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The “sit-to-stand” (STS) movement is essential during activities of daily living (ADL). In individuals with physical-motor diseases, its execution and repetition increases activity levels, which is crucial for a good motor rehabilitation process and daily training. Interestingly, there are no sit-to-stand devices that allow a quantitative assessment of the key variables that happen during STS, and there is a need to come up with a new device. This work presents a developed biomechanical support device that measures the force of the upper limbs during the STS movement, aiming to motivate and encourage people undergoing physical therapy in the lower limbs. The device uses two instrumented beams and allows real-time visualization of both arms’ applied force and it records the data for post-processing. The device was tested with a well-defined protocol on a group of 34 healthy young volunteers and an elderly group of 16 volunteers from a continuing care unit. The system showed robust strength and stiffness, good usability, and a user interface that acquired and recorded data effectively, allowing one to observe force-time during the execution of the movement through the application interface developed and in recording data for post-processing. Asymmetries in the applied forces in the STS movement between the upper limbs were identified, particularly in volunteers of the continuing care unit. From the application and the registered data, it can be observed that volunteers with motor problems in the lower limbs performed more strength in their arms to compensate. As expected, the maximum average strength of the healthy volunteers (both arms: force = 105 Newton) was higher than that of the volunteers from the continuing care unit (right arm: force = 54 Newton; left arm: force = 56 Newton). Among others, moderate correlations were observed between weight-applied and height-applied forces and there was a moderately high correlation between the Sequential Clinical Assessment of Respiratory Function (SCAR-F score) and time to perform the movement. Based on the obtained results, the developed device can be a helpful tool for monitoring the evaluation of a patient with limitations in the upper and lower limbs. In addition, the developed system allows for easy evolution, such as including a barometric platform and implementing serious games that can stimulate the execution of the STS movement.

In recent years, the use of personal data in marketing, scientific and medical investigation, and forecasting future trends has really increased. This information is used by the government, companies, and individuals, and should not contain any sensitive information that allows the identification of an individual. Therefore, data anonymization is essential nowadays. Data anonymization changes the original data to make it difficult to identify an individual. ARX Data Anonymization and Amnesia are two popular open-source tools that simplify this process. In this paper, we evaluate these tools in two ways: with the OSSpal methodology, and using a public dataset with the most recent tweets about the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine. The assessment with the OSSpal methodology determines that ARX Data Anonymization has better results than Amnesia. In the experimental evaluation using the public dataset, it is possible to verify that Amnesia has some errors and limitations, but the anonymization process is simpler. Using ARX Data Anonymization, it is possible to upload big datasets and the tool does not show any error in the anonymization process. We concluded that ARX Data Anonymization is the one recommended to use in data anonymization.

Intermittent vesical self-catheterisation is a legitimate and safe technique that has been reported since the 1970s as a solution for the treatment and prevention of vesical urinary complications resulting from spinal cord injury. This practice, using clean technology, has been asserting itself as one of the best alternatives for people with neurogenic bladder. However, adherence is not complete due to some barriers imposed to this procedure by the injured, with emphasis on positioning, agility, and visual impairment. The solutions presented today to support self-catheterisation are expensive equipment that does not allow patients with advanced levels of spasticity to have their autonomy. A biomechanical support device was developed to aid self-catheterisation, mainly aimed at women with spasticity, filling the gap in the existing products. Despite the main objective of self-catheterisation, the system’s design made it possible to quantify the strength of the adductors for the sitting position during the execution of the adduction movement, particularly relevant for spastic patients. The device’s production was entirely carried out using the FDM methodology, with 3D printers, and its design and operation were thought to overcome the physical and psychological barriers imposed by the users. The system was first tested with a group of healthy volunteers to obtain a pattern of the adductors force in a sitting position and after with a group of spastic volunteers. The obtained data allows to compare the adductor force data and optimize the system, with particular functionalities for spastic patients, with the implementation of a motorised version and a visualization camera. The system, its developments, and results obtained are present and discussed.