A Multi-Robot Cooperation Framework for Sewing Personalized Stent Grafts

This paper presents a multi-robot system for manufacturing personalized medical stent grafts. The proposed system adopts a modular design, which includes: a (personalized) mandrel module, a bimanual sewing module, and a vision module. The mandrel module incorporates the personalized geometry of patients, while the bimanual sewing module adopts a learning-by-demonstration approach to transfer human hand-sewing skills to the robots. The human demonstrations were firstly observed by the vision module and then encoded using a statistical model to generate the reference motion trajectories. During autonomous robot sewing, the vision module plays the role of coordinating multi-robot collaboration. Experiment results show that the robots can adapt to generalized stent designs. The proposed system can also be used for other manipulation tasks, especially for flexible production of customized products and where bimanual or multi-robot cooperation is required.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, accepted by IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Key words: modularity, medical device customization, multi-robot system, robot learning, visual servoing, robot sewin

Image2_Transcriptome analyses reveal new insights on key determinants of perineural invasion in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.TIF

Perineural invasion (PNI) is a pathological feature of many cancers associated with poor outcomes, metastases, and recurrence. In relation to ovarian cancer (OC), there is no information about PNI’s role and mechanisms. Our study found that patients with PNI-positive symptoms had significantly shorter overall survival (OS) time than patients with PNI-negative symptoms. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that PNI represented a substantial independent prognostic factor in OC patients. At the transcriptome level, it is noteworthy that PNI positivity was negatively correlated with the degree of infiltration of immune killer cells in OC tumor tissues, including macrophage, central memory CD4 T-cell, natural killer cells, monocyte, and central memory CD4 T-cell. The results of this study revealed that TAS2Rs proteins were markedly upregulated in PNI-positive OC tissues and predicted poor prognoses. Moreover, Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that the TAS2R10 protein was associated with poor prognoses and PNI in OC. Consequently, we found for the first time that PNI was a powerful predictor of poor prognosis in OC and analyzed its expression pattern and some preliminary biochemical characterization, providing new clues for guiding clinical prevention and treatment of OC.</p

Table1_Transcriptome analyses reveal new insights on key determinants of perineural invasion in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.docx

Perineural invasion (PNI) is a pathological feature of many cancers associated with poor outcomes, metastases, and recurrence. In relation to ovarian cancer (OC), there is no information about PNI’s role and mechanisms. Our study found that patients with PNI-positive symptoms had significantly shorter overall survival (OS) time than patients with PNI-negative symptoms. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that PNI represented a substantial independent prognostic factor in OC patients. At the transcriptome level, it is noteworthy that PNI positivity was negatively correlated with the degree of infiltration of immune killer cells in OC tumor tissues, including macrophage, central memory CD4 T-cell, natural killer cells, monocyte, and central memory CD4 T-cell. The results of this study revealed that TAS2Rs proteins were markedly upregulated in PNI-positive OC tissues and predicted poor prognoses. Moreover, Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that the TAS2R10 protein was associated with poor prognoses and PNI in OC. Consequently, we found for the first time that PNI was a powerful predictor of poor prognosis in OC and analyzed its expression pattern and some preliminary biochemical characterization, providing new clues for guiding clinical prevention and treatment of OC.</p

Image1_Transcriptome analyses reveal new insights on key determinants of perineural invasion in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.TIF

Perineural invasion (PNI) is a pathological feature of many cancers associated with poor outcomes, metastases, and recurrence. In relation to ovarian cancer (OC), there is no information about PNI’s role and mechanisms. Our study found that patients with PNI-positive symptoms had significantly shorter overall survival (OS) time than patients with PNI-negative symptoms. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that PNI represented a substantial independent prognostic factor in OC patients. At the transcriptome level, it is noteworthy that PNI positivity was negatively correlated with the degree of infiltration of immune killer cells in OC tumor tissues, including macrophage, central memory CD4 T-cell, natural killer cells, monocyte, and central memory CD4 T-cell. The results of this study revealed that TAS2Rs proteins were markedly upregulated in PNI-positive OC tissues and predicted poor prognoses. Moreover, Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that the TAS2R10 protein was associated with poor prognoses and PNI in OC. Consequently, we found for the first time that PNI was a powerful predictor of poor prognosis in OC and analyzed its expression pattern and some preliminary biochemical characterization, providing new clues for guiding clinical prevention and treatment of OC.</p

Knockdown Sin1 protein inhibits cilia formation.

<p>A. The percentage of RPE1 cells with cilia were determined using acetylated-tubulin staining. Average data obtained from two to three different views are shown. Approximately 300 cells for each siRNA transfection were scored each time. Error bar represent SD. *p<0.01 compared with luciferase, #p<0.05 compared with luciferase. B. siRNA knockdown efficiency from (A) were detected using western blot.</p

Sin1γ colocalizes with γ-tubulin.

<p>A. Sin1-/- MEF cells were transiently transfected with indicated GFP-tagged expression plasmid, the slides were fixed, stained with anti-γ-tubulin/Texas red-labelled anti-mouse secondary antibody and analyzed by confocal microscopy after 24h transfection. B. Hela cells were transiently transfected with indicated GFP-tagged expression plasmid, the slides were fixed, stained with anti-γ-tubulin/Texas red-labelled anti-mouse secondary antibody and analyzed by confocal microscopy after 24h transction. Magnification of colocalization between GFP- Sin1γ and γ-tubulin was shown on the right panel. C. Sin1γ expression fluctuates during cell cycle. HeLa cells transfected with GFP empty vector or GFP-Sin1γ for 24h were subjected to time-lapse microscopy observation. Both GFP and DIC channels were shown for cells transfected with each expression plamids. Scale bars: 25 μm (A and C), 5 μm (B). All experiments were repeated for three times with the same results.</p

Characterization of Sin1 isoforms.

<p>A. Schematic map representing of the human Sin1 gene and transcript variants described in this study. There are five Sin1 transcript variants generating four distinct protein isoforms. Two transcript variants encode for Sin1δ. The green and red solid regions represent start and stop codon respectively. B. Sin1 isoforms are widely express in mouse tissues. Total RNA extracted from mice tissues were analyzed by RT-PCR using either Sin1γ specific primers or primers recognized all four isoforms, 18s RNA were used as loading control. Amplified products were separated by electrophoresis in a 2% agarose gel stained with gel red, demonstrating that all four Sin1 isoforms are widely expressed in mice tissues.</p

Restoration of Sin1-/- MEFs with GFP-Sin1 expression vectors.

<p>A. Sin1 isoforms exert distinct functions in restoration of mTORC2 signaling. Sin1-/- MEF cells transfected with GFP empty vector, GFP-Sin1α, GFP-Sin1β, GFP-Sin1γ, GFP-Sin1δ respectively were grown in starved, or starved then restimulated with insulin or serum for 15min. Total cell lysates were analyzed for indicated proteins by immunoblotting. B. The MAPK pathway is not altered in Sin1 isoform-rescued Sin1-/- MEF cells. Sin1-/- MEF cells transfected with GFP empty vector, GFP-Sin1α, GFP-Sin1β, GFP-Sin1γ, GFP-Sin1δ respectively were grown in starved, or starved then restimulated with insulin or serum for 15min. Total cell lysates were analyzed for indicated proteins by immunoblotting. Single-letter abbreviations for the treatments are as follows: S, starvation for 12hr, I, insulin for 15min after starvation, F, FBS for 15min after starvation. C. The quantifications analysis of the phosphor-PKC band are shown.</p

Sin1 isoforms except Sin1δ form mTORC2 complex.

<p>A. Rictor pulled down Sin1α, Sin1β, Sin1γ, but not Sin1δ. HEK-293T cells were transiently transfected for 24h with HA-Sin1 isoform plasmids. Cell lysates (left-hand side) and rictor immunoprecipitates (right-hand side) were analyzed for mTOR, rictor and HA by western blotting. B. Sin1α, Sin1β, Sin1γ, but not Sin1δ could pull down rictor and mTOR. HEK-293T cells were transiently transfected for 24h with HA-Sin1 isoform plasmid respectively. Cell lysates (left-hand side) and HA immunoprecipitates (right-hand side) were analyzed for mTOR, rictor and HA by western blotting. All experiments were repeated for three times with the same results.</p

Up and down regulated genes involved in carotenoid pathway analysis.

<p>Up and down regulated genes involved in carotenoid pathway analysis.</p