Biomaterial-mediated factor delivery for spinal cord injury treatment

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is an injurious process that begins with immediate physical damage to the spinal cord and associated tissues during an acute traumatic event. However, the tissue damage expands in both intensity and volume in the subsequent subacute phase. At this stage, numerous events exacerbate the pathological condition, and therein lies the main cause of post-traumatic neural degeneration, which then ends with the chronic phase. In recent years, therapeutic interventions addressing different neurodegenerative mechanisms have been proposed, but have met with limited success when translated into clinical settings. The underlying reasons for this are that the pathogenesis of SCI is a continued multifactorial disease, and the treatment of only one factor is not sufficient to curb neural degeneration and resulting paralysis. Recent advances have led to the development of biomaterials aiming to promote in situ combinatorial strategies using drugs/biomolecules to achieve a maximized multitarget approach. This review provides an overview of single and combinatorial regenerative-factor-based treatments as well as potential delivery options to treat SCIs

Should I give kids money? The role of pocket money on at-risk behaviors in Italian adolescents

Background. Discussion on the impact of pocket money on positive behaviors is still debated. Objective. To investigate the effect of diverse money allowance schemes on risky behaviors (smoking, alcohol, binge drinking, drug use, gambling) during adolescence. Method. 989 students aged 15 from Lombardy (Italy) reported information on money availability in the 2018 wave of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. To analyze the relationship between money availability and risky behaviors we computed odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals through unconditional multiple logistic regression models. Results. Spending more than 10€ weekly was associated with higher likelihood to smoke, binge drink or gamble. Receiving pocket money (rather than receiving money upon request) was related to higher likelihood to engage in risky behaviors. Conclusions. Pocket money may have a negative impact on adolescents, particularly with a substantial amount of money. More research is needed to understand why providing money only if needed may serve as a protective factor against risky behaviors

VPM: Analyzing human daily habits through process discovery

Models usually employed for Ambient Intelligence (AmI) in smart homes are usually obtained directly from sensor logs composed by timestamped sequences of sensor measurements. Such approaches, still effective at different tasks, have the drawback of producing representations difficult to read and validate. In this paper we propose a tool, called Visual Process Maps (VPM), intended to allow the analysis of human routines at the human action level thanks to log preprocessing and the application of process discovery

V-DOOR: A Real-Time Virtual Dressing Room Application Using Oculus Rift

In recent years and with its accessibility, the use of online shopping for clothing has increased. Virtual Dressing Rooms (VDRs) represent an effective way to enact the ability to "try before buying, thus removing an important obstacle for online shopping. While most of the VDR tools that have been realized so far are based on Augmented Reality and are installed directly inside the retail shops, this paper proposes a real-time VDR application titled V-DOOR that leverages the features of Oculus Rift to create an immersive experience that enables customers to try on clothes virtually in the comfort of their own home rather than physically in the retail shop

CyberVR: An Interactive Learning Experience in Virtual Reality for Cybersecurity Related Issues

The use of videogames has become an established tool to educate users about various topics. Videogames can promote challenges, co-operation, engagement, motivation, and the development of problem-solving strategies, which are all aspects with an important educational potential. In this paper, we present the design and realization of CyberVR, a Virtual Reality (VR) videogame that acts as an interactive learning experience to improve the user awareness of cybersecurity-related issues. We report the results of a user study showing that CyberVR is equally effective but more engaging as learning method toward cybersecurity education than traditional textbook learning