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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Characterising 3d Soft Tissue Features On Joint Surfaces, Colm O'Kane Jan 2011

Characterising 3d Soft Tissue Features On Joint Surfaces, Colm O'Kane

Conference Papers

A crucial aspect of orthopaedic implant design is the prediction of surgical outcomes when the shape of a bone is necessarily altered by the addition of the implant. Matching native kinematics as closely as possible is generally considered a core aim of joint replacement surgery. The overall hypothesis behind this research is that soft tissue geometry, including cartilage thickness distribution and ligament attachment sites, influences kinematics in the knee joint. In order to enable investigation of possible links between geometry and kinematics, the ability to characterise the shape variation of the soft tissue relative to the underlying bony geometry must …


Intelligibility Of Electrolarynx Speech Using A Novel Hands-Free Actuator, Brian Madden, Mark Nolan, Ted Burke, James Condron, Eugene Coyle Jan 2011

Intelligibility Of Electrolarynx Speech Using A Novel Hands-Free Actuator, Brian Madden, Mark Nolan, Ted Burke, James Condron, Eugene Coyle

Conference Papers

During voiced speech, the larynx provides quasi-periodic acoustic excitation of the vocal tract. In most electrolarynxes, mechanical vibrations are produced by a linear electromechanical actuator, the armature of which percusses against a metal or plastic plate at a frequency within the range of glottal excitation. In this paper, the intelligibility of speech produced using a novel hands-free actuator is compared to speech produced using a conventional electrolarynx. Two able-bodied speakers (one male, one female) performed a closed response test containing 28 monosyllabic words, once using a conventional electrolarynx and a second time using the novel design. The resulting audio recordings …