Reconstruction Stage Research Articles

Multi-Cross Sampling and Frequency-Division Reconstruction for Image Compressed Sensing

Deep Compressed Sensing (DCS) has attracted considerable interest due to its superior quality and speed compared to traditional CS algorithms. However, current approaches employ simplistic convolutional downsampling to acquire measurements, making it difficult to retain high-level features of the original signal for better image reconstruction. Furthermore, these approaches often overlook the presence of both high- and low-frequency information within the network, despite their critical role in achieving high-quality reconstruction. To address these challenges, we propose a novel Multi-Cross Sampling and Frequency Division Network (MCFD-Net) for image CS. The Dynamic Multi-Cross Sampling (DMCS) module, a sampling network of MCFD-Net, incorporates pyramid cross convolution and dual-branch sampling with multi-level pooling. Additionally, it introduces an attention mechanism between perception blocks to enhance adaptive learning effects. In the second deep reconstruction stage, we design a Frequency Division Reconstruction Module (FDRM). This module employs a discrete wavelet transform to extract high- and low-frequency information from images. It then applies multi-scale convolution and self-similarity attention compensation separately to both types of information before merging the output reconstruction results. The MCFD-Net integrates the DMCS and FDRM to construct an end-to-end learning network. Extensive CS experiments conducted on multiple benchmark datasets demonstrate that our MCFD-Net outperforms state-of-the-art approaches, while also exhibiting superior noise robustness.

Открытая травма глаза. Предполагаемые и реальные сложности хирургии

Purpose. To analyze two clinical cases of open eye injury after penetrating sclerocorneal injury. Material and methods. Both patients were admitted to the clinic after a penetrating sclerocorneal wound with a sharp object 2–3 hours after the injury. In both cases, primary surgical treatment and optical reconstructive surgery were performed simultaneously. On average, the duration of operations varied from 6 hours to 8 hours (total of primary surgical treatment + optical-reconstructive surgery). Results. In the first case, a complete anatomical comparison of all structures and membranes of the eye. The optimal volume of intervention was carried out, and all conditions were created for final reconstructive surgery. The rehabilitation period is 7 months. In the second case, it was possible to completely seal the eyeball, match all the ocular structures that were damaged during the injury, and achieve anatomical correspondence. Carefully performed simultaneous primary surgical treatment and optical reconstructive surgery allowed us to effectively complete silicone tamponade after 4 months, as well as lamellar keratoplasty after 7 months. The rehabilitation period is 14 months. Conclusion. An individual approach to each open eye injury with one-stage primary surgical treatment and optical-reconstructive surgery makes it possible to stabilize the pathological processes that are triggered during the injury, achieve maximum comparison of the anatomical structures and membranes of the eye, eliminate the consequences of injury with minimal surgical complications, and create favorable conditions for subsequent (if necessary) reconstructive stages, to obtain maximum functional results.

A prospective study of psychological adjustment during and after forehead flap nasal reconstruction

The psychological effects of staged nasal reconstruction with a forehead flap were prospectively investigated.Thirty-three patients underwent nasal reconstruction with forehead flaps between March 2017 and July 2020. Three questionnaires were used to assess psychosocial functioning before surgery (time 1), 1 week after forehead flap transfer (time 2), 1 week after forehead flap division (time 3), and after refinement procedures (time 4). The patients were categorized into three groups according to the severity of nasal defects. Between- and within-group comparisons were conducted.All patients reported increased satisfaction with their appearance during nasal reconstruction. For most patients, levels of distress and social avoidance were highest before reconstruction (time 1). Both levels decreased as reconstruction advanced, and were significantly improved by times 3 and 4. The stage of reconstruction had a greater effect on these levels than did severity of nasal defect.Nasal reconstruction with forehead flap is beneficial physically and psychologically. Psychological evaluation before and after surgery facilitates patient–surgeon interactions and further enhances outcomes.

ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN PLANNING ASPECTS OF CITY RENEWAL IN UKRAINE

Cities that are at the epicenter of military conflicts find themselves in an extremely difficult situation. In addition to the most terrible ‒ human losses, the infrastructure of cities, housing stock and industry are destroyed. An extremely difficult task for such territories is their post-war reconstruction. This process can be successful only when there is an understanding of the main approaches and mechanisms for restoration work in such cities. The necessary solution is the development of effective strategies and programs for the reconstruction of cities. This determines a number of priority tasks, namely: analysis of the experience of recovery of the countries of the world after similar destructions and study of the peculiarities of housing reconstruction, as the most acute problem. The article examines the main directions of post-war reconstruction of cities, since post-war reconstruction is an extremely difficult task for any city and country. And for this, it is necessary to determine the priority directions of the restoration and development of cities, depending on the characteristics and nature of their destruction. The restoration of cities should not be limited to reconstruction, but should be decided on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the degree of destruction, the economic component and social reintegration. The experience of countries that have gone through the stages of war and reconstruction is of considerable importance in creating programs for the reconstruction of cities. The set of measures that will contribute to the implementation of programs of reconstruction and provision of housing for the population accretes the world experience. Therefore, the article examines the world experience of the restoration of war-ravaged cities. For partially destroyed cities with a preserved urban environment, it is possible to develop an actual design solution that will take into account the type of reproduction ‒ restoration, reconstruction, or new construction. For territories that have suffered severe destruction, possible options for the implementation of the reconstruction program and provision of housing for the population are: new construction, housing rental, temporary construction of modular or container facilities, formation of a replacement housing fund, compensation for housing. An approach to architectural and town-planning solutions has been developed, which consists in mastering the underground space, the spatial composition of the courtyard space, and the architectural solutions of the buildings.

Tensor-Based Sparse Representation for Hyperspectral Image Reconstruction Using RGB Inputs

Hyperspectral image (HSI) reconstruction from RGB input has drawn much attention recently and plays a crucial role in further vision tasks. However, current sparse coding algorithms often take each single pixel as the basic processing unit during the reconstruction process, which ignores the strong similarity and relation between adjacent pixels within an image or scene, leading to an inadequate learning of spectral and spatial features in the target hyperspectral domain. In this paper, a novel tensor-based sparse coding method is proposed to integrate both spectral and spatial information represented in tensor forms, which is capable of taking all the neighboring pixels into account during the spectral super-resolution (SSR) process without breaking the semantic structures, thus improving the accuracy of the final results. Specifically, the proposed method recovers the unknown HSI signals using sparse coding on the learned dictionary pairs. Firstly, the spatial information of pixels is used to constrain the sparse reconstruction process, which effectively improves the spectral reconstruction accuracy of pixels. In addition, the traditional two-dimensional dictionary learning is further extended to the tensor domain, by which the structure of inputs can be processed in a more flexible way, thus enhancing the spatial contextual relations. To this end, a rudimentary HSI estimation acquired in the sparse reconstruction stage is further enhanced by introducing the regression method, aiming to eliminate the spectral distortion to some extent. Abundant experiments are conducted on two public datasets, indicating the considerable availability of the proposed framework.

Generalized singular spectrum analysis for the decomposition and analysis of non-stationary signals

Singular spectrum analysis (SSA) has been verified to be an effective method for decomposing non-stationary signals. The decomposition and reconstruction stages can be interpreted as a zero-phase filtering process where reconstructed components are obtained by inputting a signal through moving average filters. However, mathematical analysis indicates that the use of a default rectangular window in the embedding stage would corrupt the frequency characteristics of the trajectory matrix, resulting in spectral leakage. To attenuate the effect of spectral leakage and to obtain more concentrated SSA components, this study introduces a windowing technique in SSA, called generalized singular spectrum analysis (GSSA). In GSSA, the default rectangular window is replaced with adjustable taper windows, which are widely used for attenuating spectral leakage. Through windowing, GSSA can achieve less spectral leakage, and produce more energy-concentrated reconstructed components compared with conventional SSA. Grouped spectral entropy (GSE) is used as the metric for evaluating the performance of the proposed GSSA algorithm. Results from experiments, which were conducted on a synthetic signal and two real electroencephalogram signals, show that GSSA outperforms the conventional SSA and the baseline in the reduction of spectral leakage. Compared with the baseline, the proposed GSSA achieves a lower averaged GSE, resulting in reduction of 0.4 for eigenfilters and 0.11 for reconstructed components, respectively. Our results reveal the effectiveness of GSSA in the decomposition and analysis of non-stationary signals.

Equalizer Parameters’ Adjustment Based on an Oversampled Channel Model for OFDM Modulation Systems

A physical model of a wireless transmission channel in the time domain usually consists of the main propagation path and only a few reflections. The reasonable assumptions made about the channel model can improve its parameters’ estimation by a greedy OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) equalizer. The equalizer works flawlessly if delays between propagation paths are in the sampling grid. Otherwise, the channel impulse response loses its compressible characteristic and the number of coefficients to find increases. It is possible to get back to the simple channel model by data oversampling. The paper describes how the above idea helps the OMP (Orthogonal Matching Pursuit) algorithm estimate channel coefficients. The authors analyze the oversampling algorithm on the one hand to assess the influence of filtering function and signal resolution on the quality of the channel impulse response reconstruction. On the other hand, the abilities of the OMP algorithm are analyzed to distinguish components of the oversampled signal. Based on these analyses, we proposed modifications to the compressible channel’s impulse response reconstruction algorithm to minimize the number of transmission errors. A distinction was made between the filters used in the OMP search and channel reconstruction stages before calculating equalizer coefficients. Additionally, the results of the search stage were considered as elements within the groups.

Inhibition of CK2 Diminishes Fibrotic Scar Formation and Improves Outcomes After Ischemic Stroke via Reducing BRD4 Phosphorylation.

Fibrotic scars play important roles in tissue reconstruction and functional recovery in the late stage of nervous system injury. However, the mechanisms underlying fibrotic scar formation and regulation remain unclear. Casein kinase II (CK2) is a protein kinase that regulates a variety of cellular functions through the phosphorylation of proteins, including bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4). CK2 and BRD4 participate in fibrosis formation in a variety of tissues. However, whether CK2 affects fibrotic scar formation remains unclear, as do the mechanisms of signal regulation after cerebral ischemic injury. In this study, we assessed whether CK2 could modulate fibrotic scar formation after cerebral ischemic injury through BRD4. Primary meningeal fibroblasts were isolated from neonatal rats and treated with transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), SB431542 (a TGF-β1 receptor kinase inhibitor) or TBB (a highly potent CK2 inhibitor). Adult SD rats were intraperitoneally injected with TBB to inhibit CK2 after MCAO/R. We found that CK2 expression was increased in vitro in the TGF-β1-induced fibrosis model and in vivo in the MCAO/R injury model. The TGF-β1 receptor kinase inhibitor SB431542 decreased CK2 expression in fibroblasts. The CK2 inhibitor TBB reduced the increases in proliferation, migration and activation of fibroblasts caused by TGF-β1 in vitro, and it inhibited fibrotic scar formation, ameliorated histopathological damage, protected Nissl bodies, decreased infarct volume and alleviated neurological deficits after MCAO/R injury in vivo. Furthermore, CK2 inhibition decreased BRD4 phosphorylation both in vitro and in vivo. The findings of the present study suggested that CK2 may control BRD4 phosphorylation to regulate fibrotic scar formation, to affecting outcomes after ischemic stroke.

Failed distractional bone regeneration as a complication of distraction osteosynthesis: risk factors, preventive diagnosis, treatment

Introduction Despite the large number of articles on complications associated with surgical lengthening, information about such a complication of transosseous distraction osteosynthesis as failed bone regenerate (called hypoplastic in foreign literature) is extremely rare. There are no methods for predicting the restructuring of the regenerate and clinical recommendations for the management of patients at various stages of reconstruction of the distraction regenerate. This entails a long period of immobilization and severe complications.The objective of the work was to define the notion of inadequate (“ischemic”/hypoplastic) bone regeneration and the problem of its formation as a complication during surgical limb lengtheningMaterial and methods The PubMed database and the eLIBRARY scientific electronic library were used to select sources for a systematic literature review. The sources published between 1997 and 2020 were selectedResults and discussion Ineffective distraction bone regenerate is a complication of surgical segment lengthening with the shape and/or structure of the newly formed bone preventing functional load on the segment. There is a general tendency with bone elongations being greater than 15-20 % to significantly reduce biomechanical properties of the distractional regenerate bone. Patients' age at surgical lengthening is not reported as a risk factor for distraction regenerate fractures and a history of adverse events and complications is regarded as an additional risk factor. Inadequate (unstable) distraction regenerate bone includes morphotypes III-V and structural types 1, 5, 7 as classified by Ru Li. There are no clinical guidelines for operational strategy. Failed distraction bone regeneration as a complication of distraction osteosynthesis was reported by different authors between 1997 and 2020. There are conflicting statistically unreliable data regarding a risk for regenerate bone to develop into a less stable type. The surgical options presented have no statistical significance (occasional case reports) and do not describe all possible clinical scenarios.Conclusion The problem of failed distraction regeneration and impaired organotypic restructuring remains one of the most important problems in limb lengthening. Inadequate formation and restructuring of newly formed bone can be caused by many factors including anatomical, physiological and technological aspects that would require further comprehensive study.

Limb lengthening and deformity correction in patients with severe fibular hemimelia: experience of the children's university hospital in Belgrade

Background Fibular hemimelia (FH) is a congenital disease manifested by valgus deformity and instability of the knee joint, shortening and deformity of the tibia, hypoplasia and deformities of the foot and ankle.The aim of this paper was to determine the efficacy of the strategy of separate reconstruction of the foot along with correction of tibia deformity, and then tibial lengthening in patients with FH of types 3 and 4 according to Paley.Methods This retrospective study is based on an analysis of the treatment of 12 children with severe FH. The patients, aged no older than 24 months, were treated for foot reconstruction along with correction of tibial deformity followed by a separate stage of tibial lengthening. Tibial lengthening was performed in the age 4.6 ± 1.2 years. The long-term result of treatment was evaluated at least 1 year after the end of tibial lengthening. Evaluation criteria after tibia lengthening were external osteosynthesis index, amount of lengthening, assessment of outcomes according to Lascombes. Walking ability was assessed using Gillette questionnaire.Results The approach we used gave excellent and good results in 83 % of cases after the first reconstructive stage. Complications and recurrences of deformities encountered during the first stage were eliminated during subsequent planned limb lengthening. The average magnitude of lengthening was 6.4 ± 2.4 cm (37.2 ± 12.4 % of the initial segment length). The index of external osteosynthesis was 22.9 ± 12.2 days/cm. Monofocal distraction osteosynthesis was used in 9 cases and bifocal osteosynthesis in three cases. The results of lengthening were classified by Lascombes as IA in 7 cases, IB in four cases, 2B in one case.Discussion In severe FH, the question of reconstruction or early amputation remains open. There are two opinions on the staging of reconstructive orthopedic surgery and tibial lengthening in young children with severe FH.Conclusion The strategy of reconstruction of the foot and ankle joint at an early age (16-24 months) in children with severe FH followed by lengthening of the lower leg (at the age of 4-6 years) proved to be effective and can be used when it is chosen by the patient's parents. In 3C type cases, the use of external fixation to correct the deformity and simultaneously lengthen the tibia at the first stage is an alternative reasonable strategy option.

The Environmental Impacts of Post-Disaster Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Facilities in Garut Regency-Indonesia

Garut Regency is referred to as a miniature natural disaster in Indonesia. This is because Garut Regency is surrounded by active mountains with topographic characteristics of the northern part consisting of plateaus and mountains, while the southern part of the surface has a steep steepness and in some areas is unstable. Garut Regency, which is geographically prone to disasters, is the duty of the District Government and the community to protect Garut Regency and the community from disasters. As part of the overall disaster management, the implementation of rehabilitation and reconstruction stages becomes an important stage. Analysis of environmental impacts of post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction facilities is an activity needed to assess the impacts that arise on post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction facilities in Garut Regency. The research objective was to analyze the environmental impact of post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction facilities in Garut Regency on domestic solid waste generation and runoff. The results showed that the activities in post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction amenities in Garut Regency will change the land use, generate the solid waste of 1,07 m3/day and runoff of 2,73 m3/day. Land use changes can be maintaining by providing the green open space according to the regulation standard, moreover, the possible treatment for solid waste management is through TPS 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle at temporary waste collection site (TPS)) meanwhile runoff management can be managed by providing the proper drainage and infiltration wells.

GSA-SiamNet: A Siamese Network with Gradient-Based Spatial Attention for Pan-Sharpening of Multi-Spectral Images

Pan-sharpening is a fusion process that combines a low-spatial resolution, multi-spectral image that has rich spectral characteristics with a high-spatial resolution panchromatic (PAN) image that lacks spectral characteristics. Most previous learning-based approaches rely on the scale-shift assumption, which may not be applicable in the full-resolution domain. To solve this issue, we regard pan-sharpening as a multi-task problem and propose a Siamese network with Gradient-based Spatial Attention (GSA-SiamNet). GSA-SiamNet consists of four modules: a two-stream feature extraction module, a feature fusion module, a gradient-based spatial attention (GSA) module, and a progressive up-sampling module. In the GSA module, we use Laplacian and Sobel operators to extract gradient information from PAN images. Spatial attention factors, learned from the gradient prior, are multiplied during the feature fusion, up-sampling, and reconstruction stages. These factors help to keep high-frequency information on the feature map as well as suppress redundant information. We also design a multi-resolution loss function that guides the training process under the constraints of both reduced- and full-resolution domains. The experimental results on WorldView-3 satellite images obtained in Moscow and San Juan demonstrate that our proposed GSA-SiamNet is superior to traditional and other deep learning-based methods.

AE-Qdrop: Towards Accurate and Efficient Low-Bit Post-Training Quantization for A Convolutional Neural Network

Blockwise reconstruction with adaptive rounding helps achieve acceptable 4-bit post-training quantization accuracy. However, adaptive rounding is time intensive, and the optimization space of weight elements is constrained to a binary set, thus limiting the performance of quantized models. The optimality of block-wise reconstruction requires that subsequent network blocks remain unquantized. To address this, we propose a two-stage post-training quantization scheme, AE-Qdrop, encompassing block-wise reconstruction and global fine-tuning. In the block-wise reconstruction stage, a progressive optimization strategy is introduced as a replacement for adaptive rounding, enhancing both quantization accuracy and efficiency. Additionally, the integration of randomly weighted quantized activation helps mitigate the risk of overfitting. In the global fine-tuning stage, the weights of each quantized network block are corrected simultaneously through logit matching and feature matching. Experiments in image classification and object detection tasks validate that AE-Qdrop achieves high precision and efficient quantization. For the 2-bit MobileNetV2, AE-Qdrop outperforms Qdrop in quantization accuracy by 6.26%, and its quantization efficiency is fivefold higher.

Use of Banked Fibula for Improved Nasal Reconstruction Following Free Fibula Midface Reconstruction.

Anterior maxillary deficiency caused by trauma or oncologic resection presents a complex reconstructive challenge. The authors present a technique for 2-stage midface reconstruction utilizing a vascularized free fibula flap for maxillary reconstruction, followed by nasal reconstruction at a second stage utilizing a banked fibula graft. This case series utilizes a 2-stage technique for midface reconstruction. In the first stage, a fibula-free flap was used to reconstruct the maxilla with the excess banked in the abdomen. In the second stage, this bone graft was used to restore the nasal dorsum. Two patients were included in this series. Patient 1 was a 28-year-old man who presented after a remote gunshot wound to his face, resulting in complete loss of his anterior maxilla and nasal support with midface collapse. Patient 2 was a 65-year-old man who presented with squamous cell carcinoma of the hard palate with extension into the maxilla and nasal septum. In both cases, the flaps healed without complication, providing midface restoration. Placement of the banked fibula graft in a second stage resulted in restoration of dorsal nasal projection. The authors describe the use of "spare" fibula parts for nasal reconstruction after loss of the maxilla and cartilaginous septum. The use of the fibula bone as a graft to restore the nasal dorsum in a delayed manner allows for a better assessment of the esthetic needs after the massive swelling from the initial surgery has abated. Further, this approach eliminates the need for a second donor site for nasal reconstruction.

Modified Technique for Auricular Helical Rim Reconstruction in Adult Patients with Subtotal Helical Rim Defects.

In adults, the volume of costal cartilage is enough for reconstruction, but floating cartilage is hard, brittle, and easily broken due to calcification, in addition to being short, making it unsuitable for helical rim reconstruction in such age groups. This study describes a novel technique in which adult patients underwent 2-stage helical rim reconstruction using the syncytium of sixth and seventh costal cartilage. A single-arm clinical trial involves 35 adults with total and subtotal helical rim defects, either congenital, post-traumatic, postburn, or postvascular malformation excision. Twenty-nine unilateral and 6 bilateral cases. The age of patients ranged between 19 and 40 years. In the period between April 2021 and April 2023. Follow-up was 6 months. There were no technique-related complications, such as broken helix. In most cases, scars were invisible, with the normal contour of helical rim. Among the 35 patients, 19 were graded as excellent, 13 as good, and 3 as fair. In objective photographic evaluation, all patients were evaluated with high (3 or 4) ratings; the score was 3 in 19 patients and 4 in 16 patients. All patients were satisfied with the size, contour, position and details of the new helix. Using the syncytium of the sixth and seventh costal cartilage to fabricate the helical rim in adult patients gives a suitable volume of cartilage graft as regards the length and width, which suits the reconstruction of the helical rim, and shows a good configuration with satisfactory surgical results.

ІНТЕГРАЦІЯ ПРИНЦИПІВ SMART-CITY ТА ЗАПРОВАДЖЕННЯ ЕНЕРГЕТИЧНИХ ІННОВАЦІЙ У ПРОЦЕС ПІСЛЯВОЄННОЇ ВІДБУДОВИ БЛАГОУСТРОЮ АДМІНІСТРАТИВНО-ТЕРИТОРІАЛЬНИХ ОДИНИЦЬ

The article explores the possibilities and challenges of integrating Smart City principles and energy innovations into the post-war reconstruction process of administrative-territorial units. In today's world, where environmental pollution and efficient use of energy resources are becoming increasingly critical, implementing energy-efficient projects in urban development has become necessary for community development. One of the essential aspects of successfully implementing energy-efficient projects is their integration into the city's strategic planning. To address challenges such as financial constraints and technical difficulties, implementing energy-efficient projects will bring numerous benefits, including emission reduction, energy consumption reduction, and improvement of urban environment quality. Since many urban amenities in Ukraine having suffered damage during the war, there is an increased opportunity for the restoration of progressive and modern spaces using advanced technologies. This new stage of reconstruction includes adopting innovative approaches, such as using alternative energy sources, implementing energy-saving systems, introducing Smart City principles, greening territories, and more. This opens up opportunities for creating modern, environmentally friendly, and energy-efficient spaces that improve the quality of life and restore administrative-territorial units' infrastructure. The article explores key concepts such as smart technologies, energy efficiency, and sustainable development while presenting the fundamental principles and mechanisms for implementing these principles in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. Utilizing the case-study method, the article highlights the best practices for implementing Smart City principles worldwide. Additionally, the authors examine the advantages and obstacles associated with adopting these principles.

Penile reconstruction after complete bladder exstrophy repair

The decreased penile length in patients born with bladder exstrophy (BE) results partly from pubic symphysis diastasis and the separation of the corporal bodies. Also, intrinsic shortening of anterior corporal compartment, residual penile dorsal curvature, and postsurgical scarred skin share in creation of short penile length. The goal of this study was to look at whether adult men who had bladder exstrophy (BE) surgery as babies needed and benefited from penile reconstruction, which included penile lengthening and repair of any redo penile pathology that was present at the same time. We reviewed the records of 31 repaired BE patients with mean age of 21.4±3.7 years. The patients complained of their dissatisfaction with short penile length, residual dorsal penile curvature, distal dorsal or hypospadiac urethral opening and scared penopubic skin. The penile lengthening was performed by sub-periosteal detachment of the corporal bodies from the pubic rami in all cases. In 8 patients full thickness dermal grafts were used to penile resurfacing after its lengthening. Twelve patients underwent coronal or glanular urethroplasty. Phalloplasty was performed in one patient using forearm free graft. Subjective evaluation by the patient reported satisfactory results in 25/31 (80.6%). The degree of penile lengthening measured at 6 months and one year postoperatively showed increased length which varied between 50% and 150% of the preoperative penile length. We hypothesize that congenital causes, such as short anterior corporeal compartment, wide pubic rami diastasis, and short penile urethra, as well as iatrogenic causes, such as post-surgical peno-pubic scars, could account for the coexisting multifactorial causes of penile shortening in male adults with BE. Penile lengthening is permitted, in our opinion, provided that the crura from the pubic rami is carefully and partially mobilized. The short phallus, residual dorsal chordee and distal urethroplasty can be corrected successfully in the majority of patients. Adult males with BE may have short penis that requires another reconstructive stage. The short phallus, residual chordee and distal urethroplasty can be corrected` successfully in the majority of patients.

Modified Mustardé and Superolateral Periosteal Flaps for Full-Thickness Defects of Medial and Central Lower Eyelid: A Case Series.

Reconstructing full-thickness defects involving 50% to 75% of the horizontal length of the lower eyelid after medial and central full-thickness block resection can be challenging. As a disadvanatge, 1-stage reconstructions may require a free graft reconstruction of the posterior lamella. In addition, 2-stage reconstructions are associated with several complications, including erythema, and the eye must be temporarily closed after surgery. The present study describes a single-surgeon retrospective case series. Five patients diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma underwent wide full-thickness block resection with optimal excision margins (3-5 mm). Subsequently, 1-stage reconstruction was performed using the modified Mustardé flap, incised using the transconjunctival approach. This flap comprised the skin, muscle, tarsus, and conjunctival flap raised from the lateral canthus through a lateral cantholysis procedure, and then extended to the lateral cheek. The flap was medially transposed to cover the medial and central lower eyelid defect. The superolateral periosteal flap was harvested from the superolateral orbital rim attached to the lateral border of the tarsus of the modified Mustardé flap. The lateral forniceal conjunctiva was released from the retractor and advanced superiorly to cover the inner surface. The study included 3 men and 2 women, with a mean age of 71 years (range, 62-90 years). Histological evaluations confirmed tumor-free margins in all cases. The average follow-up duration was 20 months (6-60 months), with no tumor recurrence. None of the patients developed long-term complications, such as ectropion, entropion, lagophthalmos, trichiasis, symblepharon, erythema, wound dehiscence, or flap necrosis. All patients had minimal scarring, and no secondary surgical interventions were necessary. This case series demonstrates the efficacy of the combined modified Mustardé and superolateral periosteal flaps in 1-stage reconstruction of full-thickness defects involving 50% to 75% of the horizontal length of the medial and central lower eyelid without compromising functional and aesthetic outcomes.

Self-guided disentangled representation learning for single image dehazing

Image dehazing has received extensive research attention as images collected in hazy weather are limited by low visibility and information dropout. Recently, disentangled representation learning has made excellent progress in various vision tasks. However, existing networks for low-level vision tasks lack efficient feature interaction and delivery mechanisms in the disentanglement process or an evaluation mechanism for the degree of decoupling in the reconstruction process, rendering direct application to image dehazing challenging. We propose a self-guided disentangled representation learning (SGDRL) algorithm with a self-guided disentangled network to realize multi-level progressive feature decoupling through sharing and interaction. The self-guided disentangled (SGD) network extracts image features using the multi-layer backbone network, and attribute features are weighted using the self-guided attention mechanism for the backbone features. In addition, we introduce a disentanglement-guided (DG) module to evaluate the degree of feature decomposition and guide the feature fusion process in the reconstruction stage. Accordingly, we develop SGDRL-based unsupervised and semi-supervised single image dehazing networks. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method for real-world image dehazing. The source code is available at https://github.com/dehazing/SGDRL.

Surgical treament of chronic pancreatitis (literature review)

Target. To summarize the available literature data on the methods of surgical treatment of chronic pancreatitis, evaluate their results, identify shortcomings and possible solutions.Materials and Methods. We conducted a literature review of scientific papers over the past 20 years, using the resources of the search engines PubMed, Cyberleninka and eLIBRARY, on the available methods of surgical treatment of chronic pancreatitis. For this meta-analysis, we used articles containing an evidence-based experimental and clinical base on issues related to long-term and immediate results of surgical treatment.Results and discussion. We analyzed the immediate and long-term results of the methods of surgical treatment of chronic pancreatitis. In almost all studies, resection-drainage methods made it possible to effectively stop the pain syndrome for a long time. However, exoand endocrine insufficiency in most cases persisted or progressed, regardless of the method used. Another disadvantage of the existing methods was the inability to stop bleeding from the area of pancreatojejunostomy in the early postoperative period, so mortality after the development of these complications ranged from 5 to 60%.Conclusion. Based on the results studied, we identified the following disadvantages of the known methods of surgical treatment of chronic pancreatitis: 1. A long loop of the small intestine, at least 70 cm, turned off from digestion, leading to a significant decrease in the length of the intestinal tube, and, accordingly, the area of absorption of food nutrients. 2. The features of the reconstructive stage of the operation do not provide the physiological flow of pancreatic secretion into the duodenum and, accordingly, the activation of enzymes, thereby turning off the duodenal phase of digestion. 3. Roux-enabled loop of the small intestine creates favorable conditions for the development of excessive bacterial growth. 4. Lack of endoscopic evaluation of the pancreas to stop bleeding in the early postoperative period. After analyzing the literature data, we came to the conclusion that the elimination of these shortcomings will improve the results of chronic pancreatitis treatment.