The article takes a critical look at the idea that the gathering of men Lucretia confronts a few moments before her suicide is to be understood as an ancient Roman domestic court (consilium domesticum). Arguing from the basis that the paternal power (patria potestas) is a constitutive element of this private-law institution, it examines what supports and what conflicts with the interpretation.

The design of multifunctional upper limb prosthetics has been investigated in recent years. Several areas or research need to be developed for successful implementation of dextrous upper limb prosthesis, in particular better EMG interfaces for implementing command languages.

This article introduces a novel three-bit EMG command language concept as a user interface for the multifunctional MANUS prosthesis prototype. Following the global approach proposed by MANUS, a training process and the supporting Virtual Reality training software are also presented. The last section describes the evaluation process and the results.

The design of multifunctional upper limb prosthetics has been investigated in recent years. In 1998, the MANUS consortium was set up on the basis of multidisciplinary skills of the partners in order to provide a global approach to the problem of upper limb prosthetics. In the framework of this approach, the consortium addressed the development of appropriate hand mechanics, the analysis and implementation of control electronics, the development of advanced control strategies and the implementation of broad band command interfaces based on EMG.

As a result, the prototype of a multifunctional prosthesis was developed, integrated and clinically evaluated. This paper describes the objectives, technological approach and results of the MANUS prosthesis prototype.