Programa del congreso

The normal component of the field induced on the cerebral cortex by non-invasive neuromodulation techniques is considered the main responsible for the neuronal depolarization responsible for the neurophysiological and therapeutic effects obtained through its application. By means of two electrode settings oriented to the stimulation of the motor area, we evaluated the said component within the framework of the optimization strategies of the spatial focus on this area in the tDCS techniques, observing significant differences in the orientation of the incident field in different landmarks of the motor area. In order to establish a relationship between these results and the neurophysiological response obtained experimentally, further studies that assess the induced neuronal response in greater detail will be required.

This paper presents the time domain study of an Ultra-wideband (UWB) printed monopole antenna. The antenna, with a size of 36 x 40 mm², works within the operating range of medical imaging and UWB applications. In this work, two identical antennas are used in far field conditions placed in face to face and side by side configurations. The transmission parameters, the group delay and the transmission of pulses, as well as the calculation of the System Fidelity Factor, are analysed in measurement and simulation. As it has been possible to verify, the results obtained have been satisfactory given the great similarity between the transmitted and received pulses.

This paper presents the process carried out to design a hybrid microstrip and stripline resonator at 2.3 GHz. The final purpose of this resonator is the electrical characterization of biological material inside a non-invasive microwave system for breast tumour detection. The design was made with two different high frequency simulators, Advanced Design System for circuital design and High Frequency Electromagnetic Simulation Software for electromagnetic design. A prototype of the designed resonator was fabricated onto a low-cost FR4 substrate and was measured with a Vector Network Analyzer. To obtain the dielectric constant of the biological materials, different concentrations of water and Triton X-100 were used as reference. A six-order equation was calculated to fit the frequency response of the resonator and the dielectric constant of the material under test. Finally, several measured were carried out to obtain the dielectric constant of different materials with a relative error lower than 4%.

In this paper, an omni-directional antenna solution is presented to improve the accuracy of indoor location systems, particularly MYSPHERA Bluetooth Real-Time Locating System (RTLS).

Emitting antennas with an irregular radiation pattern are not suitable for existing localization techniques due to received signal strength variation in the locators. The approach to an isotropic radiation pattern in the emitting device is what is achieved with presented design using two timeswitched antennas with opposing radiation patterns.

This solution allows to receive a uniform signal in the locators and increases precision for any technique, frequency or technology used.

For MYSPHERA this means more reliability, allowing better processes optimization and increasing efficiency in hospitals.

Despite the continuous improvement of cochlear implant (CI) devices and their widespread application, the large inter-subject variability observed in clinical practice continues to make the prognosis of individual CI outcomes challenging. User-specific anatomical characteristics, as well as stimulation parameters, may influence the individual patterns of electric current induced. This paper aims to develop a finite-element (FE) computational virtual head model that integrates the cochlea and the electrode array with the patient’s full head anatomy. Interestingly, a full head modelling approach can realistically emulate both intra and extra-cochlear current pathways, thus providing an estimate of the current shunted towards surrounding tissues. This would allow us to predict relevant clinical conditions, such as the undesired facial nerve stimulation. The results include simulations of intra-cochlear voltages and current densities over the facial nerve when stimulating different apical, medial and basal cochlea sites.