Fuzzy Adaptive Passive Control Strategy Design for Upper-Limb End-Effector Rehabilitation Robot.

Robot-assisted rehabilitation therapy has been proven to effectively improve upper-limb motor function in stroke patients. However, most current rehabilitation robotic controllers will provide too much assistance force and focus only on the patient's position tracking performance while ignoring the patient's interactive force situation, resulting in the inability to accurately assess the patient's true motor intention and difficulty stimulating the patient's initiative, thus negatively affecting the patient's rehabilitation outcome. Therefore, this paper proposes a fuzzy adaptive passive (FAP) control strategy based on subjects' task performance and impulse. To ensure the safety of subjects, a passive controller based on the potential field is designed to guide and assist patients in their movements, and the stability of the controller is demonstrated in a passive formalism. Then, using the subject's task performance and impulse as evaluation indicators, fuzzy logic rules were designed and used as an evaluation algorithm to quantitively assess the subject's motor ability and to adaptively modify the stiffness coefficient of the potential field and thus change the magnitude of the assistance force to stimulate the subject's initiative. Through experiments, this control strategy has been shown to not only improve the subject's initiative during the training process and ensure their safety during training but also enhance the subject's motor learning ability.

Competitive Growth of Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria with Bioleaching Acidophiles for Bioremediation of Heap Bioleaching Residue.

Mining waste rocks containing sulfide minerals naturally provide the habitat for iron- and sulfur-oxidizing microbes, and they accelerate the generation of acid mine drainage (AMD) by promoting the oxidation of sulfide minerals. Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are sometimes employed to treat the AMD solution by microbial-induced metal sulfide precipitation. It was attempted for the first time to grow SRB directly in the pyritic heap bioleaching residue to compete with the local iron- and sulfur-oxidizing microbes. The acidic SRB and iron-reducing microbes were cultured at pH 2.0 and 3.0. After it was applied to the acidic heap bioleaching residue, it showed that the elevated pH and the organic matter was important for them to compete with the local bioleaching acidophiles. The incubation with the addition of organic matter promoted the growth of SRB and iron-reducing microbes to inhibit the iron- and sulfur-oxidizing microbes, especially organic matter together with some lime. Under the growth of the SRB and iron-reducing microbes, pH increased from acidic to nearly neutral, the Eh also decreased, and the metal, precipitated together with the microbial-generated sulfide, resulted in very low Cu in the residue pore solution. These results prove the inhibition of acid mine drainage directly in situ of the pyritic waste rocks by the promotion of the growth of SRB and iron-reducing microbes to compete with local iron and sulfur-oxidizing microbes, which can be used for the source control of AMD from the sulfidic waste rocks and the final remediation.

Acellular Dermal Matrix Combined with Autologous Skin Grafts for Closure of Chronic Wounds after Reconstruction of Skull Defects with Titanium Mesh.

Objective The closure of chronic wounds after skull defect reconstruction with titanium mesh is one of the most challenging problems for plastic and reconstructive surgeons. Current approaches are disappointing. Methods In 10 patients, we explored the role of acellular dermal matrix (ADM) in combination with autologous skin grafts (ASGs) for closure of chronic wounds after skull reconstruction with titanium. Results ADM and ASG survived in all patients. Grade A healing (healing well without defect) was achieved. The average operating time was 30 to 45 minutes, and the average blood loss 30 to 50 mL. After 3 months, the wound was still closed in all patients. Conclusion The combination of ADM plus ASG obtained a high wound closure rate. ADM plus ASG allows avoiding other procedures such as rotational flaps and free flaps that require more operating time, special equipment, and adequate training.