Avoidance of axonal stimulation with sinusoidal epiretinal stimulation.

Neuromodulation, particularly electrical stimulation, necessitates high spatial resolution to achieve artificial vision with high acuity. In epiretinal implants, this is hindered by the undesired activation of distal axons. Here, we investigate focal and axonal activation of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in epiretinal configuration for different sinusoidal stimulation frequencies.

High spatial resolution artificial vision inferred from the spiking output of retinal ganglion cells stimulated by optogenetic and electrical means.

With vision impairment affecting millions of people world-wide, various strategies aiming at vision restoration are being undertaken. Thanks to decades of extensive research, electrical stimulation approaches to vision restoration began to undergo clinical trials. Quite recently, another technique employing optogenetic therapy emerged as a possible alternative.

A flexible protruding microelectrode array for neural interfacing in bioelectronic medicine.

Recording neural signals from delicate autonomic nerves is a challenging task that requires the development of a low-invasive neural interface with highly selective, micrometer-sized electrodes. This paper reports on the development of a three-dimensional (3D) protruding thin-film microelectrode array (MEA), which is intended to be used for recording low-amplitude neural signals from pelvic nervous structures by penetrating the nerves transversely to reduce the distance to the axons. Cylindrical gold pillars (Ø 20 or 50 µm, ~60 µm height) were fabricated on a micromachined polyimide substrate in an electroplating process.

In Vitro Cytotoxicity of D18 and Y6 as Potential Organic Photovoltaic Materials for Retinal Prostheses.

Millions of people worldwide are diagnosed with retinal dystrophies such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. A retinal prosthesis using organic photovoltaic (OPV) semiconductors is a promising therapeutic device to restore vision to patients at the late onset of the disease. However, an appropriate cytotoxicity approach has to be employed on the OPV materials before using them as retinal implants.

Plates vs. nails in humeral shaft fractures: Do plates lead to a better shoulder function?

Background: The purpose of this study was to compare shoulder outcomes and function after humeral shaft fractures treated with plates and screws vs. antegrade nailing.

Methods: A group of 27 patients treated with plates and a group of 30 patients (previously published) who had undergone antegrade locked intramedullary nailing, all with acute humeral shaft fractures, were retrospectively compared.

Discrimination of simple objects decoded from the output of retinal ganglion cells upon sinusoidal electrical stimulation.

. Most neuroprosthetic implants employ pulsatile square-wave electrical stimuli, which are significantly different from physiological inter-neuronal communication. In case of retinal neuroprosthetics, which use a certain type of pulsatile stimuli, reliable object and contrast discrimination by implanted blind patients remained challenging.

CMOS-based cryogenic control of silicon quantum circuits.

The most promising quantum algorithms require quantum processors that host millions of quantum bits when targeting practical applications. A key challenge towards large-scale quantum computation is the interconnect complexity. In current solid-state qubit implementations, an important interconnect bottleneck appears between the quantum chip in a dilution refrigerator and the room-temperature electronics.

HDAC inhibition ameliorates cone survival in retinitis pigmentosa mice.

Cone photoreceptor cell death in inherited retinal diseases, such as Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), leads to the loss of high acuity and color vision and, ultimately to blindness. In RP, a vast number of mutations perturb the structure and function of rod photoreceptors, while cones remain initially unaffected. Extensive rod loss in advanced stages of the disease triggers cone death by a mechanism that is still largely unknown.

Author Correction: Memristive synapses connect brain and silicon spiking neurons.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Memristive synapses connect brain and silicon spiking neurons.

Brain function relies on circuits of spiking neurons with synapses playing the key role of merging transmission with memory storage and processing. Electronics has made important advances to emulate neurons and synapses and brain-computer interfacing concepts that interlink brain and brain-inspired devices are beginning to materialise. We report on memristive links between brain and silicon spiking neurons that emulate transmission and plasticity properties of real synapses.

Elbow Posterolateral Rotatory Instability due to Cubitus Varus and Overuse.

A malunion as a complication of distal humerus fractures has been frequently linked with aesthetic problems but less frequently with posterolateral rotatory instability. We report 2 cases of childhood posttraumatic cubitus varus with subsequent posterolateral rotatory instability and their treatment with a minimum of 2 years of follow-up. The etiology of the so-called posterolateral rotatory instability of the elbow is mostly traumatic, but iatrogenic causes have also been described such as the treatment of tennis elbow and less frequently and chronically due to overuse and overload because of distal humerus malunion.

Electrode-size dependent thresholds in subretinal neuroprosthetic stimulation.

Objective: Retinal prostheses have shown promising results in restoring some visual perception to blind patients but successful identification of objects of different size remains a challenge. Here we investigated electrode-size specific stimulation thresholds and their variability for subretinal electrical stimulation. Our findings indicate the range of charge densities required to achieve identification of small objects and the object-size-specific scaling of stimulation threshold.

Level Spectrum and Charge Relaxation in a Silicon Double Quantum Dot Probed by Dual-Gate Reflectometry.

We report on dual-gate reflectometry in a metal-oxide-semiconductor double-gate silicon transistor operating at low temperature as a double quantum dot device. The reflectometry setup consists of two radio frequency resonators respectively connected to the two gate electrodes. By simultaneously measuring their dispersive responses, we obtain the complete charge stability diagram of the device.

A CMOS silicon spin qubit.

Silicon, the main constituent of microprocessor chips, is emerging as a promising material for the realization of future quantum processors. Leveraging its well-established complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology would be a clear asset to the development of scalable quantum computing architectures and to their co-integration with classical control hardware. Here we report a silicon quantum bit (qubit) device made with an industry-standard fabrication process.

Quantum dot made in metal oxide silicon-nanowire field effect transistor working at room temperature.

We report the observation of an atomic like behavior from T = 4.2 K up to room temperature in n- and p-type Ω-gate silicon nanowire (NW) transistors. For that purpose, we modified the design of a NW transistor and introduced long spacers between the source/drain and the channel in order to separate the channel from the electrodes.

[An unusual pneumomediastinum case in a child caused by spontaneous bronchial rupture].

We report a case of spontaneous pneumomediastinum (SPM) in a 3 year-old child, admitted to the emergency department because he presented dyspnea for a few hours, after a paroxysm of cough. The SPM is rare in children; the term "spontaneous" is reserved for cases of pneumomediastinum that haven't a traumatic cause. SPM is seen most commonly in asthmatics and in any patient who induces a Valsalva maneuver.

[A sign of the changing times: neonatal scabies].

Scabies is an itchy-parasitic cutaneous infection; it can spread from person to person directly or through clothing, sheets or mattresses. The incidence had fallen a lot during the last ten years, but recently it is growing up again; this is due to immigration of people coming from countries where local hygienic and social conditions are very poor. In this contest it is more frequent to observe the infection in pediatric age, sometimes also newborn.

Loperamide test: a simple and highly specific screening test for hypercortisolism in children and adolescents.

The overnight dexamethasone (DXM) test can give false-positive results in a few conditions (e.g. stress, strenuous exercise, depression, anorexia, anxiety, anticonvulsive therapy) in diagnosing simple obesity and hypercortisolism (HC).