Details of the Researcher

PHOTO

Chikweto Francis
Section
Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer
Job title
Assistant Professor
e-Rad No.
90991860

Education 3

  • Tohoku University Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering PhD in Biomedical Engineering

    2020/04 - 2023/03

  • Tambov State Technical University Biomedical Engineering Master's Degree in Biomedical Engineering

    2015/09 - 2017/07

  • Tambov State Technical University Biomedical Engineering Major in Biomedical Engineering

    2011/09 - 2015/07

Professional Memberships 3

  • 日本生体医工学会

    2024/07 - Present

  • Japanese Society of Artificial Organs

    2023/05 - Present

  • IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society

    2021/04 - Present

Research Interests 1

  • Life sciences/ Cardiovascular devices/ artificial organs/ medical robotics/ AI/ Biosignal processing

Research Areas 1

  • Life sciences / Cardiovascular surgery / Cardiovascular devices/Artificial organs/ medical robotics/AI

Papers 15

  1. Physics-Informed AI Surrogates for Simulation-Driven Cardiac Digital Twins from Clinical MRI: Fibrosis-Driven Arrhythmia Prediction Across Five Cardiac Pathologies

    Emmanuel Lwele, Francis Chikweto

    2026/05/06

    Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

    DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9477173/v1  

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    Abstract <p> Background: Cardiac digital twins enable patient-specific modelling of electrophysiologybut remain computationally prohibitive and are typically restricted tospecialised centres with access to multimodal imaging, including lategadolinium enhancement (LGE) MRI for fibrosis characterisation. No scalable,open-source surrogate framework currently operates directly from the cinecardiac MRI data available in standard clinical practice. Methods: We present a simulation-driven framework that constructs patient-specificventricular geometries from the publicly available ACDC 2017 dataset, 100cine-MRI exams spanning five cardiac pathologies (normal, myocardialinfarction, dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, andabnormal right ventricle), and couples them with physiologically informedsynthetic fibrosis distributions to generate large-scale ground-truthelectrophysiological data. Three-dimensional myocardial meshes werereconstructed using the marching cubes algorithm and converted to \((k)\)-nearestneighbour graphs. Electrical activation was simulated via the eikonal equationsolved by Dijkstra's algorithm, producing local activation time (LAT) mapsunder apex and base pacing. A physics-informed graph neural network (PI-GNN)surrogate, enforcing the eikonal constraint as an auxiliary physics loss(\((\lambda = 0.1)\)), was trained on these simulation pairs. Results: The PI-GNN surrogate accurately reproduced eikonal activation maps across allfive pathological groups (mean \((R^2 = 0.924 \pm 0.018)\); normalisedMAE \((= 0.043 \pm 0.009)\)), reducing per-patient computation from\(({\sim}\,380)\),ms to \(({\sim}\,0.45)\),ms, a speedup of\(({\sim}\,850\times)\). Three-dimensional activation maps correctly localisedconduction delays to fibrotic border zones and qualitatively reproducedmacro-reentrant ventricular tachycardia (VT) circuit topology across allpathology groups. Ablation experiments confirmed that removing the eikonalphysics constraint reduced \((R^2)\) by 0.053, and removing fibrosis inputsreduced \((R^2)\) by 0.121. Conclusions: Full multimodal clinical datasets are not a prerequisite for clinically usefulcardiac digital twins. Combining widely accessible cine-MRI geometry withsimulation-augmented training and physics-informed learning enables scalable,near-real-time electrophysiological prediction across heterogeneous cardiacpathologies, providing a foundation for personalised arrhythmia riskstratification and ablation guidance. </p>

  2. Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Robust Digital Biomarker Discovery in Low-Density Wearable EEG Systems

    Emmanuel Lwele, Francis Chikweto

    2026/04/28

    Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

    DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9455997/v1  

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    Abstract <p> Background: Wearable electroencephalography (EEG) holds transformative potential for community-based neurological diagnosis, yet the translation from hospital-grade 23-channel recordings to low-density, motion-corrupted wearable signals introduces severe domain shift that invalidates conventional machine-learning biomarkers. Thousands of patients with suspected seizures face diagnostic waits exceeding twelve months, with up to 30% subsequently reclassified between epilepsy, functional neurological disorder (FND), and other non-epileptic conditions. Methods: We propose a Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN) framework for robust EEG biomarker learning that couples a graph neural network (GNN) spatial encoder with a bidirectional LSTM temporal encoder and four physiologically grounded loss components: a spectral constraint ( L spec ), a spatial diffusion constraint ( L spat ), a functional connectivity stability constraint ( L conn ), and a novel biomarker stability constraint ( L bio ). The framework is validated on the CHB-MIT Scalp EEG Database (subject chb21; four annotated seizures), with a synthetic degradation pipeline simulating electrode dropout (23 → 4 channels), Gaussian noise (σ ∈ [0.1, 2.0]×SD), motion artefacts, and downsampling (256→64 Hz). Strict leave-one-patient-out cross-validation was employed throughout. Results: Under hospital-grade conditions the PINN-GNN achieved AUROC = 0.972 and F1 = 0.954 for seizure detection. Under extreme wearable-grade degradation (σ = 2.0) the PINN-GNN retained AUROC = 0.881, compared with 0.741 for a baseline GNN,a 16.2% relative robustness improvement. The biomarker stability index (BSI) was significantly lower for the PINN-GNN across all six biomarker classes tested (band power ratio, spectral entropy, phase-locking value, graph centrality, Hjorth mobility, and theta coherence; p &lt; 0.001 in each case). Three-dimensional functional connectivity matrices revealed ictal hyperconnectivity that was recoverable under wearable degradation when physics constraints were active. Conclusions: Physics-informed constraints substantially improve EEG biomarker stability under real-world degradation conditions, advancing the feasibility of community-based seizure monitoring. The proposed framework directly addresses the EPSRC-funded research mandate to develop and validate robust biomarkers for wearable EEG deployment in epilepsy, FND, and related conditions, and provides a validated methodological foundation for differentiation of epilepsy, FND, and syncope from low-density EEG data. </p>

  3. Noninvasive Estimation of Left Ventricular End-Diastolic Pressure Through a Mechanical Seal for a Rotary Blood Pump. International-journal

    Daisuke Ogawa, Tadashi Motomura, Yasuyuki Shiraishi, Shinji Kobayashi, Jasmine Martinez, Francis C Chikweto, Tomoyuki Yambe, Kenji Yamazaki

    Artificial organs 2026/04/28

    DOI: 10.1111/aor.70158  

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    BACKGROUND: Left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) is an important index of cardiac preload and heart failure (HF) severity. However, direct measurement of LVEDP requires invasive procedures, including local anesthesia and catheter insertion. To address these limitations, we developed a novel LVEDP estimation method based on the relationship between left ventricular pressure and the behavior of the mechanical seal (MS). In this study, we demonstrate that LVEDP can be estimated by measuring pressure inside the MS. METHODS: Rotating parts of the RBP, consisting of an impeller, a seal ring, and other components, are supported by a seat ring, while the seal ring is nearly in contact with the seat ring. The clearance width between the rings is determined by the balance of forces acting on the rotating parts, and MS opening occurs when this balance is changed. First, a static test was conducted to evaluate the relationship between MS opening pressure (MSOP) and RBP inlet pressure. Subsequently, a dynamic test using a pulsatile simulator was performed to confirm whether this relationship remains valid under physiological conditions. RESULTS: The static test demonstrated that MSOP is proportional to the RBP inlet pressure. In the dynamic test, MS openings were observed only during diastole, and MSOP showed a strong correlation with LVEDP. CONCLUSION: Our method successfully estimated LVEDP in a completely noninvasive manner by utilizing the mechanical seal structure of the RBP.

  4. Phase-Resolved Myofiber Mobility in Healthy Myocardium: An Open-Source Python Framework for Multiphase Cardiac Diffusion Tensor Imaging

    Emmanuel Lwele, Francis Chikweto

    2026/04/14

    Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

    DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9384825/v1  

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    Abstract <p> Background: Cardiac diffusion tensor imaging (cDTI) provides the only non-invasive in vivo modalityfor quantifying myocardial microstructure by characterising the three-dimensional orientationof cardiomyocyte fibres at the voxel level. Myofiber mobility, defined as the dynamic variationin helix angle (HA) across the cardiac cycle, serves as a surrogate marker of laminar sheetlet mechanics and is perturbed in aortic stenosis, diabetic cardiomyopathy, and heart failure. Despite increasing translational interest, robust and openly accessible analysis pipelines for multi-phase cDTI data remain scarce. Methods: We developed a fully open-source Python framework for end-to-end multiphase cDTI analysis andapplied it to the Stanford CMR Group Myofiber Mobility Dataset, comprising nine healthyvolunteers imaged across up to three cardiac phases (diastole, early systole, end-systole)using a motion-compensated STEAM sequence at 3\,T. The pipeline ingests pre-processed MATLAB\texttt{.mat} files containing tensor eigenvalues and eigenvectors, helix angle maps,American Heart Association (AHA) segmentations, and pre-computed transmural depth, andquantitatively evaluates fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), HA, and secondeigenvector angle (E2A) at voxel and AHA-segment level. Phase-resolved myofiber mobility(\((\Delta)\)HA) and sheetlet mobility (\((\Delta)\)E2A) are computed, three-dimensional leftventricular (LV) surface meshes reconstructed, and inter- and intra-observer reproducibilityassessed via intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Bland--Altman analysis. Results: Across 22 phase-resolved datasets from nine subjects, group-mean FA was \((0.355\pm0.017)\) atdiastole and \((0.347\pm0.017)\) at end-systole (p\,=\,0.18). Phase-resolved myofiber mobilityaveraged \((40.0^{\circ}\pm7.3^{\circ})\) (n\,=\,6 paired subjects), with regional heterogeneityacross AHA segments (anterior: \((57.9^{\circ}\pm12.6^{\circ})\); inferoseptal:\((32.4^{\circ}\pm14.8^{\circ})\)). Sheetlet mobility (\((|\Delta\text{E2A}|)\)) was\((29.2^{\circ}\pm3.8^{\circ})\). Three-dimensional LV geometries were successfully reconstructedfor all subjects (representative mesh: 2\,957 vertices, 5\,056 faces). Inter-observer ICC was0.937 (95% CI: 0.73--0.99; p\,\((&lt;)\),0.001) and intra-observer ICC was 0.955 (95% CI:0.83--0.99; p\,\((&lt;)\),0.001). Conclusions: The open-source framework enables accurate characterisation of multiphasic myocardialmicrostructure, generates publication-grade parametric maps and three-dimensionalreconstructions, and demonstrates excellent reproducibility. Reference values for healthymyocardium are established for use in clinical comparisons, and the pipeline is architecturallycompatible with deep learning reconstruction and biomechanical digital twin frameworks,providing a direct pathway towards patient-specific cDTI modelling in aortic stenosis,diabetic cardiomyopathy and heart failure. </p>

  5. Finite Element Analysis and Evaluation of Bare Metal Stent in the Treatment of Aortic dissection from the Perspective of Stent Size and False Lumen area

    Xiaoxi HOU, Haoran WANG, Francis CHIKWETO, Mayo KOBAYASHI, Yi QIAN, Tomoyuki YAMBE, Kazuhiko HANZAWA, Yasuyuki SHIRAISHI

    Advanced Biomedical Engineering 14 384-395 2025

    Publisher: Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering

    DOI: 10.14326/abe.14.384  

    eISSN: 2187-5219

  6. New Design of an Oxygenation Cannula with a Comprehensive Set of Blood Pump

    Hirotaka Sato, Kotaro Nakano, Francis Chikweto, Aoi Fukaya, Tomoyuki Yambe, Yasuyuki Shiraishi

    2025

    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-86323-3_13  

  7. Acute Changes in von Willebrand Factor Degradation After the Deterioration of Aortic Dissection Model in Vivo

    Miharu Fukai, Yasuyuki Shiraishi, Francis Chikweto, Mayo Kobayashi, Xiaoxi Hou, Aoi Fukaya, Maiko Ikura, Kazuhiko Hanzawa, Hisanori Horiuchi, Tomoyuki Yambe

    2025

    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-80355-0_1  

  8. In Vitro Modelling of Aortic Dissection for Bare-Metal Stent Intervention

    Mayo Kobayashi, Yasuyuki Shiraishi, Francis Chikweto, Miharu Fukai, Xiaoxi Hou, Aoi Fukaya, Maiko Ikura, Kazuhiko Hanzawa, Tomoyuki Yambe

    2025

    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-80355-0_2  

  9. Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Short-Term Direct Left Ventricular Puncture Type Compact Percutaneous Blood Pump Peer-reviewed

    Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) 2024/12

    DOI: 10.1109/EMBC53108.2024.10781854  

  10. A Novel Direct Puncture Cannulation Blood Pump Support System: in Vivo Experimental Proof of Concept for a Therapeutic Approach with Cardiac Arrest. International-journal

    Yasuyuki Shiraishi, Francis Chikweto, Hanako Suzuki, Toshihiko Kijima, Aoi Fukaya, Hideyuki Horie, Kazushi Ishiyama, Tomoyuki Yambe

    Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference 2024 1-4 2024/07

    DOI: 10.1109/EMBC53108.2024.10782583  

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    The rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is increasing according to the changes in the proportion of ages in super-aged society. We developed a novel transcutaneous cannulation-type mechanical circulatory system for an alternative therapeutic approach to cardiac arrest using a small centrifugal blood pump. We proposed a transcutaneous mechanical circulatory support capable of rapid installation and quick start of circulatory support for recovery after cardiac arrest by left ventricular direct puncture using the Seldinger technique. The cannula consisted of three components as follows: a) a double-layered cylindrical blood pump housing, b) a centrifugal blood pump impeller primarily installed inside of the cannula, and c) an insertable actuator with magnet coupling. The special feature of the cannula inflow was a backflow resistive unit for adjusting backflow in the process of ventricular puncture. In this study, we performed an in vivo experiment to install the direct cannulation centrifugal blood pump on a goat after cardiac arrest induced by ventricular fibrillation as a proof of concept. As a primary result, the mechanical circulatory support could start in a short period by around one minute installation from the start of cannulation, which could be effective for the recovery after cardiac arrest under the assisted flow of 1.6 L/min at 13,000 rpm of the cannulation pump. Consequently, the novel approach may be useful for the prompt start of mechanical circulatory support.

  11. Finite Element Analysis of a Bare Metal Stent Therapeutic for Aortic Dissection. International-journal

    Xiaoxi Hou, Francis Chikweto, Yasuyuki Shiraishi, Tomoyuki Yambe, Haoran Wang, Yi Qian, Kazuhiko Hanzawa

    Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference 2024 1-4 2024/07

    DOI: 10.1109/EMBC53108.2024.10782596  

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    Since the endovascular repair for aortic dissection by stent graft still has limitations of the application scope and complications, our group has been developing and evaluating a new stenting function by replacing it with a large self-expandable bare metal stent. In this study, we use finite element analysis to evaluate the remodeling outcomes of the dissected aorta by this new stent. An ideal aortic dissection model was also designed using numerical simulations based on previous animal and in vitro experiments, and then a 32mm bare metal stent was deployed at the location of the lesion. The radial force was measured by both experimental and computational methods to evaluate the mechanical performance of the bare metal stent. Results showed that two tears were successfully closed by the stent; the ratio of the lumen area between the false and true lumens was successfully decreased by more than 50% after the deployment; the diameter of the vessel did not change significantly after treatment; the stent was in good apposition with the inner wall of the aorta, but there were still small gaps and stress concentrations. The positive outcomes indicate the feasibility of this treatment and predict its long-term usage with associated fewer risks compared to the stent graft. Such analyses may provide valuable information for the design of the stent to optimize the remodeling of the true lumen and advance clinical use in the future.

  12. Evaluation of a robotic palpation sensor system for prostate cancer screening on silicone elastomers and prostate phantoms

    Francis Chikweto, Takeshi Okuyama, Mami Tanaka

    Journal of Advanced Mechanical Design, Systems and Manufacturing 17 (2) 2023

    DOI: 10.1299/jamdsm.2023jamdsm0021  

    ISSN: 1881-3054

    eISSN: 1881-3054

  13. A cable driven robotic palpation system with contact force sensing based on cable tension observation

    Chikweto Francis, Taiga Sato, Takeshi Okuyama, Mami Tanaka

    The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery 18 (6) 2022/12

    DOI: 10.1002/rcs.2435  

    ISSN: 1478-5951

    eISSN: 1478-596X

  14. A roller scanning type prostate palpation sensor system using a cantilever beam type force measurement. International-journal

    Francis Chikweto, Takeshi Okuyama, Mami Tanaka

    Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference 2022 4387-4390 2022/07

    DOI: 10.1109/EMBC48229.2022.9870835  

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    Palpation has been used for centuries in medicine as a screening and diagnosis modality for a number of pathological conditions. However, this technique is subjective since palpation sensitivity depends on the skill and experience of a medical examiner. An objective approach to acquire quantitative tactile information is needed. A roller scanning type palpation sensor system consisting of an x-axis linear slider and a palpation probe for detecting lumps in a soft object such as the prostate tissue is proposed and fabricated in this study. By translating the slider and changing the palpation angle of the probe, a chrome steel ball which was the contact component indented and scanned the surface of soft silicone phantoms embedded with hard lumps. Lumps were detected by measuring reaction force waveform fluctuations. Fundamental characteristics of the proposed sensor system were validated by comparison with the ground truth load cell output and showed a strong linear correlation with r2=0.9985. On silicone samples with hard lumps, the system was able to detect lumps of various sizes embedded at the depth of 5mm. From the results, the proposed sensor system holds potential for tissue characterization.

  15. Development of a tendon driven robotic probe for prostate palpation. International-journal

    Francis Chikweto, Takeshi Okuyama, Mami Tanaka

    Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference 2021 1330-1335 2021/11

    DOI: 10.1109/EMBC46164.2021.9630059  

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    Palpation is a clinical diagnosis method utilized by physicians to acquire valuable information about the pathological condition of an organ using the sense of touch. This method, however, is subjective. The accuracy depends on the physician's experience and skill. Therefore, to make palpation objective and minimize variability in prostate cancer diagnosis among physicians, an automated palpation system is required. This paper describes the design and experimental evaluation of a 2 Degrees of Freedom (2DoF) tendon driven robotic palpation probe. The probe's palpation motion is controlled by actuating driving tendons using a cable-differential pulley transmission system and a return spring. A kinematic model of the robotic probe was derived. Furthermore, a tendon path length model was geometrically determined, and an optimization method for guide arc center placement to minimize change in tendon length was presented. Preliminary experimental and theoretical results were compared to determine the positioning accuracy. The difference between theoretical pitch angles [0°,80°] and measured values for the yaw angle range of [0°, 40°] was found to be in the range of 0.03° ~ 5.06°.Clinical Relevance- Diagnosis based on manual palpation is often subjective and palpation sensitivity depends on the physician's level of experience and skill. Therefore, an objective method for acquiring tactile information is relevant. Robotic palpation system provides objective and quantitative information for better understanding of the pathological and physiological changes in the tissue using mechanical properties as biomarkers.

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Misc. 12

  1. Primer C-VAE: An interpretable deep learning primer design method to detect emerging virus variants

    Hanyu Wang, Emmanuel K. Tsinda, Anthony J. Dunn, Francis Chikweto, Alain B. Zemkoho

    2025/03/03

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    Motivation: PCR is more economical and quicker than Next Generation Sequencing for detecting target organisms, with primer design being a critical step. In epidemiology with rapidly mutating viruses, designing effective primers is challenging. Traditional methods require substantial manual intervention and struggle to ensure effective primer design across different strains. For organisms with large, similar genomes like Escherichia coli and Shigella flexneri, differentiating between species is also difficult but crucial. Results: We developed Primer C-VAE, a model based on a Variational Auto-Encoder framework with Convolutional Neural Networks to identify variants and generate specific primers. Using SARS-CoV-2, our model classified variants (alpha, beta, gamma, delta, omicron) with 98% accuracy and generated variant-specific primers. These primers appeared with >95% frequency in target variants and <5% in others, showing good performance in in-silico PCR tests. For Alpha, Delta, and Omicron, our primer pairs produced fragments <200 bp, suitable for qPCR detection. The model also generated effective primers for organisms with longer gene sequences like E. coli and S. flexneri. Conclusion: Primer C-VAE is an interpretable deep learning approach for developing specific primer pairs for target organisms. This flexible, semi-automated and reliable tool works regardless of sequence completeness and length, allowing for qPCR applications and can be applied to organisms with large and highly similar genomes.

  2. Von Willebrand損傷評価のための血液剪断試験装置による可逆的損傷応答の基礎検討

    山谷晶, 深井実春, 中野康太郎, 深谷碧, CHIKWETO Francis, 齋藤健貴, 白川龍太郎, 堀内久徳, 松本雅則, 白石泰之, 山家智之

    人工心臓と補助循環懇話会学術集会プログラム・抄録集 53rd (CD-ROM) 2025

  3. 経皮的心室穿刺用小型血液ポンプのH-Q特性と血液損傷の基礎検討

    鈴木華子, 野下景永, 中野康太郎, CHIKWETO Francis, 深谷碧, 白石泰之, 山家智之

    人工心臓と補助循環懇話会学術集会プログラム・抄録集 53rd (CD-ROM) 2025

  4. 小児循環器疾患に対する新規デバイス性能評価のための小児循環モデルの設計開発

    小林真代, HOU Xiaoxi, 中野康太郎, CHIKWETO Francis, 坪子侑佑, 岡本吉弘, 長真啓, 北山文矢, 増澤徹, 白石泰之, 山家智之

    人工心臓と補助循環懇話会学術集会プログラム・抄録集 53rd (CD-ROM) 2025

  5. 穿刺貫通時の皮下・皮膚結合組織動的負荷変動のモデル化の試み

    青山雄星, CHIKWETO Francis, 深谷碧, 白石泰之, 山家智之

    人工心臓と補助循環懇話会学術集会プログラム・抄録集 53rd (CD-ROM) 2025

  6. 小径血液ポンプ内蔵型ガス交換カニューレの開発研究

    佐藤大峻, 中野康太郎, CHIKWETO Francis, 深谷碧, 白石泰之, 山家智之

    人工心臓と補助循環懇話会学術集会プログラム・抄録集 53rd (CD-ROM) 2025

  7. Development and preliminary evaluation of a novel compact temporal use extracorporeal centrifugal blood pump.

    CHIKWETO Francis, SUZUKI Hanako, SHIRAISHI Yasuyuki, FUKAYA Aoi, YAMBE Tomoyuki, ISHIYAMA Kazushi, KIJIMA Toshihiko

    人工心臓と補助循環懇話会学術集会プログラム・抄録集 52nd 2024

  8. Seldinger法を応用した小型遠心血液ポンプ付脱血カニューラ開発

    鈴木華子, CHIKWETO Francis, 白石泰之, 深谷碧, 山家智之, 堀江栄之, 石山和志, 木島利彦

    人工心臓と補助循環懇話会学術集会プログラム・抄録集 52nd 2024

  9. 補助循環時の後天性フォン・ヴィレブランド症候群を引き起こす流体剪断応答の評価システム制御系開発

    深井実春, 白石泰之, 白石泰之, CHIKWETO Francis, 深谷碧, 深谷碧, NARRACOTT Andrew, 早川正樹, 松本雅則, 堀内久徳, 山家智之, 山家智之

    人工臓器(日本人工臓器学会) 52 (2) 2023

    ISSN: 0300-0818

  10. Development of a compact percutaneous direct ventricular puncture type blood pump

    FRANCIS Chikweto, FUKAI Miharu, FUKAYA Aoi, SHIRAISHI Yasuyuki, YAMBE Tomoyuki, KIJIMA Toshihiko, HORIE Hideyuki, ISHIYAMA Kazushi

    人工臓器(日本人工臓器学会) 52 (2) 2023

    ISSN: 0300-0818

  11. Deep learning forward and reverse primer design to detect SARS-CoV-2 emerging variants

    Hanyu Wang, Emmanuel K. Tsinda, Anthony J. Dunn, Francis Chikweto, Nusreen Ahmed, Emanuela Pelosi, Alain B. Zemkoho

    2022/09/25

    Publisher: arXiv

    DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2209.13591  

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    Surges that have been observed at different periods in the number of COVID-19 cases are associated with the emergence of multiple SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Virus) variants. The design of methods to support laboratory detection are crucial in the monitoring of these variants. Hence, in this paper, we develop a semi-automated method to design both forward and reverse primer sets to detect SARS-CoV-2 variants. To proceed, we train deep Convolution Neural Networks (CNNs) to classify labelled SARS-CoV-2 variants and identify partial genomic features needed for the forward and reverse Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) primer design. Our proposed approach supplements existing ones while promoting the emerging concept of neural network assisted primer design for PCR. Our CNN model was trained using a database of SARS-CoV-2 full-length genomes from GISAID and tested on a separate dataset from NCBI, with 98\% accuracy for the classification of variants. This result is based on the development of three different methods of feature extraction, and the selected primer sequences for each SARS-CoV-2 variant detection (except Omicron) were present in more than 95 \% of sequences in an independent set of 5000 same variant sequences, and below 5 \% in other independent datasets with 5000 sequences of each variant. In total, we obtain 22 forward and reverse primer pairs with flexible length sizes (18-25 base pairs) with an expected amplicon length ranging between 42 and 3322 nucleotides. Besides the feature appearance, in-silico primer checks confirmed that the identified primer pairs are suitable for accurate SARS-CoV-2 variant detection by means of PCR tests.

  12. Study on evaluation of sensor characteristics of Robotic finger system for prostate palpation

    佐藤泰河, CHIKWETO Francis Chewe, 奥山武志, 田中真美

    日本機械学会年次大会講演論文集(CD-ROM) 2022 2022

    ISSN: 2424-2667

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