Introduction: Indian Railways at present does not use any automated system for real-time online monitoring of the performance of bogies and wheel-sets. Bogies are checked only during TXR examination for loose or broken parts. Wheel sets are changed when they reach the condemning limit. Problems like skew ness in bogie or asymmetric wheel-wear are attended to during preventive maintenance schedu...

Many parameters such as dynamic load of tractor drive wheels influence the traction of tractors. An increase in dynamic load of drive wheel increases the net traction, but excess dynamic load decreases the tractive efficiency that must be avoided. Development of tractor-mounted implements due to good maneuvering and weight transfer from front axle to rear axle led to effective performance of tr...

This study determined the effect of system tilt angle (STA) and seat-to-backrest angle (SBA) changes on the load sustained by the shoulder during manual wheelchair propulsion. Fourteen elderly participants (mean +/- standard deviation age 68.2 +/- 5.2 years) were recruited. Combinations of three STAs (0 degrees , 5 degrees , and 10 degrees ) and three SBAs (95 degrees , 100 degrees , and 105 de...

The family of wheel-and-axle host molecules is reviewed and the approaches to the creation of new host geometries for supramolecular materials based on weaker interactions are discussed. The combination of bulky groups (or platforms) and spacers yields various host geometries including humming-top molecules (Werner complexes, metal dibenzoylmethanates and other bis-chelates, dimeric metal carbo...

The V-ATPase is a membrane-bound protein complex which pumps protons across the membrane to generate a large proton motive force through the coupling of an ATP-driven 3-stroke rotary motor (V1) to a multistroke proton pump (Vo). This is done with near 100% efficiency, which is achieved in part by flexibility within the central rotor axle and stator connections, allowing the system to flex to mi...

Concurrent validity and test-retest reliability of the Microsoft Kinect in quantification of manual wheelchair propulsion were examined. Data were collected from five manual wheelchair users on a roller system. Three Kinect sensors were used to assess test-retest reliability with a still pose. Three systems were used to assess concurrent validity of the Kinect to measure propulsion kinematics (...

Driving vehicles with one or more passive trailers has difficulties in both forward and backward motion due to inter-unit collisions, jackknife, and lack of visibility. Consequently, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) for multi-trailer combinations can be beneficial to accident avoidance as well as to driver comfort. The ADAS proposed in this paper aims to prevent unsafe steering command...

The development and utilization of a new way to build molecular devices is of importance. To build a novel topology of interlocked molecular systems with a controllable mechanical motion, an axle-like compound comprising azobenzene and alkoxy isophthalate moieties was synthesized first. It would form a switchable hemi-rotaxane structure with α-cyclodextrin (α-CD) ring encapsulated in aqueous so...

In the framework of an ongoing national research project involving the University of Minho, the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering and the New University of Lisbon, different commercial FEM codes (DIANA, PLAXIS and ANSYS) were tested to model the dynamic performance of a high speed train track. Initially a plain strain model is considered in a robin test using experimental data from a wel...

Modelling of vehicle's motion is one the solutions applied in research automotive safety. There always a discussion which model should be used for computer simulation. Models with higher number degrees freedom require identification many parameters, are usually difficult to obtain. So, very often relatively simple flat applied. It needs only such parameters as mass vehicle, location centre grav...