TY - CHAP A1 - Bhattarai, Aroj A1 - Staat, Manfred ED - Fernandes, P.R. ED - Tavares, J. M. T1 - Pectopexy to repair vaginal vault prolapse: a finite element approach T2 - Proceedings CMBBE 2018 N2 - The vaginal prolapse after hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) is often associated with the prolapse of the vaginal vault, rectum, bladder, urethra or small bowel. Minimally invasive surgery such as laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy and pectopexy are widely performed for the treatment of the vaginal prolapse with weakly supported vaginal vault after hysterectomy using prosthetic mesh implants to support (or strengthen) lax apical ligaments. Implants of different shape, size and polymers are selected depending on the patient’s anatomy and the surgeon’s preference. In this computational study on pectopexy, DynaMesh®-PRP soft, GYNECARE GYNEMESH® PS Nonabsorbable PROLENE® soft and Ultrapro® are tested in a 3D finite element model of the female pelvic floor. The mesh model is implanted into the extraperitoneal space and sutured to the vaginal stump with a bilateral fixation to the iliopectineal ligament at both sides. Numerical simulations are conducted at rest, after surgery and during Valsalva maneuver with weakened tissues modeled by reduced tissue stiffness. Tissues and prosthetic meshes are modeled as incompressible, isotropic hyperelastic materials. The positions of the organs are calculated with respect to the pubococcygeal line (PCL) for female pelvic floor at rest, after repair and during Valsalva maneuver using the three meshes. Y1 - 2018 N1 - 15th International Symposium on Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering and 3rd Conference on Imaging and Visualization. CMBBE 2018. 26-29 March 2018, Lisbon, Portugal ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kohler, Annette A1 - Kirschner-Hermanns, Ruth A1 - Staat, Manfred A1 - Brehmer, Bernhard T1 - Pathogenese, funktionelle und anatomische Aspekte der weiblichen Belastungsinkontinenz T1 - Female stress incontinence: aspects of pathogenesis and functional anatomy JF - Aktuelle Urologie N2 - Der vorliegende Artikel fokussiert sich auf die weibliche Belastungsinkontinenz als Insuffizienz der Speicherfunktion der Blase, auch wenn im klinischen Alltag die Harninkontinenz der Frau häufig verschiedene Ursachen hat und insbesondere eine Belastungsinkontinenz im Alter und bei neurologischer Komorbidität nur selten isoliert vorkommt. Das kleine Becken der Frau ist sowohl als Funktions- als auch als strukturelle Einheit zu betrachten. Dabei unterliegen bei der Frau Blase, Harnröhre, Gebärmutter und Enddarm sowie die muskulären und ligamentösen Strukturen des kleinen Beckens durch Fertilitätsphase, mögliche Schwangerschaften, Geburten und Menopausen-Phase, über das „normale Altern“ hinaus, gravierenden Veränderungen. This article focuses on female stress incontinence in the form of pelvic floor dysfunction and urethral sphincter deficiency, although isolated stress incontinence accounts for less than half of all incontinence cases. Especially in women of old age and those with neurological comorbidities, the causes of incontinence are mostly multifactorial. Also it has to be considered that the female bladder, urethra, uterus and rectum as well as the muscular and ligamentous structures of the female pelvis minor are affected by phases of fertility, possible pregnancies, births and menopause in addition to the normal ageing process. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0043-120616 SN - 1438-8820 VL - 49 IS - 1 SP - 47 EP - 51 PB - Thieme CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dantism, Shahriar A1 - Röhlen, Desiree A1 - Wagner, Torsten A1 - Wagner, Patrick A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef T1 - Optimization of Cell-Based Multi-Chamber LAPS Measurements Utilizing FPGA-Controlled Laser-Diode Modules JF - physica status solidi a : applications and materials sciences N2 - A light-addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS) is a field-effect-based potentiometric device, which detects concentration changes of an analyte solution on the sensor surface in a spatially resolved way. It uses a light source to generate electron–hole pairs inside the semiconductor, which are separated in the depletion region due to an applied bias voltage across the sensor structure and hence, a surface-potential-dependent photocurrent can be read out. However, depending on the beam angle of the light source, scattering effects can occur, which influence the recorded signal in LAPS-based differential measurements. To solve this problem, a novel illumination unit based on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) consisting of 16 small-sized tunable infrared laser-diode modules (LDMs) is developed. Due to the improved focus of the LDMs with a beam angle of only 2 mrad, undesirable scattering effects are minimized. Escherichia coli (E. coli) K12 bacteria are used as a test microorganism to study the extracellular acidification on the sensor surface. Furthermore, a salt bridge chamber is built up and integrated with the LAPS system enabling multi-chamber differential measurements with a single Ag/AgCl reference electrode. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.201800058 SN - 1862-6319 VL - 215 IS - 15 SP - Article number 1800058 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Horbach, Andreas A1 - Staat, Manfred T1 - Optical strain measurement for the modeling of surgical meshes and their porosity JF - Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering N2 - The porosity of surgical meshes makes them flexible for large elastic deformation and establishes the healing conditions of good tissue in growth. The biomechanic modeling of orthotropic and compressible materials requires new materials models and simulstaneoaus fit of deformation in the load direction as well as trannsversely to to load. This nonlinear modeling can be achieved by an optical deformation measurement. At the same time the full field deformation measurement allows the dermination of the change of porosity with deformation. Also the socalled effective porosity, which has been defined to asses the tisssue interatcion with the mesh implants, can be determined from the global deformation of the surgical meshes. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2018-0045 SN - 2364-5504 VL - Band 4 IS - 1 SP - 181 EP - 184 PB - De Gruyter CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Albanna, Walid A1 - Kotliar, Konstantin A1 - Lüke, Jan Niklas A1 - Alpdogan, Serdar A1 - Conzen, Catharina A1 - Lindauer, Ute A1 - Clusmann, Hans A1 - Hescheler, Jürgen A1 - Vilser, Walthard A1 - Schneider, Toni A1 - Schubert, Gerrit Alexander T1 - Non-invasive evaluation of neurovascular coupling in the murine retina by dynamic retinal vessel analysis JF - Plos one N2 - Background Impairment of neurovascular coupling (NVC) was recently reported in the context of subarachnoid hemorrhage and may correlate with disease severity and outcome. However, previous techniques to evaluate NVC required invasive procedures. Retinal vessels may represent an alternative option for non-invasive assessment of NVC. Methods A prototype of an adapted retinal vessel analyzer was used to assess retinal vessel diameter in mice. Dynamic vessel analysis (DVA) included an application of monochromatic flicker light impulses in predefined frequencies for evaluating NVC. All retinae were harvested after DVA and electroretinograms were performed. Results A total of 104 retinal scans were conducted in 21 male mice (90 scans). Quantitative arterial recordings were feasible only in a minority of animals, showing an emphasized reaction to flicker light impulses (8 mice; 14 scans). A characteristic venous response to flicker light, however, could observed in the majority of animals. Repeated measurements resulted in a significant decrease of baseline venous diameter (7 mice; 7 scans, p < 0.05). Ex-vivo electroretinograms, performed after in-vivo DVA, demonstrated a significant reduction of transretinal signaling in animals with repeated DVA (n = 6, p < 0.001). Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the first non-invasive study assessing murine retinal vessel response to flicker light with characteristic changes in NVC. The imaging system can be used for basic research and enables the investigation of retinal vessel dimension and function in control mice and genetically modified animals. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204689 VL - 13 IS - 10 PB - PLOS CY - San Francisco ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schreiber, Marc A1 - Kraft, Bodo A1 - Zündorf, Albert T1 - NLP Lean Programming Framework: Developing NLP Applications More Effectively T2 - Proceedings of NAACL-HLT 2018: Demonstrations, New Orleans, Louisiana, June 2 - 4, 2018 N2 - This paper presents NLP Lean Programming framework (NLPf), a new framework for creating custom natural language processing (NLP) models and pipelines by utilizing common software development build systems. This approach allows developers to train and integrate domain-specific NLP pipelines into their applications seamlessly. Additionally, NLPf provides an annotation tool which improves the annotation process significantly by providing a well-designed GUI and sophisticated way of using input devices. Due to NLPf’s properties developers and domain experts are able to build domain-specific NLP applications more efficiently. NLPf is Opensource software and available at https:// gitlab.com/schrieveslaach/NLPf. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/N18-5001  ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bhattarai, Aroj A1 - Staat, Manfred T1 - Modelling of Soft Connective Tissues to Investigate Female Pelvic Floor Dysfunctions JF - Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine N2 - After menopause, decreased levels of estrogen and progesterone remodel the collagen of the soft tissues thereby reducing their stiffness. Stress urinary incontinence is associated with involuntary urine leakage due to pathological movement of the pelvic organs resulting from lax suspension system, fasciae, and ligaments. This study compares the changes in the orientation and position of the female pelvic organs due to weakened fasciae, ligaments, and their combined laxity. A mixture theory weighted by respective volume fraction of elastin-collagen fibre compound (5%), adipose tissue (85%), and smooth muscle (5%) is adopted to characterize the mechanical behaviour of the fascia. The load carrying response (other than the functional response to the pelvic organs) of each fascia component, pelvic organs, muscles, and ligaments are assumed to be isotropic, hyperelastic, and incompressible. Finite element simulations are conducted during Valsalva manoeuvre with weakened tissues modelled by reduced tissue stiffness. A significant dislocation of the urethrovesical junction is observed due to weakness of the fascia (13.89 mm) compared to the ligaments (5.47 mm). The dynamics of the pelvic floor observed in this study during Valsalva manoeuvre is associated with urethral-bladder hypermobility, greater levator plate angulation, and positive Q-tip test which are observed in incontinent females. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/9518076 SN - 1748-6718 VL - 2018 IS - Article ID 9518076 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - Hindawi CY - New York, NY ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Digel, Ilya A1 - Akimbekov, Nuraly S. A1 - Kistaubayeva, Aida A1 - Zhubanova, Azhar A. ED - Artmann, Gerhard ED - Temiz Artmann, Aysegül ED - Zhubanova, Azhar A. ED - Digel, Ilya T1 - Microbial Sampling from Dry Surfaces: Current Challenges and Solutions T2 - Biological, Physical and Technical Basics of Cell Engineering N2 - Sampling of dry surfaces for microorganisms is a main component of microbiological safety and is of critical importance in many fields including epidemiology, astrobiology as well as numerous branches of medical and food manufacturing. Aspects of biofilm formation, analysis and removal in aqueous solutions have been thoroughly discussed in literature. In contrast, microbial communities on air-exposed (dry) surfaces have received significantly less attention. Diverse surface sampling methods have been developed in order to address various surfaces and microbial groups, but they notoriously show poor repeatability, low recovery rates and suffer from lack of mutual consistency. Quantitative sampling for viable microorganisms represents a particular challenge, especially on porous and irregular surfaces. Therefore, it is essential to examine in depth the factors involved in microorganisms’ recovery efficiency and accuracy depending on the sampling technique used. Microbial colonization, retention and community composition on different dry surfaces are very complex and rely on numerous physicochemical and biological factors. This study is devoted to analyze and review the (a) physical phenomena and intermolecular forces relevant for microbiological surface sampling; (b) challenges and problems faced by existing sampling methods for viable microorganisms and (c) current directions of engineering and research aimed at improvement of quality and efficiency of microbiological surface sampling. KW - Sampling methods KW - Surface microorganisms KW - Dry surfaces KW - Microbial adhesion KW - Swabbing Y1 - 2018 SN - 978-981-10-7904-7 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7904-7_19 SP - 421 EP - 456 PB - Springer CY - Singapore ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Bhattarai, Aroj A1 - Staat, Manfred ED - Artmann, Gerhard ED - Temiz Artmann, Aysegül ED - Zhubanova, Azhar A. ED - Digel, Ilya T1 - Mechanics of soft tissue reactions to textile mesh implants T2 - Biological, Physical and Technical Basics of Cell Engineering N2 - For pelvic floor disorders that cannot be treated with non-surgical procedures, minimally invasive surgery has become a more frequent and safer repair procedure. More than 20 million prosthetic meshes are implanted each year worldwide. The simple selection of a single synthetic mesh construction for any level and type of pelvic floor dysfunctions without adopting the design to specific requirements increase the risks for mesh related complications. Adverse events are closely related to chronic foreign body reaction, with enhanced formation of scar tissue around the surgical meshes, manifested as pain, mesh erosion in adjacent structures (with organ tissue cut), mesh shrinkage, mesh rejection and eventually recurrence. Such events, especially scar formation depend on effective porosity of the mesh, which decreases discontinuously at a critical stretch when pore areas decrease making the surgical reconstruction ineffective that further augments the re-operation costs. The extent of fibrotic reaction is increased with higher amount of foreign body material, larger surface, small pore size or with inadequate textile elasticity. Standardized studies of different meshes are essential to evaluate influencing factors for the failure and success of the reconstruction. Measurements of elasticity and tensile strength have to consider the mesh anisotropy as result of the textile structure. An appropriate mesh then should show some integration with limited scar reaction and preserved pores that are filled with local fat tissue. This chapter reviews various tissue reactions to different monofilament mesh implants that are used for incontinence and hernia repairs and study their mechanical behavior. This helps to predict the functional and biological outcomes after tissue reinforcement with meshes and permits further optimization of the meshes for the specific indications to improve the success of the surgical treatment. Y1 - 2018 SN - 978-981-10-7904-7 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7904-7_11 SP - 251 EP - 275 PB - Springer CY - Singapore ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Engelmann, Ulrich M. A1 - Buhl, Eva Miriam A1 - Draack, Sebastian A1 - Viereck, Thilo A1 - Frank, A1 - Schmitz-Rode, Thomas A1 - Slabu, Ioana T1 - Magnetic relaxation of agglomerated and immobilized iron oxide nanoparticles for hyperthermia and imaging applications JF - IEEE Magnetic Letters N2 - Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are used as therapeutic and diagnostic agents for local delivery of heat and image contrast enhancement in diseased tissue. Besides magnetization, the most important parameter that determines their performance for these applications is their magnetic relaxation, which can be affected when MNPs immobilize and agglomerate inside tissues. In this letter, we investigate different MNP agglomeration states for their magnetic relaxation properties under excitation in alternating fields and relate this to their heating efficiency and imaging properties. With focus on magnetic fluid hyperthermia, two different trends in MNP heating efficiency are measured: an increase by up to 23% for agglomerated MNP in suspension and a decrease by up to 28% for mixed states of agglomerated and immobilized MNP, which indicates that immobilization is the dominant effect. The same comparatively moderate effects are obtained for the signal amplitude in magnetic particle spectroscopy. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/LMAG.2018.2879034 SN - 1949-307X VL - 9 IS - Article number 8519617 PB - IEEE CY - New York, NY ER -