Neurophysiology

Contains reports on four research projects.Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.U.S. Air Force (Aeronautical Systems Division) under Contract AF 33(615)-1747National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-496)National Institutes of Health (Grant MH-04737-05)National Science Foundation (Grant GP-2495)The Teagle Foundation, Inc

Empowering and assisting natural human mobility: The simbiosis walker

This paper presents the complete development of the Simbiosis Smart Walker. The device is equipped with a set of sensor subsystems to acquire user-machine interaction forces and the temporal evolution of user's feet during gait. The authors present an adaptive filtering technique used for the identification and separation of different components found on the human-machine interaction forces. This technique allowed isolating the components related with the navigational commands and developing a Fuzzy logic controller to guide the device. The Smart Walker was clinically validated at the Spinal Cord Injury Hospital of Toledo - Spain, presenting great acceptability by spinal chord injury patients and clinical staf

Should You Know About the Pesticides in Your Clothes? Nanosilver and the Treated Articles Exemption to FIFRA

This Note explores EPA’s statutory authority to regulate pesticides, and the policies EPA has adopted to regulate pesticides used to preserve consumer products. The use of nanosilver—small particles of silver under 100 nanometers (nm)—as an antimicrobial pesticide has brought some recent attention to EPA’s policies on articles treated with pesticides. Some public health and environmental advocates have been critical of EPA for approving the use of nanosilver as an antimicrobial in textiles and other consumer products. In general, advocates are concerned that nano-scale particles might have increased toxicity due to their size—that the tiny particles may pass through membranes and organs that ordinarily filter and block pollutants, and then accumulate in places that larger particles cannot. There is a mixed scientific literature on the toxicity profile of nano-scale particles, but nanosilver has at least the same toxicity as non-nanosilver and there are some indications of greater toxicity. In Section I, this Note documents some of the toxicity issues with nanosilver. Section II discusses those concerns within the regulatory framework EPA uses to assess and regulate pesticide risks. Section III discusses the treated articles exemption to FIFRA and how the lack of hazard labeling under the exemption could run counter to the statutory provision that allows for regulatory exemptions to “carry out the purposes of [the Act].” Section IV explores the history of the treated articles exemption, and argues the exemption does not represent a statutory limitation and can be challenged with proposals to label downstream treated articles. This perspective prioritizes EPA’s mandate to prevent adverse effects on human health and the environment, and does not prioritize society’s interest in rapid technological advances in protection from pests. However, even if a reader would allow more benefits from new pesticide products despite increased risks, this Note hopes to satisfy all readers that the treated articles exemption is not a statutory limitation of FIFRA itself. This Note aims to provide historical context for the treated articles exemption to explain the exemption’s statutory parameters. Hopefully, this Note will be helpful in efforts to allow more information to pass to consumers in the marketing and labeling of treated articles, and to help consumers better understand the technologies in our products, and the risks and benefits of pesticides in our products

New techniques for neuro-rehabilitation: Transcranial Electric Stimulation and Virtual Reality

Recovery of motor and cognitive performances after a neurological illness remains a significant challenge for rehabilitation specialists. The traditional rehabilitative interventions are usually delivered using a multidisciplinary approach, whose results are not always satisfactory. These limitations in functional recovery have led researchers to consider alternative approaches. The hypothesis of providing new therapeutic possibilities in the different patients treated is, as a rehabilitator, very rewarding and represents a challenge for the future. The application of simple and low-cost techniques, defined by the literature as "unconventional" or “novel”, can provide new ideas not only in the field of research but above all of application in clinical reality.A suitable approach to improve the rehabilitation outcome is to utilize these novel rehabilitation techniques that act as a substitute or an addition to the traditional ones. In this context, some recent approaches have been proposed that might increase the effectiveness of a traditional treatment. Among them, two techniques have been demonstrated to be very promising, namely non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) and Virtual Reality (VR).In light of the foregoing, my thesis has been divided into two main lines of research, namely: a) the study of the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in different neurological conditions; b) the application of VR (used alone or combined with tDCS) in the treatment of some neurocognitive disorders. A semi-immersive VR tool (ReMOVES system) has been used as a user-friendly platform providing activities based on exergames