Abstract. The increasing number of patients with hand disabilities after strokes or peripheral nerve injuries necessitates the continuous development of rehabilitation system devices to accelerate muscle recovery and to help patients regain the motor functions of their hands. This paper introduces the design of a hand rehabilitation system for patients who have a solitary impairment of their hand extension. The system was designed to be portable, simple, and cheap. Using a system based on a cable-driven mechanism instead of traditional rigid links reduces the degrees of freedom of the finger to one. The dielectric elastomer actuator was designed and fabricated as a smart actuator for the system, which supports the low cost of the system. A kinematic analysis of the cable-driven mechanism has been done. Parameters of the actuator were optimized to reach the required output. In order to characterize the performance of the actuator, a uniaxial tension test, isotonic test, and isometric test have been implemented.

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This study was performed to evaluate the effect of implant assisted partial overdenture located in neutral zone for restoring partially resected mandible on facial contour and bone density. Material and methods: 10 patients their age range from 18 to 45 years were selected. Each patient had partially resected mandible with osseous bone graft. Patients received removable partial overdenture assisted by two implants with suitable length and diameter guided by CBCT scan using early loading protocol two months after implant insertion. That partial overdenture respected neutral zone registration. Patients were recalled after two months from transitional partial denture insertion, two months after implant insertion and two months after implant assisting removable partial overdenture for facial symmetry evaluation, and assessment of bone quality. The data were collected, tabulated and statistically analyzed using test (ANOVA) with repeated measures comparing different follow up periods for bone density, and paired t-test comparing facial symmetry before reconstruction versus after reconstruction and mirror images to healthy side. Results: Currently it was found that early loading protocol with two implants supported mandibular partial overdenture with neutral zone in reconstructed resected mandible produce implant success rates, and improve facial asymmetry.