The largest percentage of mortality from tobacco smoking is cardiovascular-related. It is not known whether regular participation in exercise mitigates the adverse influence of smoking on vasculature. The purpose of this study is to determine if regular aerobic exercise is associated with reduced arterial stiffness in young men who are cigarette smokers. Using a cross-sectional observational study design, the sample included 78 young men (22±5 years) with the following classification: sedentary smokers (n=12); physically active smokers (n=25); sedentary non-smokers (n=20); and physically active non-smokers (n=21). Arterial stiffness was assessed by brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV). There were no group differences in height, body fatness, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. As expected, both physically active groups demonstrated greater VO2max and lower heart rate at rest than their sedentary peers. The sedentary smokers demonstrated greater baPWV than the sedentary non-smokers (1,183±33.5 vs. 1,055±25 cm/sec). baPWV was not different between the physically-active smokers and the physically-active non-smokers (1,084±26 vs. 1,070±28.6 cm/sec). Chronic smoking is associated with arterial stiffening in sedentary men but a significant smoking-induced increase in arterial stiffness was not observed in physically active adults. These results are consistent with the idea that regular participation in physical activity may mitigate the adverse effect of smoking on the vasculature. / text

The vibration damping property of plant fibres composites is of practical interest for commercial applications of biobased and eco-composites. Damping behaviour has been observed by experimentation and exploited in the marketing of sporting equipment but the origins of this behaviour have so far been only based on conjectures. In this thesis, the damping capacity of plant fibre composites was attributed to their chemical composition and the reversible interactions enabled by the breaking and reforming of hydrogen bonds under stress. The approach to explaining the mechanisms started with the characterisation of different plant fibre types to search for correlations between their physical and chemical structure. The investigation continued with quantifying the effect of hydrogen bonding compounds such as water, glycerol and polyglycerol on the damping coefficient of fibres and reinforced composites. The results of the polyol impregnation indicated that applying a pretreatment enhanced the vibration damping performance of flax reinforced composites, validating the hypothesis of the essential role played by hydrogen bonds in the fibres. The improvement in the damping coefficient of the composites was shown to be to the detriment of their stiffness. The compromised between the two properties was investigated in the final part of this thesis by using hybrid flax-carbon fibre reinforced composites.

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No description available.

Hypertonia is seen in 85% of people with Multiple Sclerosis (pwMS) resulting in disability and functional restrictions. Hypertonia can be caused by increases in passive stiffness and enhanced stretch reflexes (spasticity) and is frequently managed clinically using passive stretches. However, the optimal parameters of stretching such as the applied torque and stretch duration remain unclear. During commonly prescribed ankle plantarflexor stretches pwMS produced higher torques when standing in a weight bearing position compared to stretches applied using the upper limbs. Stretches could be held for 120 seconds on average and stretch duration was mainly limited by fatigue. People with higher disability tended to favour more supported stretching positions. The effects of stretching for either 30 or 10 minutes using a customised motor at three torque levels covering the range that MS participants could produce was investigated. Compared to the 10 minute stretch, greater reductions in passive stiffness and greater increases in range of movement (ROM) were seen immediately following the 30 minute stretch with the effects being sustained for the 30 minute post stretch period. Higher levels of applied torque resulted in a greater change in ROM however; there was no effect of applied torque on passive stiffness. Stretch reflex mediated stiffness was unaffected by the stretching intervention and showed transient post stretch increases. Ultrasonography was used to investigate changes in muscle–tendon length and strain in pwMS and controls and following stretching. PwMS showed evidence of stiffer muscles and increased tendon length at baseline compared to controls. Following a 10 minute stretch overall muscle length did not increase in pwMS, although increases in strain in the musculotendinous junction region were observed suggesting that more proximal regions of the muscle was likely to have contributed significantly to overall stiffness. This work highlights that stretch duration and levels of applied torque are critical factors in determining the effectiveness of stretches. The pathological mechanisms underlying hypertonia at a molecular and structural level and the effects of stretching on components of the musculo-tendinous structure and on functional ability should be ascertained.

Fluorocarbons are known to be stiffer than their hydrocarbon analogues, a property that underlines the extensive industrial application of fluorocarbon materials. Although there has been previous studies on the rotational barrier of molecules having fluorocarbon centers, a detailed systematic study is necessary to quantify flurocarbon stiffness. The molecules, Pyrene-(CF2)n-Pyrene, Pyrene-(CF2)n-F, Pyrene-(CH2)n-Pyrene and Pyrene-(CH2)n-H were therefore synthesized to enable the determination of the barrier to rotation of the carbon backbone in fluorocarbons. Conformational studies will be completed with steady-state and time-dependent emission spectroscopy.

Understanding and explaining perception of touch is a non-trivial task. Even seemingly trivial differences in exploration may potentially have a significant impact on perception and levels of discrimination. In this study, we explore different aspects of contact related to stiffness perception and their effects on the just noticeable difference (JND) of stiffness are surveyed. An experiment has been performed on non-deformable, compliant objects in a virtual environment with three different types of contact: Discontinuous pressure, continuous pressure and continuous lateral motion. The result shows a significantly better discrimination performance in the case of continuous pressure (a special case of nonlinearity), which can be explained by the concept of haptic memory. Moreover, it is found that the perception is worse for the changes that occur along the lateral axis than the normal axis.

Numerous studies have considered the ability of humans to perceive differences in forces and how this affects our ability to interpret the properties of materials. Previous research has not considered the effect of the rate of change of the material stiffness in our ability to perceive differences, however, an important factor in exploration processes such as a doctor’s palpation of the skin to examine tissues beneath. These effects are the topic of this research which attempts to quantify the effects of stiffness gradient magnitude and form on the discernment of changes in stiffness.

A novel tilting pad journal bearing model including pivot flexibility as well as temporal fluid inertia effects on the thin film fluid flow aims to accurately predict the bearing forced performance. The predictive model also accounts for the thermal energy transport effects in a TPJB. A Fortran program with an Excel GUI models TPJBs and delivers predictions of the bearing static and dynamic forced performance. The calculation algorithm uses a Newton-Raphson procedure for successful iterations on the equilibrium pad radial and transverse displacements and journal center displacements, even for bearings pads with very soft pivots. The predictive model accounts for the effect of film temperature on the operating bearing and pad clearances by calculating the thermal expansion of the journal and pad surfaces. The pad inlet thermal mixing coefficient (lambda) influences moderately the predicted fluid film temperature field. Pad pivot flexibility decreases significantly and dominates the bearing stiffness and damping coefficients when the pivot stiffness is lower than 10% of the fluid film stiffness coefficients (with rigid pivots). Pivot flexibility has a more pronounced effect on reducing the bearing damping coefficients than the stiffness coefficients. Pad pivot flexibility may still affect the bearing behavior at a light load condition for a bearing with a large pad preload. Pad pivot flexibility, as well as the fluid inertia and the pads’ mass and mass moment of inertia, could influence the bearing impedance coefficients, in particular at high whirl frequencies. The stiffness and damping coefficients of a TPJB increase with a reduction in the operating bearing and pad clearances. The work delivers a predictive tool benchmarked against a number of experimental results for test bearings available in the recent literature. The static and dynamic forced performance characteristics of actual TPJBs can not be accurately predicted unless their pad flexibility and pivot flexibility, fluid film temperature, pad inlet thermal mixing coefficient, operating bearing and pad clearances, among others are well known in advance. However, the extensive archival literature showcasing test procedures and experimental results for TPJBs does not report the above parameters. Thus, reasonable assumptions on the magnitude of certain elusive parameters for use in the predictive TPJB model are necessary.

Impact at each leg transition is one of the main causes of energy dissipation in most of the current bipedal walking robots. Minimizing impact can reduce the energy loss. Instead of controlling the joint angle profiles to reduce the impact which requires significant amount of energy, installing elastic mechanisms on the robots structure is proposed in this research, enabling the robot to reduce the impact, and to store part of the energy in the elastic form which returns the energy to the robot. Practically, this motivates the development of the bipedal walking robots with adjustable stiffness elasticity which itself creates new challenging problems. This thesis addresses some of the challenges through five consecutive stages. Firstly, an adjustable compliant series elastic actuator (named ACSEA in this thesis) is developed. The velocity control mode of the electric motor is used to accurately control the output force of the ACSEA. Secondly, three different conceptual designs of the adjustable stiffness artificial tendons (ASAT) are proposed each of which is added at the ankle joint of a bipedal walking robot model. Simulation results of the collision phase (part of the gait between the heel-strike and the foot-touch-down in bipedal walking) demonstrate significant improvements in the energetics of the bipedal walking robot by proper stiffness adjustment of ASAT. In the third stage, in order to study the effects of ASATs on reducing the energy loss during the stance phase, a simplified model of bipedal walking is introduced consisting of a foot, a leg and an ASAT which is installed parallel to the ankle joint. A linear spring, with adjustable stiffness, is included in the model to simulate the generated force by the trailing leg during the double support phase. The concept of impulsive constraints is used to establish the mathematical model of impacts in the collision phase which includes the heel-strike and the foot-touch-down. For the fourth stage, an energy-feedback-based controller is designed to automatically adjust the stiffness of the ASAT which reduces the energy loss during the foot-touch-down. In the final stage, a speed tracking (ST) controller is developed to regulate the velocity of the biped at the midstance. The ST controller is an event-based time-independent controller, based on geometric progression with exponential decay in the kinetic energy error, which adjusts the stiffness of the trailing-leg spring to control the injected energy to the biped in tracking a desired speed at the midstance. Another controller is also integrated with the ST controller to tune the stiffness of the ASAT when reduction in the speed is desired. Then, the local stability of the system (biped and the combination of the above three controllers) is analyzed by calculating the eigenvalues of the linear approximation of the return map. Simulation results show that the combination of the three controllers is successful in tracking a desired speed of the bipedal walking even in the presence of the uncertainties in the leg’s initial angles. The outcomes of this research show the significant effects of adjustable stiffness artificial tendons on reducing the energy loss during bipedal walking. It also demonstrates the advantages of adding elastic elements in the bipedal walking model which benefits the efficiency and simplicity in regulating the speed. This research paves the way toward developing the dynamic walking robots with adjustable stiffness ability which minimize the shortcomings of the two major types of bipedal walking robots, i.e., passive dynamic walking robots (which are energy efficient but need extensive parameters tuning for gait stability) and actively controlled walking robots (which are significantly energy inefficient). / May 2008