4216 Application of artificial neural networks for image analysis of organ culture preserved donor corneas: A pilot study

Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers account for 1.5 million deaths worldwide. Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection (ESD) is an advanced therapeutic endoscopy technique with superior clinical outcome due to the minimally invasive and en bloc removal of tumours. In the western world, ESD is seldom carried out, due to its complex and challenging nature. Various surgical systems are being developed to make this therapy accessible, however, these solutions have shown limited operational workspace, dexterity, or low force exertion capabilities. The current paper shows the ESD CYCLOPS system, a bimanual surgical robotic attachment that can be mounted at the end of any flexible endoscope. The system is able to achieve forces of up to 46N, and showed a mean error of 0.217mm during an elliptical tracing task. The workspace and instrument dexterity is shown by pre-clinical ex vivo trials, in which ESD is successfully performed by a GI surgeon. The system is currently undergoing pre-clinical in vivo validation

Recurrent Microinvasive Subungueal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in a HIV Patient: a Case of Good Response to Photodynamic Therapy.

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Penile Exogenous Pigmentation Mimicking Melanoma

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Towards Inferring Mechanical Lock Combinations using Wrist-Wearables as a Side-Channel

Wrist-wearables such as smartwatches and fitness bands are equipped with a variety of high-precision sensors that support novel contextual and activity-based applications. The presence of a diverse set of on-board sensors, however, also expose an additional attack surface which, if not adequately protected, could be potentially exploited to leak private user information. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of a new attack that takes advantage of a wrist-wearable's motion sensors to infer input on mechanical devices typically used to secure physical access, for example, combination locks. We outline an inference framework that attempts to infer a lock's unlock combination from the wrist motion captured by a smartwatch's gyroscope sensor, and uses a probabilistic model to produce a ranked list of likely unlock combinations. We conduct a thorough empirical evaluation of the proposed framework by employing unlocking-related motion data collected from human subject participants in a variety of controlled and realistic settings. Evaluation results from these experiments demonstrate that motion data from wrist-wearables can be effectively employed as a side-channel to significantly reduce the unlock combination search-space of commonly found combination locks, thus compromising the physical security provided by these locks

Gene expression analysis in calcific tendinopathy of the rotator cuff

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Generation of induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (UNIBSi008-A, UNIBSi008-B, UNIBSi008-C) from an Ataxia-Telangiectasia (AT) patient carrying a novel homozygous deletion in ATM gene.

Abstract Using a Sendai Virus based vector delivering Yamanaka Factors, we generated induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of a patient affected by Ataxia Telangiectasia (AT), caused by a novel homozygous deletion in ATM, spanning exons 5 to 7. Three clones were fully characterized for pluripotency and capability to differentiate. These clones preserved the causative mutation of parental cells and genomic stability over time (>100 passages). Furthermore, in AT derived iPSCs we confirmed the impaired DNA damage response after ionizing radiation. All these data underline potential usefulness of our clones as in vitro AT disease model

Wheat amylase trypsin inhibitors drive intestinal inflammation via activation of toll-like receptor 4

Ingestion of wheat, barley, or rye triggers small intestinal inflammation in patients with celiac disease. Specifically, the storage proteins of these cereals (gluten) elicit an adaptive Th1-mediated immune response in individuals carrying HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8 as major genetic predisposition. This well-defined role of adaptive immunity contrasts with an ill-defined component of innate immunity in celiac disease. We identify the α-amylase/trypsin inhibitors (ATIs) CM3 and 0.19, pest resistance molecules in wheat, as strong activators of innate immune responses in monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells. ATIs engage the TLR4–MD2–CD14 complex and lead to up-regulation of maturation markers and elicit release of proinflammatory cytokines in cells from celiac and nonceliac patients and in celiac patients’ biopsies. Mice deficient in TLR4 or TLR4 signaling are protected from intestinal and systemic immune responses upon oral challenge with ATIs. These findings define cereal ATIs as novel contributors to celiac disease. Moreover, ATIs may fuel inflammation and immune reactions in other intestinal and nonintestinal immune disorders

Increased p21 expression in chondrocytes of achondroplasic children independently from the presence of the G380R FGFR3 mutation

Background. Achondroplasia (ACH) represents the major cause of dwarfi sm and is due to mutations in the fi broblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) gene. The cellular mechanisms involved in the reduced growth have been mainly described for in vitro or in vivo models, but few data have been obtained for humans. Methods. Thirteen children with ACH were enrolled in the study; the presence of FGFR3 mutations was determined by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and sequencing, whereas protein expression in cartilage biopsy was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Results. Chondrocytes in cartilage biopsies of ACH children were characterized by the presence of growth arrest mediated by STAT activation (both STAT1 and STAT5) and increased expression of p21 and cyclin D1, whereas no expression of either p53 or cyclin D3 could be detected. This mechanism was present in ACH children carrying the G380R mutation but also in a patient in whom no mutation could be detected in the entire coding region of the FGFR3 gene. Conclusions. These data thus demonstrate the presence of a common fi nal mechanism involving p21 and possibly leading to a block in chondrocyte proliferation

Usefulness of the organ culture system in the in vitro diagnosis of coeliac disease: A multicentre study

Objective. Diagnosis of coeliac disease is based on the presence of villous atrophy which recovers following a gluten-free diet. The presence of circulating antiendomysial antibodies as well as their disappearance after a gluten-free diet supports the diagnosis. It has also been demonstrated that antiendomysial antibodies are detectable in supernatants of cultured intestinal biopsies from patients with coeliac disease. The objective of this study was to compare the histology and antiendomysial antibodies in culture supernatants of intestinal biopsies to validate the in vitro organ culture system as a future diagnostic tool for coeliac disease. Material and methods. Seventy-five antiendomysial serum-positive patients on a gluten-containing diet were evaluated. Patients underwent endoscopy with 5 biopsy fragments: 3 for histology, 1 cultured with and the other without gliadin-peptide activator. Antiendomysial antibodies were evaluated in all culture supernatants. Results. Sixty-eight patients had evidence of villous atrophy, while 73 out of 75 were positive to the organ culture system. The agreement rate between organ culture and histology results was 94%. Conclusions. As all the centres participating in the study obtained good agreement between organ culture and histology results, the new system could be considered a reliable tool for the diagnosis of coeliac disease. Nevertheless, it is possible to highlight cases with an organ culture-positive and -negative histology. This feature could be of considerable interest because, as the sensitivity of organ culture seems to be greater than the initial histology, the new system might be useful in uncertain cases where the risk of missing the diagnosis of coeliac disease is high