Word: armfuls
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Guterres had 115 of the 230 seats in parliament, which left him having to horse-trade with the Popular Party - whose slogan this campaign is "Portugal Needs a Right Arm" - and with the Communist Party, each of which has 15 seats in the outgoing parliament. The center-right Social Democrats have 81. Polls say the man most likely to replace Guterres is José Manuel Durão Barroso, a 45-year-old lawyer who became PSD leader in 1999. He insists he has arrived, well, just in time. "In the context of Europe, the country is in an almost...
...doing out of physical necessity. For Holgersen, technology has already become a part of his body. Eight years ago, on a motorcycle trip to the U.K. to visit his sister, he was in an accident and broke his neck. Except for some minor movement in his shoulders, left arm and left hand, he was paralyzed below the neck. Holgersen underwent an experimental surgical procedure to implant a neural prosthesis - an interface between an electronic device and the human nervous system - to bypass the damaged stretches of his spinal cord and restore some movement to his limbs...
...restore basic function to his left arm, Holgersen uses the Freehand System, a device that restores the ability to grasp, hold and release objects. During a seven-hour operation, surgeons at Denmark's National Hospital made incisions in Holgersen's upper left arm, forearm and chest. Eight flexible cuff electrodes, each about the size of a small coin, were attached to the muscles in his arm and hand that control grasping. These electrodes were then connected by ultrathin wires to a stimulator - a kind of pacemaker for the nervous system - implanted in his chest. The stimulator was in turn linked...
When Holgersen wants to pick up a glass, he moves his right shoulder upward. This movement sends an electrical signal from the position sensor, which is worn under his clothing, to the stimulator in his chest, which amplifies it and passes it along to the appropriate muscles in his arm and hand. In response, the muscles contract and his left hand closes. When he wants to release the glass, he moves his right shoulder downward and his left hand opens...
...Freehand is not for everyone, though. To benefit from the device, patients must have use of a shoulder and upper arm and partial use of their hands. The technology can be fragile, too, and patients must be constantly on guard against infection around the implanted electronics. Another drawback is that the Freehand system provides no tactile feedback for things like temperature, so users also have to be careful when handling hot objects such as cigarettes or coffee. To get around this problem, Thomas Sinkjaer and colleagues at the Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction at Denmark's Aalborg University are developing...