The Contribution of Neuroimaging to the Understanding of Essential Tremor Pathophysiology: a Systematic Review

Essential tremor (ET) is one of the most common movement disorders. Over the last 10 years, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has shed light on the structural and functional abnormalities possibly involved in ET pathophysiology. In this systematic review, we aimed to identify the cortical and subcortical structures involved and the role that different brain areas play in the pathophysiology of motor and non-motor ET features. We found that structural (grey and white matter) cerebellar damage and connectivity alterations between the cerebellum and various cortical areas play a role in both motor and non-motor symptoms of ET. In particular, many studies found an association between MRI findings and non-motor symptoms

Abnormal resting-state functional connectivity in progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal syndrome

Background: Pathological and MRI-based evidence suggests that multiple brain structures are likely to be involved in functional disconnection between brain areas. Few studies have investigated resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal syndrome (CBS). In this study, we investigated within- and between-network rsFC abnormalities in these two conditions. Methods: Twenty patients with PSP, 11 patients with CBS, and 16 healthy subjects (HS) underwent a resting-state fMRI study. Resting-state networks (RSNs) were extracted to evaluate within- and between-network rsFC using the Melodic and FSLNets software packages. results: Increased within-network rsFC was observed in both PSP and CBS patients, with a larger number of RSNs being involved in CBS. Within-network cerebellar rsFC positively correlated with mini-mental state examination scores in patients with PSP. Compared to healthy volunteers, PSP and CBS patients exhibit reduced functional connectivity between the lateral visual and auditory RSNs, with PSP patients additionally showing lower functional connectivity between the cerebellar and insular RSNs. Moreover, rsFC between the salience and executive-control RSNs was increased in patients with CBS compared to HS. conclusion: This study provides evidence of functional brain reorganization in both PSP and CBS. Increased within-network rsFC could represent a higher degree of synchronization in damaged brain areas, while between-network rsFC abnormalities may mainly reflect degeneration of long-range white matter fibers

Capability-based Frameworks for Industrial Robot Skills: a Survey

The research community is puzzled with words like skill, action, atomic unit and others when describing robots? capabilities. However, for giving the possibility to integrate capabilities in industrial scenarios, a standardization of these descriptions is necessary. This work uses a structured review approach to identify commonalities and differences in the research community of robots? skill frameworks. Through this method, 210 papers were analyzed and three main results were obtained. First, the vast majority of authors agree on a taxonomy based on task, skill and primitive. Second, the most investigated robots? capabilities are pick and place. Third, industrial oriented applications focus more on simple robots? capabilities with fixed parameters while ensuring safety aspects. Therefore, this work emphasizes that a taxonomy based on task, skill and primitives should be used by future works to align with existing literature. Moreover, further research is needed in the industrial domain for parametric robots? capabilities while ensuring safety

Corticobasal syndrome: neuroimaging and neurophysiological advances

Corticobasal degeneration (CBD) is a neurodegenerative condition characterized by 4R-tau protein deposition in several brain regions that clinically manifests itself as a heterogeneous atypical parkinsonism typically expressing in the adulthood. The prototypical clinical phenotype of CBD is corticobasal syndrome (CBS). Important insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying motor and higher cortical symptoms in CBS have been gained by using advanced neuroimaging and neurophysiological techniques. Structural and functional neuroimaging studies often showed asymmetric cortical and subcortical abnormalities, mainly involving perirolandic and parietal regions and basal ganglia structures. Neurophysiological investigations including electroencephalography and somatosensory evoked potentials provided useful information on the origin of myoclonus and on cortical sensory loss. Transcranial magnetic stimulation demonstrated heterogeneous and asymmetric changes in the excitability and plasticity of primary motor cortex and abnormal hemispheric connectivity. Neuroimaging and neurophysiological abnormalities in multiple brain areas reflect the asymmetric neurodegeneration, leading to the asymmetric motor and higher cortical symptoms in CBS. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Novel Approach using Risk Analysis Component to Continuously Update Collaborative Robotics Applications in the Smart, Connected Factory Model

Building on the idea of Industry 4.0, new models of the highly connected factory that leverage factory‐generated data to introduce cost‐effective automation and involve the human worker for creating higher added value are possible. Within this context, collaborative robots are becoming more common in industry. However, promises regarding flexibility cannot be satisfied due to the challenging process of ensuring human safety. This is because current regulations and standards require updates to the risk assessment for every change to the robotic application, including the parts involved, the robotic components, and the type of interaction within the workspace. This work presents a novel risk analysis software tool that was developed to support change management for adaptive collaborative robotic systems in the connected factory model. The main innovation of this work is the tool’s ability to automatically identify where changes have been made to components or processes within a specific application through its integration with a connected factory architecture. This allows a safety expert to easily see where updates to the risk assessment are required, helping them to maintain conformity with the CE marking process despite frequent changes. To evaluate the benefits of this tool, a user study was performed with an exemplary use-case from the SHOP4CF project. The results show that this newly developed technology for risk assessment has better usability and lower omission errors when compared to existing methods. Therefore, this study underlines the need for tools that can help safety engineers cope with changes in flexible robotics applications and reduce omission errors.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Longitudinal study on low-dose aspirin versus placebo administration in silent brain infarcts: the silence study

Background. We investigated low-dose aspirin (ASA) efficacy and safety in subjects with silent brain infarcts (SBIs) in preventing new cerebrovascular (CVD) events as well as cognitive impairment. Methods. We included subjects aged ≥45 years, with at least one SBI and no previous CVD. Subjects were followed up to 4 years assessing CVD and SBI incidence as primary endpoint and as secondary endpoints: (a) cardiovascular and adverse events and (b) cognitive impairment. Results. Thirty-six subjects received ASA while 47 were untreated. Primary endpoint occurred in 9 controls (19.1%) versus 2 (5.6%) in the ASA group (p=0.10). Secondary endpoints did not differ in the two groups. Only baseline leukoaraiosis predicts primary [OR 5.4 (95%CI 1.3-22.9, p=0.022)] and secondary endpoint-A [3.2 (95%CI 1.1-9.6, p=0.040)] occurrence. Conclusions. These data show an increase of new CVD events in the untreated group. Despite the study limitations, SBI seems to be a negative prognostic factor and ASA preventive treatment might improve SBI prognosis. EU Clinical trial is registered with EudraCT Number: 2005-000996-16; Sponsor Protocol Number: 694/30.06.04

Multimodal Interface for Human–Robot Collaboration

Human–robot collaboration (HRC) is one of the key aspects of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and requires intuitive modalities for humans to communicate seamlessly with robots, such as speech, touch, or bodily gestures. However, utilizing these modalities is usually not enough to ensure a good user experience and a consideration of the human factors. Therefore, this paper presents a software component, Multi-Modal Offline and Online Programming (M2O2P), which considers such characteristics and establishes a communication channel with a robot with predefined yet configurable hand gestures. The solution was evaluated within a smart factory use case in the Smart Human Oriented Platform for Connected Factories (SHOP4CF) EU project. The evaluation focused on the effects of the gesture personalization on the perceived workload of the users using NASA-TLX and the usability of the component. The results of the study showed that the personalization of the gestures reduced the physical and mental workload and was preferred by the participants, while overall the workload of the tasks did not significantly differ. Furthermore, the high system usability scale (SUS) score of the application, with a mean of 79.25, indicates the overall usability of the component. Additionally, the gesture recognition accuracy of M2O2P was measured as 99.05%, which is similar to the results of state-of-the-art applications.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Stress-corrosion mechanisms in silicate glasses

The present review is intended to revisit the advances and debates in the comprehension of the mechanisms of subcritical crack propagation in silicate glasses almost a century after its initial developments. Glass has inspired the initial insights of Griffith into the origin of brittleness and the ensuing development of modern fracture mechanics. Yet, through the decades the real nature of the fundamental mechanisms of crack propagation in glass has escaped a clear comprehension which could gather general agreement on subtle problems such as the role of plasticity, the role of the glass composition, the environmental condition at the crack tip and its relation to the complex mechanisms of corrosion and leaching. The different processes are analysed here with a special focus on their relevant space and time scales in order to question their domain of action and their contribution in both the kinetic laws and the energetic aspects.Comment: Invited review article - 34 pages Accepted for publication in J. Phys. D: Appl. Phy