Effect of Nanoparticles Exposure on Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide (FENO) in Workers Exposed to Nanomaterials

Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) measurement is a useful diagnostic test of airway inflammation. However, there have been few studies of FENO in workers exposed to nanomaterials. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of nanoparticle (NP) exposure on FENO and to assess whether the FENO is increased in workers exposed to nanomaterials (NM). In this study, both exposed workers and non-exposed controls were recruited from NM handling plants in Taiwan. A total of 437 subjects (exposed group = 241, non-exposed group = 196) completed the FENO and spirometric measurements from 2009–2011. The authors used a control-banding (CB) matrix to categorize the risk level of each participant. In a multivariate linear regression analysis, this study found a significant association between risk level 2 of NP exposure and FENO. Furthermore, asthma, allergic rhinitis, peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), and NF-κB were also significantly associated with FENO. When the multivariate logistic regression model was adjusted for confounders, nano-TiO₂ in all of the NM exposed categories had a significantly increased risk in FENO > 35 ppb. This study found associations between the risk level of NP exposure and FENO (particularly noteworthy for Nano-TiO₂). Monitoring FENO in the lung could open up a window into the role nitric oxide (NO) may play in pathogenesis.     

特异性p38蛋白激酶抑制剂SB203580对哮喘小鼠气道炎症和Thl/Th2类细胞因子变化的影响

目的: 探讨特异性p38蛋白激酶（P38MAPK)抑制剂SB203580对哮喘小鼠气道炎症和Thl/Th2类细胞因子（IFN-y/IL-4)变化的影响。方法: BALB/c小鼠30只随机分成3组:正常对照组、哮喘模型组和SB203580干预组。采用酶联免疫吸附法（ELISA)检测支气管肺泡灌洗液（BALF)中IL4和IFN-7含量,并观察BALF中炎症细胞和肺组织病理学改变。结果: 与正常对照组比较,哮喘模型组小鼠BALF中炎症细胞计数和IL-4水平升高而IFN-7水平降低(F < 0.01);与哮喘模型组比较,SB203580干预组小鼠BALF中炎症细胞计数和IL-4水平明显降低,IFN-7水平明显上升（P < 0.01),肺组织病理学改变显著减轻。结论: SB203580能抑制哮喘小鼠的气道炎症反应,纠正IFN-y/IL-4平衡的失调。     

瓦斯抽采“一巷两用”技术

为了解决瓦斯抽采中巷道利用率低的问题,通过分析高抽巷、底抽巷、"一进双回"工作面外侧回风巷的特点,提出了3种巷道的"一巷两用"瓦斯抽采技术,从理论和操作上对这些技术进行了可行性分析,并探讨了钻场布置和钻孔设计、施工的技术要点.预期效果表明,这些技术拓宽了巷道的用途或延长了服务时间,在保证瓦斯抽采效果,提高采掘速度,降低生产成本方面效果显著.     

In Vivo Molding of Airway Stents

Like ready-to-wear clothing, medical devices come in a fixed set of sizes. While this may accommodate a large fraction of the patient population, others must either experience suboptimal results due to poor sizing or must do without the device. Although techniques have been proposed to fabricate patient-specific devices in advance of a procedure, this process is expensive and time consuming. An alternative solution that provides every patient with a tailored fit is to create devices that can be customized to the patient's anatomy as they are delivered. This paper reports an in vivo molding process in which a soft flexible photocurable stent is delivered into the trachea or bronchi over a ultraviolet (UV)-transparent balloon. The balloon is expanded such that the stent conforms to the varying cross-sectional shape of the airways. UV light is then delivered through the balloon curing the stent into its expanded conformal shape. The potential of this method is demonstrated using phantom, ex vivo, and in vivo experiments. This approach can produce stents providing equivalent airway support to those made from standard materials while providing a customized fit.     

矿井通风风量异常值分析的数学模型与计算机实现

以矿井风量发生异常为线索,在矿井通风网络理论分析的基础上,引入灵敏度的概念,提出了一种分析产生风量异常原因的数学模型,进而实现对通风系统各风道风量的分析,确定造成当前风量异常的原因以及原因类型。     

Leakage suppression in human airway tree segmentation using shape optimization based on fuzzy connectivity method

Human airway tree segmentation from computed tomography (CT) images is a very important step for virtual bronchoscopic applications. Imaging artifacts or thin airway walls decrease the contrast between the air and airway wall and make the segmented region to leak from inside of the airway to the parenchyma. This in turn begins the leakage phenomenon to build and then large parts of the lung parenchyma might be erroneously marked as the airway tree instead. Unfortunately, existing methods typically do not sufficiently extract the necessary peripheral airways needed to plan a procedure. In this article, we propose a new shape based human airway segmentation scheme to suppress the leakage into surrounding area which is based on fuzzy connectivity (FC) method. Complex medical image features such as weak boundary edges in the CT images of the lung parenchyma have fuzzy properties and can be described by FC in many extents. Our method aims to embed a mathematical shape optimization approach in a FC algorithm. Using the partial derivatives of the image data that is minimized with respect to the polar angle and cylindrical axis direction, a proper cost function based on cylindrical features of the airway branches is proposed. This approach retains the cylindrical properties of the airway branches during the segmentation process. The proposed cost function includes two parts named cylindrical‐shape feature and smoothed final error term. The former term arranges the underlying voxels on a cylindrical shape and the latter term controls and smoothes the final error considering the local minima's problem. To evaluate the efficiency of our proposed optimization technique in term of segmentation accuracy, the cost function is first applied to the simulated data with the spongy shape of leakage and the leakage origin. The impact of each term of the proposed cost function on the final error and the convergence of the algorithm are also evaluated. Then, the cost function with best proper parameters is applied to real image dataset. Comparisons of the results on multidetector CT chest scans show that our segmentation algorithm outperforms the fuzzy region growing algorithm. Quantitative comparisons with manually segmented airway trees also indicate high sensitivity of our segmentation algorithm on peripheral airways. On the basis of the results, it is concluded that the proposed method is able to detect more branches up to the sixth generation with no leakage which provides 2–3 more generations of airways than several other methods do. The extracted airway trees enable image‐guided bronchoscopy to go deeper into the human lung periphery than past studies. The novelty of our proposed method is to apply a shape optimization approach embedded in an efficient FC segmentation algorithm. Hence, our method prevents leakage from its origination in contrast to most previously published works that just set their algorithms to repeat the segmentation steps to reduce leakage. As our results indicate leakage suppression in human airway segmentation instead of readjusting the segmentation parameters, more airway branches can be extracted with correct shape. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 23, 71–84, 2013     

Interactions Via α2β1 Cell Integrin May Protect against the Progression of Airway Structural Changes in Asthma

Increased airway wall thickness and remodeling of bronchial mucosa are characteristic of asthma and may arise from altered integrin signaling on airway cells. Here, we analyzed the expression of β₁-subfamily integrins on blood and airway cells (flow cytometry), inflammatory biomarkers in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage, reticular basement membrane (RBM) thickness and collagen deposits in the mucosa (histology), and airway geometry (CT-imaging) in 92 asthma patients (persistent airflow limitation subtype: n = 47) and 36 controls. Persistent airflow limitation was associated with type-2 inflammation, elevated soluble α₂ integrin chain, and changes in the bronchial wall geometry. Both subtypes of asthma showed thicker RBM than control, but collagen deposition and epithelial α₁ and α₂ integrins staining were similar. Type-I collagen accumulation and RBM thickness were inversely related to the epithelial expression of the α₂ integrin chain. Expression of α₂β₁ integrin on T-cells and eosinophils was not altered in asthma. Collagen I deposits were, however, more abundant in patients with lower α₂β₁ integrin on blood and airway CD8⁺ T-cells. Thicker airway walls in CT were associated with lower α₂ integrin chain on blood CD4⁺ T-cells and airway eosinophils. Our data suggest that α₂β₁ integrin on inflammatory and epithelial cells may protect against airway remodeling advancement in asthma.     

Patient‐specific aided surgery approach of deviated nasal septum using computational fluid dynamics

In treating a patient with deviated nasal septum (DNS), a surgeon draws up a surgical plan based on the patient's rhinomanometry outcomes and self‐assessment of nose conditions, e.g. the nasal obstruction septoplasty effectiveness (NOSE) score. However, the procedure fails to localize the DNS and determine the nose's aerodynamic effects. This paper proposes a DNS‐aided surgery approach using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and computed tomography (CT) techniques consisting of three main processes: preoperative, presurgical planning, and postoperative processes. The healthy baseline refers to a benchmark consisting of five subjects without DNS and nasal airway obstructions. To assess the possibility of using the CFD‐CT‐aided surgery approach as a presurgical planning tool in the DNS operation, comparative tests were carried out with DNS patient #1, who received a conventional nasal surgery without the proposed presurgical planning. Although DNS patient #1's surgical outcome was relatively satisfying to the patient, evaluating from the reduction of the NOSE score the conventional surgical method could induce an excessive excision of nasal airway, resulting in water loss in the nasal mucosa and a large reduction in airflow velocity. In addition, the postoperative nasal resistance measured by a rhinomanometer was not acceptable to the surgeon. Virtual surgery using the CFD‐CT approach performed after surgery could suggest suitable patient‐specific components of nasal operation with predictable results. Subsequently, implementation of the proposed CFD‐CT approach in aid of DNS surgery was performed in DNS patient #2. The benefits of the CFD‐CT‐aided surgery approach were determined based on the pre‐ and postoperative outcomes (i.e. nasal geometric data and nasal airflow patterns), NOSE scores, and rhinomanometric data of DNS patient #2, which were compared against those of the healthy baseline benchmark. The CFD‐CT approach could assist the surgeon to localize the DNS and determine the defective nasal tissues to be removed. The actual postoperative outcomes were clinically acceptable to the surgeon and DNS patient #2. It is evident that the CFD‐CT‐aided surgery approach is suitable for and applicable to surgery of DNS patients with small variability from the presurgical planning stage. © 2015 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

三软煤层回风巷老空水探放控制技术

三软煤层老空区探放水一直是个难题.在三软煤层中,封孔不被破坏,孔口管壁外不渗水、不涌水,是保证探放水工作取得良好效果的关键.分析了1204回风巷老空区积水的来源,并对老空区积水量进行了计算,提出了钻孔参数及钻孔的合理布置措施,较好地控制了老空区的积水问题.