Smart responsive biomaterials for spatiotemporal modulation of functional tissue repair.

The biological characteristics and microenvironmental changes at each stage of tissue repair are intricately linked, maintaining a dynamic spatiotemporal equilibrium. Monotherapies often fail to effectively address complex microenvironmental disturbances, but combining multiple factors (e.g.

Ultrasound-responsive piezoelectric analgesic microspheres alleviate osteoarthritis pain.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common causes of chronic pain. However, current OA pain therapies often fail to achieve satisfactory outcomes. To effectively alleviate OA pain, ultrasound-responsive piezoelectric analgesic microspheres, constructed using ultrasound and piezoelectric nanomaterials, were developed.

The Application of Ultrasound-Induced Blood-Brain Barrier Opening in Neurology and Immunology.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) acts as a stringent biological filter situated between the circulatory system and the brain's tissue, shielding the brain by preventing the entry of detrimental neurotoxic substances into the central nervous system (CNS). Nevertheless, the BBB also restricts the entry of most therapeutic drugs, resulting in only a few medications currently available for the clinical treatment of neurological diseases. Consequently, it is imperative to discover a secure and potent technique to temporarily disrupt the BBB for the purpose of directed medication administration.

Research Progress of Osteoarthritis Treatment by Low Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound.

With the intensification of global population aging, osteoarthritis (OA) has emerged as a major socioeconomic burden requiring urgent therapeutic interventions. Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS), a non-invasive physical therapy modality, delivers pulsed acoustic energy to target tissues with negligible thermal effects. Accumulating evidence from preclinical studies and randomized controlled trials has demonstrated its potential to decelerate OA progression.

Malate initiates a proton-sensing pathway essential for pH regulation of inflammation.

Metabolites can double as a signaling modality that initiates physiological adaptations. Metabolism, a chemical language encoding biological information, has been recognized as a powerful principle directing inflammatory responses. Cytosolic pH is a regulator of inflammatory response in macrophages.

Denervation‑induced NRG3 aggravates muscle heterotopic ossification via the ErbB4/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

Peripheral nerve injury exacerbates progression of muscle heterotopic ossification (HO) and induces changes in expression of local cytokines in muscle tissue. The objective of the present study was to assess the impact of peripheral nerve injury on muscle HO development and the mechanism of cytokine modulation. A mouse model of gastrocnemius muscle HO was established and the sciatic nerve cut to simulate peripheral nerve injury.

Mechanical stimulation promotes fibrochondrocyte proliferation by activating the TRPV4 signaling pathway during tendon-bone insertion healing: CCN2 plays an important regulatory role.

Background: We previously confirmed that mechanical stimulation is an important factor in the repair of tendon-bone insertion (TBI) injuries and that mechanoreceptors such as transient receptor potential ion-channel subfamily V member 4 (TRPV4; also known as transient receptor potential vanilloid 4) are key to transforming mechanical stimulation into intracellular biochemical signals. This study aims to elucidate the mechanism of mechanical stimulation regulating TRPV4.

Methods: Immunohistochemical staining and western blotting were used to evaluate cartilage repair at the TBI after injury.

Inhibition of CX3CL1 by treadmill training prevents osteoclast-induced fibrocartilage complex resorption during TBI healing.

Introduction: The healing of tendon-bone injuries is very difficult, often resulting in poor biomechanical performance and unsatisfactory functional recovery. The tendon-bone insertion has a complex four distinct layers structure, and previous studies have often focused on promoting the regeneration of the fibrocartilage layer, neglecting the role of its bone end repair in tendon-bone healing. This study focuses on the role of treadmill training in promoting bone regeneration at the tendon-bone insertion and its related mechanisms.

Effect of treadmill training on fibrocartilage complex repair in tendon-bone insertion healing in the postinflammatory stage.

Aims: Mechanical stimulation is a key factor in the development and healing of tendon-bone insertion. Treadmill training is an important rehabilitation treatment. This study aims to investigate the benefits of treadmill training initiated on postoperative day 7 for tendon-bone insertion healing.

Comparison of Suture Button and Syndesmotic Screw for Ankle Syndesmotic Injuries: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Background: The syndesmotic screw (SS) and suture button (SB) fixation methods are both widely used for the reduction of ankle syndesmotic injury, with varying outcomes.

Purpose: To review recently published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the outcomes between SS and SB fixation for ankle syndesmotic injury.

Study Design: Systematic review; Level of evidence, 1.

s-CAM: An Untethered Insertable Laparoscopic Surgical Camera Robot with Non-Contact Actuation.

Fully insertable robotic imaging devices represent a promising future of minimally invasive laparoscopic vision. Emerging research efforts in this field have resulted in several proof-of-concept prototypes. One common drawback of these designs derives from their clumsy tethering wires which not only cause operational interference but also reduce camera mobility.

Transmission dynamics and control methodology of COVID-19: A modeling study.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has grown up to be a pandemic within a short span of time. To investigate transmission dynamics and then determine control methodology, we took epidemic in Wuhan as a study case. Unfortunately, to our best knowledge, the existing models are based on the common assumption that the total population follows a homogeneous spatial distribution, which is not the case for the prevalence occurred both in the community and in hospital due to the difference in the contact rate.

Segmenting areas of potential contamination for adaptive robotic disinfection in built environments.

Mass-gathering built environments such as hospitals, schools, and airports can become hot spots for pathogen transmission and exposure. Disinfection is critical for reducing infection risks and preventing outbreaks of infectious diseases. However, cleaning and disinfection are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and health-undermining, particularly during the pandemic of the coronavirus disease in 2019.

Validating an automated image identification process of a passive image-assisted dietary assessment method: proof of concept.

Objective: To validate an automated food image identification system, DietCam, which has not been validated, in identifying foods with different shapes and complexities from passively taken digital images.

Design: Participants wore Sony SmartEyeglass that automatically took three images per second, while two meals containing four foods, representing regular- (i.e.

Adaptive Absolute Ego-Motion Estimation Using Wearable Visual-Inertial Sensors for Indoor Positioning.

This paper proposes an adaptive absolute ego-motion estimation method using wearable visual-inertial sensors for indoor positioning. We introduce a wearable visual-inertial device to estimate not only the camera ego-motion, but also the 3D motion of the moving object in dynamic environments. Firstly, a novel method dynamic scene segmentation is proposed using two visual geometry constraints with the help of inertial sensors.

Automatic Global Level Set Approach for Lumbar Vertebrae CT Image Segmentation.

Vertebrae computed tomography (CT) image automatic segmentation is an essential step for Image-guided minimally invasive spine surgery. However, most of state-of-the-art methods still require human intervention due to the inherent limitations of vertebrae CT image, such as topological variation, irregular boundaries (double boundary, weak boundary), and image noise. Therefore, this paper intentionally designed an automatic global level set approach (AGLSA), which is capable of dealing with these issues for lumbar vertebrae CT image segmentation.

Fine orientation control of an insertable robotic camera system for single incision laparoscopic surgery.

Background: Insertable laparoscopic camera systems were developed to improve the minimally invasive surgeries. Robotic degrees of freedom for an insertable laparoscopic camera are required to adjust the camera's orientation and position inside an abdominal cavity.

Methods: This paper demonstrates an insertable magnetic actuated robotic camera system with two-degree-of-freedom (2-DoF) orientation control for single incision laparoscopic surgery.

Wearable Heading Estimation for Motion Tracking in Health Care by Adaptive Fusion of Visual-Inertial Measurements.

The increasing demand for health informatics has become a far-reaching trend in the ageing society. The utilization of wearable sensors enables monitoring senior people daily activities in free-living environments, conveniently and effectively. Among the primary health-care sensing categories, the wearable visual-inertial modality for human motion tracking gradually exerts promising potentials.

Wearable Heading Estimation for Motion Tracking in Health Care by Adaptive Fusion of Visual-Inertial Measurementsments.

The increasing demand for health informatics has become a far-reaching trend in the ageing society. The utilization of wearable sensors enables monitoring senior people daily activities in free-living environments, conveniently and effectively. Among the primary health-care sensing categories, the wearable visual-inertial modality for human motion tracking gradually exerts promising potentials.

Optical design of an in vivo laparoscopic lighting system.

This paper proposes an in vivo laparoscopic lighting system design to address the illumination issues, namely poor lighting uniformity and low optical efficiency, existing in the state-of-the-art in vivo laparoscopic cameras. The transformable design of the laparoscopic lighting system is capable of carrying purposefully designed freeform optical lenses for achieving lighting performance with high illuminance uniformity and high optical efficiency in a desired target region. To design freeform optical lenses for extended light sources such as LEDs with Lambertian light intensity distributions, we present an effective and complete freeform optical design method.

Hardware design for a cable-free fully insertable wireless laparoscopic robotic camera.

The field of insertable laparoscopic robotic camera is gaining increasing attentions from researchers, surgeons, and also patients. Although many insertable laparoscope prototypes have been introduced, few of them get rid of the encumbrance tethering cable. In this paper, we proposed a hardware architecture for a magnetic actuated robotic surgical (MARS) camera, which facilitates a cable-free fully insertable laparoscopic surgical robotic camera with adequate in-vivo mobility.

Automatic lumbar vertebrae detection based on feature fusion deep learning for partial occluded C-arm X-ray images.

Automatic and accurate lumbar vertebrae detection is an essential step of image-guided minimally invasive spine surgery (IG-MISS). However, traditional methods still require human intervention due to the similarity of vertebrae, abnormal pathological conditions and uncertain imaging angle. In this paper, we present a novel convolutional neural network (CNN) model to automatically detect lumbar vertebrae for C-arm X-ray images.

RGB-D SLAM Combining Visual Odometry and Extended Information Filter.

In this paper, we present a novel RGB-D SLAM system based on visual odometry and an extended information filter, which does not require any other sensors or odometry. In contrast to the graph optimization approaches, this is more suitable for online applications. A visual dead reckoning algorithm based on visual residuals is devised, which is used to estimate motion control input.

Loop Closing Detection in RGB-D SLAM Combining Appearance and Geometric Constraints.

A kind of multi feature points matching algorithm fusing local geometric constraints is proposed for the purpose of quickly loop closing detection in RGB-D Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). The visual feature is encoded with BRAND (binary robust appearance and normals descriptor), which efficiently combines appearance and geometric shape information from RGB-D images. Furthermore, the feature descriptors are stored using the Locality-Sensitive-Hashing (LSH) technique and hierarchical clustering trees are used to search for these binary features.

DietCam: Multiview Food Recognition Using a Multikernel SVM.

Food recognition is a key component in evaluation of everyday food intakes, and its challenge is due to intraclass variation. In this paper, we present an automatic food classification method, DietCam, which specifically addresses the variation of food appearances. DietCam consists of two major components, ingredient detection and food classification.