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Aims Fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) fibrosis score (NFS) are the two most widely used non-invasive tools for screening of advanced fibrosis in subjects with NAFLD. Since metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) has been proposed as a new category of fatty liver disease, we aimed to compare the diagnostic performance of FIB-4 and NFS in subjects with MAFLD and in various subgroups. Methods This study was designed as cross-sectional study. Data from 6,775 subjects who underwent magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) and abdominal ultrasonography at the same time during a health check-up at 13 various health check-up centers were retrospectively reviewed. Advanced fibrosis was defined as an MRE value of ≥3.6 kPa. Results The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROCs) of FIB-4 and NFS for diagnosing advanced fibrosis were similar in subjects with MAFLD. However, the AUROC of NFS was lower than that of FIB-4 in the diabetic subgroup of MAFLD (0.809 in FIB-4 vs. 0.717 in NFS, P = 0.002). The performances of both FIB-4 and NFS were poor in the subgroup of MAFLD with significant alcohol intake. Conclusions The overall diagnostic performance of FIB-4 and NFS for diagnosing advanced fibrosis did not differ among subjects with MAFLD. However, the performance of NFS was lower in the diabetes subgroup of MAFLD. The diagnostic performance of FIB-4 was better for fibrosis in various subgroups of MAFLD. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Acinar cell cystadenoma, also known as an acinar cystic transformation of the pancreas, is an exceedingly rare but benign pancreatic lesion. A 51-year-old woman was transferred to Inje University Busan Paik Hospital because of an 8 cm-sized calcified, multiseptated, and multilocular cystic mass in the pancreatic tail observed during abdominal CT performed at another hospital. The patient did not complain of abdominal pain or other symptoms, and her laboratory findings were normal. MRI showed that the cyst was not connected to the main pancreatic duct. A pancreatic serous cystadenoma was suspected, and a laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy was performed. The resected mass was composed of variable sized multilocular cysts with incomplete septa and focally lined by epithelium with acinar differentiation. The patient was diagnosed with acinar cell cystadenoma and is currently being followed up regularly. No complications or recurrences have been observed.

Cardiovascular disease remains the number one cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide and includes atherosclerosis, which presents as a deadly and chronic inflammatory disease. The initial patho...

Objectives The cause of cervical lymphadenopathy varies from inflammation to malignancy. Accurate and prompt diagnosis is crucial as delayed detection of malignant lymph node can lead to a worse prognosis. To improve the diagnostic accuracy of metastatic lymph node, electrical spectroscopy was employed to study human normal and metastatic lymph nodes using a hypodermic needle with fine interdigitated electrodes on its tip (EoN). Subjects and Methods The electrical impedance of samples collected from 8 patients were analyzed in the sweeping frequency range from 1 Hz to 1 MHz. To align the impedance level data of the patients, normalized impedance was employed. Results The optimal frequency exhibiting the best discrimination results between the normal and cancerous tissues was introduced based on a discrimination index. A high sensitivity (86.2%) and specificity (88.9%) were obtained, which implied that the EoN holds the potential to improve the in vivo diagnostic accuracy of metastatic lymph node during biopsy and surgery. Conclusion EoN has a promising potential to be utilized in real-time in actual clinical trials without a need for any pre/post-treatment during FNA or surgery. We believe that the EoN could reduce unnecessary operations with its associated morbidity.

Background Fibroma of tendon sheath (FTS) is an uncommon mass that arises from the tendon sheath of extremities, particularly in children. The tumor typically affects adults between ages 20 and 50 years with a predominance in males. To date, growth hormone (GH) treatment is safe for children without risk factors and is accepted worldwide as a treatment for Turner syndrome. Case description This article reports the case of a nine-year-old female patient with Turner syndrome and FTS during GH treatment. She had been treated with daily subcutaneous GH to improve growth failure with a mean dose of 0.28 mg/kg/week and the level of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) was within the normal range. During the follow-up period, she complained about the mass on her hand and diagnosed as FTS. Conclusion This report illustrates the clinical impact of Turner syndrome and GH treatments on the occurrence of this tumor through literature reviews. Further studies are needed to highlight the association between FTS and GH treatment, especially in Turner syndrome. Though it is not yet confirmed, it may be worth considering FTS as a possible diagnosis in patients undergoing GH treatment.

Background Although in most patients with inflammatory bowel diseases, conservative therapy is successful, a significant proportion of patients still require surgery once in their lifetime. Development of a safe perioperative treatment to dampen colitis activity without disturbance of anastomotic healing is an urgent and unmet medical need. Annexin A1 (ANXA1) has been shown to be effective in reducing colitis activity. Herein, a nanoparticle-based perioperative treatment approach was used for analysis of the effects of ANXA1 on the resolution of inflammation after surgery for colitis. Methods Anxa1-knockout mice were used to delineate the effects of ANXA1 on anastomotic healing. A murine model of preoperative dextran sodium sulfate colitis was performed. Collagen-IV-targeted polymeric nanoparticles, loaded with the ANXA1 biomimetic peptide Ac2-26 (Ac2-26-NPs), were synthesized and administered perioperatively during colitis induction. The effects of the Ac2-26-NPs on postoperative recovery and anastomotic healing were evaluated using the disease activity index, histological healing scores, and weight monitoring. Ultimately, whole-genome RNA sequencing of the anastomotic tissue was performed to unravel underlying molecular mechanisms. Results Anxa1-knockout exacerbated the inflammatory response in the healing anastomosis. Treatment with Ac2-26-NPs improved preoperative colitis activity (P Conclusions Proresolving therapy with Ac2-26-NPs promises to be a potent perioperative therapy because it improves colitis activity and even intestinal anastomotic healing by the suppression of proinflammatory signaling.

This paper proposes a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based deep learning model for predicting the difficulty of extracting a mandibular third molar using a panoramic radiographic image. The applied dataset includes a total of 1053 mandibular third molars from 600 preoperative panoramic radiographic images. The extraction difficulty was evaluated based on the consensus of three human observers using the Pederson difficulty score (PDS). The classification model used a ResNet-34 pretrained on the ImageNet dataset. The correlation between the PDS values determined by the proposed model and those measured by the experts was calculated. The prediction accuracies for C1 (depth), C2 (ramal relationship), and C3 (angulation) were 78.91%, 82.03%, and 90.23%, respectively. The results confirm that the proposed CNN-based deep learning model could be used to predict the difficulty of extracting a mandibular third molar using a panoramic radiographic image.

Percutaneous ethanol injection for hepatocellular carcinoma and biopsy for pathological examination of lesions in the liver are widely performed using a fine needle under ultrasonography guidance. However, it is often difficult to distinguish a malignant tumor from a parenchyma via ultrasonography. This study proposes a method for identifying a malignant tumor in the liver using coplanar bipolar electrodes fabricated on a fine needle, called electrochemical impedance spectroscopy on a needle (EoN). The electrical impedances of the malignant tumor and parenchyma were measured in two pathological statuses, more specifically in human ex-vivo normal liver and in human ex-vivo cirrhotic liver. Statistically significant differences in the electrical impedance between the malignant tumor and parenchyma in each pathological status were observed in a frequency range of 0.46MHz to 1MHz (p < 0.05). Given a real-time measurement in clinical trials, the optimal frequency suggested was indicated by the largest value in the discrimination index between the malignant tumor and the parenchyma. The electrical properties (conductivity and permittivity) of the tissues were estimated to generalize the sensor output without regard to the dimension and shape of the electrodes. The values of the electrical properties of cancer in the cirrhotic liver and normal liver were significantly higher than those of each parenchyma. These experimental results imply that EoN can be used as a potential tool for identification of malignant tumors in the liver during percutaneous ethanol injection and fine needle aspiration procedures.

In this study, we report the successful demonstration of an intermediate-frequency-over-fiber (IFoF)–based radio access network (RAN) for 28 GHz millimeter-wave (mmWave)-based 5G mobile communication. In order to increase the network coverage of the mmWave-based 5G networks, we propose a distributed antenna system (DAS) that uses the IFoF technology. An IFoF-based DAS with 2 × 2 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) configuration was deployed in the PyeongChang area to provide 5G trial demonstration during the Winter Olympics. 5G trial services such as high-speed data transfer and autonomous vehicle driving were offered to the public through the IFoF-based DAS. A downlink throughput of ∼1 Gb/s and uplink throughput of ∼200 Mb/s were achieved in the DAS-deployed area. We also present an IFoF-based 5G mobile fronthaul that can overcome the bandwidth bottleneck in RANs. We performed real-time transmission of mmWave-based 5G wireless access networks using the IFoF-based mobile fronthaul. The real-time downlink throughput achieved per 5G terminal was approximately 9 Gb/s, when using a 4 × 4 MIMO configuration. An outdoor demonstration was performed to verify the technical feasibility of the 5G fronthaul based on IFoF technology. When moving the 5G terminal between remote radio heads at a speed less than 60 km/h, 5G mobile broadband services could be provided with real-time throughput more than 5 Gb/s. Thus, we confirmed that the IFoF technology was capable of supporting RANs for mmWave-based 5G networks and providing real-time multi-Gb mobile services.

Due to its high prevalence, screening for hepatic fibrosis in the low-risk population is called for action in the primary care clinic. However, current guidelines provide conflicting recommendations on populations to be screened. We aimed to identify the target populations that would most benefit from screening for hepatic fibrosis in clinical practice. This study examined 1288 subjects who underwent magnetic resonance elastography. The diagnostic performance of the Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) index and NAFLD fibrosis score was compared in the following groups: (1) ultrasonography (USG)-diagnosed NAFLD, (2) elevated liver enzyme, (3) metabolic syndrome, (4) impaired fasting glucose, and (5) type 2 diabetes regardless of fatty liver. Decision curve analysis was performed to express the net benefit of groups over a range of probability thresholds (Pts). The diabetes group showed a better area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC: 0.69) compared with subjects in the USG-diagnosed NAFLD (AUROC: 0.57) and elevated liver enzyme (AUROC: 0.55) groups based on the FIB-4 index. In decision curve analysis, the diabetes group showed the highest net benefit for the detection of significant fibrosis across a wide range of Pts. Patients with diabetes, even in the absence of fatty liver, would be preferable for hepatic fibrosis screening in low-risk populations.

In this paper, we demonstrate fifth-generation (5G) trial services using intermediate frequency-over-fiber (IFoF) based distributed antenna system (DAS) implemented in a 28-GHz millimeter-wave (mmWave) during Pyeongchang winter olympics. To extend mmWave-based 5G wireless coverage, IFoF-based DAS with 2 × 2 multiple-input multiple-output configuration is presented. Error vector magnitude (EVM) measurements of the 5G signal on the IF and mmWave bands are performed for both downlink and uplink transmissions over 5-km single mode fiber. The experimental results confirm that the minimum requirement for 5G signals, defined by the technical specification of the 3G partnership project, are satisfied by EVMs less than 9%. In addition, the developed IFoF-based DAS that supports 5G mobile service using 28-GHz mmWave was deployed in the city of Pyeongchang, during winter olympics. An ultra-high speed 5G data service was offered to the general public for 5G trial demonstration. The reference signals received power and data throughput of the 5G handset are measured while moving in a DAS section and 5G connected car section. We confirm that the downlink throughput of ∼1 Gb/s and uplink throughput of ∼200 Mb/s are achieved for the 5G trial service area in which an IFoF-based DAS is deployed. We also successfully demonstrate the 5G connected car service, which is one of the 5G key services, through deployed IFoF-based DAS. At the intersection of baseband unit and DAS deployed sections, a seamless handover is performed to smoothly support 5G-based autonomous driving service.

Charge trapping effects are considered as one of the most severe reliability issues in gallium nitride (GaN)/aluminium gallium nitride (AlGaN) metal-insulator-semiconductor HEMTs (MISHEMTs). Thus, the identification of the origin and the physical properties of active defects is one of the key factors to improve the stability of GaN technology. In this work, we suggest two neighboring nitrogen vacancies as the origin of correlated random telegraph noise (RTN) emissions in a GaN/AlGaN fin-MISHEMT. We determine the magnitude of electrostatic coupling between these two defects by using three different approaches and verify the results by simulating the RTN emissions of a similar system using a Hidden Markov Model (HMM).

We demonstrate the improvement of the optical power budget in multi-intermediate frequency over fiber (IFoF) based indoor-distributed antenna system (DAS) with 48 IF carriers of LTE-A signal using laser over-modulation. The laser over-modulation can improve the optical power budget by increasing the input RF power to DFB-LD until a limit of nonlinear distortion such as CTB and clipping, when the received optical power is very low. To compensate the decrease of optical power budget in analog optical link, we employ the laser over-modulation, and derive the optimum optical modulation index (OMI)/ch to enhance link budget. To investigate the effect of laser over-modulation, we analyze the noise characteristics associated with the carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) depending on the received optical power, and compare three different optical receivers (Rx) most often used: i) PIN-photodiode (PD), ii) APD, iii) PIN-PD following an EDFA (EDFA-PIN), respectively. Using the laser over-modulation, it is experimentally observed to achieve optical power budget of 25 dB for PIN-PD, 31 dB for APD, and 33 dB for EDFA-PIN in multi-IFoF based indoor-DAS for 48 x 20 MHz LTE-A signals transmission, respectively.

INTRODUCTION Repetitive subconcussive head impacts in contact/collision sports such as in US football are believed to contribute to long-term brain changes and chronic symptoms. However, the lack of tools to measure the effects of repeated subconcussion limits our understanding of potential contributions to neuropathological alterations including cellular damage. METHODS We examined subconcussive head impacts using an accelerometer-embedded mouthguard on changes in blood levels of neurofilament light (NFL) chain in 18 Division I college football players. Plasma levels of NFL and clinical symptoms were assessed at pre-post practices. The frequency and linear and rotational head accelerations recorded via the mouthguard were examined in relation to NFL plasma changes. RESULTS The frequency and magnitude of head impacts associated with increased NFL levels. The greater numbers of hits and head accelerations associated with greater pre- to post-practice NFL level increases (p

Driving assistance systems in the automotive industry are constantly evolving and are already commercialized in various areas to provide consumers with safety and convenience. The recognition of driver's propensity is a key factor that can greatly affect the performance of such a driving assist system, but it still has numbers of technical limitations. This paper presents an evolutionary machine learning algorithm for recognizing driver's propensity by effectively learning a vast amount of ECU sensor data in the vehicle, and its performance is verified through system construction, data collection, analysis, and comparison test. The experiments showed that the proposed algorithm achieves a classification accuracy of 92.48% in a large amount of ECU data and reaches 7.03% higher accuracy than the average classification accuracy of existing classifiers. In addition, a scenario for a new safe driving assistance system is presented. The system can recognize the driver's propensity in real time using only the ECU information without attaching additional sensors, such as cameras and biometric information. It is expected that this system will help to recognize the driver's tendency shift, thereby inducing safe driving.

Spontaneous and isolated dissection of the limb arteries without involvement of the aorta is extremely rare, and has been reported previously in pregnant patients in association with collagen vascular disease, and in cases of high-energy trauma or intensive activity in athletes. There is no consensus yet on indications for medical or surgical therapeutic modality. Due to the rarity of spontaneous dissection of external iliac artery, its natural history has been poorly described. A healthy 50-year-old male with normotension was admitted with an acute onset of left flank pain. Left external iliac artery dissection was diagnosed by abdominal computed tomography.

Many groups are working to improve the results of clinical allogeneic islet transplantation in a primate model. However, few studies have focused on the optimal islet dose for achieving normal glycemia without exogenous insulin after transplantation in primate models or on the relationship between rejection and islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) expression. We evaluated the dose (10,000, 20,000, and > 25,000 islet equivalents (IEQ)/kg) needed to achieve normal glycemia without exogenous insulin after transplantation using eleven cynomolgus monkeys, and we analyzed the characteristics exhibited in the islets after transplantation. 10,000 IEQ/kg (N = 2) failed to control blood glucose level, despite injection with the highest dose of exogenous insulin, and 20,000 IEQ/kg group (N = 5) achieved unstable control, with a high insulin requirement. However, 25,000 IEQ/kg (N = 4) achieved normal glycemia without exogenous insulin and maintained it for more than 60 days. Immunohistochemistry results from staining islets found in liver biopsies indicated that as the number of transplanted islets decreased, the amount of IAPP accumulation within the islets increased, which accelerated CD3+ T cell infiltration. In conclusion, the optimal transplantation dose for achieving a normal glycemia without exogenous insulin in our cynomolgus monkey model was > 25,000 IEQ/kg, and the accumulation of IAPP early after transplantation, which depends on the transplanted islet dose, can be considered one factor in rejection.

BackgroundPosteroanterior and lateral cephalogram have been widely used for evaluating the necessity of orthognathic surgery. The purpose of this study was to develop a deep learning network to automatically predict the need for orthodontic surgery using cephalogram.MethodsThe cephalograms of 840 patients (Class ll: 244, Class lll: 447, Facial asymmetry: 149) complaining about dentofacial dysmorphosis and/or a malocclusion were included. Patients who did not require orthognathic surgery were classified as Group I (622 patients—Class ll: 221, Class lll: 312, Facial asymmetry: 89). Group II (218 patients—Class ll: 23, Class lll: 135, Facial asymmetry: 60) was set for cases requiring surgery. A dataset was extracted using random sampling and was composed of training, validation, and test sets. The ratio of the sets was 4:1:5. PyTorch was used as the framework for the experiment.ResultsSubsequently, 394 out of a total of 413 test data were properly classified. The accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were 0.954, 0.844, and 0.993, respectively.ConclusionIt was found that a convolutional neural network can determine the need for orthognathic surgery with relative accuracy when using cephalogram.

Many groups are working to improve the results of clinical allogeneic islet transplantation in a primate model. However, few studies have focused on the optimal islet dose for achieving normal glycemia without exogenous insulin after transplantation in primate models or on the relationship between rejection and islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) expression. We evaluated the dose (group 1/10,000, group 2/20,000, and group 3/>25,000 islet equivalents (IEQ)/kg) needed to achieve normal glycemia without exogenous insulin after transplantation using eleven cynomolgus monkeys, and we analyzed the characteristics exhibited in the islets after transplantation. Group 1 (n2) failed to control blood glucose level, despite injection with the highest dose of exogenous insulin, and group 2 (n5) achieved unstable control, with a high insulin requirement. However, group 3 (n4) achieved normal glycemia without exogenous insulin and maintained it for more than 60 days. Immunohistochemistry results from staining islets found in liver biopsies indicated that as the number of transplanted islets decreased, the amount of IAPP accumulation within the islets increased, which accelerated immune cell infiltration. In conclusion, the marginal transplantation dose for achieving a normal glycemia without exogenous insulin in our cynomolgus monkey model was >25,000 IEQ/kg, and the accumulation of IAPP early after transplantation, which depends on the transplanted islet dose, can be considered one factor in rejection.

With the emergence of problems on environmental pollutions, lithium batteries have attracted considerable attention as an efficient and nature-friendly alternative energy storage device owing to their advantages, such as high power density, low self-discharge rate, and long life cycle. They are widely used in numerous applications, from everyday items, such as smartphones, wireless vacuum cleaners, and wireless power tools, to transportation means, such as electric vehicles and bicycles. In this paper, the state of charge (SOC) of each cell of the lithium battery pack was estimated in real time using two types of neural networks: Multi-layer Neural Network (MNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). To determine the difference in the SOC estimation performance under various conditions, the input values were compared using 2, 6, and 8 input values, and the difference according to the use of temperature variable data was compared, and finally, the MNN and LSTM. The differences were compared. Real-time SOC was estimated using the method with the lowest error rate.

Cancer persists as one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide, contributing to approximately 9.6 million deaths per annum in recent years. Despite the numerous advancements in cancer treatment, there is still abundant scope to mitigate recurrence, adverse side effects and toxicities caused by existing pharmaceutical drugs. To achieve this, many phytochemicals from plants and natural products have been tested against cancer cell lines in vivo and in vitro. Likewise, casticin, a flavonoid extracted from the Vitex species, has been isolated from the leaves and seeds of V. trifolia and V. agnus-castus. Casticin possesses a wide range of therapeutic properties, including analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antiangiogenic, antiasthmatic and antineoplastic activities. Several studies have been conducted on the anticancer effects of casticin against cancers, including breast, bladder, oral, lung, leukemia and hepatocellular carcinomas. The compound inhibits invasion, migration and proliferation and induces apoptosis (casticin-induced, ROS-mediated and mitochondrial-dependent) and cell cycle arrest (G0/G1, G2/M, etc.) through different signaling pathways, namely the PI3K/Akt, NF-κB, STAT3 and FOXO3a/FoxM1 pathways. This review summarizes the chemo-preventive ability of casticin as an antineoplastic agent against several malignancies.

We propose an interpretable Capsule Network, \(\textit{iCaps}\), for image classification. A capsule is a group of neurons nested inside each layer, and the one in the last layer is called a class capsule, which is a vector whose norm indicates a predicted probability for the class. Using the class capsule, existing Capsule Networks already provide some level of interpretability. However, there are two limitations which degrade its interpretability: 1) the class capsule also includes classification-irrelevant information, and 2) entities represented by the class capsule overlap. In this work, we address these two limitations using a novel class-supervised disentanglement algorithm and an additional regularizer, respectively. Through quantitative and qualitative evaluations on three datasets, we demonstrate that the resulting classifier, \(\textit{iCaps}\), provides a prediction along with clear rationales behind it with no performance degradation.

The geometry of engineering systems needs to be optimised in the initial design stage. However, engineering system problems consist of multi-objective optimisation and the performance analysis using commercial code is generally time consuming. To optimise the engineering system concerning its performance, many engineers/researchers perform the optimisation using an approximation model. The response surface method (RSM) is usually used to predict the system performance in many research fields, but it shows predic-tion errors for highly nonlinear problems. To create an appropriate response surface model for marine systems, this paper first com-pares the prediction accuracy of the approximation model generated by the RSM, kriging method and artificial neural network (ANN) using a nonlinear mathematical function problem, and optimal design framework is proposed based on a confirmed approximation model. The proposed framework is composed of three parts: definition of geometry, generation of approximation model, and optimisation. The major objective of this paper is to confirm the applicability/usability of the proposed optimal design framework for marine sys-tems. To reduce the time for performance analysis and minimize the prediction errors, the approximation model is generated using the back-propagation neural network (BPNN) which is considered as a neuro-response surface method (NRSM). The optimisation is done for the generated approximation model by non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II). Through derrick structure optimisation design problem considering structural performance and sensitivity analysis, we have confirmed the proposed framework applicability.

Four laser illumination methods based on a diffuser, concave lens, quasi-static microelectromechanical system (MEMS) scanner, and resonant MEMS scanner, were evaluated for finger vein and liveness detections. Repeatability tests were performed on two persons for a quantitative evaluation based on the curvature of the intensity curve. Images of a finger vein and blood flow are compared between the four methods in terms of image contrast. Finger-vein images were quantitatively evaluated, confirming that the performance of the resonant scanner was superior to those of the other methods. The liveness detectability was also validated by extracting the blood flow pattern based on a laser speckle image, showing that the resonant scanner exhibited the best contrasts in both finger-vein and blood flow images, higher by 22.7 and 49.9%, respectively, than those of the other three methods. This indicates that the proposed method with the resonant scanner enhances the capability for identity authentication with anti-spoofing.

Rib fixations for flail chest or displaced rib fractures are not a new technique. However, reports on rib fixations involving costal cartilage fractures are very few and surpris ingly there are no reports of internal fixations involving only the costal cartilage in the English literature. The diagnosis is difficult and the necessity of the procedure may be quite controversial. Placing plates in screws into the costal cartilage alone may seem unstable and easily dislodged or stripped through the cartilage. We report a 31-year-old male scuba diver instructor who underwent rib fixations over his 7th and 8th costal cartilage ribs for severe pain. The procedure was done with conventional plates and screws. He had the plates and screws removed 2 months later due to lingering pain, but with them removed he is now quite happy with the results without pain. The procedure for fixation of painful overlapped costal cartilage is quite simple and can be done with the usual conventional methods, fixating plate and screws directly over the cartilage alone without fixation over the bony rib.

The present study investigates the design buckling capacities of a Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT) NO96-type liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo containment system (NO96 CCS), one of the most critical failure modes for a box-type LNG cargo containment system, against sloshing dynamic loads from an LNG carrier cargo tank. The design load for NO96 CCS (sloshing) is a typical dynamic event; hence, the dynamic effect on the buckling capacity is investigated as the defining dynamic strength factor. A series of finite-element (FE) analyses for the insulation system are performed using commercial FE software (i.e., ABAQUS and ANSYS) and considering the environmental temperature and material properties of the system. The design buckling strength under both static and dynamic conditions is provided based on the FE calculations and compared with the as-designed criteria of DNV GL for a membrane-type LNG cargo tank.

We propose a two-axis electromagnetic micro scanner with a two-phase current path satisfying three criteria (via less microfabrication, independent biaxial scan with minimization of crosstalk, and no current path on the mirror). In the design of a dual radial magnetic field, current paths are arranged to maximize the torque in the active current that actuates a mirror, while nullifying the torque in the passive current that is not intended to actuate the mirror but rather just to complete an electrical current loop. The use of W-shaped springs for the slow-axis scan considerably reduced the torsional spring constant by 2.7 times, whereas it increased the in-plane sliding spring constant by 2.4 times, compared to conventional I-shaped springs. This indicates that the W-shaped springs effectively increase scan angle and enhance the actuation stability. The scanner with a reflection mirror with 3 mm in diameter was fabricated, and in the raster scan gave a maximum scan angle of 50.6° (resonant) and 9.1° (quasi-static) in fast- and slow-axis scans, respectively, with a power consumption of 28.1 mW. The maximum crosstalk of the slow and fast axis from the other axis were measured as small as 0.45% and 0.43%, respectively.

Introduction Eupatilin, a pharmacologically active ingredient found in Artemisia asiatica, has been reported to have anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic activities. However, molecular mechanisms underlying its anti-allergic properties are not yet clear. In this study, we investigated the effects of eupatilin on allergic inflammation in phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate plus calcium ionophore A23187 (PMACI)-stimulated human mast cells and a compound 48/80-induced anaphylactic shock model. Methods Cytokine assays, histamine assays, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis, western blot analysis and compound 48/80-induced anaphylactic shock model were used in this study. Results Eupatilin significantly suppresses the expression and production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-1β, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and IL-6 in vitro and in vivo. In addition, eupatilin inhibits nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) activation by regulating the phosphorylation and degradation of IκBα via the Akt/IKK(α/β) pathway. Eupatilin treatment also attenuates the phosphorylation of p38, ERK, and JNK MAPKs. Furthermore, eupatilin blocked anaphylactic shock and decreased the release of histamine. Conclusions Anti-allergic inflammation may involve the expression and production of regulating pro-inflammatory cytokines via Akt/IKK(α/β) and MAPK activation of NF-κB. On the basis of these data, eupatilin is a potential candidate for the treatment of allergic diseases.

In this study, we demonstrate the intermediate-frequency-over-fiber (IFoF) based mobile fronthaul technology implemented in a 28-GHz millimeter-wave (mmWave) based 5G prototype supporting Giga-bit mobile broadband services. In order to confirm the technical feasibility of the proposed IFoF-based mobile fronthaul, the clock signal for frequency synchronization and mobile payload data are simultaneously transmitted in the form of IF carriers. Phase noise and error vector magnitude measurements were performed on separate and simultaneous clock transmission paths, respectively. The results confirm an acceptable impact on performance, and the simultaneous clock transmission method reduces system costs and complexity, and improves the flexibility and efficiency of wavelength operation. We also successfully demonstrate the operation of real-time Giga-bit mobile services such as 4K video streaming over IFoF-based mobile fronthaul for 5G prototypes with a 28-GHz mmWave. The achieved peak data-rate per user is up to 1.5 Gb/s, which complies with the requirements of the 5G vision of IMT-2020.

Athletes in contact sports sustain repetitive subconcussive head impacts in a brief window, yet neurophysiological sequelae from repetitive subconcussion remain unclear. This prospective longitudinal study examined a relationship between changes in plasma Tau protein levels and subconcussive impact kinematic data in 23 Division I collegiate football players during a series of pre-season practices. Plasma measures for Tau and S100β proteins, symptom scores, and near point of convergence were obtained at pre-season baseline and pre-/post-practices. During each practice, impact frequency and linear and rotational head accelerations were recorded via an accelerometer-embedded mouth guard. There were significant elevations in plasma Tau levels at all post-practice time-points, compared with those of pre-practice and baseline levels. However, the highest degree of elevation in plasma Tau was observed after the first practice, for which players sustained the lowest number of hits and magnitudes for these hits. Subconcussive impact exposure during practice (e.g., head impact frequency and magnitude) did not predict increased plasma Tau levels. Concussion history and years of football experience also were unrelated to changes in plasma Tau levels. Increases in plasma Tau levels were associated with increases in S100β levels only after the first practice. There were no significant associations between changes in Tau levels, symptom scores, or near point of convergence. These data suggest that the changes in levels of circulating Tau protein were independent of subconcussive head impact exposure, pointing to the possibility that other factors may have played roles in changes in plasma Tau levels.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can predict paresthesia of the inferior alveolar nerve using panoramic radiographic images before extraction of the mandibular third molar. The dataset consisted of a total of 300 preoperative panoramic radiographic images of patients who had planned mandibular third molar extraction. A total of 100 images taken of patients who had paresthesia after tooth extraction were classified as Group 1, and 200 images taken of patients without paresthesia were classified as Group 2. The dataset was randomly divided into a training and validation set (n = 150 [50%]), and a test set (n = 150 [50%]). CNNs of SSD300 and ResNet-18 were used for deep learning. The average accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve were 0.827, 0.84, 0.82, and 0.917, respectively. This study revealed that CNNs can assist in the prediction of paresthesia of the inferior alveolar nerve after third molar extraction using panoramic radiographic images.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of a convolutional neural network (CNN) system for predicting C-shaped canals in mandibular second molars on panoramic radiographs. Methods: Panoramic and cone beam CT (CBCT) images obtained from June 2018 to May 2020 were screened and 1020 patients were selected. Our dataset of 2040 sound mandibular second molars comprised 887 C-shaped canals and 1153 non-C-shaped canals. To confirm the presence of a C-shaped canal, CBCT images were analyzed by a radiologist and set as the gold standard. A CNN-based deep-learning model for predicting C-shaped canals was built using Xception. The training and test sets were set to 80 to 20%, respectively. Diagnostic performance was evaluated using accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and precision. Receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) curves were drawn, and the area under the curve (AUC) values were calculated. Further, gradient-weighted class activation maps (Grad-CAM) were generated to localize the anatomy that contributed to the predictions. Results: The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and precision of the CNN model were 95.1, 92.7, 97.0, and 95.9%, respectively. Grad-CAM analysis showed that the CNN model mainly identified root canal shapes converging into the apex to predict the C-shaped canals, while the root furcation was predominantly used for predicting the non-C-shaped canals. Conclusions: The deep-learning system had significant accuracy in predicting C-shaped canals of mandibular second molars on panoramic radiographs.

The Glycyrrhiza radix (Licorice) is one of the most commonly used medicinal plants in Asian countries, such as China, India, and Korea. It has been traditionally used to treat many diseases, including cough, cold, asthma, fatigue, gastritis, and respiratory tract infections. A Glycyrrhiza new variety, Wongam (WG), has been developed by the Korea Rural Development Administration and revealed pharmacological effects. However, the potential adverse effects of WG have not been revealed yet. This study evaluates the general toxicity of the WG extract through a single and repeated oral dose toxicity study in Sprague-Dawley rats. After single oral dose administration, no significant toxicological changes or mortality was observed up to 5000 mg/kg. Over a 4-week repeated oral dose toxicity study, no adverse effects and target organs were observed up to 5000 mg/kg/day. Over a 13-week repeated oral dose toxicity study, no mortality or toxicological changes involving ophthalmology, water consumption, or hematology were observed up to 5000 mg/kg/day. Although other parameters were changed, the alterations in question were not considered toxicologically significant, since responses remained within normal ranges and were not dose-dependent. In conclusion, the no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) of WG was higher than 5000 mg/kg/day, and no target organs were identified in rats.

Even though Se-Yeon-Eum (SYE) has been used to treat symptoms induced by cigarette smoking in genuine Korean medicine, scientific evidence for this traditional use has not been provided. It is well known that nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) are well known to be inflammatory mediators of cerebral ischemia due to cigarette smoking. The objective of this study was toe detemrine the effect of SYE on NO and TNF-α production in C6 glial cells induced by recombinant interferon-γ (rIFN-γ) plus cigarette extract (CE). Results showed that SYE (500, 1000 μg/ml) inhibited NO production induced by rIFN-γ (50 U/ml) and CE (1/100, 1/50 dilution). SYE (1000 μg/ml) also suppressed TNF-α secretion induced by rIFN-γ (50 U/ml) and CE (1/100 dilution). Moreover, inducible nitric oxide synthase expression and cytoplasmic TNF-α level stimulated by rIFN-γ and CE were inhibited by SYE (1000 μg/ml). These results suggest that SYE might have anti-inflammatory effect under cerebral ischemic condition.

The current study investigates whether repetitive subconcussive impacts cause changes in plasma S100β levels, and also tests the associations between S100β changes and frequency/magnitude of impacts sustained. This prospective study of 22 Division-I collegiate football players included baseline and pre-season practices (one helmet-only and four full-gear). Blood samples were obtained and assessed for S100β levels at baseline and pre- to post-practices; symptom scores were assessed at each time-point. An accelerometer-embedded mouthguard was employed to measure the number of impacts (hits), peak linear acceleration (PLA), and peak rotational acceleration (PRA). Because we observed a distinct gap in impact exposure (hits, PLA, and PRA), players were clustered into lower (n = 7) or higher (n = 15) impact groups based on the sum of impact kinematics from all five practices. S100β levels significantly changed across the study duration. Although S100β levels remained stable from baseline to all pre-practice values, statistically significant acute increases in S100β levels were observed in all post-practice measures compared with the respective pre-practice values (range: 133-246% in the overall sample). Greater number of hits, sum of PLA, and sum of PRA were significantly associated with greater acute increases in S100β levels. There were significant differences in head impact kinematics between lower and higher impact groups (hits, 6 vs. 43 [M

Recently, due to the rise in age of the population and the increase of novices in the countryside, the number of experienced workers in the countryside is decreasing. In addition, more and more people are suffering from the heat of the ever-increasing hot weather. In this paper a mobile fruit monitoring system based on the image processing technology and temperature/humidity sensors will be shown. The advantage of the mobile fruit monitoring system that is introduced in this paper is that it can be remote controlled by PCs and a Graphical User Interface (GUI) program by LabVIEW has been designed. Therefore it is no longer necessary to go to the orchards, experienced workers and novices can easily judge the ripeness of the fruits by the GUI program. From the experimental results shows that the proposed mobile fruit monitoring system has a very high correct recognition rate.

Although application of sorafenib in the treatment of human renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remains one of the best examples of successful targeted therapy, majority of RCC patients suffer from its side effects as well as develop resistance to this targeted therapy. Thus, there is a need to promote novel alternative therapies for the treatment of RCC. In this study, we investigated whether Korean red ginseng extract (KRGE) could inhibit the proliferation and induce chemosensitization in human renal cancer cells. Also, we used a human phospho-antibody array containing 46 antibodies against signaling molecules to examine a subset of phosphorylation events after KRGE and sorafenib combination treatment. Korean red ginseng extract suppressed the proliferation of two RCC cell lines; activated caspase-3; caused poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage; abrogated the expression of B-cell lymphoma 2, B-cell lymphoma extra large, survivin, inhibitors of apoptosis proteins-1/2, cyclooxygenase-2, cyclin D1, matrix metallopeptidase-9, and vascular endothelial growth factor; and upregulated pro-apoptotic gene products. Interestingly, KRGE enhanced the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of sorafenib in RCC cells. The combination treatment of KRGE and sorafenib more clearly suppressed cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element-binding protein and c-Jun phosphorylation and induced phosphorylation of p53 than did the individual treatment regimen. Our results clearly demonstrate that KRGE can enhance the anticancer activity of sorafenib and may have a substantial potential in the treatment of RCC. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

It is crucial to predict water temperature for aquatic ecosystem studies and management. In this paper, we first address challenging issues in predicting water temperature in a real time manner and propose a distributed computing model to address such issues. Then, we present an Artificial Neural Network (ANN)-based water temperature prediction model developed for the Soyang River and a cyberinfrastructure system called WT-Agabus to run such prediction models in an automated and real time manner. The ANN model is designed to use only weather forecast data (air temperature and rainfall) that can be obtained by invoking the weather forecasting system at Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and therefore can facilitate the automated and real time water temperature prediction. This paper also demonstrates how easily and efficiently the real time prediction can be implemented with the WT-Agabus prototype system.

Delayed esophageal rupture due to blunt injury is not new. However, rupture due to suspected barotrauma is very rare. We describe a case of esophageal rupture in a male 24-year-old patient after diving in shallow waters. The patient was quadriplegic and could not experience the typical chest pain related to rupture and resulting mediasti nitis. The rupture was discovered 4 days after emergency decompressive laminectomy and fusion for his cervical spine. The rupture was evidently caused by barotrauma and was discovered four days after admission. He underwent primary closure and pericar dial flap as a life-saving procedure.