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Background/aimsAge-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cancer may share similar risk factors, indicating possible common pathogenic pathways. We aimed to describe the site-specific cancer risk based on the relationship of AMD with visual disability (VD) status.MethodsThis was a population-based cohort study using data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database (2009–2019) including patients who participated in a national health screening programme in 2009. The subjects were categorised based on the presence of AMD and VD. The occurrence of cancer was identified using principal diagnosis according to the International Classification of Disease, 10th revision codes in claims data. The Cox regression hazard model was used to compare HRs of site-specific cancer.ResultsAmong 4 088 814 participants, 51 596 had AMD of which 3683 subjects had VD. The mean follow-up period was 9.6 years. The overall cancer risk was generally null, but the risk of hypervascular cancer such as thyroid cancer (adjusted HR (aHR) 1.10, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.20) and renal cancer (aHR 1.16, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.33) was higher and the risk of stomach cancer (aHR 0.89, 95% CI 0.84 to 0.94) was lower in the AMD group than in the non-AMD group.ConclusionThis study demonstrated a possible association between AMD and several cancers. Increased renal and thyroid cancer risk among patients with AMD could indicate that AMD is associated with hypervascular cancer. Further studies in which additional databases are used and the underlying detailed mechanisms evaluated are needed to validate our results.

This work presents a joint design of user association and resource allocation in a heterogeneous network, which is comprised of a single macro base station and a group of small base stations interconnected through wireless backhaul. In such a configuration, we optimize user association and resource allocation so that the total sum of generalized utilities is maximized. This problem is cast as a combinatorial formulation with a fractional objective. To handle this design challenge, we develop a novel message-passing framework to obtain an efficient joint autonomous solution for user association and resource allocation. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms existing techniques with various network utility functions.

Insulin receptor (IR) signaling controls multiple facets of animal physiology. Maximally four insulins bind to IR at two distinct sites, termed site-1 and site-2. However, the precise functional roles of each binding event during IR activation remain unresolved. Here, we showed that IR incompletely saturated with insulin predominantly forms an asymmetric conformation and exhibits partial activation. IR with one insulin bound adopts a Γ-shaped conformation. IR with two insulins bound assumes a Ƭ-shaped conformation. One insulin binds at site-1 and another simultaneously contacts both site-1 and site-2 in the Ƭ-shaped IR dimer. We further show that concurrent binding of four insulins to sites-1 and -2 prevents the formation of asymmetric IR and promotes the T-shaped symmetric, fully active state. Collectively, our results demonstrate how the synergistic binding of multiple insulins promotes optimal IR activation.

Recently, high-speed powerline communication gets great attention as the home network backbone for multimedia services because of the low cost and QoS support. Since a home network is mixed with various types of networks, the high-speed powerline communication is often connected with non-QoS networks such as Ethernet. Then it is very difficult to provide end-to-end QoS for multimedia services in the home network environments since traffics are often transported to Ethernet. In this paper we deal with some QoS issues at the bridge for multimedia service when it connects high-speed powerline communication and Ethernet. Also, we introduce a QoS support Ethernet/High-speed powerline communication bridge system and shows some experimental results in this paper. Index Terms--Bridge, Ethernet, Multimedia, QoS, Homeplug AV, Home Networks.

•The risk of developing T2DM was 1.54 times higher in patients with NMOSD than in control populations matched by age, sex, hypertension, and dyslipidemia.•Steroid treatment may increase the T2DM risk of patients with NMOSD.•T2DM risk was not different between patients with MS and the general population.

Dynamics of release and cellular uptake of aqueous CO from CO-releasing molecules (CORMs) significantly affect signaling and cell viability. So far, it has been mainly observed by IR, UV–visible, and fluorescence techniques, which suffer from poor sensitivity and slow response time. Here, we show how to directly probe the mass transfer of aqueous CO from CORMs to cells using a fluidic chamber integrated with live cells and Raman reporters of large-area Au@Pd core–shell nanoparticle assembly to emulate a physiologically relevant microenvironment. We sensitively and directly detect CO release from trace CORMs of as low as 100 nM by measuring the Raman transitions of CO viarapid chemisorption onto the surface of the Au@Pd nanoparticles. By using our method, we successfully observe the dynamics of CO release from CORM-2 despite its very short half-life. We also reveal that the initial rate of CO release from CORM-3 is dramatically decreased by tens to hundreds of times when exposed to physiologically relevant pH variations from 7.4 to 2.5, which can be attributed to the acid hydrolysis of the CO ligand. CORM-2 tends to quickly release CO regardless of pH, probably because of its rapid cleavage into two monomeric Ru complexes by the co-solvent. The decrease in the initial rate at lower temperatures is more significant for CORM-3 than for CORM-2. Finally, we observe that the cellular uptake of aqueous CO from CORM-3 by lung cancer cells is approximately 2 times higher than that of normal lung cells.

Most reports of pulmonary manifestations in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have been related to interstitial lung diseases. RA and COPD are both chronic inflammatory systemic diseases.

Despite the coexistence of bronchiectasis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the poor prognosis associated with the combination of conditions, to our knowledge, no longitudinal studies that comprehensively evaluated whether patients with RA have a higher risk of bronchiectasis compared with those without RA have been published. Whether seropositivity is associated with an increased risk of bronchiectasis in RA is the subject of ongoing controversy.

One of the key challenges in biology is to understand how individual cells process information and respond to perturbations. However, most of the existing single-cell analysis methods can only provide a glimpse of cell properties at specific time points and are unable to provide cell secretion and protein analysis at single-cell resolution. To address the limits of existing methods and to accelerate discoveries from single-cell studies, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a new sensor based on bound states in the continuum to quantify exosome secretion from a single cell. Our optical sensors demonstrate high-sensitivity refractive index detection. Because of the strong overlap between the medium supporting the mode and the analytes, such an optical cavity has a figure of merit of 677 and sensitivity of 440 nm/RIU. Such results facilitate technological progress for highly conducive optical sensors for different biomedical applications.

This study aims to understand the impact of previous air quality improvement policies on historical emission changes by examining long-term emission trends in Korea. Annual emissions from 2000 to 2018 were estimated using Korea’s official emissions inventory, the Clean Air Policy Support System (CAPSS). To ensure a consistent comparison, standardization of the method for calculating emissions and unification of the reported emission sectors were conducted each year. Furthermore, Korea’s emissions history was compared with that of neighboring countries, such as China and Japan. The annual emissions of these countries were acquired from the HTAPv3 emissions inventory, an international long-term emission trend study. For comparison, the emission source classification of Korea was matched with that of HTAPv3. As a result of the analysis, NOxand SOxemissions in Korea have shown decreasing trends, whereas VOCs (volatile organic compounds) have indicated a gradual increasing trend since 2000. Compared to the previous period of implementing South Korea’s air quality improvement policy, changes in NOx and SOx emissions, which are combustion-related pollutants, showed a relationship with the policy’s timeline. However, non-combustion-related pollutants such as VOCs did not exhibit such a relationship. It was concluded that the related policies were not as effective in reducing VOCs as planned in the policy. By comparing the emission trends of Japan, Korea, and China, it was confirmed that Japan was the first country to experience a decrease in combustion-related pollutants emissions, followed by Korea and China. Additionally, combustion-related pollutants decreased in all three countries, whereas VOCs decreased only in Japan. VOC is a precursor material generating secondary PM2.5and Ozone; considering that, if relevant policies are additionally implemented to control future PM2.5concentrations, and to reduce emissions efficiently and effectively, Japan’s VOC reduction policies can be applied to Korea’s emission reduction policies. These results are expected to serve as important references when establishing future air quality improvement policies in Korea.

In this study, to improve the performance of a temperature sensor, a thin oxide film was deposited on the silicon substrate in addition to controlling the substrate thickness of the sensor. We investigated the effect of the oxide film on the sensitivity and reaction time of the sensor by preventing the heat conduction to the lower silicon substrate. The deposition characteristics of the oxide films were observed at 900°C, and either 1 Torr or 10 torr in the furnace using the dry oxidation method. The reaction time of the temperature sensor was calculated using the heat diffusion rule Fick’s second law. The sensitivity was determined by measuring the temperature variation according to the applied power; the heat response time was about 5 times faster and the sensitivity was improved about 2 times compared with the bulk silicon substrate.

ABSTRACTThe illuminance distribution of flat organic-light-emitting diode (OLED) lightings combined with inverted microlens arrays was investigated through both an experiment and simulation. Two inverted prism films on the OLED surface produced a fourfold symmetry in the illuminance distribution caused by the refraction at the lower and the upper interfaces with air. A simple simulation model could reliably reproduce the experimental distribution. Other specific illuminance distributions, such as the ring-shaped one, were formed in terms of inverted ellipsoidal and pyramid microlens arrays. These results suggest that specific illuminance distributions can be realized by combining inverted microlens arrays with flat OLED lightings, which may be useful for special lightings such as decoration or exhibition lightings.

The functional rules for microRNA (miRNA) targeting remain controversial despite their biological importance because only a small fraction of distinct interactions, called site types, have been examined among an astronomical number of site types that can occur between miRNAs and their target mRNAs. To systematically discover functional site types and to evaluate the contradicting rules reported previously, we used large-scale transcriptome data and statistically examined whether each of approximately 2 billion site types is enriched in differentially downregulated mRNAs responding to overexpressed miRNAs. Accordingly, we identified seven non-canonical functional site types, most of which are novel, in addition to four canonical site types, while also removing numerous false positives reported by previous studies. Extensive experimental validation and significantly elevated 3′ UTR sequence conservation indicate that these non-canonical site types may have biologically relevant roles. Our expanded catalog of functional site types suggests that the gene regulatory network controlled by miRNAs may be far more complex than currently understood.

In this paper, a correction method of defocus and geometric distortion for projected images on nonideal projection surfaces is proposed. To offer distortion-free images on curved projection surfaces, a camera captures the projected image to estimate the distortion. To compensate for defocus, which is due to the change in distance from the projector to the projection surface, the space varying point-spread function of the projector is modeled using a thin lens model. The performance of the proposed algorithm is verified from experiments when the projection surface is curved; the defocus is compensated for using the space varying point-spread function while correcting for the geometric distortion. Employing a point-spread function model, which depends on the distance from the projector to the projection surface, is quite simple and accurate; therefore, a focused image could be obtained using space varying deconvolution. The aim of our proposed method is for application to mobile projectors.

Fibers have been used in cement mixture to improve its toughness, ductility, and tensile strength, and to enhance the cracking and deformation characteristics of concrete structural members. The addition of fibers into conventional reinforced concrete can enhance the structural and functional performances of safety-related concrete structures in nuclear power plants.

The effects of variability of the mechanical properties of lead rubber bearings on the response of a seismic isolation system are investigated. Material variability in manufacturing, aging, and operation temperature is assumed, and two variation models of an isolation system are considered. To evaluate the effect of ground motion characteristics on the response, 27 earthquake record sets with different peak A/V ratios were selected, and three components of ground motions were used for a seismic response analysis. The response in an isolation system and a superstructure increases significantly for ground motions with low A/V ratios. The variation in the mechanical properties of isolators results in a significant influence on the shear strains of the isolators and the acceleration response of the superstructure. The variation provisions in the ASCE-4 are reasonable, but more strict variation limits should be given to isolation systems subjected to ground motions having low A/V ratios. For application of seismic isolation systems to safety-related nuclear structures, the variation in the material and mechanical properties of the isolation system should be properly controlled during the manufacturing and aging processes. In addition, special consideration should be given to minimize the accidental torsion caused by the dissimilarity in the stiffness variations of the isolators.

Most quinones with 2–4 fused aromatic rings exhibit cytostatic activity via DNA intercalation that causes enzyme blockade and reading errors during the replication process. The redox activity of quinones plays a role in the DNA cleavage mediated by oxygen or sulfur radicals. To develop novel anticancer agents based on nitrogen‐containing heterocyclic quinones, pharmacophore models of representative molecules with high activity were generated using Genetic Algorithm with Linear Assignment of Hypermolecular Alignment of Database (GALAHAD). A series of compounds were aligned to the selected pharmacophore model and the 3D‐quantitative structure activity relationships (QSAR) were analyzed using comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA), resulting in q2values of 0.734 and r2of 0.951, and q2of 0.803 and r2of 0.917, respectively, in each study. In addition, the potentials for the one‐electron reduction of quinones were calculated from LUMO energies using the semi‐empirical Austin Model 1 (AM1) method. These also showed a good correlation (r2of 0.816) with the cytotoxic activities of the quinones. Drug Dev Res 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.