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Metodo basato sull'analisi del movimento optoelettronica per la progettazione CAD di ortesi per neuroriabilitazione stampabili 3D

Progettazione di un attuatore soft basato sulla combinazione di elementi in lega a memoria di forma e matrice polimerica stampata 3D.

Realizzazione di ortesi per l'arto superiore personalizzate tramite stampa 3D

The characterisation of Movement Disorders using kinematics derived from optoelectronic motion tracking is often difficult due to the frequent unwanted movements by the patients that cover markers and produce abundant data loss. This paper presents the development and basic testing of an adhoc multisignal sensor that, besides kinematics also measures muscular activation. It could be of invaluable help in determining the status and clinical evolution of those patients.

Five children with Childhood Dyskinesia affecting the upper-limb were enrolled, as well as six healthy children. Fully-customised devices with viscoelastic properties were made for the patients. They used the orthoses for 1 month. The assessment was done with clinical scales and optoelectronic kinematic analysis. Results showed changes in motor patterns with increases in the ranges of motion of initially stiff segments, improvements in posture, changes towards multi-joint control strategies.

Objective: The study proposes a specialised protocol to collect and analyse kinematic data from paediatric patients affected by Movement Disorders (MD). The aim is to provide a dedicated tool to quantify the patient's clinical state and its evolutions.

Objective: The study proposes a method to obtain anatomically- and functionally-personalised orthotics for the dynamic postural control of the upper limb.

Pseusoelasticity is a very useful property of NiTi-based alloys, which can be exploited for the design of innovative wearable devices for neuromuscular rehabilitation, and the treatment of movement disorders. The great interpersonal variability of body masses, muscular forces, desease type and severity require that the pseudoelastic characteristics of those materials be modulated to meet individual needs and produce the desired results. The combination of alloy composition, plastic deformation and thermal ageing affects the microstructure of the final products. Thermal ageing is particular important in the fine tuning of martensitic transformation characteristics. This work presents a method to guide real-time property modulation while the pseudoelatic elements are thermally treated and shows the map of desirable and achievable characteristics for biomedical applications in rehabilitation.

Introduction: We designed and built customised orthotic devices able to provide a non-linear corrective force for the repositioning of the elbow joint. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if those orthoses with pseudoelastic characteristics can improve posture and increase functional movement abilities in stroke patients. On-board sensors were used to investigate the dynamic interaction of patients and orthoses during standardised motor tasks. Methods: Six chronic hemiplegic patients (age 56.16±7.22 years) were enrolled for the study and were prescribed to wear a custom-made orthosis for at least 6 hours a day for a month. Patients were evaluated before and after this period using several scales, including Fugl-Meyer (F-M), Modified Ashworth Score (MAS), and WOLF Motor Function Test (WMFT). Furthermore an accelerometer and an analogic potentiometer on-board the orthosis were used to evaluate quantitatively the performances of patients during the execution of motor tasks such as Reaching Foreward, Hand to Mouth and Timed Upand- Go. Results: The present orthotic treatment produced mild improvements in several articular and functional parameters. For instance MAS (Elbow) decreased by 1±0.89 (p=0.02), F-M (items A-D) improved by 1.66±1.13 (p=0.01) and WMFT increased by 4±4.35 (p=0.05). Improvement in movement speed in the hand-to-mouth task (from onboard sensor) seems to be greater for patients with high pre-treatment MAS (Pearson R2=0.82). Reaching Foreward times decrease by 19.1±20.5% (p=0.035). Spectral analysis of measured accelerations can separate movement uncertainties from cloni. Conclusions: This pilot study showed that a pseudoelastic orthotic treatment can promote moderate reacquisition of segmental mobility of the upper limb in chronic hemiplegic patients. The parameters collected by on-board unit are a promising tool for identifying patterns of movement in evaluation tasks and monitoring variations during the therapy; this resource could be used in future for implementing home-based tele-rehabilitation.

Introduction This study presents the application of a pseudoelastic orthosis for upper-limb repositioning in hemiplegic patients. The focus of the present contribution is on the possibility to evaluate the dynamic interaction between the patient and the orthotic device during set motor tasks by means of sensors mounted on-board the orthosis. Materials and methods Six hemiplegic patients (age 56.16±7.22 years, > 6 months after event) were enrolled for the study, and were prescribed a custom-made dynamic orthosis with pseudoelastic elements to e worn at least 6 hours a day for a month. The orthosis was equipped with an electro-goniometer (elbow joint axis) and a tri-axial accelerometer (lateral upper arm). Measurements were conducted at the beginning (T0) and at the end of the study (T1) during three standardised tasks: Reaching Foreward (RF) Hand-to-Mouth (HM), Timed Upand- Go (TUG). Data acquired from 15 healthy volunteers were used as baseline for comparisons. Results The recordings indicate the evolution of elbow flexion-extension angle during the execution of the motor tasks, and the accelerations of the upper arm. Timecourses were segmented to the level of movement repetitions and sub-movement phases. In general, patients' acceleration curves are less smooth than those for the healthy volunteers indicating uncertainties in limb space positioning and controlling, and the presence of involuntary jerks (cloni). Those effects are promptly separable using spectral analysis. In the time domain, movement phase duration can be measured, adding information about sub-movements (e.g. for the TUG task). Direct comparison with normality curves can help visualise motor deficits and the use of compensatory strategies including the shoulder. Discussion and conclusions This preliminary study shows that adding wearable sensors to a dynamic orthosis has a potential for connecting therapy monitoring to treatment. Future works could lead to exploit these technologies for the development of advanced home-based rehabilitation protocols.

Background. Movement disorders are neurological diseases affecting different age groups. They worsen patients' quality of life preventing the possibility of carrying out daily activities independently, and disturbing their social relationships especially in childhood. Drugs and surgery are among the most widely-employed means of controlling the symptoms of those disorders, but not often give the expected relief; an alternative solution is offered by orthoses that possess dynamic characteristics and can deliver a functionally-customised therapy. Methods. We have designed functionally-customised devices exploiting the characteristics of a class of metallic materials, shape memory alloys (SMA), that possess some unconventional properties such as a nonlinear viscoelastic behaviour, wide hysteresis and internal friction, useful for controlling pathological limb motion and fighting ill-postures, while preserving the ability to carry out voluntary tasks. Three paediatric patients with dystonic and dyskinetic cerebral palsy were enrolled so far. The mechanical properties of the SMA were set and adjusted to address the clinical requests and individual patient's needs. Ad hoc protocols were devised to measure patients clinical status and biometric characteristics; an optoelectronic system and EMG were used to obtain quantitative information about upper-limb anatomy, kinematics and muscular activation to be employed as a basis for the personalised fabrication of the splints. Measurements on an age-matched healthy group were used as a reference for the motion tasks performed by patients. Results. The first observations suggest that wearing the personalised SMA-based dynamic orthosis, patients manage to carry out standardised motor tasks like reaching for objects or bringing food to one's mouth in a more direct way, with less stray motion. Conclusions Preliminary results support the hypothesis that splints with nonlinear mechanical characteristics can provide posture control and stabilisation during the execution of upper-limb tasks. Clinical trials are continuing..

Background. Upper motoreuron lesions (UML) affect people of all ages and are a major cause of disability in the young. Lower limb rehabilitation is a fundamental part of post-acute care in neurological disease. In this contest passive mobilisation could be of help for acute patients in a very early stage of their recovery to safeguard tissue properties and prevent the worsening of neural damages that cause cognitive and motor impairment, when paresis prevent the beginning of active workout and so physical treatment may be delayed. This research investigates the potential role of early passive motion in stimulating cortical areas of the brain dedicated to the control of the lower limb in UML. Methods. Seven pediatric patient (aged 15.35±4.36) took part in the study. They were treated for two weeks (2 daily sessions) with a robotic passive ankle mobiliser (Toe-Up!).The device was implemented using specially-designed shape-memory-alloy-based actuators. Range of motion, muscle length and Ashworth score were measured before and after this treatment. At the same time-points brain activity was recorded by 64-channels electroencephalography (EEG) under four different conditions: rest, active dorsiflexion of the ankle, assisted and passive mobilisation of the same joint. The acquired data were processed to obtain cortical ERD/ERS (Event Related Desynchronisation/ Synchronisation) maps, which were then compared. Results. Preliminary results show that this therapy is very well tolerated and that its application specifically improves ankle PROM (+4.71°, p=0.063) and plantarflexor muscle length (+7.57°, p=0.007). EEG data for the passive/assistive condition showed hints of improved desynchronisation in at least one frequency band. Conclusions. The results of this pilot study suggest that passive mobilisation by the Toe-Up! device produces valuable clinical effects and set a basis for the study of cortical re-organisation in UML patients treated with ankle passive/assistive mobilisation.

Pseudoelastic NiTi-based devices are often required to recover their shape repeatedly and their working performance can be judged from the amount of residual deformation after use. The quality problem in this respect can even be removed from fatigue life or safety issues and impact on the functional and aesthetic value of the product. While linear deformation can be appreciated quantitatively in a straightforward manner, the bending strains are more difficult to assess directly. We devised a very simple digital image-based method to measure the residual bending deformation by comparison of the pristine shape of the device with the one resulting from bending and free recovery. The program was written in LabView and is capable of reporting about the deflection and location of strain concentration along slender pseudoelastic elements in a semi-quantitative way appropriate for quality sample checks. The method is semi-automatic and provides a user-friendly interface for the operator. Apart from simple shapes like straight wires and ribbons, the method was tested on devices as complex as spectacles frames. This application is particularly interesting, where shape recovery and functional and aesthetic value are tightly linked, and deformation by severe handling is a typical effect of use.

Three and tetranuclear ring clusters have been obtained by treatment of [Re-2(CO)(8)(THF)(2)] with carbonyl-rhenates containing two terminal hydrides. The reaction with [ReH2(CO)(4)](-) provided a selective route to the previously known [Re(mu -H)(2)(CO)(12)](-) triangular cluster anion 1. The reaction with [Re2H2(mu -H)(CO)(8)](-) gave the novel [Re-4(mu -H)(3)(CO)(16)](-) anion 2. containing a rare example of a puckcred-square metal cluster. Protonation of 1 is known to afford the neutral [Re-3(mu -H)(3)(CO)(12)] species 3. Analogously the reaction of 2 with a strong acid afforded the previously known square metal clusters [Re-4(mu -H)(4)(CO)(16)] 4. The reaction could not be reversed by treatment with bases. Photolysis of 4 gave the unsaturated complex [Re-2(mu -H)(2)(CO)(8)] 5: this is the reverse of the dimerization reaction, that in THF at room temperature produces 4 from 5. Thermal treatment (reflux in cyclohexane for 24 hi left 4 almost unchanged. A single crystal X-ray analysis of [NEt4]2 showed a s/e/s/s (e = eclipsed,s = staggered) conformation of the Re( CO)4 units, leading to a puckered geometry of the ring, at variance with the square-planar geometry of 4 tall eclipsed). Two of the three hydrides of 2 have been located as bridging the Re Re edges from inside the metal ring, as previously observed in 1. Density functional computations indicated a puckered conformation as the most stable for both 2 and 4, with very low activation energies for ring inversion (6.6 and 2.2 kcal mol (1), respectively), but ruled out solid state fluxionality for 4, whose observed planar geometry must be attributed to packing stabilization.

Nel Machine Learning (ML), il controllo umano continua a essere estremamente importante per la profilazione e la personalizzazione del servizio. Day, Turner e Drozdiak, (2019) evidenziano come gli assistenti virtuali di Amazon intercettino discorsi, gusti, preferenze nelle nostre case. Essi apprendono secondo tre modalità – supervisionata, parzialmente supervisionata e non supervisionata (Sarikaya, 2019) ˗ che prevedono in diversa misura l’intervento umano per l’interpretazione dei dati reperiti. Procedure analoghe sono utilizzate anche da grandi piattaforme commerciali (es. Netflix) dove, dietro la facciata dell’efficienza computazionale, team di etichettatori anonimi umani sono incessantemente al lavoro (sia come esperti del settore sia di operai da catena taylorista) per descrivere le relazioni culturali tra opere cinematografiche e televisive (Finn, 2018). Nei social network (es: Facebook), l’intervento degli algoritmi nel determinare cosa debbano leggere milioni di utenti quando vi accedono è più limitato di quanto creda. Agiscono infatti squadre di persone reali che decidono quali debbano essere gli argomenti caldi su cui far discutere la community (Cosimi, 2016). Da ciò risulta evidente come sia ancora l’essere umano nel ML a elaborare, secondo le convenienze economiche dell’azienda, i dati sotto il profilo culturale pregiudicando irreversibilmente l’autonomia delle scelte compiuti dagli utenti. Ciò implica una attenzione per quel che concerne la formazione delle attuali e future generazioni, la qual cosa è oggetto di studio del gruppo di autori a partire dagli interventi con i futuri insegnanti del CdL in Scienze della Formazione Primaria e dei docenti in servizio.

La diffusione delle tecnologie è ormai un fatto con cui il sistema scolastico deve misurarsi quotidianamente. Ampissimo è il numero delle ricerche che si interessano alla tematica da un punto di vista dell’impatto che esse hanno sulla didattica e sui processi di apprendimento degli studenti. Meno ampio e più circoscritto è invece il numero delle ricerche che affrontano la tematica delle tecnologie nella scuola dal punto di vista dell’impatto sulle dinamiche relazionali e della loro influenza sul clima di classe. Il contributo presenta un’indagine svoltasi in due scuole secondarie di primo grado di Bologna e due collèges Parigini. La ricerca ha avuto lo scopo di indagare il rapporto di influenza fra le dinamiche relazionali mediate dalle tecnologie e il clima sociale di classe. Nello specifico, il presente articolo si concentrerà sul punto di vista degli alunni e delle alunne nel tentativo di far emergere rappresentazioni, pratiche e racconti su: come le tecnologie influenzano il modo di intessere dinamiche relazionali fra studenti; come, tali dinamiche, possono avere una ripercussione sul clima sociale all’interno della classe; come i discenti vedono il ruolo della scuola e degli insegnanti come mediatori di questi equilibri. The spreading of digital technologies is a fact with which schools have to deal with on a daily basis. High is the number of the pedagogical research projects that have taken an interest about this theme – and still are – from the point of view of their impact on teaching and learning processes. On the other hand, less numerous and more circumstanced, are those researches that deal with technologies in schools from the point of view of their impact on relational dynamics and their influence on the classroom climate. The contribution presents a research carried out in two secondary schools in Bologna and two Parisian collèges. The aim of the research was to investigate the relationship of influence between the relational dynamics mediated by technology and the social climate of the class. Specifically, these pages will focus on the pupils’ point of view in an attempt to bring out their representations, their practices and their experiences describing: how technologies influence the way the students weave their personal relational dynamics; how, such dynamics, can have an impact on the classroom social climate within the class; how, students, see the role of schools and teachers as mediators of these balances.

Nel capitolo si è trattato il tema della giustizia nella scuola secondaria, in particolare durante il momento della valutazione. Si sono indagate le percezioni degli studenti in riferimento alla valutazione, nonchè le percezioni di insegnante "giusto" e le loro ricadute sulla qualità dell'apprendimento.

L’intervento discute un’esperienza didattica mediata dall’uso di ICT in contesto universitario. Considerando la progettazione educativa di ambienti virtuali di apprendimento, si analizza l’opinione degli studenti sull’efficienza a livello di costruzione sociale della conoscenza di Web forum e wiki. Analizzando i dati raccolti attraverso un questionario proposto al termine dell’esperienza emergono risultati pressoché in linea con quelli delle principali ricerche in argomento: forum e wiki si confermano efficienti strumenti, tra loro complementari, per supportare processi di OCL. In particolare, se il forum si configura come luogo in cui comunicare, organizzare il lavoro collaborativo, condividere contenuti e discutere con i colleghi e con la docente, il wiki pare efficiente in funzione della vera e propria produzione collaborativa della conoscenza. The article discusses an educational experience involving the use of ICT in a university context. Considering the educational design of virtual learning environments, students' opinions on the efficiency of Web Forums and Wikis for the social construction of knowledge are examined. An analysis of the data collected via a questionnaire submitted at the end of the experience provides results virtually in line with the main studies on the topic: forums and wikis are confirmed to be efficient and mutually complementary tools for supporting OCL processes. Specifically, while forums are a location for communicating, organising collaborative work, sharing contents and holding discussions with fellow-students and the teacher, wikis seem to be efficient for the actual collaborative production of knowledge.