Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation During Lung Transplantation

Lung transplantation is increasing as a widely accepted surgical treatment for certain type of end-stage lung disease. Recent technical improvements in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) have been able to expand the role of ECMO during lung transplantation. The evolution of oxygenators, introduction of the new-type pump and tube, and improvement of percutaneous cannulation including dual lumen single catheter resulted in the technical renaissance of ECMO for lung transplantation. Now, beyond the traditional support for patients with severe primary graft dysfunction, ECMO can be established as essential perioperative roles for patients undergoing lung transplantation, such as preoperative lung protective support as a bridge to transplantation, replacement cardiopulmonary bypass during intraoperative support, and rescue of various life-threatening situations after post-transplant. After all, ECMO will be a fundamental, life-saving modality for patients during lung transplantation

Space between memories: pause

The early 20th century was an important time for economic development and modernization around the world. However, the Republic of Korea spent decades suffering under Japanese colonial rule. For that reason, preservation or demolition of buildings built during the Japanese colonial period remains a polarizing topic. Many of these structures have been demolished or neglected, unrecognized for their historical and architectural value. Although Koreans learn about the colonial era in school, if those physical places experienced in their daily life gradually disappear, they will forget this difficult history. These structures should be a space where people can feel historical lessons as a living part of their daily life. The Old Seoul Station was the conduit of Japanese imperialistic exploitation of Korea, but was mostly known to millions as an active station until the New Seoul Station was established in 2004. Since the completion of the new station, the old has had no identity and been neglected from the surrounding context. This thesis suggests that reuse should be achieved according to the programs lacking in the region to which the structure belongs. In this case, considering that the new and historic stations are focused on movement and business commuters, what local people lack is pause and this thesis reimagines how to insert a moment of rest and reflection within the station. Physical and mental relaxation is determined as the main program, and a design strategy is established based on three architectural challenges between the two stations. Disconnection and complex flow are addressed by simplifying wayfinding from the New Seoul Station into the Old Seoul Station, by coring a single passage through the historic space. The unused forecourt is reemphasized through transparency and reflection of glass to acknowledge the layered complexity of the site. Visitors explore the forecourt and Old Seoul Station according to a planned sequence with moments of restoration and reflection. Visitors will not only replenish themselves, but also realize the lessons of the past as they encounter historical evidence. Each of these moments is woven together through the spatial experience of light and darkness. Through this form of reuse, modern structures with historical importance but alongside negative association will acquire new value and adapt into modern society

A Mobile Robot Localization using External Surveillance Cameras at Indoor

AbstractLocalization is a technique that is needed for the service robot to drive at indoors, and it has been studied in various ways. Most localization techniques let the robot measure environmental information to gain location information, but those require high costs as it use many equipment, and also complicate the robot development. But if an external device could calculate the location of the robot and transmit it to the robot, it will reduce the extra cost for the internal equipment needed to recognize the location, and it will also simplify the robot development. Therefore this study suggests an effective way to control the robot by using the location information of the robot included in a map made by visual information from the surveillance cameras installed at indoors. The object in a single image is difficult to tell its size because of the shadow components and occlusion. Therefore, combination of shadow removal technique using HSV image from indoors and images from different perspective using homography to create two- dimensional map with accurate object information is suggested. In the experiment, the effectiveness of the suggested method is shown by analyzing the movement result of the robot which applied the location information from the two-dimensional map that is based on the multi cameras, which its accuracy is measured in advance

Revolutionizing respiratory health research: “commercially-available lung-on-a-chip and air-liquid interface systems”

Inhalation of ultrafine particles, aerosol contaminants, and cigarette smoke can induce respiratory diseases. As humans are constantly exposed to various exogenous substances, it is crucial to study their impacts on respiratory diseases and airway dysfunction. Recently, organ-on-a-chip technology has been applied in many research studies to understand disease mechanisms, drug screening, and drug testing. The combination of organ-on-a-chip technology and the air-liquid interface (ALI) culture method is emerging as a new platform for realistically mimicking the microenvironment and physiological motions of the human lungs. Breathing motion can be simulated through cyclic stretching, while blood flow can be replicated using channel flow within the chip. The ALI system is critical for mucociliary differentiation, pseudostratified morphology, and epithelial barrier function development. The combination of organ-on-a-chip technology and ALI systems allows the integration of cyclic stretch as a breathing motion and microfluidic channels as circulatory systems. The chip system can also integrate the lung epithelial cells, extracellular matrix, and microstructures, providing microenvironments such as fibroblast, collagen, and immune cells to the epithelial cells. This review discusses chip systems as effective tools for recapitulating human lung environments and how they are applied in biological studies against various pulmonary diseases such as infections or inflammation, fibrosis, and malignancy

Point Mutation of Hoxd12 in Mice

Purpose: Genes of the HoxD cluster play a major role in vertebrate limb development, and changes that modify the Hoxd12 locus affect other genes also, suggesting that HoxD function is coordinated by a control mechanism involving multiple genes during limb morphogenesis. In this study, mutant phenotypes were produced by treatment of mice with chemical mutagen, N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU). We analyzed mutant mice exhibiting the specific microdactyly phenotype and examined the genes affected. Materials and Methods: We focused on phenotype characteristics including size, bone formation, and digit morphology of ENU-induced microdactyly mice. The expressions of several molecules were analyzed by genome-wide screening and quantitative real-time PCR to define the affected genes. Results: We report on limb phenotypes of an ENU-induced A-to-C mutation in the Hoxd12 gene, resulting in alanine-to-serine conversion. Microdactyly mice exhibited growth defects in the zeugopod and autopod, shortening of digits, a missing tip of digit I, limb growth affected, and dramatic increases in the expressions of Fgf4 and Lmx1b. However, the expression level of Shh was not changed Hoxd12 point mutated mice. Conclusion: These results suggest that point mutation rather than the entire deletion of Hoxd12, such as in knockout and transgenic mice, causes the abnormal limb phenotype in microdactyly mice. The precise nature of the spectrum of differences requires further investigation.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the sphenoid sinus presenting as isolated oculomotor nerve palsy

BACKGROUND: Solitary involvement of the sphenoid sinus has rarely been reported in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Isolated oculomotor nerve palsy is uncommon as an initial presentation of malignant tumors of the sphenoid sinus. CASE PRESENTATION: A 53-year-old woman presented with a three-month history of headache and diplopia. Neurological examination revealed complete left oculomotor nerve palsy. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) demonstrated a homogenous soft-tissue lesion occupying the left sphenoid sinus and invading the left cavernous sinus. The patient underwent transsphenoidal biopsy and the lesion was histologically diagnosed as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell type. Tumor cells were positive for CD20 and negative for CD3. Following six cycles of chemotherapy, the left oculomotor nerve palsy that had been previously observed was completely resolved. There was no enhancing lesion noted on follow-up MRI. CONCLUSION: It is important to recognize that non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the sphenoid sinus can present with isolated oculomotor nerve palsy, although it is extremely rare. The cranial nerve deficits can resolve dramatically after chemotherapy.ope

Mobile Kink Solitons in a Van der Waals Charge-Density-Wave Layer

Kinks, point-like geometrical defects along dislocations, domain walls, and DNA, are stable and mobile, as solutions of a sine-Gordon wave equation. While they are widely investigated for crystal deformations and domain wall motions, electronic properties of individual kinks have received little attention. In this work, electronically and topologically distinct kinks are discovered along electronic domain walls in a correlated van der Waals insulator of 1$T$-TaS$_2$. Mobile kinks and antikinks are identified as trapped by pinning defects and imaged in scanning tunneling microscopy. Their atomic structures and in-gap electronic states are unveiled, which are mapped approximately into Su-Schrieffer-Heeger solitons. The twelve-fold degeneracy of the domain walls in the present system guarantees an extraordinarily large number of distinct kinks and antikinks to emerge. Such large degeneracy together with the robust geometrical nature may be useful for handling multilevel information in van der Waals materials architectures.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure