Enhancing Recovery of Sensorimotor Functions: The Role of Robot Generated Haptic Feedback in the Re-learning Process

The term Robotic Rehabilitation defines a class of machines employed for different scenarios, ranging from therapeutic and assistive applications to robots devoted to neuroscience, behavioral research, and cognitive aspects. The first use of such technology dates back to early 1990s, with a relatively long history and it remains linked to the idea that robots, even with a certain degree of autonomy, must be directly controlled by humans while the interaction must be opportunely regulated in order to promote motor recovery or independent living. These devices are designed for individuals with neuromotor and cognitive disabilities to provide rehabilitative exercises or assistance for activity of daily living. They are also measurement systems i.e. they can incorporate sensors for monitoring kinematic and kinetic interaction with subjects such as movement, force or inertial sensors, or for detecting EMG signals to trigger the assistance or to provide – in more complex architectures – Functional Electric Stimulation (FES) to promote motor activity. In this chapter we will focus on therapeutic robots, which are usually employed to perform rehabilitation protocol, describing in details the most widely used control architectures, the implementation of rehabilitation exercises to restore specific motor functions and the measures of the corresponding performance

Common surgical procedures in pilonidal sinus disease: A meta-analysis, merged data analysis, and comprehensive study on recurrence

Abstract We systematically searched available databases. We reviewed 6,143 studies published from 1833 to 2017. Reports in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish were considered, as were publications in other languages if definitive treatment and recurrence at specific follow-up times were described in an English abstract. We assessed data in the manner of a meta-analysis of RCTs; further we assessed non-RCTs in the manner of a merged data analysis. In the RCT analysis including 11,730 patients, Limberg & Dufourmentel operations were associated with low recurrence of 0.6% (95%CI 0.3–0.9%) 12 months and 1.8% (95%CI 1.1–2.4%) respectively 24 months postoperatively. Analysing 89,583 patients from RCTs and non-RCTs, the Karydakis & Bascom approaches were associated with recurrence of only 0.2% (95%CI 0.1–0.3%) 12 months and 0.6% (95%CI 0.5–0.8%) 24 months postoperatively. Primary midline closure exhibited long-term recurrence up to 67.9% (95%CI 53.3–82.4%) 240 months post-surgery. For most procedures, only a few RCTs without long term follow up data exist, but substitute data from numerous non-RCTs are available. Recurrence in PSD is highly dependent on surgical procedure and by follow-up time; both must be considered when drawing conclusions regarding the efficacy of a procedure

The Tracking, calorimeter and muon detectors of the H1 experiment at HERA

Technical aspects of the three major components of the H1 detector at the electron-proton storage ring HERA are described. This paper covers the detector status up to the end of 1994 when a major upgrading of some of its elements was undertaken. A description of the other elements of the detector and some performance figures from luminosity runs at HERA during 1993 and 1994 are given in a paper previously published in this journal.0400 auteursSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe