Herskindhorner4269

The development of robotics and medicine in recent years leads to increasing mutual integration of these two disciplines. The use of specialized robotic solutions in medicine poses new challenges, including the issue of safety. The paper analyzes existing solutions aimed at improving safety in medical robotics. The concept of spatial motion restriction zones-areas of space affecting the process of robot-assisted surgery and designed to minimize risks for the patient is proposed. Various applications of such zones are considered, such as creating an optimal medical tool path when planning an operation, an adaptive movement restriction during manual manipulator control, including limiting maximum velocity. An approach to adaptively changing the parameters of motion restriction zones is presented, and possible data sources for this change are considered. A technique is introduced for using a hybrid motion restriction zone, combining several zones into a single complex system with various types of interaction. Approaches to manual control of a collaborative robot, including the use of force-torque sensors, are considered.The presence of conventional and emerging pollutants infiltrating into our water bodies is a course of concern as they have seriously threatened water security. Established techniques such as photocatalysis and membrane technology have proven to be promising in removing various persistent organic pollutants (POP) from wastewaters. The emergence of hybrid photocatalytic membrane which incorporates both photocatalysis and membrane technology has shown greater potential in treating POP laden wastewater based on their synergistic effects. This article provides an in-depth review on the roles of both photocatalysis and membrane technology in hybrid photocatalytic membranes for the treatment of POP containing wastewaters. A concise introduction on POP's in terms of examples, their origins and their effect on a multitude of organisms are critically reviewed. The fundamentals of photocatalytic mechanism, current directions in photocatalyst design and their employment to treat POP's are also discussed. Finally, the challenges and future direction in this field are presented.The remediation of wood preservative-contaminated sites is an important issue due to the carcinogenic nature of some contaminants derived from wood preservatives (e.g., Cr+6, arsenate, and pentachlorophenol). This study evaluated the effects of fertilizer application on remediation potential of co-plantings of Salix interior Rowlee. (Salix) and Festuca arundinacea Schreb. (Festuca) in a wood preservative-spiked technosol while considering the potential contaminant and nutrient leaching. Two levels of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizers, NaNO3 and NaH2PO4 (25 and 75 mg L-1), were applied to achieve three NP ratios, i.e., 31 (7525), 13 (2575), and 11 (2525), that were compared with a control treatment (00 NP) in a mesocosm experiment. Roots of the plant supplied with 11 and 13 NP had more than double arsenic (As) and copper (Cu) amounts (i.e., biomass × concentration) compared to the control ones. Highest As and Cu amounts in shoots were found for Salix stems and Festuca leaves in the 13 and 11 NP treatments, respectively. Arsenic and P leaching was high in mesocosms supplied with 13 NP. Contamination and nutrient leaching in the 11 NP treatment did not differ from the control, except for Cu. In conclusion, 11 NP treatment yielded the best results in terms of metal(loid) uptake and contaminant and nutrient leaching. In 11 NP treatment, the maximum values of percent As, Cr, and Cu in Salix and Festuca aboveground were 0.18%, 0.024%, and 1.20% and 0.89%, 0.08%, and 1.78%, respectively.China has emerged as the world's largest pollutant emitter due to rapid industrialization and a remarkable economic upsurge in recent decades. Rising carbon emissions have exerted more social and regulatory pressure on Chinese corporations to undertake environmental protection investments. However, the implications of such investments on the financial fundamentals of a firm remain unclear. Especially, little is known about how environmental protection investments affect the performance of financially constrained firms. This study explores the mediating role of financial constraints in the nexus between corporate environmental protection investment and the accounting and market performance of Chinese listed firms during 2009-2016. The empirical outcomes of the generalized method of moments (GMM)-based regressions reveal that environmental investments of non-constrained firms have a positive impact on the accounting and market performance of such firms as measured by ROA and Tobin's q, respectively. Interestingly, environmental protection investments have a significant negative association with both (i.e., the accounting and market) performance proxies of firms that are facing financial constraints. These findings imply that in pursuit of environment preservation and pollution abatement, regulators shall provide more financial flexibility and enabling environment to financially constrained firms to optimize their role in pollution abatement. Besides, financially non-constrained firms shall be assigned greater environmental responsibility to undertake a proportionately higher environmental investment than financially constrained firms.Cadmium (Cd) is a common pollutant in the aquatic environment, which puts the health and safety of aquatic organisms and humans at risk. Pyrintegrin ic50 In the present study, the freshwater crab Sinopotamon henanense was exposed to Cd (0, 50, 100, and 500 μg·L-1) for 14 d (0-14th d), followed by 21 d (14-35th d) of depuration. The changes in Cd bioaccumulation, microstructure, biomacromolecules (polysaccharides, neutral lipids, DNA and total proteins), and biochemical parameters (SOD, CAT, GR, TrxR, MDA and AChE) in the gills and hepatopancreas were tested. The injured microstructure, activated antioxidant system, increased MDA, and inhibited AChE of the gills and hepatopancreas responded with progressive bioaccumulation of Cd. Meanwhile, the polysaccharides and neutral lipids in the hepatopancreas reduced and DNA synthesis enhanced. During depuration, more than 58.80 ± 8.53% and 13.84 ± 12.11% of Cd was excreted from the gills and hepatopancreas, respectively. Recovery of microstructure and biomacromolecules as well as alleviated oxidative damage and neurotoxicity were also found in these two organs. Additionally, based on PCA, Ihis, GR and MDA were identified as the optimal biomarkers indicating the health status of crabs. In conclusion, S. henanense could resist Cd stress through antioxidant defence and self-detoxification.

To evaluate the utility of SUVmax on FDG-PET and chemical shift imaging (CSI) on MRI in the differentiation of intertrabecular metastasis (ITM) from hematopoietic bone marrow hyperplasia (HBMH).

We retrospectively evaluated 54 indeterminate focal bone marrow lesions in 44 patients detected on FDG-PET. The lesions were assigned to the metastasis group (M group, 29 lesions of 24 patients) and the non-metastasis group (non-M group, 25 lesions of 20 patients) based on the follow-up or the histopathological studies. The lesions were assessed with the maximum standardized uptake value (SUV

) on FDG-PET CT images and signal change ratio (SCR) on CSI.

The median SUV

were 5.62 and 2.91; the median SCR were - 0.08 and - 34.8 in M and non-M groups respectively, with significant difference (p < 0.001). With ROC curve analysis, the optimal cutoff value of SUV

was 4.48 with a sensitivity of 72.4%, a specificity of 100%, and AUC of 0.905. The cutoff value of SCR was - 6.15 with a sensitivity of 82.8%, a specificity of 80%, and AUC of 0.818.

FDG-PET and CSI on MRI are useful in distinguishing ITM from HBMH. Though their sensitivities are similar, the specificity of FDG-PET was higher than that of MRI.

FDG-PET and CSI on MRI are useful in distinguishing ITM from HBMH. Though their sensitivities are similar, the specificity of FDG-PET was higher than that of MRI.

To construct an auxiliary empirical antibiotic therapy (EAT) multi-class classification model for children with bacterial pneumonia using radiomics features based on artificial intelligence and low-dose chest CT images.

Data were retrospectively collected from children with pathogen-confirmed bacterial pneumonia including Gram-positive bacterial pneumonia (122/389, 31%), Gram-negative bacterial pneumonia (159/389, 41%) and atypical bacterial pneumonia (108/389, 28%) from January 1 to June 30, 2019. Nine machine-learning models were separately evaluated based on radiomics features extracted from CT images; three optimal submodels were constructed and integrated to form a multi-class classification model.

We selected five features to develop three radiomics submodels a Gram-positive model, a Gram-negative model and an atypical model. The comprehensive radiomics model using support vector machine method yielded an average area under the curve (AUC) of 0.75 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.65-0.83] and accuracy (ACC) of 0.58 [sensitivity (SEN), 0.57; specificity (SPE), 0.78] in the training set, and an average AUC of 0.73 (95% CI 0.61-0.79) and ACC of 0.54 (SEN, 0.52; SPE, 0.75) in the test set.

This auxiliary EAT radiomics multi-class classification model was deserved to be researched in differential diagnosing bacterial pneumonias in children.

This auxiliary EAT radiomics multi-class classification model was deserved to be researched in differential diagnosing bacterial pneumonias in children.Past work shows a significant negative correlation between foliar oregonin concentration and western tent caterpillar (Malacosoma californicum Packard) feeding on red alder (Alnus rubra Bong.). Above an oregonin threshold of 20% leaf dry weight, little feeding by caterpillars is observed. Concentrations of defensive chemicals are influenced by plant genotype, environmental conditions, insect feeding, and the interactions of these factors. Our objective was to measure the effects of nitrogen (N) availability and wounding on foliar oregonin and condensed tannin concentrations in red alder genotypes. One-year-old seedlings from 100 half-sib red alder families were treated with two levels of ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) for two growing seasons in a common garden. In the second year, leaves from 50 families from the fertilization experiment were used in a bioassay feeding experiment to determine the effects of N fertilization and genotype on WTC damage, and to identify a subset of 20 families with a range of damage to analyze for phytochemical composition. In separate experiments, wound-induction treatments were conducted outdoors and, in a greenhouse using the N treated trees in their third and fourth year, respectively. Foliar condensed tannin, oregonin and N concentrations were measured and ranked among the plant genotypes, and between the two N treatments and two wounding treatments. Results showed that oregonin and condensed tannin concentrations varied among the alder genotypes. Leaf N concentration was negatively correlated with concentration of oregonin. Neither of the measured phenolic compounds responded to wounding. The results suggest that red alder foliar oregonin and condensed tannin are likely constitutive defenses that are largely determined by genotype, and that the negative correlation of defense compounds with plant internal N status holds in this N-fixing tree.