Stroke leaves the majority of its survivors with an impairment of the upper extremity that affects their ability to live independently and their quality of life. Rehabilitation research shows that practice of everyday life activities in a natural context may sustain or even improve arm-hand performance, even during chronic stages after stroke. Based on this insight we designed, developed and evaluated Us'em; this consists of two watch-like accelerometry devices that provide feedback to stroke patients regarding the usage of their impaired versus their non-affected upper extremity. System usability and treatment credibility/expectancy were evaluated positively by therapists and patients.
A newly designed dynamic rheometer is described. This apparatus is designed for the purpose of the investigation of the physical ageing process of gels and for the determination of the viscoelastic properties of polymer melts. With this instrument the dynamic moduli can be determined very accurately in a range of about' 8 decades (-2 < log G' < 5.3 and -3 < log G" < 5.4; G' and G" in N/m 2) and in a frequency range of more than 6 decades (5 • 10 -s -100 Hz) with an accuracy and stability of 0.025%. Results are shown of measurements on a silicon oil (with loss angles deviating only little from 90°), on a gel of polyvinyl chloride in Reomol (with loss angles deviating only little from 0 °) and on a polystyrene melt for which, at low frequencies, the dependencies of the storage and loss moduli on the frequency are quadratic and linear, respectively.
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