Contralateral asymmetry for breast cancer detection : A CADx approach

Early detection is fundamental for the effective treatment of breast cancer and the screening mammography is the most common tool used by the medical community to detect early breast cancer development. Screening mammograms include images of both breasts using two standard views, and the contralateral asymmetry per view is a key feature in detecting breast cancer. we propose a methodology to incorporate said asymmetry information into a computer-aided diagnosis system that can accurately discern between healthy subjects and subjects at risk of having breast cancer. Furthermore, we generate features that measure not only a view-wise asymmetry, but a subject-wise one. Briefly, the methodology co-registers the left and right mammograms, extracts image characteristics, fuses them into subjectwise features, and classifies subjects. In this study, 152 subjects from two independent databases, one with analog- and one with digital mammograms, were used to validate the methodology. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.738 and 0.767, and diagnostic odds ratios of 23.10 and 9.00 were achieved, respectively. In addition, the proposed method has the potential to rank subjects by their probability of having breas

REPROBATION AND LACK OF INTEREST IN MECHATRONICS ENGINEERING STUDENTS

Engineering education in mechatronics is an attractive field of research because it is a new multidisciplinary career. However, a potential problem is the reprobation rate. In the period from January to April 2012 at the Universidad Politécnica de Zacatecas a 53% regular students of a total of 197 were registered. To find the causes of this problem, a survey was conducted to determine the causes of reprobation, lack of motivation and interest to a population of 96 students, of which 40 were the first training cycle, 32 the second and 24 the third. The surveys yielded three main results. The first indicates that the lack of interest is proportional to the time spent in college. The second shows that the reprobation rate is linked to the laziness and the excess of courses. And the last shows a lack of motivation and low expectations of student due to the monotony of the theoretical courses. In conclusion, more research is needed to have a motivated student in an engineering career in mechatronics

Modelado y simulación de un robot terapéutico para la rehabilitación de miembros inferiores

Rehabilitation in a general sense aims to reinstate a person to their activities of daily living. Currently, a patient that requires a rehabilitation suffers long waits for treatment due to lack of staff in clinics and hospitals. An alternative to assist medical staff in rehabilitation therapies is using therapeutic robots. This paper shows the modeling and simulation of a therapeutic robot for lower limb rehabilitation. The kinematic and dynamic model of a robot of three degrees of freedom with an end-effector configured in parallel is presented. A computed torque control law for a planned trajectory tracking task is presented. Simulations of therapeutic exercises for hip and knee carried out in ADAMS and MATLAB for know the kinematic and dynamic behavior of the robot are presented. The results demonstrate the great potential of the therapeutic robot to assist in the rehabilitation of lower limbs.A reabilitação de um modo geral tem como objetivo restabelecer uma pessoa para as suas atividades de vida diária. Atualmente, um doente que necessite de alguma reabilitação sofrem com longas esperas para o tratamento devido à falta de pessoal em clínicas e hospitais. Uma alternativa para ajudar a equipe médica em terapias de reabilitação é o uso de robôs terapêuticos. Este artigo mostra o modelado e a simulação de um robô terapêutico para a reabilitação do membro inferior. Apresenta-se também Modelo cinemática e dinâmica de um robô de três graus de liberdade com uma extremidade atuante configurados em paralelo. A lei de controle para o acompanhamento calculados para par planejado trajetórias é apresentado. Simulações de exercícios terapêuticos para substituições de quadril e joelho realizadas em ADAMS e MATLAB para o comportamento cinemático e dinâmico do robô são apresentados. Os resultados demonstram o grande potencial do robô terapêutico para ajudar na reabilitação de membros inferiores.La rehabilitación en un sentido general tiene el objetivo de reincorporar a una persona a sus actividades de la vida cotidiana. Actualmente, un paciente que requiere de alguna rehabilitación sufre de largas esperas para ser atendido debido a la falta de personal en las clínicas y hospitales. Una alternativa para ayudar al personal médico en las terapias de rehabilitación es utilizando robots terapéuticos. Este artículo muestra el modelado y la simulación de un robot terapéutico para la rehabilitación de miembros inferiores. Se presenta el modelo cinemático y dinámico de un robot de tres grados de libertad con un efector final configurado en paralelo. Se presenta una ley de control por par calculado para el seguimiento de trayectorias planificadas. Se presentan simulaciones de ejercicios terapéuticos para cadera y rodilla realizadas en ADAMS y MATLAB para conocer el comportamiento cinemático y dinámico del robot. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran el gran potencial del robot terapéutico para asistir en la rehabilitación de miembros inferiores

State of the Art Review of Active and Passive Knee Orthoses

The use of specialized devices, such as orthopedic devices, has become indispensable in the lives of people with disabilities since ancient times. The primary purpose of such devices is to perform activities and solve problems that afflict their bearers in any extremity of their body. One of the most recurrent problems occurs in the lower extremities regarding mobility and autonomy. In addition, the use of orthopedic devices is considered a tool to lighten the repetitive and heavy rehabilitation work of physiotherapists while improving the patient’s recovery efficiency. A significant challenge is that a great variety of these devices are similar in their design and manufacture, complicating their application in rehabilitation processes. For these reasons, this article aims to provide an overview of the features and considerations made in the architecture of orthosis designs, emphasizing lower extremity orthoses for the case of knee joint analysis. A literature review of active and passive knee orthoses manufactured from the 1970s to the present was carried out, considering aspects such as manufacturing materials, mechanical systems, types of actuators, and control strategies. This review shows that the designs and development of orthoses have been abundant in these devices for lower limbs. Based on the literature collected, we have studied the main robotic devices focusing on the characteristics of design, manufacturing, and control systems to assist in human locomotion and support in rehabilitation processes