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PubMed1991

Waste management for Space Station Freedom.

Because of the tremendous task of designing, testing, building and maintaining the waste systems for Space Station Freedom, different methods of managing these systems are now being developed. This paper summarizes some of those methods. The first task for the design engineer is to develop systems and hardware to handle waste in the special conditions of the space station. Different closed and open loop systems, along with the development of new hardware in these loops, are being tested to meet this task. Some of the new hardware to be discussed are water and air monitors, hazardous material handling, and plumbing hardware such as commodes, showers and clothes washers. The second task is to develop methods to manage the process of developing these systems. Some of the areas to manage are testing information, materials, facilities, people, budgets, time, safety, legal responsibilities and testing standards. The last task is to incorporate the new technologies for other areas besides space stations. Other areas would include long-duration space missions, lunar stations and other non-space applications.

Ecological Systems, Closed↗
PubMed1992

Adverse drug events and the Freedom of Information Act: an apple in Eden.

OBJECTIVE: To review some of the abuses and proper uses of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) spontaneous adverse-reaction reporting system, as a way of educating the reader to its strengths and limitations. DATA SOURCE: Published literature and reports based on information obtained from the FDA's database of spontaneous adverse drug-event reports. DATA SYNTHESIS: The Freedom of Information Act has increased public access to the FDA's database of spontaneous adverse drug reaction reports. As these reports are voluntarily received and reported to the FDA, their use for comparisons of drug safety is severely limited. Despite these limitations and the FDA's caveats for use of these data, consumer advocacy groups, researchers, and various pharmaceutical marketing groups have used this source to project the incidence of adverse drug reactions. CONCLUSIONS: The FDA's spontaneous adverse-event reporting system is designed to generate signals of unexpected adverse drug events. Use of the data gathered by this system to make drug safety comparisons is beyond their credible scope because many factors influence the reporting of adverse events. Researchers and peer reviewers should place these data in the proper perspective and support sound research into questions of drug safety.

Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems↗
PubMed1997

Evaluating community coalitions for prevention of substance abuse: the case of Project Freedom.

In the United States alone, there are more than 2,000 community coalitions to address local concerns about abuse of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. This article describes an evaluation system used to examine the process, outcome, and impact of coalitions for the prevention of substance abuse. The evaluation addresses five key questions: (a) Was the community mobilized to address substance abuse (Process)? (b) What changes in the community resulted from the coalition (Outcome)? (c) Is there a change in reported use of alcohol and other substances by youths (Outcome)? (d) Does the coalition have a community-level impact on substance abuse (Impact)? and (e) Is community-level impact related to changes facilitated by the coalition (Impact)? To address these and other questions, using eight core measurement instruments, the evaluation system collects 15 distinct measures. This evaluation system is illustrated with a multiyear study of Project Freedom, a substance abuse coalition in a large midwestern city.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Freedom of information: a case study.

The purpose of this case study was to find out how easy it was to access information on the hygiene standards of eating places open to the public. Using the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000, four adjacent local authorities in South Wales were asked to provide the last food hygiene report of an eating place in their area. The disclosed reports were assessed to determine how useful they would be to an individual seeking more information on a food premise. It was relatively easy to obtain information from two authorities and difficult if not impossible with the others. One local authority refused to release information despite the intervention of the FOI Commissioner. The quality of the information released was variable. This ranged from a completed comprehensive inspection protocol to a hand-written, illegible, incomplete report that failed to adequately differentiate between requirements and recommendations. Without some training in food law and food hygiene it would be difficult to interpret the reports. There was no evidence from the information provided of inspection scoring. The case study raises concerns about the effectiveness of the Act for consumers who wish to obtain information about the hygiene standards of food premises. While the specialist information provided by hygiene inspection reports may be useful to businesses it is not helpful for the lay public. Consumers must be prepared to exercise patience and tenacity if they want this information. Concerns must be raised about the consistency of the inspection process and about the willingness of some local authorities to be transparent about the inspection and enforcement process.

Access to Information↗
PubMed2006

Individual freedoms versus collective responsibility: immunization decision-making in the face of occasionally competing values.

Modern public health strives for maximizing benefits for the highest number of people while protecting individual rights. Restrictions on individual rights are justified for two reasons--for the benefit of the individual or the benefit of the community. In extreme situations there may be a need to protect the health of an individual and particularly a child; even by overriding individual/parental autonomy. However, The American Academy of Pediatrics recently concluded that "Continued (vaccine) refusal after adequate discussion should be respected unless the child is put at significant risk of serious harm (as, for example, might be the case during an epidemic). Only then should state agencies be involved to override parental discretion on the basis of medical neglect". Many countries have compulsory immunization requirements. These laws curtail individual autonomy in order to protect the community from infectious diseases because unvaccinated individuals pose risk to the community--including vaccinated individuals (since vaccines are not 100% efficacious), children too young to be vaccinated, and persons who have medical vaccine contraindications. There are situations where there can be a real or perceived divergence between individual and community benefits of vaccination. This divergence may occasionally be based upon current scientific evidence and may exemplify the need for overriding individual autonomy. A divergence between individual and community benefits may also exist when there are ideological beliefs incongruent with vaccination or individuals are unaware of or do not accept available scientific evidence. When the state curtails individual freedoms for the collective good, it should address several issues including the magnitude of the individual and community risk, the strength of the individual's conviction, wider and long-term consequences of restricting individual autonomy, effective risk communication, best available scientific evidence, and transparency of the decision making process.

Editorial↗
PubMed2006

Individual freedom versus collective responsibility: too many rights make a wrong?

: Individuals might reasonably expect the freedom to make their own decisions regarding their health. However, what happens when an individual's wishes conflict with what is in that individual's best interests? How far should an individual's rights be restricted for his or her own benefit? Similarly, what limitations should be placed on an individual's behaviour when that person's wishes go against what is good for the population in general? Here we discuss the issues that can arise when the rights of individuals conflict with individual and population benefits in relation to infectious diseases.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1994

Birth choices, the law, and medicine: balancing individual freedoms and protection of the public's health.

To many Americans, the idea of home birth, the use of a "direct-entry midwife," or both seem archaic. Although much of the professional medical community disapproves of either, state laws regarding birth choices vary dramatically and are not necessarily based on empirical findings of childbirth outcomes. Public health practitioners, policymakers, and consumers view childbirth from the perspectives of safety, cost, freedom of choice, quality of the care experience, and legality, yet the professional, policy, and lay literatures have not offered an unemotional, balanced presentation of evidence. Reviewing the full spectrum of literature from the United States and abroad, we present a Constitutional medical-legal analysis of whether home birth with direct-entry midwives is in fact a safe alternative to physician-attended hospital births, and whether there is a legal basis for allowing alternative health policy choices is such an important yet personal family matter as childbirth. The literature shows that low- to moderate-risk home births attended by direct-entry midwives are at least as safe as hospital births attended by either physicians or midwives. The policy ramifications include important changes in state regulation of medical and alternative health personnel, the allowance of the home as a medically acceptable and legal birth setting, and reimbursement of this lower-cost option through private and public health insurers.

Europe↗
PubMed1994

SCALING MODULUS AS A DEGREE OF FREEDOM IN THE DESIGN OF LOCUST LEGS

Previous work has shown that the scaling of mechanical behaviour in bending of the metathoracic tibiae of the African desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is not predicted by the scaling of external dimensions. The flexural stiffness of the tibia scales to (body mass)1.53, which is similar to the predictions of the elastic similarity model of scaling. The external dimensions, however, scale in a manner that produces relatively more elongate limb segments ­ an observation that differs from the predictions of any existing scaling model. In this paper, we examined two alternative hypotheses to explain this uncoupling of morphology and mechanics: (1) that the load-bearing cuticular material is distributed in the legs in a manner that is not indicated by changes in external dimensions, or (2) that the stiffness of the cuticular material is altered to produce the observed scaling of flexural stiffness. The second moment of area (I) scaled to (body mass)1.19, which was similar to scaling I to (tibial radius)4. This indicates that the relationship between the external dimensions of the tibiae and the specific distribution of load-bearing material is conserved independently of scale. Therefore, the locust achieves the observed scaling of flexural stiffness by altering the modulus of the load-bearing cuticular material. In fact, the time-dependent modulus (E') scales to (body mass)0.311. In essence, the scaled material stiffness provides a degree of freedom in design in addition to external morphological dimensions in accommodating the changing demands placed on a skeletal structure with increases in body size.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1993

Optimal design of a six-bar linkage with one degree of freedom for an anthropomorphic three-jointed finger mechanism.

This research concerns the design of a three-jointed, anthropomorphic, finger mechanism for use as a prosthesis or robotic end-effector. Based on a study of finger configurations for the human hand, a six-bar linkage with one degree of freedom is proposed. A model of the fingertip displacement of the mechanism is derived by a vector analysis approach. The effects of joint friction on the transmission efficiency are analysed. By measuring the joint positions of a human finger, a mathematical model of the pinching and holding configurations are developed. Optimal parameters for the finger mechanism are obtained by non-linear programming based on an objective functional involving motion posture and locus, transmission efficiency and weight subject to geometric and bionic constraints. Simulation results indicate that the mechanism is useful for a variety of prosthetic and robotic applications.

Biomechanical Phenomena↗
PubMed2005

Nanometric position and displacement measurement of the six degrees of freedom by means of a patterned surface element.

A method is presented for position and displacement measurements of the six degrees of freedom by use of a patterned surface element observed by a static interferometric vision system. The surface element is made of a regular pattern of circular holes etched on a chromium layer deposited onto a flat glass plate. The in-plane coordinates (x, y, theta(z)) are reconstructed with a subpixel resolution by a vision method based on phase measurements. The out-of-plane coordinates (z, theta(x), theta(y)) are reconstructed by phase-shifting interferometry. Resolutions achieved by the proposed method are in the range of microradians for the measurement of angles and of nanometers for the position and displacement.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1975

Dental auxiliaries, universities, and academic freedom.

The practicing dental profession lately has asked questions regarding the propriety of research programs designed to investigate the use of expanded duty dental auxiliaries. The dental schools see paraprofessional research as socially responsive. Dental societies recognize the usefulness of auxiliaries but feel their responsibilities should be limited. This paper examines the status of dental auxiliaries, universities, and academic freedom.

Allied Health Personnel↗
PubMed2004

[A gearing mechanism with 4 degrees of freedom for robotic applications in medicine].

Applications in robot-aided surgery are currently based on modifications of manipulators used in industrial manufacturing processes. In this paper we describe novel rotatory kinematics for a manipulator, specially developed for deployment in robot-aided surgery. The construction of the gearing mechanism used for the positioning and orientation of a linkage point is described. Forward and inverse kinematics were calculated, and a constructive solution proposed. The gearing mechanism is based on two disk systems, each of which consists of two opposing rotatable discs. The construction was designed in such a way that the linkage point can be positioned freely anywhere within the mechanism's range of motion. The kinematics thus permits an x-y-positioning via rotating movements only. The spatial arrangement of two of such disc systems permits movements in four degrees of freedom (DOF). The construction is compact, but can be further miniaturized, is flexible and manufacturing costs are low. On the basis of this mechanical concept a new, small automated manipulator for surgical application will be developed.

Computer-Aided Design↗
PubMed1994

[A three-dimensional goniometer linkage system for the analysis of movement with six degrees of freedom].

A measuring system for the determination of the six degrees of freedom of three-dimensional movements is described. The main advantages of this goniometer linkage system are ease of handling and good cost-quality relationship. For small movements it has an accuracy of about 0.1 mm and 0.1 degree. Six potentiometers are rod-linked in such a way that the system can follow any movement, unconstrained. From the rotation of the potentiometers, the spatial movement of two solid bodies can be calculated by a computer. The reliability of the system has been demonstrated in several in vitro and in vivo applications.

Biomechanical Phenomena↗
PubMed2002

[Development of an optical 3-D position measuring system for simultaneous detection of 6 degrees of freedom].

A few years ago it became possible to carry out complicated surgical procedures in humans with the required precision by combining medical imaging (MRI, CT) with minimally invasive surgery. The confined space within these imaging systems and the resulting inaccuracies associated with the manual use of instruments increasingly make necessary the help of aids ranging from positioning systems to robotic devices, which themselves must be position controlled. A position sensor has been developed for a medical robotic system allowing the image-controlled insertion of injection needles and the simultaneous administration of different drugs. The 3D position coordinates are determined by a noncontact optical principle, which also enables simultaneous determination of all 6 basic degrees of freedom of the robotic system (3 translational, 3 rotational). On the basis of an area image sensor and the measurement of a geometrically defined structure in the path of the rays between sensor and light source, the position coordinates are calculated almost real time. Special emphasis was placed on designing the sensor system to cover a sufficiently large workspace to enable it to cover the entire intervention area. The sensor described herein determines the position coordinates in a volume of 10 x 10 x 10 cm at a resolution of up to 1 mm for translations and 1 degree for rotations.

Equipment Design↗
PubMed2002

Control performance with three translational degrees of freedom.

For multiple degree-of-freedom (DOF) systems, it is important to determine how accurately operators can control each DOF and what influence perceptual, information processing, and psychomotor components have on performance. Sixteen right-handed male students participated in 2 experiments: 1 involving positioning and 1 involving tracking with 3 translational DOFs. To separate perceptual and psychomotor effects, we used 2 control-display mappings that differed in the coupling of vertical and depth dimensions to the up-down and fore-aft control axes. We observed information processing effects in the positioning task: Initial error correction on the vertical dimension lagged in time behind the horizontal dimension. The depth dimension error correction lagged behind both, which was ascribed to the poorer perceptual information. We observed this perceptual effect also in the tracking experiment: Tracking error along the depth dimension was 3.8 times larger than along the other dimensions. Motor effects were also present, with tracking errors along the up-down axis of the hand controller being 1.1 times larger than along the fore-aft axis. These results indicate that all 3 components contribute to control performance. Actual applications of this research include interface design for remote control and virtual reality.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Recommendations for the implantation of the Pericarbon Freedom stentless valve.

Based on our experience of 1000 subcoronary implants of the Sorin Pericarbon Freedom stentless valve, we give recommendations for the exact implantation technique. This article illustrates basic issues in the implantation technique with respect to continuous and interrupted suture to enable beginners and experienced surgeons to avoid some of the pitfalls. Additional remarks about sizing and early intraoperative echocardiographic findings complete this technical overview.

Heart Valve Prosthesis↗
PubMed1981

Escape from freedom: Choosing not to choose in pigeons.

Preference for the availability of food-reinforcement alternatives was investigated with Rachlin and Green's (1972) concurrent-chains self-control paradigm. The terminal link of one chain made available a choice between immediate access to food for T seconds and delayed access to food for 4 seconds. The terminal link of the other chain provided only delayed access to food. When T was reduced to .25 seconds, pigeons began to select the delayed-access key in both terminal links. Even so, the pigeons strongly preferred constraint over choice. This effect could not be accounted for by differences in the actual amount of food obtained in the terminal links, by avoidance of the immediate-reinforcement key when not presented as part of a choice, or by avoidance of a multi-key terminal link. Rather, constraint was preferred over freedom. Apparently, the preference for choice is determined by the particular type of choice offered.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2006

[Application of a jaw motion tracking device that measures six degrees of freedom using optoelectronic].

PURPOSE: A jaw motion tracking device that measures six degrees of freedom has recently been developed. Understanding jaw motion is useful, but previous measurement methods were impractical for use in dental clinics. The overall aim of this study was to demonstrate the simple operation, low cost, and high precision of a recently developed jaw tracking device. In addition, this study explored its potential clinical applications. METHODS: In this study, we compared two jaw motion tracking devices: a digital system type of device and an optical type of device. First we established a baseline occlusal plane from which to measure jaw motion in the same subject with both devices. The jaw motion signals were sampled at a frequency of 100 Hz. The subjects were three healthy women (mean age +/- SD = 26.3 +/- 1.2 years) who were recruited from among the crown-and-bridge faculty of Tsurumi University of Dentistry. The jaw motions measured were open-close movement, sagittal border movement, and frontal border movement. In addition, the kinematic axis point was calculated from the sagittal border movement. Data from the digital system type of device and data from the optical device were compared. The data were selected to measure rotation and translocation, i.e. jaw position about protrusion, both laterotrusion and maximal opening of the mouth. RESULTS: The root mean square (RMS) error of position measurement was 0.163 mm with MM-JI-E and 0.178 mm with the optical type of device. The RMS error of jaw motion measurement with the optical type of device was maximum at 0.8mm and minimum at 0.1mm. This was similar to that with digital system type of jaw motion tracking device. CONCLUSION: This study showed the possibility of developing clinical applications for this jaw motion device.

Adult↗