Robotic CT-guided out-of-plane needle insertion: comparison of angle accuracy with manual insertion in phantom and measurement of distance accuracy in animals

Objectives To evaluate the accuracy of robotic CT-guided out-of-plane needle insertion in phantom and animal experiments. Methods A robotic system (Zerobot), developed at our institution, was used for needle insertion. In the phantom experiment, 12 robotic needle insertions into a phantom at various angles in the XY and YZ planes were performed, and the same insertions were manually performed freehand, as well as guided by a smartphone application (SmartPuncture). Angle errors were compared between the robotic and smartphone-guided manual insertions using Student’s t test. In the animal experiment, 6 robotic out-of-plane needle insertions toward targets of 1.0 mm in diameter placed in the kidneys and hip muscles of swine were performed, each with and without adjustment of needle orientation based on reconstructed CT images during insertion. Distance accuracy was calculated as the distance between the needle tip and the target center. Results In the phantom experiment, the mean angle errors of the robotic, freehand manual, and smartphone-guided manual insertions were 0.4°, 7.0°, and 3.7° in the XY plane and 0.6°, 6.3°, and 0.6° in the YZ plane, respectively. Robotic insertions in the XY plane were significantly (p Conclusion Robotic CT-guided out-of-plane needle insertions were more accurate than smartphone-guided manual insertions in the phantom and were also accurate in the in vivo procedure, particularly with adjustment during insertion

Large-Area Fluorescence and Electron Microscopic Correlative Imaging With Multibeam Scanning Electron Microscopy

Recent improvements in correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) technology have led to dramatic improvements in the ability to observe tissues and cells. Fluorescence labeling has been used to visualize the localization of molecules of interest through immunostaining or genetic modification strategies for the identification of the molecular signatures of biological specimens. Newer technologies such as tissue clearing have expanded the field of observation available for fluorescence labeling; however, the area of correlative observation available for electron microscopy (EM) remains restricted. In this study, we developed a large-area CLEM imaging procedure to show specific molecular localization in large-scale EM sections of mouse and marmoset brain. Target molecules were labeled with antibodies and sequentially visualized in cryostat sections using fluorescence and gold particles. Fluorescence images were obtained by light microscopy immediately after antibody staining. Immunostained sections were postfixed for EM, and silver-enhanced sections were dehydrated in a graded ethanol series and embedded in resin. Ultrathin sections for EM were prepared from fully polymerized resin blocks, collected on silicon wafers, and observed by multibeam scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Multibeam SEM has made rapid, large-area observation at high resolution possible, paving the way for the analysis of detailed structures using the CLEM approach. Here, we describe detailed methods for large-area CLEM in various tissues of both rodents and primates

Probing the mechanism of improved performance for sodium-ion batteries by utilizing three-electrode cells: effects of sodium-ion concentration in ionic liquid electrolytes

We investigated the full-cell performance of sodium-ion batteries composed of a hard carbon (HC) negative electrode, a NaCrO₂ positive electrode, and an ionic liquid electrolyte Na[FSA]–[C₃C₁pyrr][FSA] (FSA = bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide, C₃C₁pyrr = N-methyl-N-propylpyrrolidinium) at 333 K. Before the full-cell tests, charge–discharge tests of the Na/HC and Na/NaCrO₂ half cells were conducted, from which the practical capacities were determined to be ca. 250 mAh (g-HC)⁻¹ and ca. 115 mAh (g-NaCrO₂)−1, respectively. Using these capacities, the performance of HC/NaCrO2 full cells with practical loading masses was evaluated by three-electrode cells with a sodium metal reference electrode, and the energy density was calculated to be 177 Wh (kg-(NaCrO₂ + HC))⁻¹. In particular, we focused on the effect of the sodium-ion concentration on the performance by varying the molar fraction of Na[FSA] (x(Na[FSA])) from 0.20 to 0.50. The best rate capability was obtained at a composition of x(Na[FSA]) = 0.50. The effect of the sodium-ion concentration was discussed in terms of the potential profiles of the positive and negative electrodes. The results were explained by the sodium-ion supplying capability of the electrolyte inside the electrode, where the sodium insertion reaction occurs

A SiPM-based isotropic-3D PET detector X\u27tal cube with a three-dimensional array of 1 mm^3^ crystals

We are developing a novel, general purpose isotropic-3D PET detector X\u27tal cube which has high spatial resolution in all three dimensions. The research challenge for this detector is implementing effective detection of scintillation photons by covering six faces of a segmented crystal block with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). In this paper, we developed the second prototype of the X\u27tal cube for a proof-of-concept. We aimed at realizing an ultimate detector with 1.0 mm^3^ cubic crystals, in contrast to our previous development using 3.0 mm^3^ cubic crystals. The crystal block was composed of a 16 x 16 x 16 array of lutetium gadolinium oxyorthosilicate (LGSO) crystals 0.993 x 0.993 x 0.993 mm^3^ in size. The crystals were optically glued together without inserting any reflector inside and 96 multi-pixel photon counters (MPPCs, S10931-50P, i.e. six faces each with a 4 x 4 array of MPPCs), each having a sensitive area of 3.0 x 3.0 mm^2^, were optically coupled to the surfaces of the crystal block. Almost all 4096 crystals were identified through Anger-type calculation due to the finely adjusted reflector sheets inserted between the crystal block and light guides. The reflector sheets, which formed a belt of 0.5 mm width, were placed to cover half of the crystals of the second rows from the edges in order to improve identification performance of the crystals near the edges. Energy resolution of 12.7% was obtained at 511 keV with almost uniform light output for all crystal segments thanks to the effective detection of the scintillation photons