Archivio della ricerca della Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
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A Reservoir Computing-based Controller for Intention Decoding of Upper-Limb Rehabilitative Exoskeletons
No full textThis work introduces a controller for an upperlimb rehabilitative exoskeleton based on reservoir computing (RC). The controller decodes the motor intention of the user by observing the electromyographic (EMG) activity of four upperlimb muscles and end effector (EE) kinematics and then assists the movements of upper-limb during the execution of planar reaching tasks. After tuning the hyperparameters of the RC, the controller was tested by three healthy participants wearing a shoulder-elbow active exoskeleton. The controller predicted the direction of reaching movements across eight possible targets positioned on a 25 cm circumference, achieving an average accuracy of 74.12%. Given the geometric structure of the task, we introduced a macro-direction measure of goodness (MDG) metric that considered both correct predictions and those corresponding to targets adjacent to the true one, resulting in an average performance of 96.63 %. Moreover, RC-ID outperformed a kinematics-only benchmark before kinematic onset and surpassed an EMG-only benchmark during the later phases of the reaching movement execution. Finally, effects of assistance were assessed by evaluating the variation of muscular activation during exoskeleton-assisted movements, which led to reductions up to −47.4% with respect the activations during unassisted movements
Unlocking Patient and Professional Value Through Patient Experience: Preliminary Development and Validation of the Patient Experience Assessment of In-Center Hemodialysis (PEACHD) Survey
No full textPatient experience is a crucial measure of healthcare quality with the potential to increase value for several health stakeholders. However, various barriers often hinder its impact on quality improvement. Therefore, valid and reliable instruments developed through structured and collaborative processes are needed to establish methodological and organizational practices and ensure consensus and credibility among all stakeholders. This study presents the development and validation of the Patient Experience Assessment of in-Center Hemodialysis (PEACHD) survey. An expert panel, cognitive interviews, and a pilot test were conducted, involving both people receiving hemodialysis care and professionals from four Italian hospitals. The questionnaire evaluates key aspects of the in-center hemodialysis experience, including the provision of medical information, involvement in treatment decision-making, and communication with professionals. The PEACHD survey demonstrated strong content and face validity, acceptable construct validity, and good internal consistency reliability. Pilot data highlighted that the professional delivering care (i.e. nephrologist or dialysis nurse) significantly influenced patient experience and emphasized the need for a holistic and person-centered approach. The PEACHD survey enables effective patient experience evaluation, enhancing value for both service users and professionals
A Novel Multiple-Shot Milli-Scale Magnetic Robot for Cargo Delivery
No full textMagnetic actuation allows distant and safe actuation of small-scale untethered robots. This class of robots is particularly appealing for targeted delivery and on demand release of therapeutic cargo. Most state-of-the-art systems focused so far either on single-shot release or leveraged battery-driven actuation for delivering multiple therapeutic agents’ doses. In this work, we propose a novel magnetic milli-scale carrier design that can be distantly navigated and triggered to release 2 or 4 cargo shots, on demand. The carrier features a modular design with a permanent magnet in each compartment. Robot realizations with 1 and 2 compartments are analyzed in this paper. A straightforward control strategy relies on tuning direction and intensity of applied magnetic fields for robot navigation and cargo delivery. Experiments were performed in an aqueous environment to validate carrier locomotion and controlled release capabilities. The prototyped carriers have a parallelepiped shape (12x2x10 mm and 12x6x10 mm for one and two compartments, respectively) and can be wirelessly navigated by an external magnet at a distance larger than 100 mm within 5 mm deviation from the desired trajectory. Upon docking, release can be triggered by modulating the external magnetic field. Quantitative metrics revealed consistent release dosage between prototypes and among different cargo compartments
From Facial Expressions to User Experience (UX): How Emotions Shape the Design of Intelligent Systems
No full textEmotions are a key determinant of User Experience (UX). This work investigates the relationship between facial emotions and UX. It presents ALPACA, a predictive system that estimates user satisfaction from valence-arousal (VA) signals. Dataset DT22, a database of 112 participants, is used to evaluate models on the external test set. An identity-free processing pipeline that uses only VA features achieves ∼77% accuracy/weighted F 1-score. When contextual information is also available-Movie Clip ID and perceived User Quality-the context-aware pipeline increases performance to ∼85-92% in ablation analyses. This gain is obtained by ensembles with a majority voting decision rule. This indicates that contextual features provide complementary information to VA. To assess system robustness, Leave-One-Participant-Out (LOPO) and Leave-One-Movie-Out (LOMO) schemes are also investigated, as well as emotion-anchored evaluations (first-and last-emotion). The approach is modular and adheres to privacy-by-design principles by operating on identity-free descriptors rather than storing facial frames. Overall, the findings suggest that emotion signals can support adaptive UX. They can also enable dynamic content personalization in applications such as video streaming, customer-experience management, and e-learning. This research presents a practical study on integrating emotion-aware intelligence while respecting user privacy
Wearable technologies to predict and prevent and heart failure hospitalizations: a systematic review
No full textHeart failure (HF) is a global pandemic and accounts for substantial morbidity and healthcare expenditure, largely due to frequent hospitalizations. While traditionally HF patients are followed with intermittent clinical assessments, wearable technologies offer continuous, real-time monitoring, potentially enabling earlier detection and tailored interventions to prevent hospitalization. This systematic review evaluates the impact of noninvasive wearable devices on hospitalizations in HF. Following PRISMA guidelines, literature searches were conducted in PubMed and Scopus using keywords related to HF, hospitalization, and wearable technology on 1 March 2024, and re-run on 3 December 2024. Studies assessing the link between wearable devices and HF-related hospitalization rates were included. Data extraction covered population characteristics, study design, type of device, and hospitalization rates. Risk of bias was assessed using ROBINS-I and ROB-2 tools. Meta-analysis was attempted but not performed due to significant heterogeneity (I2>90%). From 2247 records, eight studies involving 1823 patients were finally analysed. Devices included ReDS, VitalPatch, ZOLL LifeVest, and ZOLL-HFMS, with follow-up ranging from 30 to 646 days. Wearable devices allowed prediction of HF hospitalization within 6.5–32 days in advance. Wearable-guided therapy compared to traditional assessment showed an 89% relative reduction at 30 days in a single-blind randomized-controlled trial, and 78% and 87% reductions in 30-day and 90-day hospitalization rates in observational studies. Although these data highlight the potential of wearable devices in HF management, future research should test predefined wearable-guided treatment algorithms on strong endpoints and address cost-effectiveness and data security in large randomized-controlled trials with longer follow-up
Plant diversification boosts soil microbial networks and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community in vineyards, with stronger effects in arid regions.
No full textSilicon priming triggers differential physiological, ionomic and metabolic responses in olive (Olea europaea L.) cultivars with different tolerance to salinity
No full textSalinity stress can negatively influence the growth potential and productivity of olive trees affecting photosynthesis and, disturbing ions homeostasis and essential metabolic pathways. Silicon (Si) is proposed as exogenous pretreatment for mitigate the salinity impact on olive plants. One-year old ‘Frantoio’ (salt-tolerant) and ‘Leccino’ (salt-sensitive) plants (n = 5) were grown in pots filled with sand and clay and pretreated for 28 days with 10 mg L−1 of Si(OH)4 then, for 51 days with 100 mM NaCl (12.15 g for each plant) and compared to control plants. The following hypotheses have been tested: i) Si pretreatment enhances photosynthetic performance by regulating stomatal closure and decreasing water loss; ii) Si reduces Na+ uptake and accumulation in new leaves; iii) Si improve the biosynthesis of compatible osmolytes that have a role in the regulation of the osmotic stress induced by salinity. The Si priming effect in olive tree was cultivar dependent. In ‘Frantoio’ Si induce a rapid early decrease of stomatal conductance increasing the intrinsic water use efficiencies (intWUE) not observed in ‘Leccino’ plants. In ‘Leccino’ the key Si effect was the reduction of Na+ accumulation in new leaves (−58 %) and maintenance of the K+ concentration under salinity. Specific interactions between Si and NaCl and the number of polyphenols affected were higher in ‘Frantoio’ than in ‘Leccino’. Among the key mechanisms related to the Si-mediated tolerance to salt stress we can conclude that photosynthesis and Na+ uptake are the two principals involved in the responses of salinity to ‘Frantoio’ and ‘Leccino’ cultivars