bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Randomized controlled trial of oral immunotherapy for egg allergy in Japanese patients
Authors: Akashi Masayuki , Yasudo Hiroki , Narita Masami , Nomura Ichiro , Akasawa Akira , Ebisawa Motohiro , Takahashi Takao , Ohya Yukihiro 
Published: December 2016

AbstractBackgroundEgg allergy is one of the most common food allergies in young children. While oral immunotherapy (OIT) is not routinely recommended in current guidelines, it has been considered as a potential alternative treatment strategy. Studies on OIT for food allergy have been explored, but no controlled trials have been reported in Japan.MethodsThe first oral food challenge (OFC) was performed before treatment to ensure diagnosis and evaluate the threshold dose for egg using the double‐blind, placebo‐controlled food challenge. Participants were randomly assigned by computerized algorithm to receive OIT using egg (OIT group) or no egg (egg elimination [EE] group). A second OFC was performed in both groups approximately 6 months after therapy. Blood samples were collected and egg white‐specific immunoglobulin (Ig)E and IgG4 were measured before and after the treatment period.ResultsEight of the 14 patients (57%) in the OIT group had no allergic reaction to 4 g dry egg powder whereas none of the 16 patients in the EE group did. All 14 patients in the OIT group had increased threshold for egg powder in the second OFC compared with baseline. There was no significant change in egg white‐specific IgE level during therapy. After therapy, egg white‐specific IgG4 increased significantly in the OIT group, but not in the EE group.ConclusionOIT is effective in increasing the threshold for allergens and inducing desensitization in Japanese egg allergy patients, similarly to North American and European patients.
Trauma‐related dissociation: Psychological features and psychophysiological responses to script‐driven imagery in borderline personality disorder
Authors: Bichescu‐Burian Dana , Steyer Jürgen , Steinert Tilman , Grieb Benjamin , Tschöke Stefan 
Published: December 2016

AbstractDefense reactions to threatening situations are vital adaptations to stress that protect organisms from injury and ensure survival. We retrospectively investigated the role of peritraumatic dissociation (PD) in the occurrence of severe psychopathology and dissociative patterns of reactions in borderline personality disorder (BPD). We recruited 28 patients with a clinical diagnosis of BPD and 15 healthy controls. The BPD group was divided according to the level of PD (low vs. high): BPD and PD (n = 15) and BPD only (n = 13). We conducted an extensive investigation of history of trauma, clinical status, and measurements of emotional and physiologic responses to recall of personalized aversive experiences. Participants with BPD and high PD displayed highest degrees of trauma exposure and clinical symptoms. Their significant heart rate decline during the imagery of personal traumatic events was opposed to the heart rate increases exhibited by the other two groups and may indicate a dissociative reaction pattern. Skin conductance responses did not differentiate between groups. Several emotional responses to imagery also reinforced the idea that PD may play a role in memory processing of traumatic events and thus in the aggravation and maintenance of symptoms in particularly severe forms of BPD. Within a stepwise linear regression analysis, the best model for trauma‐evoked heart rate responses included PD and borderline symptoms, but no measures of state or trait dissociation. Our findings may provide initial evidence of an evolutionary model of peritraumatic reaction stages evolving from arousal to dissociation.
Influenza A Virus Surveillance in the Invasive American Mink (Neovison vison) from Freshwater Ecosystems, Northern Spain
Authors: Gholipour H. , Busquets N. , Fernández‐Aguilar X. , Sánchez A. , Ribas M. P. , De Pedro G. , Lizarraga P. , Alarcia‐Alejos O. , Temiño C. , Cabezón O. 
Published: December 2016

SummaryInfluenza A viruses (IAVs) are negative‐sense, single‐stranded and segmented RNA viruses of the Orthomyxoviridae family that may cause acute respiratory disease in a wide range of birds and mammals. Susceptibility of several species within the family Mustelidae to IAVs has been reported as a result of natural or experimental infections. The objectives of this study were to assess whether free‐ranging American mink populations from Northern Spain were infected with IAV and try to define the role of this species in the epidemiology of IAV. Sera from 689 American mink from Northern Spain captured between 2011 and 2014 were tested for the presence of antibodies against IAVs using a commercial competition cELISA. Positive sera were further analysed with haemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay. Fifteen of the 689 (2.2%, 1.3–3.6 CI95%) of the American minks analysed were ELISA positive. No significant differences were observed between years of capture, provinces, river basins, sexes or ages of the animals. All seropositive sera resulted negative to the panel strains used in the HI assay, showing that the most relevant strains circulating in swine, the most relevant avian subtypes (H5 and H7) and the H10N4 subtype isolated in minks have not been circulating in this free‐ranging exotic carnivore from Spain. In the light of these results, the free‐range American mink from Northern Spain do not seem to have an important role in the epidemiology of IAVs.
Impacting a Clamped-Free Beam to Experimentally and Numerically Determine Higher Resonant Frequencies of Vibration
Authors: Shields Elvin B. 
Published: December 2016

Clamped-free (cantilever) beams have practical applications. For example, it is not possible to use normal means to determine the modulus of elasticity for thin films. However, the film material can be deposited onto the beam substrate by sputtering or by applying the additive manufacturing technique and thereby change the beam’s stiffness as suggested by Dias da Silva et al [1]. The stiffness change causes a shift in the natural frequencies of the vibration of the beam and this shift can be used to determine the material properties of the film.
This study provides four methods of analysis: 1) formula calculation, which is used as the benchmark, 2) finite element method, 3) experimental method with accelerometer, and 4) experimental method with condenser microphone. Theoretical results are used as benchmarks and compared with the finite element method (FEM) and two experimental methods (accelerometer and condenser microphone). The challenge is to obtain results with the necessary accuracy (significant digits) at higher resonant frequencies of vibration. The two experimental methods were evaluated and the experimental method with condenser microphone showed the most promise for future work. Very little was found in the literature regarding the use of a condenser microphone to measure resonant frequencies.
Web-Based Application for Algorithm Based Product Development Process of Integral Bifurcated Sheet Metal Parts
Authors: Weber Martins Thiago , Steinmetz Christian , Albrecht Katharina , Anderl Reiner 
Published: December 2016

Within the Collaborative Research Center 666 the algorithm based product development process has been established. It is based on state of the art product development methodologies and enhanced in order to optimize the product development process of integral bifurcated sheet metal parts. Algorithms based on mathematical optimization approaches as well as the initial product requirements and constraints information are applied to obtain an optimized design as CAD-Model. Regarding this methodology there are still some challenges to be solved, such as reduction of iterations steps to elaborate final product design as CAD-model, use of heterogeneous data as well as software and enhancement of information exchange.
Therefore, this paper introduces a concept for a web-based application to support the algorithmic product development methodology and CAD modeling in CRC 666. It enables the development and adaptation of integral bifurcated parts based on the initial optimization data provided by XML-files. Besides the description of use cases and use scenarios, the concept is implemented as a web-based application for validation purposes. Based on the validation, advantages and limitations of the presented approach are discussed.
Reverse Engineering of Mechanical Parts: A Brief Overview of Existing Approaches and Possible New Strategies
Authors: Buonamici Francesco , Carfagni Monica 
Published: December 2016

Reverse Engineering (RE), also known as “CAD reconstruction”, aims at the reconstruction of 3D geometric models of objects/mechanical parts, starting from 3D measured data (points/mesh). In recent years, considerable developments in RE were achieved thanks to both academic and industrial research (e.g. RE software packages).
The aim of this work is to provide an overview of state of the art techniques and approaches presented in recent years (considering at the same time tools and methods provided by commercial CAD software and RE systems). In particular, this article focuses on the “constrained fitting” approach, which considers geometrical constraints between the generated surfaces, improving the reconstruction result.
On the basis of the overview, possible theoretical principles are drafted with the aim of suggest new strategies to make the CAD reconstruction process more effective in order to obtain more ready/usable CAD models.
Finally, a new RE framework is briefly outlined: the proposed approach hypothesizes a tool built within the environment of an existing CAD system and considers the fitting of a custom-built archetypal model, defined with all the a-priori known dimensions and constraints, to the scanned data.
Expected-Improvement-Based Methods for Adaptive Sampling in Multi-Objective Optimization Problems
Authors: Kristensen Jesper , Ling You , Asher Isaac , Wang Liping 
Published: December 2016

Adaptive sampling methods have been used to build accurate meta-models across large design spaces from which engineers can explore data trends, investigate optimal designs, study the sensitivity of objectives on the modeling design features, etc. For global design optimization applications, adaptive sampling methods need to be extended to sample more efficiently near the optimal domains of the design space (i.e., the Pareto front/frontier in multi-objective optimization). Expected Improvement (EI) methods have been shown to be efficient to solve design optimization problems using meta-models by incorporating prediction uncertainty.
In this paper, a set of state-of-the-art methods (hypervolume EI method and centroid EI method) are presented and implemented for selecting sampling points for multi-objective optimizations. The classical hypervolume EI method uses hyperrectangles to represent the Pareto front, which shows undesirable behavior at the tails of the Pareto front. This issue is addressed utilizing the concepts from physical programming to shape the Pareto front. The modified hypervolume EI method can be extended to increase local Pareto front accuracy in any area identified by an engineer, and this method can be applied to Pareto frontiers of any shape. A novel hypervolume EI method is also developed that does not rely on the assumption of hyperrectangles, but instead assumes the Pareto frontier can be represented by a convex hull. The method exploits fast methods for convex hull construction and numerical integration, and results in a Pareto front shape that is desired in many practical applications.
Various performance metrics are defined in order to quantitatively compare and discuss all methods applied to a particular 2D optimization problem from the literature. The modified hypervolume EI methods lead to dramatic resource savings while improving the predictive capabilities near the optimal objective values.
Spatial 3-SUR 1-RU Platform Robot Inverse Orientation Kinematics
Authors: Williams Robert L. , Kljuno Elvedin , Zhu J. Jim 
Published: December 2016

This paper describes the spatial three-dof 3-SUR 1-RU spherical Parallel Platform Robot. This type of robot has been previously proposed by other authors, but the present design, platform-mounted actuators, and application are unique. Further, the inverse kinematics problem is solved analytically. This robot is under development at Ohio University to serve as the active orienting device for aerodynamic testing of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with up to 3 m wingspan. The UAV will be tested on a Windmobile which is a ground vehicle that is driven with the test article on an instrumented truss extended in the front in an undisturbed flow field. This system is an inexpensive substitute for a large-scale wind tunnel for measuring aerodynamic parameters of the UAV.
The three-degrees-of-freedom (dof) of the platform robot are actively controlled by three servomotors (R joints) mounted to the underside of the moving platform and there is a passive fourth middle leg with passive R-U joints for support. The inverse orientation kinematics (IOK) problem is formulated and solved analytically in this paper. Given the three desired Euler Angles, the three required actuator angles are found. Geometrically this analytical solution is equivalent to finding the intersection point of two circles on different planes, independently for each of the three platform robot legs. The analytical solution requires finding the roots of a quartic polynomial. There are at most two real solutions (elbow-up and elbow-down) which means that there are always at least two imaginary solutions to the IOK problem, which are discarded. Examples are presented to demonstrate the platform robot IOK solution algorithm for use in practical platform robot control.
Quantification of Upper-Body Synergies: A Case Comparison for Stroke and Non-Stroke Victims
Authors: Heidari Omid , Roylance John O. , Perez-Gracia Alba , Kendall Eydie 
Published: December 2016

Motion synergies are principal components of the movement, obtained as combinations of joint degrees of freedom, that account for common postures of the human body. These synergies are usually obtained by capturing the motion of the human joints and reducing the dimensionality of the joint space with techniques such as principal component analysis. In this work, an experimental procedure to investigate the synergies of the upper body is developed and the results of the pilot study are shown.
The upper-limb kinematics includes the joint complexes of the hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, and shoulder. The different kinematic models in the literature have been reviewed, and a serial chain is considered from the upper arm. A three degree of freedom (3-DOF) linkage containing two revolute joints and one prismatic joint has been chosen to simulate the shoulder motion. A spherical joint represents the Glenohumeral (GH) joint; the elbow and ulna-radius rotations are represented by two revolute joints and the wrist is modeled with two revolute joints. The hand has a tree structure and branches into the individual phalanges, with a 2-dof MCP joint and single R joints for the rest of the phalangeal joints.
The data are collected using motion capture and the joint angles are calculated using a combination of dimensional synthesis and inverse kinematics. Principal component analysis can be used to extract the synergies for a set of previously-selected motions. The motions are performed by healthy subjects and subjects who have suffered stroke, in order to see the changes in the motion primitives. It is expected that this study will help quantify and classify some of the loss of motion due to stroke.
Investigation of Wrench Accuracy for Parallel Manipulators
Authors: Notash Leila 
Published: December 2016

In this paper, the wrench accuracy for parallel manipulators is examined and the solution sets of actuator forces/torques are investigated under variations in parameters and data. The subset of solution set that produces platform wrenches within the required lower and upper bounds are modeled using discrete and analytical methods. In addition, the formulation of the solutions that provide any platform wrench within the defined interval is examined. Intersection of these two sets, if any, results in the given interval platform wrench. Moreover, the dependency among the entries of the interval linear systems and its effect on the solution set is considered.
The discrete method is based on the discretization of solution set enclosure and validation at each increment, or the collection of the solutions of real linear relations for the discretized interval coefficient matrix and output vector. The analytical method for each solution set is based on the intersection of the pertinent closed half-spaces or the assembly of closed line segments that encompass the solution. Implementation of the methods to identify the solution for actuator forces/torques is presented on example parallel manipulators.
Product Usability: Is it a Criterion to Measure “Good UX” or a Prerequisite?
Authors: Ceccacci Silvia , Giraldi Luca , Mengoni Maura 
Published: December 2016

What is User Experience (UX) and how does it relate to Usability? The understanding of the mutual relationship between UX and product usability has a strong impact on product design methodologies and on the design outcomes’ success.
This paper aims to investigate such relationship thanks to a set of experiments around the design of interactive products without demanding completeness of findings.
Design of a Compact Gravity Equilibrator With an Unlimited Range of Motion
Authors: Bijlsma Bob G. , Radaelli Giuseppe , Herder Just L. 
Published: December 2016

A gravity equilibrator is a statically balanced system which is designed to counterbalance a mass such that any preferred position is eliminated and thereby the required operating effort to move the mass is greatly reduced. Current spring-to-mass gravity equilibrators are limited in their range of motion as a result of design limitations. An increment of the range of motion is desired to expand the field of applications. The goal of this paper is to present a compact one degree of freedom mechanical gravity equilibrator that can statically balance a rotating pendulum over an unlimited range of motion. Static balance over an unlimited range of motion is achieved by a coaxial gear train that uses non-circular gears. These gears convert the continuous rotation of the pendulum into a reciprocating rotation of the torsion bars. The pitch curves of the non-circular gears are specifically designed to balance a rotating pendulum. The gear train design and the method to calculate the parameters and the pitch curves of the non-circular gears are presented.
A prototype is designed and built to validate that the presented method can balance a pendulum over an unlimited range of motion. Experimental results show a work reduction of 87 % compared to an unbalanced pendulum and the hysteresis in the mechanism is 36 %.
Improving Engineering Graphics Grading Using a Shape Similarity Algorithm: An Initial Investigation
Authors: Renu Rahul , Garland Anthony , Grigg Sarah , Minor John , Yasmin Nighat 
Published: December 2016

Each year, over 700 students take the Engineering Graphics course taught within the General Engineering Program at Clemson University. A SCALE-UP (Student-Centered Activities for Large-Enrollment Undergraduate Programs) environment is utilized to provide a highly collaborative, hands-on classroom format with a primary emphasis on learning by guided inquiry and live demonstrations rather than by traditional lecturing. One of the goals of using this format is real-time assistance and rapid feedback.
In the spring term, each class day, 400 student submit a solid model file. This presents a challenge to returning feedback before the next class period. The current grading method consists of students submitting solid model files to a course management system and awarding credit for submissions matching the mass of the presented design. However, this method does not allow students to earn partial credit based on the relative accuracy of their model. To date, instructors have been unable to reward partial credit in an automated or timely manner.
The objective of this research is to evaluate the use of shape similarity algorithms to provide decision making support while grading solid models for this engineering graphics course. The proposed method of automated grading is to use a solid model similarity algorithm and the mass properties to assess the relative similarity of each submission to a correct solid model. The distribution of grades using the proposed method is compared to the existing method’s distribution. Use of the proposed method ensures that the results from this research can be applied to other engineering graphics courses, regardless of the solid modeling software used.
Design and Experimental Analysis of Origami-Inspired Vibration Isolators With Quasi-Zero-Stiffness Characteristic
Authors: Ishida Sachiko , Suzuki Kohki , Shimosaka Haruo 
Published: December 2016

We present a prototype vibration isolator whose design is inspired by origami-based foldable cylinders with torsional buckling patterns. The vibration isolator works as a nonlinear spring that has quasi-zero spring stiffness in a given frequency region, where it does not transmit vibration in theory. We evaluate the performance of the prototype vibration isolator through excitation experiments via the use of harmonic oscillations and seismic-wave simulations of the Tohoku-Pacific Ocean and Kobe earthquakes. The results indicate that the isolator with the current specification is able to suppress the transmission of vibrations with frequencies of over 6 Hz. The functionality and constraints of the isolator are also clarified.
It has been known that origami-based foldable cylinders with torsional buckling patterns provide bistable folding motions under given conditions. In a previous study, we proposed a vibration isolator utilizing the bistability characteristics and numerically confirmed the device’s validity as a vibration isolator. Here, we attempt prototyping the isolator with the use of versatile metallic components and experimentally evaluate the isolation performance.