Publicações

@article{Germer2025,

title = {NeuroNella: Automatic identification of neural activity from multielectrode arrays with blind source separation},

author = {Carina Marconi Germer and Dario Farina and Stuart N Baker and Alessandro Del Vecchio},

doi = {10.1088/1741-2552/adc5a4},

issn = {1741-2552},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-03-26},

journal = {J. Neural Eng.},

publisher = {IOP Publishing},

abstract = {Abstract

               Objective: The identification of individual neuronal activity from multielectrode arrays poses significant challenges, including handling data from numerous electrodes, resolving overlapping action potentials and tracking activity across long recordings. This study introduces NeuroNella, an automated algorithm developed to address these challenges. Approach: NeuroNella employs blind source separation to leverage the sparsity of action potentials in multichannel recordings. It was validated using three datasets, including two publicly available ones: (1) in vitro recordings (252 channels) of retinal ganglion cells from mice with simultaneous ground-truth loose patch data to assess accuracy; (2) a Neuropixel recording from an awake mouse, comprising 374 channels spanning different brain areas, to demonstrate scalability with dense multielectrode configurations in in vivo recordings; and (3) data (32 channels) recorded from the medullary reticular formation in a terminally anaesthetised macaque, to showcase decomposition over long periods of time. Main Results: The algorithm exhibited an error rate of less than 1% compared to ground-truth data. It reliably identified individual neurons, detected neuronal activity across a wide amplitude range, and tolerated minor probe shifts, maintaining robustness in prolonged experimental sessions. Significance: NeuroNella provides an automated and efficient method for neuronal activity identification. Its adaptability to diverse dataset, species, and recording configurations underscores its potential to advance studies of neuronal dynamics and facilitate real-time neuronal decoding systems.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Viviani2025,

title = {Design and usability assessment of touchscreen interface in medical devices: a case study of a neonatal incubator},

author = {Carlos Alessandro Bassi Viviani and Leonardo Abdala Elias and Saide Jorge Calil},

doi = {10.1007/s42600-025-00401-x},

issn = {2446-4740},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-03-00},

journal = {Res. Biomed. Eng.},

volume = {41},

number = {1},

publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Nuccio2024,

title = {Neuroplastic alterations in common synaptic inputs and synergistic motor unit clusters controlling the vastii muscles of individuals with ACL reconstruction},

author = {Stefano Nuccio and Carina M Germer and Andrea Casolo and Riccardo Borzuola and Luciana Labanca and Jacopo E. Rocchi and Pier Paolo Mariani and Francesco Felici and Dario Farina and Deborah Falla and Andrea Macaluso and Paola Sbriccoli and Alessandro Del Vecchio},

doi = {10.1152/japplphysiol.00056.2024},

issn = {1522-1601},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-10-01},

urldate = {2024-10-01},

journal = {Journal of Applied Physiology},

volume = {137},

number = {4},

pages = {835--847},

publisher = {American Physiological Society},

abstract = {<jats:p> Chronic quadriceps dysfunction is common after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). We investigated voluntary force control strategies by estimating common inputs to motor neurons innervating the vastii muscles. Our results showed attenuated common inputs to the vastus lateralis and plastic rearrangements in functional clusters of motor neurons modulating knee extension forces in the reconstructed limb. These findings suggest neuroplastic adjustments following ACLR that may occur to fine-tune the control of quadriceps forces. </jats:p>},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Romariz2024,

title = {High Concentrations of Cannabidiol Induce Neurotoxicity in Neurosphere Culture System},

author = {Simone A. A. Romariz and Viviam Sanabria and Karina Ribeiro da Silva and Miguel L. Quintella and Bruna A. G. de Melo and Marimélia Porcionatto and Danilo Candido de Almeida and Beatriz M. Longo},

doi = {10.1007/s12640-024-00692-5},

issn = {1476-3524},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-02-00},

journal = {Neurotox Res},

volume = {42},

number = {1},

publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{nokey,

title = {Teste de Pureza Radioquímica em Serviços de Medicina Nuclear: Calibrador de Doses Versus Contador Gama Tipo Poço},

author = {Ana Paula Marques da Costa and Sergio Querino Brunetto and Daniel Massaro Onusic and Celso Dario Ramos},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.29384/rbfm.2018.v12.n2.p30-38},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-12-20},

journal = {Revista Brasileira De Física Médica},

volume = {12},

issue = {2},

pages = {30-38},

abstract = {O uso do radionuclídeo tecnécio-99m ligado a diversos fármacos é de suma importância na medicina nuclear, devido às suas características físico-químicas e radiológicas. Dentro dos serviços, é necessário um controle de qualidade de marcação eficaz, confiável e reprodutível visando eficácia do procedimento para que não exista concentração indesejável do material radioativo em outros órgãos além daqueles de interesse, devido às falhas da marcação. Um dos controles empregados nos serviços de medicina nuclear brasileiros é conhecido como determinação da pureza radioquímica (DPR), feito pela técnica de cromatografia em papel (coluna ascendente) e as aferições das atividades presentes nas amostras são feitas no medidor de atividades conhecido, também, como calibrador de doses. Este equipamento é eficiente sob o ponto de vista de aferir as atividades das alíquotas de radiofármacos administradas aos pacientes, entretanto, para avaliar a DPR são utilizadas atividades da ordem de milionésimo das administradas aos pacientes e, nessa faixa de atividade, supõe-se que o equipamento necessita de caracterizações e condições específicas para garantir a eficácia deste controle. O método padrão ouro para a aferição da DPR utiliza o contador gama tipo poço, entretanto, no Brasil o número de serviços de medicina nuclear com este tipo de equipamento é pequeno. Assim, o trabalho visou comparar os valores de eficiência obtidos nestes dois equipamentos. Na comparação, utilizou-se do teste não paramétrico de Wilcoxon com valor de significância (p-value) de 0,05 e não se encontrou diferenças significativas entre as medidas feitas com os equipamentos. Foram também determinadas às condições confiáveis para a utilização do medidor de atividades nas faixas de atividade empregas na DPR e as condições para que a radiação de fundo (background) do equipamento seja mínima a fim de não interferir na quantificação do teste cromatográfico.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{nokey,

title = {Influence of brain region of interest location for apparent diffusion coefficient maps calculation for reference values to be used in the in vivo characterization of brain tumors in magnetic resonance images},

author = {Edna Marina de Souza and Gabriela Castellano and Eduardo Tavares Costa},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.29384/rbfm.2011.v5.n1.p89-92},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-10-27},

urldate = {2023-10-27},

journal = {Revista Brasileira De Física Médica},

volume = {5},

issue = {1},

pages = {89–92},

abstract = {In general, pathologic processes, such as neoplasic cell changes, tend to alter the magnitude of structural organization by destruction or reorganization of membranous elements or by a change in cellularity. These changes will also have an impact on proton mobility, which can be followed up by DWI (diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging). From DWI is obtained the ADC (apparent diffusion coefficient) map, which is a representation of the magnitude of water diffusion at the points of a given region of interest (ROI). The purpose of this study was to assess the variation of ADC values in different brain ROIs of normal subjects, using a computer tool previously developed. The aim of this assessment was to verify whether ADC values could be used to differentiate between normal subjects and patients with multiform glioblastoma (a high-grade glioma) and meningioma. ADC maps were calculated for 10 controls, 10 patients with glioblastoma and 10 with meningioma. For controls, mean ADC values were calculated for 10 different ROIs, located in the same places where the tumors were present in the patients. These values were then averaged over ROIs and over subjects, giving a mean ADC value of (8.65±0.98)x10-4 mm2 /s. The mean ADC values found for brain tumors were (5.03±0.67) x10-4 mm2 /s for meningioma and (2.83±0.45)x10-4 mm2 /s for glioblastoma. We concluded that the ROIs used for computing brain ADC values for controls were not essential for the estimation of normal reference ADC values to be used in the differentiation between these types of tumors and healthy brain tissue},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Milan2023,

title = {Membrane polarization at the excitation threshold induced by external electric fields in cardiomyocytes of rats at different developmental stages},

author = {Hugo F. M. Milan and Ahmad A. Almazloum and Rosana A Bassani and José W M Bassani},

doi = {10.1007/s11517-023-02868-1},

issn = {1741-0444},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-10-00},

urldate = {2023-10-00},

journal = {Med Biol Eng Comput},

volume = {61},

number = {10},

pages = {2637--2647},

publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{pmid36922028,

title = {The Forces Generated by Agonist Muscles during Isometric Contractions Arise from Motor Unit Synergies},

author = {Alessandro Del Vecchio and Carina Marconi Germer and Thomas M Kinfe and Stefano Nuccio and François Hug and Bjoern Eskofier and Dario Farina and Roger M Enoka},

doi = {10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1265-22.2023},

issn = {1529-2401},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-04-01},

journal = {J Neurosci},

volume = {43},

number = {16},

pages = {2860--2873},

abstract = {The purpose of our study was to identify the low-dimensional latent components, defined hereafter as motor unit modes, underlying the discharge rates of the motor units in two knee extensors (vastus medialis and lateralis, eight men) and two hand muscles (first dorsal interossei and thenars, seven men and one woman) during submaximal isometric contractions. Factor analysis identified two independent motor unit modes that captured most of the covariance of the motor unit discharge rates. We found divergent distributions of the motor unit modes for the hand and vastii muscles. On average, 75% of the motor units for the thenar muscles and first dorsal interosseus were strongly correlated with the module for the muscle in which they resided. In contrast, we found a continuous distribution of motor unit modes spanning the two vastii muscle modules. The proportion of the muscle-specific motor unit modes was 60% for vastus medialis and 45% for vastus lateralis. The other motor units were either correlated with both muscle modules (shared inputs) or belonged to the module for the other muscle (15% for vastus lateralis). Moreover, coherence of the discharge rates between motor unit pools was explained by the presence of shared synaptic inputs. In simulations with 480 integrate-and-fire neurons, we demonstrate that factor analysis identifies the motor unit modes with high levels of accuracy. Our results indicate that correlated discharge rates of motor units that comprise motor unit modes arise from at least two independent sources of common input among the motor neurons innervating synergistic muscles. It has been suggested that the nervous system controls synergistic muscles by projecting common synaptic inputs to the engaged motor neurons. In our study, we reduced the dimensionality of the output produced by pools of synergistic motor neurons innervating the hand and thigh muscles during isometric contractions. We found two neural modules, each representing a different common input, that were each specific for one of the muscles. In the vastii muscles, we found a continuous distribution of motor unit modes spanning the two synergistic muscles. Some of the motor units from the homonymous vastii muscle were controlled by the dominant neural module of the other synergistic muscle. In contrast, we found two distinct neural modules for the hand muscles.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Rocha2022,

title = {Machine learning algorithms for dengue risk assessment: a case study for São Luís do Maranhão},

author = {Fernanda Paula Rocha and Mateus Giesbrecht},

doi = {10.1007/s40314-022-02101-z},

issn = {1807-0302},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-12-00},

journal = {Comp. Appl. Math.},

volume = {41},

number = {8},

publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Cruz2022,

title = {Partial Discharges Monitoring for Electric Machines Diagnosis: A Review},

author = {Jonathan dos Santos Cruz and Fabiano Fruett and Renato da Rocha Lopes and Fabio Luiz Takaki and Claudia de Andrade Tambascia and Eduardo Rodrigues de Lima and Mateus Giesbrecht},

doi = {10.3390/en15217966},

issn = {1996-1073},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-11-00},

journal = {Energies},

volume = {15},

number = {21},

publisher = {MDPI AG},

abstract = {Online monitoring of Partial Discharges (PDs) in rotating electrical machines is an useful tool for machine prognosis, as it presents reduced costs compared to intrusive inspections and is associated with relevant problems. Although this monitoring method has been developed for almost 50 years, the recent advancements in processes automation and signal processing techniques allow improvements that are still being studied by academic and industrial researchers. To analyze the current context of PDs monitoring, this article presents a literature review based on concepts of PDs in rotating machines, data acquisition techniques, state-of-the art commercial equipment, and recent methodologies for detection and pattern recognition of PDs. The challenges identified in the literature that motivate the development of more reliable and robust PD monitoring systems are presented and discussed.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Alegria2022,

title = {An associative-memory-based method for system nonlinearities recursive estimation},

author = {Elvis Jara Alegria and Mateus Giesbrecht and Celso Pascoli Bottura},

doi = {10.1016/j.automatica.2022.110343},

issn = {0005-1098},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-08-00},

journal = {Automatica},

volume = {142},

publisher = {Elsevier BV},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{deMelo2022,

title = {3D Bioprinted Neural‐Like Tissue as a Platform to Study Neurotropism of Mouse‐Adapted SARS‐CoV‐2},

author = {Bruna A. G. de Melo and Mayara V. Mundim and Robertha M. R. Lemes and Elisa M. Cruz and Tais N. Ribeiro and Carolina F. Santiago and Jéssica H. L. da Fonsêca and Julia C. Benincasa and Roberta S. Stilhano and Nathalia Mantovani and Luiz C. Santana and Ricardo Durães‐Carvalho and Ricardo S. Diaz and Luiz M. R. Janini and Juliana T. Maricato and Marimelia A. Porcionatto},

doi = {10.1002/adbi.202200002},

issn = {2701-0198},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-08-00},

journal = {Advanced Biology},

volume = {6},

number = {8},

publisher = {Wiley},

abstract = {AbstractThe effects of neuroinvasion by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) become clinically relevant due to the numerous neurological symptoms observed in Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) patients during infection and post‐COVID syndrome or long COVID. This study reports the biofabrication of a 3D bioprinted neural‐like tissue as a proof‐of‐concept platform for a more representative study of SARS‐CoV‐2 brain infection. Bioink is optimized regarding its biophysical properties and is mixed with murine neural cells to construct a 3D model of COVID‐19 infection. Aiming to increase the specificity to murine cells, SARS‐CoV‐2 is mouse‐adapted (MA‐SARS‐CoV‐2) in vitro, in a protocol first reported here. MA‐SARS‐CoV‐2 reveals mutations located at the Orf1a and Orf3a domains and is evolutionarily closer to the original Wuhan SARS‐CoV‐2 strain than SARS‐CoV‐2 used for adaptation. Remarkably, MA‐SARS‐CoV‐2 shows high specificity to murine cells, which present distinct responses when cultured in 2D and 3D systems, regarding cell morphology, neuroinflammation, and virus titration. MA‐SARS‐CoV‐2 represents a valuable tool in studies using animal models, and the 3D neural‐like tissue serves as a powerful in vitro platform for modeling brain infection, contributing to the development of antivirals and new treatments for COVID‐19.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{pmid35696826,

title = {Effects of light finger touch on the regularity of center-of-pressure fluctuations during quiet bipedal and single-leg postural tasks},

author = {Jéssica Rodrigues Lara and Cristiano Rocha da Silva and Felipe Fava de Lima and Marcos Camargo da Silva and André Fabio Kohn and Leonardo Abdala Elias and Fernando Henrique Magalhães},

doi = {10.1016/j.gaitpost.2022.05.036},

issn = {1879-2219},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-07-01},

journal = {Gait Posture},

volume = {96},

pages = {203--209},

abstract = {BACKGROUND: The use of extra sources of sensory information associated with light fingertip touch to enhance postural steadiness has been associated with increased attentional demands, whereas the regularity of center of pressure (COP) fluctuations has been interpreted as a marker of the amount of attention invested in posture control.



RESEARCH QUESTION: This study addressed whether increased attentional demands associated with postural tasks involving light finger touch might be reflected by measures of COP regularity.



METHODS: The experiments involved quiet bipedal stance (n = 8 participants) and single-legged stance (n = 14 participants). Each participant was instructed to stand as quietly as possible on a force plate, either touching an external rigid surface (applied force < 1 N, light touch condition), or not (no touch condition). Postural steadiness was assessed by traditional COP measurements (COP Area, RMS, and velocity), whereas the regularity of postural sway was based on estimates of the sample entropy (SaEn) of the COP time series.



RESULTS: Traditional parameters of postural sway and COP regularity (inversely related to SaEn COP measurements) were reduced during the touch conditions as compared to the no-touch conditions, for both bipedal quiet stance and single-legged stance. Decreased COP regularity with light touch was mainly reflected in the direction of the largest postural sway (i.e. in the sagittal plane for bipedal stance and in the frontal plane for single-legged stance).



SIGNIFICANCE: The present results suggest that actively touching an external surface with the fingertip, besides increasing postural steadiness, generated an externally oriented (presumably cognitive-dependent) focus of attention, so that participants invested less attention on the postural task per se (as suggested by increased SaEn), which might be associated with a more "automatic" control of posture.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{pmid34802707,

title = {Influence of central and peripheral motor unit properties on isometric muscle force entropy: A computer simulation study},

author = {Jakob Dideriksen and Leonardo Abdala Elias and Ellen Pereira Zambalde and Carina Marconi Germer and Ricardo Gonçalves Molinari and Francesco Negro},

doi = {10.1016/j.jbiomech.2021.110866},

issn = {1873-2380},

year  = {2022},

date = {2022-06-01},

journal = {J Biomech},

volume = {139},

pages = {110866},

abstract = {Approximate entropy of isometric force is a popular measure to characterize behavioral changes across muscle contraction conditions. The degree to which force entropy characterizes the randomness of the motor control strategy, however, is not known. In this study, we used a computational model to investigate the correlation between approximate entropy of the synaptic input to a motor neuron pool, the neural drive to muscle (cumulative spike train; CST), and the force. This comparison was made across several simulation conditions, that included different synaptic command signal bandwidths, motor neuron pool sizes, and muscle contractile properties. The results indicated that although force entropy to some degree reflects the entropy of the synaptic command to motor neurons, it is biased by changes in motor unit properties. As a consequence, there was a low correlation between approximate entropy of force and the motor neuron input signal across all simulation conditions (r = 0.13). Therefore, force entropy should only be used to compare motor control strategies across conditions where motor neuron properties can be assumed to be maintained. Instead, we recommend that the entropy of the descending motor commands should be estimated from CSTs comprising spike trains of multiple motor units.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}