Safety in automobiles is gaining increasing importance. With the increasing trend of U.S. buyers towards SUVs, appropriate safety measures for SUVs need to be implemented. Since SUVs, as a vehicle type, have a higher center of gravity and hence have a greater tendency to rollover at high cornering speeds. The rollover can also occur due to the vertical road inputs like bumps and potholes which induce a rolling moment. The proposed rollover identification system would "couple" the two inputs from the suspension relative position sensors and the lateral acceleration sensor to predict rollover. The input to the suspension relative position sensors could be either due to the vehicle cornering, which results in the outer suspension getting compressed and the inner suspension getting extended, or maybe due to vertical road inputs. The principal objective is to differentiate the two types of inputs (since they can have opposing moment values) and further couple the same with the lateral acceleration input to form a rollover identification system. The work involves modeling of a semi-car model using the Dymola-vehicle dynamics simulation software. The semi-car model is developed to simulate values for the two proposed sensors. Then using NHTSA standard steering procedures and steering angle as the input, the lateral tire forces are generated. These tire forces serve as input to the Dymola model which is integrated into a Simulink model. The lateral acceleration and suspension relative position sensor values obtained are then used by LabVIEW to pass judgments on the type of rollover. The model was successfully developed in Dymola. The model with steering angle as input was able to generate values of lateral acceleration and lateral tire forces. The roll angle induced due to road inputs and vehicle cornering were estimated. Since the principal objective of modeling was to generate lateral acceleration values, these values were subsequently used in the LabVIEW Rollover Identification System where rollover induced either by maneuver or through road inputs were clearly identified.

Abstract With the rapid progress of the MEMs process, the cost and the size of accelerometers are reducing rapidly. As a result, accelerometers have found many new applications in industrial, entertainment and medical domains. One of such an applications is to acquire information about human body movement. The objective of this work is to use knee acceleration signal for indentity verification. Comparing with traditional biometric methods, this approach has several distinct features. First, it can aquire a large amount of data efficiently and conventiently. Second, it is relatively difficult to duplicate. In designing the verification algorithm, this study has developed a neural network method a hyperspherical classifier method. The experimental results demonstrated that hyperspherical classifier provide better performances in this application. By setting the sensitively to 85%, the specificity achieved by the hyperspherical classifier is at least 95%.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alberta, 2009. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on Jan. 5, 2010). "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Physics, Department of Physics, University of Alberta." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--York University, 2001. Graduate Programme in Kinesiology and Health Science. / Typescript. Title on thesis acceptance page: Effects of aging on the cardiovascular responses to a push-pull tilting manoeuvre. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-73). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ71587.

No description available.

Stroke is the leading cause of long term disability with improved walking being an important goal following stroke. Understanding deficits that result in reduced walking performance by hemiparetic subjects is important for the design of effective rehabilitation strategies. The goal of this research was to investigate muscle coordination and mechanical work in hemiparetic walking and mechanisms of acceleration and deceleration in nondisabled walking as a framework for investigating non-steady state walking in hemiparetic subjects. Musculoskeletal modeling and simulation analyses were used to compare individual muscle contributions to important walking subtasks and muscle mechanical work by representative hemiparetic subjects (limited community and community walkers) during pre-swing with a representative speed and age-matched control. Simulation analyses identified decreased paretic soleus and gastrocnemius contributions to forward propulsion and power generation as the primary impairment in the limited community walker compared to the control. Comparison of mechanical work showed that total paretic and non-paretic fiber work was increased in the limited community walker, which was primarily related to decreased fiber and tendon work by paretic soleus and gastrocnemius. The decreased output by the ankle plantar flexors required compensatory work by other muscles. Also, the experimental analyses of accelerated and decelerated walking showed that the ankle plantar flexor moment was positively related to braking and propulsive impulses, which increased with speed. Thus, deficits of the paretic plantar flexors limit forward propulsion and increase mechanical work during pre-swing, and would limit the ability of hemiparetic walkers to accelerate and decelerate, which are essential tasks in daily living activities. For the community walker, simulation analyses showed that deficits in paretic swing initiation are a primary impairment. Specifically, the paretic gastrocnemius and hip flexors contributed less to swing initiation in the community walker compared to the control subject. Total paretic and non-paretic fiber work was increased in the community walker, primarily due to increased work by the hip abductors and adductors. Because step length and step frequency were positively related to walking speed in accelerated and decelerated walking, impaired paretic swing initiation would likely limit the community walker’s ability to accelerate and decelerate. / text

No description available.

The mass transfer and the pressure drop characteristics for countercurrent rotating packed bed (RPB) with a continuous gas phase for the removal of ethylene dichloride (EDC) from water using air stripping have been investigated. The aim of this research was to understand the behaviour of the mass transfer performance and the pressure drop behaviour in a centrifugal environment. The mass transfer results showed that the height of a transfer unit (HTU) in a liquid film limited system can be in the range between 30 to 70mm at moderate centrifugal acceleration between 44 to 280g. Three packings of different packing densities ranging from 870 to 2300 m2/m3 were tested. The HTU values were found to vary with the centrifugal acceleration as HTU a g-0.11 to -0.28. It has been shown that the packing density may not have a notable effect on the separation performance of the bed. The pressure drop results indicated that in RPB the pressure drop is relatively higher than its equivalent packed beds operate at 1g. The usual flooding restrictions were relaxed thus high hydraulic capacities can be achieved per unit size of equipment. At the flooding point, experimental findings indicated that a part of the liquid is not accelerated by the bed. A model to predict the pressure drop was developed. The model was verified against experimental data and good agreement was obtained.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2008. / Title from title screen (site viewed Aug. 12, 2008). PDF text: vi, 95 p. ; 1 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3297656. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 310-316). Also available online via the Georgia Institute of Technology, website (http://etd.gatech.edu/).