Design For Technical Merit

Startle eyeblink modification was measured in 20 relatively asymptomatic medicated schizophrenia outpatients and 18 matched controls in order to test for deficits in early and later stages of attentional processing during a memory-load version of the Continuous Performance Test. Participants viewed a series of digits and pressed a button after the digit 7 of each 3-7 sequence. On some trials, a startling noise burst was presented either 120 or 1200 ms following cues that a response might be needed soon (the digit 3) and also following noncues. Controls showed greater startle inhibition at 120 ms following cue than noncue prepulses, whereas patients showed equal inhibition to both, suggesting a deficiency in allocation of controlled attentional resources in early stages of processing. The patients, however, did show large startle inhibition at 120 ms when a distracting stimulus accompanied the task-relevant cue, unlike the controls, who ignored the distracting stimulus. In contrast, both groups showed equal startle inhibition 1200 ms following cue and noncue prepulses, indicating that later modality-specific attention processes are not impaired in patients during this paradigm. Both groups also showed equal inhibition at 120 ms during passively attended prepulses, suggesting that automatic attentional processes were not impaired in these patients.

In the design process of a mechanism, the dynamic behavior plays an important role. It could be the cause of unexpected high dynamic forces in later stages when it is not considered in the early stage of the design process. High forces could produce high stresses and high vibration levels. Several studies have been carried out in this area; however, only a few consider structural criteria and the eigenfrequencies in the early stage of the process. Low forces and an adequate structure should lead to good dynamic behavior. In this work, we present a method to synthesize function generator four-bar linkages that takes into account structural criteria in a joint-forces minimization-maximization problem. Its objective function is the reaction force on the mechanism joints. The problem’s constraints are the maximum stress on the links, the first eigenfrequency of the mechanism and the deflection of the crank and the rocker. With this method, the links’ lengths and cross-sectional areas of the mechanism are obtained for a given task. As condition, we assumed that the crank rotates with constant angular speed and its shaft works as a torsional spring. Moreover, the rocker moves a body with constant inertia. The resultant mechanisms are compared with those obtained with a traditional crank-rocker synthesis method, according to VDI 2130. To compare both methods, the maximum force, maximum stress, deviation of the rocker angle at its dead-center positions and RMS vibration of the crank and rocker of each mechanism are calculated using MSC ADAMS™. The results show that the mechanisms obtained with our method have better stress and vibratory levels than those obtained with a traditional approach.

Chapter 28 - Case studies in design

Ergonomics is the study of designing more human-friendly products, systems or processes for human. By extending this concept to robotics field, we propose robot ergonomics which is a transdisciplinary approach that brings together roboticists, product designers, and architects to solve numerous unsettled research problems or technology bottlenecks in robotics community through designing products for robots. This paper focuses on a case study of chair design for Roomba. Seven design criteria are proposed and intensive experiments are performed to validate the criteria using 22 chairs. Based on such empirical design strategy, three generic principles (i.e., observability, accessibility, and safety) of chair design are extracted for Roomba.

Chip reliability becomes a great threat to the design of future microelectronic systems with the continuation of the progressive downscaling of CMOS technologies. Hence increasing the robustness of chip implementations in terms of error tolerance becomes an important issue. In this paper we present a case study in reliability-aware design tolerating transient errors. A state-of-the-art WiMAX channel decoder for LDPC codes is investigated on all design levels to increase its reliability for a given system performance with minimum hardware overhead. We show that an efficient exploitation of the algorithmic fault-tolerance yields a fairly small area overhead with nearly no degradation in communications performance even under high error injection rates.

A case study in interface design The CHI'89 Information Kiosk

Form perception from coherent motion is an important aspect of vision. Representations of one-, two- and three-dimensional forms have been found at various stages of cortical processing using random-dot stimuli, whereas representations of biological objects like a walking human being concentrate at higher stages of processing. The perception of biological objects can be induced by sparse dot stimuli that consist of a few dots that mark the joints of the human body [G. Johansson (1973) Percept. Psychophys., 14, 201-211]. In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether neurons in early visual areas that respond to bars and edges defined by luminance contrast also signal bar-like objects from sparse dot stimuli. We studied single neurons with rows of 3-24 dots that were either collinear or scattered within a rectangular form. These dots were moved coherently on a uniform or dotted background, and human observers perceived them as rigid rods or other bar-like objects. We found neurons in the visual cortex of the awake, behaving monkey that responded to these stimuli and were sensitive to the orientation of these objects as for conventional bars or edges. Stimulus conditions that failed to induce these percepts in human observers also evoked weaker responses or none in these neurons. We found these neurons with increasing frequency in areas V1, V2 and V3/V3A. The results suggest that the visual cortex not only detects biological objects, but also lines and other bar-like objects from sparse dot stimuli, and that this function evolves at an early stage of processing.

The MATLAB M language provides constructs for the simple representation of functions, and has been used extensively for algorithm development and verification in embedded system design. The M language processes entire arrays simultaneously, and it is expected that design based on M can be implemented faster and with the same or higher quality as compared with design based on other languages. This paper presents a case study of a design of a filter for signal processing using M-based design flow. The results of the case study demonstrate the high efficiency of the M-based design flow as compared to traditional functional modeling and manual coding using a hardware description language.

Although originally motivated by applications such as image processing, multidimensional (nD) systems have mainly attracted the attention of the research community due to the richness of new theoretical questions raised by their treatment, and are often replaced by other settings when it comes to modelling, identifying and controlling processes in practical situations. The aim of this special issue is to illustrate the application potential of nD systems by presenting several contributions where the nD framework is successfully used either to deal with practical problems or to solve practically relevant questions that arise in other contexts that are not at first sight related to multidimensional systems. In the paper Multidimensional Control Systems: Case Studies in Design and Evaluation, by Rogers et al., after introducing the most commonly used models for the analysis and control of discrete nD linear systems, a series of case studies is presented with the aim of demonstrating the advantages of the nD systems approach in solving certain control problems. Namely, applications in the fields of sensor grid networks, iterative learning control, civil engineering and agriculture are considered. The paper Two-dimensional Generalized Predictive Control (2D-GPC) Scheme for the Batch Processes with Two-dimensional (2D)Dynamics, Shi et al. studies the problem of iterative learning control (ILC) design for batch processes. Based on 2Dcontrolled auto-regressive moving average (2D-CARMA) model, a novel two-dimensional generalized predictive control (2D-GPC) is proposed. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by the experimental results on packing pressure control of the injection molding process.

Case study in design and transient analysis of hydrogen-propelled aircraft using direct combustion

This paper summarizes various aspects of identifying and using biological analogies in engineering design. To avoid the immense as well as potentially biased task of creating a database specifically for this purpose, the chosen approach searches biological knowledge in natural language format, e.g., books, papers, etc., for instances of functional keywords describing the engineering problem. Strategies developed to facilitate this search as well how text descriptions of biological phenomena were used in problem solving are summarized. Case studies in design for remanufacture and microassembly are used to provide an overview of the method.

Performance evaluation of collaboration in the design process: Using interoperability measurement

Lack of correlation between phonetic magnetic mismatch field and plasma d-serine levels in humans

Event Abstract Back to Event Theta burst stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex disrupts attention-based modulation of tactile stimuli at early stages of somatosensory processing D. A. Bolton1* and W. R. Staines1 1 University of Waterloo, Department of Kinesiology, Canada Damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) impairs gating of irrelevant sensory information at early cortical processing stages. We investigated how transient inhibition of DLPFC impacts early event-related potentials (ERPs) arising from relevant or irrelevant vibrotactile stimuli to the fingertips. Specifically, we hypothesized that suppression of DLPFC using continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) would result in a reduction of attention-based modulation of tactile ERPs at parietal electrode sites. Participants received vibrotactile stimulation to the index and little finger on the left hand and reported target stimuli on one digit only (as instructed) in one of three groups (n = 12/group) following: (1) cTBS over F4 (40s; 600 pulses of 3 stimuli at 50Hz repeated at 5Hz using 80% of resting motor threshold for abductor pollicis brevis), (2) sham stimulation, or (3) no stimulation. Early ERP amplitudes (< 200ms post-stimulation) were quantified for attended and non-attended trials (C4/CP4). The P100 was significantly reduced for non-attended versus attended stimuli in both sham and no stimulation groups. Conversely, there was no difference between attended and non-attended ERPs following cTBS. The absence of attentional modulation of early ERPs post-cTBS suggests that the DLPFC contributes to filtering irrelevant somatosensory information at early cortical processing stages. Conference: The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes, Toronto, Canada, 22 Mar - 26 Mar, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Abstracts Citation: Bolton DA and Staines WR (2010). Theta burst stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex disrupts attention-based modulation of tactile stimuli at early stages of somatosensory processing. Conference Abstract: The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.14.00059 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 28 Jun 2010; Published Online: 28 Jun 2010. * Correspondence: D. A Bolton, University of Waterloo, Department of Kinesiology, Waterloo, Canada, dave.bolton@usu.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers D. A Bolton W. R Staines Google D. A Bolton W. R Staines Google Scholar D. A Bolton W. R Staines PubMed D. A Bolton W. R Staines Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

The relationship between ignorance and surprise and a conceptual framework for dealing with the unexpected, as seen in ecological design projects. Ignorance and surprise belong together: surprises can make people aware of their own ignorance. And yet, perhaps paradoxically, a surprising event in scientific research—one that defies prediction or risk assessment—is often a window to new and unexpected knowledge. In this book, Matthias Gross examines the relationship between ignorance and surprise, proposing a conceptual framework for handling the unexpected and offering case studies of ecological design that demonstrate the advantages of allowing for surprises and including ignorance in the design and negotiation processes. Gross draws on classical and contemporary sociological accounts of ignorance and surprise in science and ecology and integrates these with the idea of experiment in society. He develops a notion of how unexpected occurrences can be incorporated into a model of scientific and technological development that includes the experimental handling of surprises. Gross discusses different projects in ecological design, including Chicago's restoration of the shoreline of Lake Michigan and Germany's revitalization of brownfields near Leipzig. These cases show how ignorance and surprise can successfully play out in ecological design projects, and how the acknowledgment of the unknown can become a part of decision making. The appropriation of surprises can lead to robust design strategies. Ecological design, Gross argues, is neither a linear process of master planning nor a process of trial and error but a carefully coordinated process of dealing with unexpected turns by means of experimental practice.