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Background: To develop a breast cancer prediction model for Korean women using published polygenic risk scores (PRS) combined with nongenetic risk factors (NGRF)., Methods: Thirteen PRS models generated from single or multiple combinations of the Asian and European PRSs were evaluated among 20,434 Korean women. The AUC and increase in OR per SD were compared for each PRS. The PRSs with the highest predictive power were combined with NGRFs; then, an integrated prediction model was established using the Individualized Coherent Absolute Risk Estimation (iCARE) tool. The absolute breast cancer risk was stratified for 18,142 women with available follow-up data., Results: PRS38_ASN+PRS190_EB, a combination of Asian and European PRSs, had the highest AUC (0.621) among PRSs, with an OR per SD increase of 1.45 (95% confidence interval: 1.31-1.61). Compared with the average risk group (35%-65%), women in the top 5% had a 2.5-fold higher risk of breast cancer. Incorporating NGRFs yielded a modest increase in the AUC of women ages >50 years. For PRS38_ASN+PRS190_EB+NGRF, the average absolute risk was 5.06%. The lifetime absolute risk at age 80 years for women in the top 5% was 9.93%, whereas that of women in the lowest 5% was 2.22%. Women at higher risks were more sensitive to NGRF incorporation., Conclusions: Combined Asian and European PRSs were predictive of breast cancer in Korean women. Our findings support the use of these models for personalized screening and prevention of breast cancer., Impact: Our study provides insights into genetic susceptibility and NGRFs for predicting breast cancer in Korean women., (©2023 The Authors; Published by the American Association for Cancer Research.)

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) can increase the proliferation of infected cells during HPV-driven abnormalities, such as cervical cancer or benign warts. To date, more than 200 HPV genotypes have been identified, most of which are classified into three major genera: Alphapapillomavirus, Betapapillomavirus, and Gammapapillomavirus. HPV genomes commonly encode two structural (L1 and L2) and seven functional (E1, E2, E4-E7, and E8) proteins. L2, the minor structural protein of HPVs, not only serves as a viral capsid component but also interacts with various human proteins during viral infection. A recent report revealed that L2 of HPV16 recruits polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1), a master regulator of eukaryotic mitosis and cell cycle progression, for the delivery of viral DNA to mitotic chromatin during HPV16 infection. In this study, we verified the direct and potent interactions between the polo-box domain (PBD) of Plk1 and PBD-binding motif (S-S-pT-P)-containing phosphopeptides derived from L2 of HPV16/HPV18 (high-risk alphapapillomaviruses), HPV5b (low-risk betapapillomavirus), and HPV4 (low-risk gammapapillomavirus). Subsequent structural determination of the Plk1 PBD bound to the HPV18 or HPV4 L2-derived phosphopeptide demonstrated that they interact with each other in a canonical manner, in which electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonds play key roles in sustaining the complex. Therefore, our structural and biochemical data imply that Plk1 is a broad binding target of L2 of various HPV genotypes belonging to the Alpha-, Beta-, and Gammapapillomavirus genera., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Microbiological Society of Korea.)

The 5' untranslated regions (UTRs) in messenger RNAs (mRNAs) play an important role in the regulation of protein synthesis. We had previously identified a group of mRNAs that includes human semaphorin 7A (SEMA7A) whose translation is upregulated by the Erk/p90S6K pathway in human eosinophils, with a potential negative impact in asthma and airway inflammation. In the current study, we aimed to find a common 5'UTR regulatory cis-element, and determine its impact on protein synthesis. We identified a common and conserved 5'UTR motif GGCTG-[(C/G)T(C/G)] n -GCC that was present in this group of mRNAs. Mutations of the first two GG bases in this motif in SEMA7A 5'UTR led to a complete loss of S6K activity dependence for maximal translation. In conclusion, the newly identified 5'UTR motif present in SEMA7A has a critical role in regulating S6K-dependent protein synthesis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Nizar N. Jarjour has received consulting fees from Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), Astra-Zeneca, and Boehringer Ingelheim over the past three years. These relationships with pharmaceutical companies are not relevant to the current study. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Several predictive models have been developed to predict the pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC); however, few are broadly applicable owing to radiologic complexity and institution-specific clinical variables, and none have been externally validated. This study aimed to develop and externally validate a machine learning model that predicts pCR after NAC in patients with breast cancer using routinely collected clinical and demographic variables., Methods: The electronic medical records of patients with advanced breast cancer who underwent NAC before surgical resection between January 2017 and December 2020 were reviewed. Patient data from Seoul National University Bundang Hospital were divided into training and internal validation cohorts. Five machine learning techniques, including gradient boosting machine (GBM), support vector machine, random forest, decision tree, and neural network, were used to build predictive models, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was compared to select the best model. Finally, the model was validated using an independent cohort from Seoul National University Hospital., Results: A total of 1,003 patients were included in the study: 287, 71, and 645 in the training, internal validation, and external validation cohorts, respectively. Overall, 36.3% of the patients achieved pCR. Among the five machine learning models, the GBM showed the highest AUC for pCR prediction (AUC, 0.903; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.833-0.972). External validation confirmed an AUC of 0.833 (95% CI, 0.800-0.865)., Conclusion: Commonly available clinical and demographic variables were used to develop a machine learning model for predicting pCR following NAC. External validation of the model demonstrated good discrimination power, indicating that routinely collected variables were sufficient to build a good prediction model., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2023 Korean Breast Cancer Society.)

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can differentiate into various tissues and are an essential source of various disease models and therapeutics. Various growth factors are required in order to culture pluripotent stem cells, among which basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is essential for maintaining stem cell ability. However, bFGF has a short half-life (8 h) under normal mammalian cell culture conditions, and its activity decreases after 72 h, posing a serious problem in the production of high-quality stem cells. Here, we evaluated the various functions of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) by utilizing an engineered thermostable bFGF (TS-bFGF) that is thermally stable and maintains activity longer under mammalian culture conditions. PSCs cultured with TS-bFGF showed better proliferation, stemness, morphology, and differentiation than cells cultured with wild-type bFGF. In light of the importance of stem cells in a wide range of applications in the medical and biotechnology fields, we anticipate that TS-bFGF, as a thermostable and long-acting bFGF, can play a key role in securing high-quality stem cells through various sets of stem cell culture processes.

Bak is a critical executor of apoptosis belonging to the Bcl-2 protein family. Bak contains a hydrophobic groove where the BH3 domain of proapoptotic Bcl-2 family members can be accommodated, which initiates its activation. Once activated, Bak undergoes a conformational change to oligomerize, which leads to mitochondrial destabilization and the release of cytochrome c into the cytosol and eventual apoptotic cell death. In this study, we investigated the molecular aspects and functional consequences of the interaction between Bak and peroxisomal testis-specific 1 (Pxt1), a noncanonical BH3-only protein exclusively expressed in the testis. Together with various biochemical approaches, this interaction was verified and analyzed at the atomic level by determining the crystal structure of the Bak-Pxt1 BH3 complex. In-depth biochemical and cellular analyses demonstrated that Pxt1 functions as a Bak-activating proapoptotic factor, and its BH3 domain, which mediates direct intermolecular interaction with Bak, plays a critical role in triggering apoptosis. Therefore, this study provides a molecular basis for the Pxt1-mediated novel pathway for the activation of apoptosis and expands our understanding of the cell death signaling coordinated by diverse BH3 domain-containing proteins., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Lim et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This study was carried out to clarify the spatial distribution of exotic plants at national, regional, and local levels, as well as their ecological impacts, and to prepare a strategy to reduce the impacts in Republic of Korea. This study was attempted at the national, regional, and local levels throughout Republic of Korea. Compositae occupied the highest percentage among invading exotic plants in Republic of Korea. A review of the biological attributes of exotic plants based on the dormancy form, longevity, disseminule form, growth form, and radicoid form showed that therophytes, annual plants, plants that disperse seeds by gravity (D 4 ), erect form (E), and nonclonal growth form (R 5 ) occupied the highest proportion. At the national level, the spatial distribution of exotic plants tended to depend on topographic conditions such as elevation and slope degree, and to increase around urbanized areas, agricultural fields, and coastal areas. The habitat types that exotic plants established were similar in their native habitat and in Korea, where they invaded. They preferred disturbed land such as roadsides, bare ground, agricultural fields, and so on. The spatial distribution of vegetation types dominated by exotic plants was restricted in the lowland. The proportion of the exotic/native plants tended to proportionate reversely to the vegetation type richness (the number of vegetation types); that is, the ecological diversity. The proportion of the exotic plants was higher in artificial plantations, vegetation due to disturbance, and vegetation established on lower slopes compared with upper slopes. Even at the local level, the exotic plants appeared abundantly in the introduced vegetation, while they were rare in the native ones. In the vegetation infected by exotic species, not only the species composition changed significantly, but the species diversity also decreased. Restorative treatment by introducing mantle vegetation around the hiking trail inhibited the establishment of exotic plants. Further, the restoration practice recovered the similarity of the species composition compared to the reference vegetation and increased the species diversity.

Phlorotannins are natural polyphenolic compounds produced by brown marine algae and are currently found in nutritional supplements. Although they are known to cross the blood-brain barrier, their neuropharmacological actions remain unclear. Here we review the potential therapeutic benefits of phlorotannins in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. In mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, ethanol intoxication and fear stress, the phlorotannin monomer phloroglucinol and the compounds eckol, dieckol and phlorofucofuroeckol A have been shown to improve cognitive function. In a mouse model of Parkinson's disease, phloroglucinol treatment led to improved motor performance. Additional neurological benefits associated with phlorotannin intake have been demonstrated in stroke, sleep disorders, and pain response. These effects may stem from the inhibition of disease-inducing plaque synthesis and aggregation, suppression of microglial activation, modulation of pro-inflammatory signaling, reduction of glutamate-induced excitotoxicity, and scavenging of reactive oxygen species. Clinical trials of phlorotannins have not reported significant adverse effects, suggesting these compounds to be promising bioactive agents in the treatment of neurological diseases. We therefore propose a putative biophysical mechanism of phlorotannin action in addition to future directions for phlorotannin research., Competing Interests: YJK was previously employed, and OIK is currently employed by Botamedi Brain Health and Medical Care Company Limited. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Kwon, Kwon, Hwang, Shin and Yang.)

There are various congenital anomalies and anatomical variations of the spleen (CAAVS). CAAVS are common and are often associated with systemic anomalies. Widespread use of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in a variety of clinical situations has increased the detection of CAAVS. However, CAAVS are frequently overlooked and are occasionally misdiagnosed as pathologic disease entities. This article aimed to review the various manifestations of CAAVS with radiologic findings., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Phyllodes tumor (PT) is a rare fibroepithelial neoplasm of the breast. The proper extent of resection is still under debate. This study aimed to investigate the optimal surgical margin to prevent recurrence after surgery for PT and to evaluate risk factors for local recurrence (LR)., Methods: Retrospective analysis of a prospective cohort database was performed. Patients who underwent curative surgery for PT at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital between July 2003 and February 2022 were reviewed., Results: Of the 439 patients included, 285 were benign, 129 were borderline, and 25 were malignant. There was no statistically significant difference in 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) between margin-negative and margin-involved patients (87.3% vs. 85.1%, p = 0.081). When patients were classified into groups, according to margin status, as conventional (≥ 1 cm from tumor), close (< 1 cm from tumor), or involved, 5-year DFS rates were also similar (100% vs. 86.9% vs. 85.1%, p = 0.170). In subgroup analysis for different histologic grades, 5-year DFS was not affected by margin involvement. In univariate analysis, large tumor size (> 5 cm; hazard ratio [HR] 2.857, p = 0.028) and infiltrative tumor border (HR 3.096, p = 0.012) were independent risk factors for LR. Further multivariate analysis found both factors to be prognostic., Conclusions: Recurrence was not significantly influenced by margin status in all histological grades. In benign and borderline tumors, local excision without wide surgical margins could be sufficient, and watchful waiting could be an option for patients with positive margins after initial surgery., (© 2023. Society of Surgical Oncology.)

The BioCreative National Library of Medicine (NLM)-Chem track calls for a community effort to fine-tune automated recognition of chemical names in the biomedical literature. Chemicals are one of the most searched biomedical entities in PubMed, and-as highlighted during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic-their identification may significantly advance research in multiple biomedical subfields. While previous community challenges focused on identifying chemical names mentioned in titles and abstracts, the full text contains valuable additional detail. We, therefore, organized the BioCreative NLM-Chem track as a community effort to address automated chemical entity recognition in full-text articles. The track consisted of two tasks: (i) chemical identification and (ii) chemical indexing. The chemical identification task required predicting all chemicals mentioned in recently published full-text articles, both span [i.e. named entity recognition (NER)] and normalization (i.e. entity linking), using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). The chemical indexing task required identifying which chemicals reflect topics for each article and should therefore appear in the listing of MeSH terms for the document in the MEDLINE article indexing. This manuscript summarizes the BioCreative NLM-Chem track and post-challenge experiments. We received a total of 85 submissions from 17 teams worldwide. The highest performance achieved for the chemical identification task was 0.8672 F-score (0.8759 precision and 0.8587 recall) for strict NER performance and 0.8136 F-score (0.8621 precision and 0.7702 recall) for strict normalization performance. The highest performance achieved for the chemical indexing task was 0.6073 F-score (0.7417 precision and 0.5141 recall). This community challenge demonstrated that (i) the current substantial achievements in deep learning technologies can be utilized to improve automated prediction accuracy further and (ii) the chemical indexing task is substantially more challenging. We look forward to further developing biomedical text-mining methods to respond to the rapid growth of biomedical literature. The NLM-Chem track dataset and other challenge materials are publicly available at https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/lu/BC7-NLM-Chem-track/. Database URL https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/lu/BC7-NLM-Chem-track/., (Published by Oxford University Press 2023. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.)

Objectives The Research and Development Survey (RANDS) is a series of web-based, commercial panel surveys that have been conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) since 2015. RANDS was designed for methodological research purposes,including supplementing NCHS' evaluation of surveys and questionnaires to detect measurement error, and exploring methods to integrate data from commercial survey panels with high-quality data collections to improve survey estimation. The latter goal of improving survey estimation is in response to limitations of web surveys, including coverage and nonresponse bias. To address the potential bias in estimates from RANDS,NCHS has investigated various calibration weighting methods to adjust the RANDS panel weights using one of NCHS' national household surveys, the National Health Interview Survey. This report describes calibration weighting methods and the approaches used to calibrate weights in web-based panel surveys at NCHS., (All material appearing in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission; citation as to source, however, is appreciated.)

Background and Objectives: We compared the efficacy and safety of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSC), delivered at different doses and via different injection routes in an animal model of chronic kidney disease., Methods and Results: A total of ninety 12-week-old rats underwent 5/6 nephrectomy and randomized among nine groups: sham, renal artery control (RA-C), tail vein control (TV-C), renal artery low dose (RA-LD) (0.5×10 6 cells), renal artery moderate dose (RA-MD) (1.0×10 6 cells), renal artery high dose (RA-HD) (2.0×10 6 cells), tail vein low dose (TV-LD) (0.5×10 6 cells), tail vein moderate dose (TV-MD) (1.0×10 6 cells), and tail vein high dose (TV-HD) (2.0×10 6 cells). Renal function and mortality of rats were evaluated after hBMSC injection. Serum blood urea nitrogen was significantly lower in the TV-HD group at 2 weeks (p<0.01), 16 weeks (p<0.05), and 24 weeks (p<0.01) than in the TV-C group, as determined by one-way ANOVA. Serum creatinine was significantly lower in the TV-HD group at 24 weeks (p<0.05). At 8 weeks, creatinine clearance was significantly higher in the TV-MD and TV-HD groups (p<0.01, p<0.05) than in the TV-C group. In the safety evaluation, we observed no significant difference among the groups., Conclusions: Our findings confirm the efficacy and safety of high dose (2×10 6 cells) injection of hBMSC via the tail vein.

Background: Mammography screening has been proven to detect breast cancer at an early stage and reduce mortality; however, it has low accuracy in young women or women with dense breasts. Blood-based diagnostic tools may overcome the limitations of mammography. This study assessed the diagnostic performance of a three-protein signature in patients with suspicious breast lesions., Findings: This trial (MAST; KCT0004847) was a prospective multicenter observational trial. Three-protein signature values were obtained using serum and plasma from women with suspicious lesions for breast malignancy before tumor biopsy. Additionally, blood samples from women who underwent clear or benign mammography were collected for the assays. Among 642 participants, the sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy values of the three-protein signature were 74.4%, 66.9%, and 70.6%, respectively, and the concordance index was 0.698 (95% CI 0.656, 0.739). The diagnostic performance was not affected by the demographic features, clinicopathologic characteristics, and co-morbidities of the participants., Conclusions: The present trial showed an accuracy of 70.6% for the three-protein signature. Considering the value of blood-based biomarkers for the early detection of breast malignancies, further evaluation of this proteomic assay is warranted in larger, population-level trials. This Multi-protein Assessment using Serum to deTermine breast lesion malignancy (MAST) was registered at the Clinical Research Information Service of Korea with the identification number of KCT0004847 ( https://cris.nih.go.kr )., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Purpose: To investigate added value of late portal venous phase (LPVP) for identification of enhancing capsule (EC) on gadoxetate disodium-enhanced MRI (GD-MRI) for diagnosing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD)., Methods: This retrospective study comprised 116 high-risk patients with 128 pathologically proven HCCs who underwent GD-MRI including arterial phase, conventional portal venous phase (CPVP, 60 s), LPVP (mean, 104.4 ± 6.7 s; range, 90-119 s), and transitional phase (TP, 3 min). Two independent radiologists assessed the presence of major HCC features, including EC on CPVP and/or TP (CPVP/TP) and EC on LPVP. The frequency of EC was compared on GD-MRI between with and without inclusion of LPVP. The radiologists assigned Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) v2018 categories before and after identifying EC on LPVP., Results: Of the total 128 HCCs, 74 and 73 revealed EC on CPVP/TP for reviewer 1 and 2, respectively. After inclusion of LPVP, each reviewer identified seven more EC [Reviewer 1, 57.8% (74/128) vs. 63.3% (81/128); Reviewer 2, 57.0% (73/128) vs. 62.5% (80/128); P = 0.016, respectively]. Sensitivities of LR-5 assignment for diagnosing HCCs were not significantly different in GD-MRI with or without LPVP for EC identification [Reviewer 1, 71.9% (92/128) vs. 72.7% (93/128); Reviewer 2, 75.0% (96/128) vs. 75.8% (97/128); P = 1.000, respectively]., Conclusion: Including the LPVP in GD-MRI may improve identification of EC of HCC in patients with CLD. However, LI-RADS v2018 using GD-MRI showed comparable sensitivity for diagnosing HCC regardless of applying LPVP for EC., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Automatic diagnosis of depression based on speech can complement mental health treatment methods in the future. Previous studies have reported that acoustic properties can be used to identify depression. However, few studies have attempted a large-scale differential diagnosis of patients with depressive disorders using acoustic characteristics of non-English speakers., Objective: This study proposes a framework for automatic depression detection using large-scale acoustic characteristics based on the Korean language., Methods: We recruited 153 patients who met the criteria for major depressive disorder and 165 healthy controls without current or past mental illness. Participants' voices were recorded on a smartphone while performing the task of reading predefined text-based sentences. Three approaches were evaluated and compared to detect depression using data sets with text-dependent read speech tasks: conventional machine learning models based on acoustic features, a proposed model that trains and classifies log-Mel spectrograms by applying a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) with a relatively small number of parameters, and models that train and classify log-Mel spectrograms by applying well-known pretrained networks., Results: The acoustic characteristics of the predefined text-based sentence reading automatically detected depression using the proposed CNN model. The highest accuracy achieved with the proposed CNN on the speech data was 78.14%. Our results show that the deep-learned acoustic characteristics lead to better performance than those obtained using the conventional approach and pretrained models., Conclusions: Checking the mood of patients with major depressive disorder and detecting the consistency of objective descriptions are very important research topics. This study suggests that the analysis of speech data recorded while reading text-dependent sentences could help predict depression status automatically by capturing the characteristics of depression. Our method is smartphone based, is easily accessible, and can contribute to the automatic identification of depressive states., (©Ah Young Kim, Eun Hye Jang, Seung-Hwan Lee, Kwang-Yeon Choi, Jeon Gue Park, Hyun-Chool Shin. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 25.01.2023.)

Multiple imputation (MI) is a widely used approach to address missing data issues in surveys. Variables included in MI can have various distributional forms with different degrees of missingness. However, when variables with missing data contain skip patterns (i.e. questions not applicable to some survey participants are thus skipped), implementation of MI may not be straightforward. In this research, we compare two approaches for MI when skip-pattern covariates with missing values exist. One approach imputes missing values in the skip-pattern variables only among applicable subjects (denoted as imputation among applicable cases (IAAC)). The second approach imputes skip-pattern covariates among all subjects while using different recoding methods on the skip-pattern variables (denoted as imputation with recoded non-applicable cases (IWRNC)). A simulation study is conducted to compare these methods. Both approaches are applied to the 2015 and 2016 Research and Development Survey data from the National Center for Health Statistics., Competing Interests: Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

There is an increasing interest in developing artificial intelligence (AI) systems to process and interpret electronic health records (EHRs). Natural language processing (NLP) powered by pretrained language models is the key technology for medical AI systems utilizing clinical narratives. However, there are few clinical language models, the largest of which trained in the clinical domain is comparatively small at 110 million parameters (compared with billions of parameters in the general domain). It is not clear how large clinical language models with billions of parameters can help medical AI systems utilize unstructured EHRs. In this study, we develop from scratch a large clinical language model-GatorTron-using >90 billion words of text (including >82 billion words of de-identified clinical text) and systematically evaluate it on five clinical NLP tasks including clinical concept extraction, medical relation extraction, semantic textual similarity, natural language inference (NLI), and medical question answering (MQA). We examine how (1) scaling up the number of parameters and (2) scaling up the size of the training data could benefit these NLP tasks. GatorTron models scale up the clinical language model from 110 million to 8.9 billion parameters and improve five clinical NLP tasks (e.g., 9.6% and 9.5% improvement in accuracy for NLI and MQA), which can be applied to medical AI systems to improve healthcare delivery. The GatorTron models are publicly available at: https://catalog.ngc.nvidia.com/orgs/nvidia/teams/clara/models/gatortron&#95;og ., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Multiview displays, which are capable of displaying different view-images for viewers at different positions, can suffer from undesirable view-image mixing, called crosstalk. In this paper, we propose a method to minimize a class of crosstalk that occurs due to misalignment of flat panel displays and parallax barriers that constitute multiview displays. More specifically, our method is aimed at cases where flat panel displays and parallax barriers are non-parallel. First, we introduce our framework, which associates homography matrices to sets of pixels visible through parallax barriers. Then, we propose an iterative method for finding pixels that are visible for a view-point. By using a stripe test pattern, the homography matrix that corresponds to a set of visible pixels can be found by monitoring the deformation of the stripe test pattern. Last, we experimentally check the validity of the iterative method and demonstrate that the proposed method successfully corrects the geometric distortion of a 3D image.

To evaluate the quality of web surveys, the National Center for Health Statistics' Division of Research and Methodology has been conducting a series of studies with survey data from commercially recruited panels,referred to as the Research and Development Survey (RANDS). This report describes the propensity-score adjusted estimates from the second round of RANDS (RANDS 2) using the 2016 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)., (All material appearing in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission; citation as to source, however, is appreciated.)

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are not only the most common probiotics in the food and feed industry but are also used as plant probiotics. Therefore, precise identification of LAB at the species level is required. In this study, we compared three different methods, the VITEK 2 ANC card, species-specific PCR, and MALDI-TOF MS, to identify six LAB (Lacticaseibacillus casei, Lacticaseibacillus paracasei, Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Lentilactobacillus buchneri, and Limosilactobacillus fermentum) species previously assigned to the genus Lactobacillus that are used as biofertilizers. Twenty-two strains of six LAB species were analyzed using the VITEK 2 ANC card, species-specific PCR, and MALDI-TOF MS, and identification rates at the species level were 45.5%, 95.5%, and 95.5%, respectively. There were cross-reactions between L. casei and L. parpacasei, and one strain of L. casei could not be identified by these three methods. PCR assays and MALDI-TOF MS were applicable for LAB identification. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: LAB are the most common probiotics in the food and feed industry, so precise identification and classification of LAB at the species level are required. This study aimed at comparing three different methods for the effective identification of six LAB species: biochemical testing using VITEK 2 ANC card, species-specific PCR, and MALDI-TOF MS analysis., (© 2022 Institute of Food Technologists.)

Dieckol, a phlorotannin from Ecklonia cava , has shown potential for use as an anticancer agent that selectively kills cancer cells. However, it is necessary to amplify its potency without damaging its inherent safety in order to develop it as a competitive chemotherapeutic. Here, we explored the controlled O -acylations of dieckol. Acyl groups could be consistently introduced to the 6- O position of dieckol with a high regioselectivity, which was confirmed by NOESY, HMBC and HSQC spectroscopies. In cytotoxicity studies on the newly synthesized 6- O -acetyl, 6- O -benzoyl dieckols and previously synthesized 6- O -alkyl dieckols against A549 vs. normal cells, all of the derivatives showed low cytotoxicity in normal cells with an IC 50 of 481-719 μM, and highly structure-dependent cytotoxicity in A549 cells with an IC 50 of 7.02 (acetyl)-842.26 (benzyl) μM. The selectivity index also showed a large structure dependency in the range of 0.67 (benzyl)-68.58 (acetyl). An analysis of the structure-activity relationship indicated that the activity was dramatically reduced in the presence of a benzene ring and was highly increased in the presence of small polar substituents. Conclusions: Controlled mono- O -modifications of dieckol could be a powerful tool to enhance the anticancer activity of dieckol, thus contributing to the development strategy for dieckol-based chemotherapeutics.

Antiapoptotic B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) proteins suppress apoptosis by interacting with proapoptotic regulators. They commonly contain a hydrophobic groove where the Bcl-2 homology 3 (BH3) domain of Bcl-2 family members or BH3 domain-containing non-Bcl-2 family proteins can be accommodated. Peroxisomal testis-specific 1 (Pxt1) was previously identified as a male germ cell-specific protein whose overexpression causes germ cell apoptosis and infertility in male mice. Sequence and biochemical analyses also showed that human Pxt1, which is composed of 134 amino acids and is longer than mouse Pxt1 consisting of only 51 amino acids, has a BH3 domain that interacts with antiapoptotic Bcl-2 proteins, including Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL. In this study, we determined the crystal structure of Bcl-xL bound to the human Pxt1 BH3 domain. The five BH3 consensus residues are well conserved in the human Pxt1 BH3 domain and make a critical contribution to the complex formation in a canonical manner. Structural and biochemical analyses also demonstrated that Bcl-xL interacts with the BH3 domain of human Pxt1 but not with that of mouse Pxt1, and that residues 76-83 of human Pxt1, absent in mouse Pxt1, play a pivotal role in the intermolecular binding to Bcl-xL. While Bcl-xL consistently colocalized with human Pxt1 in mitochondria, it did not do so with mouse Pxt1, when expressed in HeLa cells. Collectively, these data verified that human and mouse Pxt1 differ in their binding ability to the antiapoptotic regulator Bcl-xL, which might affect their functionality in controlling apoptosis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Digital micromirror device (DMD)-based 4f-systems, a type of coherent optical information processing system, have become a powerful tool for optical convolutional neural networks taking advantage of their fast modulation speed and high-resolution capability. However, proper high bit-depth image information processing remains challenging due to the optical diffractions that arise from the binary nature of DMD operation. In this paper, we first characterize the diffraction phenomena that cause irradiance defects, namely the nonlinear grayscale and unintended dark lines. Then to resolve the issues, we propose a DMD operation method and a modified structure of the 4f-system based on blazed diffraction grating theory and numerical calculation of the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld propagation model. As a demonstration, we implement high bit-depth image information processing with an optimized optical 4f-system using DMDs and a collimated coherent light source.

Purpose: Estrogen receptor (ER) expression in breast cancer plays an essential role in carcinogenesis and disease progression. Recently, tumors with low level (1%-10%) of ER expression have been separately defined as ER low positive (ERlow). It is suggested that ERlow tumors might be morphologically and behaviorally different from tumors with high ER expression (ERhigh)., Materials and Methods: Retrospective analysis of a prospective cohort database was performed. Patients who underwent curative surgery for early breast cancer and had available medical records were included for analysis. Difference in clinicopathological characteristics, endocrine responsiveness and five-year recurrence-free survival was evaluated between different ER subgroups (ERhigh, ERlow, and ER-negative [ER-])., Results: A total of 2,162 breast cancer patients were included in the analysis, Tis and T1 stage. Among them, 1,654 (76.5%) were ERhigh, 54 (2.5%) were ERlow, and 454 (21.0%) were ER- patients. ERlow cases were associated with smaller size, higher histologic grade, positive human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, negative progesterone receptor, and higher Ki-67 expression. Recurrence rate was highest in ER- tumors and was inversely proportional to ER expression. Recurrence-free survival was not affected by hormonal therapy in the ERlow group (p=0.418)., Conclusion: ERlow breast cancer showed distinct clinicopathological features. ERlow tumors seemed to have higher recurrence rates compared to ERhigh tumors, and they showed no significant benefit from hormonal therapy. Future large scale prospective studies are necessary to validate the treatment options for ERlow breast cancer.

Objective: Systemic administration of dieckol reportedly ameliorates acute hearing loss. In this study, dieckol was delivered to the inner ear by the intratympanic route. The functional and anatomic effects and safety of dieckol were assessed using the rat ototoxicity model., Materials and Methods: Dieckol in a high-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid vehicle (dieckol+vehicle group) or vehicle without dieckol (vehicle-only group) were randomly delivered into 12 ears intratympanically. Ototoxic hearing loss was induced by intravenous administration of cisplatin, gentamicin, and furosemide. The hearing threshold and surviving outer hair cells (OHC) were enumerated. Biocompatibility was assessed by serial endoscopy of the tympanic membrane (TM), and the histology of the TM and the base of bulla (BB) mucosa was quantitatively assessed., Results: The hearing threshold was significantly better (difference of 20 dB SPL) in the dieckol+vehicle group than in the vehicle-only group. The number of surviving OHCs was significantly greater in the dieckol+vehicle group than in the vehicle-only group. There were no signs of inflammation or infection in the ear. The thickness of the TM and the BB mucosa did not differ between the two groups., Conclusion: Intratympanic local delivery of dieckol may be a safe and effective method to prevent ototoxic hearing loss.

Background: Nipple-sparing mastectomy (NSM) followed by immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) is the optimal surgical treatment for breast cancer. However, investigations are ongoing to improve the surgical technique to achieve better results. This study aimed to evaluate the outcomes of modified NSM (m-NSM), which preserves the anterior lamellar fat layer, in patients who underwent IBR., Methods: All patients who underwent modified NSM (m-NSM) or conventional NSM (c-NSM) followed by IBR using autologous tissue or implants were retrospectively reviewed between January 2014 and January 2021. Two mastectomy types were compared in terms of postoperative complications and aesthetic outcomes using panel assessment scores by physicians and reported outcomes using Breast-Q. In addition, postoperative evaluations of the thickness of mastectomy flap was performed using CT scan images., Results: A total of 516 patients (580 breasts) with NSM (143 breasts with c-NSM and 437 breasts with m-NSM) followed by IBR were reviewed. The mean ± SD flap thickness was 8.48 ± 1.81 mm in patients who underwent m-NSM, while it was 6.32 ± 1.15 mm in the c-NSM cohort ( p  = 0.02). The overall major complications rate was lower in the m-NSM group (3.0% vs. 9.0%, p  < 0.013). Ischemic complications of the mastectomy flap and nipple-areolar complex (NAC) were more in c-NSM, although the difference was not statistically significant. The mean panel assessment scores were higher in the m-NSM group (3.14 (good) and 2.38 (fair) in the m-NSM and c-NSM groups, respectively; p  < 0.001). Moreover, m-NSM was associated with greater improvements in psychosocial ( p  < 0.001) and sexual ( p  = 0.007) well-being., Conclusion: Preserving the anterior lamellar fat in NSM was associated with thicker mastectomy flap, overall lower rates of complications, including ischemia of the mastectomy flap and nipple-areolar complex, and was associated with better aesthetic outcomes and improved quality of life., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2022 Najmiddinov, Park, Yoon, Myung, Koh, Lee, Hoon, Shin, Kim and Heo.)

Inference of co-expression network and identification of disease-related modules and gene sets can help us understand disease-related molecular pathophysiology. We aimed to identify a cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related transcriptomic signature, specifically, in peripheral blood tissue, based on differential expression (DE) and differential co-expression (DcoE) analyses. Publicly available blood sample datasets for coronary artery disease (CAD) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) statuses were integrated to establish a co-expression network. A weighted gene co-expression network analysis was used to construct modules that include genes with highly correlated expression values. The DE criterion is a linear regression with module eigengenes for module-specific genes calculated from principal component analysis and disease status as the dependent and independent variables, respectively. The DcoE criterion is a paired t -test for intramodular connectivity between disease and matched control statuses. A total of 21 and 23 modules were established from CAD status- and ACS-related datasets, respectively, of which six modules per disease status (i.e., obstructive CAD and ACS) were selected based on the DE and DcoE criteria. For each module, gene-gene interactions with extremely high correlation coefficients were individually selected under the two conditions. Genes displaying a significant change in the number of edges (gene-gene interaction) were selected. A total of 6, 10, and 7 genes in each of the three modules were identified as potential CAD status-related genes, and 14 and 8 genes in each of the two modules were selected as ACS-related genes. Our study identified gene sets and genes that were dysregulated in CVD blood samples. These findings may contribute to the understanding of CVD pathophysiology.

Background: The purpose of this study is to identify the relative strengths of association of medication and health and social services in comprehensive substance use disorder (SUD) treatment., Objectives: The study uses a novel variance decomposition method to assess the relative strength of association of six active ingredients of comprehensive SUD treatment: methadone medication, access services, SUD counseling, matched service ratio, client-provider relationship, and treatment duration., Methods: The study uses data from the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study (1992-1997), a dataset with an unusual number of services and service strategies measured. The data include 3012 clients from 45 SUD treatment programs. Linear mixed models are used to assess the relation of service variables to the outcome of posttreatment substance use. Variance decomposition methods are used to assess the relative importance of the ingredients in the treatment model., Results: Along with a random intercept and background variables, receipt of methadone accounted for the greatest relative strength of association at 35.4%, compared with 23.8% for treatment duration, 15.4% for client-provider relationship, and 11.2% for matched service ratio. Access and SUD counseling accounted for modest strengths of association at 1% and 3% each., Conclusion: Findings indicate somewhat greater strength of association of methadone compared with other services and service strategies and overall, reinforce the importance of both medication and services and service strategies in the design and development of effective models of service delivery., Significance: This study, among the first to evaluate the relative importance of specific services and service strategies of comprehensive SUD treatment, provides insights relevant to the development of effective models of service delivery., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

It is puzzling how altruistic punishment of defectors can evolve in large groups of nonrelatives, since punishers should voluntarily bear individual costs of punishing to benefit those who do not pay the costs. Although two distinct mechanisms have been proposed to explain the puzzle, namely voluntary participation and group-level competition and selection, insights into their joint effects have been less clear. Here we investigated what could be combined effects of these two mechanisms on the evolution of altruistic punishment and how these effects can vary with nonparticipants' individual payoff and group size. We modelled altruistic punishers as those who contribute to a public good and impose a fine on each defector, i.e., they are neither pure punishers nor excluders. Our simulation results show that voluntary participation has negative effects on the evolution of cooperation in small groups regardless of nonparticipants' payoffs, while in large groups it has positive effects within only a limited range of nonparticipants' payoff. We discuss that such asymmetric effects could be explained by evolutionary forces emerging from voluntary participation. Lastly, we suggest that insights from social science disciplines studying the exit option could enrich voluntary participation models., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

High-risk genotypes of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are directly implicated in various abnormalities associated with cellular hyperproliferation, including cervical cancer. E6 is one of two oncoproteins encoded in the HPV genome, which recruits diverse PSD-95/Dlg/ZO-1 (PDZ) domain-containing human proteins through its C-terminal PDZ-binding motif (PBM) to be degraded by means of the proteasome pathway. Among the three PDZ domain-containing protein tyrosine phosphatases, protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 3 (PTPN3) and PTPN13 were identified to be recognized by HPV E6 in a PBM-dependent manner. However, whether HPV E6 associates with PTPN4, which also has a PDZ domain and functions as an apoptosis regulator, remains undetermined. Herein, we present structural and biochemical evidence demonstrating the direct interaction between the PBM of HPV16 E6 and the PDZ domain of human PTPN4 for the first time. X-ray crystallographic structure determination and binding measurements using isothermal titration calorimetry demonstrated that hydrophobic interactions in which Leu158 of HPV16 E6 plays a key role and a network of intermolecular hydrogen bonds sustain the complex formation between PTPN4 PDZ and the PBM of HPV16 E6. In addition, it was verified that the corresponding motifs from several other high-risk HPV genotypes, including HPV18, HPV31, HPV33, and HPV45, bind to PTPN4 PDZ with comparable affinities, suggesting that PTPN4 is a common target of various pathogenic HPV genotypes., (© 2022. The Microbiological Society of Korea.)

Aberrant activation of the Nod-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome plays an essential role in multiple diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and psoriasis. We report a novel small-molecule inhibitor, NLRP3-inhibitory compound 7 (NIC7), and its derivative, which inhibit NLRP3-mediated activation of caspase 1 along with the secretion of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-18, and lactate dehydrogenase. We examined the therapeutic potential of NIC7 in a disease model of AD by analyzing its effect on cognitive impairment as well as the expression of dopamine receptors and neuronal markers. NIC7 significantly reversed the associated disease symptoms in the mice model. On the other hand, NIC7 did not reverse the disease symptoms in the imiquimod (IMQ)-induced disease model of psoriasis. This indicates that IMQ-based psoriasis is independent of NLRP3. Overall, NIC7 and its derivative have therapeutic prospects to treat AD or NLRP3-mediated diseases.

Background: Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a genetic disorder caused by dihydrotestosterone (DHT), accompanied by the senescence of androgen-sensitive dermal papilla cells (DPCs) located in the base of hair follicles. DHT causes DPC senescence in AGA through mitochondrial dysfunction. However, the mechanism of this pathogenesis remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the protective role of cyanidins on DHT-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and DPC senescence and the regulatory mechanism involved., Methods: DPCs were used to investigate the effect of DHT on mitochondrial dysfunction with MitoSOX and Rhod-2 staining. Senescence-associated β-galactosidase activity assay was performed to examine the involvement of membrane AR-mediated signaling in DHT-induced DPC senescence. AGA mice model was used to study the cyanidins on DHT-induced hair growth deceleration., Results: Cyanidin 3-O-arabinoside (C3A) effectively decreased DHT-induced mtROS accumulation in DPCs, and C3A reversed the DHT-induced DPC senescence. Excessive mitochondrial calcium accumulation was blocked by C3A. C3A inhibited p38-mediated voltage-dependent anion channel 1 (VDAC1) expression that contributes to mitochondria-associated ER membrane (MAM) formation and transfer of calcium via VDAC1-IP3R1 interactions. DHT-induced MAM formation resulted in increase of DPC senescence. In AGA mice models, C3A restored DHT-induced hair growth deceleration, which activated hair follicle stem cell proliferation., Conclusions: C3A is a promising natural compound for AGA treatments against DHT-induced DPC senescence through reduction of MAM formation and mitochondrial dysfunction., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The Arctic Ocean is undergoing rapid change: sea ice is being lost, waters are warming, coastlines are eroding, species are moving into new areas, and more. This paper explores the many ways that a changing Arctic Ocean affects societies in the Arctic and around the world. In the Arctic, Indigenous Peoples are again seeing their food security threatened and cultural continuity in danger of disruption. Resource development is increasing as is interest in tourism and possibilities for trans-Arctic maritime trade, creating new opportunities and also new stresses. Beyond the Arctic, changes in sea ice affect mid-latitude weather, and Arctic economic opportunities may re-shape commodities and transportation markets. Rising interest in the Arctic is also raising geopolitical tensions about the region. What happens next depends in large part on the choices made within and beyond the Arctic concerning global climate change and industrial policies and Arctic ecosystems and cultures., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) has different clinicopathological characteristics than papillary thyroid carcinoma. However, there are no independent systems to predict cancer-specific survival (CSS) in FTC. Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) promoter mutations are associated with tumor aggressiveness. Thus, it could be a potential prognostic marker. The aim of this study was to refine the CSS risk prediction using TERT promoter mutations in combination with the fourth edition of World Health Organization (WHO 2017) morphological classification. We investigated 77 FTC patients between August 1995 and November 2020. Cox regression was used to calculate hazard ratios to derive alternative groups. Disease-free survival (DFS) and CSS predictability were compared using Proportion of variation explained (PVE) and C-index. CSS was significantly different in encapsulated angioinvasive (EA)-FTC patients stratified by TERT promoter mutations [wild-type (WT-TERT) vs. mutant (M-TERT); P < 0.001] but not in minimally invasive (MI)-FTC and widely invasive (WI)-FTC patients (P = 0.691 and 0.176, respectively). We defined alternative groups as follows: Group 1 (MI-FTC with WT-TERT and M-TERT; EA-FTC with WT-TERT), Group 2 (WI-FTC with WT-TERT), and Group 3 (EA-FTC with M-TERT; WI-FTC with M-TERT). Both PVE (22.44 vs. 9.63, respectively) and C-index (0.831 vs. 0.731, respectively) for CSS were higher in the alternative groups than in the WHO 2017 groups. Likewise, both PVE (27.1 vs. 14.9, respectively) and C-index (0.846 vs. 0.794, respectively) for DFS were also higher in the alternative groups than in the WHO 2017 groups. Alternative group harmonizing of the WHO 2017 classification and TERT promoter mutations is effective in predicting CSS in FTC patients, thereby improving DFS predictability., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

The accumulation of antimicrobial residues in edible animal products and aquaculture products could pose health concerns to unsuspecting consumers. Hence, this study aimed to develop a validated method for simultaneous quantification of chloramphenicol (CAP), thiamphenicol (TAP), florfenicol (FF), and florfenicol amine (FFA) in beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, eel, and flatfish using a quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) extraction method coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Primary-secondary amine (PSA) and MgSO 4 were used for sample purification. The analytes were separated on a reversed-phase analytical column. The coefficients of determination for the linear matrix-matched calibration curves were ≥0.9941. Recovery rates ranged between 64.26 and 116.51% for the four analytes with relative standard deviations (RSDs) ≤ 18.05%. The calculated limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantification (LOQs) were 0.005-3.1 and 0.02-10.4 μg/kg, respectively. The developed method was successfully applied for monitoring samples obtained from local markets in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The target residues were not detected in any tested matrix. The designed method was versatile, sensitive, and proved suitable for quantifying residues in animal-derived products., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Jung, Park, Choi, Kang, Cho, Choi, Shim, Zaky, Abd El-Aty and Shin.)

Background: Wearable technologies have been developed for healthy aging. The technology for electromyography (EMG)-controlled functional electrical stimulation (FES) systems has been developed, but research on how helpful it is in daily life has been insufficient., Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the EMG-controlled FES system on muscle morphology, balance, and gait in older adults., Methods: Twenty-nine older adults were evaluated under two randomly assigned conditions (non-FES and FES assists). Muscle morphology, balance, gait function, and muscle effort during gait were measured using ultrasonography, a physical test, a gait analysis system, and EMG., Results: The EMG-controlled FES system improved gait speed by 11.1% and cadence by 15.6% (P< 0.01). The symmetry ratio of the bilateral gastrocnemius was improved by 9.9% in the stance phase and 11.8% in the swing phase (P< 0.05). The degrees of coactivation of the knee and ankle muscles were reduced by 45.1% and 50.5%, respectively (P< 0.05). Balance improved by 6-10.7% (P< 0.01)., Conclusion: The EMG-controlled FES system is useful for balance and gait function by increasing muscle symmetry and decreasing muscle coactivation during walking in older adults.

Developing new transparent conducting materials, especially those having flexibility, is of great interest for electronic applications. Here, our study on using the ozone-assisted atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique at a low temperature of 200 °C for making an ultrathin, transparent, flexible, and highly electroconducting nanohybrid of indium and aluminum oxides is introduced. Through various characterizations, measurements, and density functional theory-based calculations, excellent electrical conductivity (∼950 S cm -1 ), transparency (95% in the visible region), and flexibility (bendable angle of 130° for 10 000 cycles) of our nanohybrid oxide thin film with a total layer thickness below 15 nm (2-4 nm for alumina and 10 nm for indium oxide) have been revealed and discussed. Besides, potential sensing applications of our oxide films on a flexible substrate have been demonstrated, such as strain sensors, temperature sensors (25-100 °C, resolution of 0.1 °C), and NO 2 gas sensors (0.35-3.5 ppm, optimum operation at 65-75 °C). With the great potential in not only transparent conducting oxide but also sensing applications, our multifunctional nanohybrid prepared using a simple ozone-assisted ALD route opens more room for the applicability of transparent and flexible electronics.

Background: The relationship between obesity and breast cancer stage is not well-known in the Korean population. This study aimed to identify the effect of body mass index (BMI) on initial breast cancer stage., Patients and Methods: Among patients who underwent surgery for breast cancer (stages 0-III) from June 2003 to December 2018, we analyzed 4510 patients for whom there were BMI data., Results: The average BMI of our patients was 23.5 (14.2-44.9). In total, 4.6% and 24.2% of the patients had a BMI of ≥30 and 25-29.9, respectively. In the patients with obesity, the proportion of T2 to T4 was 41.4%, which was higher than that in patients with a BMI of 25 to 29 (28.4%; P = .001) or a BMI of <25 (23.3%; P < .001). There was no difference in positive rates of estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor with BMI, but obese patients were less likely to be human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positive. Patients with higher stages were more likely to have a higher BMI. The effect of BMI on stage was stronger in patients <50 years (odds ratio, 2.439; 95% CI, 1.783-3.335). Although there was no statistical significance, tumors >2 cm were less likely to be palpable in obese patients than in patients of normal weight (nonpalpable in 33.8% and 27.0%, respectively)., Conclusion: Our study suggests that obesity is associated with a more advanced breast cancer stage, which represents a poor prognosis, and large tumors tend to be less palpable in women with obesity., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors have stated that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Laminectomy with instrumented fusion (LF) has demonstrated better prevention of ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) growth compared to laminoplasty (LP). There remains uncertainty, however, as to which surgical approach is more beneficial with respect to clinical outcomes and complications. We retrospectively reviewed 273 cervical OPLL patients of more than 3 levels, from the two institutions' databases, who underwent LF or LP between January 1998 and January 2016. Each 273 patient (85 with LF, 188 with LP) was assessed for postoperative neurologic and radiologic outcomes, complications and reoperations. The mean length of follow-up was 40.11 months. There were baseline differences between cohorts. Overall, postoperative JOA recovery rate at last follow up was significantly better in the LP group with similar improvement in visual analog neck score. Postoperative C2-7 Cobb angle was decreased compared to baseline for both LF and LP cohorts, but there was no significant difference between groups. Complications occurred in 19 (22.35%) LF patients, and 11 (5.85%) LP patients, with higher incidence of C5 palsy and instrumentation failure in the LF group. Four LF patients (4.71%) and five LP patients (2.66%) underwent reoperation during the follow up period., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

We propose a novel dual-channel electromyography (EMG) spatio-temporal differential (DESTD) method that can estimate volitional electromyography (vEMG) signals during time-varying functional electrical stimulation (FES). The proposed method uses two pairs of EMG signals from the same stimulated muscle to calculate the spatio-temporal difference between the signals. We performed an experimental study with five healthy participants to evaluate the vEMG signal estimation performance of the DESTD method and compare it with that of the conventional comb filter and Gram-Schmidt methods. The normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) values between the semi-simulated raw vEMG signal and vEMG signals which were estimated using the DESTD method and conventional methods, and the two-tailed t-test and analysis of variance were conducted. The results showed that under the stimulation of the gastrocnemius muscle with rapid and dynamically modulated stimulation intensity, the DESTD method had a lower NRMSE compared to the conventional methods ( p < 0.01) for all stimulation intensities (maximum 5, 10, 15, and 20 mA). We demonstrated that the DESTD method could be applied to wearable EMG-controlled FES systems because it estimated vEMG signals more effectively compared to the conventional methods under dynamic FES conditions and removed unnecessary FES-induced EMG signals.

This study evaluated the correlation between tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and long-term oncologic outcomes in colorectal cancer (CRC). We evaluated TAMs based on the expression of CD68, CD11c, and CD163 as optimal markers via immunohistochemistry in 148 patients with CRC who underwent surgical resection between September 1999 and August 2004. A high proportion of CD68-positive macrophages were associated with the occurrence of distant metastasis. A low proportion of CD11c-positive macrophages were associated with unfavorable overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival. CD11c-positive macrophages were found to act as independent prognostic factors for OS. An analysis of our long-term data indicated that TAMs are significantly associated with OS and prognosis in CRC.

In this paper, we provide the results of multi-passenger occupancy detection inside a vehicle obtained using a single-channel frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar. The physiological characteristics of the radar signal are analyzed in a time-frequency spectrum, and features are proposed based on these characteristics for multi-passenger occupancy detection. After clutter removal is applied, the spectral power and Wiener entropy are proposed as features to quantify physiological movements arising from breathing and heartbeat. Using the average means of both the power and Wiener entropy at seats 1 and 2, the feature distributions are expressed, and classification is performed. The multi-passenger occupancy detection performance is evaluated using linear discriminant analysis and maximum likelihood estimation. The results indicate that the proposed power and Wiener entropy are effective features for multi-passenger occupancy detection.

Muscle rehabilitation by functional electrical stimulation (FES) is one of the effective treatments for the patients with neuromuscular diseases. The conventional FES applications, however, have limitations that utilize predetermined or repetitive stimulation patterns with the help of experts such as physical therapists. Therefore, we propose a wearable FES system in which the stimulus intensity is dynamically controlled by the motion intention of user in this paper. The proposed FES system utilizes electromyography (EMG) and inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors for estimating the motion intention regardless of electrical stimulation, and is designed for the lower limb rehabilitation. The overall system configurations including hardware and software are presented in this paper, and the system performance was tested by lower limb exercises, e.g., squat, heel lift, and gait.

Left ventricular lipoma is a rare intracardiac tumour that is usually resected through sternotomy to effectively explore the left ventricular cavity. We introduce a simple technique to expose the left ventricular cavity and resect the intraventricular lipoma using a rolled up flexible ruler through right mini-thoracotomy. Imaging studies and gross and microscopic photography of intraventricular lipoma are presented in this report., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved.)

A successful passage of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is an essential prerequisite for the drug molecules designed to act on the central nervous system. The logarithm of blood-brain partitioning (LogBB) has served as an effective index of molecular BBB permeability. Using the three-dimensional (3D) distribution of the molecular electrostatic potential (ESP) as the numerical descriptor, a quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model termed AlphaQ was derived to predict the molecular LogBB values. To obtain the optimal atomic coordinates of the molecules under investigation, the pairwise 3D structural alignments were conducted in such a way to maximize the quantum mechanical cross correlation between the template and a target molecule. This alignment method has the advantage over the conventional atom-by-atom matching protocol in that the structurally diverse molecules can be analyzed as rigorously as the chemical derivatives with the same scaffold. The inaccuracy problem in the 3D structural alignment was alleviated in a large part by categorizing the molecules into the eight subsets according to the molecular weight. By applying the artificial neural network algorithm to associate the fully quantum mechanical ESP descriptors with the extensive experimental LogBB data, a highly predictive 3D-QSAR model was derived for each molecular subset with a squared correlation coefficient larger than 0.8. Due to the simplicity in model building and the high predictability, AlphaQ is anticipated to serve as an effective computational screening tool for molecular BBB permeability.

Background Aims: The efficacy of phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE5Is), which are commonly used to treat erectile dysfunction (ED), is not satisfactory in patients with denervation of the cavernous nerve due to pelvic surgeries and diabetes mellitus (DM). Pre-clinical studies using bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) to treat ED have shown promising results. The authors conducted a phase 1 clinical trial with autologous BMSCs in patients with ED due to radical prostatectomy or DM., Methods: Ten patients (five with post-prostatectomy ED and five with DM-associated ED) who could not perform sexual activity despite taking the maximum dose of a PDE5I were enrolled. The brief clinical trial protocol was registered with the US National Institutes of Health on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02344849). The primary outcome was the safety of stem cell therapy, and the secondary outcome was the improvement of erectile function., Results: Of the 13 patients screened, 10 were registered in the clinical trial and received autologous BMSCs and nine completed the clinical trial. One patient with post-prostatectomy ED experienced two treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) (pyrexia and back pain), and two patients with DM-associated ED experienced a total of five TEAEs (one case each of viral upper respiratory tract infection, prostatitis and pruritus and two cases of hyperglycemia). Of these patients, one with DM-associated ED experienced two serious TEAEs (two instances of hyperglycemia). All TEAEs were considered not to be related to autologous BMSC therapy. In addition, no clinical significance was identified related to other safety measures, such as laboratory tests and vital signs. The mean International Index of Erectile Function score increased significantly at 1 month versus baseline (24.9 versus 18.1, P = 0.0222)., Conclusions: This phase 1 clinical trial confirmed the safety and potential efficacy of autologous BMSC therapy in patients with ED. The authors' results need to be confirmed by a phase 2 clinical trial., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest HCS is an employee of Pharmicell Co, Ltd, and YMK was an employee of Pharmicell Co, Ltd, during the clinical trial., (Copyright © 2021 International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: We aimed to identify the effects of marine oligomeric polyphenol (MOP) intake in elderly individuals with sarcopenia., Methods: Older adults (aged 65 years or older) were recruited based on the diagnostic criterion for sarcopenia and were randomly assigned to the MOP intake group (n=10) or the placebo (PBO) intake group (n=10). To determine the effect of MOP intake received for four weeks, the pre- and post-intake body composition (weight, skeletal muscle mass, and bone density) and senior fitness tests were assessed., Results: Our results showed there were significant differences in the skeletal muscle mass (p=0.039), bone density (p=0.020), fat-free mass index (p=0.026), and 2.4 m up and go test (p=0.001) between pretest and post-test. There was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test and an interaction effect for the one-leg stand test (p=0.010 and p=0.049, respectively). However, there were no significant differences in body fat percentage, calf circumference, grip strength, or the chair rise test., Conclusion: Some variables exhibited significant differences in the pre- and post-assessments, and there was an interaction effect for the one-leg stand. However, this was insufficient to prove the effectiveness of MOP intake in improving sarcopenia. Therefore, additional studies are essential to examine the effects of MOP intake and exercise intervention on the body composition and fitness of patients over a longer period.