Flexible manipulators offer significant advantages over traditional rigid manipulators in minimally invasive surgery, because they can flexibly navigate around obstacles and pass cramped or tortuous paths. However, due to the inherent low stiffness, the ability to control/obtain higher stiffness when required remains to be further explored. In this article, we propose a flexible manipulator that exploits the phase transformation property of low-melting-point alloy to hydraulically drive and change the stiffness by heating and cooling. A prototype was fabricated, and experiments were conducted to evaluate the motion characteristics, stiffness performance, and rigid-flexible transition efficiency. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed manipulator can freely adjust heading direction in the three-dimensional space. The experimental results also indicate that it took 9.2-10.3 s for the manipulator to transform from a rigid state to a flexible state and 15.4 s to transform from a flexible state to a rigid state. The lateral stiffness and flexural stiffness of the manipulator were 95.54 and 372.1 Ncm2 in the rigid state and 7.26 and 0.78 Ncm2 in the flexible state. The gain of the lateral stiffness and flexural stiffness was 13.15 and 477.05, respectively. In the rigid state, the ultimate force without shape deformation was more than 0.98 N in the straight condition (0°) and 1.36 N in the bending condition (90°). By assembling flexible surgical tools, the manipulator can enrich the diagnosis or treatment functions, which demonstrated the potential clinical value of the proposed manipulator.History A 46-year-old woman with known mixed connective tissue disease with clinical features of scleroderma and polymyositis and who was not on specific medications was referred to our institution to assess for interstitial lung disease due to her predisposing condition. She was a nonsmoker, had no respiratory symptoms, and enjoyed good exercise tolerance. She did not have any cutaneous lesions or renal disease. There was no family history of pulmonary or systemic disease. Her routine blood test results revealed a white blood cell count of 4.6 × 109/L (normal range, [4.4-10.1] × 109/L), a hemoglobin level of 7.76 mmol/L (normal range, 7.26-9.18 mmol/L), a platelet count of 189 × 109/L (normal range, [170-380] × 109/L), a bilirubin level of 8 mmol/L (normal range, 1/720), anti-Ro, anti-La, and anti-extractable nuclear antigen antibodies. Chest radiography and CT were performed at presentation and 14-year follow-up. PET/CT was performed at 7- and 13-year follow-up. buy BMS-777607 Throughout this 14-year follow-up period, she remained completely free of respiratory symptoms and continued to go for a brisk walk every day. At 14-year follow-up, there was no substantial change in serum laboratory values, but a lung function test revealed her diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide had decreased to 52%, while her forced vital capacity remained good at 95%; these findings were suggestive of interval development of restrictive lung function.History A 57-year-old man with no remarkable past medical history presented to an outside institution with painless swelling in his right thigh of 6 months duration. He denied any trauma to the site. At that time, physical examination demonstrated swelling in his right upper thigh. All other work-up, including complete blood count and chest radiography, yielded negative results. The initial diagnosis was lymphangioma of the thigh. He continued to experience worsening swelling in his right upper thigh with no other symptoms over the next year. He was referred to our facility, where he underwent US evaluation of the thigh lesion (Fig 1), an MRI scan encompassing the entire extent of his thigh lesion (Fig 2), and a CT scan of his abdomen and pelvis (Fig 3).Health care providers are increasingly providing technologies for patient care; however, patients are still loath to use such technologies consistently. This research examines the impediments to patients’ use of e-health portals. Our analysis of 836 data records showed that while privacy and security concerns have a negative impact on attitudes toward e-health portals, increasing the awareness of privacy and security controls alleviates such concerns. Our findings also suggest that individuals worry more about who possesses the right to access their health data (i.e., who, what, when, and why) than the mechanisms used to safeguard data from unauthorized access. We found that perceived benefits and support (i.e., emotional and technical support) positively influenced the determinants of use intentions. The implications of these findings for health care providers and policy makers are discussed.Smartphones have recently become a major target for cybercriminals due to large amounts of sensitive data and credentials being stored on the devices. To protect themselves against cyberthreats, users can employ a range of security behaviors. Although research has largely focused on computer security, relatively little is known about personal smartphone security behavior. The goal of our study was to evaluate determinants of smartphone security behavior based on the combination of the Health Belief Model and Protection Motivation Theory. We extended the models by including the construct of general security orientation. We also developed a smartphone security behavior scale that measured various aspects of this behavior. The sample included 331 Czech Android smartphone users aged between 26 and 81 years who were not IT specialists by employment or education. Path analysis showed that individuals who perceived a potential smartphone security threat as more severe, had higher smartphone self-efficacy, and general orientation and interest in digital security, and less personal experience with a digital security incident reported more secure behavior on their smartphones. Perceived susceptibility to security threats and family and friends’ previous experience with digital security incidents did not predict smartphone security behavior. General security orientation affected smartphone security behavior also indirectly through perceived severity. These findings have theoretical implications for the models and also emphasize the importance of general digital security awareness as well as smartphone training to increase smartphone security behavior.When a relationship ends, former partners must make decisions about their online, often public, connections and history, which involve a complex disentangling process. We examined post-breakup behaviors including monitoring, interacting, deleting posts/photos, deleting the former partner, deleting the partner’s family/friends, stopping social media (SM) use, and keeping digital possessions. Participants (N = 256) who had experienced a breakup within the last year completed an online survey. Approximately 38 percent reported experiencing distress over the breakup sometimes or more often. Utilizing latent profile analysis, we identified four latent classes (or profiles) of breakup SM behaviors; we also examined associations between the class and breakup emotional distress. Most participants were clean breakers (61.3 percent), who did zero to very little monitoring, interacting, or deleting and were unlikely to delete their ex-partner, stop use, or keep digital possessions. Wistful reminiscers (12.9 percent) were similar to clean breakers in terms of engaging in very little of any deleting behaviors, stopping use, or keeping digital possessions; however, they engaged in frequent amounts of monitoring their ex-partner as well as interacting with their ex-partner and their ex-partner’s family/friends. Ritual cleansers (15.6 percent) were similar to clean breakers in terms of engaging in very little to no monitoring and interacting; however, they engaged in deleting their SM history, their ex-partner’s family/friends, and their ex-partner. Impulsives (10.2 percent) engaged in high amounts of all the SM behaviors. In terms of emotional distress, impulsives showed the highest levels of distress, followed by wistful reminiscers, ritual cleansers, and then clean breakers.Predetermination, formation, and maintenance of the primary morphogenetic gradient (bicoid, bcd) of the early Drosophila embryo involves many interrelated processes. Here we focus on the biological systems analysis of the bcd mRNA redistribution in an early embryo. The results of the quantitative analysis of experimental data, together with the results of their dynamic modeling, substantiate the role of active transport in the redistribution of the bcd mRNA. The role of the nonlinearity of degradation mechanisms in the mRNA pattern robustness is discussed.Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought teledermatology to the forefront. Understanding patients’ experiences will clarify its benefits and limitations. Materials/Methods Patients evaluated through live-interactive teledermatology at New York University Langone Health March-June 2020 were surveyed. Patient demographics, satisfaction with, and preferences between teledermatology and in-person visits across four domains (visit preparation, provider communication, physical examination, and treatment plan/follow-up) were collected. Results/Discussion Of 602 respondents, >70% indicated at least equal satisfaction compared with in-person visits across all domains. More than a quarter of patients were dissatisfied with the virtual examination and more than half preferred in-person examinations. Male gender was associated with treatment plan/follow-up satisfaction (p = 0.03). Patients ≥66 years preferred in-person visit preparation, communication, and treatment plan/follow-up (all p less then 0.01). New patients were less satisfied with teledermatology communication (p = 0.02) and treatment plan/follow-up (p less then 0.01) but preferred teledermatology visit preparation (p = 0.01). Conclusions Patients were satisfied with live-interactive teledermatology during the COVID-19 pandemic, although preferred in-person physical examinations. Satisfaction and preferences varied between patient populations.Laparoscopic total abdominal colectomy (TAC) is the optimal operative approach for patients with medically refractory inflammatory bowel disease and other benign colon conditions. Minimally invasive techniques for TAC are safe, appropriate, and associated with faster recovery than open surgery. This may be of particular importance in patients who ultimately undergo proctectomy with or without intestinal pouch reconstruction. We describe approaches to the laparoscopic TAC.Background Obesity is one of the most common metabolic disorders in the world, which develops due to an imbalance in energy consumption and expenditure, and both genetic and environmental factors are of great importance. We investigated the potential interactions of single nucleotide polymorphisms that might contribute to the development of polygenic obesity in children. Objective The study involved 367 children and adolescents of both sexes aged from 4 to 18 years. The control group (normal weight) and the overweight groups included 65 and 302 children respectively. Methods DNA for analysis was isolated from peripheral blood lymphocytes, then allelic variants rs99305069 of the FTO gene (chr1653786615), Gln192Arg of the PON1 gene (chr7 95308134), -250G>A of the LIPC gene (chr15 58431740), and Ser447Ter of the LPL gene (chr819957678) were studied using the SNP-Express reagent kit. The results of allelic interactions were analyzed using the multifactor dimensionality reduction method. Results and Discussion Among overweight children, the distribution of genotype and allele frequencies for the studied single nucleotide polymorphisms of the four genes corresponded to those of the control group (p > 0.