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Performing Brains on Screen deals with film enactments and representations of the belief that human beings are essentially their brains, a belief that embodies one of the most influential modern ways of understanding the human. Films have performed brains in two chief ways: by turning physical brains into protagonists, as in the \"brain movies\" of the 1950s, which show terrestrial or extra-terrestrial disembodied brains carrying out their evil intentions; or by giving brains that remain unseen inside someone's head an explicitly major role, as in brain transplantation films or their successors since the 1980s, in which brain contents are transferred and manipulated by means of information technology. Through an analysis of filmic genres and particular movies, Performing Brains on Screen documents this neglected filmic universe, and demonstrates how the cinema has functioned as a cultural space where a core notion of the contemporary world has been rehearsed and problematized.

Tactile rendering has been implemented in digital musical instruments (DMIs) to offer the musician haptic feedback that enhances his/her music playing experience. Recently, this implementation has expanded to the development of sensory substitution systems known as haptic music players (HMPs) to give the opportunity of experiencing music through touch to the hearing impaired. These devices may also be conceived as vibrotactile music players to enrich music listening activities. In this review, technology and methods to render musical information by means of vibrotactile stimuli are systematically studied. The methodology used to find out relevant literature is first outlined, and a preliminary classification of musical haptics is proposed. A comparison between different technologies and methods for vibrotactile rendering is performed to later organize the information according to the type of HMP. Limitations and advantages are highlighted to find out opportunities for future research. Likewise, methods for music audio-tactile rendering (ATR) are analyzed and, finally, strategies to compose for the sense of touch are summarized. This review is intended for researchers in the fields of haptics, assistive technologies, music, psychology, and human–computer interaction as well as artists that may make use of it as a reference to develop upcoming research on HMPs and ATR.

This study investigates the minimum stimulus duration required to perceive the transition from pulse to vibration sensations, a critical parameter for optimizing information transmission via haptic interfaces such as smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, game consoles, and sensory substitution systems. Efficient transmission relies on minimizing stimulus duration, enabling more information to be conveyed in less time. A preliminary experiment established intensity perception thresholds—the minimum vibration intensities detectable—at 40, 80, 150, 250, 300, and 590 Hz, frequencies primarily activating the Pacinian (Rapid Adapting II) psychophysical channel. Subsequently, 35 participants determined the minimum durations needed to perceive the transition from pulse to vibration sensations across this frequency range. Results revealed a consistent minimum duration of approximately 30 ms, contrasting with findings in audition, where shorter durations suffice at higher frequencies, but aligning with prior studies in tactile perception.

Abstract Context Few data exist about the clinical course of acromegaly, surgical and medical outcomes in patients with GH- and prolactin cosecreting pituitary adenomas (GH&PRL-PAs). Nevertheless, some series described a more aggressive clinic-radiological behavior than in growth hormone–secreting pituitary adenomas (GH-PAs). Objective This work aims to evaluate differences in clinical presentation and in surgical outcomes between GH-PAs and GH&PRL-PAs. Methods A multicenter retrospective study was conducted of 604 patients with acromegaly who underwent pituitary surgery. Patients were classified into 2 groups according to serum PRL levels at diagnosis and immunohistochemistry (IHC) for PRL: a) GH&PRL-PAs when PRL levels were above the upper limit of normal (ULN) and IHC for GH and PRL was positive or PRL levels were greater than 100 ng/dL and PRL IHC was not available (n = 130) and b) GH-PA patients who did not meet the previously mentioned criteria (n = 474). Results GH&PRL-PAs represented 21.5% (n = 130) of patients with acromegaly. The mean age at diagnosis was lower in GH&PRL-PAs than in GH-PAs (P < .001). GH&PRL-PAs were more frequently macroadenomas (90.6% vs 77.4%; P = .001) and tended to be more invasive (33.6% vs 24.7%; P = .057) than GH-PAs. Furthermore, they had presurgical hypopituitarism more frequently (odds ratio 2.8; 95% CI, 1.83-4.38). Insulin-like growth factor ULN levels at diagnosis were lower in patients with GH&PRL-PAs (median 2.4 [interquartile range (IQR) 1.73-3.29] vs 2.7 [IQR 1.91-3.67]; P = .023). There were no differences in the immediate (41.1% vs 43.3%; P = .659) or long-term postsurgical acromegaly biochemical cure rate (53.5% vs 53.1%; P = .936) between groups. However, there was a higher incidence of permanent arginine-vasopressin deficiency (AVP-D) (7.3% vs 2.4%; P = .011) in GH&PRL-PA patients. Conclusion GH&PRL-PAs are responsible for 20% of acromegaly cases. These tumors are more invasive, larger, and cause hypopituitarism more frequently than GH-PAs and are diagnosed at an earlier age. The biochemical cure rate is similar between both groups, but patients with GH&PRL-PAs tend to develop permanent postsurgical AVP-D more frequently.

This paper presents a procedure for classifying objects based on their compliance with information gathered using tactile sensors. Specifically, smart tactile sensors provide the raw moments of the tactile image when the object is squeezed and desqueezed. A set of simple parameters from moment-versus-time graphs are proposed as features, to build the input vector of a classifier. The extraction of these features was implemented in the field programmable gate array (FPGA) of a system on chip (SoC), while the classifier was implemented in its ARM core. Many different options were realized and analyzed, depending on their complexity and performance in terms of resource usage and accuracy of classification. A classification accuracy of over 94% was achieved for a set of 42 different classes. The proposed approach is intended for developing architectures with preprocessing on the embedded FPGA of smart tactile sensors, to obtain high performance in real-time complex robotic systems.

This paper reports on the progress of a wearable assistive technology (AT) device designed to enhance the independent, safe, and efficient mobility of blind and visually impaired pedestrians in outdoor environments. Such device exploits the smartphone’s positioning and computing capabilities to locate and guide users along urban settings. The necessary navigation instructions to reach a destination are encoded as vibrating patterns which are conveyed to the user via a foot-placed tactile interface. To determine the performance of the proposed AT device, two user experiments were conducted. The first one requested a group of 20 voluntary normally sighted subjects to recognize the feedback provided by the tactile-foot interface. The results showed recognition rates over 93%. The second experiment involved two blind voluntary subjects which were assisted to find target destinations along public urban pathways. Results show that the subjects successfully accomplished the task and suggest that blind and visually impaired pedestrians might find the AT device and its concept approach useful, friendly, fast to master, and easy to use.

Performing Brains on Screen deals with film enactments and representations of the belief that human beings are essentially their brains, a belief that embodies one of the most influential modern ways of understanding the human. Films have performed brains in two chief ways: by turning physical brains into protagonists, as in the \"brain movies\" of the 1950s, which show terrestrial or extra-terrestrial disembodied brains carrying out their evil intentions; or by giving brains that remain unseen inside someone's head an explicitly major role, as in brain transplantation films or their successors since the 1980s, in which brain contents are transferred and manipulated by means of information technology. Through an analysis of filmic genres and particular movies, Performing Brains on Screen documents this neglected filmic universe, and demonstrates how the cinema has functioned as a cultural space where a core notion of the contemporary world has been rehearsed and problematized.

The economic valuation of environmental resources is of great interest to society in general and to public managers in particular. It can promote more sustainable environmental policies, as it clearly shows the high economic value of natural resources. Thus, these valuation tools can provide useful evidence to support such policies by quantifying the economic value associated with the protection of such resources. However, there is an inherent difficulty in the implementation of methods to assess the economic valuation of environmental resources, mainly as a result of the absence of a market and hence a price that explains its social demand. However, both the travel cost method and the contingent valuation method used in this paper offer an approach to the economic values of the recreational services for wetlands. The aim is to analyze whether these values have been influenced by the economic crisis, so two time periods are compared separated for a decade. Results do not show an unequivocal influence between values in both periods, with different behaviors among natural areas, although with a certain tendency to increase in the decade being analyzed.

Gait analysis has many applications, and specifically can improve the control of prosthesis, exoskeletons, or Functional Electrical Stimulation systems. The use of canes is common to complement the assistance in these cases, and the synergy between upper and lower limbs can be exploited to obtain information about the gait. This is interesting especially in the case of unilateral assistance, for instance in the case of one side lower limb exoskeletons. If the cane is instrumented, it can hold sensors that otherwise should be attached to the body of the impaired user. This can ease the use of the assistive system in daily life as well as its acceptance. Moreover, Force Sensing Resistors (FSRs) are common in gait phase detection systems, and force sensors are also common in user intention detection. Therefore, a cane that incorporates FSRs on the handle can take advantage from the direct interface with the human and provide valuable information to implement real-time control. This is done in this paper, and the results confirm that many events are detected from variables derived from the readings of the FSRs that provide rich information about gait. However, a large inter-subject variability points to the need of tailored control systems.