minutes (30.96%, n = 61). Within 1 day of treatment, the majority of AD (n = 85, 40.28%) and OL (n = 104, 39.54%) perceived the greatest effects of PEMF therapy. Use and positive perception of PEMF in the equine industry is evident; however, more research is needed to elicit therapeutic effects for performance animals.

Growing and Evolving 3-D Prints

Design - especially of physical objects - can be understood as creative acts solving practical problems. In this paper we describe a biologically-inspired developmental model as the basis of a generative form-finding system. Using local interactions between cells in a two-dimensional environment, then capturing the state of the system at every time step, complex three-dimensional (3D) forms can be generated by the system. Unlike previous systems, our method is capable of directly producing 3D printable objects, eliminating intermediate transformations and manual manipulation often necessary to ensure the 3D form is printable. We devise fitness measures for optimising 3D printability and aesthetic complexity and use a Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolutionary Strategies algorithm (CMA-ES) to find 3D forms that are both aesthetically interesting and physically printable using fused deposition modelling printing techniques. We investigate the system's capabilities by evolving and 3D printing objects at different levels of structural consistency, and assess the quality of the fitness measures presented to explore the design space of our generative system. We find that by evolving first for aesthetic complexity, then evolving for structural consistency until the form is 'just printable', gives the best results.

Novel two-dimensional materials and their heterostructures constructed in ultra-high vacuum

Compared with the three-dimensional bulk materials, two-dimensional (2D) materials exhibit superior electronic, optical, thermal, and mechanical properties due to the reduced dimensionality. The quantum confinement effect of 2D materials gives rise to exotic physical properties, and receives extensive attention of the scientists. Lots of routes to fabricate the 2D materials have been proposed by the material scientists, including the traditional mechanical exfoliation, chemical vapor deposition, molecular beam epitaxy under ultra-high vacuum (UHV), and so on. Among them, fabricating materials under ultra-high vacuum has the advantages of constructing large-scale and high-quality samples, and is therefore widely adopted in the 2D material growth. In this paper, we review three different strategies of growing 2D materials under UHV conditions, including molecular beam epitaxy, graphene intercalation and manual manipulation by nano probes. We compare the advantages and drawbacks among those methods in creating 2D materials, and try to provide some guidance to the community, especially those who are new to the field.

Electromyographic Responses of Neck, Back, and Limb Outlet Muscles Associated With High-Velocity, Low-Amplitude Manual Cervical and Upper Thoracic Spinal Manipulation of Individuals With Mild Neck Disability: A Descriptive Observational Investigation

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of electromyographic responses associated with manual high-velocity, low-amplitude (HVLA) spinal manipulation systematically applied to the upper and lower cervical and upper thoracic spines in a cohort with mild neck disability. MethodsThe study was a descriptive observational investigation, with all participants receiving the same interventions. Nineteen participants with mild neck disability received 6 manual HVLA manipulations to the cervical and upper thoracic spine. Bipolar surface electromyography electrode pairs were used to measure responses of 16 neck, back, and limb outlet muscles bilaterally. The number of electromyographic responses was then calculated. ResultsElectromyographic responses associated with cervical and thoracic manipulation occurred in a median of 4 of the 16 (range: 1-14) recorded muscles. Cervical spinal manipulation was associated with the highest rates of electromyographic responses in neck muscles, whereas responses in back muscles were highest after upper thoracic manipulation. ConclusionCervical spinal manipulation was associated with the highest rate of electromyographic responses in muscles of the cervical spine (sternocleidomastoid and splenius cervicis), whereas responses in back muscles (upper and middle trapezius, latissimus dorsi, and longissimus thoracis) were highest after upper thoracic manipulations. This result suggests that electromyographic muscular responses associated with spinal manipulation primarily occur locally (close to the target segment) rather than distally.

Analysis of Thermogenesis Experiments with CalR.

Modern indirect calorimetry systems allow for high-frequency time series measurements of the factors affected by thermogenesis: energy intake and energy expenditure. These indirect calorimetry systems generate a flood of raw data recording oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, physical activity, and food intake among other factors. Analysis of these data requires time-consuming manual manipulation for formatting, data cleaning, quality control, and visualization. Beyond data handling, analyses of indirect calorimetry experiments require specialized statistical treatment to account for differential contributions of fat mass and lean mass to metabolic rates.Here we describe how to use the software package CalR version 1.2, to analyze indirect calorimetry data from three examples of thermogenesis, cold exposure, adrenergic agonism, and hyperthyroidism in mice, by providing standardized methods for reproducible research. CalR is a free online tool with an easy-to-use graphical user interface to import data files from the Columbus Instruments' CLAMS, Sable Systems' Promethion, and TSE Systems' PhenoMaster. Once loaded, CalR can quickly visualize experimental results and perform basic statistical analyses. We present a framework that standardizes the data structures and analyses of indirect calorimetry experiments to provide reusable and reproducible methods for the physiological data affecting body weight.

Approach to management of penile fracture- Our Three-year experience at a Teaching Hospital

Introduction: Penile fracture is a rare surgical emergency. It usually occurs as a single rupture of the tunica albuginea in one of the two corpora cavernosa; a rupture of both masses is an uncommon finding. We conducted this study to determine the etiology, clinical presentation and to review the causes and management of penile fracture. Methods: The retrospective study was carried out on 17 patients, admitted in the department of Urosurgery from January 2017 to December 2020 with penile fracture in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Kathmandu. Patient demographic profile, etiology, clinical presentation, time interval from injury to presentation, investigation done, treatment given and intraoperative findings were analyzed. Results: The main cause of penile fractures was sexual intercourse (82.35%) followed by manual manipulation (17.65%). Crackling sound (100%) followed by penile hematoma and pain were the most common presenting symptoms among the patients. Surgical exploration and repair of injury was done in all patients. Conclusion: Most of the time diagnosis of penile fracture can be made reliably by history and physical examination. Early surgical intervention is associated with a good outcome, regardless of the timing of presentation.

Fabrication of an align-random distinct, heterogeneous nanofiber mat endowed with bifunctional properties for engineered 3D cardiac anisotropy

The development of multilayered anisotropic scaffolds with a 3D anisotropy similar to that of native cardiac tissue with layer-specific oriented multiple cell layers is a major challenge in the reconstruction of engineered cardiac tissue in vitro. Herein, we present an electrospun align-random distinct, heterogeneous nanofiber (NF) mat to facilitate the construction of a multilayered anisotropic scaffold with different orientations, which recreates the cardiac anisotropy via hollow patterned electrolyte-assisted electrospinning (HP-ELES). Based on the HP-ELES process, a distinct but heterogeneous polycaprolactone (PCL) NF mat, which comprised an ultra-thin (<10 μm) aligned NF membrane at the core and a thick random NF mat at the peripheral rim, was readily fabricated. The fabricated heterogeneous NF mat was endowed with bifunctional properties of not only uniaxially aligned topographical cues to align the cardiomyocytes (CMs) followed by creating a uniaxial contractile motion but also mechanical stability to enable manual manipulation provided by the aligned NF membrane and random NF mat, respectively. Intriguingly, the in vitro cell culture of CMs possessing spontaneous contraction on the heterogeneous NF mat demonstrated cell alignment and subsequent uniaxial contraction along with aligned NFs. The stacking triple layers also exhibited multiaxial contraction, which potentially simulates the squeezing force of the heart tissue. HP-ELES is highly expected to increase the use of ultra-thin aligned NF membranes for the development of in vitro anisotropic organ models and for in vivo tissue regeneration requiring multilayered anisotropic scaffolds owing to the ease of the manual manipulation of the membrane.

Concept of 'Central' or 'Axial' Atlantoaxial Instability

The atlantoaxial joint is the most mobile joint of the spine and is most liable to develop instability. Atlantoaxial instability can be identified on observation of facetal alignment on lateral profile imaging, telltale clinical and radiological evidence and by direct observation of instability by manual manipulation of bones during surgery. Central or axial atlantoaxial instability is when there is no abnormal increase in atlantodental interval on dynamic imaging and there is no dural or neural compression by the odontoid process. Understanding and appropriately treating central or axial atlantoaxial instability can have clinical implications.

Task dynamics define the contextual emergence of human corralling behaviors.

Social animals have the remarkable ability to organize into collectives to achieve goals unobtainable to individual members. Equally striking is the observation that despite differences in perceptual-motor capabilities, different animals often exhibit qualitatively similar collective states of organization and coordination. Such qualitative similarities can be seen in corralling behaviors involving the encirclement of prey that are observed, for example, during collaborative hunting amongst several apex predator species living in disparate environments. Similar encirclement behaviors are also displayed by human participants in a collaborative problem-solving task involving the herding and containment of evasive artificial agents. Inspired by the functional similarities in this behavior across humans and non-human systems, this paper investigated whether the containment strategies displayed by humans emerge as a function of the task's underlying dynamics, which shape patterns of goal-directed corralling more generally. This hypothesis was tested by comparing the strategies naïve human dyads adopt during the containment of a set of evasive artificial agents across two disparate task contexts. Despite the different movement types (manual manipulation or locomotion) required in the different task contexts, the behaviors that humans display can be predicted as emergent properties of the same underlying task-dynamic model.

Development of an agar-plug cultivation system for bioactivity assays of actinomycete strain collections.

Natural products are an important source of lead compounds for the development of drug substances. Actinomycetes have been valuable especially for the discovery of antibiotics. Increasing occurrence of antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens has revived the interest in actinomycete natural product research. Actinobacteria produce a different set of natural products when cultivated on solid growth media compared with submersed culture. Bioactivity assays involving solid media (e.g. agar-plug assays) require manual manipulation of the strains and agar plugs. This is less convenient for the screening of larger strain collections of several hundred or thousand strains. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop a 96-well microplate-based system suitable for the screening of actinomycete strain collections in agar-plug assays. We developed a medium-throughput cultivation and agar-plug assay workflow that allows the convenient inoculation of solid agar plugs with actinomycete spore suspensions from a strain collection, and the transfer of the agar plugs to petri dishes to conduct agar-plug bioactivity assays. The development steps as well as the challenges that were overcome during the development (e.g. system sterility, handling of the agar plugs) are described. We present the results from one exemplary screening campaign targeted to identify compounds inhibiting Agr-based quorum sensing where the workflow was used successfully. We present a novel and convenient workflow to combine agar diffusion assays with microtiter-plate-based cultivation systems in which strains can grow on a solid surface. This workflow facilitates and speeds up the initial medium throughput screening of natural product-producing actinomycete strain collections against monitor strains in agar-plug assays.

Design of a Mechatronic Interface with Compliant Manipulator for Robot Assisted Echocardiography

A compliant manipulator with a compound soft actuator is proposed for robot-assisted echocardiography. The target application is devoted to the TOE echo (Trans-oesophageal echocardiography), which is conventionally performed by medical practitioners. The manual manipulation of the echocardiography probe shows significant risks such as human errors, exposure to ionizing radiation, and multitasking complexity. Automation of TOE provides advantages in terms of control, safety, and workload of the operator. This paper proposes a teleoperated robotic system assisting the physician to perform TOE, to be used in cardiac catheterization laboratories as well as hybrid operation theatres. A system containing a holder with master-slave Dynamixel servos and a manipulator with soft actuators has been developed. To alleviate the major lack of the previous designs in conducting the insertion tube, a robotic arm with a soft structure is proposed that has not hazards of conventional robot manipulators. The fundamental equations and relations for quasi-static control of the system are developed in this paper.

Clinico-radiological outcome of distal radius fractures managed with closed reduction during COVID-19 pandemic

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background:&lt;/strong&gt; distal radius fractures are the most common fractures of the upper extremity and account for more than 1/6 of all fractures treated in emergency department the elderly population account for 18% of all distal end radius fractures and have a significant impact on health of young adults. An optimal outcome of closed treatment of a Colle’s fracture may depend on accurate reduction and adequate immobilization.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="abstract"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Methods:&lt;/strong&gt; A total 45 patients with displaced Colle’s-type fractures were subjected to treatment with closed reduction with manual manipulation. The fractures were assessed radiographically by measurement of the radial angle, dorsal tilt, and radial shortening before reduction, immediately after reduction, and at one and five weeks after reduction. Data was recorded and assessed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="abstract"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results: &lt;/strong&gt;Anatomical outcome as per Sarmiento criteria. 66.67% patients had excellent result with no residual Deformity, 17.77% patients had good result with mild residual deformity, 8.88% of them show fair results with moderate residual deformity and 6.66 % had poor outcome.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="abstract"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusions: &lt;/strong&gt;Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was burden on all including patients and medical fraternity, and considering looming threat of third wave and delta variant of virus, our study material can be used to make guidelines for optimal utilisation of orthopaedic fraternity, who have to work in COVID wards as well as trauma wards, our study shows that proper technique of fracture reduction with patient counselling and early physiotherapy can yield good results in fracture which can be managed conservatively.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;

De Spaanse inchoatiefconstructie in beeld. Clusteranalyse als antwoord op het quasi-synonymie vraagstuk

This study about the productivity and the near-synonymy of the inchoative construction in Peninsular Spanish reveals that at least 25 verbs can enter the auxiliary slot. These auxiliaries are recruited from six semantic domains: (1) superlexical inherent inchoative verbs, (2) put verbs, (3) throw verbs, (4) movement verbs, (5) manual manipulation verbs and (6) verbs of destruction. This study confirms that a hierarchical cluster analysis is suited to investigate the near-synonymy of semantically related verbs as it unfolds interesting clusters for the inchoative auxiliaries. Concretely, the hierarchical cluster analysis divides the auxiliaries into three clusters. A first one with the superlexical auxiliaries (comenzar, empezar and iniciar), a second cluster with the put verbs (meter and poner) and a third cluster with the less grammaticalized and more lexicalized auxiliaries echarse and romper.

Grit and consequence.

Grit is implicated in several biological phenomena-it wears teeth, it fractures teeth, it drives tooth evolution, it elicits complex manual manipulations-any one of which could be described as a central topic in evolutionary anthropology. But what is grit? We hardly know because we tend to privilege the consequences of grit (it is abrasive) over its formal features, all but ignoring crucial variables such as mineral composition, material properties, and particle geometry (size, angularity), not to mention natural variation in the habitats of primates and their food surfaces. Few topics have animated so much debate and invited such cool indifference at the same time. Our goal here is to shine a light on grit, to put a philosophical lens on the nature of our discourse, and to call attention to large empirical voids that should be filled and folded into our understanding of primate natural history and evolution.

Republished: Manual reduction of a radial artery loop under direct fluoroscopic visualization

Transradial access has become increasingly used in neurointerventions because it reduces access site complications. However, radial artery anomalies can be difficult to navigate, often necessitating conversion to femoral access. We describe the case of a female patient in her early 70 s who underwent preoperative embolization of a carotid body tumor via right transradial access. Her radial angiogram demonstrated the presence of a radial artery loop which was successfully navigated with a triaxial system but would not spontaneously reduce even after the guide catheter was advanced into the subclavian artery. However, manual manipulation of the catheters in the antecubital fossa under direct fluoroscopic visualization reduced the loop allowing the procedure to continue transradially. Although a majority of radial loops can be traversed and reduced using standard techniques, this case demonstrates that manual reduction can be successful when other measures fail. We recommend attempting this method before converting the access site.

EVALUATION OF PHYSICAL BURDENS OF OPERATORS USING ERGONOMICS

The article describes the experience from assessing the load of the upper limbs during the horning operation, which is one of the more difficult manual manipulations. Several analytical methods were used to obtain complex analytical data. They were used to identify deficiencies in work activity causing loading of the upper limbs, which in the form of increased effort affect employees' work performance in the monitored work activity. The excessive workload of workers has a significant impact not only on the decline in performance but also on the development of difficulties caused by the cumulative effect of risk factors (work and work environment) and, last but not least, on the increase in accidents and occupational diseases. A comprehensive assessment of work activity based on various methods serves as a basis for ergonomic rationalization of work activity to reconcile the demands of work activity with operators' physical possibilities and abilities.

Visual-Based Contact Detection for Automated Zebrafish Larva Heart Microinjection

This article presents an automated strategy to touch the injection site on zebrafish larva skin with the injection pipette tip accurately in the presence of water-depth variation, which is a crucial problem to automate zebrafish larva microinjection. The presented method consists of two parts: adaptive coordinate transformation and curve evolution for edge detection. In the first part, the impact of refraction is taken into consideration. An adaptive calibration method is developed, which enables the coordinate transformation matrix to adapt to the changing water depth. In the second part, the abovementioned calibration result is used to keep the injection pipette tip descending along the desired route. A curve-evolution-based edge detection algorithm is introduced to detect the deformation of larva skin caused by contact with the injection pipette tip. Experimental results demonstrate that high accuracy and success rates are achieved. The effect of uncertainties caused by water-depth variation and the skill requirement in manual manipulation are eliminated. The proposed contact detection strategy can be extended to microinjection for other organisms. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Note to Practitioners</i> —As a typical multicellular model organism, the zebrafish has been increasingly used in biological research. For studying drug toxicity and disease models, exogenous substances need to be injected into zebrafish larvae. However, for both manual and automated injection, a fatal problem is that the camera on the microscope only provides 2-D positional information. It is laborious to align the pipette tip with the injection site along the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$z$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -axis. Moreover, due to the characteristic of stereomicroscopes, the impact of refraction at the water surface cannot be ignored. In order to address these issues, in this article, we present an adaptive calibration method and an edge detection algorithm for zebrafish larva heart injection to avoid contact failure in practical implementations.

Autonomous Inflow-Control Devices Boost Production While Managing Sand

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper OTC 30403, “Sand Production Management While Increasing Oil Production of a Gravel-Packed Well Equipped With Rate-Controlled-Production Autonomous Inflow-Control Devices in a Thin Heavy-Oil Reservoir Offshore China,” by Shuquan Xiong, Fan Li, and Congda Wei, CNOOC, et al., prepared for the 2020 Offshore Technology Conference Asia, originally scheduled to be held in Kuala Lumpur, 2–6 November. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Copyright 2020 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission. A 2018 infill development campaign for a horizontal well offshore China targeted improved production through the installation of autonomous inflow-control devices (AICDs). However, because the well requires gravel packing to manage the sand, the integration of AICDs and the gravel pack was an issue. An integrated work flow was followed to deliver the AICD application successfully in an offshore heavy-oil reservoir with major uncertainties in remaining oil thickness and water/oil contacts. AICD completions ensured balanced contribution from all reservoir sections and limited water production significantly while the gravel pack kept the valves safe from the effects of sand. Field Description The field is a low-amplitude fault anticline oil field developed on the basement uplift. The structure is relatively gentle (Fig. 1). The reservoir lithology is mainly feldspathic quartz sandstone, with an average porosity of 22%, an average permeability of 397 md, a reservoir pressure coefficient of 1, an oil density of 0.92 g/cm3, and crude oil viscosity of 150 cp. The current methodology for gravel packing with ICDs/AICDs in the well uses a multiple alpha-wave technique whereby at least one conventional standalone screen joint is deployed at the toe of the well to provide a return path during the buildup of the alpha wave. The flow rate is reduced progressively to maximize the dune weight until screenout is observed. Once the gravel-packing operation is complete, the standalone-screen section at the toe is isolated before the well is placed on production. This technique does not allow a complete pack to be achieved and will allow more gravel to build up around the zonal isolation packers. This methodology is most applicable in unconsolidated sands with high net-to-gross reservoirs where borehole collapse will occur early in well life. One technique to provide sufficient flow path through the screen assembly is to integrate sliding sleeves into each screen joint. However, in long lateral wellbores, this may be prohibitively expensive and requires multiple manual manipulations as the wash pipe is retrieved. The use of a temporary bypass valve is recommended to enable standard gravel-packing operations to be performed with ICDs without significant additional cost, complexity, or compromise. The dissolvable material is used with a valve located within the ICD/AICD housing to provide a high-flow-area path from the annulus to the tubing during completion operations.

NeuriteNet: A convolutional neural network for assessing morphological parameters of neurite growth

BackgroundDuring development or regeneration, neurons extend processes (i.e., neurites) via mechanisms that can be readily analyzed in culture. However, defining the impact of a drug or genetic manipulation on such mechanisms can be challenging due to the complex arborization and heterogeneous patterns of neurite growth in vitro.New Method: NeuriteNet is a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) sorting model that uses a novel adaptation of the XRAI saliency map overlay, which is a region-based attribution method. NeuriteNet compares neuronal populations based on differences in neurite growth patterns, sorts them into respective groups, and overlays a saliency map indicating which areas differentiated the image for the sorting procedure. ResultsIn this study, we demonstrate that NeuriteNet effectively sorts images corresponding to dissociated neurons into control and treatment groups according to known morphological differences. Furthermore, the saliency map overlay highlights the distinguishing features of the neuron when sorting the images into treatment groups. NeuriteNet also identifies novel morphological differences in neurons cultured from control and genetically modified mouse strains.Comparison with Existing Methods: Unlike other neurite analysis platforms, NeuriteNet does not require manual manipulations, such as segmentation of neurites prior to analysis, and is more accurate than experienced researchers for categorizing neurons according to their pattern of neurite growth. ConclusionsNeuriteNet can be used to effectively screen for morphological differences in a heterogeneous group of neurons and to provide feedback on the key features distinguishing those groups via the saliency map overlay.