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Particle image velocimetry is a technique for analyzing and visualizing collective velocity using sequential images of moving particles. However, there still exist tracer seeding problems in in vivo measurement applications. For overcoming this limitation cell tracking based on speckle image cross-correlation method to confocal microscopy, it is possible to analyze the velocity of cells in blood flow without injecting exogenous particles. Using a standard rate of 30 fps allows tracking of hematocytes near 200μm / sec, but this is insufficient at only moderately higher flow rates due to the inclusion of individual cells moving at velocities well above the average. It is necessary to overcome this limitation by using higher frame rates of imaging for a precise blood stream analysis. We performed in vivo cell tracking based on speckle image cross-correlation acquired at rates of 30, 90 and 180 fps using a confocal microscope. We found that the more than 5-fold increase in frame rate achieves a similar low rate of errors for blood flow containing cells moving at an average speed of up to to 1 mm/sec.

In the zone fill-type reservoir embankment, the vertical filter for drainage is essentially installed, but in the case of the horizontal filter, the applicability is determined by the reservoir’s scale or the importance grade of the facility. In particular, horizontal filters are not installed in small reservoirs (with a height less than 30 m) which have lower risk compared to large embankments due to the high price of the filter. However, recent climate changes are increasing the structural instability of small-scale embankments, hence requiring a way to ensure additional stability, to cope with them. Hereupon, installing the horizontal filter at proper spacing on the embankment is an efficient method to improve the structural stability of the embankment and minimize costs. However, current design standards relating to horizontal filters face the problem that the range for the filter installation interval is too wide and does not reflect actual risks, such as piping. Therefore, in this study, a model experiment was carried out based on the actual embankment to investigate the seepage characteristics and the range of stability variation according to the horizontal filter interval conditions. Experimental results show that there is an interval range of the filter where the dissipation of pore water pressure occurs in the core zone. The core zone is the most important structure to maintain the stability of the embankment, suggesting that the determination of the filter interval should be based on the consideration of the dissipation of pore water pressure in the core zone.

Torrential rainfall has a detrimental impact on the stability of soil-based agricultural embankments due to seepage and slope failure. The impact on the stability of an embankment due to rainfall patterns is specific to the geography, topography, and geometry of the embankment. However, this stability has not been widely assessed and updated with respect to new climate regimes. In this study, the slope stability of an agricultural embankment was evaluated based on five synthetic rainfall patterns derived from actual heavy rainfall events. The rainfall patterns were generated based on common patterns of rainfall hyetographs used in hydrological design and practice. The stability of the embankment was computed using the limit equilibrium method. Results of the stability analyses revealed time-series slope instability under rainfall patterns, and particularly the rainfall pattern that caused the most instability to the embankment was identified. Therefore, reassessment of the stability of the embankment in potential areas prone to heavy rainfall and flooding is beneficial to the preparation of early warning and emergency planning and preparedness as countermeasures for mitigating sediment-related hazards and disasters.

This paper presents an algorithm that enhances undesirably illuminated images by generating and fusing multi-level illuminations from a single image. The input image is first decomposed into illumination and reflectance components by using an edge-preserving smoothing filter. Then the reflectance component is scaled up to improve the image details in bright areas. The illumination component is scaled up and down to generate several illumination images that correspond to certain camera exposure values different from the original. The virtual multi-exposure illuminations are blended into an enhanced illumination, where we also propose a method to generate appropriate weight maps for the tone fusion. Finally, an enhanced image is obtained by multiplying the equalized illumination and enhanced reflectance. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm produces visually pleasing output and also yields comparable objective results to the conventional enhancement methods, while requiring modest computational loads.

Brain metastasis is a rare event in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This retrospective study aimed to identify the prognostic factors and determine the outcomes of patients with brain metastases from HCC. About 86 patients with brain metastases (0.6%) from HCC were identified from two institutions; of them, 32 underwent tumor-removing surgery or stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) with or without adjuvant whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) (group 1), 30 had WBRT alone (group 2), and 24 received conservative treatment (group 3). Estimates for overall survival (OS) after brain metastases were determined, and clinical prognostic factors were identified. The median OS after development of brain metastases was 50 days. About 75 (87.2%) patients had lung metastases at the time of brain metastasis diagnosis. Group 1 showed better OS, followed by group 2 and group 3, sequentially (p

The objective of this study is to monitor the water content of soil quickly and accurately using a UAV. Because UAVs have higher spatial and temporal resolution than satellites, they are currently becoming more useful in remote sensing areas. We developed a water content estimation equation using the color of the soil and suggested a calibration method for field application. Since the resolution of the images taken by the UAV is different according to the altitude, the water content estimation formula is developed by using the images taken at each altitude. In order to calibrate the color difference according to lighting conditions, the calibration method using field data were proposed. The results of the study showed an altitude-specific estimation equation using RGB values of the UAV image through linear regression. The appropriate number of field data needed for calibration for site application of the estimation equation was found between 4 and 10. On-site application results of the proposed calibration method showed RMSE accuracy of 1.8 to 2.9%. Thus, the water content estimation and calibration method proposed in this study can be used in effectively monitoring the water content of soil using UAVs.

This paper presents a new framework for jointly enhancing the resolution and the dynamic range of an image, i.e., simultaneous super-resolution (SR) and high dynamic range imaging (HDRI), based on a convolutional neural network (CNN). From the common trends of both tasks, we train a CNN for the joint HDRI and SR by focusing on the reconstruction of high-frequency details. Specifically, the high-frequency component in our work is the reflectance component according to the Retinex-based image decomposition, and only the reflectance component is manipulated by the CNN while another component (illumination) is processed in a conventional way. In training the CNN, we devise an appropriate loss function that contributes to the naturalness quality of resulting images. Experiments show that our algorithm outperforms the cascade implementation of CNN-based SR and HDRI., Comment: 11 pages

In this study, an integrated deep learning framework was developed for classifying the periodontitis stages of each individual tooth using dental panoramic radiographs. Based on actual patient panoramic radiographs data, the bone loss by periodontitis and cementoenamel junction boundaries were detected, while the tooth number and tooth length were identified using data from AIHub, an open database platform. The two factors were integrated to classify and to evaluate the periodontitis staging on dental panoramic radiography. Periodontitis is classified into four stages based on the criteria of the radiographic bone level, as suggested at the relevant international conference in 2017. For the integrated deep learning framework developed in this study, the classification performance was evaluated by comparing the results of dental specialists, which indicated that the integrated framework had an accuracy of 0.929, with a recall and precision of 0.807 and 0.724, respectively, in average across all four stages. The novel framework was thus shown to exhibit a relatively high level of performance, and the findings in this study are expected to assist dental specialists with detecting the periodontitis stage and subsequent effective treatment. A systematic application will be developed in the future, to provide ancillary data for diagnosis and basic data for the treatment and prevention of periodontal disease.

Digital image processing (DIP) is used to measure shape properties and settling velocity of soil particles. Particles with diameters of 1 to 10 mm are arbitrarily sampled for the test. The size of each particle is also measured by a Vernier caliper for comparison with the classification results using the shape classification table. The digital images were taken with a digital camera (Canon EOS 100d). Shape properties are calculated by image analysis software. Settling velocity of soil particles is calculated by displacement and time difference of images during settling. The fastest settling particles are spherical shaped. Shape factors well explain the difference of settling velocity by a particle shape. In particular, the aspect ratio has a high negative correlation with residual of settling velocity versus mean diameter. Especially, DIP has a higher applicability than classification using the shape classification table because it can measure a number of particles at once. The settling velocity of soil particles is expressed as a function of mean diameter and aspect ratio.

Direct numerical simulations were performed to study the effects of the domain size of a minimal flow unit (MFU) and its inherent periodic boundary conditions on flow physics of a turbulent channel flow in a range of 200≤Reτ≤1000. This was accomplished by comparing turbulent statistics with those computed in sub-domains (SD) of extended domain simulations. The dimensions of the MFU and SD were matched, and SD dynamics were set to minimize artificial periodicities. Streamwise and spanwise dimensions of healthy MFUs were found to increase linearly with Reynolds number. It was also found that both MFU and SD statistics and dynamics were healthy and in good agreement. This suggests that healthy MFU dynamics represent extended-domain dynamics well up to Reτ=1000, indicating a nearly negligible effect of periodic conditions on MFUs. However, there was a small deviation within the buffer layer for the MFU at Reτ=200, which manifested in an increased mean velocity and a tail in the Q2 quadrant of the u′-v′ plane. Thus, it should be noted that when considering an MFU domain size, stricter criteria may need to be put in place to ensure healthy turbulent dynamics.

Objective : Early descent of the diaphragm sellae (DS) during endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal surgery (EETS) for pituitary macroadenoma surgery is occasionally a troublesome event by blocking the surgical field. Here we introduce an alternative technique with the new pituitary retractor and present our clinical experiences.Methods : We designed a simple and rigid pituitary retractor with the least space occupation in the nasal cavity to be compatible in EETS. The pituitary retractor was held by external holder system to support the herniated DS stably. We retrospectively reviewed a clinical 22 cases of pituitary macroadenomas underwent EETS using the pituitary retractor.Results : The pituitary retractor stably pushed up the herniated DS in all cases, and the surgeon proceeded the procedure with bimanual maneuver. The pituitary retractor was helpful to remove tumors around the medial cavernous sinus and behind the DS in 16 and seven cases, respectively. In four cases, the meticulous hemostasis was completed with the direct visualization by the DS elevation with this retractor. Gross total tumor resection was performed in 20/22 patients (91%). The impaired visual function and hypopituitarism were improved in 18/20 (90%) and 7/14 (50%) patients after surgery, respectively. There was no complication related with the pituitary retractor.Conclusion : During EETS for pituitary macroadenomas, the novel pituitary retractor reported in this study is a very useful technique when the herniated DS block the surgical field and bimanual maneuver. This pituitary retractor can help to result in the excellent surgical outcomes with minimal morbidity.

BACKGROUND To date, there has been no practical guidelines for the prescription of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in brain tumor patients in Korea. Thus, the Korean Society for Neuro-Oncology (KSNO), a multidisciplinary academic society, had begun preparing guidelines for AED usage in brain tumors since 2019. METHODS The Working Group was composed of 27 multidisciplinary medical experts in Korea. References were identified through searches of PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane CENTRAL using specific and sensitive keywords as well as combinations of the keywords. RESULTS The core contents are as follows. Prophylactic AED administration is not recommended in newly diagnosed brain tumor patients without previous seizure history. When AEDs are administered during peri/postoperative period, it may be tapered off according to the following recommendations. In seizure-naive patients with no postoperative seizure, it is recommended to stop or reduce AED 1 week after surgery. In seizure-naive patients with one early postoperative seizure (

BackgroundWith the developments in the arthroscopic technique, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) remnant-preserving reconstruction is gradually gaining attention with respect to improving proprioception and enhancing early revascularization of the graft. To evaluate the mechanical pull-out strength of three different methods for remnant-preserving and re-tensioning reconstruction during ACL reconstruction.MethodsTwenty-seven fresh knees from mature pigs were used in this study. Each knee was dissected to isolate the femoral attachment of ACL and cut the attachment. An MTS tensile testing machine with dual-screw fixation clamp with 30° flexion angle was used. The 27 specimens were tested after applying re-tensioning sutures with No. 0 polydioxanone (PDS), using the single stitch (n = 9), loop stitch (n = 9), and triple stitch (n = 9) methods. We measured the mode of failure, defined as (1) ligament failure (longitudinal splitting of the remnant ACL) or (2) suture failure (tearing of the PDS stitch); load-to-failure strength; and stiffness for the three methods. Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U-test were used to compare the variance of load-to-failure strength and stiffness among the three groups.ResultsLigament failure occurred in all cases in the single stitch group and in all but one case in the triple stitch group. Suture failure occurred in all cases in the loop stitch group and in one case in the triple stitch group. The load-to-failure strength was significantly higher with loop stich (91.52 ± 8.19 N) and triple stitch (111.1 ± 18.15 N) than with single stitch (43.79 ± 11.54 N) (p = 0.002). With respect to stiffness, triple stitch (2.50 ± 0.37 N/mm) yielded significantly higher stiffness than the other methods (p = 0.001).ConclusionsThe results suggested that loop stitch or triple stitch would be a better option for increasing the mechanical strength when applying remnant-preserving and re-tensioning reconstruction during ACL reconstruction.

Introduction: The impact of obesity on survival outcomes in patients with glioblastoma (GBM) has not been well reported and the results for patients are currently unclear. We investigated the effect of obesity on survival outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed GBM. Methods: Using electronic medical records, all GBM patients that visited the Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital between 2008 and 2018 were reviewed. A total of 177 patients met our eligibility criteria. The cut-off point for BMI was 23.0 kg/m2 based on previous studies which focused on Asian populations. Results: A total of 177 patients met our eligibility criteria. The overall median BMI of patients was 24.5 kg/m2 (range 15.82-39.26). About 62 patients who had a BMI less than the cut-off value were assigned to the “lower BMI” group, while 115 patients who had a BMI greater than the cut-off value were assigned to the “higher BMI” group. In Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, the median OS of the higher BMI group was longer than that of the lower BMI group (21.3 months vs 15.3 months, P = .002). In multivariate Cox regression analysis for OS, lower BMI was associated with inferior OS (HR 1.48 CI 1.06-2.08, P = .002). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that elevated BMI may be associated with better survival in patients with newly diagnosed GBM. Additional larger prospective studies could help validate our findings to confirm the effect of body composition and survival outcomes in GBM patients.

We propose a zero contact experiment environment like a living room at home using ’Internet of Things’-based light devices, display and smart-phone or tablet. For our experimental environment, we constructed a large room that has specific lighting systems on the ceiling. For providing a general look-and-feel of living room condition, we also prepared the room with neutral-colored wallpaper and placed the display in the room. Subjects and Experimenters can tap on buttons on the smart-phones or tablets for adjusting the illumination conditions and picture options of the display. Under various illumination conditions, subjects are asked to choose the best preferred picture mode set while watching ten kinds of test images. All these series of our experiments are conducted under no-contact experimental environment thanks to the wireless applications loaded onto the smart-phone, tablet and display. These applications: (i) collect the data; (ii) automatically build a dataset; (iii) analyze the data by using machine learning techniques. By employing our system, large datasets that contain participants’ preferences for the given display under various illumination conditions are collected safely and easily without risking COVID-19 spread. As a result, after finishing our experiment, most participants, specifically color scientists, praised our zero-contact experimental solution which can be used for other perceptual experimental processes by providing an easy way to build and analyze databases.

Objectives We describe the strategy used to repair intraoperative leaks of various grades and define factors for preventing postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leakage (CSF) after surgery via the endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal approach (EETA). Study design Retrospective chart review at a tertiary referral center. Methods Patients who underwent surgery via EETA from January 2009 to May 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Intraoperative CSF leakage was graded 0–3 in terms of the dural defect size; various repairs were used depending on the grade. Results A total of 777 patients underwent 869 operations via EETA; 609 (70.1%) experienced no intraoperative CSF leakage (grade 0) but 260 (29.9%) did. Leakage was of grade 1 in 135 cases (15.5%), grade 2 in 83 (9.6%), and grade 3 in 42 (4.8%). In 260 patients with intraoperative CSF leakage, a buttress was wedged into the sellar defect site in 178 cases (68.5%) and a pedicled flap was placed in 105 cases (40.4%). Autologous fat (108 cases, 41.5%) and a synthetic dural substitute (91 cases, 35%) were used to fill the dead space of the sellar resection cavity. Postoperative CSF leakage developed in 21 patients: 6 of grade 1, 7 of grade 2, and 8 of grade 3. Buttress placement significantly decreased postoperative leakage in grade 1 patients (p = 0.041). In patients of perioperative leakage grades 2 and 3, postoperative CSF leakage was significantly reduced only when both fat and a buttress were applied (p = 0.042 and p = 0.043, respectively). Conclusion A buttress prevented postoperative CSF leakage in grade 1 patients; both fat and buttress were required by patients with intraoperative leakage of grades 2 and 3.

The introduction of Smart Technologies such as Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and other distribution system metering (e.g. SCADA) has enabled BC Hydro to make advancements in its ability to estimate both technical and nontechnical distribution losses on individual distribution assets. This report seeks to detail the logic for calculating such losses using this data and to demonstrate the improvements in distribution loss estimate accuracy that can be achieved as a result.

The rheological behaviors of suspension of ideally conductive particles in an electric field are studied using large-scale numerical simulations in the limit of zero-shear-rate flow. Under the action of an electric field, the particles undergo the nonlinear electrokinetic phenomenon termed as dipolophoresis, which is the combination of dielectrophoresis and induced-charge electrophoresis. For ideally conductive particles, the dynamics of the suspension are primarily controlled by induced-charge electrophoresis. To characterize the rheological properties of the suspension, the particle stress tensor and particle pressure are calculated in a range of volume fraction up to almost random close packing. The particle normal stress and particle pressure are shown to behave non-monotonically with volume fraction, especially in concentrated regimes. In particular, the particle pressure is positive for volume fraction up to 30\%, after which it becomes negative, indicating a change in the nature of the particle pressure. The microstructure expressed by pair distribution function and suspension entropy is also evaluated. Visible variations in the local microstructure seem to correlate with the non-monotonic variation in the particle normal stresses and particle pressure. These non-monotonic behaviors are also correlated with the change in the dominant mechanism of particle pairing dynamics observed in our recent study [Mirfendereski \& Park, J. Fluid Mech. \textbf{875}, R3 (2019)]. Lastly, the effects of confinement on the particle stress and particle pressure are investigated. It is found that the particle pressure changes its nature very quickly at high volume fractions as the level of confinement increases. This study should motivate control strategies to fully exploit the distinct changing nature of the pressure for rheological manipulation of such suspension system., 15 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in the Journal of Rheology

Recent direct numerical simulations (DNS) and experiments in turbulent channel flow have found intermittent low- and high-drag events in Newtonian fluid flows, at Re&tau, =u&tau, h/&nu, between 70 and 100, where u&tau, h and &nu, are the friction velocity, channel half-height and kinematic viscosity, respectively. These intervals of low-drag and high-drag have been termed &ldquo, hibernating&rdquo, and &ldquo, hyperactive&rdquo, respectively, and in this paper, a further investigation of these intermittent events is conducted using experimental and numerical techniques. For experiments, simultaneous measurements of wall shear stress and velocity are carried out in a channel flow facility using hot-film anemometry (HFA) and laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV), respectively, for Re&tau, between 70 and 250. For numerical simulations, DNS of a channel flow is performed in an extended domain at Re&tau, = 70 and 85. These intermittent events are selected by carrying out conditional sampling of the wall shear stress data based on a combined threshold magnitude and time-duration criteria. The use of three different scalings (so-called outer, inner and mixed) for the time-duration criterion for the conditional events is explored. It is found that if the time-duration criterion is kept constant in inner units, the frequency of occurrence of these conditional events remain insensitive to Reynolds number. There exists an exponential distribution of frequency of occurrence of the conditional events with respect to their duration, implying a potentially memoryless process. An explanation for the presence of a spike (or dip) in the ensemble-averaged wall shear stress data before and after the low-drag (or high-drag) events is investigated. During the low-drag events, the conditionally-averaged streamwise velocities get closer to Virk&rsquo, s maximum drag reduction (MDR) asymptote, near the wall, for all Reynolds numbers studied. Reynolds shear stress (RSS) characteristics during these conditional events are investigated for Re&tau, = 70 and 85. Except very close to the wall, the conditionally-averaged RSS is higher than the time-averaged value during the low-drag events.

Thirteen coumarins (

Medial meniscus posterior root tear is a disruptive injury causing significant sequelae. Several techniques to repair and maintain the native function of the medial meniscus have been introduced, but limitations have been reported in terms of their results. In this current note, the authors introduce the arthroscopic transtibial pull-out repair with whip running suture technique, which may not only avoid the potential risk of meniscus cut-through by the suture material but also optimize the reduction of the extruded meniscus. By suturing the posteromedial capsule and peripheral meniscus, more medialization force can be directly applied to the extruded part of the meniscus, and normal hoop tension can be restored., Technique Video Video 1 Step-by-step description of the arthroscopic pull-out repair of medial meniscus posterior root tear with whip running suture technique. The video shows the arthroscopy of the left knee. Standard anterolateral and anteromedial portal are used for the initial inspection. After the posteromedial and posterolateral portal are made using the transillumination technique, the posterior trans-septal portal is established. The main procedures of this technique are done under visualization through the trans-septal portal with a 30° scope. After establishing the healing bed for the root repair, guide pin is inserted with the ACL drilling guide (110° setting; Arthrex, Naples, FL). Then, a 45° curved suture hook loaded with a no. 2 PDS suture material is inserted through the posteromedial portal. The posterior capsule and the medial meniscus posterior horn on the posteromedial corner are penetrated by the suture hook. The sharp tip of the suture hook is advanced from the posterior capsule into the femoral surface of the medial meniscus. At the point 5 mm lateral to the first penetration, the posterior horn of the medial meniscus is penetrated by the same suture hook loaded with a no. 1 nylon suture material from the tibial side to the femoral side in a vertical direction. Using the shuttle relay technique, the second suture of the nylon is exchanged with the first suture of the PDS. At this stage, the whip running stitch involving the posteromedial capsule is completed. Using a crescent suture hook loaded with a no. 2 PDS, the simple vertical suture is made penetrating the root stump 5 to 10 mm medial to the stump end. At the point 5 mm apart from the previous suture, the third suture is done using the same crescent hook and suture material. In this stage, 1 whip running suture and 2 simple vertical sutures are completed. After reaming the trans-tibial tunnel for pulling out the suture strands, a wire loop is advanced through the reamer into the posteromedial portal. After checking all 6 strands of the 3 sutures are engaged properly within the wire loop, the wire is withdrawn out of the tibial tunnel. Under the maintenance of such adequate tension, the PDS strands are post-tied and fixed with a 3.5 mm cortical screw and washer on anterior cortex of the tibia. (PDS, polydioxanone.)

PurposeTemporal muscle thickness (TMT) has been suggested as a novel biomarker that can represent sarcopenia in head and neck malignancies. This study investigated the association of TMT with clinical outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM).Materials and MethodsUsing electronic medical records, all GBM patients between 2008 and 2018 at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital were reviewed. Total 177 patients met our eligibility criteria.ResultsThe thinner group who had TMT less than the median showed shorter overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) than the thicker group who had TMT more than median (OS; 11.0 versus 18.0 months, p < 0.001, and PFS; 6.0 versus 11.0 months, p < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, the thinner group had negative associations with OS and PFS (OS; HR 2.63 (1.34-2.63), p < 0.001, and PFS; HR 2.21 (1.34-2.50), p = 0.002). We also performed propensity score matching between the thinner and thicker groups to minimize the potential bias. The thinner group showed shorter OS and PFS (OS; 13.5 versus 19.0 months, p = 0.006, and PFS; 6.5 versus 9.0 months, p = 0.028) and had negative associations with OS and PFS than the thicker group (OS; HR 1.90 (1.19-3.03), p = 0.008, and PFS; HR 1.70 (1.07-2.70), p = 0.026) in matched patients.ConclusionOur findings suggest that TMT can be a useful prognostic biomarker for clinical outcomes in GBM patients. Further preclinical and clinical studies could help elucidate this association of sarcopenia with clinical outcomes in GBM patients.

Anomaly detection for non-linear dynamical system plays an important role in ensuring the system stability. However, it is usually complex and has to be solved by large-scale simulation which requires extensive computing resources. In this paper, we propose a novel anomaly detection scheme in non-linear dynamical system based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) to capture complex temporal changes of the time sequence and make multi-step predictions. Specifically, we first present the framework of LSTM-based anomaly detection in non-linear dynamical system, including data preprocessing, multi-step prediction and anomaly detection. According to the prediction requirement, two types of training modes are explored in multi-step prediction, where samples in a wall shear stress dataset are collected by an adaptive sliding window. On the basis of the multi-step prediction result, a Local Average with Adaptive Parameters (LAAP) algorithm is proposed to extract local numerical features of the time sequence and estimate the upcoming anomaly. The experimental results show that our proposed multi-step prediction method can achieve a higher prediction accuracy than traditional method in wall shear stress dataset, and the LAAP algorithm performs better than the absolute value-based method in anomaly detection task., 8 pages, 6 figures

Objective To investigate and compare the slot sizes and parallelism of metal injection molding (MIM) and computerized numerical control (CNC) brackets. Methods The following four MIM bracket series with 0.022-inch (in) slots were selected for investigation: Di MIM mini Twin (Ortho Organizers), Mini Diamond Roth (Ormco), Gemini MBT (3M Unitek), and Formula R Roth (Tomy). The following four CNC bracket series with 0.022-in slots were selected for investigation: Econoline MBT (Adenta), Legend mini MBT (GC Orthodontics), Crown mini MBT (Adenta), and Evolve MBT (DB Orthodontics). The slot dimensions were measured using an optical microscope (XTCam-D310M; Mitutoyo) with a resolution of 1 μm. The results were statistically analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and the Tukey post-hoc test with a significance level of 0.05. Results The results indicated that all the investigated slot sizes were oversized with respect to the manufacturers' specifications (0.022 in). Among the eight bracket series, the Di MIM bracket (MIM) was the most oversized by 10.4%, whereas the Evolve bracket (CNC) was the least oversized by 2.6%. The slots in seven of the bracket series had divergent walls instead of parallel ones. The Evolve bracket alone had parallel slot walls. Conclusions Regardless of the manufacturing method, all the slot sizes of the brackets investigated in this study were significantly oversized; most of the slot walls were nonparallel, except for those of the Evolve bracket. This study could not establish that the CNC method was more accurate than the MIM method in manufacturing bracket slots.

Minimally invasive therapies avoiding surgical complexities evoke great interest in developing injectable biomedical devices. Herein, a versatile approach is reported for engineering injectable and biomimetic nanofiber microspheres (NMs) with tunable sizes, predesigned structures, and desired compositions via gas bubble-mediated coaxial electrospraying. The sizes and structures of NMs are controlled by adjusting processing parameters including air flow rate, applied voltage, distance, and spinneret configuration in the coaxial setup. Importantly, unlike the self-assembly method, this technique can be used to fabricate NMs from any material feasible for electrospinning or other nanofiber fabrication techniques. To demonstrate the versatility, open porous NMs are successfully fabricated that consist of various short nanofibers made of poly(e-caprolactone), poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid), gelatin, methacrylated gelatin, bioglass, and magneto-responsive polymer composites. Open porous NMs support human neural progenitor cell growth in 3D with a larger number and more neurites than nonporous NMs. Additionally, highly open porous NMs show faster cell infiltration and host tissue integration than nonporous NMs after subcutaneous injection to rats. Such a novel class of NMs holds great potential for many biomedical applications such as tissue filling, cell and drug delivery, and minimally invasive tissue regeneration.

Background Lymphopenia frequently occurs after concomitant chemoradiation (CCRT) in patients with glioblastoma (GBM) and is associated with worse overall survival (OS). A few studies have tried to identify risk factors for lymphopenia; however, the results were not clear. We aimed to identify potential risk factors for lymphopenia, focusing on the use of dexamethasone to control cerebral edema in patients with GBM. Methods The electronic medical records of 186 patients with newly diagnosed GBM treated at our institution between 2009 and 2017 were retrospectively examined. Acute lymphopenia was defined as total lymphocyte count less than 1,000 cells/μL at 4 weeks after completion of CCRT. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent risk factors for lymphopenia, and Cox regression analysis was used to identify independent risk factors for OS. Results Of the 125 eligible patients, 40 patients (32.0%) developed acute lymphopenia. Female sex and median daily dexamethasone dose ≥2 mg after initiation of CCRT were independent risk factors for acute lymphopenia on multivariate analysis. Acute lymphopenia, extent of surgical resection, and performance status were associated with OS; however, dexamethasone use itself was not an independent risk factor for poor OS. Conclusion Female sex, median daily dexamethasone dose ≥2 mg after initiation of CCRT until 4 weeks after completion of CCRT may be associated with acute lymphopenia. However, dexamethasone use itself did not affect OS in patients newly diagnosed with GBM. These results should be validated by further prospective studies controlling for other confounding factors.

Isocadiolides A-H (

Skin is an important barrier to protect the body from environmental stress. However, exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UV) and various environmental oxidative stresses can cause skin inflammation. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is an inducible enzyme that mediates the formation of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) against internal and external inflammatory stimulations. Therefore, the inhibition of COX-2 is an important approach to maintain skin health and prevent skin inflammation and carcinogenesis. Topsentin, a bis(indolyl)imidazole alkaloid isolated from the marine sponge Spongosorites genitrix, has been reported to exhibit anti-tumor and anti-microbial activities. However, the effect of topsentin on skin inflammation and its underlying molecular mechanism has not been elucidated. In the present study, we identified the photoprotective effects of topsentin on UVB irradiated human epidermal keratinocyte HaCaT cells. Topsentin suppresses COX-2 expression and its upstream signaling pathways, AP-1 and MAPK. Furthermore, topsentin inhibits miR-4485, a new biomarker selected from a microarray, and its target gene tumor necrosis factor alpha induced protein 2 (TNF-&alpha, IP2). The photoprotective effect of topsentin was also confirmed in a reconstructed human skin model. These findings suggest that topsentin may serve as a potential candidate for cosmetic formulations with skin inflammatory-mediated disorder.

We present a novel approach to performing probabilistic collision detection between a high-DOF robot and imperfect obstacle representations in dynamic, uncertain environments. These uncertainties are modeled using Gaussian distributions. We present an efficient algorithm for bounded collision probability approximation.We use our probabilistic collision algorithm for trajectory optimization in dynamic scenes for 7- DOF robots. We highlight its performance in challenging simulated and real-world environments with robot arms operating next to dynamically moving human obstacles.

The effect of slip surfaces on the laminar-turbulent separatrix of plane Poiseuille flow is studied by direct numerical simulation. Turbulence lifetimes, the likelihood that turbulence is sustained, is investigated for transitional flows with various slip lengths. Slip surfaces decrease the likelihood of sustained turbulence compared to the no-slip case, and likelihood is further decreased as slip length is increased. A deterministic analysis of the effects of slip surfaces on transition to turbulence is performed using nonlinear traveling wave solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations, also known as exact coherent solutions. Two solution families, dubbed P3 and P4, are used since their lower-branch solutions are embedded on the boundary of the basin of attraction of laminar and turbulent flows (Park & Graham 2015). Additionally, they exhibit distinct flow structures -- the P3 and P4 are denoted as core mode and critical layer mode, respectively. Distinct effects of slip surfaces on the solutions are observed by the skin friction evolution, linear growth rate, and phase-space projection of transitional trajectories. The slip surface modifies transition dynamics little for the core mode, but considerably for the critical layer mode. Most importantly, the slip surface promotes different transition dynamics -- early and bypass-like transition for the core mode and delayed and H-/K-type-like transition for the critical layer mode. Based on spatiotemporal and quadrant analyses, it is found that slip surfaces promote the prevalence of strong wall-toward motions (sweep-like events) near vortex cores close to the channel centre, inducing an early transition, while sustained ejection events are present in the region of the ${\Lambda}$-shaped vortex cores close to the critical layer, resulting in a delayed transition., Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Journal of Fluid Mechanics

The accumulated experience in performing microvascular decompression (MVD) for hemifacial spasm (HFS) at our institute for more than two decades has allowed us to broaden the scope of the concept in treating HFS patients. During the journey, through more than 5000 cases of MVD for HFS, the results of our observation were quantified and categorized, which are to be introduced in this chapter. We believe that they are intuitive, clinically pertinent, and pragmatic. Also, if used by more and more researchers around the globe, our classification systems can be a foundation for deeper theoretical knowledge and understanding of HFS.

The term hemifacial spasm (HFS) is self-explanatory: contractions on one side of the face. More specifically, the clinical term HFS refers to involuntary facial contractions that are unilateral, irregular, and tonic or clonic. The twitches usually start with the periorbital muscles, and then they can spread to perinasal, perioral, zygomaticus, and platysma muscles [1]. The diagnosis of HFS is mainly based on clinical history and physical examination, although adjunctive use of electromyographic (EMG) and radiological evaluation methods is commonly acknowledged. Conditions that need to be differentiated from HFS include blepharospasm, facial myokymia, and post-facial palsy synkinesis, etc.

Natural language rationales could provide intuitive, higher-level explanations that are easily understandable by humans, complementing the more broadly studied lower-level explanations based on gradients or attention weights. We present the first study focused on generating natural language rationales across several complex visual reasoning tasks: visual commonsense reasoning, visual-textual entailment, and visual question answering. The key challenge of accurate rationalization is comprehensive image understanding at all levels: not just their explicit content at the pixel level, but their contextual contents at the semantic and pragmatic levels. We present Rationale^VT Transformer, an integrated model that learns to generate free-text rationales by combining pretrained language models with object recognition, grounded visual semantic frames, and visual commonsense graphs. Our experiments show that the base pretrained language model benefits from visual adaptation and that free-text rationalization is a promising research direction to complement model interpretability for complex visual-textual reasoning tasks., Comment: Accepted to Findings of EMNLP

Hemifacial spasm (HFS), a hyperactive motor dysfunction of the facial nerve, is believed to be caused by vascular compression at the root exit zone (REZ) of the facial nerve, which offered the basis for microvascular decompression (MVD) to become the standard treatment for HFS [1–5]. However, questions have yet to be fully answered about the microscopic pathophysiology of HFS, beyond the compression on the REZ: How come the compression on the REZ causes a hyperactivity instead of hypoactivity of the facial nerve? What can explain disparate clinical courses following a successful MVD? Are there additional contributing factors to the symptoms other than the compression on the REZ?

Even from a single frame of a still image, people can reason about the dynamic story of the image before, after, and beyond the frame. For example, given an image of a man struggling to stay afloat in water, we can reason that the man fell into the water sometime in the past, the intent of that man at the moment is to stay alive, and he will need help in the near future or else he will get washed away. We propose VisualCOMET, (Visual Commonsense Reasoning in Time.) the novel framework of visual commonsense reasoning tasks to predict events that might have happened before, events that might happen next, and the intents of the people at present. To support research toward visual commonsense reasoning, we introduce the first large-scale repository of Visual Commonsense Graphs that consists of over 1.4 million textual descriptions of visual commonsense inferences carefully annotated over a diverse set of 59,000 images, each paired with short video summaries of before and after. In addition, we provide person-grounding (i.e., co-reference links) between people appearing in the image and people mentioned in the textual commonsense descriptions, allowing for tighter integration between images and text. We establish strong baseline performances on this task and demonstrate that integration between visual and textual commonsense reasoning is the key and wins over non-integrative alternatives.

We present a novel approach to generate collision-free trajectories for a robot operating in close proximity with a human obstacle in an occluded environment. The self-occlusions of the robot can significantly reduce the accuracy of human motion prediction, and we present a novel deep learning-based prediction algorithm. Our formulation uses CNNs and LSTMs and we augment human-action datasets with synthetically generated occlusion information for training. We also present an occlusion-aware planner that uses our motion prediction algorithm to compute collision-free trajectories. We highlight performance of the overall approach (HMPO) in complex scenarios and observe upto 68% performance improvement in motion prediction accuracy, and 38% improvement in terms of error distance between the ground-truth and the predicted human joint positions., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables

Neurovascular compression syndrome (NVC) refers to a group of disorders that are caused by a direct compression on a cranial nerve by a blood vessel or vessels, and hemifacial spasm also belongs to it. After his first microvascular decompression (MVD) for trigeminal neuralgia (TN), Jannetta suggested that MVD might also be applied to other forms of NVC. Indeed, MVD is now established as the treatment of choice for HFS. This chapter presents other disease entities for which MVD may provide cure or improvement.

Purpose The treatment of choice for chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) has been established as burr-hole trephination with drain insertion; however, controversy remains over the best place for the drainage catheter. In this study, we compare the safety and efficacy of a subperiosteal drain (SPD) with that of a subdural drain (SDD) after one burr-hole trephination for CSDH. Methods This retrospective and comparative study includes all CSDH patients treated with burr-hole trephination at our institution between January 2015 and December 2019. 59 patients were treated with SPD insertion (SPD group), and 203 patients were treated with SDD insertion (SDD group). Results The median hematoma thickness of the SPD group within 24 hours after surgery was significantly thicker than that of the SDD group (9.5 mm vs. 7.5 mm, p = 0.003), but the midline shifting of the SPD group did not differ from that of the SDD group (3.8 mm vs. 3.5 mm, p = 0.280). The recurrence rate in the SPD group did not differ significantly from that in the SDD group (13.2% vs. 8.5%, p = 0.351). The frequency of bleeding events after surgery also did not differ significantly (5.1% vs. 3.5% p-value = 0.636). In contrast to surgery-related morbidities, medical morbidities such as pneumonia were significantly higher in the SDD group (4.4% vs. 0.0%, p = 0.044). The all-cause mortality rates during the perioperative period did not differ between the two groups (5.1% vs. 3.4%, p = 0.848). Conclusion Our findings may suggest that burr-hole trephination with SPD insertion had better surgical feasibility and fewer perioperative complications than SDD insertion. The type of anesthesia seems to be related with fewer medical complications at perioperative period. Larger, randomized clinical trials focusing not only the drain type but anesthesia type, are needed to validate our findings.

Over the last two decades, numerous studies have investigated the presence of human cytomegalovirus (CMV) within glioblastoma or gliomas; however, the results are severely conflicting. While a few researchers have suggested the potential benefits of cytotoxic T lymphocyte or dendritic cell-based vaccines for recurrent or newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients, several studies did not at all agree with the existence of CMV in glioblastoma cells. In this review, we summarized the conflicting results and issues about the detection of CMV in glioblastoma or glioma patients. We also provided the clinical data of published and unpublished clinical trials using CMV-specific immunotherapy for glioblastomas.

We present a motion planning algorithm to compute collision-free and smooth trajectories for high-degree-of-freedom (high-DOF) robots interacting with humans in a shared workspace. Our approach uses offline learning of human actions along with temporal coherence to predict the human actions. Our intention-aware online planning algorithm uses the learned database to compute a reliable trajectory based on the predicted actions. We represent the predicted human motion using a Gaussian distribution and compute tight upper bounds on collision probabilities for safe motion planning. We also describe novel techniques to account for noise in human motion prediction. We highlight the performance of our planning algorithm in complex simulated scenarios and real-world benchmarks with 7-DOF robot arms operating in a workspace with a human performing complex tasks. We demonstrate the benefits of our intention-aware planner in terms of computing safe trajectories in such uncertain environments.

Objectives The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the level of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system adoption and healthcare information technology (IT) infrastructure. Methods Both survey and various healthcare administrative datasets in Korea were used. The survey was conducted during the period from June 13 to September 25, 2017. The chief information officers of hospitals were respondents. Among them, 257 general hospitals and 273 small hospitals were analyzed. A logistic regression analysis was conducted using the SAS program. Results The odds of having full EMR systems in general hospitals statistically significantly increased as the number of IT department staff members increased (odds ratio [OR] = 1.058, confidence interval [CI], 1.003-1.115; p = 0.038). The odds of having full EMR systems was significantly higher for small hospitals that had an IT department than those of small hospitals with no IT department (OR = 1.325; CI, 1.150-1.525; p < 0.001). Full EMR system adoption had a positive relationship with IT infrastructure in both general hospitals and small hospitals, which was statistically significant in small hospitals. The odds of having full EMR systems for small hospitals increased as IT infrastructure increased after controlling the covariates (OR = 1.527; CI, 1.317-4.135; p = 0.004). Conclusions This study verified that full EMR adoption was closely associated with IT infrastructure, such as organizational structure, human resources, and various IT subsystems. This finding suggests that political support related to these areas is indeed necessary for the fast dispersion of EMR systems into the healthcare industry.

콘크리트는 공학적으로 우수하고 뛰어난 내구성 및 경제성을 가진 건설재료이지만, 해양환경 콘크리트와 같이 염해환경에 노출된 콘크리트의 경우, 내부로 염화물 이온의 침투가 발생하고 철근의 부식이 발생하여 내구성능 저하가 가속화된다. 본 연구에서는 W/B 3가지 수준(37 %, 42 %, 47 %) 및 GGBFS(Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag; 고로슬래그 미분말) 혼입률 3가지 수준(0 %, 30 %, 50 %)의 총 9 Case로 구분된 고성능 콘크리트에 대해 강도와 염화물 확산계수를 평가하였다. 또한 평가된 염화물 확산계수의 회귀분석을 통해 시간의존성지수 m를 도출한 후, 강도와 시간의존성지수의 상관관계를 평가하였다. 평가결과, W/B가 낮을수록, GGBFS 혼입률이 증가할수록 염해저항성이 개선되는 것으로 나타났다. 특히 GGBFS를 혼입한 콘크리트에서는 재령 28일~49일 구간에서는 급격한 염화물 확산계수의 감소가 나타났다. 또한 GGBFS 혼입률의 증가에 따라 시간의존성지수 m는 증가하였으며, OPC 콘크리트에서는 비선형적인 강도-시간의존성지수의 관계가 나타나지만, GGBFS를 혼입한 콘크리트에서는 강도의 증가에 따라 시간의존성지수가 선형적으로 증가함을 보였다.