Transcranial Direct Current Stimulatio (tDCS) and Transcranial Current Alterning Stimulation (tACS) Review

[Abstract] This literature review is aimed to explore the main technical characteristics of both transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial alternate current stimulation (tACS) using the latest research on both healthy and impaired subjects. These techniques have no official standards developed yet. Our intent is to underline the main properties and problems linked with the application of those techniques which show diverse, and sometimes even opposite, results depending mainly on electrode positioning and underlying brain activity.This research has been carried out in the framework of the project Associate - Decoding and stimulation of motor and sensory brain activity to support long term potentiation through Hebbian and paired associative stimulation during rehabilitation of gait (DPI2014-58431-C4-2-R), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) A way to build Europehttps://doi.org/10.17979/spudc.978849749808

Low cost 3D-printed hand exoskeleton controlled by a BCI

[Abstract] The aim of this work was to build and design a low-cost active hand exoskeleton to be used in rehabilitation of post-stroke patients. The hand exoskeleton was 3D printer and it allowed an active flexion and extension of the fingers. The exoskeleton designed was powered by three servomotors which pulled tendons to shorten the distance over or under the joints. This produced a natural hand movement close to a biological one. The exoskeleton was controlled by a Brain-Machine interface (BMI) utilizing an EEG-cap for measuring the brain activity. This way, two subjects tested the whole system opening and closing the hand exoskeleton by using only their thoughts.[Resumen] El objetivo de este trabajo fue construir y diseñar un exoesqueleto de mano activa de bajo costo para ser utilizado en la rehabilitación de pacientes post-accidente cerebro vascular. El exoesqueleto de mano era una impresora 3D que permitía una flexión activa y extensión de los dedos. El exoesqueleto diseñado fue impulsado por tres servomotores que tiraban de los tendones para acortar la distancia sobre o debajo de las articulaciones. Esto produjo un movimiento natural de la mano cerca de uno biológico. El exoesqueleto fue controlado por una interfaz Brain-Machine (BMI) que utiliza una tapa EEG para medir la actividad cerebral. De esta manera, dos sujetos probaron todo el sistema abriendo y cerrando el exoesqueleto de la mano usando solo sus pensamientos

Analysis of Algorithms for Detection of Pedaling Intention in Brain-Machine Interfaces

[EN] The use of brain-machine interfaces in people who has suffered a cerebrovascular accident could help the rehabilitation process through the cognitive involvement of the patient. These interfaces translate the brain waves into commands to control the movement of an assistant mechanical device. However, the control of these devices should be more stable and achieve a higher accuracy. This work studies if algorithms, such as Stockwell or Hilbert-Huang transform, can improve the control of these devices, and if a personalization by subject or electrode configuration is desirable. Besides, through the analysis of five volunteers is determined that the motor intention can not be detected only by data acquired previously to the movement using desynchronized/synchronized related events. Therefore, it is needed to extend the time processing to the two seconds after the movement starting.[ES] El uso de interfaces cerebro-máquina en personas que han sufrido un accidente cerebro-vascular puede ayudar en su proceso de rehabilitación mediante la implicación cognitiva del paciente. Dichas interfaces traducen las ondas cerebrales en comandos con el fin de controlar un dispositivo mecánico de movimiento asistido. No obstante, el control de estos dispositivos debería ser más robusto y tener una alta precisión. Este trabajo estudia si algoritmos basados en transformadas como las de Stockwell o Hilbert-Huang pueden mejorar el control de estos dispositivos aumentando su precisión, y si es recomendable llevar a cabo una personalización por sujeto y configuración de electrodos. Mediante el análisis de cinco voluntarios se comprueba además, que no es posible detectar con suficiente robustez la intención motora a partir de la desincronización/sincronización relacionada a eventos motores con únicamente los datos previos al movimiento. Por ello, es preciso extender el tiempo de análisis a los dos segundos posteriores al inicio del movimiento.Este trabajo ha sido realizado en el marco del proyecto Associate - Decodificación y estimulación de actividad cerebral sensorial y motora para permitir potenciación a largo plazo mediante estimulación Hebbiana y estimulación asociativa pareada durante la rehabilitación de la marcha (con referencia DPI2014-58431-C4-2-R), financiado por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Plan Estatal de I+D+I) y por la Unión Europea a través del Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional - FEDER ((Una manera de hacer Europa)). También queremos agradecer a Neuroelectrics por prestar el equipo Enobio 32 para este estudio.Ortiz, M.; Rodríguez-Ugarte, M.; Iáñez, E.; Azorín, J. (2019). Análisis de Algoritmos para Detección de Pedaleo en Interfaces Cerebro-Máquina. Revista Iberoamericana de Automática e Informática. 16(2):222-231. https://doi.org/10.4995/riai.2018.986122223116

Improving Real-Time Lower Limb Motor Imagery Detection Using tDCS and an Exoskeleton

The aim of this work was to test if a novel transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) montage boosts the accuracy of lower limb motor imagery (MI) detection by using a real-time brain-machine interface (BMI) based on electroencephalographic (EEG) signals. The tDCS montage designed was composed of two anodes and one cathode: one anode over the right cerebrocerebellum, the other over the motor cortex in Cz, and the cathode over FC2 (using the International 10–10 system). The BMI was designed to detect two MI states: relax and gait MI; and was based on finding the power at the frequency which attained the maximum power difference between the two mental states at each selected EEG electrode. Two different single-blind experiments were conducted, E1 and a pilot test E2. E1 was based on visual cues and feedback and E2 was based on auditory cues and a lower limb exoskeleton as feedback. Twelve subjects participated in E1, while four did so in E2. For both experiments, subjects were separated into two equally-sized groups: sham and active tDCS. The active tDCS group achieved 12.6 and 8.2% higher detection accuracy than the sham group in E1 and E2, respectively, reaching 65 and 81.6% mean detection accuracy in each experiment. The limited results suggest that the exoskeleton (E2) enhanced the detection of the MI tasks with respect to the visual feedback (E1), increasing the accuracy obtained in 16.7 and 21.2% for the active tDCS and sham groups, respectively. Thus, the small pilot study E2 indicates that using an exoskeleton in real-time has the potential of improving the rehabilitation process of cerebrovascular accident (CVA) patients, but larger studies are needed in order to further confirm this claim

Contenido de metales pesados en abonos orgánicos, sustratos y plantas cultivadas en organopónicos: Heavy metals content in organic manures, substrates and plants cultivated in organoponics.

La utilización de abonos orgánicos (AO) de diversos orígenes, como los compost obtenidos a partir de residuales sólidos urbanos (RSU), en organopónicos de la agricultura urbana, es una alternativa para la producción de alimentos conbajos insumos. Para el uso de estos productos, se requiere una evaluación sistemática de sus contenidos en metales pesados (MP), porque pueden acumularse en los suelos y sustratos, alterar el equilibrio biológico de los mismos y afectar al rendimiento de los cultivos y la salud animal, inclusive la del hombre. Se evaluó la metodología analítica de mayor exactitud y porcentaje de recobrado en la determinación de Cadmio (Cd), Plomo (Pb) y Níquel (Ni) y se empleó para el estudio del contenido de estos MP en AO y sustratos así como su efecto en las hortalizas que se producen en organopónicos de La Habana y Guantánamo. Se encontró que los compost obtenidos a partir de los RSU provenientes de la basura doméstica extraída de los vertederos sin previa clasificación y los substratos preparados a partir de estos, presentan contenidos de MP, especialmente Cd y Pb, por encima de los límites máximos permisibles (LMP), por lo que no deben ser empleados para l

Ion-exchanged geopolymer for photocatalytic degradation of a volatile organic compound

In thepresentworkitisshownhowgeopolymerscanbeusedtocontrolindoorandoutdoorair pollution byphotolysisof2-ButanoneasaVolatileOrganicCompound(VOC).Anionexchange procedurewasfollowedtoincorporateTiO2 into ageopolymer(IEG),anddifferent2-Butanone concentrations wereusedinabatchreactorunderdryandhumidconditions.Variationon 2-Butanone concentrationwasfollowedbygaschromatography.ALangmuir Hinshelwood modelwas used todeterminethedisappearancerateofreactantattheinitialstageofthereaction.Gasca-Tirado, J.; Manzano-Ramirez, A.; Vazquez-Landaverde, PA.; Herrera-Diaz, EI.; Rodriguez-Ugarte, ME.; Rubio-Avalos, JC.; Amigó Borrás, V.... (2014). Ion-exchanged geopolymer for photocatalytic degradation of a volatile organic compound. Materials Letters. 134:222-224. doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2014.07.090S22222413

Identification of clinical variants beyond the exome in inborn errors of metabolism

Inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) constitute a huge group of rare diseases affecting 1 in every 1000 newborns. Next-generation sequencing has transformed the diagnosis of IEM, leading to its proposed use as a second-tier technology for confirming cases detected by clinical/biochemical studies or newborn screening. The diagnosis rate is, however, still not 100%. This paper reports the use of a personalized multi-omics (metabolomic, genomic and transcriptomic) pipeline plus functional genomics to aid in the genetic diagnosis of six unsolved cases, with a clinical and/or biochemical diagnosis of galactosemia, mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I), maple syrup urine disease (MSUD), hyperphenylalaninemia (HPA), citrullinemia, or urea cycle deficiency. Eight novel variants in six genes were identified: six (four of them deep intronic) located in GALE, IDUA, PTS, ASS1 and OTC, all affecting the splicing process, and two located in the promoters of IDUA and PTS, thus affecting these genes’ expression. All the new variants were subjected to functional analysis to verify their pathogenic effects. This work underscores how the combination of different omics technologies and functional analysis can solve elusive cases in clinical practic

Properties of dust in the Galactic center region probed by AKARI far-infrared spectral mapping - detection of a dust feature

We investigate the properties of interstellar dust in the Galactic center region toward the Arches and Quintuplet clusters. With the Fourier Transform Spectrometer of the AKARI/Far-Infrared Surveyor, we performed the far-infrared (60 - 140 cm^-1) spectral mapping of an area of about 10' x 10' which includes the two clusters to obtain a low-resolution (R = 1.2 cm^-1) spectrum at every spatial bin of 30" x 30". We derive the spatial variations of dust continuum emission at different wavenumbers, which are compared with those of the [O III] 88 micron (113 cm^-1) emission and the OH 119 micron (84 cm^-1) absorption. The spectral fitting shows that two dust modified blackbody components with temperatures of ~20 K and ~50 K can reproduce most of the continuum spectra. For some spectra, however, we find that there exists a significant excess on top of a modified blackbody continuum around 80 - 90 cm^-1 (110 - 130 microns). The warmer dust component is spatially correlated well with the [O III] emission and hence likely to be associated with the highly-ionized gas locally heated by intense radiation from the two clusters. The excess emission probably represents a dust feature, which is found to be spatially correlated with the OH absorption and a CO cloud. We find that a dust model including micron-sized graphite grains can reproduce the observed spectrum with the dust feature fairly well.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Historical Everyday Geopolitics on the Chile-Peru Border

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.Geopolitics is increasingly seen by scholars as occurring in everyday spaces and performed by ordinary people. This paper extends this idea to historical work to examine how citizens themselves (re)produce geopolitics at the time of historical events. It does so through a case study of geopolitical tension on the Chile‐Peru border in the 1970s. Through oral histories and newspaper analysis, a historical everyday geopolitics approach reveals how those living in the Chilean border city of Arica played a part in promoting national and border security. This centres the embodied and emotional experiences of those affected by violence and conflict

Early experience of COVID-19 vaccination in adults with systemic rheumatic diseases: results from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance Vaccine Survey.

Background: We describe the early experiences of adults with systemic rheumatic disease who received the COVID-19 vaccine. Methods: From 2 April to 30 April 2021, we conducted an online, international survey of adults with systemic rheumatic disease who received COVID-19 vaccination. We collected patient-reported data on clinician communication, beliefs and intent about discontinuing disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) around the time of vaccination, and patient-reported adverse events after vaccination. Results: We analysed 2860 adults with systemic rheumatic diseases who received COVID-19 vaccination (mean age 55.3 years, 86.7% female, 86.3% white). Types of COVID-19 vaccines were Pfizer-BioNTech (53.2%), Oxford/AstraZeneca (22.6%), Moderna (21.3%), Janssen/Johnson & Johnson (1.7%) and others (1.2%). The most common rheumatic disease was rheumatoid arthritis (42.3%), and 81.2% of respondents were on a DMARD. The majority (81.9%) reported communicating with clinicians about vaccination. Most (66.9%) were willing to temporarily discontinue DMARDs to improve vaccine efficacy, although many (44.3%) were concerned about rheumatic disease flares. After vaccination, the most reported patient-reported adverse events were fatigue/somnolence (33.4%), headache (27.7%), muscle/joint pains (22.8%) and fever/chills (19.9%). Rheumatic disease flares that required medication changes occurred in 4.6%. Conclusion: Among adults with systemic rheumatic disease who received COVID-19 vaccination, patient-reported adverse events were typical of those reported in the general population. Most patients were willing to temporarily discontinue DMARDs to improve vaccine efficacy. The relatively low frequency of rheumatic disease flare requiring medications was reassuring