An ecologically-controlled exoskeleton can improve balance recovery after slippage.

The evolution to bipedalism forced humans to develop suitable strategies for dynamically controlling their balance, ensuring stability, and preventing falling. The natural aging process and traumatic events such as lower-limb loss can alter the human ability to control stability significantly increasing the risk of fall and reducing the overall autonomy. Accordingly, there is an urgent need, from both end-users and society, for novel solutions that can counteract the lack of balance, thus preventing falls among older and fragile citizens. In this study, we show a novel ecological approach relying on a wearable robotic device (the Active Pelvis Orthosis, APO) aimed at facilitating balance recovery after unexpected slippages. Specifically, if the APO detects signs of balance loss, then it supplies counteracting torques at the hips to assist balance recovery. Experimental tests conducted on eight elderly persons and two transfemoral amputees revealed that stability against falls improved due to the "assisting when needed" behavior of the APO. Interestingly, our approach required a very limited personalization for each subject, and this makes it promising for real-life applications. Our findings demonstrate the potential of closed-loop controlled wearable robots to assist elderly and disabled subjects and to improve their quality of life.

[Medico-legal controversies in obstetrics and gynecology: an important current problem]. / Controversie medico-legali in campo ostetrico-ginecologico: un problema di palpitante attualità.

Medicolegal controversies have recently grown to alarming proportions, also in relation to the increasingly widespread use of insurance policies and the doctor's compulsory need to obtain the patient's informed consent. According to current juridical attitudes, a surgeon carrying out surgery without the patient's consent may be guilty of severe damage or premeditated manslaughter in the event that the patient is injured. Some aspects of the relating to obstetrics-gynecology which have been the subject of recent medico-legal controversies are discussed in this paper. The authors underline the role played by the official expert and the need for the latter to be professionally up-to-date on the subject which he is called upon to judge.