The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a truss mattress upon sleep and bed climate. The truss mattress which has been designed to decrease the pressure and bed climate humidity was tested. Six healthy female volunteers with a mean age of 23.3 years, served as subjects. The experiment was carried out under two conditions: a truss mattress (T) and a futon (F) (Japanese bedding). ...

This paper presents several equivalent formulations for a structural design problem where the load carrying capacity is maximized for a prescribed volume subject to bounds on complementary energy and stresses. This limit design model covers the full range of strictly elastic, elastic/plastic and strictly plastic designs and is based on the unified analysis model of Ben-Tal and Taylor [5]. While...

We study the design of robust truss structures under mechanical equilibrium, displacements and stress constraints. Our main objective is to minimize the total amount of material, for the purpose of finding the most economic structure. A robust design is found by considering load perturbations. The nature of the constraints makes the mathematical program nonconvex. In order to solve this problem...

BACKGROUND Falls are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the construction industry. This study measured fall hazards at residential construction sites. METHODS Trained carpenters administered the St. Louis Audit of Fall Risks and interviewed carpenters. The prevalence of fall prevention practices meeting safety criteria was counted and correlations explored. RESULTS We identified ...

Some of the major components of a Howe truss bridge, built from durable Australian hardwoods, were treated with preservatives applied to the surface and inserted into holes bored into the components. The preservatives included two copper naphthenate formulations, two formulations based on 2(thiocyanomethylthio) benzothiazeole (TCMTB), two boron-based products and an oxine-copper formulation. Th...

A class of planar, pin-jointed truss structures based on the ancient Kagome basket weave pattern with exceptional characteristics for actuation has been identified. Its in-plane stiffness is isotropic and has optimal weight among planar trusses for specified stiffness or strength. The version with welded joints resists plastic yielding and buckling, while storing minimal energy upon truss bendi...

We compared the repeatability, reproducibility (intra- and inter-measurer similarity), separative power and subjectivity (measurer effect on results) of four morphometric methods frequently used in ichthyological research, the "traditional" caliper-based (TRA) and truss-network (TRU) distance methods and two geometric methods that compare landmark coordinates on the body (GMB) and scales (GMS)....

The nonholonomic motion planning problem is considered for a novel class of modular mobile manipulators, where each module is implemented as a planar parallel manipulator with idler wheels. This assembly is actuated by shape changes of its modules, which, under the in uence of the nonholonomic constraints on the wheels, induce a global snake{like motion of the assembly. The kinematics for a 2{ ...

Two roof structures representing vintage unreinforced masonry (URM) building components were subjected to longitudinal pseudo-static cyclic loading. The overall dimensions 8.94 m (span) by 3.1 (length), with each incorporating a pair of as-built timber trusses that retrieved from two demolished URM buildings. Both roofs tested first nailed connections original construction and then again includ...

Stefan Ückert *, Petter Hedlund , Karl-Erik Andersson , Michael C. Truss , Udo Jonas , Christian G. Stief c Hannover Medical School, Department of Urology, Hannover 30625, Germany b Lund University Hospital, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Lund, Sweden c Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Department of Urology, Academic Hospital Grosshadern, Munich, Germany d IPF, PharmaCeuticals GmbH, Urologi...