Progetto, sviluppo e test di una scheda di controllo per articolazione protesica di spalla in architettura distribuita

The amputation of a limb leads limitations in daily tasks that technology aims to overcome in developing specific prosthetic devices. The control system for proximal prosthesis (e.g. shoulder disarticulation) is more complex than the control for distal prosthesis beyond the elbow. Indeed, to date, only passive solutions are available for proximal prosthesis. In this thesis, an embedded control unit for a prosthetic shoulder joint was developed and realised at the Centro Protesi INAIL in Vigorso. This device aims to control the shoulder joint and it plays the role of “Slave” unit in a distributed electronic system developed during a collaboration between the Centro Protesi and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). An high performance microcontroller has been interfaced with the Master unit through high-speed CAN bus communication protocol and a customisable firmware handles the operations to be performed by analysing the received informations allowing the speed control of intra/extra-rotation and the flexion/extension of the shoulder joint. The joint speed can be achieved driving two motors by means of PWM signals and a double motor-driver. Moreover, two incremental encoders allow the monitoring of the joint position and even the embedded implementation of position controls. The developed device meets the requirement of the project: low costs, reduced dimensions (30x60mm), easily and highly programmable and customisable

Metagenomic profiles of different types of Italian high-moisture Mozzarella cheese

The microbiota of different types of Italian high-moisture Mozzarella cheese produced using cow or buffalo milk, acidified with natural or selected cultures, and sampled at the dairy or at the mass market, was evaluated using a Next Generation Sequencing approach, in order to identify possible drivers of the bacterial diversity. Cow Mozzarella and buffalo Mozzarella acidified with commercial cultures were dominated by Streptococcus thermophilus, while buffalo samples acidified with natural whey cultures showed similar prevalence of L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, L. helveticus and S. thermophilus. Moreover, several species of non-starter lactic acid bacteria were frequently detected. The diversity in cow Mozzarella microbiota was much higher than that of water buffalo samples. Cluster analysis clearly separated cow's cheeses from buffalo's ones, the former having a higher prevalence of psychrophilic taxa, and the latter of Lactobacillus and Streptococcus. A higher prevalence of psychrophilic species and potential spoilers was observed in samples collected at the mass retail, suggesting that longer exposures to cooling temperatures and longer production-to-consumption times could significantly affect microbiota diversity. Our results could help in detecting some kind of thermal abuse during the production or storage of mozzarella cheese

Digital volume correlation can be used to estimate local strains in natural and augmented vertebrae: An organ-level study

Digital Volume Correlation (DVC) has become popular for measuring the strain distribution inside bone structures. A number of methodological questions are still open: the reliability of DVC to investigate augmented bone tissue, the variability of the errors between different specimens of the same type, the distribution of measurement errors inside a bone, and the possible presence of preferential directions. To address these issues, five augmented and five natural porcine vertebrae were subjected to repeated zero-strain micro-CT scan (39 μm voxel size). The acquired images were processed with two independent DVC approaches (a local and a global one), considering different computation sub-volume sizes, in order to assess the strain measurement uncertainties. The systematic errors generally ranged within ±100 microstrain and did not depend on the computational sub-volume. The random error was higher than 1000 microstrain for the smallest sub-volume and rapidly decreased: with a sub-volume of 48 voxels the random errors were typically within 200 microstrain for both DVC approaches. While these trends were rather consistent within the sample, two individual specimens had unpredictably larger errors. For this reason, a zero-strain check on each specimen should always be performed before any in-situ micro-CT testing campaign. This study clearly shows that, when sufficient care is dedicated to preliminary methodological work, different DVC computation approaches allow measuring the strain with a reduced overall error (approximately 200 microstrain). Therefore, DVC is a viable technique to investigate strain in the elastic regime in natural and augmented bones

Strain uncertainties from two digital volume correlation approaches in prophylactically augmented vertebrae: local analysis on bone and cement-bone microstructures

Combination of micro-focus computed tomography (micro-CT) in conjunction with in situ mechanical testing and digital volume correlation (DVC) can be used to access the internal deformation of materials and structures. DVC has been exploited over the past decade to measure complex deformation fields within biological tissues and bone-biomaterial systems. However, before adopting it in a clinically-relevant context (i.e. bone augmentation in vertebroplasty), the research community should focus on understanding the reliability of such method in different orthopaedic applications involving the use of biomaterials. The aim of this study was to evaluate systematic and random errors affecting the strain computed with two different DVC approaches (a global one, “ShIRT-FE”, and a local one, “DaVis-DC”) in different microstructures within augmented vertebrae, such as trabecular bone, cortical bone and cement-bone interdigitation. The results showed that systematic error was insensitive to the size of the computation sub-volume used for the DVC correlation. Conversely, the random error (which was generally the largest component of error) was lower for a 48-voxel (1872 μm) sub-volume (64–221 microstrain for ShIRT-FE, 88–274 microstrain for DaVis-DC), than for a 16-voxel (624 μm) sub-volume (359–1203 microstrain for ShIRT-FE, 960–1771 microstrain for DaVis-DC) for the trabecular and cement regions. Overall, the local random error did not appear to be influenced by either bone microarchitecture or presence of biomaterial. For the 48-voxel sub-volume the global approach was less sensitive to the gradients in grey-values at the cortical surface (random error below 200 microstrain), while the local approach showed errors up to 770 microstrain. Mean absolute error (MAER) and standard deviation of error (SDER) were also calculated and substantially improved when compared to recent literature for the cement-bone interface. The multipass approach for DaVis-DC further reduced the random error for the largest volume of interest. The random error did not follow any recognizable pattern with the six strain components and only ShiRT-FE seemed to produce lower random errors in the normal strains. In conclusion this study has provided, for the first time, a preliminary indication of the reliability and limitations for the application of DVC in estimating the micromechanics of bone and cement-bone interface in augmented vertebrae

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass