PLAFOKON: a new concept for a patient-individual and intervention-specific flexible surgical platform

Background Research in the field of surgery is mainly driven by aiming for trauma reduction as well as for personalized treatment concepts. Beyond laparoscopy, other proposed approaches for further reduction of the therapeutic trauma have failed to achieve clinical translation, with few notable exceptions. We believe that this is mainly due to a lack of flexibility and high associated costs. We aimed at addressing these issues by developing a novel minimally invasive operating platform and a preoperative design workflow for patient-individual adaptation and cost-effective rapid manufacturing of surgical manipulators. In this article, we report on the first in-vitro cholecystectomy performed with our operating platform. Methods The single-port overtube (SPOT) is a snake-like surgical manipulator for minimally invasive interventions. The system layout is highly flexible and can be adapted in design and dimensions for different kinds of surgery, based on patient- and disease-specific parameters. For collecting and analyzing this data, we developed a graphical user interface, which assists clinicians during the preoperative planning phase. Other major components of our operating platform include an instrument management system and a non-sterile user interface. For the trial surgery, we used a validated phantom which was further equipped with a porcine liver including the gallbladder. Results Following our envisioned preoperative design workflow, a suitable geometry of the surgical manipulator was determined for our trial surgery and rapidly manufactured by means of 3D printing. With this setup, we successfully performed a first in-vitro cholecystectomy, which was completed in 78 min. Conclusions By conducting the trial surgery, we demonstrated the effectiveness of our PLAFOKON operating platform. While some aspects – especially regarding usability and ergonomics – can be further optimized, the overall performance of the system is highly promising, with sufficient flexibility and strength for conducting the necessary tissue manipulations.

Influence of System Layout on CM EMI Noise of SiC Electric Vehicle Powertrains

This paper investigates the influences of system layout on common mode (CM) EMI noise of an electric vehicle (EV) powertrain with a traction inverter using silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs. First, a system level conducted EMI model for the whole SiC EV powertrain is presented, which includes a battery pack, DC cables, a SiC inverter, AC cables, and a PMSM. Then, the impacts of system layout, such as the AC cable length, the AC cable type, and the DC cable type (shielded cable and unshielded cable) on CM EMI noise are analyzed through time domain simulations of the system level conducted EMI model. Next, a conducted EMI emission test-bed for a SiC EV powertrain is built. Finally, experiments on the test-bed are carried out to verify the influences of system layout on CM EMI noise in the SiC EV powertrain.

CREATING VISUAL ASSETS OF KOREAN VOCABULARY CARD GAME NOLJA

ABSTRACT The Korean vocabulary card game Nolja is a game designed to assist the learning process of Korean vocabulary in an interactive way and suitable for women aged 15-25 years. However, as a new game, Nolja has a fatal problem with its design, namely, the placement of illustrations on the player card which makes the game finish too quickly, there are no tools to assess language proficiency on the card, the typeface on the card is less legible, and strokes on the illustration are too thin, Therefore, it is necessary to design a visual asset for the Nolja vocabulary card game. Visual asset design for Nolja includes game theme design, illustration, educational game system, layout, and content arrangement. This design aims to produce a Nolja card game design that is interactive, educational, and suitable for women aged 15-25 years who have the motivation and function to convey Korean language subject matter well. The design is carried out by qualitative methods through interviews with experts and extreme users in the game and learning the Korean language, distributing surveys to 100 target markets. This design is also supported by data collection from literature studies from books, journals, and articles from the Internet. The design produces a visual asset for the Nolja vocabulary card game with a stronger educational game system and a design style that matches the target market's wishes so that it can be well received by the market. Keyword: Korean language, Visual learning media, Flashcards, Picture card games, Visual assets.

Optimal ANC System Arrangement Based on Complete System Analyses Applying COSMOL Multiphysics and Matlab

In real active noise control system implementation, the arrangement of secondary sources and error microphones have significant effect on the performance of the system. Analytical and experimental ways are usually combined to determine the best system layout. In this paper, we use COSMOL Multiphysics to accurately model the acoustic environment in enclosures with the real measured dimensions and parameters. Matlab is adopted to simulate the basic active noise control algorithms. The combined simulation results are used to decide the optimal system layout of the real ANC system. Experiments are conducted on a real ANC system with EVAL-21489-EZLITE from ADI to validate the analyzed and simulation results.

Studi Kelayakan Bisnis Studi Kasus Di Umkm Jagung Goreng Sukma, Payakumbuh

<p>Sukma Fried Corn Business is one of fried corn MSME business that is developing in Payakumbuh. This business has problems in the marketing, technical, and environmental aspects. Feasible study or business feasibility study is very useful for MSME owners, because it helps them in terms of product design and variety, waste management, production optimization by modifying the layout, management and organizational aspects which are common problems for MSMEs. The target of this research is to make standard product variants and packaging and modified layout. The Research Method is Qualitative descriptive. The data collection technique used in this study was the direct observation of MSMEs and focused on observing : Production System, Layout, Machines and equipment used and Waste generated. Results: In terms of market and marketing aspects, Sukma Fried Corn is innovating in adding flavor variants for its products. It is conducting promotions with both electronic and printed medias, to expand the reach of the target markert. In addition, it also created a unique and attractive product packaging design so that consumers can easily recognize their products. Concerning the layout of the facility, Sukma fried corn is working on separating the frying room and the packing room</p>

Electricity market efficiency and voltage stability

Several electricity markets were created in the last two decades by deregulation and restructuring vertically integrated utilities. In order to serve the best interest of participating entities, it is important to operate electricity markets at their maximum efficiency. In most cases, electricity markets were formed to operate on existing physical power systems that had evolved over several decades as vertically integrated utilities. Location of generating stations, large urban load centers and enabling transmission systems were unique to every power system and followed the 'lay of the land'. Depending upon a power system layout, voltage stability and margin to voltage collapse are unique to it. While an electricity market is to be operated efficiently, its optimal generation schedule to supply energy through an electric power system has to be reliable and meet the strict standards including those that relate to voltage stability. This work elicits the relationship between market efficiency and voltage stability. To this end, a formulation and a solution algorithm are presented. Two contrasting 5-bus cases illustrate how the transmission system layout influences the relationship between voltage stability and market efficiency. The IEEE 118-bus system is also used to illustrate this relationship.

Electricity market efficiency and voltage stability

Several electricity markets were created in the last two decades by deregulation and restructuring vertically integrated utilities. In order to serve the best interest of participating entities, it is important to operate electricity markets at their maximum efficiency. In most cases, electricity markets were formed to operate on existing physical power systems that had evolved over several decades as vertically integrated utilities. Location of generating stations, large urban load centers and enabling transmission systems were unique to every power system and followed the 'lay of the land'. Depending upon a power system layout, voltage stability and margin to voltage collapse are unique to it. While an electricity market is to be operated efficiently, its optimal generation schedule to supply energy through an electric power system has to be reliable and meet the strict standards including those that relate to voltage stability. This work elicits the relationship between market efficiency and voltage stability. To this end, a formulation and a solution algorithm are presented. Two contrasting 5-bus cases illustrate how the transmission system layout influences the relationship between voltage stability and market efficiency. The IEEE 118-bus system is also used to illustrate this relationship.