Laparoscopic-Modified Semi-Spiral Mesh Rectopexy for Rectal Prolapse.

Laparoscopic procedure for rectal prolapse has extend throughout the world as a minimally invasive treatment. Various techniques have been reported regarding the use of mesh, fixation, and rectal mobilization. However, a standard technique has not been established yet.

EEG-GNN: Graph Neural Networks for Classification of Electroencephalogram (EEG) Signals.

Convolutional neural networks (CNN) have been frequently used to extract subject-invariant features from electroencephalogram (EEG) for classification tasks. This approach holds the underlying assumption that electrodes are equidistant analogous to pixels of an image and hence fails to explore/exploit the complex functional neural connectivity between different electrode sites. We overcome this limitation by tailoring the concepts of convolution and pooling applied to 2D grid-like inputs for the functional network of electrode sites.

Proposal and Evaluation of Visual Haptics for Manipulation of Remote Machine System.

Remote machine systems have drawn a lot of attention owing to accelerations of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and the fifth generation (5G) networks. Despite recent trends of developing autonomous systems, the realization of sophisticated dexterous hand that can fully replace human hands is considered to be decades away. It is also extremely difficult to reproduce the sensilla of complex human hands.

Thoracoscopy under Local Anesthesia was Useful for Diagnosing Yellow Nail Syndrome.

An 80-year-old woman with rheumatoid arthritis and a past history of tuberculosis presented with exertional dyspnea and edema of both legs. Chest X-ray performed on admission showed bilateral pleural effusion. Thoracoscopy under local anesthesia was performed, and vasodilation and non-specific yellowish inflammatory changes were noted in the pleura.

Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy and Subsequent Seizures Induced by Flexible Bronchoscopy.

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a transient left-ventricular dysfunction that typically occurs in elderly women due to emotional or physical stress. An 85-y-old woman underwent flexible bronchoscopy to evaluate her malignant lymphoma. After flexible bronchoscopy, she experienced takotsubo cardiomyopathy diagnosed by left ventriculography and subsequent generalized tonic-clonic seizure diagnosed by electroencephalography.

The importance of bacterial and viral infections associated with adult asthma exacerbations in clinical practice.

Background: Viral infection is one of the risk factors for asthma exacerbation. However, which pathogens are related to asthma exacerbation in adults remains unclear.

Objective: The relation between various infections and adult asthma exacerbations was investigated in clinical practice.

Cryogenic optical measurements of 12-segment-bonded carbon-fiber-reinforced silicon carbide composite mirror with support mechanism.

A 720 mm diameter 12-segment-bonded carbon-fiber-reinforced silicon carbide (C/SiC) composite mirror has been fabricated and tested at cryogenic temperatures. Interferometric measurements show significant cryogenic deformation of the C/SiC composite mirror, which is well reproduced by a model analysis with measured properties of the bonded segments. It is concluded that the deformation is due mostly to variation in coefficients of thermal expansion among segments.