Search results

The paper aims to discuss design, fabrication, testing and simulation of a novel tactile probe used for measuring the stiffness of biological soft tissues/materials with a view to medical and surgical applications.

Both finite element modeling and experimental approach were used in this research. The novel tactile probe capable of recording force-deformation feedback is accompanied with the tactile-status-display which is a custom-designed user-friendly interface. This system can evaluate the stiffness in each part of force-deformation status.

The new system named novel tactile probe was fabricated, and the results on artificial materials (with different stiffnesses) and the sheep kidney (containing a hard object) were reported. Recording different stiffnesses, detecting hard object embedded in soft tissue and predicting the exact location of it are the main results that have been extracted through the diagrams obtained by the novel tactile probe system.

The designed and fabricated system can be modified and miniaturized to be used during different minimally invasive surgeries in the future.

The most distinguishing feature of this novel tactile probe is its applicability during different laparoscopic surgeries, so the in vivo data can be obtained.

For the first time, a tactile probe has been designed and tested in the form of laparoscopic instrument which upgrades the efficiency of available laparoscopic instruments. Also, the novel tactile probe can be used in both in vivo and in vitro experimental setups for measuring the stiffness of sensed objects.

The objective of this paper is to propose a new data envelopment analysis (DEA) model for assessing sustainability of suppliers with partial impacts between inputs, desirable outputs and undesirable outputs.

This paper examines partial impacts of inputs on desirable and undesirable outputs and applies weak disposability assumption to propose a novel DEA model to determine the sustainability of suppliers.

This paper shows the type of resource sharing in DEA models and takes into account sustainable development and sustainability assessment concepts for sustainable supplier selection problem and develops a DEA model for selecting the most sustainable suppliers with partial sharing of resources. To select the most sustainable suppliers, this model helps managers to consider aggregate efficiency, overall efficiency and bundle efficiency. The paper introduces the supplier which is efficient at all levels as the most sustainable supplier.

For the first time, this paper suggests a new DEA model by partial impact between inputs and good outputs/bad outputs for selecting sustainable supplier and deals with the situations in which each supplier has several subunits. The new model calculates aggregate efficiency, overall efficiency and subunit efficiency of supplier. paper introduces the supplier which is efficient in all levels including aggregate efficiency, overall efficiency and subunit efficiency as the best supplier.