Financial Innovation and Health Emergencies the Role of Crowdfunding Platforms in Italy

Crowdfunding is a collective financing tool for projects of various kinds that in recent months has shown incredible ability to support the financial needs of the Italian health sector following the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 health emergency. The work analyses the contribution of crowdfunding platforms to overcoming the financial needs of the various health facilities operating in Italy and concludes with the conviction that this tool can be considered fully among the various sources of financing to which the health system, especially the national one, can permanently refer

Essential fatty acids for dry eye:a review

Purpose Dry eye is a common complaint often encountered in optometric practice. However, it is a difficult condition to treat as clinical signs do not always correlate with patient symptoms. Essential fatty acids (EFA), particularly omega-3 EFA, may be effective in dealing with the underlying causes. Methods A literature review was carried out on the PubMed, ScienceDirect and Ovid databases. Searches included keywords such as ‘dry eye’, ‘essential fatty acids’ and ‘nutrition’ to find articles relating to the treatment of dry eye syndrome (DES) with omega-3 EFAs. Results Omega-3 and -6 EFAs need to be consumed together within a reasonable ratio to be effective. Currently, typical diets in developed countries lack omega-3 EFA and this results in an overexposure to omega-6. Omega-3 supplementation has an anti-inflammatory effect, inhibiting creation of omega-6 prostaglandin precursors. Omega-3 EFAs also demonstrate anti-inflammatory action in the lacrimal gland preventing apoptosis of the secretory epithelial cells. Supplementation clears meibomitis, allowing a thinner, more elastic lipid layer to protect the tear film and cornea. Conclusion Dietary supplementation of omega-3 EFA has already proven to be effective in coronary heart disease and arthritis. Safety is not a concern as it works synergistically with omega-6 in the body. Evidence suggests that supplementation with omega-3 EFA may be beneficial in the treatment and prevention of DES

Conjunctival chemosis: A case series of systemic causes

Conjunctival chemosis is a common ophthalmic finding that presents with a wide range of severity, symptoms, signs, and underlying etiologies. Although most cases of conjunctival chemosis are ocular in nature (allergy, infection, irritation), atypical presentations such as dusky conjunctival hue, corkscrew conjunctival veins, and periorbital edema, should prompt further investigation for a systemic cause.  In atypical cases, reviewing the patient’s medical history and medications, physically examining and auscultating the patient’s heart and lungs, and obtaining vitals (i.e. blood pressure, pulse, weight), are crucial parts of the investigation for a potential systemic source. This article reviews systemic causes for conjunctival chemosis and provides case examples to demonstrate evaluative and management techniques for optometrists to make a distinction between ocular and systemic conjunctival chemosis.  &nbsp

Gaze Stabilization for Humanoid Robots: a Comprehensive Framework

6 pages, appears in 2014 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid RobotsGaze stabilization is an important requisite for humanoid robots. Previous work on this topic has focused on the integration of inertial and visual information. Little attention has been given to a third component, which is the knowledge that the robot has about its own movement. In this work we propose a comprehensive framework for gaze stabilization in a humanoid robot. We focus on the problem of compensating for disturbances induced in the cameras due to self-generated movements of the robot. In this work we employ two separate signals for stabilization: (1) an anticipatory term obtained from the velocity commands sent to the joints while the robot moves autonomously; (2) a feedback term from the on board gyroscope, which compensates unpredicted external disturbances. We first provide the mathematical formulation to derive the forward and the differential kinematics of the fixation point of the stereo system. We finally test our method on the iCub robot. We show that the stabilization consistently reduces the residual optical flow during the movement of the robot and in presence of external disturbances. We also demonstrate that proper integration of the neck DoF is crucial to achieve correct stabilization

HARMONIOUS -- Human-like reactive motion control and multimodal perception for humanoid robots

For safe and effective operation of humanoid robots in human-populated environments, the problem of commanding a large number of Degrees of Freedom (DoF) while simultaneously considering dynamic obstacles and human proximity has still not been solved. We present a new reactive motion controller that commands two arms of a humanoid robot and three torso joints (17 DoF in total). We formulate a quadratic program that seeks joint velocity commands respecting multiple constraints while minimizing the magnitude of the velocities. We introduce a new unified treatment of obstacles that dynamically maps visual and proximity (pre-collision) and tactile (post-collision) obstacles as additional constraints to the motion controller, in a distributed fashion over surface of the upper-body of the iCub robot (with 2000 pressure-sensitive receptors). The bio-inspired controller: (i) produces human-like minimum jerk movement profiles; (ii) gives rise to a robot with whole-body visuo-tactile awareness, resembling peripersonal space representations. The controller was extensively experimentally validated, including a physical human-robot interaction scenario.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

CAT-RRT: Motion Planning that Admits Contact One Link at a Time

Current motion planning approaches rely on binary collision checking to evaluate the validity of a state and thereby dictate where the robot is allowed to move. This approach leaves little room for robots to engage in contact with an object, as is often necessary when operating in densely cluttered spaces. In this work, we propose an alternative method that considers contact states as high-cost states that the robot should avoid but can traverse if necessary to complete a task. More specifically, we introduce Contact Admissible Transition-based Rapidly exploring Random Trees (CAT-RRT), a planner that uses a novel per-link cost heuristic to find a path by traversing high-cost obstacle regions. Through extensive testing, we find that state-of-the-art optimization planners tend to over-explore low-cost states, which leads to slow and inefficient convergence to contact regions. Conversely, CAT-RRT searches both low and high-cost regions simultaneously with an adaptive thresholding mechanism carried out at each robot link. This leads to paths with a balance between efficiency, path length, and contact cost

Bilevel Optimization for Just-in-Time Robotic Kitting and Delivery via Adaptive Task Segmentation and Scheduling

Kitting refers to the task of preparing and grouping necessary parts and tools (or "kits") for assembly in a manufacturing environment. Automating this process simplifies the assembly task for human workers and improves efficiency. Existing automated kitting systems adhere to scripted instructions and predefined heuristics. However, given variability in the availability of parts and logistic delays, the inflexibility of existing systems can limit the overall efficiency of an assembly line. In this paper, we propose a bilevel optimization framework to enable a robot to perform task segmentation-based part selection, kit arrangement, and delivery scheduling to provide custom-tailored kits just in time - i.e., right when they are needed. We evaluate the proposed approach both through a human subjects study (n=18) involving the construction of a flat-pack furniture table and shop-flow simulation based on the data from the study. Our results show that the just-in-time kitting system is objectively more efficient, resilient to upstream shop flow delays, and subjectively more preferable as compared to baseline approaches of using kits defined by rigid task segmentation boundaries defined by the task graph itself or a single kit that includes all parts necessary to assemble a single unit.Comment: IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication 202

An Analysis of the Surface Area of the Western Roman Empire until CE 476

In 1968, Rein Taagepera created growth curves of four empires by measuring the surface area of each and plotting his data on a graph of area versus time. He used his growth curves to analyse the development of empires quantitatively, as he considered surface area to be the best measurable indicator of an empire’s strength. His growth curve of the Roman Empire, in particular, has been referenced numerous times by scholars researching the decline and fall of complex civilizations to support their individual analyses of the collapse of Rome. While this thesis surveys only the territories of the Western Roman Empire, many of the parameters used by Taagepera have been either borrowed or adapted in order to define, measure, and graph the surface area of the Western Empire as precisely as possible. This thesis also adds further precision and validity to Bryan Ward-Perkins’ theory that surface area can be used to analyse and quantify the collapse of a complex society accurately. In order to demonstrate the extent to which differing circumstances and outcomes of provincial history impacted the total surface area of the Western Roman Empire, it was essential to include not only an overview of Rome’s extensive history, but also to establish the chronology, as it related to the Roman Empire, of each individual province, territory, and client kingdom within the Western Empire. Detailed chronologies of Noricum and Britannia have been included to serve as case studies as they comprise a broad range of distinct characteristics and so represent typical western provinces. My research of the history and geography of the Roman Empire has generated a comprehensive inventory that includes all the pertinent onomastic and chronological data needed to measure the surface area of each of Rome’s western provinces and client kingdoms. When plotted on a graph of area versus time, my data not only produced an accurate representation of the actual surface area of the Western Roman Empire, but also one that facilitates temporal analyses of territorial fluctuations at any given point in the Empire’s history until the fall of the Western Empire in CE 476