Effective elastic properties for lower limb soft tissues from manual indentation experiment.

Quantitative assessment of the biomechanical properties of limb soft tissues has become more important during the last decade because of the introduction of computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) and finite element analysis to the prosthetic socket design. Because of the lack of a clinically easy-to-use apparatus, the site and posture dependences of the material properties of lower limb soft tissues have not been fully reported in the literature. In this study, an ultrasound indentation system with a pen-size hand-held probe developed earlier by the authors was used to obtain the indentation responses of lower limb soft tissues. Indentation tests were conducted on normal young subjects with four females and four males at four sites with three body postures. A linear elastic indentation solution was used to extract the effective Young's modulus from the indentation responses. The determined modulus ranged from 10.4 to 89.2 kPa for the soft tissues tested. These results were in a similar range as those reported in the literature. The thickness of the lower limb soft tissues varied slightly with body posture changes. The Young's modulus determined was demonstrated to be significantly dependent on site, posture, subject and gender. The overall mean modulus of male subjects was 40% larger than that of female subjects. No significant correlation was established between the effective Young's modulus and the thickness of entire soft tissue layers.     

Intelligent resource simulation for an airport check-in counterallocation system

The objective of resource allocation systems is to assign valuable corporate resources to meet business demands. However, in applications involving stochastic events, demands cannot be determined explicitly beforehand. For those applications, computer simulation is often used to predict resource demands. The paper describes research in developing a knowledge based simulation system to predict resource requirements at an international airport. Our intelligent resource simulation system (IRSS) determines how many check-in counters should be allocated to each departure flight while providing passengers with sufficient quality of service. This predicted resource requirement is then used by a constraint-based resource allocation system to allocate the actual check-in counters. Because IRSS considers many more factors than a human can, the resulting allocation schedule is more efficient. These factors include: 1) different service rates for different destinations, airlines, or handling agents; 2) different passenger arrival rates for different times of the day or days of the week; and 3) different requirements for different service levels, etc. Our experiments show that there are substantial resource savings by combining a resource allocation system with an intelligent resource simulation system     

A simplified modeling technique for finite element thermal analysisof a plastic SOIC package

The purpose of this paper is to introduce an approximate analysis method which is incorporated with an ANSYS finite element program for thermal finite element analysis of a surface mount plastic package mounted on a PC board. A numerical example is given in the paper to demonstrate the application of this technique, and the numerical prediction agrees well with the experimental results. This proposed technique can be applied to solve other thermal problems such as the analysis of any surface mount or through hole type of plastic package mounted on a PC board or can be used for determining junction temperatures of multiple power components mounted on a board     

Web-based morphological charts for concept design in collaborative product development

Morphological Chart Analysis is one of the formal design tools enabling collaborative product development. It is widely accepted in the textbooks and by practitioners as an effective technique for conceptual design of products, processes, and systems. This paper proposes to exploit the Web technology to implement the morphological chart analysis method on the Internet/Intranet. A prototype system, consisting of a concept browser/editor, a functional analyzer, a concept generator, a concept assessor, and all linked to a central concept database, is demonstrated. Parties concerned in product development are able to contribute in different locations to the same project. In addition to project team members, even experienced customers and potential suppliers are able to contribute their ideas to the concept base using the concept browser/editor. The incorporation of various decision-making activities of concept design into one integrated Web-based system allows the designer to choose the most appropriate idea from potential alternatives in an objective and systematic way.     

Type I Interferons in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Journey from Bench to Bedside

Dysregulation of type I interferons (IFNs) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) since the late 1970s. The majority of SLE patients demonstrate evidence of type I IFN pathway activation; however, studies attempting to address the relationship between type I IFN signature and SLE disease activity have yielded conflicting results. In addition to type I IFNs, type II and III IFNs may overlap and also contribute to the IFN signature. Different genetic backgrounds lead to overproduction of type I IFNs in SLE and contribute to the breakdown of peripheral tolerance by activation of antigen-presenting myeloid dendritic cells, thus triggering the expansion and differentiation of autoreactive lymphocytes. The consequence of the continuous stimulation of the immune system is manifested in different organ systems typical of SLE (e.g., mucocutaneous and cardiovascular involvement). After the discovery of the type I IFN signature, a number of different strategies have been developed to downregulate the IFN system in SLE patients, finally leading to the successful trial of anifrolumab, the second biologic to be approved for the treatment of SLE in 10 years. In this review, we will discuss the bench to bedside translation of the type I IFN pathway and put forward some issues that remain unresolved when selecting SLE patients for treatment with biologics targeting type I IFNs.