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Objective At least half of youths with mental disorders are unrecognized and untreated. Rapid, accurate assessment of child mental disorders could facilitate identification and referral and potentially reduce the occurrence of functional disability that stems from early-onset mental disorders. Method Computerized adaptive tests (CATs) based on multidimensional item response theory were developed for depression, anxiety, mania/hypomania, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and suicidality, based on parent and child ratings of 1,060 items each. In phase 1, CATs were developed from 801 participants. In phase 2, predictive, discriminant, and convergent validity were tested against semi-structured research interviews for diagnoses and suicidality in 497 patients and 104 healthy controls. Overall strength of association was determined by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results The child and parent independently completed the Kiddie−Computerized Adaptive Tests (K-CATs) in a median time of 7.56 and 5.03 minutes, respectively, with an average of 7 items per domain. The K-CATs accurately captured the presence of diagnoses (AUCs from 0.83 for generalized anxiety disorder to 0.92 for major depressive disorder) and suicidal ideation (AUC = 0.996). Strong correlations with extant measures were found (r ≥ 0.60). Test−retest reliability averaged r = 0.80. Conclusion These K-CATs provide a new approach to child psychopathology screening and measurement. Testing can be completed by child and parent in less than 8 minutes and yields results that are highly convergent with much more time-consuming structured clinical interviews and dimensional severity assessment and measurement. Testing of the implementation of the K-CAT is now indicated.

It has been reported that cyanidin 3-O-glucoside (C3G) is an inhibitor of Helicobacter pylori toxin secretion. C3G is classified as an anthocyanin and is a major component of black rice extract (BRE). The present study aimed to identify a new functional food material to prevent H. pylori infection in Mongolian gerbil model. Toxicity in the liver and kidney were not detected after BRE administration (10 or 50 mg/kg). BRE treatment reduced bacterial colonization in animal gastric tissue, as well as infection signs as observed on the analysis of the hematological data. It was also found that the relative mRNA levels of the inflammatory cytokines were reduced in BRE-treated groups. These findings suggest that BRE acts as a potent inhibitor of H. pylori infection and pathogenesis in Mongolian gerbils. We propose that BRE may be used to manage gastroduodenal diseases caused by H. pylori infection.

The hydrothermal synthesis of monoclinic-phase vanadium dioxide (VO2(M)) has been extensively studied for applications in energy-saving smart windows. In the majority of reported hydrothermal reactions, the reaction intermediates are first synthesized using vanadium-containing agents and additives. These vanadium precursors are then added to pressurized reactors for the hydrothermal synthesis of VO2(M). However, no studies have systematically investigated the structures and compositions of vanadium precursors used for hydrothermal syntheses. In this study, we demonstrated the single-step hydrothermal synthesis of VO2(M) nanocrystals (NCs) using phase-pure vanadium precursors obtained by size-selective purification. We observed that the structures and compositions of the vanadium precursors significantly influenced the hydrothermal synthesis products. Specifically, ammonium metavanadate and hydrazine monohydrate were reacted to yield metastable vanadium precursors that were purified via size-selective precipitation and then selectively transformed into phase-pure VO2(M), VO2(B), and (NH4)2V4O9 by hydrothermal synthesis. The obtained phase-pure VO2(M) NCs exhibited enhanced luminous transmittance (55%) and solar modulation ability (18%), the value of the latter being one of the highest reported for hydrothermally synthesized VO2(M). W-doped VO2(M) NCs showed superior phase transition behaviors to those of undoped VO2(M) NCs, while the phase transition temperature was systematically reduced depending on the W-doping concentration. In addition, we experimentally demonstrated that integrating the W-doped VO2(M) into the window of a model house reduced the in-house temperature under daytime solar radiation, which exhibits the potential of our VO2(M) films for use in energy-saving window applications.

In this study, we demonstrate the preparation of flexible thermochromic vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin films via the direct film transfer technique using adhesive polymer films. Phase-change VO2 films are prepared via solution-based deposition using sub-stoichiometric colloidal VOx nanoparticles (NPs) on mica substrates; subsequently, a high-temperature rapid thermal annealing process is employed to induce phase transformation to monoclinic VO2 (VO2(M)). Thereafter, the direct film transfer of VO2(M) on mica substrates is conducted using PET substrates coated with an acrylate adhesive to form flexible and transparent mica/VO2(M)/PET films. The reversible phase transition behaviors of the flexible VO2(M) films are observed, such as a high luminous transmittance (Tlum > 50%) and solar modulation ability (ΔTsol > 15%). In addition, doping with tungsten ions systematically decreases the phase transition temperature (Tc) such that it is approximately equal to the ambient temperature, depending on the doping concentration. We observed that VO2(M) doped with 1.3 at% of W exhibits a Tc of 29 °C with Tlum and ΔTsol values of 53% and 10%, respectively; these are the highest Tlum and ΔTsol values reported thus far for flexible VO2(M) thin films at a near-ambient Tc.

Korean mistletoe lectin (KML-C) is an adjuvant that activates systemic and mucosal immune cells to release cytokines including TNF-alpha, which induces immunity against viruses and cancer cells. Although the immunomodulatory activity of KML-C has been well established, the underlying mechanism of action of KML-C has yet to be explored. When mouse peritoneal macrophages were treated with KML-C, both transcription and translation of TLR4 were upregulated. KML-C-induced TLR4 downstream events were similar to those activated by LPS: the upregulation of interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase-1 (IRAK1); resulting in macrophage activation and TNF-alpha production. When TLR4 was blocked using a TLR4-specific neutralizing antibody, TNF-alpha production from the macrophages was significantly inhibited. Moreover, TLR4-deficient mouse macrophages treated with KML-C also secreted greatly reduced level of TNF-alpha secretion. Finally, TLR4 molecules were co-precipitated with KML-C, to which agarose beads were conjugated, indicating that those molecules are associated. These data indicate that KML-C activates mouse macrophages to secrete TNF-alpha by interacting with the TLR4 molecule and activating its signaling pathways.

NSAIDs and COX-2 inhibitors show anti-cancer activities in many cancer cells. In this study, we investigated the effects of NSAIDs (aspirin or indomethacin) and COX-2 inhibitor (NS-398) on growth of YD-8 human oral squamous carcinoma cells. Interestingly, among drugs tested, aspirin showed strongest inhibitory effects on viability and survival of YD-8 cells. Profoundly, aspirin treatment resulted in severe cell shrinkage and nuclear DNA fragmentation in YD-8 cells, suggesting the aspirin-induced apoptosis in YD-8 cells. Data of Western blot further demonstrated that aspirin treatment caused activation of caspases, down-regulation of Mcl-1 protein, dephosphorylation of ERK-1/2 and AKT, and also IkappaB-alpha proteolysis-dependent NF-kappaB activation in YD-8 cells. Aspirin, however, had no effect on expressions of Bcl-2, XIAP, and HIAP-1 in YD-8 cells. Importantly, pretreatment with z-VAD-fmk, a pan-caspase inhibitor blocked the aspirin-induced apoptosis and Mcl-1 down-regulation in YD-8 cells. These findings collectively suggest that aspirin induces apoptosis in YD-8 cells and the induction may be correlated to activation of caspases, caspase-dependent Mcl-1 proteolysis, inactivation of ERK-1/2 and AKT, and activation of NF-kappaB. It is suggested that aspirin may be applied a potential anti-cancer drug against human oral squamous carcinoma.

Background This study was undertaken to compare survival between primary and repeat lung transplant recipients and to identify survival predictors after repeat lung transplantation. Methods Data for 10,846 primary and 354 repeat lung transplant patients were extracted from the United Network for Organ Sharing registry. Propensity score matching was used to examine balance in the distribution of potential observed confounders and to match the sample in terms of the probability of repeat lung transplantation given pretransplant characteristics alone. Matching based on the propensity score was used to compare survival between the primary and repeat lung transplant groups. A Cox regression model was used to identify risk factors for death in the cohort of patients receiving lung transplant. Results Considerable bias between the primary and repeat lung transplant groups was found in the sample. Patients with high propensity scores tended to carry high-risk profiles. Propensity score matching revealed incomplete overlap of covariate distributions between primary and repeat transplant groups. For those subjects who could be matched for the set of potential confounding variables, no difference in survival time was observed between primary and repeat lung transplant patients. Functional status and serum creatinine level were the two clinically important risk factors for predicting the survival of repeat transplant patients. Conclusions The current study revealed that direct comparison of the survival of primary and repeat lung transplant patients is biased by nonoverlap in the distribution of potential confounders. Using propensity score matching we adjusted for this bias and found that there was no significant difference in survival between first and second transplants.

Background The purpose of this study was to identify predictors for survival after primary and repeat heart transplantations, and to compare their survival. Methods The United Network for Organ Sharing database provided 20,787 primary heart transplants and 594 repeat heart transplants (for those patients who had previously undergone a primary heart transplant). Cox regression models were used to separately determine predictors of survival in primary and retransplant patients and to compare their survival distributions. Propensity score matching was then used to compare the survival between primary and retransplant patients adjusted for potential confounders. Results Similar predictors of survival were found for primary and retransplant patients. The overall increased risk of death was 71% higher for retransplant versus primary transplant patients. Propensity score analysis showed that, in patients with characteristics most similar to primary transplant patients, the increased risk of death was 133%; however, for patients with characteristics most like retransplant patients, the increased risk of death was only 34%. Conclusions Survival after retransplantation is significantly reduced relative to survival after primary transplantation. The difference in survival between primary and repeat transplants is smallest among recipients who fit the profile of the typical repeat transplant patient. In general, these are younger patients with better functional status prior to listing, who received an organ from a younger donor.

This report is of a 5-year-old girl with an asymmetrically enlarged tongue. The patient exhibited ankyloglossia, related speech problems, and mandibular prognathism. A modified technique for surgical reduction of macroglossia with asymmetry is described.

This paper presents a solution for the hardware implementation of EIA-709.1 Control Networking Protocol. It is the basic protocol of LonWorks systems that is widely used for the building system and the sensor system. The EIA 709.1 protocol has been implemented at the hardware level from physical layer to network layer to reduce the computing load on the CPU. VHSIC hardware description language (HDL) has been used for the EIA-709.1 protocol. Other layers have been implemented using C programs on Intel 8051 processor. The EIA-709.1 protocol has been implemented using field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology and the commercial feasibility of the proposed solution has been performed through the communication test using the Neuron Chip of EIA-709.1 protocol. The designed EIA709.1 core is usable as one of the intellectual properties (IPs) and it is applicable to design System-on-a-Chip (SoC) for various industrial controllers.

•We have described the first report of NDM-5–producing uropathogenic Escherichia coli clinical isolates in South Korea.•Three uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) strains out of 561 isolates showed resistance to imipenem.•The 3 carbapenem-resistant UPEC isolates belonged to phylogenetic group B1 and ST 101.•The 3 isolates carried a blaNDM-5, blaCTX-M, and blaTEM; however, rmtB gene was detected only in the last 2 isolates.

In this paper, we propose an efficient method for region removal and restoration based on a genetic algorithm (GA) with isophote constraint. The image restoration problem is modeled as an optimization problem, which in our case, is solved by a cost function with isophote constraint that is minimized using a GA. We consider that an image is decomposed into isophotes based on connected components of constant intensity. Our method creates an optimal connection of all pairs of isophotes in an image plane. In the proposed method, we estimate the value of the smoothness, given by the best chromosome of the GA, and project this value in the isophotes direction. The proposed method restores the inside of the region using a geometric feature of the image from the surrounding area. It can be used to make a natural scene in which a commercial advertisement caption, subtitle or logo in an advertisement scene are removed. Experimental results show a great possibility for automatic removal and restoration of a region in an advertisement scene.

This paper presents an efficient region-based motion segmentation method for segmentation of moving objects in a traffic scene with a focus on a video monitoring system (VMS). The presented method consists of two phases: first, in the motion detection phase, the positions of moving objects in a scene are determined using an adaptive thresholding method. To detect varying regions by moving objects, instead of determining the threshold value manually, we use an adaptive thresholding method to automatically choose the threshold value. Second, in the motion segmentation phase, pixels that have similar intensity and motion information are segmented using a weighted k-means clustering algorithm to the binary region of the motion mask obtained in the motion detection. In this way, we need not process a whole image so computation time is reduced. Experimental results demonstrate robustness not only in the variation of luminance conditions and changes in environmental conditions, but also for occlusions among multiple moving objects.

This paper presents an efficient method for image segmentation based on a multiresolution application of a wavelet transform and watershed segmentation algorithm. The procedure toward complete segmentation consists of four steps: pyramid representation, image segmentation, region merging and region projection. First, pyramid representation creates multiresolution images using a wavelet transform. Second, image segmentation segments the lowest-resolution image of the pyramid using a watershed segmentation algorithm. Third, region merging merges the segmented regions using the third-order moment values of the wavelet coefficients. Finally, the segmented low-resolution image with label is projected into a full-resolution image (original image) by inverse wavelet transform. Experimental results of the presented method can be applied to the segmentation of noise or degraded images as well as reduce over-segmentation. In addition, we applied our method to human face detection with accurate and closed boundaries.

The in vitro inhibitory and bactericidal activity of echinomycin and its the novel synthetic analogues of echinomycin,YK2000 and YK2005, were evaluated using 93 clinical isolates of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). In agar dilution tests, the MIC(90) of echinomycin and YK2000 were 0.125 and 8 mg/l, respectively, using Mueller-Hinton II agar, while that of YK2005 was 32 mg/l. Bactericidal activity of echinomycin and YK2000 were two to four times higher than the MIC in time-kill assay experiments. These results suggest that echinomycin and its analogues might be useful as anti-VRE drugs.

We examined the inhibitory effect of an aqueous extract (referred to as KM-110) from Viscum album coloratum, a Korean mistletoe, on tumour metastasis produced by highly metastatic murine tumour cells, B16-BL6 melanoma, colon 26-M3.1 carcinoma and L5178Y-ML25 lymphoma cells, using experimental and spontaneous metastasis models in syngeneic mice. In experimental metastasis of B16-BL6 and colon 26-M3.1 cells, intravenous (i.v.) administration of KM-110 (100 micrograms/mouse) 1 day after tumour inoculation significantly inhibited lung metastasis of both tumour cells. The administration of KM-110 also exhibited a therapeutic effect on liver and spleen metastasis of L5178Y-ML25 lymphoma cells. Furthermore, in spontaneous metastasis of B16-BL6 melanoma cells, multiple administration of KM-110 into tumour-bearing mice resulted in significant inhibition of lung metastasis by tumour cells, as well as the suppressive activity to the growth of primary tumour. In in vivo analysis for tumour-induced angiogenesis, the i.v. administration of KM-110 suppressed tumour growth and inhibited the number of blood vessels oriented towards the tumour mass. In a bioassay, the culture supernatant (KM-110-treated medium) of murine peritoneal macrophages that had been stimulated with KM-110 (1-10 micrograms/ml) for 30 min followed by 24 h incubation in fresh medium showed a strong tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) activity. In addition, KM-110-treated medium significantly inhibited the growth of in vitro cultures of rat lung endothelial (RLE) cells. These results suggested that the extract of Korean mistletoe inhibits tumour metastasis caused by haematogenous as well as non-haematogenous tumour cells, and that its antimetastatic effect results from the suppression of tumour growth and the inhibition of tumour-induced angiogenesis by inducing TNF-alpha.

Polycrystalline thin films of undoped and Co-doped In 2 S 3 have been grown by the spray pyrolysis method and the flash evaporation method. The optical absorption spectra of these thin films have been investigated in the wavelength region from 500 to 2500 nm at 298 K. From the optical absorption measurements, the optical energy gaps of the thin films have been determined and the optical absorption of Co 2+ ions in In 2 S 3 thin films has been studied. In particular, the effects of cobalt doping on the optical properties of In 2 S 3 thin films have been presented.