Patients with RA may have electrophysiologic and histologic findings of peripheral nerve damage, even in the absence of clinical evidence of peripheral nerve involvement.

In 19 median and 10 ulnar nerves of 28 healthy young volunteers, the maximum orthodromic sensory conduction velocity was studied along one or two fingers (the third and/or the fifth), the palm, and the forearm. In five 20 to 32-yr-old males and in a newborn male, post-mortem samples of either the median or the ulnar nerve were obtained from the finger (either the third or the fifth), the palm, the wrist and the forearm in order to study the size distribution of external fibre and axon diameters, and the fibre internodal length. In 2374 infants, children and adolescents, the height, length of both the third and the fifth finger, length of the palm, and length of the forearm were measured. The results showed (i) a significantly slower conduction velocity along the fingers; (ii) a significantly shorter internodal length without remarkable fibre diameter changes in the same nerve segments; (iii) a significantly smaller elongation of these body parts; (iv) a significant correlation between these data. In conclusion, internodal length seems to play an important role in governing conduction velocity of myelinated peripheral nerve fibres.

A soft 3D reconstruction algorithm for non cooperative moving targets is proposed in this paper. This method exploits a dual interferometric ISAR system (InISAR) to estimate the heights of the dominant scatterers with respect to the Image Projection Plane (IPP). In particular, the interferometric phases measured from two orthogonal baselines are used to reconstruct both the third dimension from 2D-ISAR images and the IPP. A Cross-Channel Coherence-based detection is used in order to take into account only the areas of the target with meaningful interferometric phase. In order to verify the effectiveness and the reliability of this technique, a Multi-Channel ground-based radar has been used

A 3D planar inverted F-antenna (PIFA) is proposed for a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. The antenna is designed to be integrated in a portable device and must meet compact size requirements. The 3D PIFA consists of a single metal sheet properly cut and bent in order to minimize costs for realization, materials and series production. The linearly polarized antenna exhibits good impedance matching performance, wide beam radiation patterns and a relatively high gain, which allow the reception from a wide angle toward the satellite constellation. An antenna prototype has been embedded in a commercial GPS receiver and an experimental measurement campaign has been carried out to evaluate the most important performance parameters. Measurements have been performed out by collecting time sweeps signal samples along urban and suburban routes. Time to first fix, carrier to noise ratio distribution and horizontal dilution of precision have been calculated; these parameters are shown and discussed. Comparisons with respect to some reference circularly polarized antennas (a nearly square patch and a quadrifilar helix antenna) and to a simpler inverted-F antenna printed on the receiver PCB have been performed and are shown in the pape

We compared the characteristics of near-nerve recorded sensory potentials elicited in response to electrical stimulation of digital nerves versus tactile stimulation of the digital skin in 17 healthy subjects with a mean age of 26 years. We also calculated the density of Meissner's corpuscles in the distal and proximal phalanx of digit III of 6 males who had suffered a violent death, but were free from diseases of the peripheral nerve system. Responses to tactile stimulation had a longer latency and lower amplitude than responses to electrical stimulation. Unlike electrically elicited responses, responses to tactile stimulation, which consisted of six or seven main spike components plus several minor components, were similar in recordings from the wrist and elbow. However, with proximal stimulation the electrically evoked responses were more compact and had a higher amplitude and area, whereas the tactile evoked potential became significantly reduced in maximum amplitude and cumulative area. The differences in sensory conduction between distal and proximal could reflect activation of a larger number of nerve fibers when electrical stimuli are used and a smaller amount of mechanoreceptors when tactile stimuli are used.