Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Toledo, 2010. / "Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Biomedical Science." Title from title page of PDF document. "A Dissertation entitled"--at head of title. Bibliography: p. 54-56, 81-82, 113-128.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease affecting nearly 1% of the world’s population with symptoms such as inflammation, pain, and reduced strength [1]. Physicians and scientists work to develop pharmaceuticals and medical devices aimed at decreasing the symptoms associated with RA to better the lives of those affected. One of the most recent developments is the addition of thermal therapy gloves to the array of upper limb orthoses available to patients with RA. It was hypothesized that this study will show that orthoses in the form of thermal therapy gloves are beneficial to the patients by reducing symptoms such as pain and allowing them an increased range of motion and overall hand functionality. Patients in stage 2 were recruited and asked to first complete a personal history survey including the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) [2] and Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) [3]. Range of motion tasks and the Arthritis Hand Function Test (AHFT) [4] were completed to determine the effect of two thermal therapy gloves on the range of motion and activities of daily living. The data suggests that the use of thermal therapy orthoses does provide a psychological advantage in the form of reduced perceived pain along with the advantage of being able to complete activities previously believed to be impossible for participants to complete. Additionally, it is suggested that heat-generating material be used in the manufacturing of these orthoses in order to remove the need for any further design modifications. Future studies should be conducted in order to analyze the long-term effects of these orthoses along with the possible psychological benefits of their use.

O objetivo deste trabalho é desenvolver um algoritmo capaz de extrair medidas dos dedos e da palma das mãos. Essas imagens serão adquiridas através de um banco de imagens digitalizadas em um scanner de mesa, facilmente encontrado, e processadas para se obter uma curva do contorno da mão, permitindo assim que se extraia informações biométricas das mesmas. As imagens armazenadas no banco serão então associadas a um determinado usuário, visando em um estágio futuro, aplicações na identificação pessoal. / The object of this work is to develop an algorithm to extract fingers and hands palm measures. Those images will be acquired from a database of images digitalized by a scanner, easily founded, and processed to get the hand contour, allowing biometrics informations to be extracted. The images stored in the database will be associated with an user, aiming personal identification in a future stage.

Fingrarna har länge använts som en konkret representationsform för att lösa aritmetikuppgifter. Det finns flera olika sätt att använda sig av fingrarna och dessa beror på vilka aspekter som individen har urskilt. Med utgångspunkt i fenomenografin har kvalitativa intervjuer observerats för att undersöka variationen av hur elever i förskoleklass använder sina fingrar för att lösa additions- och subtraktionsuppgifter. Utifrån den valda metoden syftar studien till att undersöka elevers olika uppfattningar och sätt att använda fingrarna vid aritmetikuppgifter. Resultatet visar på att eleverna använde sig av tre kvalitativt olika sätt för att lösa aritmetikuppgifter. Utifrån analysen visade det sig att eleverna använder olika sätt utefter sina erfarenheter, vilka aspekter som urskilts och hur fenomenet uppfattas. Detta resulterade i tre kvalitativt skilda sätt, enskilda enheter, strukturerade delar och enskilda delar samt strukturerade fingermönster. Sätten går att skriva i en hierarkisk ordning då de innehåller olika framgångsrika kvaliteter. För att eleven ska kunna använda sig av det sätt som har högst framgångsrika kvaliteter krävs det att kunskaper om del-helhetsrelationer och fingermönster har urskilts. Alla elever har olika förutsättningar och förkunskaper. Vetskap om elevernas individuella förmåga gör att läraren kan anpassa och utmana eleven. För att eleven ska urskilja mer framgångsrika kvaliteter krävs det att läraren synliggör betydelsefulla aspekter i undervisningen, som exempelvis fingermönster. / The fingers have long been used as a concrete representation form for solving arithmetic tasks. There are several different ways to use your fingers and it all depends on which aspects the individual has distinguished. Based on phenomenography, qualitative interviews have been observed to investigate the variation in how pupils in preschool use their fingers to solve addition and subtraction tasks. Based on this chosen method, the study aims to investigate pupils’ different views and ways of using their fingers in arithmetic tasks. The result shows that the pupils used three qualitatively different ways to solve arithmetic tasks. Based on the analysis, it showed that the pupils use different ways along with their experiences, what aspects are distinguished and how the phenomenon is perceived. This resulted in three qualitatively different ways, individual pieces, structured parts and individual pieces, and structured finger patterns. These ways can be written in a hierarchical order as they contain different successful qualities. In order for the pupil to use the method that has the most successful qualities, it is necessary to have knowledge of partial-whole relationships and finger patterns. All pupils have different prerequisites and prior knowledge. Knowledge of the pupils' individual ability that enables the teacher to adapt and challenge the pupil. In order for the pupil to distinguish more successful grades, it is necessary for the teacher to make visible important aspects of the teaching such as finger patterns.

Humans use their hands on a daily basis, and they are a fundamental part of our lives both in terms of our work and our everyday activities. One of the key things that our hands allow us to do is grab onto objects. Unfortunately however, sometimes this ability to grab onto things becomes weakened, for example due to old age or diseases such as arthritis. This project was aimed to see if mechatronic engineering could be implemented to remedy this problem, while maintaining good accessibility and design. The resulting solution was a glove with pressure sensors and an integrated pulley system, which would provide a pulling force on the fingers and allow the user to get a reinforced grip on objects. A key factor in this design was to provide adequate function, without compromising form, i.e making the glove easy to wear and not clunky. The resulting glove provided substantial support to the test subjects grip strength, and presented a valid way to counteract their weekend state. However, the form was still considered too clunky and not efficient enough to warrant daily use. For future work, alternative pulley systems might be a valid option to slim down the glove and make it more accessible. Collaborating with people from the mechatronics industry, specifically those geared towards human augmentation, may also be beneficial to those with lacking experience or connections in the subject area. Conducting research specifically about what is considered “easy to use” may also be necessary to further solidify any changes in design. / Människor använder sina händer vardagligen, och de är en fundamental del av våra liv vad gäller både vardagssysslor och arbete. En av de viktigaste funktionerna våra händer utgör är att de tillåter oss att greppa tag i saker. Tyvärr händer det dock att denna förmåga försvagas exempelvis på grund av ålder eller sjukdomar såsom artros. Detta projekt var ämnat att se om en mekatronisk lösning kunde användas för att åtgärda detta problem, utan att göra uppoffringar vad gäller enkel design och tydlig form. Resultatet var en handske med trycksensorer och en integrerad motor som erbjöd en dragande kraft i fingrarna och ett förstärkt grepp. Den resulterande handsken erbjöd tillfredsställande support till testpersonerna greppstyrka och visade sig vara en rimlig lösning på de problem som individens artros ställt till med. Dessvärre ansågs formen fortfarande lite för otymplig och svårhanterad för att tillfredsställa önskemålen i den aspekten. För fortsatt arbete kan en annorlunda integration av motorn vara ett rimligt alternativ för att slimma ner handsken. Samarbete med företag inom robotik och mänskliga proteser kan också vara gynnsamt, speciellt för de med liten erfarenhet eller med fåtal kontakter inom testområdet. Tydligare efterforskning på vad som är “enkelt att använda” kan också leda designen i en bättre riktning.

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Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in American men and the second leading cause of cancer deaths. Supplementation with Se has reduced the incidence of prostate cancer and Se status is inversely correlated with prostate cancer risk. One molecular mechanism by which high Se concentrations may affect cancer risk is by catalyzing disulfide bond formation or otherwise complexing with reactive sulfhydryl groups in cellular proteins. The estrogen receptor (ER) contains cysteines in zinc (Zn) fingers that are susceptible to oxidation and internal disulfide formation, which can prevent DNA binding. We examined ER binding to its DNA response element and gene expression levels for estrogen-regulated genes in human prostate cancer cells (LNCaP) treated with control (50 nM) or high (5 ìM) concentrations of Se. High Se treatment resulted in a non-significant 16 % decrease in ER binding to the estrogen response element (ERE), and no significant changes were found in expression levels of estrogen-regulated genes for either run-on nuclear transcripts or total mRNA. The well documented reaction of Se with reactive sulfhydryl groups, if it occurs in the ER in vivo, has a minimal effect on the binding of ER to DNA and its regulation of gene expression.

As an investigation of the evolution of the minimalist shoes, the purpose of this thesis was to examine popularity trends of the rise and fall of the minimalist movement. By evaluating the history and research behind the designs of the minimalist shoes, this thesis viewed the peak in popularity when minimalist shoes first made their debut. Initially, footwear sales skyrocketed upon its introduction. Its popularity grew due the prospective effects of improving athletic performance and the possibility of decreasing the prevalence of running-related injuries. To understand the sales trends of the footwear industry, various shoe examples from the different categories of footwear padding were also examined. Hence, after learning more about each type of footwear, it is crucial to understand how to transition safely and without injury. Injury prevalence has been suggested to be associated with the change in biomechanics involved with changing a runner’s footwear. Through the review of research literature on the subject, 33 sources of peerreviewed studies, found via Google Scholar or EBSCOHost using select key word searches, were taken into account. After reviewing the results and conclusions, a common finding suggest that more research is needed to come to clear consensus. There is not enough evidence to suggest that the use of minimalist shoes either lowered the risk of injury or improved performance. Hence, the decline of minimalist movement may have been due to the unfulfilled benefits that were proposed. After consumers did not reap the benefits of transitioning to minimalist shoes, sales trends continued to fall.

When typing on a keyboard, the fingers may be in awkward postures, making repetitive motions, and exerting high forces which are risk factors of cumulative trauma disorders. In this experiment, the kinematics of the fingers while typing were investigated for 12 right-handed subjects (6 male and 6 female) to gain a better understanding of factors which influence how a finger strikes a key. The apparatus for this experiment included an exoskeleton to determine angular displacements of the finger joints and a motion analysis system to determine the coordinates of the wrist and the keys on the keyboard. This experiment examined four dependent variables: the fingertip angle with respect to the horizontal at the point of contact and at the point of maximum depression of the key, and the linear vertical and horizontal components of velocity of fingertip due to the finger joints at the point of contact with the key. The factors investigated included <i>Gender, Finger</i> (Index, Middle, and Ring), <i>Row</i> (Upper, Middle, and Lower), and <i>Digraph</i> (typing two letters with the same finger, with two fingers on the same hand, or with two opposite hands). The results indicated that for all four dependent measures, there was a significant difference between all three levels of <i>Row</i>. For the factor <i>Finger</i>, there was no significant difference between the middle and ring fingers. Typing with the index finger, typing two letters with the same finger, or typing on the upper row resulted in smaller fingertip angles than the other conditions. All levels of <i>Digraph</i> resulted in significantly different linear vertical velocities of the fingertip while certain combinations of the levels of <i>Finger, Row</i>, and <i>Gender</i> were significantly different for the linear horizontal velocities. From the results, it appears that the methods employed in this experiment were effective to measure the angle of the fmgertip at the point of contact and at the point of maximum depression and to measure the linear vertical and horizontal components of velocity produced by the finger joints. The results for the linear vertical and horizontal components of velocity for the fingertip also indicate that the wrist velocity (which was not measured) may contribute to the overall fmgertip velocities at the point of contact with the key and for this reason, should be examined in future research. / Master of Science

This thesis presents the design, modeling, and development of adaptive robot hands that are capable of performing dexterous, in-hand manipulation. The robot hand comprises of anthropomorphic robotic fingers, which employ an adaptive actuation mechanism. The mechanism achieves both flexion/extension and adduction/abduction, on the finger's metacarpophalangeal joint, by using two actuators. Moment arm pulleys are employed to drive the tendon laterally, such that an amplification on the abduction motion occurs, while also maintaining the flexion motion. Particular emphasis has been given to the modeling and the analysis of the actuation mechanism. Also, a model for spatial motion is provided that relates the actuation modes with the finger motion and the tendon force with the finger characteristics. For the hand design, the use of differential mechanisms simplifies the actuation scheme, as we utilize only two actuators for four fingers, achieving affordable dexterity. A design optimization framework assess the results of hand anthropometry studies to derive key parameters for the bio-inspired actuation design. The model assumptions are evaluated with the finite element method. The proposed finger has been fabricated with the Hybrid Deposition Manufacturing technique and the actuation mechanism's efficiency has been validated with experiments that include the computation of the finger workspace, the assessment of the force exertion capabilities, the demonstration of the feasible motions, and the grasping and manipulation capabilities. Also, the hand design is fabricated with off-the-shelf materials and rapid prototyping techniques while its efficiency has been validated using an extensive set of experimental paradigms that involved the execution of grasping and in-hand manipulation tasks with everyday objects. / Master of Science / This thesis presents the design, modeling, and development of adaptive robot hands that are capable of performing selective interdigitation, robust grasping, and dexterous, in-hand manipulation. The robotic fingers employ an adaptive actuation mechanism. The design is minimal and the hand is capable of performing selective interdigitation, robust grasping, and dexterous, in-hand manipulation. Particular emphasis has been given to the modeling and the analysis of the actuation mechanism. For the hand design, the use of differential mechanisms simplifies the actuation scheme, as we utilize only two actuators for four fingers, achieving affordable dexterity. A design optimization framework assess the results of hand anthropometry studies to derive key parameters for the actuation design. The robotic fingers and the anthropomorphic hand were fabricated using off-the-self materials and additive manufacturing techniques. Several experiments were performed to validate the efficacy of the robot hand.