A microneedle array is an attractive option for a minimally invasive means to break through the skin barrier for efficient transdermal drug delivery. Here, we report the applications of solid polymer-based ion-conductive porous microneedles (PMN) containing interconnected micropores for improving iontophoresis, which is a technique of enhancing transdermal molecular transport by a direct current through the skin. The PMN modified with a charged hydrogel brings three innovative advantages in iontophoresis at once: (1) lowering the transdermal resistance by low-invasive puncture of the highly resistive stratum corneum, (2) transporting of larger molecules through the interconnected micropores, and (3) generating electroosmotic flow (EOF). In particular, the PMN-generated EOF greatly enhances the transdermal molecular penetration or extraction, similarly to the flow induced by external pressure. The enhanced efficiencies of the EOF-assisted delivery of a model drug (dextran) and of the extraction of glucose are demonstrated using a pig skin sample. Furthermore, the powering of the PMN-based transdermal EOF system by a built-in enzymatic biobattery (fructose / O2 battery) is also demonstrated as a possible totally organic iontophoresis patch.

In this paper, a tool named CheCUDA is designed to checkpoint CUDA applications that use GPUs as accelerators. As existing checkpoint/restart implementations do not support checkpointing the GPU status, CheCUDA hooks a part of basic CUDA driver API calls in order to record the status changes on the main memory. At checkpointing, CheCUDA stores the status changes in a file after copying all necessary data in the video memory to the main memory and then disabling the CUDA runtime. At restarting, CheCUDA reads the file, re-initializes the CUDA runtime, and recovers the resources on GPUs so as to restart from the stored status. This paper demonstrates that a prototype implementation of CheCUDA can correctly checkpoint and restart a CUDA application written with basic APIs. This also indicates that CheCUDA can migrate a process from one PC to another even if the process uses a GPU. Accordingly, CheCUDA is useful not only to enhance the dependability of CUDA applications but also to enable dynamic task scheduling of CUDA applications required especially on heterogeneous GPU cluster systems. This paper also shows the timing overhead for checkpointing.

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dry eye syndrome, it is important to keep the lens moist and maintain tears between the CL and the ocular surface, which is here referred to TCO (the initial letters of tear, contact lens, and ocular). Conventional rehydration by regular eye drops, the electrical stimulation of the lacrimal gland, [17] and treatment with a punctum plug [18] will increase the total tear fluid in eye, but cannot directly address the maintenance of the amount of TCO. The only example so far of a smart CL for maintaining the TCO is that of Lee et al., who developed a CL coated with single layer of graphene which decreases the moisture evaporation. [19] Hence, there is still a high demand to develop a CL equipped with an antidehydration function.In this paper, we report that electroosmotic flow (EOF) can be induced in a soft CL in order to maintain the moisture of the lens. EOF is the motion of water induced by an applied voltage across a fluid conduit like a capillary tube [20,21] or a porous material such as hydrogels. [22,23] When the fluid conduit contains fixed electrical charges, the dominant electromigration of the mobile counterions produces net water flow. [24,25] For example, due to the large amount of carboxyl groups in keratin in the stratum corneum of the skin, the transdermal iontophoretic current is known to be accompanied by the EOF from anode to cathode, which assists the penetration of drugs into the skin. [26][27][28] Here, we first developed charge-fixed hydrogel materials and studied their properties as the fluid conduit for EOF generation. The density of the fixed charge was optimized by adjusting the mechanical strength and the efficiency of EOF generation (EOF strength). It was successfully demonstrated that the upward EOF within the soft CL can maintain moisture of the lens itself and also the TCO as illustrated in Figure 1, by in situ monitoring of conductance and by microscope observations. As an example of a built-in power source for EOF generation, the mounting of batteries (Mg/O 2 battery and fructose/O 2 enzymatic battery) was also demonstrated. Results and Discussion EOF Generation in Charged HydrogelsThe hydrogel materials composed of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), methyl methacrylate (MMA), and methacrylic acid (MA) were prepared using a the copolymerization ratio of Contact lenses (CLs) can be a cause of "dry eye syndrome" that can lead to corneal wounds and inflammation as well as a feeling of discomfort. To prevent the dry eye, it is important to keep the lens moist and maintain tears between the CL and the ocular surface. Here, the use of electroosmotic flow (EOF) in a CL is reported as a novel mechanism for antidehydration. A CL made from a charged hydrogel has served as the fluid conduit for EOF generation. The charge density of the gel is optimized by varying the composition ratio of anionic monomer having carboxyl group, by taking into account the efficiency of EOF generation and the mechanical strength of the hydrogels. By in situ monitoring of conductance and by microscope observations,...

OBJECTIVES Completion lobectomy (CL) after anatomical segmentectomy in the same lobe can be complicated by severe adhesions around the hilar structures and may lead to fatal bleeding and lung injury. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the perioperative outcomes of CL after anatomical segmentectomy. METHODS Among 461 patients who underwent anatomical segmentectomy (thoracotomy, 62 patients; thoracoscopic surgery, 399 patients) between January 2005 and December 2019, data of patients who underwent CL after segmentectomy were extracted and analysed in this study. RESULTS Eight patients underwent CL after segmentectomy. CL was performed via video-assisted thoracic surgery in 3 patients and thoracotomy in 5 patients. In each case, there were moderate to severe adhesions. Four patients required simultaneous resection of the pulmonary parenchyma and pulmonary artery. Thoracotomy was not required after thoracoscopic surgery in any patient. Two patients experienced complications (air leakage and arrhythmia). The median duration of hospitalization after CL was 6 (range, 5–7) days. No postoperative mortality or recurrence of lung cancer was observed. All the patients with lung cancer were alive and recurrence-free at the time of publication. CONCLUSIONS Although individual adhesions render surgery difficult, CL after anatomical segmentectomy shows acceptable perioperative outcomes. However, CL by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery may be considered on a case-by-case basis depending on the initial surgery.