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Background: Nitrous oxide (N2O) is used in surgery and dentistry for its anesthetic and analgesic effects. However, neurological and psychiatric manifestations of N2O abuse have been increasingly reported among Korean adults. The aim of this study was to demonstrate laboratory findings of N2O abuse in Korean patients.Methods: Patients diagnosed with N2O-induced neuropathy or myelopathy from August 2018 to December 2019 were enrolled. Their clinical presentations and laboratory and imaging findings were analyzed.Results: Sensory changes and limb weakness were present in nine of the enrolled patients. The laboratory findings revealed that seven patients had high homocysteine levels and five had high methylmalonic acid levels in their blood. Nerve conductions studies indicated that axonal neuropathy was present in four cases and longer F-wave and Hoffman’s-reflex latencies were present in two cases. Signal changes in cervical spine imaging occurred in five patients, while two had normal results.Conclusions: Chronic N2O abuse can cause neurological damage or psychiatric problems. Because N2O is illegal for recreational use in Korea, patients tend to hide their history of use. Even though the spinal imaging results were normal, clinicians should consider the possibility of N2O use, and further electrophysiological tests should be applied for precise evaluations.

Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, has emerged as a major global public health challenge. However, the complexity of AD in its biological, genetic, and clinical aspects has hindered the development of effective therapeutic agents. Research plans that integrate new drug discoveries are urgently needed, including those based on novel and reliable biomarkers that reflect not only clinical phenotype, but also genetic and neuroimaging information. Therapeutic strategies such as stratification (i.e., subgrouping of patients having similar clinical characteristics or genetic background) and personalized medicine could be set as new directions for developing effective drugs for AD. In this review, we describe a therapeutic strategy that is based on immune-inflammation modulation for a subgroup of AD and related dementias, arguing that the use of stratification and personalized medicine is a promising way to achieve targeted medicine. The Korean AD Research Platform Initiative based on Immune-Inflammatory biomarkers (K-ARPI) has recently launched a strategy to develop novel biomarkers to identify a subpopulation of patients with AD and to develop new drug candidates for delaying the progression of AD by modulating toxic immune inflammatory response. Sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1) and its metabolites, triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-2 (TREM2) related signals, and actin motility related proteins including Nck-associated protein 1 (Nap1) were selected as promising targets to modulate neuroinflammation. Their roles in stratification and personalized medicine will be discussed.

The gut microbiota has been suggested as an important factor in the pathogenic mechanisms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This study aimed to investigate whether the intake of different kinds of dietary fiber was related to the disease progression rate (∆FS) and survival time. In total, 272 Korean sporadic ALS patients diagnosed according to the revised EI Escorial criteria were recruited starting in March 2011 and were followed until the occurrence of events or the end of September 2020. The events included percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, tracheostomy, and death. Dietary fiber intake was calculated based on a 24-h dietary recall and classified according to five major fiber-rich foods: vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, and nuts/seeds. Among the total participants, the group with ∆FS values lower than the mean ∆FS (0.75) was noted in the highest tertiles of total and vegetable fiber intake. Participants in the highest tertile for vegetable fiber intake showed longer survival in the Kaplan&ndash, Meier analysis (p = 0.033). Notably, vegetable fiber intake was negatively correlated with pro-inflammatory cytokine (interleukin (IL)-1&beta, IL-6, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1) levels in the cerebrospinal fluid. This study showed that vegetable fiber intake could influence the disease progression rate and survival time. Further clinical trials are needed to confirm whether dietary fiber supplementation improves the prognosis of ALS.

The gut microbiota has been suggested as an important factor in the pathogenic mechanisms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This study aimed to investigate whether the intake of different kinds of dietary fiber was related to the disease progression rate (∆FS) and survival time. In total, 272 sporadic ALS patients diagnosed according to the revised EI Escorial criteria were recruited from March 2011 and were followed-up until the occurrence of events or the end of September 2020. The events included percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, tracheostomy, and death. Dietary fiber intake was calculated based on a 24-hour dietary recall and classified according to five major fiber-rich foods: vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, and nuts/seeds. Among the total participants, the group with ∆FS values lower than the mean ∆FS (0.75) was noted in the highest tertiles of total and vegetable fiber intake. Participants with the highest tertile of vegetable fiber intake showed longer survival in the Kaplan–Meier analysis (p = 0.033). Notably, vegetable fiber intake was negatively correlated with pro-inflammatory cytokine (interleukin [IL]-1β, IL-6, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1) levels in the cerebrospinal fluid. This study showed that vegetable fiber intake could influence the disease progression rate and survival time. Further clinical trials are needed to confirm whether dietary fiber supplementation improves the prognosis of ALS.

OBJECTIVES: The gut microbiota has been suggested to associate with the pathophysiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and thus prebiotic effect of fiber could play an important role on pathophysiology of ALS. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of dietary fiber intake on the disease progression rate (∆FS) and survival time among Korean ALS patients. METHODS: A total of 272 Korean sporadic ALS patients diagnosed according to the revised EI Escorial criteria were recruited during 2011–2019, and were followed until the occurrence of events or the end of September 2020. The events were defined as percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, tracheostomy, or death. Intake of dietary fibers was calculated based on 24-hour dietary recall, and divided into five major fiber-rich foods: vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, and nuts/seeds. RESULTS: There were higher proportion of participants with lower than the mean value of ∆FS (0.75) in the highest tertile of total fiber and vegetable fiber intake than those in the lowest tertile. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that participants in the highest tertile for vegetable fiber intake had longer survival. Cox regression analysis showed that intake of vegetable fiber was negatively associated with risk for events after adjustment. Notably, vegetable fiber intake was negatively correlated with pro-inflammatory cytokine such as interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in the cerebrospinal fluid. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, this study showed that vegetable fiber intake was negatively associated to the ∆FS and shorter survival time, suggesting that vegetable fiber intake could influence the prognosis of ALS. Further clinical trials are needed to confirm whether supplementation of dietary fiber improves the prognosis in ALS. FUNDING SOURCES: This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT).

Electric Vehicles (EV) are developed for resolving the environmental problems and out of the fossil fuels. But the charging time of EV is very long. So, EV with battery swapping system (EVBS) is developed to solve this problem. But EVBS is not used widely because it not tested and certified according to the method of durability in couplers. So, this study shows the way to test it and the real couplers were tested by the method that was defined in this study.

An advanced tangential X-ray pinhole camera (TXPC) has been developed for KSTAR by utilizing a 2-D duplex multi-wire proportional counter (MWPC) detector. The KSTAR MWPC employs a 2-D parallel type readout system for high temporal resolution and adopts a duplex type for the capability of electron temperature measurement via the multi-color method. This paper presents the performance test result of the developed MWPC system utilizing a Fe-55 X-ray source. As a preliminary experimental result from the 2012 KSTAR campaign, the clear presentation of sawtooth activities and its frequency change, and 2-D plasma images during the vertical disruption event are given.

Bluetooth (BT) is a wireless technology which is used for reduces cable in network. BT is developed for the legal term of companies for an open specification for connection of wireless in short range. BT technology requires low power; low costs and easily interfaces with exiting device. That is the reason BT can easily be hack or crack. Therefore, security is the measure problem with this technology. In this article we have suggested a novel security algorithm for establishing shared link key between pico-nets, and scatter net communication. It is capable of authenticating scatter nets peers that are not directly connected with node. For secure transmission of packets among pico-nets and scatter nets will be devised. In addition, obfuscation technique affects the performance of the code as it may change the whole layout of the program structure. In this paper we have shared a key in each data packet transmission of dynamic encryption for Bluetooth technology.

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) is a type of mobile ad-hoc networks. In WMNs, all nodes are static or related with fixed position. WMNs are using Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol (HWMP), which provide centralized root and tree based proactive routing protocol. In this paper, we propose a decentralize root and non-tree based HWMP for IEEE802.11s as well as compared with existing system.

This paper deals with modeling and characteristic analysis of a large powered electric ship propulsion system. Particularly, electric power system modeling has been accomplished in accordance with the electric power network mainly composed of generators, switchboards, variable frequency devices, electric motors, and etc. In addition, electric power system analysis has been performed via load flow analysis. In particular, abnormal operating condition of the short circuited network is thoroughly investigated for estimating the short circuited current with the short time rating and implementing the system safety with the protection relay(IEEE Std. 141–1993).

In 2003, Boyd et al. have proposed two deniable authenticated key establishment protocols for Internet key exchange (IKE). However, both schemes have been broken by Chou et al. in 2005 due to their susceptibility to key-compromise impersonation (KCI) attack. In this paper, we put forward the improved variants of both Boyd et al.'s schemes in order to defeat the KCI attack. On top of justifying our improvements, we further present a detailed security analysis to ensure that the desired security attributes: deniability and authenticity remain preserved.