FMEA seems to be a suitable tool in the design phase of developing medical simulators. Herein, it serves as a communication medium for knowledge transfer between the medical experts and the system developers. The method encourages a reflective process and allows identification of the most important elements and scenarios that need to be trained.
The present work contributes to elucidating the differences between silica gels obtained by low doses ultrasonic activation, and those obtained by the conventional method, termed as classical sol gel. Silica matrices were produced by sol-gel synthesis process, assisted and non-assisted by an ultrasonic field, and subsequently characterized by various methods. Nitrogen adsorption and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements provided texture and microstructure of the dried gels. The adsorption results show that the sample sonicated for 2 hours presents the most ordered microstructure, characterized by pore shape close to spherical and the narrowest size distribution - about 90 % of the pores for this sample fall into the mesopore range (2-50 nm). SANS data reveal the formation of primary structural units of sizes around 1.5-2 nm which are small linear or branched polymeric species of roughly spherical shape and with rough surface. They are generated in the very early stage of sol gel process, as a result of hydrolysis and condensation reactions. The aggregated primary units form the secondary porous structure which can be described as a rough surface with fractal dimension above 2. The best porosity characteristics were obtained for the sample activated for 2 hours, indicating the optimal doses of sonication in the present conditions. Our results demonstrate the possibility of tailoring the pore size distribution using a low power ultrasonic bath. .
Bone sawing skill demands a high level of dexterity from the surgeon that can be achieved only with a lot of training. Sawing is a basic skill required in many procedures, such as: osteotomy, ostectomy, amputation and arthroplasty surgery. Inefficient sawing can lead in orthognathic surgery to nerve lesion, bad split and non-union. Using virtual reality technology this complications can be reduced, by training the students on simulators until they assimilate the skill. This paper presents an early prototype for a bone sawing simulator in orthognathic surgery. A voxel-based mandible model obtained from a Computer Tomography is cut by removing the voxels that are inside the saw blade. The collision detection is based on hierarchical bounding volumes. The removal process is observed both visually and haptically.
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