Search

In this paper, a new robust computational method that applies the geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD) in conjunction with the ray tracing (RT) technique is developed to evaluate the electromagnetic scattering pattern due to a plane wave represented as beam of parallel rays incident on a rough surface of quite arbitrary statistical parameters. The development of the proposed technique is explained in detail taking into consideration the generation of the geometrical model of the rough surface. The Fresnel reflection model is applied under the assumption of arbitrary electrical and optical properties of the rough surface material. Also the polarization of the plane wave primarily incident on the rough surface is taken into consideration. The algorithm developed in the present work accounts for multiple bounces of an incident ray and, hence, it can be considered arbitrary higher-order GTD-RT technique. The accuracy of the obtained results is verified through the comparison with the experimental measurements of the scattering pattern of a light beam incident on rough sheets with specific statistical properties. The numerical results of the present work are concerned with investigating the dependence of the scattering pattern on the surface roughness, refractive index, angle of incidence, and the resolution of the geometric model of the rough surface. Also, it is shown that, for limited resolution of the rough surface model, the accuracy of the calculated scattered field depends on the angle of incidence of the primary beam and the surface roughness.

The intraoral vertical ramus osteotomy (IVRO) is a useful technique for mandibular setback surgery. However, there is a tendency for lateral flaring of the proximal segments on the non-deviation side after the correction of mandibular asymmetry with this technique. The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the positional changes of the proximal segments after IVRO setback in skeletal class III patients with asymmetry, using preoperative and postoperative computed tomography scan data, and to apply the results in clinical practice. A total of 28 skeletal class III patients with asymmetry who underwent bimaxillary orthognathic surgery were included. A three-dimensional cone beam computed tomography scan was obtained preoperative, at 1month postoperative, and at 1year postoperative. At 1month after the surgery, the proximal segments showed an outward rotation, lateral flaring, and anterior rotation of the condylar head. All postsurgical directional changes had returned to the preoperative state at 1year postoperative, and there was no statistically significant difference in postoperative angulation changes between the two sides. The results showed no statistical differences in the positional changes of the proximal segments between the deviation and non-deviation sides. This study reaffirms the benefits of the IVRO for a minimal bony interference between the proximal and distal segments in three dimensions, including mandibular asymmetry cases.

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) was related to a 1.28 times higher risk of osteoporosis. In addition, osteoporosis was associated with a 1.34 times higher risk of BPPV. This bidirectional relation was maintained after adjusting past medical histories and lifestyle factors, including obesity, smoking, and alcohol consumption. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the reciprocal association between BPPV and osteoporosis. In subgroup analyses, only women showed a reciprocal association between BPPV and osteoporosis. A previous population cohort study suggested an association between osteoporosis and benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). This study aimed to investigate the bidirectional association between BPPV and osteoporosis. The Korean National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort data from 2002 to 2013 were used. In study I, the 50,897 osteoporosis patients were 1:1 matched with control I participants for age, sex, income, and region of residence. The previous histories of BPPV were analyzed in both groups using conditional logistic regression analysis. In study II, 9621 BPPV patients were 1:4 matched with control II participants. The previous histories of osteoporosis were analyzed in both groups using conditional logistic regression analysis. According to age and sex, subgroup analyses were achieved in both studies I and II. A total of 1.6% (822/50,897) of osteoporosis patients and 1.3% (644/50,897) of control I participants had BPPV. The osteoporosis patients demonstrated a 1.28 times higher chance of developing BPPV (95% confidence intervals [95% CI] = 1.16–1.42, P < 0.001). In study II, 21.2% (2040/9621) of BPPV patients and 17.6% (6790/38,484) of control II participants had osteoporosis. The BPPV patients showed 1.34 times higher chance of having osteoporosis (95% CI = 1.26–1.43, P < 0.001). In the analysis of the women subgroup, these relations were reliable. Osteoporosis patients had increased odds of having BPPV. On the other hand, BPPV patients had increased odds of having osteoporosis. This bidirectional relation was consistent only in the women subgroup.

Background Endosonography with needle aspiration (EBUS/EUS-NA) is recommended as the first choice for mediastinal nodal assessment in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It is important to maintain adequate negative predictive value of the procedure to avoid unnecessary additional surgical staging, but there are few studies on the influence of operator-related factors including competency on false negative results. This study aims to compare the false negative rate of individual operators and whether it changes according to accumulation of experience. Methods This is a retrospective study of NSCLC patients who were N0/N1 by EBUS/EUS-NA and confirmed by pathologic staging upon mediastinal lymph node dissection (n = 705). Patients were divided into a false negative group (finally confirmed as pN2/N3) and a true negative group (pN0/N1). False negative rates of six operators and whether these changed according to accumulated experience were analyzed. Results There were 111 (15.7%) false negative cases. False negative rates among six operators ranged from 8.3 to 21.4%; however, there were no statistical differences before and after adjustment for patient characteristics and procedure-related factors (P = 0.346 and P = 0.494, respectively). In addition, false negative rates did not change as each operator accumulated experience (P for trend = 0.632). Conclusions Our data suggest that there would be no difference in false negative rates regardless of which operator performs the procedure assuming that the operators have completed a certain period of observation and have performed procedures under the guidance of an expert.

Coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) is a collective effect that mainly occurs when the trajectory of an electron beam is bent in a dipole magnet. It affects the electron beam by distorting the phase space along its slice distribution, which leads to emittance growth. Therefore, CSR should be suppressed to transport electron beams without further degradation of the emittance. In linear optics, CSR-induced emittance can be suppressed by controlling the Twiss parameters along the electron-beam transfer line. However, owing to some physical constraints, transfer-line optics may be governed by higher-order terms in the transfer map, and the use of a sextupole magnet to suppress these terms would be very challenging for low-energy-spread and low-emittance beams. Therefore, without using a sextupole magnet, we estimate the region of the Twiss parameters where the first-order terms are dominant along the transfer line by introducing chromatic amplitude. In this region, we can apply the suppression condition that is valid in a linear matrix system. This minimization of the emittance growth becomes even more important when the electron-beam transfer line is used for external injection into a plasma wakefield because mismatched beam conditions could induce an additional increase in the emittance during the acceleration. In this paper, we discuss a method of emittance-growth minimization driven by the CSR effect along the transfer line, which is particularly used for electron-beam injection into plasma wakefields. In addition, using the particle-in-cell simulation, we investigate the evolution of electron beam parameters during the acceleration through plasma wakefields in the presence of the CSR effect on the electron beam. We confirm that the beam emittance growth is minimized when the CSR effect is properly controlled. Otherwise, it is found that 11%--32% emittance growths by the CSR effect along the transfer line lead to additional 20%--40% increase of the maximum slice emittance.

We study image segmentation from an information-theoretic perspective, proposing a novel adversarial method that performs unsupervised segmentation by partitioning images into maximally independent sets. More specifically, we group image pixels into foreground and background, with the goal of minimizing predictability of one set from the other. An easily computed loss drives a greedy search process to maximize inpainting error over these partitions. Our method does not involve training deep networks, is computationally cheap, class-agnostic, and even applicable in isolation to a single unlabeled image. Experiments demonstrate that it achieves a new state-of-the-art in unsupervised segmentation quality, while being substantially faster and more general than competing approaches., Comment: Published as a conference paper at CVPR 2021

Fairness in visual recognition is becoming a prominent and critical topic of discussion as recognition systems are deployed at scale in the real world. Models trained from data in which target labels are correlated with protected attributes (e.g., gender, race) are known to learn and exploit those correlations. In this work, we introduce a method for training accurate target classifiers while mitigating biases that stem from these correlations. We use GANs to generate realistic-looking images, and perturb these images in the underlying latent space to generate training data that is balanced for each protected attribute. We augment the original dataset with this perturbed generated data, and empirically demonstrate that target classifiers trained on the augmented dataset exhibit a number of both quantitative and qualitative benefits. We conduct a thorough evaluation across multiple target labels and protected attributes in the CelebA dataset, and provide an in-depth analysis and comparison to existing literature in the space., Comment: Accepted to CVPR 2021, code can be found at https://github.com/princetonvisualai/gan-debiasing

Both geometry and texture are fundamental aspects of visual style. Existing style transfer methods, however, primarily focus on texture, almost entirely ignoring geometry. We propose deformable style transfer (DST), an optimization-based approach that jointly stylizes the texture and geometry of a content image to better match a style image. Unlike previous geometry-aware stylization methods, our approach is neither restricted to a particular domain (such as human faces), nor does it require training sets of matching style/content pairs. We demonstrate our method on a diverse set of content and style images including portraits, animals, objects, scenes, and paintings. Code has been made publicly available at https://github.com/sunniesuhyoung/DST.

Background The Korean Organ Transplantation Registry (KOTRY) began to register lung transplants in 2015. This is an initial report on the status of patients receiving lung transplants over the past 2 years. Methods We analyzed a total of 69 patients who received lung transplants in 2015 and 2016 and who registered with the KOTRY. Results The 69 patients were treated in 5 institutions. The average (SD) donor age was 39.2 (12.6) years; there were 40 male patients. The average (SD) recipient age was 55.7 (10.0) years, and the number of male recipients was 46. A total of 66 patients underwent bilateral lung transplantation, 3 underwent single-lung transplantation, and 1 underwent simultaneous heart-lung transplantation. The most frequent indication for lung transplantation was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (35 patients), followed by connective tissue disease-related interstitial lung disease (9) and acute respiratory failure (8). Prior to transplantation, 23 patients required ventilator care, and 12 required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation while on the waiting list. Episodes of acute rejection during follow-up were reported in 4, 2, 1, and 1 patients at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, respectively. Infections requiring hospitalization were reported in 27, 10, 4, and 3 patients at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, respectively. Conclusion The establishment of KOTRY renders it possible to collect nationwide data on lung transplantation, improving research on the topic and clarifying clinical feasibility.

Study question Are the concentrations of five criteria air pollutants associated with probabilities of biochemical pregnancy loss and intrauterine pregnancy in women? Summary answer Increased concentrations of ambient particulate matter (PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO) during controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) and after embryo transfer were associated with a decreased probability of intrauterine pregnancy. What is known already Exposure to high ambient air pollution was suggested to be associated with low fertility and high early pregnancy loss in women. Study design, size, duration Using a retrospective cohort study design, we analysed 6621 cycles of 4581 patients who underwent one or more fresh IVF cycles at a fertility centre from January 2006 to December 2014, and lived in Seoul at the time of IVF treatment. Participants/materials, setting, methods To estimate patients' individual exposure to air pollution, we computed averages of hourly concentrations of five air pollutants including PM10, NO2, CO, sulphur dioxide (SO2) and ozone (O3) measured at 40 regulatory monitoring sites in Seoul for each of the four exposure periods: period 1 (start of COS to oocyte retrieval), period 2 (oocyte retrieval to embryo transfer), period 3 (embryo transfer to hCG test), and period 4 (start of COS to hCG test). Hazard ratios (HRs) from the time-varying Cox-proportional hazards model were used to estimate probabilities of biochemical pregnancy loss and intrauterine pregnancy for an interquartile range (IQR) increase in each air pollutant concentration during each period, after adjusting for individual characteristics. We tested the robustness of the result using generalised linear mixed model, accounting for within-woman correlation. Main results and the role of chance Mean age of the women was 35 years. Average BMI was 20.9 kg/m2 and the study population underwent 1.4 IVF cycles on average. Cumulative pregnancy rate in multiple IVF cycles was 51.3% per person. Survival analysis showed that air pollution during periods 1 and 3 was generally associated with IVF outcomes. Increased NO2 (adjusted HR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.87, 0.99) and CO (0.94, 95% CI: 0.89, 1.00) during period 1 were associated with decreased probability of intrauterine pregnancy. PM10 (0.92, 95% CI: 0.85, 0.99), NO2 (0.93, 95% CI = 0.86, 1.00) and CO (0.93, 95% CI: 0.87, 1.00) levels during period 3 were also inversely associated with intrauterine pregnancy. Both PM10 (1.17, 95% CI: 1.04 1.33) and NO2 (1.18, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.34) during period 3 showed positive associations with biochemical pregnancy loss. Limitations, reasons for caution The district-specific ambient air pollution treated as an individual exposure may not represent the actual level of each woman's exposure to air pollution. Smoking, working status, parity or gravidity of women, and semen analysis data were not included in the analysis. Wider implications of the findings This study provided evidence of an association between increased ambient concentrations of PM10, NO2 and CO and reduced probabilities for achieving intrauterine pregnancy using multiple IVF cycle data. Specifically, our results indicated that lower intrauterine pregnancy rates in IVF cycles may be linked to ambient air pollution during COS and the post-transfer period. Study funding/competing interest(s) This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2013 R1A6A3A04059017, 2016 R1D1A1B03933410 and 2018 R1A2B6004608) and the National Cancer Center of Korea (NCC-1810220-01). The authors report no conflicts of interest. Trial registration number N/A.

Made available in DSpace on 2019-09-12T16:57:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship The development of androgenetic alopecia is associated with a risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, but the association of alopecia areata with cardiovascular diseases in humans is largely unexplored. We measured the plasma level of two common cardiovascular disease markers, cardiac troponin I and Creactive protein, in alopecia areata and androgenetic alopecia-affected subjects. Also, we investigated the possible presence of pro-apoptotic factors in the plasma of hair loss subjects. The mean plasma cardiac troponin I level was highest in alopecia areata subjects, moderately higher in androgenetic alopecia subjects, and lowest in subjects without hair loss (p < 0.05). Alopecia areata subjects not receiving treatments had highest levels of cardiac troponin I (p < 0.05). Alopecia areata plasma samples with high cardiac troponin I levels also induced significantly higher rates of cardiomyocyte apoptosis in cell culture assays. The results suggest the potential for increased heart remodelling. Close monitoring of cardiovascular health in alopecia areata subjects, as well as subsets of androgenetic alopecia patients, may be appropriate. [Wang, Eddy Hsi Chun; Li, Xi Yuan; Tran, Annie; Kim, Sandra S. Y.; Woo, Katrina; McElwee, Kevin J.] Univ British Columbia, Dept Dermatol & Skin Sci, Vancouver, BC, Canada [Wang, Eddy Hsi Chun] Columbia Univ, Coll Phys & Surg, Dept Dermatol, New York, NY USA [Santos, Leopoldo; Shapiro, Jerry] Vancouver Gen Hosp, Dept Dermatol & Skin Sci, Vancouver, BC, Canada [Santos, Leopoldo] Universidade de Taubaté (Unitau), Hosp Universidade de Taubaté (Unitau) Dermatol [Shapiro, Jerry] NYU, Sch Med, Ronald O Perelman Dept Dermatol, New York, NY USA [McElwee, Kevin J.] Univ Bradford, Ctr Skin Sci, Bradford BD7 1DP, W Yorkshire, England

Setting Tertiary referral centre, Samsung Medical Center, South Korea. Objective To evaluate the pharmacokinetic parameters and toxicities of once-daily amikacin (AMK) dosing for lung disease due to Mycobacterium abscessus. Design A retrospective review of 48 patients with M. abscessus lung disease who received once-daily AMK for 4 weeks between January 2012 and June 2015. Results With a starting dose of 15 mg/kg/day and adjustment of AMK dose according to the peak serum level (Cmax), the Cmax target of 55-65 μg/ml was achieved in 31.3% (15/48) of patients in the first week, 68.8% (33/48) in week 2, 91.7% (44/48) in week 3 and 95.8% (46/48) in week 4. Transient nephrotoxicity developed in 6.3% (3/48) of patients and ototoxicity in 25.0% (6/24), which was determined by audiogram as hearing loss, asymptomatic in five patients and tinnitus in one. Multivariate analysis revealed that the highest drug concentration 12 h after administration was significantly associated with the development of toxicities (adjusted odds ratio 1.862, P = 0.047). Conclusion Our results suggest that once-daily AMK for 4 weeks with a target Cmax of 55-65 μg/ml can be used in patients with M. abscessus lung disease, with careful monitoring of toxicity.

The KIT inhibitor, imatinib, has shown promising efficacy in patients with KIT-mutated melanoma; however, acquisition of resistance to imatinib occurs rapidly in the majority of patients. The mechanisms of acquired resistance to imatinib in melanoma remain unclear. We analyzed biopsy samples from paired baseline and post-treatment tumor lesions in one patient with KIT-mutated melanoma who had had an initial objective tumor regression in response to imatinib treatment followed by disease progression 8 months later. Targeted deep sequencing from post-treatment biopsy samples detected an additional mutation in CTNNB1 (S33C) with original KIT L576P mutation. We examined the functional role of the additional CTNNB1 S33C mutation in resistance to imatinib indirectly using the Ba/F3 cell model. Ba/F3 cell lines transfected with both the L576P KIT mutation and the CTNNB1 S33C mutation demonstrated no growth inhibition despite imatinib treatment, whereas growth inhibition was observed in the Ba/F3 cell line transfected with the L576 KIT mutation alone. We report the first identification of the emergence of a CTNNB1 mutation that can confer acquired resistance to imatinib. Further investigation into the causes of acquired resistance to imatinib will be essential to improve the prognosis for patients with KIT-mutated melanoma.

As an instrument for Korea Multi-purpose Accelerator Complex (KOMAC) facility proton beam profiling, a vibrating wire monitor (VWM) has been installed and tested at TR23 target room. Experiments were done at very low (100 nA) beam current conditions. At the number of particles about 1011 proton/train and trains repetition rate of 0.1 Hz we have measured the beam profile by a few scanning steps. The experience accumulated in these experiments turned out to be useful for the VWM upgrades (e. g. understanding interactions of protons with wire materials and heat transfer processes) and will be particularly helpful for the KOMAC beam halo measurements in the future high-current operation.

Setting Citation analyses aid in assessing quality, trends and future directions of research fields. Objective To identify the most influential articles on infections caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) in the last 20 years. Design We performed a cited reference search of the Web of Science database from 1995 to 2015. The 100 most cited articles on NTM infections were analysed. Results The top 100 articles were cited 114-1471 times, and were published from 1995 to 2013. Sixty-five were laboratory-based, basic science articles, with the major topics being pathophysiology (n = 20) and molecular methods for NTM identification (n = 15). Among the 35 non-laboratory studies, major topics were clinical management (n = 15) and epidemiology (n = 14). The top article was a clinical treatise on the management of NTM disease, published in 2007. Although there was a correlation between article rank and journal impact factor (P = 0.043, ρ = -0.202), the five articles from the journals with highest impact factors did not rank among the top 10 articles. Conclusion A large proportion of influential articles on NTM infection are basic scientific studies, and the most influential articles are not always published in high-impact journals.

BACKGROUND: The MAP2K1 K57T mutation is known to be a potential mechanism of primary and secondary resistance to EGFR inhibitors in metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) and has also been reported to promote resistance to BRAF and MEK inhibitors. It is important to overcome therapeutic resistance to EGFR inhibitors to improve the treatment outcomes of metastatic CRC. METHODS: We established patient-derived tumor cells (PDCs) from metastatic lesions that newly appeared during treatment with a BRAF inhibitor (LGX-818) plus an EGFR inhibitor (cetuximab) in a patient with BRAF-mutant CRC. To investigate therapeutic options to overcome acquired resistance due to MAP2K1 mutation in BRAF-mutant CRC, we performed cell viability assays using the PDCs. RESULTS: We tested whether the PDCs were resistant to an EGFR inhibitor (cetuximab) and a BRAF inhibitor (sorafenib) as these cells were established at the time of resistance to the EGFR plus BRAF inhibitors. Moreover, the anti-tumor effect of AZD6244 (MEK inhibitor) was evaluated because PDCs harbored a MAP2K1 mutation at the time of resistance to the EGFR plus BRAF inhibitors. MTT proliferation assays showed that monotherapy with cetuximab, sorafenib, or AZD6244 did not suppress cell viability. We next tested viability of the PDCs to combination treatment with cetuximab plus AZD6244 and sorafenib plus AZD6244. Proliferation of PDCs was significantly inhibited by sorafenib and AZD6244, but not by cetuximab plus AZD6244. Investigation of the combined effect of sorafenib and AZD6244 using the calculated combination index (CI) showed synergistic effects of sorafenib and AZD6244 in combination therapy applied to PDCs with the MAP2K1 K57T mutation. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that combination treatment with BRAF and MEK inhibitors might be a novel treatment strategy for MAP2K1 K57T-mutant CRC. This finding will be helpful to guide treatment of patients with CRC that is resistant to EGFR inhibitors.

Demonstration of the electron acceleration through the proton beam-driven plasma wakefield has been successfully done by the AWAKE RUN 1 experiment. Moreover, next AWAKE experiment is scheduled. Main goal of the AWAKE RUN 2 experiment is to achieve the capturing efficiency and the energy gain over 90%, and 10 GeV. In order to accomplish the goal, beam size, and its length have to be less than 50 μm, and 100 fs rms, respectively. Since the conventional beamline cannot meet the AWAKE RUN 2 requirements, we are focusing on designing new type of the electron beamline. In this paper, we present simulation results of the beam size, and the bunch length along the new beamline.

Background Microaspiration past the tracheal tube cuffs causes ventilator-associated pneumonia. The objective of the current study was to evaluate whether creating negative pressure between the tracheal double cuffs could block the fluid passage past the tracheal tube cuffs. Methods A new negative pressure system was devised between the double cuffs through a suction hole in the intercuff space. Blue-dyed water was instilled above the cuff at negative suction pressures of − 54, − 68, − 82, − 95, − 109, − 122, and − 136 cmH2O, and the volume leaked was measured in an underlying water trap after 10 min. Leakage tests were also performed during positive pressure ventilation, and using higher-viscosity materials. The actual negative pressures delivered at the hole of double cuffs were obtained by placing microcatheter tip between the intercuff space and the artificial trachea. Results No leakage occurred past the double cuff at − 136 cmH2O suction pressure at all tracheal tube cuff pressures. The volume leaked decreased significantly as suction pressure increased. When connected to a mechanical ventilator, no leakage was found at − 54 cmH2suction pressure. Volume of the higher-viscosity materials (dynamic viscosity of 63–108 cP and 370–430 cP) leaked was small compared to that of normal saline (0.9–1.1 cP). The pressures measured in the intercuff space corresponded to 3.8–5.9% of those applied. Conclusions A new prototype double cuff with negative pressure in the intercuff space completely prevented water leakage. The negative pressure transmitted to the tracheal inner wall was a small percentage of that applied.

In this paper, our development results have been described in detail for HVDC XLPE cable system for various voltage ratings; insulation material at laboratory, miniature cable for the evaluation of characteristics and finally the design of full scaled power cable system including necessary joints. In the anticipation of the global market growth in near future, it has been inspired to provide the diversity of our products. For this purpose, we started with developing ±80kV cable system in 2010 and LCC/VSC type full scaled cables have been developed for those four operating voltages such as ±80kV, ±150kV, ±250kV and ±320kV. The space charge measurement system has been constructed and the space charge in ±525kV full size cable has been successfully measured for the first time in Korea. Furthermore, the development of ±525kV for both types has been now undergoing and would require a couple of years more.

OBJECTIVES Resveratryl triglycolate (RTG) is a hybrid compound derived by the esterification of resveratrol with glycolic acid. This compound has been previously shown to inhibit cellular melanin synthesis in vitro. This study aimed to examine the in vivo skin-depigmenting efficacy of RTG in human participants. METHODS In total, 22 women aged between 25 and 49 years with Fitzpatrick skin type III or IV were enrolled. Their forearms were exposed to UV to induce artificial pigmentation. The test product containing 0.4% RTG or the control product was applied twice daily for up to 8 weeks after the artificial pigmentation. The participants visited the research centre every 2 weeks and were subjected to skin assessments. RESULTS Visual assessment of pigmentation degree and instrumental analysis of melanin index, skin lightness (L* value) and skin colour (individual typology angle, ITAo ) indicated enhanced depigmentation of the skin in the test group, compared with the control group, in Weeks 6 and 8 (P < 0.05). No adverse skin reactions were observed in any of the participants during the entire test. CONCLUSION This study demonstrated the skin-depigmenting effects of RTG in human participants.

In this report we describe an 82-year female with a longstanding anxiety disorder who developed severe psychogenic dysphagia, leading to hospitalization due to failure to thrive. We describe for the first time the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to successfully manage a patient with pharmacological treatment resistant psychogenic dysphagia.

Background Glenoid component fixation with an inferior tilt has been suggested to decrease scapular notching, but this remains controversial. We aimed here to evaluate the effect of glenoid component inferior tilt in reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) on micromotion and loss of fixation of the glenoid component by biomechanical testing. Hypothesis Increased inferior reaming of the glenoid for inferiorly tilted implantation of the glenoid component will decrease glenoid bone stock and compromise the fixation of RSA. Materials and methods The micromotions of the glenoid components attached to 14 scapulae from fresh frozen cadavers were measured and compared between neutral and 10° inferior tilts in 0.7- and 1-body weight cyclic loading tests using digital-image analysis. The incidence of bone breakage or loss of fixation was assessed in the 1-body weight fatigue-loading test. Results Micromotion was higher with a 10° inferior tilt than with a neutral tilt during both the 0.7-body weight (36 ± 11 μm vs. 22 ± 5 μm; P = 0.028) and 1-body weight (44 ± 16 μm vs. 28 ± 9 μm; P = 0.045) cyclic loading. The incidence of bone breakage or loss of fixation was 17% and 60% with a neutral and 10° inferior tilt, respectively. Discussion Glenoid component inferior tilt fixation in RSA may reduce primary stability and increase mechanical failure of the glenoid component, thereby reducing longevity of the prosthesis. Accordingly, we recommend careful placement of the glenoid component when an inferior tilt is used. Level of evidence Level III, Basic Science Study.

Detection of tracks produced by α particles, protons or nuclear fission fragments in plastic detectors, viz., solid-state nuclear track detectors, constitutes a very important tool in various areas. It is not easy for humans to count CR-39 nuclear tracks manually, especially when the track density is very high. An automated computer program called KTTMS2, written in C++ and running with a user friendly interface, has been developed for recognition and parametric measurements of etched tracks in images captured from the surface of solid-state nuclear track detectors. Well-known edge detection methods were applied to estimate the precision and accuracy of nuclear track densitometry using the CR-39 detector. Among the various routine edge detection methods, the Canny method was chosen because it was the most accurate technique. Because accuracy becomes more important as the track density increases, this allows more overlapping tracks to be detected. KTTMS2 (the proposed system) has an efficiency of 95% and can identify the noise as a background track (5%). Experimental results showed that the error percentage was reduced from 7.63% to 3.23% for high-density tracks when the count was adjusted by the estimated overlapping tracks.

Introduction The discrepancy rates of drug susceptibility testing (DST) results between solid and liquid media have been reported to range from 2.4 to 7.4% for isoniazid. Most isolate with isoniazid DST discrepancies between solid and liquid media test as susceptible on solid medium and resistant in liquid medium, however, the optimal management of patients with discordant testing is unknown. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of treatment regimen on treatment outcomes when patients with rifampicin-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis have isoniazid resistance (INH-R) in liquid medium but isoniazid susceptibility (INH-S) on solid medium. Method This study was retrospectively conducted by reviewing patient medical records on the liquid compared to solid culture based phenotypic testing at Samsung Medical Center between January 2009 and December 2015. The study population which have INH-R in liquid medium and INH-S on solid medium was divided into two groups: group A (n = 30), which included patients treated for INH-S tuberculosis by discontinuing pyrazinamide (and ethambutol), and group B (n = 56), which included patients treated for INH-R tuberculosis by continuing pyrazinamide and/or adding fluoroquinolone. Unfavorable outcomes included treatment failure and relapse. Results There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups including demographic data, comorbidities, radiologic data, and treatment duration. However, baseline smear positive rates were more frequent in group A (19/30, 63.3%) than in group B (22/56, 39.3%; P = 0.033). Only three patients had unfavorable outcomes; one was bacteriologically proven treatment failure and the other two were clinically judged as unfavorable outcomes. All of them were in the group A (3/30, 10%); no unfavorable outcomes occurred in the group B (0/56, 0%; P = 0.040). Conclusions Unfavorable outcomes were less frequent in the group B than in the group A, indicating that treatment regimen modification according to DST results on liquid medium could improve treatment outcomes in patients with rifampicin-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis. Further studies are required to confirm these findings to overcome the small number of unfavorable outcomes.

Background: Spinal muscular atrophy is an autosomal recessive neuromuscular disorder that is caused by an insufficient level of survival motor neuron (SMN) protein. Nusinersen is an antisense oligonucleotide drug that modifies pre–messenger RNA splicing of the SMN2 gene and thus promotes increased production of full-length SMN protein. Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled, phase 3 efficacy and safety trial of nusinersen in infants with spinal muscular atrophy. The primary end points were a motor-milestone response (defined according to results on the Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination) and event-free survival (time to death or the use of permanent assisted ventilation). Secondary end points included overall survival and subgroup analyses of event-free survival according to disease duration at screening. Only the first primary end point was tested in a prespecified interim analysis. To control the overall type I error rate at 0.05, a hierarchical testing strategy was used for the second primary end point and the secondary end points in the final analysis. Results: In the interim analysis, a significantly higher percentage of infants in the nusinersen group than in the control group had a motor-milestone response (21 of 51 infants [41%] vs. 0 of 27 [0%], P Conclusions: Among infants with spinal muscular atrophy, those who received nusinersen were more likely to be alive and have improvements in motor function than those in the control group. Early treatment may be necessary to maximize the benefit of the drug.

Background Little information is available regarding vitamin D-associated factors in patients with non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) lung disease. Objective To determine the association between vitamin D-related factors and susceptibility to NTM lung disease. Design The relative gene expression levels of cathelicidin (CAMP), defensin (DEFB4), vitamin D receptor (VDR) and 1-hydroxylase (CYP27B1), as well as the serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D), cathelicidin (LL-37), defensin (hBD-2) and vitamin D-binding protein (DBP) from 82 patients with NTM lung disease and 28 control subjects were analysed. Results Gene expression of CAMP and DEFB4 was significantly higher, and gene expression of VDR and CYP27B1 was significantly lower, in NTM patients than controls. Serum LL-37 and hBD-2 levels were not significantly different between NTM patients and controls; however, the serum DBP level was higher in NTM patients than controls. The serum vitamin D status of patients did not correlate with serum LL-37, hBD-2, or DBP concentration or gene expression of CAMP, DEFB4, VDR or CYP27B1. Conclusion A higher level of gene expression for antimicrobial peptide is more likely to be associated with NTM lung disease than serum vitamin D status.

Background Histone acetylation plays an important role in regulating the chromatin structure and is tightly regulated by histone acetyltransferases (HAT) and histone deacetylases (HDAC). Recent studies have demonstrated that several chromatin-regulating proteins can modulate cellular responses to other cytotoxic modalities including ionizing radiation and chemotherapeutic drugs. Even though histone acetylation is one of the key mechanisms of epigenetic regulation, relatively little is known about the cancer therapeutic potential of HAT inhibitors. This is in stark contrast to the well-studied effects of HDAC inhibitors. In this study, we investigated the proton beam-sensitizing effect of C646, a selective small molecule inhibitor of p300 histone acetyltransferase in human pancreatic cancer cells. Methods Cell viability assay (CCK-8; Dojindo), Clonogenic survival assay, Cell cycle analysis (PI staining). Annexin V-FITC and PI staining, γ-H2AX foci, Western blot, BxPC-3 Xenograft tumor model, TUNEL assay. Results AsPC-1, BxPC-3 and Mia-paca2 cells exhibited increase in radiosensitivity when exposed to C646 at all doses of proton beam tested. C646 pre-treatment induce led to increase of sub-G1 population and abolishment of G2/M arrest. Flow cytometry analysis with annexin V staining and Western blot analysis showed that The pre-treatment with C646 significantly enhanced proton-induced apoptotic cell death through the down-regulation of anti-apoptotic molecules. Our in vivo results demonstrate synergistic effects of combination therapy with C646 and proton beam. In BxPC-3 xenograft tumor model, C646 pre-treatment increased proton-induced tumor growth inhibition and apoptotic cell death in tumor tissues. In addition, the combination treatment of C646 with proton beam increased DNA damage and decreased activation of DNA repair pathway compared with proton alone. Conclusions Our results suggest that the C646 may increase proton- induced apoptosis through the modulation of various pro- and anti- apoptotic molecules in human pancreatic cancer cells. These results provide proof of principle that the inhibition of histone acetylation by HATis can be exploited to develop new proton-sensitizer. Legal entity responsible for the study The authors. Funding National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). Disclosure All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

Background Although recent advances in high-throughput technology have provided many insights into gastric cancer (GC), few reliable biomarkers for handling diffuse type GC are identified. Here, we aim to identify a prognostic and predictive signature predicting heterogeneous clinical courses of diffuse type GC. Table: 155P . Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis of overall survival in diffuse type gastric cancer Variables Univariate Multivariate n HR (95% CI) P-value n HR (95% CI) P-value Age 402 1.013 (1.001 - 1.025) 0.037 402 1.02 (1.007 - 1.032) 0.003 Gender (Male or Female) 402 1.074 (0.805 - 1.433) 0.625 AJCC Stage (I, II, III or IV) 402 2.516 (2.088 - 3.032) 2.67 (2.204 - 3.235) Tumour site (cardia, body, antrum or whole) 402 0.985 (0.777 - 1.248) 0.9 COD-signature (INT or COD subtypes) 402 1.675 (1.257 - 2.234) 2.058 (1.53 - 2.766) Abbreviations: HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval; INT, intestinal-like; COD, core diffuse type. Methods We analysed RNA-seq based transcriptome data to identify a molecular signature in 150 gastric tissue samples including 107 diffuse type GCs. The predictive value of the signature was verified using other diffuse type GCs in three independent cohorts (n = 466). Various statistical methods, including log-rank and Cox regression analyses, were used to estimate an association between the signature and prognosis. The signature was also characterized by somatic variant assessments and tissue microarray analysis between diffuse type GC subtypes. Results Transcriptomic profiling revealed two distinct subtypes of diffuse type GC including intestinal-like (INT) and core diffuse type (COD) subgroups. We generated a signature, namely COD-signature, reflecting the best characteristics of subtypes. When estimating prognostic value in other cohorts, COD-signature showed a strong predictability and an independent clinical utility in diffuse type GC prognosis (hazard ratio = 2.058, 95% confidence interval = 1.53-2.77, P Conclusions The COD-signature represents a promising diagnostic tool for the identification of diffuse type GC patients who would display different clinical behaviours as well as response to chemotherapy or ICI treatment. Legal entity responsible for the study Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology Chungnam National University, College of Medicine Seoul National University, Faculty of Medicine. Funding Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology. Disclosure All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

Background Endosonography with needle aspiration (EBUS/EUS-NA) is recommended as the first choice for mediastinal nodal assessment in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It is important to maintain adequate negative predictive value of the procedure to avoid unnecessary additional surgical staging, but there are few studies on the influence of operator-related factors including competency on false negative results. This study aims to compare the false negative rate of individual operators and whether it changes according to accumulation of experience. Methods This is a retrospective study of NSCLC patients who were N0/N1 by EBUS/EUS-NA and confirmed by pathologic staging upon mediastinal lymph node dissection (n = 705). Patients were divided into a false negative group (finally confirmed as pN2/N3) and a true negative group (pN0/N1). False negative rates of six operators and whether these changed according to accumulated experience were analyzed. Results There were 111 (15.7%) false negative cases. False negative rates among six operators ranged from 8.3 to 21.4%; however, there were no statistical differences before and after adjustment for patient characteristics and procedure-related factors (P = 0.346 and P = 0.494, respectively). In addition, false negative rates did not change as each operator accumulated experience (P for trend = 0.632). Conclusions Our data suggest that there would be no difference in false negative rates regardless of which operator performs the procedure assuming that the operators have completed a certain period of observation and have performed procedures under the guidance of an expert. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12890-018-0774-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background: S-1 is an oral fluoropyrimidine that mimics infusional 5-fluorouracil. The aim of this phase II trial was to explore the clinical efficacy of the triplet regimen TIROX, which consists of S-1, irinotecan and oxaliplatin. Methods: Forty-two chemo-naive patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) were planned to be enrolled and be treated with irinotecan 150 mg m−2 followed by oxaliplatin 85 mg m−2 on day 1 and S-1 80 mg m−2 per day from day 1 to 14 every 3 weeks. Polymorphisms in the UGT1A1, UGT1A6, UGT1A7 and CYP2A6 genes were analysed. Results: Between July 2007 and February 2008, 43 patients were enrolled. An objective response was noted in 29 patients (67.4%, 95% confidence interval: 53.4–81.4), of which 2 achieved durable complete responses. The median progression-free survival was 10.0 months and the median overall survival was 19.2 months. Significant grade 3 or 4 adverse events were neutropenia (45.2%), febrile neutropenia (9.5%), diarrhoea (7.1%) and vomiting (9.5%). Increased gastrointestinal toxicities were associated with the presence of UGT1A6*2 or UGT1A7*3 and an improved tumour response was noted in those without variant alleles of CYP2A6 or UGT1A1*60. Conclusion: The combination of S-1, irinotecan and oxaliplatin showed favourable efficacy and tolerability in untreated patients with mCRC.

Poster presentada en el 50th ERA-EDTA Congress (European Renal Association - European Dialysis Transplant Association), celebrado del 18 al 21 de mayo de 2013 en Estambul (Turquia)

BACKGROUND Variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) loci were recently identified in Japanese isolates of Mycobacterium intracellulare. We hypothesised that some mycobacterial genotypes are more virulent than others, resulting in particular genotypes being associated with disease phenotype and progression. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the VNTR loci of M. intracellulare in clinical isolates from Korean patients, and investigate the association between mycobacterial genotype and disease phenotype and progression. DESIGN In total, 70 M. intracellulare clinical isolates were genotyped using 16 M. intracellulare VNTR loci. RESULTS VNTR typing showed strong discriminatory power and genetic diversity for molecular epidemiological studies of M. intracellulare. In a phylogenetic tree, the M. intracellulare clinical isolates were divided into two clusters (A and B). Cluster A was observed more frequently (77%) than Cluster B; however, there was no association between the clinical characteristics, disease progression, drug susceptibility and clusters based on VNTR genotyping. CONCLUSIONS VNTR typing could be used for epidemiological studies of M. intracellulare lung disease; however, no association was found between the specific VNTR genotypes of M. intracellulare and the clinical characteristics of Korean patients.

Setting A recent study in Japan found that mycobacterial genotyping was associated with disease progression and susceptibility to certain drugs in Mycobacterium avium lung disease. However, it is not known whether this association is true in other populations. Objective To investigate the association between mycobacterial genotype, clinical characteristics and the progression of M. avium lung disease in Korean patients. Design A total of 102 M. avium clinical isolates were genotyped using M. avium tandem repeats-variable number of tandem repeats (MATR-VNTR). Results MATR-VNTR typing demonstrated a high discriminatory power and genetic diversity for molecular epidemiological studies of M. avium. In the phylogenetic tree, the M. avium clinical isolates were divided into three major clusters: A, B and C. Cluster A was observed most frequently (64/102, 63%), whereas cluster C was found in a minor proportion of the isolates (8/102, 8%). However, there was no association between the clinical characteristics, disease progression and drug susceptibility and the phylogenetic tree based on VNTR genotyping. Conclusions MATR-VNTR genotyping may be useful for epidemiological studies of M. avium lung disease; however, no association was found between the specific VNTR genotypes of M. avium and the clinical characteristics of Korean patients.

The identification of patients who are at high risk for irinotecan-related severe diarrhea and neutropenia is clinically important. We conducted the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) to search for novel susceptibility genes for irinotecan-related severe toxicities, such as diarrhea and neutropenia, in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with irinotecan chemotherapy. The GWAS putatively identified 49 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with grade 3 diarrhea (G3D) and 32 SNPs associated with grade 4 neutropenia (G4N). In the replication series, the SNPs rs1517114 (C8orf34), rs1661167 (FLJ41856) and rs2745761 (PLCB1) were confirmed as being associated with G3D, whereas rs11128347 (PDZRN3) and rs11979430 and rs7779029 (SEMAC3) were confirmed as being associated with G4N. The final imputation analysis of our GWAS and replication study showed significant overlaps of association signals within these novel variants. This GWAS screen, along with subsequent validation and imputation analysis, identified novel SNPs associated with irinotecan-related severe toxicities.

Ectopic pregnancy occurring in the same region is a comparatively rare disease, but sometimes it is very serious to patients if it is delayed. The authors present a case of spontaneous ectopic pregnancy occurring in the ipsilateral salpingectomy stump of a previous adnexectomy that was successfully removed via laparoscopic surgery without complication. This case may support the idea of intrauterine transmigration of a fertilized egg as an etiology of spontaneous ectopic pregnancy. Thus, the potential for ectopic pregnancy in the tubal remnant in cases of previous salpingectomy or adnexectomy needs to be carefully considered.

We report the performance of 745-nm laser diodes (LDs) utilizing InP/InGaP quantum structures (quantum dots + quantum dashes) grown by using migration-enhanced epitaxy method. The photoluminescence of the LD structures before the fabrication of the LDs shows two peaks, around 800 nm and 750 nm, attributed to quantum dots and dashes, respectively. The lasing wavelength is thought to the result from quantum dashes instead of ground states of QDs. The pulse optical power of the LD is above 600 mW at room temperature.

Please cite this paper as: Kim S-Y, Park H-J, Lee H, Lee H. Acupuncture for premenstrual syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BJOG 2011;118:899–915. Background Although acupuncture is widely applied in obstetrics and gynaecology, evidence for its efficacy in treating premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is equivocal. Objective To summarise and evaluate the current evidence for acupuncture as a treatment for PMS. Search strategy Ten databases were searched electronically, and relevant reviews were searched by hand through June 2009. Selection criteria Our review included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of women with PMS; these RCTs compared acupuncture with sham acupuncture, medication, or no treatment. Data collection and analysis Study outcomes were presented as mean differences (for continuous data) or risk ratios (RRs) (for dichotomous data) with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI). The risk of bias was assessed using the assessment tool from the Cochrane Handbook. Main results Ten RCTs were included in our review. The pooled results demonstrated that acupuncture is superior to all controls (eight trials, pooled RR 1.55, 95% CI 1.33–1.80, P

In this paper, screen-printing laser grooved buried contact (LGBC) method was applied, which is compatible with the existing screen-printed solar cell equipment and facilities. Experiments were performed in order to optimize short circuit current (I(sc)), open circuit voltage (V(oc)) and fill factor of high efficiency solar cells. To enhance I(sc), V(oc) and efficiency, heavy doping was performed at low sheet resistance in the laser grooved region of the cell. In contrast, light doping was carried out at a high sheet resistance in the non-laser grooved region. To increase fill factor, porous silicon found on the wafer after dipping in an HF solution to remove SiN(x), was cleared. The fabricated screen-printing LGBC solar cell using a 125 mm x 125 mm single crystalline silicon wafer exhibited an efficiency of 17.2%. The results show that screen-printing LGBC method can be applied for high efficiency solar cells.