The present investigation is to study the surface waves propagation with imperfect boundary between an isotropic elastic layer of finite thickness and a homogenous isotropic thermodiffusive elastic half- space with rotation in the context of Green-Lindsay (G-L model) theory. The secular equation for surface waves in compact form is derived after developing the mathematical model. The phase velo...

BACKGROUND Lower extremity stiffness is thought to be an important factor in musculoskeletal performance. However, too little or too much stiffness is believed to increase the risk of musculoskeletal injury. PURPOSE To provide a current update of the lower extremity stiffness literature as it pertains to both performance and injury. SUMMARY It appears that increased stiffness is beneficial ...

Asymmetry in vertical stiffness has been associated with increased injury incidence and impaired performance. The determinants of vertical stiffness asymmetry have not been previously investigated. Eighteen healthy men performed three unilateral drop jumps during which vertical stiffness and joint stiffness of the ankle and knee were calculated. Reactive strength index was also determined durin...

The aims of this study were to 1) directly assess active muscle stiffness according to actual length changes in muscle fibers (fascicles) during short range stretching; and 2) compare actual measured active muscle and tendon stiffness using ultrasonography with the stiffness of active (i.e., muscle) and passive (i.e., tendon) parts in series elastic component of plantar flexors using the alpha ...

This paper presents the stiffness characteristics of a three-prismatic-universal–universal (3-PUU) translational parallel kinematic machine (PKM). The stiffness matrix is derived intuitively based upon an alternative approach considering actuations and constraints, and the compliances subject to both actuators and legs are involved in the stiffness model. The stiffness performance of the manipu...

Variable stiffness structures that enable a wide range of efficient load-bearing and dexterous activity are ubiquitous in mammalian musculoskeletal systems but are rare in engineered systems because of their complexity, power, and cost. We present a new negative stiffness-based load-bearing structure with dynamically tunable stiffness. Negative stiffness, traditionally used to achieve novel res...

This paper describes a multi-fingered haptic palpation method using stiffness feedback actuators for simulating tissue palpation procedures in traditional and robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery. Soft tissue stiffness is simulated by changing the stiffness property of the actuator during palpation. For the first time, granular jamming and pneumatic air actuation are combined together to r...

This paper investigates the stiffness characteristics of spherical parallel manipulators. By virtue of singular value decomposition, the 6×6 dimensionally inhomogeneous Cartesian stiffness matrix is transformed into two homogeneous ones, i.e., the rotational and translational stiffness matrices. The decomposed singular values and the corresponding vectors indicate the directions of high/weak st...

Tomasz J. Kozubowski Department of Mathematics, University of Nevada, Reno Abstract: We discuss circular distributions obtained by wrapping the classical exponential and Laplace distributions on the real line around the circle. We present explicit forms for their densities and distribution functions, as well as their trigonometric moments and related parameters, and discuss main properties of t...