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Background: A bronchopleural fistula (BPF) occurs when an abnormal connection forms between the bronchial tubes and pleural cavity, often due to surgery, infection, trauma, radiation, or chemotherapy. The outcomes of both surgical and bronchoscopic treatments frequently prove to be unsatisfactory. Case presentation: Here, we report a case of successful bronchoscopic free fat pad transplantation combined with platelet-rich plasma, effectively addressing a post-lobectomy BPF. Contrast-enhanced chest tomography revealed pleural thickening with heterogeneous consolidations over the right upper and middle lobes, indicative of destructive lung damage and bronchiectasis. The patient underwent thoracoscopic bilobectomy of the lungs. During surgery, severe adhesions and calcification of the chest wall and lung parenchyma were observed. The entire hilar structure was calcified, presenting challenges for dissection, despite the assistance of energy devices. Bronchoscopic intervention was required, during which two abdominal subcutaneous fat pads were retrieved. Conclusion: This innovative approach offers promise in the management of BPF and signals potential advancements in enhancing treatment efficacy and patient recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a method that employs an evolutionary normal distributions transform (NDT) for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) using light detection and ranging (LiDAR) for autonomous mobile robots. An adaptive inertia weight and two genetic operators were employed in the Taguchi-based whale optimization algorithm (WOA) to improve the search diversity and avoid local optima. NDT was used to model the environment of differential-drive mobile robots and WOA was applied to optimize the scan matching for the robotic SLAM problem. The NDT-WOA determines the SLAM pose estimation using sensed data from the physical world. A nonholonomic mobile robot was steered to achieve the NDT-WOA SLAM task with the derived robot kinematics and actuator dynamics. The proposed method was implemented in a TurtleBot3 Burger robotic development kit, which includes a single-board computer and an OpenCR control board. The Robot Operating System (ROS) was utilized to implement the evolutionary NDT-WOA SLAM system due to its flexibility, open source, and client library. Simulation and comparisons were conducted to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed NDT-WOA SLAM method compared to other SLAM paradigms. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed evolutionary NDT-WOA SLAM for autonomous mobile robots. The results could have theoretical and practical significance for robotics research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis is a rare disease caused by the proliferation of CD1a‐positive histiocyte‐like cells infiltrating the lung's interstitial layer. Most cases affect young to middle‐aged persons, especially adult heavy cigarette smokers. A 49‐year‐old male heavy smoker (40 pack‐year), with non‐productive cough, dyspnoea and desaturation, presented with a right‐sided pneumothorax on chest x‐ray with total atelectasis. Chest computed tomography (CT) revealed bilateral multiple thick‐walled infiltrated cysts and multiple ground‐glass nodules throughout the entire lung. Surgery with minimal invasive thoracoscopic lung biopsy and pleurodesis was performed. Pathology showed histiocyte‐like cells aggregates in the pulmonary parenchyma. Immunohistochemical stain demonstrated CD1a(+), S100(+) and CD68(+). After 3 months of smoking cessation, clear improvement was evidenced with a chest CT showing bilateral multiple thin‐walled rounded cysts and multiple ground‐glass nodules that are smaller in size and decreased in numbers. Early minimal invasive thoracoscopic lung biopsy and pleurodesis can also be a choice if the development of secondary spontaneous pneumothorax occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of death in the world. Not much is known regarding the influence of non-smoking-related risk factors on COPD in Taiwan. We examined the relationship between exposure to particulate matter <2.5 μm (PM2.5) and COPD among nonsmokers in Taiwan.Methods: This population-based study involved 3941 nonsmoking Taiwanese adults who were recruited in the Taiwan Biobank project between 2008 and 2015. Air pollution data between 2006 and 2011 were obtained from the air quality monitoring database (AQMD). COPD was the outcome of interest and was identified using the National health insurance Research Database (NHIRD). The data were analyzed using multiple logistic regression models.Results: Compared with the lowest quartile (PM2.5 = 29.38), exposure to PM2.5 in the highest quartile (>38.98 μg/m3) was significantly associated with COPD (OR, 1.29; CI 1.01-1.65) after multivariate adjustments. However, exposures to concentrations of 32.07-38.98 μg/m3 (OR, 1.12 CI 0.88-1.44) and 29.38-32.07 μg/m3 (OR, 1.09 CI 0.84-1.41) showed positive but non-significant associations. However, the test for trend was significant (Ptrend = 0.043). The ORs for exposure to sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO) and NOx (nitrogen monoxide (NO were not significant.Conclusions: Based on our data, exposure to PM2.5 at concentrations greater than 38.98 μg/m3 increased susceptibility to COPD among Taiwanese nonsmokers. Combatting COPD would involve integrating tobacco control and pollution management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an evolutionary optimal fuzzy system with information fusion of heterogeneous distributed computing and polar-space dynamic model for online motion control of Swedish redundant robots. The intelligent fuzzy system incorporated with the parallel metaheuristic Bacteria Foraging Optimization (BFO)-Artificial Immune System (AIS), called FS-PBFOAIS and its field-programmable gate array (FPGA) realization to optimal polar-space online motion control of four-wheeled redundant mobile robots. This hybrid paradigm gains the benefits of Taguchi quality method, BFO, AIS, distributed processing, and FPGA technique. Experimental results are conducted to present effective optimization and high accuracy of the proposed FPGA-based FS-PBFOAIS tracking controller. Finally, the comparative works are provided to demonstrate the superiority of the FPGA-based FS-PBFOAIS polar-space redundant controller over other conventional control methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a biologically inspired deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) algorithm for solving the inverse kinematics of five degree-of-freedom (DOF) robotic manipulators. Although the 5-DOF robotic manipulator agilely maneuvers from one pose to another and easily performs some tasks, the inverse kinematics problem of the system is redundant. This problem has no general closed-form solutions or analytical solutions for the 5-DOF manipulator. The DNA soft computing is proposed to solve the redundant inverse kinematics problem of the 5-DOF robotic manipulators more efficiently. Simulation results are conducted to illustrate the effectiveness and merit of the proposed methods in comparison with conventional genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The standard treatment for early-stage lung cancer is complete tumor excision by limited resection of the lung. Preoperative localization is used before video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) to improve the accuracy of pulmonary nodule excision. However, lung atelectasis and hypoxia resulting from controlling apnea during the localization procedure may affect the localization accuracy. Pre-procedural pulmonary recruitment may improve the respiratory mechanics and oxygenation during localization. In this study, we investigated the potential benefits of pre-localization pulmonary recruitment prior to pulmonary ground-glass nodule localization in a hybrid operating room. We hypothesized that pre-localization pulmonary recruitment would increase the localization accuracy, improve oxygenation, and prevent the need for re-inflation during the localization procedure. We retrospectively enrolled patients with multiple pulmonary nodule localizations before surgical intervention in our hybrid operating room. We compared the localization accuracy between patients who had undergone pre-procedure pulmonary recruitment and patients who had not. Saturation, re-inflation rate, apnea time, procedure-related pneumothorax, and procedure time were also recorded as secondary outcomes. The patients who had undergone pre-procedure recruitment had better saturation, shorter procedure time, and higher localization accuracy. The pre-procedure pulmonary recruitment maneuver was effective in increasing regional lung ventilation, leading to improved oxygenation and localization accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an intelligent system-on-a-programmable-chip-based (SoPC) ant colony optimization (ACO) motion controller for embedded omnidirectional mobile robots with three independent driving wheels equally spaced at 120 degrees from one another. Both ACO parameter autotuner and kinematic motion controller are integrated in one field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chip to efficiently construct an experimental mobile robot. The optimal parameters of the motion controller are obtained by minimizing the performance index using the proposed SoPC-based ACO computing method. These optimal parameters are then employed in the ACO-based embedded kinematic controller in order to obtain better performance for omnidirectional mobile robots to achieve trajectory tracking and stabilization. Experimental results are conducted to show the effectiveness and merit of the proposed intelligent ACO-based embedded controller for omnidirectional mobile robots. These results indicate that the proposed ACO-based embedded optimal controller outperforms the nonoptimal controllers and the conventional genetic algorithm (GA) optimal controllers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a parallel elite genetic algorithm (PEGA) and its application to global path planning for autonomous mobile robots navigating in structured environments. This PEGA, consisting of two parallel EGAs along with a migration operator, takes advantages of maintaining better population diversity, inhibiting premature convergence, and keeping parallelism in comparison with conventional GAs. This initial feasible path generated from the PEGA planner is then smoothed using the cubic B-spline technique, in order to construct a near-optimal collision-free continuous path. Both global path planner and smoother are implemented in one field-programmable gate array chip utilizing the system-on-a-programmable-chip technology and the pipelined hardware implementation scheme, thus significantly expediting computation speed. Simulations and experimental results are conducted to show the merit of the proposed PEGA path planner and smoother for global path planning of autonomous mobile robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a coarse-grain parallel deoxyribonucleic acid (PDNA) algorithm for optimal configurations of an omnidirectional mobile robot with a five-link robotic arm. This efficient coarse-grain PDNA is proposed to search for the global optimum of the redundant inverse kinematics problem with minimal movement, thereby showing better population diversity and avoiding premature convergence. Moreover, the pipelined hardware implementation, hardware/software co-design, and System-on-a-Programmable-Chip (SoPC) technology on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chip are employed to realize the proposed PDNA in order to significantly shorten its processing time. Simulations and experimental results are conducted to illustrate the merit and superiority of the proposed FPGA-based PDNA algorithm in comparison with conventional genetic algorithms (GAs) for omnidirectional mobile robot performing fire extinguishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although blebs and bullae are frequently found in the apexes of lungs of patients with primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP), its pathogens remain unclear. Objectives: To examine the role of proteases [matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-7 and MMP-9] and antiproteases [tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1, TIMP-2, TIMP-3 and TIMP-4] in the pathogenesis of PSP. Method: Fifty consecutive PSP patients who received standard surgical care were enrolled in the study. Lung tissues from 20 patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer were used as a control. Immunohistochemistry (IHC), reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and gelatin zymography were used to evaluate the expression of MMP and TIMP in the lung tissue of patients with PSP. Results: Overexpression of MMP-2, MMP-7 and MMP-9 was found in the afflicted lung by IHC, zymography and RT-PCR. By IHC, higher expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in PSP patients was identified in alveolar macrophages and type II pneumocytes (88 and 92% of patients in macrophages, and 72 and 70% of patients in type II pneumocytes, respectively). MMP-2, MMP-7 and MMP-9 expression in patients was higher in mesothelial cells (66, 76 and 76%). Overexpression of TIMP-2 was detected in the extracellular matrix around bullae and blebs. Expression levels of TIMP-1, TIMP-3 and TIMP-4 were negligible (<10% of cells) in both PSP patients and controls. Conclusions: MMP-2, MMP-9, MMP-7 and TIMP-2 were upregulated in PSP lesions. These results suggest that an imbalance between the expression of proteases and antiproteases may be involved in the pathogeneses of PSP. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents techniques for design and control of a brushless direct-current (DC) limited-angle torque motor (LATM) with its application to fuel control of gas turbine engines. Given the desired specifications, a two-pole brushless DC LATM with a toroidally wound armature is designed using selected ferromagnetic material and rare-earth permanent magnets; its electromagnetic characteristics is then computationally found and well tuned using the finite element method (FEM) in order to ensure whether the design meets the performance specifications. To achieve the simple and inexpensive semi-closed-loop fuel control, a robust position controller (including a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller with a prefilter) is synthesized for providing the required positioning performance for the developed motor, thereby achieving an inexpensive semi-closed-loop fuel control. A closed-loop fuel controller associated with the proposed position controller and a flow meter is then proposed based on multi-loop control structure in order to achieve required linear input–output relationship. All the proposed fuel control laws were implemented using a stand-alone single-chip digital signal processor (DSP). Experimental results are conducted to show the efficacy and usefulness of the developed limited-angle torque motor with its application to an experimental gas turbine fuel control test platform. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]