We investigated the use of a sorting box to obtain a quantitative assessment of upper limb motor function in children with cerebral palsy. In our study, children with and without cerebral palsy placed and removed geometrical objects of a sorting-box while their wrist position was monitored by a camera-based, motion-tracking system. We analyzed three different smoothness metrics (logarithmic dimensionless jerk, spectral arc-length and number of peaks) together with time to task completion. Our results suggest that smoothness metrics are an effective tool to distinguish between impaired and non-impaired subjects, as well as to quantify differences between the affected and less-affected sides in children with hemiparetic cerebral palsy.

This paper describes a video game for the rehabilitation of the pronation and supination movements of children with cerebral palsy. It is used as an interface for a robot that is currently under development. The game was programmed in LabVIEW and MATLAB is used for analyzing the results. It simulates a formula one racecar on a racetrack. Its objective is to keep the car inside the racetrack's limits. The pronation and supination movements control the car's horizontal position on the screen. A first preliminary test was done with a healthy 11-year-old right-handed child. The same racetrack was played 5 times with each arm. The results showed that the child had an average difference of 3.32% against the expected path when she used her right arm and an average difference of 3.86% against the expected path when the left arm was used. Future improvements will be taken into account, for example, the use of the robot's motor in order to give assistance or resistance to the arm movements of the patient.

Many papers, in which the submerged arc discharge (SAD) method in nanoparticle synthesis was used, reported similar operating parameters, but different electrode erosion rate values, different yields and purities of the obtained nanostructures, and a different sort of contaminants present in the synthesis. Analyzing these articles, we found insufficient attention to ensure the arc power stability, which is a key factor guaranteeing the product homogeneity and quality. This paper presents an analysis of different control strategies, remarks their advantages and drawbacks, and proposes the most appropriate technique to be used in SAD. The most appropriate technique is proposed from the SAD stabilization method analysis.

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