Cost Analysis of eVTOL Configuration Design for an Air Ambulances System in Japan

Electric-vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft, known as urban air mobility or flying cars, are being considered for widespread use as air taxis, emergency medical transportation, sightseeing vehicles, and rural transportation, owing to their reduced-size, low-cost, and low-noise characteristics. In this study, we conduct an interview at a Japanese hospital that currently uses a helicopter for medical emergencies to output the mission profile. Due to current battery-technology limitations, the new air ambulance, which will deliver a doctor to a patient, is conceived as having 2 passengers, including the pilot. Two eVTOL configurations are studied: a fixed-wing craft and a multi-rotor. The purpose of this study is to develop a cost model for a new air ambulance through a combination of 3 approaches: top-down, bottom-up, and parametric. The cost model is constructed to analyze the production cost of each configuration, broken down into the capital expense and direct operating cost. The result shows that the multi-rotor’s production cost is lower than the fixed-wing craft. The direct operating cost of a fixed-wing craft at high flight hours is higher than that of the multi-rotor. Scenario analysis shows a result that the capacity difference of a battery has a significant difference in the cost in the years 2020 and 2030 due to the high cost of battery replacement

NeISF: Neural Incident Stokes Field for Geometry and Material Estimation

Multi-view inverse rendering is the problem of estimating the scene parameters such as shapes, materials, or illuminations from a sequence of images captured under different viewpoints. Many approaches, however, assume single light bounce and thus fail to recover challenging scenarios like inter-reflections. On the other hand, simply extending those methods to consider multi-bounced light requires more assumptions to alleviate the ambiguity. To address this problem, we propose Neural Incident Stokes Fields (NeISF), a multi-view inverse rendering framework that reduces ambiguities using polarization cues. The primary motivation for using polarization cues is that it is the accumulation of multi-bounced light, providing rich information about geometry and material. Based on this knowledge, the proposed incident Stokes field efficiently models the accumulated polarization effect with the aid of an original physically-based differentiable polarimetric renderer. Lastly, experimental results show that our method outperforms the existing works in synthetic and real scenarios

A left thoracic approach in a prone position for thoracoscopic thoracic duct ligation in a patient with post-esophagectomy chylothorax: A case report

INTRODUCTION: We debate whether or not to approach from right thorax for the left chylothorax afteresophagectomy.PRESENTATION OF CASE: A 50 s-year-old female underwent right-sided thoracoscopic esophagectomywith three-field lymphadenectomy for esophageal carcinoma (type 0-IIa, 3.4 × 2.2 cm, T1bN0M0, StageIA), followed by reconstruction with esophagogastric anastomosis through the posterior mediastinum.The thoracic duct was excised and ligated. The left thoracic drainage increased to 2115 mL/day on thefifth postoperative day. Thoracic duct injury was diagnosed, and surgery was performed on sixth post-operative day. With the patient in a prone position, the thoracic duct was ligated successfully underthoracoscopy in the left thorax. The leakage point was found in the crushed duct by 8.8-mm tita-nium clips. Then, we performed mass ligation of the thoracic duct with 11-mm titanium clips belowthe leakage point after careful dissection. The surgery took 58 min, with an estimated total blood lossof 0 g.DISCUSSION: Although thoracic duct is anatomically located on the right side of the descending aorta,we employed a left-sided thoracoscopic approach due to the chylous leakage in the left thorax. With thepatient in the prone position, surgeons can easily convert from a left thoracic approach to a right thoracicapproach immediately without postural change if the thoracic duct cannot be found in the left thoraciccavity.CONCLUSION: This technique is useful and should be considered for patients with left chylothorax

Yeast functional assay of the p53 gene status in human cell lines maintained in our laboratory

We used a yeast functional assay (functional analysis of separated alleles in yeast: FASAY) to determine the p53 gene status of human cell lines maintained in our laboratory. This assay enables the researcher to score wild-type p53 expression on the basis of the ability of expressed p53 to transactivate the reporter gene HIS 3 via the p53-responsive GAL 1 promoter in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The cell lines examined were ten hepatoma, two hepatoblastoma, three in vitro immortalized fibroblast, two osteosarcoma, a chondrosarcoma, an ovarian teratocarcinoma and a colon cancer cell line. Out of 20 cell lines, 11 cell lines had mutations in both alleles of the p53 gene, and another 8 cell lines had no mutation in the p53 gene. Thus, 55% of the cell lines examined had mutations in the p53. Interestingly, PA-1 cells had both the normal and the mutant p53 alleles, showing that FASAY is a useful method for detecting the wild-type and mutated p53 genes simultaneously. As for the three liver cell lines harboring HBsAg, there was no relationship between their p53 gene status and the presence of HBsAg. Two cell lines were normal for p53 status, while the other had a mutation of the p53 gene.</p

Optineurin regulates osteoblastogenesis through STAT1

A sophisticated and delicate balance between bone resorption by osteoclasts and bone formation by osteoblasts regulates bone metabolism. Optineurin (OPTN) is a gene involved in primary open-angle glaucoma and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Although its function has been widely studied in ophthalmology and neurology, recent reports have shown its possible involvement in bone metabolism through negative regulation of osteoclast differentiation. However, little is known about the role of OPTN in osteoblast function. Here, we demonstrated that OPTN controls not only osteoclast but also osteoblast differentiation. Different parameters involved in osteoblastogenesis and osteoclastogenesis were assessed in Optn−/- mice. The results showed that osteoblasts from Optn−/- mice had impaired alkaline phosphatase activity, defective mineralized nodules, and inability to support osteoclast differentiation. Moreover, OPTN could bind to signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) and regulate runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) nuclear localization by modulating STAT1 levels in osteoblasts. These data suggest that OPTN is involved in bone metabolism not only by regulating osteoclast function but also by regulating osteoblast function by mediating RUNX2 nuclear translocation via STAT1