Search results for "MIRROR"
showing 10 items of 202 documents
Resonance of cortico-cortical connections of the motor system with the observation of goal directed grasping movements
2010
Goal directed movements require the activation of parietal, premotor and primary motor areas. In monkeys, neurons of these areas become active also during the observation of movements performed by others, especially for coding the goal of the action (mirror system). Using bifocal transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in healthy subjects, we tested whether the observation of goal directed reach to grasp actions may lead to specific changes in the short-latency connections linking key areas of the mirror system, such as the anterior intraparietal cortex (AIP) and the ventral premotor cortex (PMv), with the primary motor cortex (M1). We found that AIP-M1 and PMv-M1 cortico-cortical interacti…
Role of abdominal obesity for functional outcomes and complications in men treated with radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer: results of the Mul…
2014
Objective. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of abdominal obesity on preoperative features, complications and functional outcomes of men treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) for prostate cancer. Material and methods. In 2006 a multicentre Italian report on RP evaluated the surgical and functional characteristics of prostate cancer and RP outcomes. Age and waist circumference (WC) were recorded. Abdominal obesity was defined as a WC of at least 102 cm. International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) score, prostate-specific antigen, prostate volume, tumour characteristics, presence/absence of perioperative complications and the number of blood units transfused were recorded. Preoper…
Predicting domain-specific actions in expert table tennis players activates the semantic brain network.
2018
Motor expertise acquired during long-term training in sports enables top athletes to predict the outcomes of domain-specific actions better than nonexperts do. However, whether expert players encode actions, in addition to the concrete sensorimotor level, also at a more abstract, conceptual level, remains unclear. The present study manipulated the congruence between body kinematics and the subsequent ball trajectory in videos of an expert player performing table tennis serves. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the brain activity was evaluated in expert and nonexpert table tennis players during their predictions on the fate of the ball trajectory in congruent versus incongruent…
Robot passes the mirror test by inner speech
2021
Abstract The mirror test is a well-known task in Robotics. The existing strategies are based on kinesthetic-visual matching techniques and manipulate perceptual and motion data. The proposed work attempts to demonstrate that it is possible to implement a robust robotic self-recognition method by the inner speech, i.e. the self-dialogue that enables reasoning on symbolic information. The robot self-talks and conceptually reasons on the symbolic forms of signals, and infers if the robot it sees in the mirror is itself or not. The idea is supported by the existing literature in psychology, where the importance of inner speech in self-reflection and self-concept emergence for solving the mirror…
Active shape correction of a thin glass/plastic x-ray mirror
2015
Optics for future X-ray telescopes will be characterized by very large aperture and focal length, and will be made of lightweight materials like glass or plastic in order to keep the total mass within acceptable limits. Optics based on thin slumped glass foils are currently in use in the NuSTAR telescope and are being developed at various institutes like INAF/OAB, aiming at improving the angular resolution to a few arcsec HEW. Another possibility would be the use of thin plastic foils, being developed at SAO and the Palermo University. Even if relevant progresses in the achieved angular resolution were recently made, a viable possibility to further improve the mirror figure would be the app…
Microcavity Light Emitting Diodes Based on GaN membranes Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy on Silicon
2003
Resonant-cavity InGaN/GaN quantum well light emitting diodes have been fabricated. Nitride layers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Si (111). We fabricated the structures using a combination of Si substrate etching, GaN etching and dielectric (Ta2O5/SiO2) mirror deposition. The electroluminescence spectra show that the emission within the distributed Bragg reflector stop band is enhanced in the membrane microcavity. The cavity modes are broadened by some cavity length non-uniformity that is introduced when the GaN is back etched to adjust the cavity length. This process does not need any transfer on an intermediate host substrate and is fully compatible with large area semiconductor p…
CMOS Photodiode Design for Gamma Camera Application
2008
We designed new photodiodes sensors including current mirror amplifiers. These photodiodes have been fabricated using a CMOS 0.6 micrometers process from Austria Micro System (AMS). The photodiode areas are respectively 1 mm × 1 mm and 0.4 mm × 0.4 mm with fill factor 98% and total chip area is 2 square millimetres. The sensor pixels show a logarithmic response in illumination and are capable of detecting very low blue light (less than 0.5 lux) . These results allow to use our sensor in new gamma camera solid-state concept.
Realization and drive tests of active thin glass x-ray mirrors
2016
A technique to obtain lightweight and high-resolution focusing mirror segments for large aperture X-ray telescopes is the hot slumping of thin glass foils. In this approach, already successfully experimented to manufacture the optics of the NuSTAR X-ray telescope, thin glasses are formed at high temperature onto a precisely figured mould. The formed glass foils are subsequently stacked onto a stiff backplane with a common axis and focus to form an XOU (X-ray Optical Unit), to be later integrated in the telescope optic structure. In this process, the low thickness of the glass foils guarantees a low specific mass and a very low obstruction of the effective area. However, thin glasses are sub…
Combined heat and power generation with a HCPV system at 2000 suns
2015
In the framework of the FAE “Fotovoltaico ad Alta Efficienza” (“High Efficiency Photovoltaic”) Research Project funded by the Sicilian Region under the program PO FESR Sicilia 2007/2013 4.1.1.1, we have developed an innovative solar CHP system for the combined production of heat and power at the high concentration level of 2000 suns [1]. This work shows the experimental results obtained on FAE-HCPV modules and analyses the behaviour of the system. The solar radiation is concentrated on commercial InGaP/InGaAs/Ge triple-junction solar cells designed for intensive work. The primary optics is a rectangular off-axis parabolic mirror (with a size of 46x46 = 2116 cm2 in a projection normal to the…
Focusing System for a Non-Normal Incidence Pumped, Sub-10 nm TCE XRL
2008
An extended ray-tracing study of the main pumping pulse (MP) focusing optics was made in order to develop a transient collisionally excited (TCE) x-ray laser (XRL) set-up for sub 10 nm wavelength by using non-normal incidence pumping. The study takes into account limitations determined by the large beam dimensions of the high energy MP. A setup using two off-the-shelf spherical mirrors is proposed, corresponding to a possible realization at the PHELIX laser facility.