Robotic-assisted versus manual Uro Dyna-CT-guided puncture in an kidney phantom.

Introduction And Objectives: Challenging percutaneous renal punctures to gain access to the kidney requiring guidance by cross-sectional imaging. To test the feasibility of robotic-assisted CT-guided punctures (RP) and compare them with manual laser-guided punctures (MP) with Uro Dyna-CT (Siemens Healthcare Solutions, Erlangen, Germany).

Material And Methods: The silicon kidney phantom contained target lesions of three sizes.

Linker-Assisted Assembly of Ligand-Bridged CdS/MoS Heterostructures: Tunable Light-Harvesting Properties and Ligand-Dependent Control of Charge-Transfer Dynamics and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution.

We used linker-assisted assembly (LAA) to tether CdS quantum dots (QDs) to MoS nanosheets via -cysteine () or mercaptoalkanoic acids (MAAs) of varying lengths, yielding ligand-bridged CdS/MoS heterostructures for redox photocatalysis. LAA afforded precise control over the light-harvesting properties of QDs within heterostructures. Photoexcited CdS QDs transferred electrons to molecularly linked MoS nanosheets from both band-edge and trap states; the electron-transfer dynamics was tunable with the properties of bridging ligands.

Perspectives of data science in preclinical safety assessment.

The data landscape in preclinical safety assessment is fundamentally changing because of not only emerging new data types, such as human systems biology, or real-world data (RWD) from clinical trials, but also technological advancements in data-processing software and analytical tools based on deep learning approaches. The recent developments of data science are illustrated with use cases for the three factors: predictive safety (new in silico tools), insight generation (new data for outstanding questions); and reverse translation (extrapolating from clinical experience to resolve preclinical questions). Further advances in this field can be expected if companies focus on overcoming identified challenges related to a lack of platforms and data silos and assuring appropriate training of data scientists within the preclinical safety teams.

Learning Needle Placement in Soft Tissue With Robot-assisted Navigation.

Background/aim: The aim of this phantom study was to evaluate the learning curves of novices practicing how to place a cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)-guided needle using a novel robotic assistance system (RAS).

Materials And Methods: Ten participants performed 18 punctures each with random trajectories in a phantom setting, supported by a RAS over 3 days. Precision, duration of the total intervention, duration of the needle placement, autonomy, and confidence of the participants were measured, displaying possible learning curves.