The current specifications governing the construction of wire rope and the fabrication of the assemblies used in movable bridges are no longer the best or most reasonable choice for wire rope selection. The current AASHTO and AREMA specifications for wire rope list “6x19 class improved plow steel wire rope of 6x25 filler wire construction with hard fiber core” as the construction for both opera...

Magnetic clouds (MCs) are a subset of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) characterized primarily by a smooth rotation in the magnetic field direction indicative of the presence of a magnetic flux rope. Energetic particle signatures suggest MC flux ropes remain magnetically connected to the Sun at both ends, leading to widely used model of global MC structure as an extended flux rope,...

Large number of ferrous steel wire ropes is in use in different industries, carrying people and freight, supporting bridges and towers, lifting pipes and vessels offshore and onshore, underground and aboveground. The bigger and the longer is the rope, the more expensive it is. Later or sooner ropes deteriorate for different reasons, their further use may be dangerous, and important question ari...

The goal of modular robots is to achieve versatility in the field, while satisfying any number of traditional robot tasks. We chose the task of traversing terrain by climbing, and present various methods of climbing with modular robots. In particular, we focus on the tasks of climbing across a horizontal rope, climbing up a vertical rope, and climbing up stairs using the Superbot modular robot....

Background: It has previously been shown that short, pre-operative practice with a simulator, box trainer, or certain video games can temporarily improve one’s basic laparoscopic skills; the so-called warm-up effect. In this experiment we tested the hypothesis that Underground, a video game made for training basic laparoscopic skills, can also be used for a pre-operative warm-up. Methods: 29 la...

• E The rope is tied around a cylindrical pole by dual 6 D.O.F direct drive manipulators. • E The manipulators confirm that the rope is grasped by both hands using the force sensor. • E A flexible object model and a CCD camera vision system are used to recognize the shape of the rope.

A regular rope quality inspection is compulsory for wire ropes in security-relevant applications. Principal procedures of such quality checks are the visual inspection for surface defect detection, the magnetic inspection for a localization of broken wires and the measurement of the rope diameter. However, until today it is hardly possible for the human inspector to measure other important rope...

We report the direct detection by three THEMIS spacecraft of a magnetic flux rope flanked by two active X lines producing colliding plasma jets near the center of the flux rope. The observed density depletion and open magnetic field topology inside the flux rope reveal important three-dimensional effects. There was also evidence for nonthermal electron energization within the flux rope core whe...

Human intestinal helminths are described in this paper. They can be over a meter long, with an irregular cylindrical shape, resembling a rope. These anaerobic intestinal “rope” parasites differ significantly from other well-known intestinal parasites. Rope parasites can leave human body with enemas, and are often mistaken for intestinal lining, feces, or decayed remains of other parasites. Rope...