On the Correlation Between Tactile Stimulation and Pleasantness

: several studies in the affective haptics research field showed the potential of using haptic technology to convey emotions in remote communications. In this context, it is of interest to simplify the haptic feedback without altering the informative content of the stimulus, with a two-fold advantage. on one side, it would allow the development of affective haptic devices whose technological complexity is limited, hence more compatible with wearability and portability requirements. On the other side, having a simplified set of stimuli would decrease the amount of data to be transmitted, thus improving the overall quality of remote haptic interactions. In this work, we investigated the correlation between the parameters regulating a caress-like stimulation and the perceived pleasantness. This was done by means of two experiments, in which we asked subjects to adjust the temperature and the motion velocity of a set of stimuli in order to find the most pleasant combination. results indicated that subjects preferred different values of temperature and velocity of the stimulus depending on the proposed tactile stimulation. a small difference in the pleasantness ratings was observed between caresses provided with linear movements and those given as discrete sequences of taps. In particular, participants preferred linear movements set at 34.5 °C and 3.4 cms-1. As regards caress-like stimuli provided with discrete sequences of taps, the preferred temperature and velocity were 33.2 °C and 2.9 cms-1, respectively. the presence of vibration had a little effect on the perceived pleasantness

Exploiting Intrinsic Kinematic Null Space for Supernumerary Robotic Limbs Control

Supernumerary robotic limbs (SRLs) gained increasing interest in the last years for their applicability as healthcare and assistive technologies. These devices can either support or augment human sensorimotor capabilities, allowing users to complete tasks that are more complex than those feasible for their natural limbs. However, for a successful coordination between natural and artificial limbs, intuitiveness of interaction and perception of autonomy are key enabling features, especially for people suffering from motor disorders and impairments. The development of suitable human-robot interfaces is thus fundamental to foster the adoption of SRLs.With this work, we describe how to control an extra degree of freedom by taking advantage of what we defined the Intrinsic Kinematic Null Space, i.e. the redundancy of the human kinematic chain involved in the ongoing task. Obtained results demonstrated that the proposed control strategy is effective for performing complex tasks with a supernumerary robotic finger, and that practice improves users' control ability

MicroRNA Expression in the Aqueous Humor of Patients with Diabetic Macular Edema.

We identified and compared secreted microRNA (miRNA) expression in aqueous humor (AH) and plasma samples among patients with: type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) complicated by non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (DR) associated with diabetic macular edema (DME) (DME group: 12 patients); T2D patients without DR (D group: 8 patients); and non-diabetic patients (CTR group: 10 patients). Individual patient AH samples from five subjects in each group were profiled on TaqMan Low Density MicroRNA Array Cards. Differentially expressed miRNAs identified from profiling were then validated in single assay for all subjects. The miRNAs validated in AH were then evaluated in single assay in plasma. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis was conducted. From AH profiling, 119 mature miRNAs were detected: 86 in the DME group, 113 in the D group and 107 in the CTR group. miRNA underexpression in the DME group was confirmed in single assay for let-7c-5p, miR-200b-3p, miR-199a-3p and miR-365-3p. Of these four, miR-199a-3p and miR-365-3p were downregulated also in the plasma of the DME group. GO highlighted 54 validated target genes of miR-199a-3p, miR-200b-3p and miR-365-3p potentially implied in DME pathogenesis. Although more studies are needed, miR-200b-3p, let-7c-5p, miR-365-3p and miR-199a-3p represent interesting molecules in the study of DME pathogenesis

Pain and Frailty in Hospitalized Older Adults

Introduction: Pain and frailty are prevalent conditions in the older population. Many chronic diseases are likely involved in their origin, and both have a negative impact on quality of life. However, few studies have analysed their association. Methods: In light of this knowledge gap, 3577 acutely hospitalized patients 65 years or older enrolled in the REPOSI register, an Italian network of internal medicine and geriatric hospital wards, were assessed to calculate the frailty index (FI). The impact of pain and some of its characteristics on the degree of frailty was evaluated using an ordinal logistic regression model after adjusting for age and gender. Results: The prevalence of pain was 24.7%, and among patients with pain, 42.9% was regarded as chronic pain. Chronic pain was associated with severe frailty (OR = 1.69, 95% CI 1.38–2.07). Somatic pain (OR = 1.59, 95% CI 1.23–2.07) and widespread pain (OR = 1.60, 95% CI 0.93–2.78) were associated with frailty. Osteoarthritis was the most common cause of chronic pain, diagnosed in 157 patients (33.5%). Polymyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and other musculoskeletal diseases causing chronic pain were associated with a lower degree of frailty than osteoarthritis (OR = 0.49, 95%CI 0.28–0.85). Conclusions: Chronic and somatic pain negatively affect the degree of frailty. The duration and type of pain, as well as the underlying diseases associated with chronic pain, should be evaluated to improve the hospital management of frail older people

The multifaceted spectrum of liver cirrhosis in older hospitalised patients: Analysis of the REPOSI registry

Background: Knowledge on the main clinical and prognostic characteristics of older multimorbid subjects with liver cirrhosis (LC) admitted to acute medical wards is scarce. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of LC among older patients admitted to acute medical wards and to assess the main clinical characteristics of LC along with its association with major clinical outcomes and to explore the possibility that well-distinguished phenotypic profiles of LC have classificatory and prognostic properties. Methods: A cohort of 6,193 older subjects hospitalised between 2010 and 2018 and included in the REPOSI registry was analysed. Results: LC was diagnosed in 315 patients (5%). LC was associated with rehospitalisation (age-sex adjusted hazard ratio, [aHR] 1.44; 95% CI, 1.10-1.88) and with mortality after discharge, independently of all confounders (multiple aHR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.37-3.22), but not with in-hospital mortality and incident disability. Three main clinical phenotypes of LC patients were recognised: relatively fit subjects (FIT, N = 150), subjects characterised by poor social support (PSS, N = 89) and, finally, subjects with disability and multimorbidity (D&M, N = 76). PSS subjects had an increased incident disability (35% vs 13%, P < 0.05) compared to FIT. D&M patients had a higher mortality (in-hospital: 12% vs 3%/1%, P < 0.01; post-discharge: 41% vs 12%/15%, P < 0.01) and less rehospitalisation (10% vs 32%/34%, P < 0.01) compared to PSS and FIT. Conclusions: LC has a relatively low prevalence in older hospitalised subjects but, when present, accounts for worse post-discharge outcomes. Phenotypic analysis unravelled the heterogeneity of LC older population and the association of selected phenotypes with different clinical and prognostic features

Hand Guidance Using Grasping Metaphor and Wearable Haptics

In this work, we propose a novel method for hand guidance, combining grasping metaphor and wearable haptics. To guide the hand towards the desired orientation, the system generates vibrations exploiting the grasp theory, asking the user to align the perceived wrench with the gravity. To evaluate the system and demonstrate its potentiality, different vibrotactile feedback approaches have been tested. Both constant and error-depending vibration intensities were considered as feedback methods. Experimental results confirmed the capability of the proposed approach in guiding the hand of the users towards target orientations in a limited time with high accuracy. Users' experience feedback, supported by the statistical analysis of the data, shows that providing information about the actual orientation error is crucial to accomplish the task in minor time

Generating Kinesthetic Feedback Using Self Contact and Velocity Scaling

Despite the considerable technological progress of haptic technology in recent years, to date there are still no wearable systems capable of providing both kinesthetic and cutaneous feedback that are universally recognized and adopted outside the research contexts. This is particularly evident when dealing with virtual reality, where the lack of truthful tactile feedback has often been addressed by exploiting Pseudo-Haptics methods. Being designed to indirectly stimulate the somatosensory system, these methods are not meant to be integrated with haptic devices. With the idea of providing a meeting point between the haptic and pseudo-haptic fields, this work proposes Self Contact: exploiting the pseudo-haptic principles to lead the user in generating a real kinesthetic feedback through the contact between his/her fingers. Self Contact can be implemented alone or in combination with haptic thimbles, allowing to complete the set of tactile stimuli that is necessary for a realistic interaction with virtual objects in pick and place operations. A step-wise validation demonstrated that the proposed approach is suitable for recovering the kines-thetic feedback into virtual reality, towards the development of increasingly immersive environments

Feedback of Head Gestures in Audio-haptic Remote Communication

In this brief, we present the preliminary design of a wearable system able to detect and haptically display head motions of conversation participants. The aim of the system is to allow for remote communication to not have to rely on visual social cues. To demonstrate the design principles of the system, we recorded data from a single participant during a remote walking conversation using Zoom

No Face-Touch: Exploiting Wearable Devices and Machine Learning for Gesture Detection

Avoiding face-touches has been one of the most common medical recommendations since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This work aims at providing people with help in contrasting this widespread, yet noxious habit. The solution we present exploits wearable devices to detect hand motions ending up into a face-touch and promptly notify the user exploiting haptic feedback. To this aim, we propose a recurrent neural network taking as input temporal sequences of accelerometer data acquired by a smartwatch worn by the user. The trained RNN (NFT RNN) achieves good generalization capabilities to data coming from different users, besides a lower false detections rate with respect to a rule-based detection algorithm. The suggested solution is ready-to-use and large-scale deployable, being portable on smartwatches, fitness bands and DIY devices

Reducing face-touches to limit COVID-19 outbreak: An overview of solutions

The lack of consolidated therapeutic protocols to counteract the COVID-19 has drawn attention to the social role of hygiene rules to prevent the escalation of infections. Particular focus has been put on the importance of limiting face-touch occurrences. Given that SARS-CoV-2 transmission can occur by self-inoculation, impeding the virus to reach eyes, nose or mouth is paramount to prevent infections. To deal with this aspect, several methods for estimating hand proximity to face and notifying the user about face-touch occurrences have been developed. In this overview, we present the most relevant, ready-to-use, and large-scale deployable solutions. Most of them consist in applications running on smartwatches/smartphones or relying on wearable accessories, e.g. smartbands. Although the use for the COVID-19 emergency nowadays is the most urgent application, these solutions can be employed in ordinary daily life as simple tools to discourage face-touching, decreasing the probability to get infections from the environment, or as habit reversal therapy