Biomedizinische Technik

The loss of hand function can result in severe physical and psychosocial impairment. Thus, compensation of a lost hand function using assistive robotics that can be operated in daily life is very desirable. However, versatile, intuitive, and reliable control of assistive robotics is still an unsolved challenge. Here, we introduce a novel brain/neural-computer interaction (BNCI) system that integrates electroencephalography (EEG) and electrooculography (EOG) to improve control of assistive robotics in daily life environments. To evaluate the applicability and performance of this hybrid approach, five healthy volunteers (HV) (four men, average age 26.5±3.8 years) and a 34-year-old patient with complete finger paralysis due to a brachial plexus injury (BPI) used EEG (condition 1) and EEG/EOG (condition 2) to control grasping motions of a hand exoskeleton. All participants were able to control the BNCI system (BNCI control performance HV: 70.24±16.71%, BPI: 65.93±24.27%), but inclusion of EOG significantly improved performance across all participants (HV: 80.65±11.28, BPI: 76.03±18.32%). This suggests that hybrid BNCI systems can achieve substantially better control over assistive devices, e.g., a hand exoskeleton, than systems using brain signals alone and thus may increase applicability of brain-controlled assistive devices in daily life environments.

Headless compression screws (HCSs) are commonly utilized devices for small bone fracture fixation. The Mini-Acutrak 2 and headless reduction (HLR) screws are the newer version types, in which both have fully threaded and variable pitch design. Specifically, the HLR is characterized by two thread runouts to facilitate implantation. With the thread runouts, the holding strength of the screw may be compromised. To the best of our knowledge, no study has examined the pullout force of the global sizes of a HCS. We sought to determine the pullout strength of the HLR and compare the strength of this screw with that of the Mini-Acutrak 2. Synthetic bone blocks with simulated transverse fractures were used to conduct the tests. Four commonly used sizes of the HLR were examined, and one Mini-Acutrak 2 was employed for comparison. Five screws of each size were tested. The pullout force of all screws that were tested in this study ranged from 45.23 to 233.22 N. The results revealed that the pullout force increased as the screw diameter increased. Interestingly, we found that one small screw outperformed the Mini-Acutrak 2, which has a larger diameter. This study provided extensive knowledge regarding the pullout strength of fully threaded HCSs of different sizes. An unexpected finding is that a small screw has higher holding power than a large one because of its increased number of threads. Therefore, we suggest that the thread number should be a critical consideration for the design of size distribution of HCSs.

Previous research investigated recumbent cycle power output (PO) from the perspective of knee and hip joint biomechanics. However, ankle-foot biomechanics and, in particular, the effect of ankle-foot orthosis (AFO)-constrained movements on cycle PO has not been widely explored. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether AFOs of a fixed position (FP) and in dorsi-plantarflexion (DPF)-, dorsiflexion (DF)- and plantarflexion (PF)-constrained movements might influence PO during voluntary recumbent cycling exercises. Twenty-five healthy individuals participated in this study. All underwent 1-min cycling at a fixed cadence for each of the AFOs. The peak and average PO of each condition were analyzed. The peak and average PO were 27.2±12.0 W (range 6–60) and 17.2±9.0 W (range 2–36), respectively, during voluntary cycling. There were no significant differences in the peak PO generated by the AFOs (p=0.083). There were also no significant differences in the average PO generated using different AFOs (p=0.063). There were no significant differences in the changes of the hip and knee joint angles with different AFOs (p=0.974 and p=1.00, respectively). However, there was a significant difference in the changes of the ankle joint angle (p<0.00). The present study observed that AFO-constrained movements did not have an influence in altering PO during voluntary recumbent cycling in healthy individuals. This finding might serve as a reference for future rehabilitative cycling protocols.