State-of-the-Art of Hand Exoskeleton Systems

This paper deals with the analysis of the state-of-the-art of robotic hand exoskeletons (updated at May 2011), which is intended as the first step of a designing activity. A large number of hand exoskeletons (both products and prototypes) that feature some common characteristics and many special peculiarities are reported in the literature. Indeed, in spite of very similar functionalities, different hand exoskeletons can be extremely different for the characteristics of their mechanism architectures, control systems and working principles. The aim of this paper is to provide the reader with a complete and schematic picture of the state-of-the-art of hand exoskeletons. The focus is placed on the description of the main aspects that are involved in the exoskeleton design such as the system kinematics, the actuator systems, the transmission parts and the control schemes. Additionally, the critical issues provided by the literature analysis are discussed in order to enlighten the differences and the common features of different practical solutions. This paper may help to understand both the reasons why certain solutions are proposed for the different applications and the advantages and drawbacks of the different designs proposed in the literature. The motivation of this study is the need to design a new hand exoskeleton for rehabilitation purposes

Synthesis of Prosthesis Architectures and Design of Prosthetic Devices for Upper Limb Amputees

This chapter presents a procedure for the Determination of the Optimal Prosthesis Architecture for upper limb amputees (DOPA). The presented approach can consistently manage both the clinical aspects and the technical issues involved in the design of electromechanically actuated prostheses. The procedure is composed on one hand of algorithms useful for analyzing the patients\u2019 requirements and on the other hand of algorithms that perform kinematic and kinetostatic simulations of several architectures of artificial arms attempting to fulfil important activities of daily living. The systematic evaluation of the prosthesis models\u2019 performance can methodically guide designers in the synthesis of the optimal prosthesis that best suits the patients\u2019 requirements

Large Language Models and Explainable Law: a Hybrid Methodology

The paper advocates for LLMs to enhance the accessibility, usage and explainability of rule-based legal systems, contributing to a democratic and stakeholder-oriented view of legal technology. A methodology is developed to explore the potential use of LLMs for translating the explanations produced by rule-based systems, from high-level programming languages to natural language, allowing all users a fast, clear, and accessible interaction with such technologies. The study continues by building upon these explanations to empower laypeople with the ability to execute complex juridical tasks on their own, using a Chain of Prompts for the autonomous legal comparison of different rule-based inferences, applied to the same factual case

Классификация экзонов генов человека с использованием алгоритмов автоматического выбора атрибутов экзонов

Volkov AV, Yatskov NN, Grinev VV Classification of exons of human genes using algorithms for automatic selection of exon attributesСекция 2. МЕТОДЫ И ТЕХНОЛОГИИ МАТЕМАТИЧЕСКОГО И ИМИТАЦИОННОГО МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЯ СИСТЕ

Magnetic activity and the solar corona: first results from the Hinode satellite

The structure, dynamics and evolution of the solar corona are governed by the magnetic field. In spite of significant progresses in our insight of the physics of the so- lar corona, several problems are still under debate, e.g. the role of impulsive events and waves in coronal heating, and the origin of eruptions, flares and CMEs. The Hinode mis- sion has started on 22 september 2006 and aims at giving new answers to these questions. The satellite contains three main instruments, two high resolution telescopes, one in the optical and one in the X-ray band, and an EUV imaging spectrometer. On the Italian side, INAF/Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo has contributed with the ground-calibration of the filters of the X-ray telescope. We present some preliminary mission results, with partic- ular attention to the X-ray telescope data

Effetto della corrente alternata sull'innesco e sulla propagazione della corrosione dei materiali a comportamento attivo-passivo

LAUREA SPECIALISTIC

Cancer and aging: a multidisciplinary medicinal chemistry approach on relevant biological targets such as proteasome, sirtuins and interleukin 6

It is well known that ageing and cancer have common origins due to internal and environmental stress and share some common hallmarks such as genomic instability, epigenetic alteration, aberrant telomeres, inflammation and immune injury. Moreover, ageing is involved in a number of events responsible for carcinogenesis and cancer development at the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels. Ageing could represent a “blockbuster” market because the target patient group includes potentially every person; at the same time, oncology has become the largest therapeutic area in the pharmaceutical industry in terms of the number of projects, clinical trials and research and development (R&D) spending, but cancer remains one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. The overall aim of the work presented in this thesis was the rational design of new compounds able to modulate activity of relevant targets involved in cancer and aging-related pathologies, namely proteasome and immunoproteasome, sirtuins and interleukin 6. These three targets play different roles in human cells, but the modulation of its activity using small molecules could have beneficial effects on one or more aging-related diseases and cancer. We identified new moderately active and selective non-peptidic compounds able to inhibit the activity of both standard and immunoproteasome, as well as novel and selective scaffolds that would bind and inhibit SIRT6 selectively and can be used to sensitize tumor cells to commonly used anticancer agents such gemcitabine and olaparib. Moreover, our virtual screening approach led us also to the discovery of new putative modulators of SIRT3 with interesting in-vitro and cellular activity. Although the selectivity and potency of the identified chemical scaffolds are susceptible to be further improved, these compounds can be considered as highly promising leads for the development of future therapeutics

Wheat Grain Composition, Dough Rheology and Bread Quality as Affected by Nitrogen and Sulfur Fertilization and Seeding Density

Flour from old varieties are usually considered very weak flours, and thus difficult to use in breadmaking especially when processed as Italian \u201cTipo 2\u201d flour. Hence, the aim of our study was to understand if agronomic treatments can be used to improve flour processability and the quality of three old wheat varieties. An experimental strip-plot scheme was used: three old wheat varieties (Andriolo, Sieve, Verna), two seeding densities, three levels of nitrogen fertilization (N35, N80, and N135), and two levels of foliar sulfur fertilization. Analyzed parameters related to kernel composition, dough rheology and bread quality. Sulfur and nitrogen treatments significantly affected protein composition and dough alveograph strength, which increased by about 34% with nitrogen fertilization, and by about 14% with the sulfur treatment. However, only nitrogen fertilization affected bread characteristics. Crumb density significantly decreased from N35 to N135, while springiness and cohesiveness increased. On the other hand, sulfur did not improve breads. This highlight the importance of performing breadmaking tests in addition to the rheological determinations. The poor technological performance of old wheat flours can be improved with agronomical treatments designed to obtain higher-quality bread