Tactile Feedback in Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery: A Systematic Review.

Background: Robot-assisted systems have predominantly relied on teleoperation, where visual feedback is the primary source of information. However, advances in tactile sensing and displays offer new opportunities to enhance surgical transparency, efficiency, and safety.

Methods: A PRISMA-guided search was conducted across PubMed, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, and Web of Science databases to identify relevant studies.

Latent Space Search-Based Adaptive Template Generation for Enhanced Object Detection in Bin-Picking Applications.

Template matching is a common approach in bin-picking tasks. However, it often struggles in complex environments, such as those with different object poses, various background appearances, and varying lighting conditions, due to the limited feature representation of a single template. Additionally, during the bin-picking process, the template needs to be frequently updated to maintain detection performance, and finding an adaptive template from a vast dataset poses another challenge.

Contamination-Free Reference Electrode Using Prussian Blue for Small Oxygen Sensors.

In recent years, significant attention has been directed toward advancing compact, point-of-care testing (POCT) devices to better deliver patient care and alleviate the burden on the medical care system. Common POCTs, such as blood oxygen sensors, leverage electrochemical sensing in their design. However, conventional electrochemical devices typically use Ag/AgCl reference electrodes, which are likely to release trace amounts of silver ions that contaminate the working electrode, causing rapid deterioration of the devices.

On the Maximum Obtainable Purity and Resultant Maximum Useful Membrane Selectivity of a Membrane Separator.

Design considerations concerning the maximum purity of a membrane separator, and the resultant maximum effective selectivity of the membranes were explored by modeling a binary gas membrane separator (pressure-driven permeance) using a dimensionless form. Although the maximum purity has an analytical solution at the limit of zero recovery or stage cut, this solution over-predicts the obtained purity as the recovery is increased. Furthermore, at combinations of high recovery, low feed mole fraction, and low pressure ratio, the maximum purity becomes independent of selectivity above some critical selectivity.

Stage IV renal cell carcinoma achieves pathologic complete response after two ipilimumab plus nivolumab courses despite severe immune-related adverse events: a case report.

Background: Ipilimumab (Ipi) plus nivolumab (Nivo) is the recommended first-line treatment for renal cell carcinoma (RCC). This report describes a case where pancreatic metastases disappeared after only two courses of Ipi + Nivo therapy. The primary tumor was cured by surgery, and a pathological Complete Response (pCR) was observed despite multiple serious immune-related Adverse Events (irAEs).

Multimodal semi-supervised learning for online recognition of multi-granularity surgical workflows.

Purpose Surgical workflow recognition is a challenging task that requires understanding multiple aspects of surgery, such as gestures, phases, and steps. However, most existing methods focus on single-task or single-modal models and rely on costly annotations for training. To address these limitations, we propose a novel semi-supervised learning approach that leverages multimodal data and self-supervision to create meaningful representations for various surgical tasks.

Intuitive Cell Manipulation Microscope System with Haptic Device for Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection Simplification.

In recent years, the demand for effective intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) for the treatment of male infertility has increased. The ICSI operation is complicated as it involves delicate organs and requires a high level of skill. Several cell manipulation systems that do not require such skills have been proposed; notably, several automated methods are available for cell rotation.

Real-time motion force-feedback system with predictive-vision for improving motor accuracy.

Many haptic guidance systems have been studied over the years; however, most of them have been limited to predefined guidance methods. Calculating guidance according to the operator's motion is important for efficient human motor adaptation and learning. In this study, we developed a system that haptically provides guidance trajectory by sequential weighting between the operator's trajectory and the ideal trajectory calculated from a predictive-vision system.

Endoscope Automation Framework with Hierarchical Control and Interactive Perception for Multi-Tool Tracking in Minimally Invasive Surgery.

In the context of Minimally Invasive Surgery, surgeons mainly rely on visual feedback during medical operations. In common procedures such as tissue resection, the automation of endoscopic control is crucial yet challenging, particularly due to the interactive dynamics of multi-agent operations and the necessity for real-time adaptation. This paper introduces a novel framework that unites a Hierarchical Quadratic Programming controller with an advanced interactive perception module.

The Heterogeneous Impact of Prediagnostic Folate Intake for Fluorouracil-Containing Induction Chemotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer.

Fluorouracil (FU) exerts its antitumor activity by inhibiting folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism. Evidence that folate may play a role in the carcinogenic process via folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism has given rise to the hypothesis that pre-diagnostic folate intake may induce heterogeneous chemosensitivity to FU-containing induction chemotherapy (IC) in head and neck cancer. To assess this hypothesis, we conducted a cohort study to investigate whether the association between prediagnostic dietary folate intake and cancer survival differed between treatment regimens with and without FU-containing IC in 504 cases of locally advanced (stage III/IV) HNSCC, using an epidemiologic database combined with clinical data.

Gaze and Environmental Context-Guided Deep Neural Network and Sequential Decision Fusion for Grasp Intention Recognition.

Grasp intention recognition plays a crucial role in controlling assistive robots to aid older people and individuals with limited mobility in restoring arm and hand function. Among the various modalities used for intention recognition, the eye-gaze movement has emerged as a promising approach due to its simplicity, intuitiveness, and effectiveness. Existing gaze-based approaches insufficiently integrate gaze data with environmental context and underuse temporal information, leading to inadequate intention recognition performance.

Predictive factors for dissection-free sentinel node micrometastases in early oral squamous cell carcinoma.

This sentinel node (SN) biopsy trial aimed to assess its effectiveness in identifying predictive factors of micrometastases and to determine whether elective neck dissection is necessary in oral squamous cell carcinoma. This retrospective study included 55 patients from three previous trials, with positive SNs. The relationship between the sizes of the metastatic focus and metastasis in non-sentinel node (NSN) was investigated.

Natural Grasp Intention Recognition Based on Gaze in Human-Robot Interaction.

Objective: While neuroscience research has established a link between vision and intention, studies on gaze data features for intention recognition are absent. The majority of existing gaze-based intention recognition approaches are based on deliberate long-term fixation and suffer from insufficient accuracy. In order to address the lack of features and insufficient accuracy in previous studies, the primary objective of this study is to suppress noise from human gaze data and extract useful features for recognizing grasp intention.

A Concurrent Framework for Constrained Inverse Kinematics of Minimally Invasive Surgical Robots.

Minimally invasive surgery has undergone significant advancements in recent years, transforming various surgical procedures by minimizing patient trauma, postoperative pain, and recovery time. However, the use of robotic systems in minimally invasive surgery introduces significant challenges related to the control of the robot's motion and the accuracy of its movements. In particular, the inverse kinematics (IK) problem is critical for robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RMIS), where satisfying the remote center of motion (RCM) constraint is essential to prevent tissue damage at the incision point.

Macroscopic and multiple metastases in sentinel lymph node biopsy are respectively associated with poor prognosis in early oral cancer.

Background: A multicenter, randomized controlled phase III trial was conducted on sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) and elective neck dissection for T1 (depth of invasion ≥ 4 mm)-T2N0M0 oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma. This study identified factors associated with poor prognosis in patients who underwent SLNB based on a subgroup analysis of this trial.

Methods: We analyzed 418 sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) from 132 patients who underwent SLNB.

Evaluation of FAU-type Zeolite Membrane Stability in Transesterification Reaction Conditions.

The transesterification conversion of methyl ether can be enhanced by the removal of the byproduct methanol using methanol permselective faujasite (FAU-type) zeolite membranes. However, the authors previously observed that the methanol flux during the transesterification reaction was lower than the predicted flux. Therefore, this study investigated the stability of FAU-type zeolite membranes in the presence of organic components associated with the transesterification reaction of methyl hexanoate and 1-hexanol.

Estimation of CO Separation Performances through CHA-Type Zeolite Membranes Using Molecular Simulation.

Chabazite (CHA)-type zeolite membranes are a potential material for CO separations because of their small pore aperture, large pore volume, and low aluminum content. In this study, the permeation and separation properties were evaluated using a molecular simulation technique with a focus on improving the CO separation performance. The adsorption isotherms of CO and CH on CHA-type zeolite with Si/Al = 18.

Auditory Feedback for Enhanced Sense of Agency in Shared Control.

There is a growing need for robots that can be remotely controlled to perform tasks of one's own choice. However, the SoA (Sense of Agency: the sense of recognizing that the motion of an observed object is caused by oneself) is reduced because the subject of the robot motion is identified as external due to shared control. To address this issue, we aimed to suppress the decline in SoA by presenting auditory feedback that aims to blur the distinction between self and others.

Impact of low and high body mass index on predicting therapeutic efficacy and prognosis in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with first-line tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

Objective: To evaluate the significance of both low and high body mass index (BMI) as a biomarker in first-line tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

Methods: The oncological outcome of 235 patients with mRCC treated with TKI from 2007 to 2018 was reviewed retrospectively. All patients received first-line TKI as therapy.

A Wirelessly Powered 4-Channel Neurostimulator for Reconstructing Walking Trajectory.

A wirelessly powered four-channel neurostimulator was developed for applying selective Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) to four peripheral nerves to control the ankle and knee joints of a rat. The power of the neurostimulator was wirelessly supplied from a transmitter device, and the four nerves were connected to the receiver device, which controlled the ankle and knee joints in the rat. The receiver device had functions to detect the frequency of the transmitter signal from the transmitter coil.

Intelligent Gait Analysis and Evaluation System Based on Cane Robot.

Gait analysis and evaluation are vital for disease diagnosis and rehabilitation. Current gait analysis technologies require wearable devices or high-resolution vision systems within a limited usage space. To facilitate gait analysis and quantitative walking-ability evaluation in daily environments without using wearable devices, a mobile gait analysis and evaluation system is proposed based on a cane robot.