The normal physiological loads from muscles experienced by the spine are largely unknown due to a lack of data. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of varying muscle directions on the outcomes predicted from finite element models of human lumbar spine. A nonlinear finite element model of L3-L5 was employed. The force of the erector spinae muscle, the force of the rectus abdomini...

This paper is concerned with the analysis of a class of impacting systems of relevance in applications: cam-follower systems. We show that these systems, which can be modelled as discontinuously forced impact oscillators, can exhibit complex behaviour due to the detachment at high rotational speeds between the follower and the cam. We propose that the observed phenomena can be explained in term...

This paper develops a decentralized leader-follower game for network design of a competitive supply chain problem in which a new chain as the leader enters a market with one existing supply chain as a follower. Both chains produce an identical product, customer demand is inelastic and customer utility function is based on Huff gravity-based model. The leader wants to shape his network and set a...

Providing transparent replication of servers has been a major goal in the fault tolerance community. Transparent replication is particularly challenging for highly nondeterministic applications, such as the ones that use multithreading. For such applications, keeping replicas in a consistent state becomes non-trivial. One way to deal with the non-determinism is to use a leader/follower approach...

In this paper, the important formation control problem of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots is investigated via a leader-follower strategy. To this end, the dynamics model of the considered wheeled mobile robot is derived using Lagrange equations of motion. Then, using ADAMS multi-body simulation software, the obtained dynamics of the wheeled system in MATLAB software is verified. After that, ...

In this paper, we develop and present a contingency model of leadership and psychological empowerment that specifies the circumstances and situations under which follower self-leadership should be encouraged. The model suggests that certain key contingency factors, including follower development, situational urgency and task structure, dictate which of several leadership approaches, including d...

Using multilevel structural equations modeling, we examine the extent to which the influence of transformational leadership on work group effectiveness flows through follower perceptions of person-organization or person-supervisor value congruence. Results indicate that the group-level effect of transformational leadership on work group effectiveness was fully accounted for by the group-level i...

People exhibit peer-induced fairness concerns when they look to their peers as a reference to evaluate their endowments. We analyze two independent ultimatum games played sequentially by a leader and two followers. With peer-induced fairness, the second follower is averse to receiving less than the first follower. Using laboratory experimental data, we estimate that peer-induced fairness betwee...