Search results

The purpose of this paper is to develop a user friendly, wearable pain management system by optimizing CAD embroidery parameters for manufacturing high performance dry transcutaneous electrical neural stimulation (TENS) electrodes.

User-centered design methodology is employed to identify user needs related to TENS devices. Optimization of CAD embroidery parameters was done by measuring and calculating resistance and signal-to-noise values for electrodes manufactured with different conductive thread, stitch pattern, and stitch density types.

Characteristics of the conductive thread such as thickness and irregularity, embroidery stitch pattern, stitch density therefore the amount of conductive thread used all effect resistance values and signal-to-noise values of TENS electrodes. Low resistance of TENS electrode surface does not mean high signal-to-noise ratio and high TENS signal quality. Satin stitch type with low stitch density provides the best resistance and signal-to-noise ratio for a TENS electrode.

This study reported the design process of a wearable pain management system with a focus on optimization of embroidery manufacturing parameters for development of TENS electrodes. The design process not only required technical optimization but also understanding user problems related to use of conventional TENS devices. Proposed end product is a user friendly, electronic textile based, wireless wearable pain management system in different forms suitable for major pain areas such as knee, elbow and neck.

The purpose of this paper is to develop textile-based transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) electrodes using conductive yarn to bring a solution to uncomfortable feelings and hygiene problems of conventional conductive hydrogel electrodes. It proposes washing process, resistance measurements and subjective tests to evaluate the performance of the developed textile-based electrode.

In this study, six different textile electrode pairs were designed and produced with different patterns. Designed electrodes were washed for ten times. In order to evaluate the effect of pattern differences and washing process on electrode performances, two different tests were realized before and after washing. The first of these tests is resistance measurement with a multimeter, and the second one is subjective test carried out on subjects.

The results obtained from resistance measurements indicated that the pattern differences cause resistance values of electrodes to change. It is reported that subjects had electrical stimulation from all electrode samples in conducted trials and it is noticed that washing process does not cause any stimulation problems.

In this study, textile-based TENS electrodes having different patterns were produced by machine stitching technique and their long-term usage behaviors were examined with repeated washing processes and trials on the subjects.

The purpose of this paper is to produce electric discharge machining (EDM) electrodes by using stereolithography (SLA) rapid prototyping technique and investigate the machining performance of these electrodes. In the experimental part of the study, the performance of solid copper and copper‐coated SLA (cc/SLA) electrodes are observed and compared.

The performance outputs such as material removal rate, machining depth, workpiece surface roughness and electrode front surface wear are used as metrics of comparison. The temperature measurements taken from the face of both solid copper and cc/SLA electrodes indicated that the heat build up during machining significantly accelerated the failure of cc/SLA electrodes.

The paper finds that circulating the cooling liquid inside the internal cooling channels formed with SLA technique, elongated the life of cc/SLA electrodes by dissipating the heat from the coating.

The Fluent Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Software is used to numerically analyze various aspects of cooling of cc/SLA electrodes. The key findings of the study are presented in this paper.

The present paper consists of an outline of the analysis of corrosion reactions made possible by the use of the concepts of chemical and electrochemical affinities and of the principles of equilibrium thermodynamics and of the thermodynamics of irreversible processes. For the essentials of the thermodynamic theory of affinity the reader is referred to the books of De Bonder and Van Rysselberghe and of Prigogine and Defay and, for the essentials of the thermodynamic theory of electrochemical affinity, he is referred to an article and a monograph by Van Rysselberghe We shall base our whole presentation on a typical example, that of metallic zinc undergoing corrosion in aqueous media. Generalisation to other cases can readily be worked out.

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a hand disease caused by the pressing of the median nerve present in the palmar side of the wrist. It causes severe pain in the wrist, triggering disturbance during sleep. Different products like splints, braces and gloves are available in the market to alleviate this disease but there was still a need to improve the wearability, comfort and cost of the product. This study was about designing a comfortable and cost-effective wearable system for mild-to-moderate CTS. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) therapy has been used to reduce the pain in the wrist.

After simulation by using Proteus software (which allowed the researchers to draw and simulate electrical circuits using ISIS, ARES and PCB design tools virtually), the circuit with optimum frequency, i.e. 33 Hz was selected, and the circuit was developed on a printed circuit board (PCB). The developed circuit was integrated successfully into the half glove structure.

The developed product had good thermophysiological comfort and hand properties as compared to the commercially available product of the same kind. In vivo testing (It involves the testing with living subjects like animals, plants or human beings) was performed which resulted in 85% confirmed viability of the product against CTS. A glove with an integrated circuit was developed successfully to accommodate various sizes without any sex specifications in a cost-effective way to mitigate the issue of CTS.

Industrial workers, individuals frequently using their hands or those diagnosed with CTS may wish to use this product as therapy. The attention could not be paid to the aesthetic or visual appeal of the developed product.

A very comfortable glove with integrated TENS electrodes was developed successfully to accommodate various sizes without any sex specifications in a cost-effective way to mitigate the issues of CTS.

Fostered by the development of new technologies, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are massively present on board of vehicles, within information equipment, as well as in medical and healthcare equipment. The purpose of this paper is to approach here the shape design of MEMS in terms of the optimization of a vector objective function, subject to a set of constraints. Objectives and constraints are non-linear, dependent on the unknown device shape. When multiple objective functions should be optimized simultaneously, the set of solutions minimizing the degree of conflict (Pareto front) can be searched for.

This paper proposes an automated optimal design method based on connecting the MATLAB surrogate modeling (SUMO) toolbox with COMSOL Multiphysics finite element analysis tool, and the evolutionary algorithm NSGA-II as well.

The efficiency of the optimization method proposed is approximately doubled in terms of runtime (5 vs 10 h for the referred platform), when compared with the same computational job without using surrogate models. This way, a cost-effective and accurate approximation of the Pareto front, trading off drive and levitation force components in a comb-drive electrostatic microactuator, was found.

More in-depth models of MEMS devices could be obtained by simulating multi-domain physical processes, i.e. encompassing a coupled-field analysis in the multiphysics sense.

Under this framework, the proposed approach lays the ground for a very general method devoted to the optimal shape design of any MEMS configuration; in fact, the application of multiobjective optimizations to these kind of devices is quite new.

A new method of designing electromagnetic devices especially high‐voltage ones, is presented. As a result of applying a sequential quadratic programing algorithm and a very effective algorithm for non‐linear minimax optimization, a flexible method for computer aided design of high‐voltage and semiconductor devices has been obtained. The minimax algorithm is based on a successive linear approximation of the functions defining the problem. In each iteration step these functions are computed with the aid of the finite element method. The resulting linear subproblems are solved in the minimax sense subject to the linear equality and inequality constraints. Applications of these two methods for the designing some parts of the high‐voltage devices are presented.

Corrosion sensors and networks are the most effective techniques to obtain the corrosion information and recognize the corrosion status of reinforced concrete structures. However, reference electrode is the key element to provide the baseline for potential control of the corrosion monitoring sensors during corrosion measurement process. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide the novel solid‐state reference electrode for the corrosion sensors.

A solid‐state Ag/AgCl reference electrode has been prepared. Furthermore, the performance of the reference electrode, such as stability, temperature response, anti‐polarization and influence of the concrete admixture, has been investigated.

The results indicate that the balance potential and the temperature coefficient of the reference electrode are 3.64±1mv (vs. SCE) at 25°C and −0.51 mv/°C±0.03 mv/°C, respectively. Furthermore, the polarization curve exhibits characteristics of three stages as the polarization current is in (−10μA/cm2,+10μA/cm2). Additionally, the reference electrode is insensitive to the concrete admixtures which include Na2SO4, NaCl, NaNO3 and NaNO2.

The research provides the key element for the corrosion monitoring sensors to integrate structural health monitoring system in future.

This paper aims to review past papers focused on understanding consumer-related topics in marketing and related interdisciplinary fields to demonstrate the applications of electroencephalogram (EEG) in consumer neuroscience.

In addition to the review of papers using EEG to study consumer cognitive processes, the authors also discuss relevant decisions and considerations in conducting event-related potential (ERP) studies. Further, a framework proposed by Plassmann et al. (2015) was used to discuss the applications of EEG in marketing research from papers reviewed.

This paper successfully used Plassmann et al.’s (2015) framework to discuss five applications of neuroscience to marketing research. A review of growing EEG studies in the field of marketing and other interdisciplinary fields reveals the advantages and potential of using EEG in combination with other methods. This calls for more research using such methods.

A technical overview of ERP-related terminology provides researchers with a background for understanding and reviewing ERP studies. A discussion of method-related considerations and decisions provides marketing researchers with an introduction to the method and refers readers to relevant literature.

The marketing industry has been quick to adopt cutting edge technology, including EEG, to understand and predict consumer behavior for the purpose of improving marketing practices. This paper connects the academic and practitioner spheres by presenting past and potential EEG research that can be translatable to the marketing industry.

The authors review past literature on the use of EEG to study consumer-related topics in marketing and interdisciplinary fields, to demonstrate its advantages over-traditional methods in studying consumer-relevant behaviors. To foster increasing use of EEG in consumer neuroscience research, the authors further provide technical and marketing-specific considerations for both academic and market researchers. This paper is one of the first to review past EEG papers and provide methodological background insights for marketing researchers.