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Measuring oil concentration in the aquatic environment is essential for determining the potential exposure, risk, or injury for oil spill response and natural resource damage assessment. Conventional analytical chemistry methods require samples to be collected in the field, shipped, and processed in the laboratory, which is also rather time-consuming, laborious, and costly. For rapid field response immediately after a spill, there is a need to estimate oil concentration in near real time. To make the oil analysis more portable, fast, and cost effective, we developed a plug-and-play device and a deep learning model to assess oil levels in water using fluorescent images of water samples. We constructed a 3D-printed device to collect fluorescent images of solvent-extracted water samples using an iPhone. We prepared approximately 1,300 samples of oil at different concentrations to train and test the deep learning model. The model comprises a convolutional neural network and a novel module of histogram bottleneck block with an attention mechanism to exploit the spectral features found in low-contrast images. This model predicts the oil concentration in weight per volume based on fluorescence image. We devised a confidence interval estimator by combining gradient boosting and polymodal regressor to provide a confidence assessment of our results. Our model achieved sufficient accuracy to predict oil levels for most environmental applications. We plan to improve the device and iPhone application as a near-real-time tool for oil spill responders to measure oil in water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: In order to solve the problem of image real-time processing and correction for high-speed endoscopic sweptsource optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT), we highly optimize a computer-unified device architecture-based platform and use a field-programmable gate array to summarize the application experience. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We use the Half-Sync/Half-Asyn mode to optimize memory in order to build a high-throughput data thread pool for CPU. We use asynchronous streaming architecture to multiplex multiple threads at high speed to accelerate data processing. At the same time, we design a rotary scanning position information encoding feedback module to suppress image drift, which can realize 25ns logic-timing sequence synchronization control through FPGA 40MHz clock. RESULTS: The maximum complete attainable axial-scan-processing rate (including memory transfer and display of B-scan frames) is 3.52 MHz for a 16-bit pixel depth and A-scans/s of 1024 pixels. To our knowledge, this is the fastest processing rate reported to date with a single-chip graphical processing unit for SS-OCT. Finally, the established high-speed SS-OCT is used to image mouse esophagus and human fingers, and the output images are stable. When the image size is 1024 × 1024 pixels, the real-time imaging rate is 200 frames per second. CONCLUSIONS: This paper develops a real-time image processing and reconstruction technology suitable for high-throughput SS-OCT systems, which can have high-density operation and efficient parallelism, while suppressing highspeed image drift. It lays the foundation for the non-destructive, in vivo, non-staining, fast and convenient early tumor diagnosis of high-speed endoscopic SS-OCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To compare the safety and short-term efficacy of robotic-assisted thoracic surgery(RATS) and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery(VATS) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: A retrospective analysis of the clinical data of 2 058 NSCLC patients who underwent RATS and VATS from January 2021 to December 2022 in Xiangya Hospital of Central South University was conducted, including 1 006 males and 1 052 females, with the age of (57.3±9.9) years. According to the surgical approach, the patients were divided into RATS group ( n =1 190) and VATS group ( n =868). The nearest neighbor matching method was used to perform 1∶1 propensity score matching (PSM). A comparison was made about the intraoperative conditions and postoperative complication rates between the RATS and VATS groups before and after PSM. Furthermore, after PSM, a stratified analysis was conducted based on surgical approach, separately comparing the intraoperative conditions and postoperative complication rates between the VATS and RATS groups among patients who underwent lobectomy and segmentectomy, respectively. Results: After PSM, a total of 1 692 patients were included, with 846 patients in both the VATS and RATS groups. After stratification based on surgical approach, there were 503 patients in the RATS group and 548 patients in the VATS group for lobectomy, and 338 patients in the RATS group and 298 patients in the VATS group for segmentectomy. Before PSM, statistically significant differences were observed between the RATS and VATS groups in terms of intraoperative conversion to open thoracotomy, number of lymph node dissection/sampling stations, extubation time, total length of hospital stay, and total hospitalization costs (all P <0.001). After PSM, compared with the VATS group, the RATS group had a lower intraoperative conversion rate to open surgery [1.2% (10/846) vs 5.1% (43/846)], less intraoperative blood loss [(73.6±77.4) ml vs (112.6±239.3) ml], a greater number of sampled/dissected lymph node stations [(4.8±2.0) vs (3.7±1.8)], a shorter duration of drainage tube placement [(3.6±2.7) d vs (4.1±2.5) d], and a higher postoperative drainage volume [(273.9±183.0) ml vs (256.5±168.7) ml] (all P <0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of postoperative complications between the two groups ( P =0.108). The results of the surgical stratification analysis showed statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of intraoperative blood loss, number of lymph node dissection/sampling stations, extubation time, and total hospitalization costs for both lobectomy and segmentectomy surgeries (all P <0.001). In lobectomy surgeries, the RATS group had a lower rate of intraoperative conversion to open thoracotomy than that of VATS group [1.6% (8/503) vs 7.7% (42/548), P <0.001]. In segmentectomy surgeries, the RATS group had more postoperative drainage volume than that of VATS group [(249.8±151.5) ml vs (218.7±132.9) ml, P =0.023]. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of surgical complications between the two groups for both lobectomy and segmentectomy surgeries (both P >0.05). Conclusion: In the surgical management of NSCLC, RATS offers more advantages over VATS in reducing conversion rates to open surgery, minimizing perioperative adverse events, and facilitating faster patient recovery postoperatively.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a specialized optical imaging technique with a history of more than 30 years, known as'optical biopsy' because of its high resolution and high sensitivity. OCT has been used in the airway for more than 20 years, and researchers have explored and improved the imaging methods of OCT in the airway, focusing mainly on expanding the imaging site and enriching the imaging content. In terms of broadening the imaging site, it covers the airway from generation 0 to 9. In terms of enriching imaging content, additional assessment of airway wall blood vessels, airway smooth muscle, fibrous tissue, and airway compliance can be performed. It plays an important role in the study of various respiratory diseases. Therefore, this paper mainly summarized the exploration of the imaging site and content of airway OCT as follows.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the robotic assisted bronchoscope system for localizing and removing the spring coils that placed in the peripheral lung of beagle dogs. Methods: The study was conducted from June 18th to June 20th, 2021. Metallic lung coils were placed as the simulated lesions to the periphery of the lungs of two adult male beagle dogs using a bronchoscope under general anesthesia. The navigation path was planned by the navigation function that built in the robotic bronchoscope system. After training, the doctors operated the robotic bronchoscope system to locate and remove the coils from the lung. The navigation success rate, sampling success rate, position of the coil, navigation time, sampling time, and operation time were evaluated. The damage to the airway mucosa during the operation and the vital signs of the beagles during and post-operation were accessed. Chest computerized tomography (CT) was performed post-operation to detect if there were complications such as pneumothorax and bleeding. Results: A total of 12 spring coils were successfully inserted into the two beagles. All the navigation paths of the simulated lesions were successfully planned. The navigation success rate was 12/12. The navigation time was (43.9±19.8) seconds. The distance between the tip of the flexible endoscope arm and the target point measured by the navigation system was (6.93±2.15) mm. The locations of the simulated lesions were distributed in the 6th-8th generation of bronchi. The sampling success rate was 12/12. The sampling time was (42.4±11.3) seconds. There was no pneumothorax or mediastinal emphysema after the placement of the coil. The vital signs of the beagle dogs were stable throughout the operation, and no operation-related or postoperative complications occurred. Conclusions: The robotic bronchoscope system can be used to locate and remove the spring coils from the peripheral lung of beagle dogs, and the procedure is simple and safe. It suggests that the robotic bronchoscopy system has great clinical significance in the sampling and diagnosis of peripheral lung lesions.