The emerging field of neuroprosthetics is focused on the development of new therapeutic interventions that will be able to restore some lost neural function by selective electrical stimulation or by harnessing activity recorded from populations of neurons. As more and more patients benefit from these approaches, the interest in neural interfaces has grown significantly and a new generation of penetrating microelectrode arrays are providing unprecedented access to the neurons of the central nervous system (CNS). These microelectrodes have active tip dimensions that are similar in size to neurons and because they penetrate the nervous system, they provide selective access to these cells (within a few microns). However, the very long-term viability of chronically implanted microelectrodes and the capability of recording the same spiking activity over long time periods still remain to be established and confirmed in human studies. Here we review the main responses to acute implantation of microelectrode arrays, and emphasize that it will become essential to control the neural tissue damage induced by these intracortical microelectrodes in order to achieve the high clinical potentials accompanying this technology.

In this study, a low-cycle fatigue experiment was conducted on printed wiring boards (PWB). The Weibull regression model and computational Bayesian analysis method were applied to analyze failure time data and to identify important factors that influence the PWB lifetime. The analysis shows that both shape parameter and scale parameter of Weibull distribution are affected by the supplier factor and preconditioning methods Based on the energy equivalence approach, a 6-cycle reflow precondition can be replaced by a 5-cycle IST precondition, thus the total testing time can be greatly reduced. This conclusion was validated by the likelihood ratio test of two datasets collected under two different preconditioning methods Therefore, the Weibull regression modeling approach is an effective approach for accounting for the variation of experimental setting in the PWB lifetime prediction.

Studies about the data quality of National Bridge Inventory (NBI) reveal missing, erroneous, and logically conflicting data. Existing data quality programs lack a focus on detecting the logical inconsistencies within NBI and between NBI and external data sources. For example, within NBI, the structural condition ratings of some bridges improve over a period while having no improvement activity or maintenance funds recorded in relevant attributes documented in NBI. An example of logical inconsistencies between NBI and external data sources is that some bridges are not located within 100 meters of any roads extracted from Google Map. Manual detection of such logical errors is tedious and error-prone. This paper proposes a systematical “hypothesis testing” approach for automatically detecting logical inconsistencies within NBI and between NBI and external data sources. Using this framework, the authors detected logical inconsistencies in the NBI data of two sample states for revealing suspicious data items in NBI. The results showed that about 1% of bridges were not located within 100 meters of any actual roads, and few bridges showed improvements in the structural evaluation without any reported maintenance records.

Background: Robotic devices have been utilized in gait rehabilitation but have only produced moderate results when compared to conventional physiotherapy. Because bipedal walking requires neural coupling and dynamic interactions between the legs, a fundamental understanding of the sensorimotor mechanisms of inter-leg coordination during walking, which are not well understood but are systematically explored in this study, is needed to inform robotic interventions in gait therapy.

Methods: In this study we investigate mechanisms of inter-leg coordination by utilizing novel sensory perturbations created by real-time control of floor stiffness on a split-belt treadmill. We systematically alter the unilateral magnitude of the walking surface stiffness and the timing of these perturbations within the stance phase of the gait cycle, along with the level of body-weight support, while recording the kinematic and muscular response of the unperturbed leg. This provides new insight into the role of walking surface stiffness in inter-leg coordination during human walking. Both paired and unpaired unadjusted t-tests at the 95 % confidence level are used in the appropriate scenario to determine statistical significance of the results.

Results: We present results of increased hip, knee, and ankle flexion, as well as increased tibialis anterior and soleus activation, in the unperturbed leg of healthy subjects that is repeatable and scalable with walking surface stiffness. The observed response was not impacted by the level of body-weight support provided, which suggests that walking surface stiffness is a unique stimulus in gait. In addition, we show that the activation of the tibialis anterior and soleus muscles is altered by the timing of the perturbations within the gait cycle.

Conclusions: This paper characterizes the contralateral leg’s response to ipsilateral manipulations of the walking surface and establishes the importance of walking surface stiffness in inter-leg coordination during human walking.