Governing with urban big data in the smart city environment: an italian perspective

A smart city is more than its mere technological components. From a legal standpoint, smartness means a civic-enabling regulatory environment, access to technological resources, and openness to the political decision-making process. No doubt, the core asset of this socio-technical revolution is the data generated within the urban contest. However, national and EU law does not provide a specific regulation for using this data. Indeed, the next EU data strategy, with the open data and non-personal data legislation and the forthcoming Data Act, aims to promote a more profitable use of urban and local big data. Nonetheless, at present, this latter still misses a consistent approach to this issue. A thorough understanding of the smart city requires, first of all, the reconceptualization of big data in terms of urban data. Existing definitions and studies about this topic converge on the metropolises of East Asia and, sometimes, the USA. Instead, we approach the issues experienced in medium-size cities, focusing on the main Italian ones. Especially in this specific urban environment, data can help provide better services, automatize administrations, and further democratization only if they are understood holistically - as urban data. Cities, moreover, are a comprehensive source of data themselves, both collected from citizens and urban things. Among the various types of data that can be gathered, surveillance recordings play a crucial role. On the one hand, video surveillance is essential for many purposes, such as protecting public property, monitoring traffic, controlling high-security risk areas, and preventing crime and vandalism. From another standpoint, these systems can be invasive towards citizens' rights and freedoms: in this regard, urban data collected from video surveillance systems may be shared with public administrations or other interested entities, only afterward they have been anonymized. Even this process needs to be aligned with the transparency and participation values that inform the city's democracy. Thus, the anonymization process must be fully compliant with data protection legislation, looking for the most appropriate legal basis and assessing all the possible sources of risks to the rights and freedoms of people (DPIA). Urban data, indeed, is a matter of local democracy. The availability of data and the economy of platforms can significantly transform a city's services and geography as well as citizens' lifestyles. However, the participation of citizens to express their views on both the use of urban data for public policy and the regulation of the digital economy is still a challenge. The paper aims to analyze the projects of some Italian cities - including Milan, Rome, and Turin - which have tried to introduce participatory urban data management tools and to highlight the possible challenges of a democratic management of service platforms and data transfer for social and economic development

EMG-driven control in lower limb prostheses: a topic-based systematic review

Background The inability of users to directly and intuitively control their state-of-the-art commercial prosthesis contributes to a low device acceptance rate. Since Electromyography (EMG)-based control has the potential to address those inabilities, research has flourished on investigating its incorporation in microprocessor-controlled lower limb prostheses (MLLPs). However, despite the proposed benefits of doing so, there is no clear explanation regarding the absence of a commercial product, in contrast to their upper limb counterparts. Objective and methodologies This manuscript aims to provide a comparative overview of EMG-driven control methods for MLLPs, to identify their prospects and limitations, and to formulate suggestions on future research and development. This is done by systematically reviewing academical studies on EMG MLLPs. In particular, this review is structured by considering four major topics: (1) type of neuro-control, which discusses methods that allow the nervous system to control prosthetic devices through the muscles; (2) type of EMG-driven controllers, which defines the different classes of EMG controllers proposed in the literature; (3) type of neural input and processing, which describes how EMG-driven controllers are implemented; (4) type of performance assessment, which reports the performance of the current state of the art controllers. Results and conclusions The obtained results show that the lack of quantitative and standardized measures hinders the possibility to analytically compare the performances of different EMG-driven controllers. In relation to this issue, the real efficacy of EMG-driven controllers for MLLPs have yet to be validated. Nevertheless, in anticipation of the development of a standardized approach for validating EMG MLLPs, the literature suggests that combining multiple neuro-controller types has the potential to develop a more seamless and reliable EMG-driven control. This solution has the promise to retain the high performance of the currently employed non-EMG-driven controllers for rhythmic activities such as walking, whilst improving the performance of volitional activities such as task switching or non-repetitive movements. Although EMG-driven controllers suffer from many drawbacks, such as high sensitivity to noise, recent progress in invasive neural interfaces for prosthetic control (bionics) will allow to build a more reliable connection between the user and the MLLPs. Therefore, advancements in powered MLLPs with integrated EMG-driven control have the potential to strongly reduce the effects of psychosomatic conditions and musculoskeletal degenerative pathologies that are currently affecting lower limb amputees

Preliminary Assessment of Two Simultaneous and Proportional Myocontrol Methods for 3-DoFs Prostheses Using Incremental Learning

Despite progressive developments over the last decades, current upper limb prostheses still lack a suitable control able to fully restore the functionalities of the lost arm. Traditional control approaches for prostheses fail when simultaneously actuating multiple Degrees of Freedom (DoFs), thus limiting their usability in daily-life scenarios. Machine learning, on the one hand, offers a solution to this issue through a promising approach for decoding user intentions but fails when input signals change. Incremental learning, on the other hand, reduces sources of error by quickly updating the model on new data rather than training the control model from scratch. In this study, we present an initial evaluation of a position and a velocity control strategy for simultaneous and proportional control over 3-DoFs based on incremental learning. The proposed controls are tested using a virtual Hannes prosthesis on two healthy participants. The performances are evaluated over eight sessions by performing the Target Achievement Control test and administering SUS and NASA-TLX questionnaires. Overall, this preliminary study demonstrates that both control strategies are promising approaches for prosthetic control, offering the potential to improve the usability of prostheses for individuals with limb loss. Further research extended to a wider population of both healthy subjects and amputees will be essential to thoroughly assess these control paradigms

Survey of transfemoral amputee experience and priorities for the user-centered design of powered robotic transfemoral prostheses

BACKGROUND: Transfemoral amputees experience a complex host of physical, psychological, and social challenges, compounded by the functional limitations of current transfemoral prostheses. However, the specific relationships between human factors and prosthesis design and performance characteristics have not yet been adequately investigated. The present study aims to address this knowledge gap. METHODS: A comprehensive single-cohort survey of 114 unilateral transfemoral amputees addressed a broad range of demographic and clinical characteristics, functional autonomy, satisfaction and attitudes towards their current prostheses, and design priorities for an ideal transfemoral prosthesis, including the possibility of active assistance from a robotic knee unit. The survey was custom-developed based on several standard questionnaires used to assess motor abilities and autonomy in activities of daily living, prosthesis satisfaction, and quality of life in lower-limb amputees. Survey data were analyzed to compare the experience (including autonomy and satisfaction) and design priorities of users of transfemoral prostheses with versus without microprocessor-controlled knee units (MPKs and NMPKs, respectively), with a subsequent analyses of cross-category correlation, principal component analysis (PCA), cost-sensitivity segmentation, and unsupervised K-means clustering applied within the most cost-sensitive participants, to identify functional groupings of users with respect to their design priorities. RESULTS: The cohort featured predominantly younger (< 50 years) traumatic male amputees with respect to the general transfemoral amputee population, with pronounced differences in age distribution and amputation etiology (traumatic vs. non-traumatic) between MPK and NMPK groups. These differences were further reflected in user experience, with MPK users reporting significantly greater overall functional autonomy, satisfaction, and sense of prosthesis ownership than those with NMPKs, in conjunction with a decreased incidence of instability and falls. Across all participants, the leading functional priorities for an ideal transfemoral prosthesis were overall stability, adaptability to variable walking velocity, and lifestyle-related functionality, while the highest-prioritized general characteristics were reliability, comfort, and weight, with highly variable prioritization of cost according to reimbursement status. PCA and user clustering analyses revealed the possibility for functionally relevant groupings of prosthesis features and users, based on their differential prioritization of these features—with implications towards prosthesis design tradeoffs. CONCLUSIONS: This study’s findings support the understanding that when appropriately prescribed according to patient characteristics and needs in the context of a proactive rehabilitation program, advanced transfemoral prostheses promote patient mobility, autonomy, and overall health. Survey data indicate overall stability, modularity, and versatility as key design priorities for the continued development of transfemoral prosthesis technology. Finally, observed associations between prosthesis type, user experience, and attitudes concerning prosthesis ownership suggest both that prosthesis characteristics influence device acceptance and functional outcomes, and that psychosocial factors should be specifically and proactively addressed during the rehabilitation process. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12984-021-00944-x

Prognostic impact of progression to induction chemotherapy and prior paclitaxel therapy in patients with germ cell tumors receiving salvage high-dose chemotherapy in the last 10 years: A study of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation Solid Tumors Working Party

Little is known about the prognostic impact of prior paclitaxel therapy and response to induction chemotherapy defined as the regimen preceding high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) for the salvage therapy of advanced germ cell tumors. Twenty European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation centers contributed data on patients treated between 2002 and 2012. Paclitaxel used in either prior lines of therapy or in induction-mobilization regimens was considered. Multivariable Cox analyses of prespecified factors were undertaken on PFS and overall survival (OS). As of October 2013, data for 324 patients had been contributed to this study. One hundred and ninety-two patients (59.3%) had received paclitaxel. Sixty-one patients (19%) had a progression to induction chemotherapy, 234 (72%) a response (29 (9%) missing or granulocyte colony-stimulating factor without chemotherapy). Both progression to induction chemotherapy and prior paclitaxel were significantly associated with shorter OS univariably (P&lt;0.001 and P=0.032). On multivariable analysis from the model with fully available data (N=216) progression to induction was significantly prognostic for PFS and OS (P=0.003), but prior paclitaxel was not (P=0.674 and P=0.739). These results were confirmed after multiple imputation of missing data. Progression to induction chemotherapy could be demonstrated as an independent prognostic factor, in contrast to prior paclitaxel

Pace, un destino europeo da compiere

Ai confini dell’Unione Europea i conflitti si moltiplicano. L’invasione russa dell’Ucraina è l’ultima di una lunga serie di guerre che, in tempi recenti, stanno riscrivendo le zone di influenza. Gli effetti negativi di questa situazione di forte instabilità sono numerosi: la sofferenza dei popoli coinvolti, la crisi energetica e alimentare, i processi migratori. Pace, un destino europeo da compiere raccoglie gli interventi e le riflessioni di voci autorevoli su questi temi, analizzando sia i conflitti in corso, sia gli strumenti per prevenirli e per arginare le gravi conseguenze che ne derivano

Representing Social Mediation. Notes on an ancient law-legal problem in a new social context

The contribution addresses the legal problem of the representation of social, political and economic mediations, analysing the legal doctrine at the origin of the welfare state and the provisions of the Italian Constitution on social formations. It analyses the current trend of the mediations of social, political and societal organisations: today, they seem to act mainly in the local dimension and struggle to find an institutional place. All this call for a rethinking of democratic institutions to favour the forms of intermediation where participation takes place today