A Pneumatic-Actuated Feel-Through Wearable Haptic Display for Multi-Cue Delivery

Compared to the "Seeing-through"paradigm for the concurrent display of both real and virtual images in vision-enabled Augmented Reality (AR), its haptic counterpart, i.e., the "Feeling-through"via wearable tactile systems, which enables to experience simultaneously physical objects and haptically rendered virtual properties, is still largely unexplored. In a previous work, we introduced the Wearable-Fabric Yielding Display (W-FYD), which uses an elastic thin fabric as the interaction surface with the finger, allowing the delivery of softness-related cues both in active and passive exploration mode, together with sliding stimuli. The device was proven effective, but the current design faces form factor issues related to the dimensions and weight of the device, due to the actuation strategy of the lifting mechanism in the passive mode. To tackle this issue, we propose a miniaturized version of the system, named the W-FYD AIR, which allows reducing the overall dimensions of the device, from 100 × 60 × 36 mm to 78 × 45 × 37 mm, and its weight, from 100 g to 54 g, by exploiting pneumatically-actuated chambers for the lifting mechanism. Through careful sizing of each component and a process of characterization and identification, we demonstrated that the new system attained the same characteristics and functionality as the original one

Dermoscopic evaluation of amelanotic and hypomelanotic melanoma

Objective: To determine the predictive dermoscopic features of amelanotic and hypomelanotic melanoma

Model-Based Compliance Discrimination via Soft Tactile Optical Sensing and Optical Flow Computation: A Biomimetic Approach

Soft tactile optical sensors have opened up new possibilities for endowing artificial robotic hands with advanced touch-related properties; however, their use for compliance discrimination has been poorly investigated and mainly relies on data-driven methods. Discrimination of object compliance is crucial for enabling accurate and purposeful object manipulation. Humans retrieve this information primarily using the contact area spread rate (CASR) over their fingertips. CASR can be defined as the integral of tactile flow, which describes the movement of iso-strain surfaces within the fingerpad. This work presents the first attempt to discriminate compliance through soft optical tactile sensing based on a computational model of human tactile perception that relies on CASR and tactile flow concepts. To this aim, we used a soft optical biomimetic sensor that transduces surface deformation via movements of marked pins, similar to the function of intermediate ridges in the human fingertip. We acquired images of markers' movements during the interaction with silicone specimens with different compliance at different indenting forces. Then, we computed the optical flow as a tactile flow approximation and its divergence to estimate the CASR. Our model-based approach can accurately discriminate the compliance levels of the specimens, both when the sensor probed the surface perpendicularly and with different inclinations. Finally, we used the relation between specimen compliance and the experimentally evaluated CASR to infer the compliance of a new specimen relying on the estimated CASR

Dermoscopic evaluation of nodular melanoma

Importance: Nodular melanoma (NM) is a rapidly progressing potentially lethal skin tumor for which early diagnosis is critical

Multiple sclerosis treatment and melanoma development

Therapy of multiple sclerosis (MS) with disease-modifying agents such as natalizumab or fingolimod has been associated with the development of cutaneous melanoma. Here we briefly revise literature data and report of a case of a 48-year old woman who developed a melanoma and several atypical naevi after sub sequential treatment with natalizumab (1 year) and fingolimod (7 years). By immunohistochemistry we observed the presence of T cells and leukocyte infiltration as well as of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A expression in the patient melanoma biopsy. Then, we analyzed proliferation, migration and VEGF-A expression in three melanoma cell lines and found out that both natalizumab and fingolimod inhibited tumor cell proliferation but promoted or blocked cell migration depending on the cell line examined. VEGF-A secretion was augmented in one melanoma cell line only after fingolimod treatment. In conclusion, our in vitro data do not support the hypothesis of a direct action of natalizumab or fingolimod on melanoma progression but acting on the tumor microenvironment these treatments could indirectly favor melanoma evolution

Prognostic impact of Ki-67 proliferative index in resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive disease characterized by complex biological features and poor prognosis. A prognostic stratification of PDAC would help to improve patient management. The aim of this study was to analyse the expression of Ki-67 in relation to prognosis in a cohort of patients with PDAC who had surgical treatment

Electrochemical synthesis of nanowire anodes from spent lithium ion batteries

A novel process is proposed to produce nanostructured batteries anodes from spent lithium-ion batteries. The electrodic powder recovered by the mechanical treatment of spent batteries was leached and the dissolved metals were precipitated as cobalt carbonates. Two different precipitation routes were separately tested producing cobalt carbonates with different Cu and Fe contents. Nanowire anodes were produced by electrodeposition into nanoporous alumina templates from the electrolytic baths prepared by dissolution of the precipitated carbonates. The electrochemical performances of the produced anodes were evaluated as compared to nanowire anodes produced with the same electrodeposition method but using a synthetic cobalt bath. The application of the carbonates produced by directly precipitating all the leached metals gave nanowires with capacity about halved as compared to the nanowires electrodeposited from the synthetic bath. Selectively removing Cu and Fe prior cobalt carbonate precipitation yielded, in contrast, nanowires with capacity initially larger and then gradually approaching that attained by the nanowire electrodeposited from the synthetic bath. A detailed analysis is presented describing the role of metallic impurities in determining the capacity of the produced nanowires. The impact of the illustrated results for the development of sustainable recycling processes of lithium-ion batteries is discussed

Regeneration of Exhausted Palladium-Based Membranes: Recycling Process and Economics

The aim of the present work is the recycling treatment of tubular α-Al2O3-supported ceramic membranes with a Pd/Ag selective layer, employed in hydrogen production with integrated CO2 capture. A nitric acid leaching treatment was investigated, and recovered ceramic supports were characterized, demonstrating their suitability for the production of novel efficient membranes. The main objective was the metal dissolution that preserved the support integrity in order to allow the recovered membrane to be suitable for a new deposition of the selective layer. The conditions that obtained a satisfactory dissolution rate of the Pd/Ag layer while avoiding the support to be damaged are as follows: nitric acid 3 M, 60 °C and 3.5 h of reaction time. The efficiency of the recovered supports was determined by nitrogen permeance and surface roughness analysis, and the economic figures were analysed to evaluate the convenience of the regeneration process and the advantage of a recycled membrane over a new membrane. The experimentation carried out demonstrates the proposed process feasibility both in terms of recycling and economic results.This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 760944 (MEMBER project)