Development of a cognitive robotic system for simple surgical tasks

The introduction of robotic surgery within the operating rooms has significantly improved the quality of many surgical procedures. Recently, the research on medical robotic systems focused on increasing the level of autonomy in order to give them the possibility to carry out simple surgical actions autonomously. This paper reports on the development of technologies for introducing automation within the surgical workflow. The results have been obtained during the ongoing FP7 European funded project Intelligent Surgical Robotics (I-SUR). The main goal of the project is to demonstrate that autonomous robotic surgical systems can carry out simple surgical tasks effectively and without major intervention by surgeons. To fulfil this goal, we have developed innovative solutions (both in terms of technologies and algorithms) for the following aspects: fabrication of soft organ models starting from CT images, surgical planning and execution of movement of robot arms in contact with a deformable environment, designing a surgical interface minimizing the cognitive load of the surgeon supervising the actions, intra-operative sensing and reasoning to detect normal transitions and unexpected events. All these technologies have been integrated using a component-based software architecture to control a novel robot designed to perform the surgical actions under study. In this work we provide an overview of our system and report on preliminary results of the automatic execution of needle insertion for the cryoablation of kidney tumours

A New Approach of Individually Control of Shorting Posts for Pattern Reconfigurable Antenna Designs

© 2018 IEEE. This paper presents a recently proposed novel approach for pattern reconfigurable antenna designs. Individually associating a shorting post with an RF switch, the shorting post can be simply connected to the ground by turning the switch on or disconnected to the ground by turning the switch off. This approach has been successfully validated through two recently reported designs, for the implementations of transverse magnetic TM mode reconfiguration and 360° beam-steering

Statin Decreases Helicobacter pylori Burden in Macrophages by Promoting Autophagy

[[abstract]]Statins, 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors, have been found to provide protective effects against several bacterial infectious diseases. Although the use of statins has been shown to enhance antimicrobial treated Helicobacter pylori eradication and reduce H. pylori-mediated inflammation, the mechanisms underlying these effects remain unclear. In this study, in vitro and ex vivo macrophage models were established to investigate the molecular pathways involved in statin-mediated inhibition of H. pylori-induced inflammation. Our study showed that statin treatment resulted in a dose-dependent decrease in intracellular H. pylori burden in both RAW264.7 macrophage cells and murine peritoneal exudate macrophages (PEMs). Furthermore, statin yielded enhanced early endosome maturation and subsequent activation of the autophagy pathway, which promotes lysosomal fusion resulting in degradation of sequestered bacteria, and in turn attenuates interleukin (IL)-1β production. These results indicate that statin not only reduces cellular cholesterol but also decreases the H. pylori burden in macrophages by promoting autophagy, consequently alleviating H. pylori-induced inflammation

Circulating Cell-Free Mitochondrial DNA - a Novel Marker of Mitochondrial Stress Associated With Suicidality and Major Depressive Disorder

Background: Mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA-cn), which represents the number of mitochondrial genomes per cell, can be quantified in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and is thought to reflect variations in mitochondrial biogenesis. Additionally, mtDNA may be released at low levels into the circulation from mitochondria under cellular stress, resulting in circulating cell-free mtDNA (ccf-mtDNA) detectable in plasma. The source or physiological significance of ccf-mtDNA in psychiatric illness is unknown but may reflect cell damage, cell death, or bioenergetic compromise. Methods: We enrolled suicide attempters (across diagnoses), non-suicidal subjects with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), and healthy controls (all medication-free) in two independent cohorts (n=110 & n=74). MtDNA was quantified in cell-free plasma and in PBMCs. Results: Ccf-mtDNA was elevated in suicide attempters and in non-suicidal MDD subjects, compared to healthy controls. These group effects were very large (Cohen’s d ranging from 0.9 to 4.0, all p<0.00001). Ccf-mtDNA and cellular PBMC mtDNA-cn were not significantly correlated with each other (r=0.02, p=0.87), suggesting they reflect different processes. Ccf-mtDNA correlated with post-dexamethasone cortisol (r=0.5, p<0.001), suggesting that HPA-axis hyperactivity may be associated with cellular damage and release of ccf-mtDNA into the blood. Ccf-mtDNA also directly correlated with the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase (r=0.32, p=0.001), possibly reflecting a compensatory attempt to upregulate antioxidant defence mechanisms due to cellular stress. Conclusions: Ccf-mtDNA may represent a novel marker of cellular stress, which is increased in certain psychiatric conditions. These results call for replication in larger cohorts and in longitudinal studies