Signal enhancement in spark-assisted laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for discrimination of glioblastoma and oligodendroglioma lesions.

Here, the discrimination of two types of lethal brain cancers, i.e., glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and oligodendroglioma (OG) are investigated under the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and the electrical spark-assisted laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (SA-LIBS) in order to discriminate the human brain glioma lesions against the infiltrated tissues. It is shown there are notable differences between the plasma emissions over the brain gliomas against those of infiltrated tissues. In fact, a notable enhancement appears in the characteristic emissions in favor of SA-LIBS against those of conventional LIB spectra. Moreover, the plasma properties such as temperature, electron density, and degree of ionization are probed through the data processing of the plasma emissions. The corresponding parameters, taken from SA-LIBS data, attest to be lucidly larger than those of LIBS up to one order of magnitude. In addition, the ionic species such as Mg II characteristic line at 279 nm and caII emission at 393 nm are notably enhanced in favor of SA-LIBS. In general, the experimental evidence verifies that SA-LIBS is beneficial in the discrimination and grading of GBM/OG neoplasia against healthy (infiltrate) tissues in the early stages.

Evaluation of photobiomodulation effect on cesarean-sectioned wound healing: a clinical study.

The effects of low-level laser on the wound healing and burn injuries have been previously examined to demonstrate some satisfactory results. Despite there are a few articles available to study photobiomodulation (PBM) effects on the pain relief of cesarean sectioned wound, however no systematic examination has been carried out so far regarding its healing. Here, the aim of this clinical study was to evaluate PBM effect on the cesarean-sectioned wound healing. PBM effects of semiconductor lasers are investigated at 658 and 660 nm with 100, 150 and 350 mW output powers on 40 patients. Due to the global increasing number of cesarean sections, we have decided to investigate the effect of laser as a reliable technique to recover the wounds fast. We considered women as the target group who had their first delivery giving the birth of their children by cesarean section. We selected patients are who treated by laser therapy using indium gallium aluminum phosphide (InGaAlP) semiconductor linear scanning type with beam cross section of 12 cm2 and the output power of 100 mW at 658 nm exposing a therapeutic dose of 2 J/cm2. The purpose is to accelerate the healing process of the wounds after delivery as an intervention group against the people who chose the conventional methods (using ointments, pills, etc.) to heal their cesarean sectioned wounds as the control group. Regarding the wounds of these two groups, the questionnaires were filled by patients to assess the severity of pain from visual analogue scale (VAS) based on the healing of wounds from redness, edema, ecchymosis, discharge, and distance between the two edges of the wound (REEDA) scale in the early hours after surgery and the post-treatment follow-up on the third, seventh, and the tenth days. The data collected by these questionnaires were analyzed using statistical package for social science)SPSS( as a statistical software to give out the comparative histograms. This study reports a clinical examination of PBM under intervention group of 40 patients ranging 18-40 years old with body mass index (BMI) of 29-36, during post-cesarean surgery to elucidate successful healing of the wounds and scars against conventional methods which considered as control group. Comparison of mean REEDA scores on the third day (p = 0.035), seventh day (p = 0.03), and tenth day (p = 0.02) after delivery exhibits that the two groups benefit a statistically significant difference with each other. For instance, the mean wound healing score in the intervention group was almost half of the mean wound healing score on the tenth day in the control group (1.09 ± 0.586 vs. 2.25 ± 0.422). The post-cesarean follow-up indicates that the patients treated by the laser therapy (intervention group) encounter better recovery than the control group.

A New Algorithm to Estimate Glenohumeral Joint Location Based on Scapula Rhythm.

This work analyzes the human shoulder complex workspace by introducing a new method to estimate the intraarticulation location of the glenohumeral (GH) joint. The proposed algorithm is based on the hypothesis of the GH joint remaining fixed during the first 30 degrees of shoulder elevation. This part of any vertical movement is considered to estimate the center of spherical motions CoS) where the humeral head is located.For the experimental results, six subjects performed 5 cycles of 12 different movements in different planes. The data are collected using motion capture, for various landmarks of the shoulder girdle. With the proposed method, estimating the location of GH is possible for any motion of the shoulder girdle complex. In order to complete the kinematic model of the shoulder complex, PCA is used to identify a relation between the shoulder joints. This technique indicates that the shoulder complex can be modeled using two degrees of freedom (DOFs) to locate the spherical GH joint. The overall shoulder model can generate any possible vertical motion of the human shoulder.

A task-based design methodology for robotic exoskeletons.

INTRODUCTION: This study is aimed at developing a task-based methodology for the design of robotic exoskeletons. This is in contrast to prevailing research efforts, which attempt to mimic the human limb, where each human joint is given an exoskeleton counter-joint. Rather, we present an alternative systematic design approach for the design of exoskeletons that can follow the complex three-dimensional motions of the human body independent of anatomical measures and landmarks. With this approach, it is not necessary to know the geometry of the targeted limb but rather to have a description of its motion at the point of attachment. METHODS: The desired trajectory of the targeted limb has been collected through a motion capture system from a healthy subject. Then, an approximate dimensional synthesis has been employed to specify the size of the mechanism and its location with respect to the limb, while generating the desired trajectory. The procedure for this method, from motion capture to kinematic synthesis to mechanism selection and optimization, is validated with an illustrative example. RESULTS: The proposed method resulted an exoskeleton which follows the desired trajectory of the human limb without any need of aligning its joint to the corresponding human joints. CONCLUSION: A method to design lower mobility exoskeletons for specific sets of human motion is presented; the approach result an exoskeleton with lesser actuation system while generating complex 3D limb motions, which in turn results a lighter exoskeletons. It also avoids a need to align each robotic joint axis with its human counterpart.