OBJECTIVE To determine to what extent FPs teach and use pneumatic otoscopy and to identify the chief influences on this behaviour. DESIGN Mixed-methods descriptive study conducted between March and May 2011. SETTING The family medicine residency program at Laval University in Quebec city, Que. PARTICIPANTS Directors of the family medicine teaching units (FMTUs), teachers, and residents. ...

BACKGROUND Intrasphincteric injection of botulinum toxin is a new treatment option for achalasia. AIMS To compare the immediate and long term efficacy of botulinum toxin with that of pneumatic dilatation. METHODS Symptomatic patients with achalasia were randomised to botulinum toxin (22 patients, median age 57 years) or pneumatic dilatation (20 patients, median age 56 years). Symptom scores...

ITE JOURNAL / MARCH 1999 LAS VEGAS, NEV., USA, IS well known for the Strip, the wedding chapels where many Hollywood stars have married and its Elvis impersonators. What is not as widely known is that Las Vegas is home to a relatively large number of small scale Automated People Mover (APM) systems that serve the internal site-circulation needs of resorts. In fact, Las Vegas may be considered t...

From a traffic safety perspective it is highly motivated to define winter tires in terms of their performance in icy road conditions. The present definition of winter (snow) tires, introduced in the EU in 2012, is based on packed snow performance. The present paper investigates the feasibility of an indoor winter tire classification test on ice. Results presented here indicates that a test proc...

In the material handling business original equipment manufacturers, lift truck dealers and distributors find themselves marketing polyurethane and rubber tires simultaneously. To achieve optimum performance one needs to better understand the attributes of each product. In this article, both products will be broadly compared along with their proper application, with an emphasis on polyurethane t...

A scenario of an automotive accident caused by tire failure is given followed by a human factors analysis of the information available to consumers on tire aging. Consumers have not been told that the age of the tire is a safety concern. It is not easy to decode the date of manufacture on tires. More publicity and prominent warnings are needed to communicate the dangers of older tires. Also, be...

There has been increased interest in use of pneumatic actuators in many fields, such as medical care and welfare. In particular, proposed pneumatic soft actuator with soft material has many advantages such as low mass, flexibility, safety and user-friendliness. We therefore focus on the pneumatic actuators as a drive source of a rehabilitation device. This paper describes the concept, design, p...

In this contribution, three nonlinear control strategies are presented for a two-degree-offreedom parallel robot that is actuated by two pairs of pneumatic muscle actuators as depicted in Fig. 1. Pneumatic muscles are innovative tensile actuators consisting of a fibrereinforced vulcanised rubber hose with appropriate connectors at both ends. The working principle is based on a rhombical fibre s...

An experimental study concerning particle behaviors in a horizontal dilute swirling flow pneumatic conveying was performed. Measurements of particle velocities and concentration profiles have been carried out using the photographic image technique. From the experimental results, it is found that mean particle velocity of swirling flow pneumatic conveying is lower than that of conventional pneum...