1,720,968 research outputs found
A New Test Rig for Human Joint and Prosthesis Characterization
No full textIn vitro experimental studies are of great importance in human joint biomechanics. Data from in vitro tests allow the study of kinematics, kinetostatics, and dynamics of human joints. Understanding the joint behavior is required for prosthesis and orthosis design as well as for model validation. Several in vitro test rigs are reported in the literature. Most devices currently in use are either specifically designed for a prescribed set of tests, thus limiting possible applications, or obtained by adapting industrial machines to biomechanics, which results in a poor fit to the intended application, e.g., limiting the flexion range achievable during tests. In general, the main issue for these rigs is to apply specific external loads variable in time with flexion, without introducing additional unwanted constraints to the relative motion of the main bones. In this study, a new test machine is presented as an evolution of a previous one. In particular, the new systems for load application, joint motion, and femur-to-rig fixation are shown, which make the use of the machine more quick and efficient and extend its possible applications to a wider range of loading conditions and joint motion
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
A new direct position analysis solution for an over-constrained gough-stewart platform
No full textRecently, the authors presented a new over-constrained manipulator with six degrees of freedom, based on a modified Gough-Stewart platform, and a solution for its direct position analysis. In this paper, a different solution is proposed based on a different parameterization that leads to a reduced system of four closure equations. The new method simplifies the analytical derivation and the geometrical interpretation of the results
A New Approach to Design Glove-Like Wearable Hand Exoskeletons for Rehabilitation
No full textThe synthesis of hand exoskeletons for rehabilitation is a challenging theoretical and technical task. A huge number of solutions have been proposed in the literature. Most of them are based on the concept to consider the phalanges of the finger as fixed to some links of the exoskeleton mechanism. This approach makes the exoskeleton synthesis a difficult problem that compels the designer to devise approximate technical solutions which, frequently, reduce the efficiency of the rehabilitation system and are rather bulky. This paper proposes a different approach. Namely, the phalanges are not fixed to some links of the exoskeleton, but they can have a relative motion, with one or two degrees of freedom when planar systems are considered. An example is presented to show the potentiality of this approach, which makes it possible: (i) to design glove-like exoskeletons that only approximate the human finger motion; (ii) to leave the fingers have their natural motion; (iii) to adapt a wider range of patient hand sizes to a given hand exoskeleton
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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