Tele-operated high speed anthropomorphic dextrous hands with object shape and texture identification

This paper reports on the development of two number of robotic hands have been developed which focus on tele-operated high speed anthropomorphic dextrous robotic hands. The aim of developing these hands was to achieve a system that seamlessly interfaced between humans and robots. To provide sensory feedback, to a remote operator tactile sensors were developed to be mounted on the robotic hands. Two systems were developed, the first, being a skin sensor capable of shape reconstruction placed on the palm of the hand to feed back the shape of objects grasped and the second is a highly sensitive tactile array for surface texture identification

Efeito do Potencial de Água no Solo na População de Bradyrhizobium sp. (CICER) Avaliada Através de Mutantes Contendo o Transposon Tn5 (Km") e Imuno-Fluorescência.

Foram obtidos mutantes de Bradyrhkobium sp com o transposon Tn5 através de conjugação com a estirpe MV-12 de Escherichia coli contendo o plasmidio suicida pGS9, com estirpes de Bradyrhizobium de grão-de-bico (Cicer arietinum L.). Um dos mutantes Tn5 da estirpe AS foi selecionado, inoculado em solo não estéril submetido a três tensões de água: -0.033, -0.3 e -3 MPa, e feito o acompanhamento de sua população através de contagem em placas e através de imunofluorescência (FA). 0 maior índice de sobrevivência da estirpe AS foi observado em -0.3 MPa, mantendo-se a população ao nível inicial até pelo menos 55 dias. Nos dois outros níveis de tensões de água, a população de Bradyrhkobium sofreu um decréscimo acentuado com o tempo, particularmente no nível de -3 MPa. Inicialmente, os valores obtidos através da contagem em placas e FA foram áuilares, mas 10 dias após a inoculação, as contagens através do FA foram cerca de 100 vezes superiores aos da contagem em placas nas amostras mantidas a 3 MPa. A discrepância entre os dois métodos poderia ser atribuída à contagem de células mortas, mas ainda mantendo propriedades antigênicas; intactas, ou incapacidade de células vivas mas estressadas, de crescerem no meio utilizado. Em solos com teores mais elevados de água (-0.033 e -0.3 MPa) os resultados obtidos pelos dois métodos foram similares. Os resultados indicam que mutações induzidas pelo transposon Tn5 podem ser utilizadas em estudos eco16g!cos. Também sugerem que o método de FA parece superestimar a população de Bradyrhizobium no solo sob condições de baixa umidade, que reduza a atividade microbiana no solo

Joint motion control of a powered lower limb orthosis for rehabilitation

Many patients with spinal injures are confined to wheelchairs, leading to a sedentary lifestyle with secondary pathologies and increased dependence on a carer. Increasing evidence has shown that locomotor training reduces the incidence of these secondary pathologies, but the physical effort involved in this training is such that there is poor compliance. This paper reports on the design and control of a new “human friendly” orthosis (exoskeleton), powered by high power pneumatic Muscle Actuators (pMAs). The combination of a highly compliant actuation system, with an intelligent embedded control mechanism which senses hip, knee, and ankle positions, velocity, acceleration and force, produces powerful yet inherently safe operation for paraplegic patients. This paper analyzes the motion of ankle, knee, and hip joints under zero loading, and loads which simulate human limb mass, showing that the use of “soft” actuators can provide a smooth user friendly motion. The application of this technology will greatly improve the rehabilitative protocols for paraplegic patients

Mild cognitive impairment disrupts attention network connectivity in Parkinson's disease: A combined multimodal MRI and meta-analytical study

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) affects approximately one-third of non-demented Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients. We aimed at investigating the neural correlates of MCI in PD combining multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with large-scale data from the literature. We analyzed 31 PD patients and 30 matched controls. The standard neuropsychological assessment of PD-MCI covered memory, attention, executive functions, language and visuospatial abilities. Following validated criteria, 16 patients were classified as showing MCI. Whole-brain functional connectivity and structural volume changes were assessed, respectively, by means of eigenvector centrality (EC) and voxel-based morphometry. To address the involvement of specific functional brain networks, we validated our results by building a meta-analytic co-activation map (MACM) based on the previous literature and then testing its overlap with the parcellation of functional networks derived from 1000 healthy controls. The EC comparison between PD with normal cognition and controls showed a selective decline in interconnectedness in the bilateral lentiform nuclei. Differently, comparing PD with MCI and controls revealed additional changes in non-motor areas. Directly comparing PD with and without MCI, we found a reduced interconnectedness in the bilateral superior parietal lobules and precuneus. No differences in brain volume were detected comparing these patient groups. The MACM and overlap analyses showed that the observed connectivity changes were localized in the hubs of the dorsal attention network. Notably, this aligned with the predominant attention deficit observed in our sample. Overall, functional impairment in the dorsal attention network seems to be the hallmark of MCI due to PD, thus extending previous findings of brain connectivity disruption in non-motor networks