Preconditioning tDCS facilitates subsequent tDCS effect on skill acquisition in older adults.

Functional motor declines that often occur with advancing age-including reduced efficacy to learn new skills-can have a substantial impact on the quality of life. Recent studies using noninvasive brain stimulation indicate that priming the corticospinal system by lowering the threshold for the induction of long-term potentiation-like plasticity before skill training may facilitate subsequent skill learning. Here, we used "priming" protocol, in which we used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applying the cathode over the primary motor cortex (M1) before the anode placed over M1 during unimanual isometric force control training (FORCEtraining). Older individuals who received tDCS with the cathode placed over M1 before tDCS with the anode placed over M1 concurrent with FORCEtraining showed greater skill improvement and corticospinal excitability increases following the tDCS/FORCEtraining protocol compared with both young and older individuals who did not receive the preceding tDCS with the cathode placed over M1. The results suggested that priming tDCS protocols may be used in clinical settings to improve motor function and thus maintain the functional independence of older adults

Sviluppo, realizzazione e sperimentazione in vitro di un sistema ottico per il rilievo tridimensionale dell’arcata dentale

Scuola di Dottorato “Pitagora” in Scienze Ingegneristiche, Dottorato di Ricerca in Ingegneria Meccanica XXI Ciclo a.a. 2007-2008This thesis describes the development of a 3D scanning system based on an active vision technique that uses structured light to obtain the impression of the dental arch. Currently to realize a dental prosthesis a special doughy sticky material is adopted to impress the patient’s dental arch. This imprinting may be scanned and then analyzed and modified by C.A.D. software. All this process is sometimes too long, and it may take several weeks to obtain the final prosthesis. At that moment, there are only few works that use techniques to shorten the processing times and produce a three dimensional model of a dental arch, but often they don’t allow to obtain optimal results due to a low resolution and a slow acquisition rate. Among all the studies described on literature, it results that the structured light is a relatively simple technique that allows for a relative high resolution. In the last years, the development of all these systems, has draw the attention to those devices able to obtain a structure of patient’s dental arch as a C.A.D. model. The device developed and described in this thesis is a novel kind of optical scanner that allows for a total elaboration time, for the realization of a three dimensional model, which is lower than those of the systems described in literature. The new optical scanner consists of four digital camera, a multimedia DLP mini-projector and a software to manage the hardware and process the images. It is actuated by step motors on an 2D guide, which is held rigidly fixed to the denture of the patient by a self balanced kinematic chain, that allows for small motions of the patient’s head. This system designed allows the relief and automatic reconstruction through the use of structured light with a particular Gray-Code method. This work is mainly divided in two main parts: 1. The study of the optical system calibration 2. The study of the reconstruction of dental arch The technique used relies on a new version of Gray-Code method; which allows to solve the so called “correspondences problems”. The structured light is produced by a mini-projector, which has to undertake a calibration phase as well as the camera used for image acquisition. The second part of this study is related to the analysis and marge of the acquired images. This problem involves the alignement of the cloud of points obtained from the automatic scanning process by each camera. In this phase, all the errors involved in the whole procedure are also investigated.Università della Calabri

Development of Navi-Robot, a New Assistant for the Orthopaedic Surgical Room

This paper presents the concept of Navi-Robot, an integrated system of a navigator and a robotic arm for orthopaedic surgical procedures. Navi-Robot is a self-balancing 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) arm capable to switch between the navigation mode and robotic mode. The first mode is used detect bones’ and articulations’ features and positions, while the second mode is effectively used for surgical operations. The transition from the passive to the active mode is achieved by adopting special electrically activated brakes, which are also used to ‘freeze’ each arm in the desired configuration, for convenient use. A first prototype has been assembled and a basic electronics and control system have been implemented to perform kinematic tests. More specifically, from the kinematic and mechanical point of view, the whole system is actually consisting of three 6-DOF arms, two of which are mere navigation systems and the third is the actual Navi-Robot system, as defined above. The self-balancing feature of each arm is achieved by integrating the kinematic chain with a first fourbar-linkage, which guaranties full weight compensation. In a typical surgical procedure, the end effectors of the two navigation arms are fixed to bones of the joint of interest (JOI) and used to give a reference to the Navi-Robot for intervention. Patent applications cover the entire system.status: publishe

The Twin Forceps: A New Instrument for SILS

In the last ten years, the single incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) is gaining more interest than the traditional laparoscopic surgery (LAP). Many studies make a comparison between the performances of the SILS and the LAP. The results show that the single incision laparoscopic surgery reduces pain, length of period of postoperative hospitalization, and loss of blood. This technique is also able to reduce the infection sites. In spite of many advantages, SILS reveals some problems: laparoscopic instruments triangulation and small workspace. The surgeon has to be more skillful to make a surgery in SILS because the surgeon has only three laparoscopic instruments and only one hole in the abdomen cavity. In this paper, a novel laparoscopic instrument to help the surgeon during a SILS operation is presented. This instrument is innovative forceps with double graspers. Different designs of this instrument are presented, with the final one which greatly simplifies both construction and operation. The initial experience in the laboratory with the innovative instrument is presented. The surgeon experienced in laparoscopic surgery and with the help of assistants performed a training program based on predetermined task performed in simulation box (laparoscopic box-trainer)

Effectiveness of Expressive Writing in Kidney Transplanted Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial Study

The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of an expressive writing (EW) intervention on psychological and physiological variables after kidney transplant. The final sample of 26 were randomly assigned to an expressive writing group (EWG) and control group (CG). Outcomes were focused on depression, anxiety, alexithymia, empathy, resilience, locus of control, creatinine, CDK-EPI, and azotemia. Depressive symptoms and alexithymia levels decreased in the EWG, with better adherence. Resilience declined over time in both groups. The EWG showed a significantly higher CDK-EPI, indicating better renal functioning. EW seems an effective intervention to improve the psychological health of transplanted patients, with a possible effect on renal functioning. These findings open the possibility of planning brief psychological interventions aimed at processing emotional involvement, in order to increase adherence, the acceptance of the organ, and savings in healthcare costs