• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.173-177
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• 2018

Purpose: The primary goal of this study was to discover whether the articulatory diadochokinesis (sequential motionrate, SMR) collected using the Motor Speech Disorder Assessment (MSDA) software module can diagnose dysarthria and determine its severity. Methods: Two subject groups, one with spastic dysarthria (n=26) and a control group of speakers (n=30) without neurological disease, were set up. From both groups, the SMR was collected by MSDA at a time, and then analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: For the parameters of syllable rate, jitter, and the mean syllable length (MSL) at the front and back, the control group displayed better results than the dysarthria patients. Conclusions: At the level of articulatory diadochokinesis, the results showed that the use of MSDA software in clinical practice was generally suitable for quickly recording the parameters of syllable rate, jitter, and mean syllable length.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.293-304
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the displacement and pattern of stress distribution on periodontal ligaments of maxillary first and second molar, and on orthodontic mini-implant (OMI) surface, according to three different insertion angles to the bone surface of OMI using Dragon helix appliance, which is a newly introduced scissors-bite correcting appliance. OMI were placed between second premolar and first molar with three different insertion angles (45, 60, 90 degrees). Displacement and maximum stress distribution area (MSDA) were analyzed by finite element analysis. When the insertion angle to the alveolar bone surface was 90 degrees, maxillary first and second molar both exhibited MSDA at the palatal root apex. Maxillary first molar did not show any significant displacement, while the second molar exhibited intrusive and palatal displacement. On the OMI, as the insertion angle decreased, the MSDA shifted towards the tip, and the amount of displacement had increased. When the OMI was inserted at a 90 degree angle, anchor loss was minimized and scissors-bite correcting effect was maximized.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.467-478
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• 2019

Composite floor structures formed by continuous slab panels may be susceptible to excessive vibrations, even when properly designed in terms of ultimate limit state criteria. This is due to the inherent vibration characteristics of continuous floor slabs composed by precast orthotropic reinforced concrete panels supported by steel beams. These floor structures display close spaced multimode vibration frequencies and this dynamic characteristic results in a non-trivial vibration problem. Structural stiffening and/or insertion of struts between floors are the usual tentative solution applied to existing vibrating floor structures. Such structural alterations are in general expensive and unsuitable. In this paper, this vibration problem is analyzed on the basis of results obtained from experimental measurements in typical composite floors and their theoretical counterpart obtained with computational modeling simulations. A passive control system composed by multiple synchronized dynamic attenuators (MSDA) was designed and installed in these floor structures and its efficiency was evaluated both experimentally and through numerical simulations. The results obtained from experimental tests of the continuous slab panels under human walking dynamic action proved the effectiveness of this control system in reducing vibrations amplitudes.