Introduction: We describe a method of robotic ureterocalicostomy (RALUC) with the Da Vinci Single Port (SP) platform and present clinical outcomes in our cohort of patients.
Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all patients undergoing RALUC with the SP platform in a single-institution, IRB-approved database between 2020-2023. Demographics, preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative outcomes were collated.
Unlabelled: In recent years, there has been a gradual increase in the prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria, primarily attributed to the widespread use of antibiotics. This has resulted in heightened mortality rates, morbidity, and exorbitant healthcare costs associated with antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. In order to mitigate the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, environmental disinfection plays a crucial role.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFELNES/XANES spectra can be observed using TEM or synchrotron radiation and can elucidate the unoccupied state electronic structures of an excited states. The computation of their features is usually demanding substantial computational resources due to the requisite structure optimization and electronic structure calculations. Herein, we leverage a machine learning technique alongside an atomic-coordinate-independent descriptor, SMILES, to yield the ELNES/XANES spectra, directly, with heightened precision.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDesigning ultralight conductive aerogels with tailored electrical and mechanical properties is critical for various applications. Conventional approaches rely on iterative, time-consuming experiments across a vast parameter space. Herein, an integrated workflow is developed to combine collaborative robotics with machine learning to accelerate the design of conductive aerogels with programmable properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne possible solution against the accumulation of petrochemical plastics in natural environments is to develop biodegradable plastic substitutes using natural components. However, discovering all-natural alternatives that meet specific properties, such as optical transparency, fire retardancy and mechanical resilience, which have made petrochemical plastics successful, remains challenging. Current approaches still rely on iterative optimization experiments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrofluidics-based organs-on-a-chip offer a promising method for dynamic and 3-dimensional (3D) cell culture to evaluate the cell behaviors within the biomimetic environment. The purpose of this study was to establish neural network connections in a 3D neural stem cell (NSC)-based system with an interstitial level of flow for simulating the brain microenvironment toward a dynamic amyloid-β (Aβ) induced neuronal toxic model on a chip and to compare the biological effects and neurite dysfunction between static and dynamic systems. The brain-on-a-chip system consisted of an impedance analyzing layer, a structured well with a connected channel, and an interface coating with polypeptide films fabricated with modification based on our previous study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanocomposite aerogels exhibit high porosity and large interfacial surface areas, enabling enhanced chemical transport and reactivity. Such mesoporous architectures can be prepared by freeze-casting naturally-derived biopolymers such as silk fibroin, but often form mechanically weak structures that degrade in water, which limits their performance under ambient conditions. Adding 2D material fillers such as graphene oxide (GO) or transition metal carbides ( MXene) could potentially reinforce these aerogels stronger intermolecular interactions with the polymeric binder.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Acute appendicitis is one of the most common abdominal emergencies, with management approaches that vary depending on the available resources and setting. However, there is a lack of studies on the differences of surgical outcomes and quality of care between tertiary care hospitals and regional hospitals.
Methods: This multicenter retrospective study included 2158 consecutive adult patients between January 2014 and June 2018 at three hospitals.
Severe injuries to the peripheral nervous system (PNS) require Schwann cells to aid in neuronal regeneration. Low-frequency electrical stimulation is known to induce the cogrowth of neurons and Schwann cells in an injured PNS. However, the correlations between electrical stimulation and Schwann cell viability are complex and not well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFulminant myocarditis in children was rare during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, but it had the potential for high morbidity and mortality. We describe the clinical course of a previously healthy 9-month-old young male infant who rapidly deteriorated into cardiogenic shock due to coronavirus disease 2019-related fulminant myocarditis. He developed severe heart failure and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome that were treated promptly with central venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and continuous venovenous hemofiltration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhylogenetic models of molecular evolution are central to numerous biological applications spanning diverse timescales, from hundreds of millions of years involving orthologous proteins to just tens of days relating to single cells within an organism. A fundamental problem in these applications is estimating model parameters, for which maximum likelihood estimation is typically employed. Unfortunately, maximum likelihood estimation is a computationally expensive task, in some cases prohibitively so.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe core-loss spectrum reflects the partial density of states (PDOS) of the unoccupied states at the excited state and is a powerful analytical technique to investigate local atomic and electronic structures of materials. However, various molecular properties governed by the ground-state electronic structure of the occupied orbital cannot be directly obtained from the core-loss spectra. Here, we constructed a machine learning model to predict the ground-state carbon s- and p-orbital PDOS in both occupied and unoccupied states from the C K-edge spectra.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAquacultural shrimps suffer economic lost due to the white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) that is the most notorious virus for its fatality and contagion, leading to a 100% death rate on infected shrimps within 7 days. However, the infection of mechanism remains a mystery and crucial problem. To elucidate the pathogenesis of WSSV, a high abundance of protein is required to identify and characterize its functions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNew metal-free one-pot synthesis of α-2-deoxy-ulosides in moderate to good yields by microwave-assisted double Michael addition of various O-nucleophiles to β-enamino ketones in the presence of 12 N HCl. These glycosyl additions occurred with high α-stereoselectivity and were complete in 10-25 min in 51-93% yield. In addition, high α-stereoselectivity was also observed when S-nucleophiles were examined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLithium metal battery is considered an emerging energy storage technology due to its high theoretical capacity and low electrochemical potential. However, the practical exploitations of lithium metal batteries are not realized because of uncontrollable lithium deposition and severe dendrite formation. Herein, a thermal percolation strategy is developed to fabricate a dual-conductive framework using electronically conductive Ti C T MXene aerogels (MXAs) and Li OHCl antiperovskite superionic conductor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWearable strain sensors that detect joint/muscle strain changes become prevalent at human-machine interfaces for full-body motion monitoring. However, most wearable devices cannot offer customizable opportunities to match the sensor characteristics with specific deformation ranges of joints/muscles, resulting in suboptimal performance. Adequate wearable strain sensor design is highly required to achieve user-designated working windows without sacrificing high sensitivity, accompanied with real-time data processing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Children are susceptible to severe or fatal enterovirus 71 (EV71) infections. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity of EV71vac, an aluminium phosphate-adjuvanted inactivated EV71 vaccine in children aged 2-71 months.
Methods: We did a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial at five hospitals in Taiwan and two in Vietnam.
A shock wave (SW), which carries energy and propagates through a medium, is a type of continuous transmitted sonic wave that can achieve rapid energy transformations. SWs have been applied for many fields of medical science in various treatment settings. In urology, high-energy extracorporeal SWs have been used to disintegrate urolithiasis for 30 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHorizontally stacked pure-Ge-nanosheet gate-all-around field-effect transistors (GAA FETs) were developed in this study. Large lattice mismatch Ge/Si multilayers were intentionally grown as the starting material rather than Ge/GeSi multilayers to acquire the benefits of the considerable difference in material properties of Ge and Si for realising selective etching. Flat Ge/Si multilayers were grown at a low temperature to preclude island growth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoft robots provide compliant object-machine interactions, but they exhibit insufficient material stability, which restricts them from working in harsh environments. Herein, we developed a class of soft robotic skins based on two-dimensional materials (2DMs) and gelatin hydrogels, featuring skin-like multifunctionality (stretchability, thermoregulation, threat protection, and strain sensing). The 2DM-integrated hydrogel (2DM/H) skins enabled soft robots to execute designated missions in the presence of high levels of heat and various environmental threats while maintaining mild machine temperatures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe confluence of wireless technology and biosensors offers the possibility to detect and manage medical conditions outside of clinical settings. Wound infections represent a major clinical challenge in which timely detection is critical for effective interventions, but this is currently hindered by the lack of a monitoring technology that can interface with wounds, detect pathogenic bacteria, and wirelessly transmit data. Here, we report a flexible, wireless, and battery-free sensor that provides smartphone-based detection of wound infection using a bacteria-responsive DNA hydrogel.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Evidence of the effectiveness of cognitive activity and preparatory tasks in improving the cognitive skills and functional performance of people with cognitive decline is limited.
Objective: To examine the efficacy of a high-ecological cognitive intervention.
Design: Quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design with nonequivalent control.
J Microbiol Immunol Infect
December 2022
Background: Enhanced nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to prevent the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) have shown various levels of impact on common respiratory pathogens. We aimed to analyze the epidemiological changes seen in certain common respiratory viruses found in Taiwanese children (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcute heart failure (AHF) is the major cause of death in children with severe enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection. This study aimed to report our clinical experience with EV71-related AHF, as well as to discuss its pathogenesis and relationship to Takotsubo syndrome (TTS). A total 27 children with EV71-related AHF between 1998 and 2018 were studied.
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