86,778 research outputs found
From Silent to Sound Cinema And Beyond: A Historical Journey Through Audiovisual Retranslation
No full textA survey of current clinical practice of chorionic villus sampling
No full textObjective
The number of invasive procedures (chorionic villus sampling (CVS) or amniocentesis) for fetal testing is decreasing because of the availability of non‐invasive prenatal test (NIPT) leading to a centralisation of prenatal diagnostic services to accredited fetal medicine centres. A new survey was conducted 10 years after the previous one to update the current clinical practice among clinicians who regularly perform CVS.
Method
Consultants from 32 centres in the United Kingdom were invited to take part in an online survey evaluating: The total number of CVS procedures carried out in the unit in a typical week, the preferred route (transabdominal [TA] vs transcervical [TC]), technique (use of local anaesthetic [LA] and needle technique).
Results
Response rate was 96.9%; TA was the preferred route (96.8%) in all centres except one. Single‐needle technique is used exclusively in half the centres (51.6%). LA is used by most operators (90.3%) before the procedure. Three centres did not routinely use LA for CVS.
Conclusions
Operators across the United Kingdom almost exclusively use the TA route for CVS with single‐needle technique in 51.6% of cases. The use of LA prior to CVS is a very common practice in the United Kingdom
Real-time Object Detection and Grasping Using Background Subtraction in an Industrial Scenario
No full textGrasping partially known objects in unstructured environments is one of the most challenging issues in robotics. In this paper, we present a real-time and robust approach for detecting and grasping different objects with a robot manipulator in a partially unstructured scenario. The proposed method is based on two steps: 1) the generation of a background model to localize the objects of interest and 2) the use of depth information to find the grasp pose. Quantitative experiments using a 7 degrees-of-freedom manipulator on different objects demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach
Mixed Reality Platform Supporting Human-Robot Interaction
No full textHuman-Robot Interaction (HRI) is an interdisciplinary research field aiming to study and develop platform in which robots (and in particular collaborative robots, also called cobots) can interact and collaborate with humans to execute dedicated tasks. Usually, cobots are intended as passive robotic devices for direct collaboration with a human operator within a shared workspace. They are designed to be used in open and uncontrolled environments; the robot shall be able to adapt its behaviors to the dynamic input of the surrounding environment. In this optic, Mixed Reality (MR) can play a crucial role supporting the flow of data between the actors (cobot and human) working in the shared environment, it can offer a simply, but remarkably advanced, communication interface between human and robot. Thanks to MR, tools to allow human operators, without particular experience or knowledge of robotics, to easily interact with the cobot can be developed. Our work is focused on development of a MR platform that integrates cutting-edge technologies, i.e. a Head Mounted Display (HMD), and a cobot in a shared environment. The experimental setup includes the Microsoft’s Mixed Reality HMD HoloLens 2 and the Franka Emika Robot System
Incidence and outcome of prenatal brain abnormality in twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome: systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textOBJECTIVES: to ascertain the incidence of antenatally diagnosed brain injuries in twin pregnancies complicated by twin to twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) and to quantify the perinatal mortality, morbidity and long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes of these fetuses. METHODS: Medline, Embase, Clinicaltrials.gov and Cochrane Library databases were searched. Inclusion criteria were studies reporting on brain abnormalities diagnosed antenatally in twin pregnancies complicated by TTTS. The primary outcome was the incidence of prenatal brain abnormalities. The secondary outcomes were intrauterine demise (IUD), neonatal death, termination of pregnancy (TOP) and long-term morbidity. All these outcomes were explored in the overall population of fetuses with antenatal diagnosis of brain abnormalities. Sub-group analysis according to: type of treatment, gestational age and Quintero stage at diagnosis and/or treatment, co-twin death was planned. Meta-analyses of proportions were used to combine data and reported pooled proportion and their 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Thirteen studies including 1573 cases of TTTS and 88 fetuses with an antenatal diagnosis of brain abnormalities were included in the systematic review. The meta-analysis included only studies reporting on brain abnormalities in twin pregnancies complicated by TTTS cases and treated with laser. Overall, brain injuries occurred in 2.2% of fetuses (eight studies (52/2410 fetuses)). These brain abnormalities were reported in 1.03% and 0.82% of recipients or donors, respectively. These abnormalities were mainly ischemic lesions (30.4%, 95%CI 19.1-43), followed by destructive lesions (23.9%, 95%CI 13.7-35.9), ventriculomegaly (19.9%, 95% CI 10.6-31.3) and hemorrhagic (15.3%, 95%CI 7.1-25.8). Spontaneous IUD occurred in 13.4% (95%CI 5.1-24.8) of fetuses, while TOP was chosen by parents in 53.5% (95%CI 38.9-67.8) cases. Neonatal death was reported only by three studies with an incidence of 15.4% (95%CI 2.8-35.4). Finally, only two studies reported on composite morbidity with 20.4% of morbidity reported overall (95%CI 2.5-49.4) which occurred in 29.7% and 20.4% of the recipient and donor fetuses, respectively. Due to the small numbers, only composite morbidity was analyzed and no information on neonatal intensive care unit admission, respiratory distress syndrome or other long-term outcomes such as neurodevelopmental delay or cerebral palsy could be reliably retrieved. CONCLUSIONS: The overall incidence of antenatally diagnosed fetal brain abnormalities in fetuses from twin pregnancies complicated by TTTS treated with laser is around 2%, mainly ischemic (30.4%) in nature. TOP was chosen by parents in almost half of the cases (53.5%). No information could be retrieved on morbidity outcomes, highlighting the urgent need for long-term follow up studies of these children
Vision based robot-to-robot object handover
No full textThis paper presents an autonomous robot-to-robot object handover in the presence of uncertainties and in the absence of explicit communication. Both the giver and receiver robots are equipped with an eye-in-hand depth camera. The object to handle is roughly positioned in the field of view of the giver robot's camera and a deep learning based approach is adopted for detecting the object. The physical exchange is performed by recurring to an estimate of the contact forces and an impedance control, which allows the receiver robot to perceive the presence of the object and the giver one to recognize that the handover is complete. Experimental results, conducted on a couple of collaborative 7 DoF manipulators in a partially structured environment, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach
Early- and late-onset selective fetal growth restriction in monochorionic diamniotic twin pregnancy: natural history and diagnostic criteria
No full textObjectives: To evaluate the natural history and outcome of selective fetal growth restriction (sFGR) in monochorionic diamniotic (MCDA) twin pregnancy, according to gestational age at onset and various reported diagnostic criteria, and to quantify the risk of superimposed twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). Methods: This was a cohort study of MCDA twin pregnancies that had their routine antenatal care from the first trimester at St George's Hospital, London, UK. Pregnancies had ultrasound examinations every 2 weeks at 16–24 weeks and then every 2–3 weeks until delivery. The diagnostic criteria for sFGR were estimated fetal weight (EFW) of one twin < 10th centile and intertwin EFW discordance ≥ 25%. We also applied other diagnostic criteria reported in a recent Delphi consensus. Pregnancies in which the diagnosis of TTTS was made before that of sFGR were not included in the analysis. Pregnancies that underwent fetal intervention for sFGR were excluded. The incidence of sFGR was compared between the different diagnostic criteria, overall and according to gestational age at onset. In all subsequent analyses, cases of sFGR included those diagnosed according to any of the criteria. The Gratacós classification of sFGR was applied (Type I, II or III). Pregnancy outcomes included miscarriage, intrauterine death, neonatal death and admission to the neonatal unit. Comparisons between groups were carried out using the Mann–Whitney U-test for continuous variables and the chi-square or Fisher's exact test for categorical variables. Results: The analysis included 287 MCDA twin pregnancies. According to the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology diagnostic criteria, the incidence of early (< 24 weeks) sFGR was 4.9%, while that of late sFGR was 3.8%. When applying the various diagnostic criteria, the incidence of early sFGR varied from 1.7% to 9.1% and that of late sFGR varied from 1.1% to 5.9%. In early-onset cases, the incidence of Type I sFGR was 80.8%, that of Type II was 15.4% and that of Type III was 3.8%. The corresponding figures in late-onset cases were 94.4%, 5.6% and 0%. The incidence of superimposed TTTS was 26.9% in cases affected by early-onset sFGR and 5.6% in those affected by late-onset sFGR. The incidence of perinatal death was 8.0% in early-onset sFGR and 5.6% in late-onset sFGR (P = 0.661). Admission to the neonatal unit occurred in 61.0% and 52.9% of cases, respectively (P = 0.484). Conclusions: In MCDA twin pregnancies, early-onset sFGR is slightly more common than is late-onset sFGR, although this difference was not significant, and is associated with worse perinatal outcome. The incidence of Types II and III sFGR is higher in early-onset sFGR. The incidence also varies according to the diagnostic criteria used, which supports the use of standardized international diagnostic criteria. Superimposed TTTS is more common in early- than in late-onset sFGR. Copyright © 2019 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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