Ultrasound palpation sensor for tissue thickness and elasticity measurement--assessment of transverse carpal ligament

Palpation is a traditional diagnostic procedure for health care professionals to use their fingers to touch and feel the body soft tissues. It is a common clinical approach, though it is rather subjective and qualitative and the palpation results may vary among different people. Tissue ultrasound palpation sensor (TUPS) provides a feasible solution that makes the palpation of soft tissues not subjective feeling any more. It is comprised of an ultrasound transducer together with a load cell to form the finger-sized probe. The probe is used to push against the soft tissue surface to measure the thickness and elasticity of the soft tissues. TUPS has been successfully applied to the assessment of various human tissues. Recently, we have improved TUPS, which can now be linked to personal computer (PC) via universal serial bus (USB) and provide a better user-interface. The information of ultrasound signal and indentation force is displayed on PC in real time during measurement. In this paper, we introduce the recent application of TUPS for the assessment of the transverse carpal ligament. The tissues at the carpal tunnel regions of five normal male subjects were tested using TUPS. The results showed that the average thickness of the tissues covering the carpal tunnel ligament and the tunnel region was 7.98+/-1.05 mm and 9.59+/-1.12 mm, respectively. Under a compression force of 20 N applied by a cylindrical ultrasound indentor with a diameter of 9 mm, the stiffness of the soft tissue layer and the tunnel region was 6.72+/-2.10 N/mm and 15.63+/-8.42 N/mm, respectively. It is expected that TUPS can be a potential tool for non-invasive assessment of carpal tunnel syndrome.     

The apparent mass and mechanical impedance of the hand and the transmission of vibration to the fingers, hand, and arm

Although hand-transmitted vibration causes injury and disease, most often evident in the fingers, the biodynamic responses of the fingers, hand, and arm are not yet well understood. A method of investigating the motion of the entire finger-hand-arm system, based on the simultaneous measurement of the biodynamic response at the driving point and the transmissibility to many points on the finger-hand-arm system, is illustrated. Fourteen male subjects participated in an experiment in which they pushed down on a vertically vibrating metal plate with their right forearm pronated and their elbow bent at 90°. The apparent mass and mechanical impedance of the finger-hand-arm system were measured for each of seven different contact conditions between the plate and the fingers and hand. Simultaneously, the vibration of the fingers, hand, and arm was measured at 41 locations using a scanning laser Doppler vibrometer. Transmissibilities showed how the vibration was transmitted along the arm and allowed the construction of spectral operating deflection shapes showing the vibration pattern of the fingers, hand, and arm for each of the seven contact conditions. The vibration patterns at critical frequencies for each contact condition have been used to explain features in the driving point biodynamic responses and the vibration behaviour of the hand-arm system. Spectral operating deflection shapes for the upper limb assist the interpretation of driving point biodynamic responses and help to advance understanding required to predict, explain, and control the various effects of hand-transmitted vibration.     

The association between whole body vibration exposure and musculoskeletal disorders in the Swedish work force is confounded by lifting and posture

This was a cross-sectional study based on material representing the Swedish work-force from a survey conducted in 1999, 2001 and 2003 by Statistics Sweden. Exposure to whole body vibration (WBV) was prevalent among agricultural, forestry, fishery workers and among plant and machinery operators based on a sample of 40,000 employed persons. Approximately 70% responders, that are 9798 persons answered both the interview and the questionnaire for the analysis of exposure-response. Exposure to WBV at least half the working time was associated with prevalence ratios above two for musculoskeletal symptoms in the low back, neck, shoulder/arm and hand among workers. When the exposure factors lifting and frequent bending were added to a multivariate analysis, surprisingly the magnitude of association was low between low back symptoms and WBV exposure. Interestingly, the relation between WBV exposure and symptoms in the neck, shoulder/arm and hand had the same or higher magnitude of association even when the possible confounders were in the model. For the neck, low back and shoulder/arm there was a visible increase in prevalence ratio (as high as 5 times) when combined exposures of WBV, lifting, frequent bending, twisted posture and noise were included in the analysis.     

Vibration transmissibility characteristics of the human hand-arm system under different postures, hand forces and excitation levels

Biodynamic responses of the hand-arm system have been mostly characterized in terms of driving-point force-motion relationships, which have also served as the primary basis for developing the mechanical-equivalent models. The knowledge of localized vibration responses of the hand-arm segments could help derive more effective biodynamic models. In this study, the transmission of z_h-axis handle vibration to the wrist, elbow and the shoulder of the human hand and arm are characterized in the laboratory for the bent-arm and extended arm postures. The experiments involved six subjects grasping a handle subject to two different magnitudes of broad-band random vibration, and nine different combinations of hand grip and push forces. The vibration transmissibility data were acquired in the z_h- and y_h-axis at the wrist and shoulder, and along all the three axes around the elbow joint. The results show that the human hand-arm system in an extended arm posture amplifies the vibration transmitted to the upper-arm and the whole-body at frequencies below 25 Hz, but attenuates the vibration above 25 Hz more effectively than the bent-arm posture, except at the shoulder. The magnitudes of transmitted vibration under an extended arm posture along the y_h-axis were observed to be nearly twice those for the bent-arm posture in the low frequency region. The results further showed that variations in the grip force mostly affect vibration transmissibility and characteristic frequencies of the forearm, while changes in the push force influenced the dynamic characteristics of the entire hand-arm system. The magnitudes of transmitted vibration in the vicinity of the characteristic frequencies were influenced by the handle vibration magnitude.     

A COMPARISON OF BIODYNAMIC MODELS OF THE HUMAN HAND-ARM SYSTEM FOR APPLICATIONS TO HAND-HELD POWER TOOLS

The biodynamic response characteristics of various mechanical models of the human hand and arm system, reported in the literature, are evaluated in terms of their driving-point mechanical impedance modulus and phase responses. The suitability of the reported models for applications in realizing a mechanical simulator and assessment of vibration behavior of hand-held power tools is examined using three different criteria. These include the ability of the model to characterize the driving-point mechanical impedance of the human hand-arm system within the range of idealized values presented in ISO-10068 (1998); the magnitude of model deflection under a static feed force; and the vibration properties of the human hand and arm evaluated in terms of natural frequencies and damping ratios. From the relative evaluations of 12 different models, it is concluded that a vast majority of these models cannot be applied for the development of a mechanical hand-arm simulator or the assessment of dynamic behavior of the coupled hand-tool system. The higher order models, with three and four degrees of freedom, in general, yield impedance characteristics within the range of idealized values, but exhibit excessive static deflections. Moreover, these models involve very light masses (in the 1·2-4·8 g range), and exhibit either one or two vibration modes at frequencies below 10 Hz. The majority of the lower order models yield reasonable magnitudes of static deflections but relatively poor agreement with idealized values of driving-point mechanical impedance.     

Mechanical impedances distributed at the fingers and palm of the human hand in three orthogonal directions

The objective of this study is to investigate the basic characteristics of the three axis mechanical impedances distributed at the fingers and palm of the hand subjected to vibrations along three orthogonal directions (x_h, y_h, and z_h). Seven subjects participated in the experiment on a novel three-dimensional (3-D) hand–arm vibration test system equipped with a 3-D instrumented handle. The total impedance of the entire hand–arm system was obtained by performing a sum of the distributed impedances. Two major resonances were observed in the impedance data in each direction. For the hand forces (30 N grip and 50 N push) and body postures applied in this study, the first resonance was in the range of 20–40 Hz, and it was primarily observed in the impedance at the palm. The second resonance was generally observed in the impedance at the fingers, while the resonance frequency varied greatly with the subject and vibration direction, ranging from 100 to 200 Hz in the x_h direction, 60 to 120 Hz in the y_h direction, and 160 to 300 Hz in the z_h direction. The impedance at the palm was greater than that at the fingers below a certain frequency in the range of 50–100 Hz, depending on the vibration direction. At higher frequencies, however, the impedance magnitude at the fingers either approached or exceeded that at the palm. The impedance in the z_h direction was generally higher than those in the other directions, but it became comparable with that in the x_h direction at frequencies above 250 Hz, while the impedance in the y_h direction was the lowest. The frequency dependencies of the vibration power absorptions for the entire hand–arm system in the three directions were different, but their basic trends were similar to that of the frequency weighting defined in the current ISO standard. The implications of the results are discussed.     

手持移动型高温超导SQUID在无损检测中的应用

在SQUID的无损检测应用中,如果被测样品非常巨大,不能移动样品,必须来移动SQUID进行扫描。而移动SQUID最方便最直接的方式是用手移动或者用机械臂移动,这就要求SQUID能在无屏蔽环境下非常稳定地工作,地磁场的影响要补偿掉,在移动中手的抖动产生的噪声也要消除。成功地解决了这些问题,用手持移动型高温超导SQUID在无屏蔽环境下检测到了6 mm铝板下的孔缺陷信号。报道了在这方面的初步研究结果。     

A Study of the Suitable Measurement Location and Metrics for Assessing the Vibration Source Strength Based on the Field-Testing Data of Nanchang Underground Railway

Underground railway vibration source strength is one of the key values used for environmental impact assessment and the evaluation of mitigation measure’s performance. However, currently there is no international standard of measuring the underground railway vibration source strength for such purposes. The available local standards and industrial guidelines do not agree on measurement locations as well as the metrics for presenting the source strength. This has caused many confusions. This paper aims to study the suitable measurement location and metrics using the data from a large scale field-testing carried out at the Nanchang underground railway (Metro Line 1, China) in 2017. 200 passing trains were recorded during the test at two different sections of the railway line, one with the spring floating slab installed and the other without. Three locations were chosen at each section, including one in the middle of the track and two on the tunnel wall at different heights. Based on the results of statistical analysis, the maximum of z-weighted vertical vibration level (VLzmax) obtained at a lower measurement location on the tunnel wall is the best for representing the underground railway vibration source strength, which is 76.66 dB obtained from this study.     

The effect of a twin tunnel on the propagation of ground-borne vibration from an underground railway

Accurate predictions of ground-borne vibration levels in the vicinity of an underground railway are greatly sought after in modern urban centres. Yet the complexity involved in simulating the underground environment means that it is necessary to make simplifying assumptions about this system. One such commonly made assumption is to ignore the effects of neighbouring tunnels, despite the fact that many underground railway lines consist of twin-bored tunnels, one for the outbound direction and one for the inbound direction.This paper presents a unique model for two tunnels embedded in a homogeneous, elastic fullspace. Each of these tunnels is subject to both known, dynamic train forces and dynamic cavity forces. The net forces acting on the tunnels are written as the sum of those tractions acting on the invert of a single tunnel, and those tractions that represent the motion induced by the neighbouring tunnel. By apportioning the tractions in this way, the vibration response of a two-tunnel system is written as a linear combination of displacement fields produced by a single-tunnel system. Using Fourier decomposition, forces are partitioned into symmetric and antisymmetric modenumber components to minimise computation times.The significance of the interactions between two tunnels is quantified by calculating the insertion gains, in both the vertical and horizontal directions, that result from the existence of a second tunnel. The insertion-gain results are shown to be localised and highly dependent on frequency, tunnel orientation and tunnel thickness. At some locations, the magnitude of these insertion gains is greater than 20 dB. This demonstrates that a high degree of inaccuracy exists in any surface vibration prediction model that includes only one of the two tunnels. This novel two-tunnel solution represents a significant contribution to the existing body of research into vibration from underground railways, as it shows that the second tunnel has a significant influence on the accuracy of vibration predictions for underground railways.     

Spatial resonance in a small artery excited by vibration input as a possible mechanism to cause hand–arm vascular disorders

Hand–arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) is collectively a vasospastic and neurodegenerative occupational disease. One of the major symptoms of HAVS is vibration white finger (VWF) caused by exaggerated vasoconstriction of the arteries and skin arterioles. While VWF is a very painful and costly occupational illness, its pathology has not been well understood. In this study a small artery is modeled as a fluid filled elastic tube whose diameter changes along the axial direction. Equations of motion are developed by considering interactions between the fluid, artery wall and soft-tissue bed. It is shown that the resulting wave equation is the same as that of the basilar membrane in the cochlea of mammals. Therefore, the artery system shows a spatial resonance as in the basilar membrane, which responds with the highest amplitude at the location determined by the vibration frequency. This implies that a long-term use of one type of tool will induce high-level stresses at a few identical locations of the artery that correspond to the major frequency components of the tool. Hardening and deterioration of the artery at these locations may be a possible cause of VWF.     

The fictitious force method for efficient calculation of vibration from a tunnel embedded in a multi-layered half-space

This paper presents an extension of the Pipe-in-Pipe (PiP) model for calculating vibrations from underground railways that allows for the incorporation of a multi-layered half-space geometry. The model is based on the assumption that the tunnel displacement is not influenced by the existence of a free surface or ground layers. The displacement at the tunnel–soil interface is calculated using a model of a tunnel embedded in a full space with soil properties corresponding to the soil in contact with the tunnel. Next, a full space model is used to determine the equivalent loads that produce the same displacements at the tunnel–soil interface. The soil displacements are calculated by multiplying these equivalent loads by Green?s functions for a layered half-space. The results and the computation time of the proposed model are compared with those of an alternative coupled finite element–boundary element model that accounts for a tunnel embedded in a multi-layered half-space. While the overall response of the multi-layered half-space is well predicted, spatial shifts in the interference patterns are observed that result from the superposition of direct waves and waves reflected on the free surface and layer interfaces. The proposed model is much faster and can be run on a personal computer with much less use of memory. Therefore, it is a promising design tool to predict vibration from underground tunnels and to assess the performance of vibration countermeasures in an early design stage.     

Optimized design of suspension systems for hand–arm transmitted vibration reduction

This paper describes a systematic approach for optimizing suspension systems to reduce the vibrations transmitted to workers by hand-held power tools. The optimization is based on modeling tool-operator interactions using a mobility scheme. The tool is modeled as a vibration generator, and its internal impedance is included. A hand–arm impedance matrix is used to model the operator upper limbs. The mobility model is used to identify the optimal suspension characteristics, which in our study were the set of parameters that minimizes the frequency-weighted acceleration at the hand–tool interface. Different handling conditions (one and two hands) and different working cycles with the same tools can be included in the optimization process. The constraints derived from the limitation on the increase in the tool mass and the static deflection of the mounting system under the working loads are also considered. The proposed method has been applied to the reduction of the vibrations transmitted to the operator by a small pneumatic hammer. The designed system reduced the worker’s exposure so that it is within the limits of the EU directive. The agreement between the model predictions and the measured suspension performances validates the effectiveness of this approach.     

Effect of phase on discomfort caused by vertical whole-body vibration and shock--experimental investigation

An experimental study has investigated the effect of "phase" on the subjective responses of human subjects exposed to vertical whole-body vibration and shock. The stimuli were formed from two frequency components: 3 and 9 Hz for continuous vibrations and 3 and 12 Hz for shocks. The two frequency components, each having 1.0 ms(-2) peak acceleration, were combined to form various waveforms. The effects of the vibration magnitude on the discomfort caused by the input stimuli were also investigated with both the continuous vibrations and the shocks. Various objective measurements of acceleration and force at the seat surface, the effects of different frequency weightings and second and fourth power evaluations were compared with judgments of the discomfort of the stimuli. It was found that a 6% to 12% increase in magnitude produced a statistically significant increase in discomfort with both the continuous vibrations and the shocks. Judgments of discomfort caused by changes in vibration magnitude were highly correlated with all of the objective measurements used in the study. The effects on discomfort of the phase between components in the continuous vibrations were not statistically significant, as predicted using evaluation methods with a power of 2. However, small changes in discomfort were correlated with the vibration dose value (VDV) of the Wb frequency-weighted acceleration. The effect of phase between frequency components within the shocks was statistically significant, although no objective measurement method used in the study was correlated with the subjective judgments.     

δ势垒对多臂量子环中持续电流的影响

提出了含δ势垒的多臂量子环模型.研究发现总磁通为零时,持续电流随半导体环增大发生非周期性振荡,下臂因含δ势垒而获得最小的平均持续电流.AB磁通增强时,持续电流会发生周期性等幅振荡,并与电极的磁矩方向以及隧穿电子的自旋方向相关.两电极磁矩方向平行时,Rashba自旋轨道耦合具有改变持续电流相位和相位差的效应;两电极磁矩方向反平行时,Rashba自旋轨道耦合具有改变持续电流振幅的效应.各臂之间持续电流的不同与臂长和磁通分布的差异相关.在一定条件下,两种波函数所对应的持续电流是可分离的. 关键词： 多臂量子环 持续电流 δ势垒 Rashba自旋轨道耦合     

Resonant escape over an oscillating barrier in underdamped Josephson tunnel junctions

The escape from a metastable state over an oscillating barrier of an underdamped Josephson tunnel junction has been experimentally investigated with oscillation frequency well separated from the plasma frequency of the junction. The resonant escape, namely, a minimum of the average escape time as a function of the oscillation frequency, was observed. For the oscillation frequency much smaller than the "resonant frequency," the average escape time is the average of the times required to cross over each of the barriers. On the other hand, for the oscillation frequency much greater than the "resonant frequency," the average escape time is that required to cross the average barrier.     

Contribution of primary motor cortex to compensatory balance reactions

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Rapid compensatory arm reactions represent important response strategies following an unexpected loss of balance. While it has been assumed that early corrective actions arise largely from sub-cortical networks, recent findings have prompted speculation about the potential role of cortical involvement. To test the idea that cortical motor regions are involved in early compensatory arm reactions, we used continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) to temporarily suppress the hand area of primary motor cortex (M1) in participants prior to evoking upper limb balance reactions in response to whole body perturbation. We hypothesized that following cTBS to the M1 hand area evoked EMG responses in the stimulated hand would be diminished. To isolate balance reactions to the upper limb participants were seated in an elevated tilt-chair while holding a stable handle with both hands. The chair was held vertical by a magnet and was triggered to fall backward unpredictably. To regain balance, participants used the handle to restore upright stability as quickly as possible with both hands. Muscle activity was recorded from proximal and distal muscles of both upper limbs. RESULTS: Our results revealed an impact of cTBS on the amplitude of the EMG responses in the stimulated hand muscles often manifest as inhibition in the stimulated hand. The change in EMG amplitude was specific to the target hand muscles and occasionally their homologous pairs on the non-stimulated hand with no consistent effects on the remaining more proximal arm muscles. CONCLUSIONS: Present findings offer support for cortical contributions to the control of early compensatory arm reactions following whole-body perturbation.     

Ground-borne noise and vibration from underground rail systems

Ground-borne noise is one of the main causes of environmental impact from urban rail transit systems. The vibration resulting from track-train interaction is transmitted through the tunnel 3tructure and the surrounding ground to adjacent buildings. The resulting vibrations of the walls and floors of these buildings cause secondary radiation of noise. This paper presents a method for estimating A-weighted sound levels as well as noise and vibration spectra due to ground-transmitted vibration in buildings near subways.     

Voids at the tunnel-soil interface for calculation of ground vibration from underground railways

Voids at the tunnel-soil interface are not normally considered when predicting ground vibration from underground railways. The soil is generally assumed to be continuously bonded to the outer surface of the tunnel to simplify the modelling process. Evidence of voids around underground railways motivated the study presented herein to quantify the level of uncertainty in ground vibration predictions associated with neglecting to include such voids at the tunnel-soil interface. A semi-analytical method is developed which derives discrete transfers for the coupled tunnel-soil model based on the continuous Pipe-in-Pipe method. The void is simulated by uncoupling the appropriate nodes at the interface to prevent force transfer between the systems. The results from this investigation show that relatively small voids () can significantly affect the rms velocity predictions in the near-field and moderately affect predictions in the far-field. Sensitivity of the predictions to void length and void sector angle are both deemed to be significant. The findings from this study suggest that the uncertainty associated with assuming a perfect bond at the tunnel-soil interface in an area with known voidage can reasonably reach and thus should be considered in the design process.     

特殊结构的多臂量子环的持续电流

提出了中臂弯曲的多臂量子环模型,且是上臂最短和下臂最长的不等臂量子环.研究发现：总磁通为零时,持续电流随半导体环增大发生非周期性振荡,并与电极的磁矩方向及隧穿电子的自旋方向相关,下臂因为最长而获得最小的平均持续电流.AB磁通增强时,持续电流会发生周期性振荡,各臂之间明显出现相互制约的现象.各臂持续电流之间的差异与臂长和磁通分布相关,Rashba自旋轨道耦合具有改变持续电流相位和相位差的效应.在一定条件下,两种波函数所对应的持续电流是可分离的. 关键词： 多臂量子环 持续电流 Rashba自旋轨道耦合     

A numerical model for calculating vibration from a railway tunnel embedded in a full-space

Vibration generated by underground railways transmits to nearby buildings causing annoyance to inhabitants and malfunctioning to sensitive equipment. Vibration can be isolated through countermeasures by reducing the stiffness of railpads, using floating-slab tracks and/or supporting buildings on springs. Modelling of vibration from underground railways has recently gained more importance on account of the need to evaluate accurately the performance of vibration countermeasures before these are implemented.This paper develops an existing model, reported by Forrest and Hunt, for calculating vibration from underground railways. The model, known as the Pipe-in-Pipe model, has been developed in this paper to account for anti-symmetrical inputs and therefore to model tangential forces at the tunnel wall. Moreover, three different arrangements of supports are considered for floating-slab tracks, one which can be used to model directly-fixed slabs. The paper also investigates the wave-guided solution of the track, the tunnel, the surrounding soil and the coupled system. It is shown that the dynamics of the track have significant effect on the results calculated in the wavenumber-frequency domain and therefore an important role on controlling vibration from underground railways.