TY - JOUR A1 - Ruewe, Marc A1 - Eigenberger, Andreas A1 - Klein, Silvan A1 - von Riedheim, Antonia A1 - Gugg, Christine A1 - Prantl, Lukas A1 - Palm, Christoph A1 - Weiherer, Maximilian A1 - Zeman, Florian A1 - Anker, Alexandra T1 - Precise Monitoring of Returning Sensation in Digital Nerve Lesions by 3-D Imaging: A Proof-of-Concept Study JF - Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery N2 - Digital nerve lesions result in a loss of tactile sensation reflected by an anesthetic area (AA) at the radial or ulnar aspect of the respective digit. Yet, available tools to monitor the recovery of tactile sense have been criticized for their lack of validity. However, the precise quantification of AA dynamics by three-dimensional (3-D) imaging could serve as an accurate surrogate to monitor recovery following digital nerve repair. For validation, AAs were marked on digits of healthy volunteers to simulate the AA of an impaired cutaneous innervation. Three dimensional models were composed from raw images that had been acquired with a 3-D camera (Vectra H2) to precisely quantify relative AA for each digit (3-D models, n= 80). Operator properties varied regarding individual experience in 3-D imaging and image processing. Additionally, the concept was applied in a clinical case study. Images taken by experienced photographers were rated better quality (p< 0.001) and needed less processing time (p= 0.020). Quantification of the relative AA was neither altered significantly by experience levels of the photographer (p= 0.425) nor the image assembler (p= 0.749). The proposed concept allows precise and reliable surface quantification of digits and can be performed consistently without relevant distortion by lack of examiner experience. Routine 3-D imaging of the AA has the great potential to provide visual evidence of various returning states of sensation and to convert sensory nerve recovery into a metric variable with high responsiveness to temporal progress. KW - 3D imaging Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1097/PRS.0000000000010456 SN - 1529-4242 VL - 152 IS - 4 SP - 670e EP - 674e PB - Lippincott Williams & Wilkins CY - Philadelphia, Pa. ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rusavy, Zdenek A1 - Cechova, Hana A1 - Dendorfer, Sebastian A1 - Kalis, Vladimir A1 - Ismail, Khaled M. T1 - Is the Finnish grip tight enough? A manometric study of two manual perineal protection techniques JF - Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/aogs.15033 PB - Wiley ET - Early view ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rusavy, Zdenek A1 - Cechova, Hana A1 - Dendorfer, Sebastian A1 - Kalis, Vladimir A1 - Ismail, Khaled M. T1 - Is the Finnish grip tight enough? A manometric study of two manual perineal protection techniques JF - Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/aogs.15033 VL - 104 IS - 2 SP - 423 EP - 425 PB - Wiley ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Röhrl, Simon A1 - Staufer, Susanne A1 - Bugert, Flemming A1 - Nadimpalli, Vamsi Krishna A1 - Hauser, Florian A1 - Grabinger, Lisa A1 - Bittner, Dominik A1 - Ezer, Timur A1 - Altweck, Ricardo A1 - Graf, Sabine A1 - Kriza, Thomas A1 - Mottok, Jürgen T1 - Ethical Considerations of AI in Education: A Case Study based on Pythia Learning Enhancement System JF - IEEE Access N2 - As the use of AI in education increases, addressing ethical concerns is essential for its responsible use and implementation. This study explores the ethical considerations of AI in education by analyzing a concrete application, the Pythia Learning Enhancement System, which enables personalized and adaptive educational experiences. In this case study, the concrete implementation of Pythia, contrary to high-level abstract analyses, provides practical insights into these ethical issues. To achieve this goal, we first define Pythia and outline its implementation. Using the various topics covered by Pythia, the ethical issues associated with each of these topics are outlined, resulting in a list of ten distinct ethical issues. Because there is overlap in issues covered by similar applications, they can benefit from this identification. An ethical (human rights) and didactic (constructivism) theoretical background is then provided as a basis for further discussion. This is used to build the arguments used in the main study. This consists of analyzing each of the issues and providing recommendations to mitigate potential harm arising from these issues. This helps to provide guidelines for future applications. In the analysis, the ethical discussion is mainly based on the human rights of the stakeholders involved, emphasizing human dignity. After the analysis, each of the issues is contextualized with the recent AI Act of the European Union, providing a novel mapping of the issues of AI in education to the AI Act. Finally, the limitations of the study are stated and a plan for future research is presented. KW - Ethics KW - Artificial intelligence KW - Education KW - Stakeholders KW - Psychology KW - Privacy KW - Search problems KW - Guidelines KW - Focusing KW - Europe Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-83403 SN - 2169-3536 N1 - Corresponding author der OTH Regensburg: Simon Röhrl VL - 11 SP - 1 EP - 25 PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Römmele, Christoph A1 - Mendel, Robert A1 - Barrett, Caroline A1 - Kiesl, Hans A1 - Rauber, David A1 - Rückert, Tobias A1 - Kraus, Lisa A1 - Heinkele, Jakob A1 - Dhillon, Christine A1 - Grosser, Bianca A1 - Prinz, Friederike A1 - Wanzl, Julia A1 - Fleischmann, Carola A1 - Nagl, Sandra A1 - Schnoy, Elisabeth A1 - Schlottmann, Jakob A1 - Dellon, Evan S. A1 - Messmann, Helmut A1 - Palm, Christoph A1 - Ebigbo, Alanna T1 - An artificial intelligence algorithm is highly accurate for detecting endoscopic features of eosinophilic esophagitis JF - Scientific Reports N2 - The endoscopic features associated with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) may be missed during routine endoscopy. We aimed to develop and evaluate an Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm for detecting and quantifying the endoscopic features of EoE in white light images, supplemented by the EoE Endoscopic Reference Score (EREFS). An AI algorithm (AI-EoE) was constructed and trained to differentiate between EoE and normal esophagus using endoscopic white light images extracted from the database of the University Hospital Augsburg. In addition to binary classification, a second algorithm was trained with specific auxiliary branches for each EREFS feature (AI-EoE-EREFS). The AI algorithms were evaluated on an external data set from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC), and compared with the performance of human endoscopists with varying levels of experience. The overall sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of AI-EoE were 0.93 for all measures, while the AUC was 0.986. With additional auxiliary branches for the EREFS categories, the AI algorithm (AI-EoEEREFS) performance improved to 0.96, 0.94, 0.95, and 0.992 for sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and AUC, respectively. AI-EoE and AI-EoE-EREFS performed significantly better than endoscopy beginners and senior fellows on the same set of images. An AI algorithm can be trained to detect and quantify endoscopic features of EoE with excellent performance scores. The addition of the EREFS criteria improved the performance of the AI algorithm, which performed significantly better than endoscopists with a lower or medium experience level. KW - Artificial Intelligence KW - Smart Endoscopy KW - eosinophilic esophagitis Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-46928 VL - 12 PB - Nature Portfolio CY - London ER - TY - GEN A1 - Römmele, Christoph A1 - Mendel, Robert A1 - Rauber, David A1 - Rückert, Tobias A1 - Byrne, Michael F. A1 - Palm, Christoph A1 - Messmann, Helmut A1 - Ebigbo, Alanna T1 - Endoscopic Diagnosis of Eosinophilic Esophagitis Using a deep Learning Algorithm T2 - Endoscopy N2 - Aims Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is easily missed during endoscopy, either because physicians are not familiar with its endoscopic features or the morphologic changes are too subtle. In this preliminary paper, we present the first attempt to detect EoE in endoscopic white light (WL) images using a deep learning network (EoE-AI). Methods 401 WL images of eosinophilic esophagitis and 871 WL images of normal esophageal mucosa were evaluated. All images were assessed for the Endoscopic Reference score (EREFS) (edema, rings, exudates, furrows, strictures). Images with strictures were excluded. EoE was defined as the presence of at least 15 eosinophils per high power field on biopsy. A convolutional neural network based on the ResNet architecture with several five-fold cross-validation runs was used. Adding auxiliary EREFS-classification branches to the neural network allowed the inclusion of the scores as optimization criteria during training. EoE-AI was evaluated for sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score. In addition, two human endoscopists evaluated the images. Results EoE-AI showed a mean sensitivity, specificity, and F1 of 0.759, 0.976, and 0.834 respectively, averaged over the five distinct cross-validation runs. With the EREFS-augmented architecture, a mean sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score of 0.848, 0.945, and 0.861 could be demonstrated respectively. In comparison, the two human endoscopists had an average sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score of 0.718, 0.958, and 0.793. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of deep learning to endoscopic images of EoE which were also assessed after augmentation with the EREFS-score. The next step is the evaluation of EoE-AI using an external dataset. We then plan to assess the EoE-AI tool on endoscopic videos, and also in real-time. This preliminary work is encouraging regarding the ability for AI to enhance physician detection of EoE, and potentially to do a true “optical biopsy” but more work is needed. KW - Eosinophilic Esophagitis KW - Endoscopy KW - Deep Learning Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0041-1724274 VL - 53 IS - S 01 PB - Georg Thieme Verlag CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rösl, Gerhard A1 - Seitz, Franz T1 - Cash demand in times of crisis JF - Journal of Payments Strategy and Systems N2 - This paper focuses on the role of specific types of crisis (technological crisis, financial market crisis, natural disaster) and their effects on the demand for cash in an international context. As evidence from the last 30 years shows, demand for cash increases during periods of crisis, regardless of the nature of the crisis. The nature of the crisis does, however, determine whether small or large banknote denominations are affected more. This study finds that times of payment uncertainties are associated with increased demand for small denominations, probably reflecting an elevated demand for transaction balances. By contrast, in times of financial crisis or general economic uncertainty, the increased demand for cash is largely the result of consumers taking precautionary actions and building up non-transaction balances; for this reason, there is greater demand for large banknote denominations. This study finds that cash continues to play an important role in crisis management. Whether this function can also be fulfilled by a future central bank digital currency, however, remains to be seen. Y1 - 2022 UR - https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/hsp/jpss/2022/00000016/00000002/art00002 SN - 1750-1814 VL - 16 IS - 2 SP - 107 EP - 119 PB - Ingenta CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rösl, Gerhard A1 - Seitz, Franz T1 - Central Bank Digital Currency and Cash in the Euro Area: Current Developments and one Specific Proposal JF - Credit and Capital Markets – Kredit und Kapital N2 - The present paper provides an overview on current developments of cash usage and issue of central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the euro area and proposes a possible design of a digital euro that allows for instant offline payments. Cash usage at the point-of-sale decreased perceptibly in the past years mainly due to the ongoing trend towards digitalization. However, we show that there are also indications that consumers were somewhat pushed into cashless payments by government regulations and supply-side restrictions by commercial banks. Nonetheless, overall demand for euro cash remained strong and even increased relative to GDP since the financial crisis in 2008. In this process, however, we observe a supply-driven shift towards lower banknote denominations. Central banks all over the world are intensively thinking about the potential issue of ­CBDC as a substitute or complement to cash. Based on some of its preferred characteristics, we propose a double pre-paid scheme combining central elements of TARGET Instant Payment Settlement and electronic money features enabling offline and online instant payments. Since anonymity is categorically discarded by the ECB and as cash has some special advantages from a consumer perspective, the digital euro will rather co-circulate with cash than replace it in transactions. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3790/ccm.55.4.523 VL - 55 IS - 4 SP - 523 EP - 551 PB - Duncker & Humblot CY - Berlin ER - TY - GEN A1 - Rückert, Tobias A1 - Rieder, Maximilian A1 - Rauber, David A1 - Xiao, Michel A1 - Humolli, Eg A1 - Feussner, Hubertus A1 - Wilhelm, Dirk A1 - Palm, Christoph T1 - Augmenting instrument segmentation in video sequences of minimally invasive surgery by synthetic smoky frames T2 - International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery KW - Surgical instrument segmentation KW - smoke simulation KW - unpaired image-to-image translation KW - robot-assisted surgery Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-023-02878-2 VL - 18 IS - Suppl 1 SP - S54 EP - S56 PB - Springer Nature ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rückert, Tobias A1 - Rückert, Daniel A1 - Palm, Christoph T1 - Methods and datasets for segmentation of minimally invasive surgical instruments in endoscopic images and videos: A review of the state of the art JF - Computers in Biology and Medicine N2 - In the field of computer- and robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery, enormous progress has been made in recent years based on the recognition of surgical instruments in endoscopic images and videos. In particular, the determination of the position and type of instruments is of great interest. Current work involves both spatial and temporal information, with the idea that predicting the movement of surgical tools over time may improve the quality of the final segmentations. The provision of publicly available datasets has recently encouraged the development of new methods, mainly based on deep learning. In this review, we identify and characterize datasets used for method development and evaluation and quantify their frequency of use in the literature. We further present an overview of the current state of research regarding the segmentation and tracking of minimally invasive surgical instruments in endoscopic images and videos. The paper focuses on methods that work purely visually, without markers of any kind attached to the instruments, considering both single-frame semantic and instance segmentation approaches, as well as those that incorporate temporal information. The publications analyzed were identified through the platforms Google Scholar, Web of Science, and PubMed. The search terms used were “instrument segmentation”, “instrument tracking”, “surgical tool segmentation”, and “surgical tool tracking”, resulting in a total of 741 articles published between 01/2015 and 07/2023, of which 123 were included using systematic selection criteria. A discussion of the reviewed literature is provided, highlighting existing shortcomings and emphasizing the available potential for future developments. KW - Deep Learning KW - Minimal-invasive Chirurgie KW - Bildsegmentierung KW - Surgical instrument segmentation KW - Surgical instrument tracking KW - Spatio-temporal information KW - Endoscopic surgery KW - Robot-assisted surgery Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-69830 N1 - Corresponding author: Tobias Rückert N1 - Corrigendum unter: https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-oth-regensburg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/7033 VL - 169 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -