Search Results (1,194)

Conventional epoxy adhesives used in motor insulation structures still suffer from insufficient thermal resistance and difficulty in balancing heat resistance with mechanical reliability. In this study, BMI-modified E-51/MeHHPA/EMI-24 epoxy composites were prepared and evaluated as heat-resistant interfacial adhesives for simulated F-class pole windings. BMI/EP composites with different BMI contents were fabricated by melt blending and characterized in terms of curing kinetics, FTIR, mechanical properties, and thermal performance. The optimized formulation was then applied to bond Nomex insulation paper to the upright plate in a simulated pole winding. The results showed that BMI did not alter the main epoxy/anhydride curing pathway, but restricted segmental motion and improved thermal resistance. The 10phr BMI/EP composite exhibited a favorable balance among thermal performance, mechanical properties, and fracture morphology. The simulated winding prepared with this formulation showed no breakdown or flashover under 6800 V/60 s, with an insulation resistance of 64.49 GΩ. A lower-bound apparent temperature index of approximately 157 °C was obtained using the TGA-derived thermal life equation. These results indicate that this system has preliminary application potential as a heat-resistant interfacial adhesive for F-class motor winding insulation, although a complete thermal life assessment is still required. Full article

Background/Objectives: Declining masticatory function affects dietary variety, nutritional status, cognitive function, and health. Although factors related to chewing ability have been reported, the causes of temporal changes in masticatory kinematics in older adults remain unclear because prospective longitudinal data remain limited. Objectives: This follow-up study investigated factors associated with changes in masticatory movement in older adults requiring long-term care. Methods: Participants were 42 older adults residing in long-term care facilities. Survey items included mandibular kinematic data during rice cracker chewing and variables related to chewing, and the same assessment was performed two years after baseline. Relationships between changes in masticatory movement and other variables were examined, and factors associated with masticatory movement were identified using a linear mixed model (LMM). Results: A change in the number of cycles was significantly associated with the rate of change in the appendicular skeletal muscle mass index (ASMI). The rates of change in the number of linear motions and circular motion frequency were significantly associated with changes in the ABC Dementia Scale (ABC-DS). In the LMM results, cycle frequency remained associated with ASMI after adjustment for confounding factors, and both the number of circular motions and circular motion frequency were associated with ABC-DS. Conclusions: The findings suggest that masticatory movement in older adults requiring long-term care is influenced by skeletal muscle mass and cognitive function. In care facilities, interventions to maintain these factors are essential to help prevent dietary texture modifications among residents, while supporting nutrition, oral function, and health in this population. Full article

Arthrogenic muscle inhibition (AMI), neurophysiological suppression of voluntary quadriceps activation triggered by joint effusion and inflammation, is consistently initiated within hours of any form of knee surgery. If not actively counteracted during the first two postoperative weeks, AMI may drive a cascade of neuromuscular, morphological, and biomechanical deficits that can persist for years, substantially increasing the risk of post-traumatic osteoarthritis, reinjury, and long-term functional disability. Emerging evidence indicates that preoperative patient-related factors, including baseline quadriceps strength, age, body mass index, and physical fitness, further modulate the rehabilitation response and should be considered in planning early postoperative protocols. This narrative review, which was not designed as a systematic review or meta-analysis and therefore does not include formal quality assessment or pooled statistical analysis, evaluates evidence for seven early-phase (0–2 weeks postoperative) knee muscle activation interventions: neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), isometric quadriceps exercise, blood flow restriction (BFR) training, electromyographic (EMG) biofeedback, open and closed kinetic chain (OKC/CKC) exercise, cryotherapy, and continuous passive motion (CPM). Findings are synthesized against six clinically relevant dimensions, safety in the 0–2 week window, home-based usability, capacity to overcome AMI, requirement for volitional effort, objective monitoring capability, and progressive resistance, to characterize a consistent pattern: no single existing modality simultaneously meets all combined requirements for home deployment, volitional engagement, objective monitoring, and progressive resistance from postoperative day one. This collective unmet need provides direction for future device development and clinical research. Full article

This study investigated the feasibility and biomechanical effects of volitional electromyography (EMG)-based control of a powered transtibial ankle prosthesis. Four male participants completed static and dynamic EMG assessments and gait analysis while using both their prescribed passive prosthesis and an EMG-controlled powered prototype during level walking at self-selected and fast speeds, as well as ramp ascent and descent. Selective activation of residual tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius muscles was quantified using a co-contraction index, and lower-limb kinematics and kinetics were compared between prosthetic conditions. Participants were able to generate task-dependent residual muscle activity, supporting the feasibility of EMG-based volitional control. However, muscle selectivity was reduced during dynamic tasks, with higher co-contraction during gait than during seated static contractions, and substantial inter-subject variability was observed. Compared to the prescribed passive prosthesis, the EMG-controlled prototype generally produced lower prosthetic-side ankle range of motion and ankle power, although ankle moments were sometimes slightly greater. These findings suggest that EMG control is feasible, but that future controller design must remain flexible to individual users’ neuromuscular abilities and dynamic control limitations. The results provide important guidance for the development and testing of more adaptive, personalized, and functionally effective EMG-controlled prosthetic ankle systems. Full article

Typhoon-induced landslides in coastal mountainous regions are controlled by the coupled effects of rainfall, wind, topography, and storm-track geometry. However, conventional static susceptibility models have limited ability to represent event-scale forcing under extreme weather conditions. This study develops a physics-guided dynamic landslide susceptibility framework and retrospectively applies it to the 2017 Tropical Cyclone Cempaka event in Pacitan Regency, Indonesia, where 743 landslides were identified. The framework integrates static terrain factors, antecedent wetness, event-scale rainfall accumulation and intensity, maximum wind speed, and a typhoon geometric exposure index derived from IBTrACS best-track information that represents track proximity, topographic shielding, rainfall-favored quadrant effects, and storm-motion effects. Under spatial block cross-validation, model performance improved progressively from the static baseline to the full-factor model, with the receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROC-AUC) increasing from 0.648 to 0.751, the precision–recall area under the curve (PR-AUC) reaching 0.826, and the F1-score reaching 0.744. The full-factor model also reduced missed landslide cases from 328 to 205 and concentrated predicted high-susceptibility zones along the typhoon exposure corridor. Additional parameter-sensitivity analyses further indicate that the event-based E_geo setting produced positive performance increments under the event-consistent quadrant convention. These results indicate that physically meaningful typhoon-exposure information can improve the spatial discrimination and interpretability of event-scale landslide susceptibility assessment. Full article

Objective: Rapid assessment of early treatment-related physiological improvement in emergency department (ED) patients with respiratory failure (RF) remains challenging. Blood gas analysis is informative but invasive and not ideal for repeated use. The vertical displacement index (VDI), an ultrasound-derived parameter based on pleural motion, may provide dynamic bedside information on early physiological change. This study evaluated whether changes in VDI are associated with early physiological improvement in ED patients with RF. Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted in the EDs of two tertiary care hospitals. Adult patients presenting with dyspnea and clinical evidence of RF were included. VDI was measured by lung ultrasound at baseline and 30 min after initial treatment. The primary endpoint was the change in VDI 30 min after the initial treatment, calculated as the difference between pre-treatment and post-treatment VDI. The expected direction was a post-treatment decrease in VDI, with greater VDI reduction expected to be associated with greater early physiological improvement. Secondary analyses included comparisons of VDI changes across oxygen saturation and diagnostic groups, as well as correlations between ΔVDI and physiological changes. Patients were grouped by admission oxygen saturation (<80%, 80–90%, and ≥90%). Results: Seventy-nine patients were included. Pre-treatment VDI differed significantly between oxygen saturation groups, with the highest values in the most hypoxemic patients (p = 0.028). VDI decreased significantly after treatment in all groups (p < 0.001 for all), with the greatest reduction in the <80% group. By diagnosis, VDI decreased significantly in pulmonary edema, COPD/asthma, and pneumonia, but not in pulmonary embolism (p = 0.138). VDI reduction correlated positively with improvements in oxygen saturation (r = 0.27, p = 0.016) and pH (r = 0.24, p = 0.037), but not with CO₂. Conclusions: VDI may be explored as a practical ultrasound-derived bedside parameter associated with early physiological improvement in ED patients with RF. Full article

Structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) is progressively used to diagnose brain diseases; however, brain sMRI scans can be easily corrupted by artifacts, e.g., motion artifacts. To remove artifacts, deep learning (DL) algorithms have been extensively studied recently. However, their performance and the challenges currently faced in clinical practice (e.g., real-world robustness, hallucination and over-smoothing) have not been adequately studied in a quantitative manner. In this structured literature review, we quantitatively examined DL-based artifact correction studies (N = 30), retrieved from the major databases (i.e., Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus), which particularly focused on clinical-field-strength (defined as 1.5 Tesla (T) and above) sMRI in a non-pediatric setting. Our review suggests that current DL-based approaches exhibit promising fidelity measured by structural similarity (SSIM, 0.92 ± 0.05) index and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR, 32.85 ± 4.53 dB). In addition, We identified the factors underlying hallucination or over-smoothing, which are associated with neural network (NN) architecture and the training process. This study also reveals the potential advantages, brought about by frequency-aware NN. Finally, we outline several future directions, including an emerging paradigm in DL, namely physics-informed NN (PINN). Full article

Background/Objectives: Tissue flossing (TF) with elastic bands (floss bands) is a therapeutic strategy to improve joint range of motion (ROM). While TF has demonstrated 3–7% ROM improvements in ankle and shoulder joints, its effects on knee flexion remain underexplored. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the acute effects of TF on active and passive knee flexion range of motion in healthy adults. Methods: Sixty healthy participants (median age 23.0 [IQR 2.0] years; 30 male, 30 female) were randomized to an intervention group (IG; n = 30) receiving floss band (COMPRE Sanctband^®, Level 1; 50% tension, 50% overlap) application combined with knee mobilization (20 active/passive repetitions over 2 min), or a control group (CG; n = 30) performing the same mobilization without band application. Active (AROM) and passive (PROM) knee flexion were measured pre- (M0) and post-intervention (M1) using a validated smartphone goniometer (Goniometer Pro), by a blinded assessor. Results: Baseline characteristics (age, body mass index) did not differ between groups (p > 0.05); however, baseline AROM differed significantly between groups (p = 0.041). The IG showed significantly greater improvements than CG in AROM (Δ5.0° [4.0%] vs. Δ0.0°, p < 0.001) and PROM (Δ6.0° [4.5%] vs. Δ1.0° [0.8%], p < 0.001). Conclusions: TF combined with mobilization produced greater immediate increases in knee flexion ROM than mobilization alone, with large effect sizes. These findings support adequately powered, sham-controlled trials in clinical populations before clinical effectiveness can be inferred. Full article

Accelerometer sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping automated behavior monitoring in precision livestock management, yet their joint deployment on extensive rangelands is constrained by energy and bandwidth budgets. Low-Power Long-Range Wide-Area Network (LoRaWAN) collars address these constraints by compressing the raw tri-axial signal on the device into a single scalar per reporting interval, the Motion Index (MI). This onboard compression preserves enough signal to separate active behaviors but discards the per-axis and frequency content that fine-grained classification typically relies on. On a dataset of 9222 labeled observations from 24 cows across four breeds, MI distinguishes walking from grazing reliably but fails to separate ruminating from resting; both correspond to a stationary animal and yield near-zero, statistically indistinguishable distributions. Earlier MI-only models reached only about 65% four-class accuracy, and ruminating was commonly merged into resting. We show that much of this loss can be recovered by treating the MI stream as a time series. Session-aware lag features, rolling statistics, and an autoregressive previous-behavior feature lift four-class macro-F1 from 0.647 to 0.94, with per-class F1 of 0.95 for ruminating and 0.92 for resting (and at least 0.92 for every behavior). In autonomous deployment the previous behavior must be predicted rather than observed; for this setting we add a Viterbi sequence-decoding step that combines the classifier’s per-step outputs with a learned behavior-transition model, recovering a substantial part of the ruminating signal from the activity stream alone while keeping walking and grazing reliable. The gain is consistent across seven classifiers and four genetically distinct breeds, indicating that it is driven by the features rather than by a specific model. Full article

Objective: This study aimed to compare the clinical and radiological outcomes between microscopic and unilateral biportal endoscopic (UBE) posterior cervical foraminotomy (PCF). Methods: This study included 73 patients who underwent microscopic PCF (n = 40) or UBE PCF (n = 33) for single-level cervical foraminal disc herniation or stenosis between January 2018 and December 2021. Clinical outcomes were measured using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and Neck Disability Index (NDI). Radiologic outcomes were evaluated with cervical range of motion (ROM) using computed tomography and flexion-extension dynamic radiography. Results: The mean follow-up period for microscopic and UBE PCF was 33.0 ± 7.6 months and 29.9 ± 5.9 months, respectively. The postoperative neck VAS until postoperative 2 weeks was significantly lower in the UBE PCF group than in the microscopic PCF group (p < 0.05). The estimated blood loss and operative time were significantly lower in the UBE PCF group than in the microscopic PCF group, while the length of hospital stay was numerically shorter but did not reach statistical significance. The two groups had no significant difference in the NDI on the preoperative and postoperative 3 months. The recurrence occurred in 1 patient (2.5%) of the microscopic PCF group and 1 patient (3%) of the UBE PCF group. The revision surgery was performed in 2 patients (5%) of the microscopic PCF group and in 1 patient of the UBE PCF group. There were no significant differences in motion and instability between the two groups. Conclusions: Both microscopic and UBE PCF are effective and safe procedures for treating cervical radiculopathy due to cervical foraminal disc herniation or stenosis. The UBE approach may provide advantages mainly in early postoperative recovery, including lower early postoperative neck pain, while long-term clinical and radiologic outcomes appear comparable to those of microscopic PCF. Full article

The dual-arm cooperative operation mode can effectively address the problems of insufficient load capacity and limited motion flexibility of traditional single-arm robots during the installation of construction boards. However, the selection of the end-effector grasping position of dual-arm robots will significantly affect their motion performance during handling operations. To address this issue, this study proposes an end-effector grasping strategy for sheet installation in the dual-arm cooperative operation mode of a dual-arm robot, which determines the optimal grasping position to ensure the robot’s good operational performance. We developed a dual-arm robot prototype for board installation and established a kinematic model of the robot’s manipulators. Based on the dexterity index’s service sphere, we obtained the dexterity envelope surfaces of the robot end-effector at different grasping distances and analyzed the relationship between grasping distance and dexterity. The mechanical model of the robot was established, and simulations were performed for each joint. The effects of different grasping points on the torque, stiffness, and stability at the robot’s key points were investigated, and the end-effector grasping range of the robot with optimal mechanical performance was analyzed. Finally, the proposed robot grasping strategy was verified on the robot prototype. The results demonstrate that the strategy is feasible and effective, helping to improve the robot’s operational performance. Full article

Pulse oximetry is an essential standard monitor in modern anesthetic practice, enabling continuous noninvasive assessment of arterial oxygen saturation and pulse rate throughout the perioperative period. Since its introduction into clinical medicine, pulse oximetry has significantly improved patient safety by facilitating early detection of hypoxemia and physiologic deterioration. Despite its widespread use, clinicians may underrecognize the technical principles, physiologic assumptions, and limitations that influence measurement accuracy. This review provides a perioperative perspective on pulse oximetry, including the physics of photoplethysmography, sensor technologies, and practical considerations for optimal probe placement and signal acquisition. Sources of inaccuracy such as motion artifact, low perfusion states, dyshemoglobinemias, ambient light interference, skin pigmentation, and venous pulsation are discussed in detail. The review further examines perioperative applications across preoperative evaluation, intraoperative monitoring, and postoperative recovery, while also exploring advanced parameters including perfusion index (PI) and pleth variability index (PVI). Emerging innovations such as multi-wavelength systems and artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced signal analysis are also highlighted. A comprehensive understanding of pulse oximetry allows anesthesiologists to appropriately interpret monitor data, recognize device limitations, and optimize perioperative patient care. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and exergame technologies have been increasingly used in dance and movement activities. However, this literature remains dispersed across different areas, making it difficult to determine how the field has developed. This study mapped the research landscape and thematic development of AI-, VR-, and exergame-based dance and movement research on psychological outcomes using bibliometric analysis and latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling. A total of 252 records indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection from 2011 to 2025 were included. Five related thematic strands were identified: immersive dance interaction and technology-supported teaching; rehabilitation-oriented dance or rhythm training; school-based exergaming and psychophysiological assessment; behavioral program design and intervention implementation; and AI-based motion or emotion recognition. These strands indicate that the field has developed into a multi-layered research space shaped by technology functions, movement contexts, intervention formats, and psychological constructs, rather than a single dance-intervention or technology-application domain. At the same time, psychological outcomes were not represented with equal clarity across these strands. Participation-related and psychosocial constructs, including enjoyment, motivation, engagement, self-efficacy, social interaction, emotional expression, and quality of life, were more frequently represented, whereas mental-health-related outcomes such as anxiety, depression, stress, loneliness, and psychological well-being were less consistently connected to technology-supported dance or movement interventions. These findings clarify where evidence is concentrated, how major themes are organized, and where psychological outcome measurement requires clearer theoretical and methodological specification. Future studies should use comparative and longitudinal designs to examine whether VR/AI-based feedback-supported movement training offers added value over conventional dance or movement programs for psychological outcomes, participation, exercise experience, and longer-term behavior change. Full article

Introduction: Chronic non-specific low back pain (CNLBP) is associated with altered lumbopelvic mechanics and impaired hip mobility. This study examined whether changes in pain-provoking hip flexion are associated with changes in low back pain and assessed agreement between inertial measurement units (IMUs) and a markerless motion capture system. Methods: Thirty-six patients with CNLBP completed a longitudinal repeated-measures rehabilitation protocol consisting of approximately 13 physiotherapy sessions over a period of up to 6 weeks. Active hip flexion was assessed in the symptomatic limb (the limb provoking lumbar pain). Hip flexion was recorded during the same movement trial using IMUs and a markerless system. Pain and disability were assessed using the Visual Analogue Scale and Oswestry Disability Index. Results: Improvements in hip flexion were moderately associated with pain reduction (markerless: r = −0.52; IMU: r = −0.57), with negligible associations with disability. Markerless and IMU measurements showed a strong correlation (r = 0.87), while Bland–Altman analysis showed consistent underestimation by the markerless system (bias = −3.67°). Conclusions: Symptom-specific hip mobility is associated with pain reduction in CNLBP, highlighting the role of lumbopelvic biomechanics. IMUs demonstrated higher consistency, while markerless systems offered a more accessible alternative for clinically meaningful movement assessment. Full article

Resolving the kinematic redundancy of 7-DoF humanoid arms to generate natural, human-like motions remains a fundamental challenge in biomimetic robotics. This paper presents a hybrid inverse kinematics (IK) framework that learns a pose-dependent redundancy parameter and integrates it into a differential IK solver. Specifically, we employ the stereographic Shoulder–Elbow–Wrist (SEW) angle as a well-conditioned geometric parameterization. This formulation transforms the algorithmic singularity into a unidirectional half-line, which can be oriented outside the typical reachable workspace. To specify the optimal configuration within the self-motion manifold, a motion dataset was collected by teleoperating a humanoid arm via an anthropomorphic wearable exoskeleton. This approach translates operator-specific postural preferences into the robot’s joint space. A lightweight neural network was then trained to learn the mapping from end-effector poses to these operator-specific SEW angles. By incorporating the predicted SEW angle as a dynamic secondary objective in the null space of the primary tracking task, the proposed framework enables natural redundancy resolution while preserving end-effector tracking accuracy. Both simulations and real-robot experiments were conducted to validate the approach. Results show that, compared to the average performance of static fixed-parameter strategies, the proposed method improves the Joint Configuration Quality Index (CQI) by 22.5% and reduces energy costs by 11.3%. Moreover, the sub-millisecond inference latency (0.44 ms) facilitates seamless integration into real-time control pipelines. Full article