Research and application of a teaching platform for combined spinal-epidural anesthesia based on virtual reality and haptic feedback technology.

BACKGROUND: Intraspinal anesthesia poses significant teaching challenges and inadequate teaching resources, which ultimately limit students' opportunities for practice. To address this issue, we aimed to develop a virtual platform for combined spinal-epidural anesthesia that merges virtual reality technology with haptic feedback technology, while assessing its educational impact and learning outcomes. METHODS: We utilized MIMICS, 3Ds MAX, and UNITY 3D software to perform 3D reconstruction based on lumbar CT/MRI data from a standard male volunteer. The haptic coefficients were configured on each layer by 20 experienced anesthesiologists in accordance with the Geomagic Touch X force feedback device. A total of 20 anesthesiology interns completed 30 virtual puncture training sessions. Two experienced anesthetists evaluated the efficacy of the platform and the level of mastery achieved using the Global Rating Scale (GRS) and a Checklist score, respectively. Finally, a questionnaire survey was conducted to gather feedback on the virtual platform. RESULTS: After the 10th session, the puncture time stabilized at 2.4 min. As the number of sessions increased, the Global Rating Scale (GRS) score stabilized by the 8th session, and the Checklist scores tended to stabilize by the 10th session. Results from questionnaires indicated that over half of the anesthesiology interns (70%) believed that the platform, which exhibited strong repeatability, improved their anatomical recognition and provided a strong sense of breakthrough in identifying the ligamentum flavum. The majority of them (80%) expressed satisfaction with the virtual platform. CONCLUSIONS: The platform effectively facilitated the acquisition of basic and accurate puncture skills on a virtual patient.

Designing Nonconventional Luminescent Materials with Efficient Emission in Dilute Solutions via Modulation of Dynamic Hydrogen Bonds.

Nonconventional luminescent materials (NLMs) which do not contain traditional aromatic chromophores are of great interest due to their unique chemical structures, optical properties, and their potential applications in various areas, such as cellular imaging and chemical sensing. However, most reported NLMs show weak or no emission in dilute solutions, which severely limits their applications. In this work, dynamic hydrogen bonds were utilized to design NLMs with efficient emission in dilute solutions. To further validate the results, polymers P1 and P2 were successfully prepared and investigated. It was found that the luminescence quantum efficiency of P1 and P2 at a concentration of 0.1 mg/mL in water solution was 8.9 and 0.6%, respectively. The high efficiency can be attributed to the fact that polymer P1 has more intra- or intermolecular dynamic hydrogen bonds and other short interactions than P2 in dilute solutions, allowing P1 to achieve the through-space conjugation effect to increase the degree of system conjugation, restrict molecular motion, and decrease nonradiative transitions, which can effectively improve luminescence. In addition, polymer P2 exhibits the characteristics of clustering-triggered emission, excitation wavelength-dependent and concentration-dependent fluorescence properties, excellent photobleaching resistance, low cytotoxicity, and selective recognition of Fe3+. The present study investigates the manipulation of luminescence properties of NLMs in dilute solutions through the modulation of dynamic hydrogen bonds. This approach can serve as a semi-empirical technique for designing and building innovative NLMs in the times ahead.

Preparation and Characterization of Carbazole-Based Luminogen with Efficient Emission in Solid and Solution States.

Organic luminescent materials with high luminescence efficiency in both solution and solid states, namely dual-state emission (DSE), have attracted considerable attention due to their promising applications in various fields. In order to enrich the variety of DSE materials, carbazole, similar to triphenylamine (TPA), was utilized to construct a novel DSE luminogen named 2-(4-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)phenyl)benzo[d]thiazole (CZ-BT). CZ-BT exhibited DSE characteristics with fluorescence quantum yields of 70, 38 and 75% in solution, amorphous and crystalline states, respectively. CZ-BT shows thermochromic and mechanochromic properties in solution and solids, respectively. Theoretical calculations show that there is a small conformational difference between the ground state and the lowest singly excited state of CZ-BT and that it exhibits a low non-radiative transition characteristic. The oscillator strength during the transition from the single excited state to the ground state reaches 1.0442. CZ-BT adopts a distorted molecular conformation with intramolecular hindrance effects. The excellent DSE properties of CZ-BT can be explained well using theoretical calculations and experimental results. In terms of application, the CZ-BT has a detection limit for the hazardous substance picric acid of 2.81 × 10-7 mol/L.