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Background Dual antiplatelet therapy is the current standard of care after acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We intended to study the pattern of use of ticagrelor in patients with acute coronary syndrome undergoing PCI and the effect of switching over to other P2Y12 receptor inhibition on clinical outcomes. Results All patients aged > 18 years who had been admitted with acute coronary syndrome and had been provided ticagrelor as the second antiplatelet agent were included as study participants. The primary outcome of the study was the composite outcome of death, recurrent myocardial infarctions, re-intervention, and major bleeding. We studied 321 patients (54 female patients, 16.82%). The mean age of the patients was 56.65 ± 11.01 years. Ticagrelor was stopped in 76.7% on follow-up. It was stopped in 6.3%, 13.5%, 13.1%, 21.9%, and 45.1% of patients during the first month but after discharge, between first and third months, between 3 and 6 months, between 6 and 12 months, and after 12 months, respectively. In the majority of patients, ticagrelor was replaced by clopidogrel (97.9%). It was stopped according to the physician’s discretion in 79.3% of patients, whereas it was the cost of the drug that made the patient to get swapped to another agent in 18.6%. No difference in the primary composite outcome was observed between the groups where ticagrelor was continued post 12 months and ticagrelor was continued and ticagrelor was switched-over to another agent. Similarly, no difference in death, recurrent myocardial infarctions, re-interventions, or major bleeding manifestations was observed between the two groups. Conclusion In patients with acute coronary syndrome who undergo PCI, we observed that early discontinuation of ticagrelor and switching over to other P2Y12 inhibitors after discharge did not affect clinical outcomes.

The development of flexible and soft robots generates new needs in terms of instrumentation, as large encountered deformations require highly stretchable strain sensors. In this regard, we contribute to the adoption of inductive sensors by providing tools to model and exploit them and showing their relevance experimentally. First, strain estimation based on voltage measurement is proposed. Compared to direct inductance evaluation, the principle is easier to implement and opens the possibility to optimize the measurement performances by tuning the circuit components and interrogation frequency. The possibility of performing a single sensor calibration independently via the elongation mode during strain sensing is outlined. A detailed characterization is then performed, which shows that the sensor produces a low hysteresis of 0.1%, a precision in the order of 0.14%, and an accuracy of 0.9%. Finally, two proofs of concept are proposed: 1) the integration with a pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM) that demonstrates the added value of the sensor for a model-free precise control of a soft system and 2) the closed-loop control of a flexible bending manipulator using the inductive sensor. The performance in the closed-loop control is demonstrated, with a sensing element that is easy to integrate mechanically, strengthening its potential to be used as a structural element as well.

With the emergence of different dielectric elastomer transducers, the characterizations of dielectric elastomers are essential aspects for the design purpose. In this work, two potential dielectric elastomers, acrylic-based VHB and silicone-based Ecoflex, are tested and characterized under common loading conditions called equibiaxial and biaxial loading. Critical mechanical properties like hysteresis, fracture toughness, stretchability, and failure stress are obtained under equibiaxial and biaxial loading and compared with the same obtained under uniaxial and pure shear loading. It is found that hysteresis loss is almost equal in all three deformation modes. Fracture toughness under biaxial loading is more than that obtained from equibiaxial loading. Also, with increasing drawing ratio (DR), fracture toughness and failure stress decrease under biaxial loading condition. Stretchability is highest for uniaxial and followed by pure shear and equibiaxial loading cases. Stretchability is least for biaxial and with increasing drawing ratio, it further decreases. Fracture toughness, stretchability and failure stress are always more for VHB than Ecoflex under all deformation modes. However, hysteresis loss is more in case of VHB than Ecoflex. The present work successfully established the fact that for biaxial loading, fracture toughness and stretchability decreases drastically with drawing ratio. These results will provide the base of designing DEs transducers under various modes of deformation and more particularly for equibiaxial and biaxial deformation modes.

In recent years significant attention has been made towards teleoperation of a humanoid robot using haptic devices. Methodologies developed are either cost prohibitive or they are not very effective. The lack of an effective, economical and a simple technique for teleoperation of humanoids is a barrier in exploring their full potential. In this paper we have reported a novel method for teleoperation of a humanoid robot using an exoskeleton for lower limb and upper limb. Experiments were performed to test the effectiveness of the exoskeleton in capturing human motion by analyzing different walking patterns like slow walking, fast walking and jogging. The motion data captured using exoskeleton can be directly applied to the servo motors of the humanoid for teleoperation. The joint angles of the human subject and the humanoid were also compared using image processing to see the overall effectiveness of the proposed method for teleoperation. The results indicate that the method is effective and affordable for teleoperation of the humanoid robots.