This chapter gives an overview of existing devices for the guidance of visually impaired pedestrians and discusses the properties of the white cane and of conventional electronic travel aids. Also described are the disadvantages of using a standard mobile robot for this purpose. Next follows a description of the NavBelt, a computerized travel aid for the blind that is based on advanced mobile r...

BACKGROUND Seat belts are designed to reduce injuries due to road crash among vehicle occupants. AIMS This study aims to determine the availability of seat belt in vehicles and compliance with seat belt use among vehicle occupants. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a 24-h direct observational study of seat belt usage among vehicle occupants in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria. By direct surveilla...

Since its discovery in 1992, the Kuiper belt has slowly revealed a stunningly complex dynamical structure. This structure has been a gold mine for those of us interested in planet formation because it provides vital clues about this process. This chapter is a review of the current state of knowledge about these issues. It is divided in two parts. The first part (section 2) is devoted to the des...

OBJECTIVE Although seat belt use can significantly decrease the risk of injury, few car drivers make use of seat belts in Iran. The aim of this study was to test the utility and efficiencyof the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the health beliefmodel (HBM) in predicting intention to use a seat belt among car drivers in Sabzevar, Iran. METHODS A cross-sectional, correlational design was em...

BACKGROUND Monitoring of the electrocardiogram (ECG) in premature infants with conventional adhesive-backed electrodes can harm their sensitive skin. Use of an electrode belt prevents skin irritation, but the effect of belt pressure on respiratory function is unknown. A strain gauge sensor is described which measures applied belt tension. METHOD The device frame was comprised of an aluminum h...

BACKGROUND The effectiveness of bracing on preventing curve progression in coronal plane for mild and moderate adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) patients has been confirmed by previous radiographic researches. However, a hypokyphotic effect on the sagittal plane has been reported by a few studies. A relatively increasing number of AIS patients were noticed to wear a new kind of elastic orth...

Our working model of the primate auditory cortex recognizes three major regions (core, belt, parabelt), subdivided into thirteen areas. The connections between areas are topographically ordered in a manner consistent with information flow along two major anatomical axes: core-belt-parabelt and caudal-rostral. Remarkably, most of the connections supporting this model were revealed using retrogra...

The origin of stony meteorites landing on Earth today is directly linked to the history of the main belt, which evolved both through collisional evolution and dynamical evolution/depletion. In this paper, we focus our attention on the main belt dynamical evolution scenario discussed in Petit et al. (2001). According to Petit et al., during the planet formation epoch, the primordial main belt co...

The use of manual (i.e., active) restraint systems (or seat belts) in cars has increased dramatically over the last several decades, changing from around 10% in the late 1970s to as much as 68% in the 1990s (Datta & Guzek, 1992; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [NHTSA], 1996b). Several factors are responsible for this increase. One important determinant has been the passage of man...

Asteroids, mainly rocky or metallic bodies in the inner solar system, orbit the Sun in various distinct populations (planet-crossers, main-belt asteroids, trans-Neptunian Edgeworth-Kuiper belt objects, Centaurs in the outer planetary region) between which there are transfers over substantial timescales. For example the main belt is the main reservoir replenishing the Earth-crossing asteroids, t...