A Cost-Effective Upper Extremity Prosthesis Design

Author(s):  
Steven Chen ◽  
Vanessa Pau ◽  
Theresa Shar ◽  
Stephanie Tiaden ◽  
Anthony Wong

Upper extremity prostheses are a scarce necessity in less developed countries due to the lack of medical facilities, economic resources, and prevalent warfare. Prostheses have become a growing need as fifty-thousand amputations occur annually, with the current market being focused primarily on lower extremities. Leg prostheses have received much more attention and success than their upper extremity counterparts, due to their lower complexity that also yields lower cost. Prosthetic legs only need to fulfill basic motions such as walking and running, as opposed to the more complicated hands that encompass 22 degrees of motion. In less developed countries with few medical facilities, amputees need to travel long distances to find treatment. The objective is to design an affordable and easily assembled body-powered, below-elbow prosthetic device for adults that provides basic arm function and can be widely distributed in developing countries. Therefore, cost, availability, functionality, and simplicity are the primary considerations of the design.

2012 ◽  
pp. 26-40
Author(s):  
Bhasker Mukerji ◽  
Ramaraj Palanisamy

The popularity of Open Source Software (OSS) in developing countries is quiet evident from its widespread adoption across government departments and public sector organizations. The use of OSS saves economic resources of cash starved countries, provides an opportunity to promote e-government, and to utilize their resources in other sectors. Many developing countries have a large pool of skilled developers who can modify the source code of the OSS at a very low cost. Many governments in developing and developed countries have switched to OSS which probably encourages others to follow the trend. It was not possible to follow the adoption trend in all the developing countries but the usage of OSS in countries like India, Brazil, and Venezuela provides us an insight. The successful adoption of OSS requires thorough analysis of its advantages as well as the issues associated with it. This chapter will provide an overview of OSS, characteristics of OSS developers, and their motivation to volunteer by contributing in OSS projects, followed by the advantages and issues associated with OSS.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 790-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Johannesen ◽  
Thomas Tørsløv ◽  
Ludvig Wier

Abstract This paper uses a global dataset with information about 210,000 corporations in 142 countries to investigate whether tax avoidance by multinational firms is more prevalent in less-developed countries. The paper proposes a novel approach to studying cross-border profit shifting, which has relatively low data requirements and is therefore particularly well-suited for the context of developing countries. The results consistently show that the sensitivity of reported profits to profit-shifting incentives is negatively related to the level of economic and institutional development. This may explain why many developing countries opt for low corporate tax rates in spite of urgent revenue needs and severe constraints on the use of other tax bases.


2011 ◽  
Vol 225-226 ◽  
pp. 174-177
Author(s):  
Yue Huang

In light of current world economics heading towards a direction that demands a refurbished theoretical guidance, Huang, Mu and Huang’s (1990, 1991) “Overall Development of Global Economics” model - also affectionately known as the "4-ways, 2-forms" hypothesis - serves as a research guideline and a basic framework of economical development problems. Economical development throughout the history of mankind has experienced three phases, each phase bearing its own characteristics. While today’s developing countries linger in the era of nature driven self-sufficiency, developed countries have surged ahead into a phase of post-information economy where information technology serves as the backbone of Information Economic Era. At present, the financial disparities between nations often and inevitably produce conflicts driven by socio-economical differences and the resultant ideologies. What are the orientations in economic development for less developed countries, developing countries and developed countries? Why does conflict between them arise and what causes this? How can they be resolved? These have become focal issues of concern among economist.


Author(s):  
Stanley Lippert

Existing human factors knowledge, generated in a high technology environment, can be drawn upon to meet the needs of less developed countries with a lower technology environment. To open up effectively this potentially rich field of human factors activity, a broadly conceived approach to the anticipated problems is needed. Preliminary suggestions and methods are offered towards such an approach. In addition to the cited references, a bibliography containing a variety of references relevant to human factors in developing countries is included.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 97-103
Author(s):  
Kaushik Ghosh ◽  
Arup Sarkar

Urban wastewater management is a crucial challenge in the small and medium towns situated in the developing countries worldwide. These towns are also facing an increasing gap between infrastructure and population growth. A conventional approach to curb these problems is the application of cost-intensive electro-mechanical sewerage technologies, as adopted in developed countries. The first part of this paper derives a set of indicators to framework a sustainable urban wastewater treatment system by reviewing the current state of wastewater management in developing countries, for example, the sample case study being India. The second part evaluates the potential performance of the proposed alternative in-situ hydroponic vetiver system (HVS) against those set of sustainability indicators by reviewing the worldwide performance of the HVS. The objective of this paper is to assess the potential viability of the HVS as a sustainable and cost-effective alternative for developing countries. The current analysis can aid in mainstreaming the use of HVS in policy making and urban planning.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youngjin Moon ◽  
Jeongmin Oh ◽  
Jaeho Hyun ◽  
Youngkyu Kim ◽  
Jaesoon Choi ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Endoscopes are widely used for visualizing the respiratory tract, urinary tract, uterus, and gastrointestinal tracts. Despite high demand, people in underdeveloped and developing countries cannot obtain proper access to endoscopy. Moreover, commercially available endoscopes are mostly nonarticulable as well as not actively controlled, limiting their use. Articulating endoscopes are required for some diagnosis procedures, due to their ability to image wide areas of internal organs. Furthermore, actively controlled articulating endoscopes are less likely to harm the lumen than rigid endoscopes because they can avoid contact with endothelial tissues. OBJECTIVE The study aimed to demonstrate the feasibility and acceptability of smartphone-based wide-field articulable endoscope system for minimally invasive clinical applications in developing and less developed countries. METHODS A thin articulable endoscope system that can be attached to and actively controlled by a smartphone was designed and constructed. The system consists of a flexible endoscopic probe with a continuum mechanism, 4 motor modules for articulation, a microprocessor for controlling the motor with a smartphone, and a homebuilt app for streaming, capturing, adjusting images and video, and controlling the motor module with a joystick-like user interface. The smartphone and motor module are connected via an integrated C-type On-The-Go (OTG) USB hub. RESULTS We tested the device in several human-organ phantoms to evaluate the usability and utility of the smartphone-based articulating endoscope system. The resolution (960 × 720 pixels) of the device was found to be acceptable for medical diagnosis. The maximum bending angle of 110° was designed. The distance from the base of the articulating module to the tip of the endoscope was 45 mm. The angle of the virtual arc was 40.0°, for a curvature of 0.013. The finest articulation resolution was 8.9°. The articulating module succeeded in imaging all 8 octants of a spherical target, as well as all 4 quadrants of the indices marked in human phantoms. CONCLUSIONS The portable wide-field endoscope was successfully controlled using a smartphone, yielding clear images with a resolution of 960 × 720 pixels at realistic focal distances. Actively and precisely controlled articulating movements have resulted in minimally invasive monitoring in the narrow space of internal organs providing a wide-area view. We found our smartphone-based active articulated endoscope to be suitable for point-of-care applications in developing and less developed countries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Анђелко С. Лојпур ◽  
Ања А. Лојпур

Резиме: Велики и снажан талас оптимизма који је почетком 90-их година 20. вијека захватио бивше социјалистичке земље у погледу коначног исхода транзиције је већ крајем прве декаде 21.вијека смијенио још снажнији талас песимизма. Уједно, појавом глобалне економске кризе потврдило се да социјалистичка опредјељења немају шанси, да је капитализам подложан перманентној кризи, али да је упитна његова пролазност. Питање које се додатно са убрзавањем системске кризе на глобалном нивоу наметнуло јесте: могу ли бивше социјалистичке, мање развијене земље бити равноправни сарадници у процесу ширења мултинационалне привредне концепције, или ће завршити на периферији, што би значило даље раслојавање у нивоу богатства, болну експлоатацију оскудних привредних ресурса и све веће заостајање у индустријализацији. Полазећи од тога да проблем разумијевања динамике индустријског капитализма није ништа изгубио на свом значају ни до данашњих дана, аутори у овом раду имају за циљ да потраже одговоре на питање: да ли је и како могуће преокренути будући концепт развоја у земљама у транзицији у правцу веће свјетске једнакости у богатству, укључујући и питање реиндустријализације.Summary: A large and powerful wave of optimism that the early nineties swept former socialist countries in terms of the final outcome of the transition is the end of the first decade of the 21st century removed even more powerful wave of pessimism. At the same time, the advent of the global economic crisis has confirmed that the socialist orientation have no chance, that capitalism is subject to permanent crisis, but it is doubtful its transience. The question used in addition to accelerating the systemic crisis in the global proficiency level is imposed, whether the former socialist, less developed countries become equal collaborators in the process of expanding multinational economic concepts, or will end up on the periphery, which would mean further stratification of the level of wealth, painful exploitation of scarce economic resources and the increasing backwardness in industrialization. Given that the problem of understanding the dynamics of industrial capitalism has not lost its importance even to the present day, the author in this paper aims to look for an answer to the question, whether and how to be reversed because the concept of development in the countries in transition towards more a world of equality in wealth, including the issue of re-industrialization.


Author(s):  
Bhasker Mukerji ◽  
Ramaraj Palanisamy

The popularity of Open Source Software (OSS) in developing countries is quiet evident from its widespread adoption across government departments and public sector organizations. The use of OSS saves economic resources of cash starved countries, provides an opportunity to promote e-government, and to utilize their resources in other sectors. Many developing countries have a large pool of skilled developers who can modify the source code of the OSS at a very low cost. Many governments in developing and developed countries have switched to OSS which probably encourages others to follow the trend. It was not possible to follow the adoption trend in all the developing countries but the usage of OSS in countries like India, Brazil, and Venezuela provides us an insight. The successful adoption of OSS requires thorough analysis of its advantages as well as the issues associated with it. This chapter will provide an overview of OSS, characteristics of OSS developers, and their motivation to volunteer by contributing in OSS projects, followed by the advantages and issues associated with OSS.


1975 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Jon Rosenbaum ◽  
William G. Tyler

Traditionally, examinations of the international relations of the less developed countries (LDCs) have focused on influences that can be attributed generally as originating in the developed countries (DCs). In fact, relatively few scholarly analyses of inter-LDC relations have been undertaken. Since South-South relations have grown appreciably in recent years, however, it is important that a framework for studying these relations be developed, and this framework must include an awareness of the significance of the international economic system


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