69 research outputs found
2010 Seventh International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations
No full textIsaac Macwan (with Hassan Bajwa, Vignesh Veerapandian, and Xinghao Chen) is a contributing author, VHDL Implementation of High-Performance and Dynamically Configures Multi-port Cache Memory, pp. 1212-1216.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/engineering-books/1057/thumbnail.jp
WiGlove : A Passive Dynamic Orthosis for Home-based Post-stroke Rehabilitation of Hand and Wrist
No full textStroke survivors often experience varying levels of motor function deficits in their hands affecting their ability to perform activities of daily life. Recovering their hand functions through neurorehabilitation is a significant step in their recovery towards independent living. Home-based rehabilitation using robotic devices allows stroke survivors to train at their convenience independent of factors such as the availability of therapists’ appointments and the need for frequent travel to outpatient clinics. While many robotic solutions have been proposed to address the above concerns, most focus on training only the wrist or the fingers, neglecting the synergy between the two. To address this, the WiGlove was co-designed to allow hemiparetic stroke survivors to train both the wrist and fingers in the comfort of their homes. The central hypothesis of this work is to investigate if a device designed using user-centred methods featuring aspects of usability such as easy donning and doffing and wireless operation, can act as a feasible tool for home-based rehabilitation of the hand and wrist following stroke. In order to aid this investigation, we tackled this task in three stages of usability and feasibility evaluations. Firstly, healthy participants tried the current state of the art, the SCRIPT Passive Orthosis, as well as the WiGlove, in a counterbalanced, within-subject experiment and attested to WiGlove’s improvement in several aspects of usability such as ease of don/doffing, suitability for ADL, unblocked natural degrees of freedom, safety and aesthetic appeal. Subsequently, a heuristic evaluation with six stroke therapists validated these improvements and helped identify issues they perceived to potentially affect the device’s acceptance. Integrating this feedback, the updated WiGlove was subjected to a six-week summative feasibility evaluation with two stroke survivors, with varying levels of impairment, in their homes without supervision from the therapists. Results from this study were overwhelmingly positive on the usability and acceptance of the WiGlove. Furthermore, in the case of the first participant who trained with it for a total of 39 hours, notable improvements were observed in the participant’s hand functions. It showed that even without a prescribed training protocol, both participants were willing to train regularly with the WiGlove and its games, sometimes several times a day. These results demonstrate that WiGlove can be a promising tool for home-based rehabilitation for stroke survivors and serve as evidence for a larger user study with more participants with varying levels of motor impairments due to stroke. The findings of this study also offer preliminary evidence supporting the effectiveness of training with the WiGlove, particularly in the case of the first participant, who exhibited a significant reduction of tone in the hand as a result of increased training intensity. Owing to the participant’s satisfaction with the device, it was requested by him to extend his involvement in the study by using the WiGlove for a longer duration which was facilitated
How the planning, engineering and politics of transportation established, preserves and perpetuates the automobile city
No full textThesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning; and, (S.M. in Transportation)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2012.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis. Page [167] blank.Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-166).The last eight decades of urban transportation planning and engineering in the United States have been dominated by the hegemony of the automobile. Auto-oriented planning of the transportation and land use system has had a profound impact on the built environment both in greenfield developments and neighborhoods that predated the auto. The pedestrian quality of cities has been eroded by the automobile, and urban renewal in the United States erased many neighborhoods strongly oriented around walking and transit use. Equally pervasive as the auto itself is the place for the car in the institutional cultures and practices involved in shaping the city. The shortcomings of mobility-oriented transportation planning have been well critiqued, even from the very early days of Interstate building. In recent decades there has been a flurry of interest in articulating sustainable transportation policies to provide multi-modal accessibility and to consider the interactions between transportation, land use, and other policy realms such as health, energy, environment and equity. The current impending crisis of aging and ailing highway structures in the United States presents a momentous opportunity to reassess the need and purpose of such infrastructure, and to rebuild, reconceptualize, or remove it in a matter more consistent with current policy goals and planning processes - rather than the ones in place when initially built. Despite the interest, need and opportunity to reconceptualize aging infrastructure in America to support a more sustainable reshaping of land use and activity patterns, the potential to do so is heavily impaired by a transportation planning process that is still dominated by the tools, methods and assumptions, political biases, procedural failures, and instilled human behaviors of the first highway-building era. The McGrath Highway in Somerville, MA is used as a case study to discuss how persistence of 1950s technical, procedural and political dysfunctions threaten to undermine this opportunity. Short-term actions and strategies to avoid this impending fate are suggested for McGrath Highway with applicability to a wider national context of similar opportunities.by Vignesh Krishnamurthy.S.M.in TransportationM.C.P
In-Situ Infrared Spectroscopic Studies of Palladium Thin Films during CO2 Electro-Reduction
No full textAn exponential growth in CO2 concentration over the past few decades has led to an accelerated impact of climate change on planet earth. In a bid to curb these emissions, people across the globe are slowly transitioning towards renewable energy sources with battery technology aiding this growth. Given that battery technology is still in its nascent stage, the “Electrochemical reduction of CO2” could be a viable solution supporting it without decelerating the momentum gained towards renewable development. Although plausible, the direct reduction of CO2 to liquid fuels entails huge energy expenditure thus requiring the implementation of catalysts. Unique in its ability, palladium reversibly reduces CO2 to formic acid making it an interesting candidate for the reduction reaction. In addition to the production of formic acid, palladium is also know to produce carbon monoxide (CO) which completely deactivates the surface preventing further reactions from occurring. Thus the aim of the current study is focused on analysing the electrochemical reduction of CO2 on palladium thin films using surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy to better understand the deactivation mechanisms of CO on the palladium thin film. The smoothness of the as- sputtered 15 nm palladium thin film with a RMS roughness of 0.511 nm and partially coalesced islands were ascertained, thus requiring surface activation to introduce the enhancement mechanism. Experimental analysis of CO2 reduction on the palladium thin film was performed to unearth significant insights through the combination of electrochemical analysis techniques with surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy. Results obtained through implementation of these methodologies provided substantial information not only on the influence of the palladium-hydrogen system on the electrochemical reduction of CO2 but also on the impact of alkali metal cations on the palladium-hydrogen system and the CO2 reduction reaction over the sputtered palladium thin film. CO formation, accumulation and desorption coupled with hydrogen evolution and desorption were some of the few avenues that were enumerated upon during the experimental investigation. The identity of CO chemisorbed on the palladium thin film along with bicarbonate direct/ indirect reduction to form CO was confirmed through the utilization of N2 saturated C13 NaHCO3 solution. In addition to the analysis of the reduction reaction, emphasis on the oxidation of CO was also provided suggesting the formation of dense CO structures with the existence of strong CO dipole – dipole coupling on the palladium surface. Materials Science and Engineerin
Stability of excitons in double quantum well: Through electron and holes transmission probabilities
No full textEffect of non-parabolicity and confinement potential on exciton binding energy in a quantum well
No full textOptimization of resistance spot welding process parameters and microstructural examination for dissimilar welding of AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel and 2205 duplex stainless steel
No full textFormative Usability Evaluation of WiGlove - A Home-based Rehabilitation Device for Hand andWrist Therapy after Stroke
No full textWiGlove is a passive dynamic orthosis aimed at home-based poststroke rehabilitation of the hand and wrist. This paper highlights results from WiGlove's formative evaluation as the first step towards its deployment. In this study, twenty healthy participants evaluated the usability and safety of the WiGlove compared to its predecessor, the state-of-the-art SCRIPT Passive Orthosis (SPO). In this within-subject experiment, they performed various tasks such as donning/doffing, adjusting the tension, grasping, etc., with both gloves and rated them using a Likert scale-based questionnaire. The results showed improvements in several aspects of usability and safety. This study provides preliminary evidence of WiGlove's fitness for the next assessment with its intended users, people recovering from stroke with sustained hand and wrist impairment
A User-centred Design and Feasibility Analysis of the WiGlove - A Home-based Rehabilitation Device for Hand and Wrist Therapy after Stroke
No full textAbstract—Stroke survivors often experience deficits in their hand’s motor function, which can greatly impact their ability to perform Activities of Daily Life (ADL). Home-based rehabilitation with robotic devices has been shown to improve the recovery of hand functions. The WiGlove is a home-based robotic orthosis that has been developed using a user-centred approach to offset the hyperflexion in the hand and wrist of hemiparetic stroke survivors. It facilitates training the distal joints of the upper limb at home while performing ADL or playing therapeutic games on a tablet. In a formative evaluation, stroke therapists positively rated the WiGlove’s usability and provided feedback which assisted in improving its design. Additionally, the preliminary results of a feasibility analysis at a stroke survivor’s home showed evidence of the WiGlove’s usability and acceptance with a noticeable impact on reducing the tone in the impaired hand
Preliminary Results from Functional and Usability Assessment of the WiGlove - a Home-based Robotic Orthosis for Hand and Wrist Therapy after Stroke
No full textRobotic orthoses have emerged as a promising tool to provide an opportunity for supporting therapy at home for post-stroke hand and wrist rehabilitation. Despite their benefits, usability issues have hampered the acceptance of such devices. To overcome this, the WiGlove was designed following a user-centred approach that involved user evaluations to validate the prototype in an iterative process. This article presents the methodology and early findings of the WiGlove's first co-design iteration involving functional and usability evaluation by two-stroke survivors. The findings offer initial evidence for meeting the user requirements while identifying areas for improvement to enhance its usability and acceptance. Additionally, the article highlights the challenges encountered in conducting such long-term usability evaluations conducted at stroke survivors' homes
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