Sharif Digital Repository

Objective: Spine kinematics, kinetics, and trunk muscle activities were evaluated during different stages of a fatigue-induced symmetric lifting task over time. Background: Due to neuromuscular adaptations, postural behaviors of workers during lifting tasks are affected by fatigue. Comprehensive aspects of these adaptations remain to be investigated. Method: Eighteen volunteers repeatedly lifted a box until perceived exhaustion. Body center of mass (CoM), trunk and box kinematics, and feet center of pressure (CoP) were estimated by a motion capture system and force-plate. Electromyographic (EMG) signals of trunk/abdominal muscles were assessed using linear and nonlinear approaches. The L5-S1... 

It has always been a human challenge to inspire natural configurations and phenomena and benefit from their merits in improving the performances of man-made proposed aero/hydro vehicles. For example, the manta rays are known for their great swimming performances. To design and fabricate an underwater robot based on the manta ray geometry and its kinematic characteristics, it is important to initially study its hydrodynamic behavior and possibly arrive at some key design parameters, which can remarkably help to figure out an optimum geometry with high swimming performances. The main objective of this study is to focus on the merits of gliding motion inspired by the manta ray fish considering... 

Background: Kinematic indices (KIs) are frequently used as objective measures to assess the upper extremities motor performance in post stroke patients. The clinimetric analysis of these indices has been mostly limited to their averaged values over different directions of reaching movements. Recent studies indicate direction dependencies of such motor performances due to neural and/or biomechanical causes. The direction dependencies of such indices and their clinimetric parameters remains to be investigated. Methods: An apparatus was built to perform and measure planar point-to-point reaching tasks in 8 directions using a virtual reality environment. 24 stroke and 18 healthy individuals... 

Evaluation of spinal loads in patients with low back pain (LBP) is essential to prevent further lumbar disorders. Many studies have investigated the relationship between lifting task variables and lumbar spine loads during manual lifting activities. The nature of the external load (stable versus unstable loads) is an important variable that has received less attention. Therefore, the present study aimed to measure trunk kinematics and estimate compressive-shear loads on the lumbar spine under lifting a 120 N stable load and 120 ± 13.63 N sensual unstable load in 16 healthy and 16 non-specific LBP individuals during lifting activities. The maximal lumbar loads were estimated using a... 

Accurate implementation of river interactions with subsurface water is critical in large-scale hydrologic models with a constant horizontal grid resolution when models apply kinematic wave approximation for both hillslope and river channel flow. The size of rivers can vary greatly in the model domain, and the implemented grid resolution is too coarse to accurately account for river interactions. Consequently, the flow velocity is underestimated when the width of the rivers is much narrower than the selected grid size. This leads to inaccuracy and uncertainties in calculations of water quantities. In addition, the rate of exfiltration and infiltration between the river and the subsurface may... 

So the design and control of an accurate robot for this purpose is very critical for saving the patients. Modification of the model and designing two optimized nonlinear robust controllers for the first time for the parallel manipulator medical robot and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The main objective of the current study in order to decrease the overshoot and increase the accuracy of the position and convergence speed and robustness to destructive factors affecting the precision of the robot. In this paper firstly, the kinematics and dynamics analysis of a translational parallel manipulator robot is presented and a non-linear model in the presence of uncertainties, disturbances, and... 

Purpose: This study exploits a novel musculoskeletal finite element (MS-FE) spine model to evaluate the post-fusion (L4–L5) alterations in adjacent segment kinetics. Methods: Unlike the existing MS models with idealized representation of spinal joints, this model predicts stress/strain distributions in all passive tissues while organically coupled to a MS model. This generic (in terms of musculature and material properties) model uses population-based in vivo vertebral sagittal rotations, gravity loads, and an optimization algorithm to calculate muscle forces. Simulations represent individuals with an intact L4–L5, a preoperative severely degenerated L4–L5 (by reducing the disc height by ~... 

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a common musculoskeletal disorder resulting in altered gait patterns. Uncontrolled manifold (UCM) analysis has been demonstrated as a useful approach for quantitative analysis of motor variability and synergies. The present study aimed to investigate the changes in the kinematic synergy, controlling the center of mass (COM) position while walking on normal and narrow paths in people with KOA compared to asymptomatic participants. In this cross-sectional study, twenty people with mild to moderate KOA and twenty asymptomatic individuals walked at their comfortable preferred speed across normal and narrow paths on a treadmill. The UCM analysis was performed... 

In spite of the extensive literature on the analysis of the muscle synergies during gait, the functionality of these synergies has not been studied in detail. This study explored the relationship between the motor modules and the kinematic maneuvers involved in human walking. Motion and surface electromyography data (of 28 trunk and lower extremity muscles) were acquired from ten healthy subjects during ten trials of self-selected speed gait each. The joint angle trajectories were half-wave rectified and divided into two independent positive directional degrees-of-freedom. The muscle and kinematic synergies were both extracted using the non-negative matrix factorization (NNMF) technique and... 

Freezing of gait (FOG) is a debilitating symptom in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), which may be associated with motor control impairments in tasks other than gait. This study aimed to examine whether symmetric and asymmetric bimanual coordination is impaired in PD with FOG (PD +FOG) patients and whether dual-task and drug phases may affect bimanual coordination in these patients. Twenty PD +FOG patients, 20 PD patients without FOG (PD –FOG) performed symmetric and asymmetric functional bimanual tasks (reach to and pick up a box and open a drawer to press a pushbutton inside it, respectively) under single-task and dual-task conditions. PD patients were evaluated during on- and... 

In this study, a 3-DOF dynamic model is developed for the lower limb in the cycling activity using Lagrangian mechanics. An exponential reaching law sliding mode controller is then applied to the system in order to imitate the joints' real motion. The kinematic data of the joints are obtained through conducting experiments with an ergometer bike. Results show acceptable tracking performance for the control system. The study's outcome can be used by rehabilitation experts in their work. It is also useful for the engineers in designing rehabilitation devices or developing muscular models. © 2022 IEEE  

Free vibration response of a cylindrical shell closed with two hemispherical caps at the ends (hermit capsule) is analysed in this research. It is assumed that the system of joined shell is made from functionally graded materials (FGM). Properties of the shells are assumed to be graded through the thickness. Cylindrical and hemispherical shells are unified in thickness. To capture the effects of through-the-thickness shear deformations and rotary inertias, first order theory of shells is used. Donnell type of kinematic assumptions are adopted to establish the general equations of motion and the associated boundary and continuity conditions with the aid of Hamilton's principle. The resulting... 

Rapidly exploring random trees (RRT) are sampling-based approaches being widely applied for path planning of mobile robots. Since the output of these algorithms usually is a stream of discrete lines involving discontinuity at the linking points, kinematic constraints restrict the robot's movements. Consequently, robots may not pass discrete points in the path correctly. Hence, the using CAGD (Computer-Aided Geometry Design) curves can run simultaneously alongside those algorithms or may run after that to make a smooth path and that's the way in which non-holonomic constraints can be considered perfect and robots can be droved autonomously across them about the collision detection method... 

Free vibration response of a cylindrical shell closed with two hemispherical caps at the ends (hermit capsule) is analysed in this research. It is assumed that the system of joined shell is made from functionally graded materials (FGM). Properties of the shells are assumed to be graded through the thickness. Cylindrical and hemispherical shells are unified in thickness. To capture the effects of through-the-thickness shear deformations and rotary inertias, first order theory of shells is used. Donnell type of kinematic assumptions are adopted to establish the general equations of motion and the associated boundary and continuity conditions with the aid of Hamilton's principle. The resulting... 

Measurements of spinal segment ranges of motion (RoMs), movement coordination, and three-dimensional kinematics during occupational activities have implications in occupational/clinical biomechanics. Due to the large amount of adipose tissues, obese individuals may have different RoMs, lumbopelvic coordination, and kinematics than normal-weight ones. We aimed to measure/compare trunk, lumbar, and pelvis primary RoMs in all anatomical planes/directions, lumbopelvic ratios (lumbar to pelvis rotations at different trunk angles) in all anatomical planes/directions and three-dimensional spine kinematics during twelve symmetric/asymmetric statics load-handling activities in healthy normal-weight... 

Background: Controlling pelvic excursions is the focus of stabilization exercises such as legs loading tasks in rehabilitation of non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP) patients. Progression of these exercises is based on the ability to perform tasks with minimal sagittal pelvic excursions. In spite of emphasis on minimizing pelvic motions, no previous studies have investigated kinematic analysis of the pelvic excursions during leg loading exercises in NSCLBP patients. Objective: This study aims to investigate the sagittal pelvis excursion during performing asymmetric leg loading tasks in individuals with and without NSCLBP. Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, kinematic... 

Anxiety is among the most debilitating nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). This study aimed to determine how PD patients with low and high levels of anxiety (LA-PD and HA-PD, respectively) compare with age- and sex-matched controls at the level of motor control of reach-to-grasp movements during single- and dual-task conditions with varying complexity. Reach-to-grasp movement kinematics were assessed in 20 LA-PD, 20 HA-PD, and 20 sex- and age-matched healthy controls under single- as well as easy and difficult dual-task conditions. Assessment of PD patients was performed during both the on- and off-drug phases. The results obtained during dual-task conditions reveal deficits in... 

Manta ray swimming or bio-inspiration propulsion system, as a special type of marine propulsion system, is used for submersible vehicles that require high-speed maneuverability and stability, such as glider and AUV. In a manta ray swimming, the thrust force is generated by a couple of undulation and oscillation of wing, so that the direction of undulation wave and oscillation is upright and perpendicular to the direction of thrust force, respectively. It is possible to combine these two movement modes (flapping motion) on the three-dimensional model without considering the effects of wing twisting and flexibility to simplify and better understand the physical behaviors or special study of... 

Power augmentation is known to be one of the important applications of Exoskeletons. This paper designs a control strategy to reduce the energy consumed by users in power augmentation mode. The strategy aims to calculate and apply the interaction force between humans and robots according to human intentions. To realize human intentions, the movement's kinematic characteristics and the user's muscular activity were used. The movement patterns were learned by the robot using a set of adaptive oscillators. The human movement pattern in each movement cycle was considered the basis for predicting human intention in the next cycle. Thereby, the robot's optimal path and interaction torque were... 

Well-known polars in classical shock wave theory, that is, flow deflection angle-shock angle (θ-β), hodograph (u*,v*), and pressure deflection (θ-P*) diagrams, are investigated for the rarefied gas flows using a recently proposed shock wave detection technique by Akhlaghi and coworkers. The agreement between the obtained polars with the analytical relations in classical shock wave theory has been shown in the continuum limit for the cases of supersonic flow over the wedge and cylinder geometries. Investigations are performed using the RGS2D direct simulation Monte Carlo solver for supersonic gas flows over a circular cylinder at continuum limit and Kn = 10-4, 10-3, 0.01, 0.03, 0.07, and...