Direct current electrical resistance measurement techniques for assessment of colorectal cancer during laparoscopic surgery

The next generation of surgical tools will employ intraoperative sensing technologies to provide real-time information to the surgeon. Sensing in this way may facilitate personalised tissue resections during cancer surgery, thereby reducing radicality and improving outcomes for the patient. This thesis details the development and testing of electrochemical based sensing techniques aimed at integration into the next generation of laparoscopic surgical tools. Literature reviewed as part of the work highlights the broad nature of surgically appropriate sensing technologies. Based on the features of simplicity and scalability, the biogalvanic tissue characterisation technique was explored as the most practically suitable candidate. Development and systematic testing of a biogalvanic measurement system with porcine tissues showed variation that is not explained using the current system model. Correlation with electrochemical measurements verified this unaccounted system complexity. Electrode polarisation and diffusion controlled reduction at the cathode limit the tissue specificity of the output metrics. An improved analytic model fitting technique was developed to reduce the influence of the electrodes. Through collaborative development of a numerical model of the system, the practical limitations of the biogalvanic techniques as a surgical sensor were realised. To mitigate these limitations, a novel galvanostatic technique for improved resistance characterisation was developed. Testing was conducted on ex vivo tissues, showing stability for relevant parametric variation. Surgical applicability was found from a practical perspective, with results showing low sensitivity to switching rate, current range and tissue contact conditions. Testing was also conducted on a number of freshly excised cancerous human colon samples. Measurements were centralised on each tumour and compared to a corresponding healthy region. Every case showed a highly significant difference between tissue types with cancerous tissues having a consistently lower resistance. These findings suggest that the proposed technique of multi-reference galvanostatic resistance characterisation may be a suitable candidate for integration into surgical tools for colorectal cancer surgery

A Learnt Approach for the Design of Magnetically Actuated Shape Forming Soft Tentacle Robots

Soft continuum robots have the potential to revolutionize minimally invasive surgery. The challenges for such robots are ubiquitous; functioning within sensitive, unstructured and convoluted environments which are inconsistent between patients. As such, there exists an open design problem for robots of this genre. Research currently exists relating to the design considerations of on-board actuated soft robots such as fluid and tendon driven manipulators. Magnetically reactive robots, however, exhibit off-board actuation and consequently demonstrate far greater potential for miniaturization and dexterity. In this letter we present a soft, magnetically actuated, slender, shape forming ‘tentacle-like’ robot. To overcome the associated design challenges we also propose a novel design methodology based on a Neural Network trained using Finite Element Simulations. We demonstrate how our design approach generates static, two-dimensional tentacle profiles under homogeneous actuation based on predefined, desired deformations. To demonstrate our learnt approach, we fabricate and actuate candidate tentacles of 2 mm diameter and 42 mm length producing shape profiles within 8% mean absolute percentage error of desired shapes. With this proof of concept, we make the first step towards showing how tentacles with bespoke magnetic profiles may be designed and manufactured to suit specific anatomical constraints

Angle-Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Scanning Tunnelling Spectroscopy Studies of the Endohedral Fullerene Li@C60

M. S., E. B., J. O. F. T. and E. E. B. C. gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Leverhulme Foundation (RPF-298 “PES of hollow nanomaterials”). M. S. and H. J. C. acknowledge the financial support of EPSRC DTP studentships (EP/M508214/1 and EP/N509644/1). R. S. acknowledges financial support from the Scottish Funding Council through SRD-Grant (HRO7003). The work of FR and BM is supported by the Fonds de la Recherche Fondamentale Collective (#T.0132.16 and J.0012.18) and by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES) under Award # DE-SC0012628. BM and FR thank the Fonds National de la Recherche (FRS.FNRS, Belgium) for its support. Computational resources were provided by Consortium des équipements de calcul intensif (CECI, FNRS 2.5020.11).Gas phase photoelectron spectroscopy (Rydberg Fingerprint Spectroscopy), TDDFT calculations and low temperature STM studies are combined to provide detailed information on the properties of the diffuse, low-lying Rydberg-like SAMO states of isolated Li@C60 endohedral fullerenes. The presence of the encapsulated Li is shown by the calculations to produce a significant distortion of the lowest-lying S- and P-SAMOs that is dependent on the position of the Li inside the fullerene cage. Under the high temperature conditions of the gas phase experiments, the Li is mobile and able to access different positions within the cage. This is accounted for in the comparison with theory that shows a very good agreement of the photoelectron angular distributions, allowing the symmetry of the observed SAMO states to be identified. When adsorbed on a metal substrate at low temperature, a strong interaction between the low-lying SAMOs and the metal substrate moves these states to energies much closer to the Fermi energy compared to the situation for empty C60 while the Li remains frozen in an off-centre position.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law

Gindis, David, Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law (October 27, 2017). Journal of Institutional Economics, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2905547, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2905547The rise of large business corporations in the late 19th century compelled many American observers to admit that the nature of the corporation had yet to be understood. Published in this context, Ernst Freund's little-known The Legal Nature of Corporations (1897) was an original attempt to come to terms with a new legal and economic reality. But it can also be described, to paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes, as the earliest example of the rational study of corporate law. The paper shows that Freund had the intuitions of an institutional economist, and engaged in what today would be called comparative institutional analysis. Remarkably, his argument that the corporate form secures property against insider defection and against outsiders anticipated recent work on entity shielding and capital lock-in, and can be read as an early contribution to what today would be called the theory of the firm.Peer reviewe

Coordination and Output Attainment in Work Units Performing Non-routine Tasks: A Cross- National Study

Based on an information-processing perspective (Galbraith 1972), a theoretical pro position is advanced which predicts that for work units performing non-routine tasks, the effect of unit coordination on output attainment is contingent on the sources from which the unit acquires information for task performance. This proposition is tested using a cross-national research design. Data from four national samples — Austria, Belgium, Hungary, and Poland — of academic research units support the proposition. The results reinforce the need for a contingency approach to the study of coordination and performance in organizations. They also provide some insight into the interplay between society and organization.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68600/2/10.1177_017084068500600102.pd

From Data to Software to Science with the Rubin Observatory LSST

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) dataset will dramatically alter our understanding of the Universe, from the origins of the Solar System to the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Much of this research will depend on the existence of robust, tested, and scalable algorithms, software, and services. Identifying and developing such tools ahead of time has the potential to significantly accelerate the delivery of early science from LSST. Developing these collaboratively, and making them broadly available, can enable more inclusive and equitable collaboration on LSST science. To facilitate such opportunities, a community workshop entitled "From Data to Software to Science with the Rubin Observatory LSST" was organized by the LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing (LINCC) and partners, and held at the Flatiron Institute in New York, March 28-30th 2022. The workshop included over 50 in-person attendees invited from over 300 applications. It identified seven key software areas of need: (i) scalable cross-matching and distributed joining of catalogs, (ii) robust photometric redshift determination, (iii) software for determination of selection functions, (iv) frameworks for scalable time-series analyses, (v) services for image access and reprocessing at scale, (vi) object image access (cutouts) and analysis at scale, and (vii) scalable job execution systems. This white paper summarizes the discussions of this workshop. It considers the motivating science use cases, identified cross-cutting algorithms, software, and services, their high-level technical specifications, and the principles of inclusive collaborations needed to develop them. We provide it as a useful roadmap of needs, as well as to spur action and collaboration between groups and individuals looking to develop reusable software for early LSST science.Comment: White paper from "From Data to Software to Science with the Rubin Observatory LSST" worksho

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure