A Hybrid Dynamic Stabilization and Fusion System in Multilevel Lumbar Spondylosis

Li-Yu Fay,Chih-Chang Chang,Hsuan-Kan Chang,Tsung-Hsi Tu,Tzu-Yun Tsai,Ching-Lan Wu,Wen-Cheng Huang,Jau-Ching Wu,Henrich Cheng 대한척추신경외과학회 2018 Neurospine Vol.15 No.3

Objective: The Dynesys-Transition-Optima (DTO) hybrid system was designed to achieve arthrodesis and stabilization in patients with lumbar degeneration. Satisfactory outcomes were demonstrated previously. However, no study has evaluated the effects of using the DTO system in patients with lumbar spondylolisthesis or stenosis. Methods: This retrospective study included 35 consecutive patients with multilevel lumbar degeneration with or without spondylolisthesis who underwent surgery using the DTO system. Imaging studies included pre- and postoperative radiography, magnetic resonance imaging, and computed tomography. The clinical outcomes were measured by Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores, and a visual analogue scale (VAS) for back and leg pain. Results: Thirty patients (85.7%) with a mean age of 61.9 years completed the follow-up, with a mean duration of 35.1 months. There were 21 patients in the spondylolisthesis group and 9 in the stenosis group. The spondylolisthesis group had worse functional scores than the stenosis group preoperatively. After DTO surgery, all patients showed significant improvements in clinical outcomes, including VAS for back and leg pain, ODI, and JOA scores (p<0.05). There were no significant differences in clinical outcomes between the 2 groups. At a 2-year follow-up, lumbar alignment was well maintained in both groups (p=0.116). There were no significant differences in lumbar alignment between the 2 groups. Conclusion: During a follow-up period of over 2 years, both patients with spondylolisthesis and those with stenosis showed improvements and similar disability and pain scores after surgery using the DTO system. Lumbar alignment was also well maintained.

Mesenchymal Stem Cell Secreted-Extracellular Vesicles are Involved in Chondrocyte Production and Reduce Adipogenesis during Stem Cell Differentiation

Tsai Yu-Chen,Cheng Tai-Shan,Liao Hsiu-Jung,Chuang Ming-Hsi,Chen Hui-Ting,Chen Chun-Hung,Zhang Kai-Ling,Chang Chih-Hung,Lin Po-Cheng,Huang Chi-Ying F. 한국조직공학과 재생의학회 2022 조직공학과 재생의학 Vol.19 No.6

BACKGROUND: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are derived from internal cellular compartments, and have potential as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool in degenerative disease associated with aging. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have become a promising tool for functional EVs production. This study investigated the efficacy of EVs and its effect on differentiation capacity. METHODS: The characteristics of MSCs were evaluated by flow cytometry and stem cell differentiation analysis, and a production mode of functional EVs was scaled from MSCs. The concentration and size of EVs were quantitated by Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA). Western blot analysis was used to assess the protein expression of exosomespecific markers. The effects of MSC-derived EVs were assessed by chondrogenic and adipogenic differentiation analyses and histological observation. RESULTS: The range of the particle size of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs)- and Wharton’s jelly -MSCs-derived EVs were from 130 to 150 nm as measured by NTA, which showed positive expression of exosomal markers. The chondrogenic induction ability was weakened in the absence of EVs in vitro. Interestingly, after EV administration, type II collagen, a major component in the cartilage extracellular matrix, was upregulated compared to the EV-free condition. Moreover, EVs decreased the lipid accumulation rate during adipogenic induction. CONCLUSION: The results indicated that the production model could facilitate production of effective EVs and further demonstrated the role of MSC-derived EVs in cell differentiation. MSC-derived EVs could be successfully used in cell-free therapy to guide chondrogenic differentiation of ADSC for future clinical applications in cartilage regeneration.

An Efficient Implementation of Mobile Raspberry Pi Hadoop Clusters for Robust and Augmented Computing Performance

Srinivasan, Kathiravan,Chang, Chuan-Yu,Huang, Chao-Hsi,Chang, Min-Hao,Sharma, Anant,Ankur, Avinash Korea Information Processing Society 2018 Journal of information processing systems Vol.14 No.4

Rapid advances in science and technology with exponential development of smart mobile devices, workstations, supercomputers, smart gadgets and network servers has been witnessed over the past few years. The sudden increase in the Internet population and manifold growth in internet speeds has occasioned the generation of an enormous amount of data, now termed 'big data'. Given this scenario, storage of data on local servers or a personal computer is an issue, which can be resolved by utilizing cloud computing. At present, there are several cloud computing service providers available to resolve the big data issues. This paper establishes a framework that builds Hadoop clusters on the new single-board computer (SBC) Mobile Raspberry Pi. Moreover, these clusters offer facilities for storage as well as computing. Besides the fact that the regular data centers require large amounts of energy for operation, they also need cooling equipment and occupy prime real estate. However, this energy consumption scenario and the physical space constraints can be solved by employing a Mobile Raspberry Pi with Hadoop clusters that provides a cost-effective, low-power, high-speed solution along with micro-data center support for big data. Hadoop provides the required modules for the distributed processing of big data by deploying map-reduce programming approaches. In this work, the performance of SBC clusters and a single computer were compared. It can be observed from the experimental data that the SBC clusters exemplify superior performance to a single computer, by around 20%. Furthermore, the cluster processing speed for large volumes of data can be enhanced by escalating the number of SBC nodes. Data storage is accomplished by using a Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), which offers more flexibility and greater scalability than a single computer system.

Towards an Omni-directional Orientation Manipulation of Spherical Piezoelectric Motor: A Torque Vector Composition Method

Tai-Chi Hwang,Yu-Ting Sung,Yu-Hsi Huang,Chi-Ying Lin 제어로봇시스템학회 2021 제어로봇시스템학회 국제학술대회 논문집 Vol.2021 No.10

This paper presents the application of a torque vector composition method realizing omni-directional rotor orientations for a novel standing wave spherical piezoelectric motor (SPM). The developed SPM system comprises four stators where each stator can provide three fundamental orientations or torque vectors implemented with the technique of electrode configuration. The concept of vector composition applied to the SPM system is illustrated with two stator actuation configurations: symmetrical and adjacent actuation stator pairs. The proposed method has the advantage of easy generation of new rotor orientations by adjusting the magnitude ratio of the excitation signals given to the stators. Composited vector analysis shows that the use of all stator pairs is able to offer omni-directional rotor orientations in the xy, yz, and xz planes. The estimated orientations in the experiments demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed torque vector composition method and the potentials of expanding omni-directional orientations to the whole 3D space with more than two actuating units.

An Efficient Implementation of Mobile Raspberry Pi Hadoop Clusters for Robust and Augmented Computing Performance

( Kathiravan Srinivasan ),( Chuan-yu Chang ),( Chao-hsi Huang ),( Min-hao Chang ),( Anant Sharma ),( Avinash Ankur ) 한국정보처리학회 2018 Journal of information processing systems Vol.14 No.4

Rapid advances in science and technology with exponential development of smart mobile devices, workstations, supercomputers, smart gadgets and network servers has been witnessed over the past few years. The sudden increase in the Internet population and manifold growth in internet speeds has occasioned the generation of an enormous amount of data, now termed ‘big data’. Given this scenario, storage of data on local servers or a personal computer is an issue, which can be resolved by utilizing cloud computing. At present, there are several cloud computing service providers available to resolve the big data issues. This paper establishes a framework that builds Hadoop clusters on the new single-board computer (SBC) Mobile Raspberry Pi. Moreover, these clusters offer facilities for storage as well as computing. Besides the fact that the regular data centers require large amounts of energy for operation, they also need cooling equipment and occupy prime real estate. However, this energy consumption scenario and the physical space constraints can be solved by employing a Mobile Raspberry Pi with Hadoop clusters that provides a cost-effective, low-power, high-speed solution along with micro-data center support for big data. Hadoop provides the required modules for the distributed processing of big data by deploying map-reduce programming approaches. In this work, the performance of SBC clusters and a single computer were compared. It can be observed from the experimental data that the SBC clusters exemplify superior performance to a single computer, by around 20%. Furthermore, the cluster processing speed for large volumes of data can be enhanced by escalating the number of SBC nodes. Data storage is accomplished by using a Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), which offers more flexibility and greater scalability than a single computer system.

Comparative global immune-related gene profiling of somatic cells, human pluripotent stem cells and their derivatives: implication for human lymphocyte proliferation

Chia-Eng Wu,Chen-Wei Yu,Kai-Wei Chang,Wen-Hsi Chou,Chen-Yu Lu,Elisa Ghelfi,Fang-Chun Wu,Pey-Shynan Jan,Mei-Chi Huang,Patrick Allard,Shau-Ping Lin,Hong-Nerng Ho,Hsin-Fu Chen 생화학분자생물학회 2017 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.49 No.-

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced PSCs (iPSCs), represent potentially unlimited cell sources for clinical applications. Previous studies have suggested that hPSCs may benefit from immune privilege and limited immunogenicity, as reflected by the reduced expression of major histocompatibility complex class-related molecules. Here we investigated the global immune-related gene expression profiles of human ESCs, hiPSCs and somatic cells and identified candidate immune-related genes that may alter their immunogenicity. The expression levels of global immune-related genes were determined by comparing undifferentiated and differentiated stem cells and three types of human somatic cells: dermal papilla cells, ovarian granulosa cells and foreskin fibroblast cells. We identified the differentially expressed genes CD24, GATA3, PROM1, THBS2, LY96, IFIT3, CXCR4, IL1R1, FGFR3, IDO1 and KDR, which overlapped with selected immune-related gene lists. In further analyses, mammalian target of rapamycin complex (mTOR) signaling was investigated in the differentiated stem cells following treatment with rapamycin and lentiviral transduction with specific short-hairpin RNAs. We found that the inhibition of mTOR signal pathways significantly downregulated the immunogenicity of differentiated stem cells. We also tested the immune responses induced in differentiated stem cells by mixed lymphocyte reactions. We found that CD24- and GATA3-deficient differentiated stem cells including neural lineage cells had limited abilities to activate human lymphocytes. By analyzing the transcriptome signature of immune-related genes, we observed a tendency of the hPSCs to differentiate toward an immune cell phenotype. Taken together, these data identify candidate immune-related genes that might constitute valuable targets for clinical applications.

Suture Repair in Endoscopic Surgery for Craniovertebral Junction

Mei-Yin Yeh,Wen-Cheng Huang,Jau-Ching Wu,Chao-Hung Kuo,Hsuan-Kan Chang,Tsung-Hsi Tu,Peng-Yuan Chang,Yu-Shu Yen,Henrich Cheng 대한척추신경외과학회 2019 Neurospine Vol.16 No.2

Objective: Endoscopic approaches to the craniovertebral junction (CVJ) have been established as viable and effective surgical treatments in the past decade. One of the major complications is leakage of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This study aimed to investigate the efficacy and feasibility of suture closure at the nasopharyngeal mucosa upon durotomy. Methods: A series of consecutive patients who underwent different endoscopic approaches to the CVJ were retrospectively reviewed. The pathologies, surgical corridors, neurological and functional outcomes, radiological evaluations, and complications were analyzed. Different strategies of repair for the intraoperative CSF leakage were described and compared. Results: A total of 22 patients covering 13 years were analyzed. There were 12, 2, and 8 patients who underwent transnasal, transoral, and combined approaches, respectively. There were 8 patients (36.4%) who experienced intraoperative CSF leakage, and were grouped into 2: 4 in the nonsuture (NS) group and 4 in the suture-repaired (SR) group. The NS group had 3 (75%) persistent CSF leakages postoperation that caused 1 mortality, whereas patients of the SR group had only 1 minor CSF rhinorrhea that healed spontaneously within days. Conclusion: In this series of 22 patients who required anterior endoscopic resection of pathologies at the CVJ, there was 1 (4.5%) serious complication related to CSF leakage. For patients who had no durotomy, the mucosal incision at the nasopharynx usually healed rapidly and there were few procedure-related complications. For patients with intraoperative CSF leakage, suture closure was technically challenging but could significantly lower the risks of postoperative complications.

An Investigation of the Properties of 3D Printing Materials According to Additive Manufacturing Conditions Using Ultrasonic Wave

Junpil Park,Sunho Choi,Seoung ho Baek,Sang-Hu Park,Yu-Hsi Huang,Jaesun Lee 한국정밀공학회 2023 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.24 No.6

3-Dimension (3D) printers are increasingly being used in high-tech industrial applications technology, because they can produce sophisticated products by laminating materials with less time and cost compared to cutting processing, such as conventional machine tools. However, since the reliability evaluation criteria and method for laminated manufacturing products are not clear, accidents cannot be prevented when 3D printed laminates are used as structures and machined parts. In this paper, ultrasonic wave propagation characteristics were evaluated on the specimens manufactured by laminating acrylonitrile butadiene styrene resin materials with a stereo lithography apparatus 3D printer using the ultrasonic inspection method among non-destructive techniques. Specimens were laminated in units of 0.1 mm, and thicknesses of 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 mm were applied as variables. In addition, the ultrasonic characteristics according to laminating direction were analyzed by laminating diagonally and vertically, including laminating in the horizontal direction, and defect specimens were produced to check whether defects were read. It was found that the ultrasonic velocity of the horizontally laminated specimen having a thickness of less than 4 mm was slower than the ultrasonic reference velocity, and that the ultrasonic velocity was affected according to the laminated direction. In addition, by arranging the defect location of the specimen differently, it was determined whether the defect was detected, and whether it was possible to check the location. Based on the results of this study, it will be possible to broadly apply this technique to advanced industrial technologies through evaluation of the condition and reliability of laminated manufacturing products manufactured with 3D printers.