The postural stability of bipedal robots is investigated in perspective of foot-rotation during locomotion. With foot already rotated, the biped is modeled as an underactuated kinematic structure. The stability of such biped robots is analyzed by introducing the concept of rotational stability. The rotational stability investigates whether a biped would lead to a flat-foot posture or the biped ...

W heelchairs provide mobility for millions of people with physical impairments. However, prolonged manual wheelchair use can lead to pain and repetitive strain injury (RSI) of the upper extremities. The number of manual wheelchair users experiencing pain tends to increase with the time spent using a wheelchair. Although manual wheelchairs have improved tremendously over the past 15 years, many ...

We introduce a new notion of stability for nonlinear systems called Rational Stability (RS). Rational Stability is defined for autonomous systems that are globally asymptotically stable as a property of the induced norm of a scaling operator that maps one solution of the system to another. We give an Index called Rational Stability Index (RSI) which is a positive number that quantifies the amou...

Breeding dispersal is a key process of population structure and dynamics and is often triggered by an individual's breeding failure. In both colonial and territorial birds, reproductive success of conspecifics (RSc) can also lead individuals to change breeding sites after a failure on a site. Yet, few studies have simultaneously investigated the independent contribution of individual reproducti...

BACKGROUND Guidelines recommend that patients with brain trauma with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of less than 9 should have an airway established. Hypoxia, hypotension and hypertension as well as hypoventilation and hyperventilation may worsen outcome in these patients. OBJECTIVES The objectives were to investigate guideline adherence, reasons for nonadherence and the incidences of compl...

OBJECTIVES To describe the experience of the emergency department of a pediatric hospital with rapid sequence intubation (RSI) and to identify the factors associated with successful intubation. METHODS This prospective, observational, cross-sectional study conducted from July 2005 to December 2007 consisted of collection of data regarding tracheal intubations performed at the emergency depart...

OBJECTIVES Aim was to examine the relationship between individually perceived changes in psychosocial stressors associated with German reunification and cardiovascular effects. We hypothesised that higher levels of psychosocial stress related to German reunification were associated with an increase in cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). DESIGN Cross-sectional data ...

AIM To determine which specialty was performing rapid sequence intubation (RSI) in the emergency departments and to determine drug preferences of emergency physicians during RSI in Turkey. METHOD All emergency departments were contacted via e-mail, and the chiefs of the departments were requested to answer a survey consisting of six questions. Hospitals within the specified regions were selec...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of assessing positive remodeling for predicting future stroke events in the internal carotid artery. We therefore assessed narrowing of the carotid artery lumen using multidetector-row computer tomography (MDCT) angiography and carotid plaque characteristics using black-blood (BB) magnetic resonance (MR). METHODS We retrospectively selected...