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The purpose of this study was to find the determinants of effective diffusion of educational robotics in rural areas. The study analysed the key components, difficulties, and major lessons of the successful case of the remote northern region of Russia – Sakha Republic. The study used a mixed-method approach consisting of interviews, survey, literature analysis, and participants’ observation. In the survey participated 57 robotics teachers and 113 elementary, middle, and high school students of the Sakha Republic. From survey participants were randomly chosen 30 robotics teachers and 18 middle and high school students for the interview. The literature analysis explored reports and articles on the educational robotics activities in the Sakha Republic for the period of 2011-2018. Based on the findings, the study developed a process model with five principles and ten components that influenced educational robotics diffusion in the Sakha Republic. One of the main determinants of the model was a support system of public-private partnerships and a local community of educators. Another was the need to consider the local area’s constraints, possibilities, and culture when implementing any technology in the rural region's education. In the researched case two major determinants would not be possible and sustainable without strong leadership. The findings showed that strong local leadership could use knowledge of the local area to provide more appropriate solutions and could build the active support of the local community and public-private partnerships that would accelerate the diffusion of technology in the rural region's education.

Human-derived materials are a crucial element of research in the life sciences. The Korea Biobank Network (KBN) portal is a shared open platform that provides the nationʼs most extensive disease resources, possessed by Human Bioresource Unit Banks of the KBN, to the public, including those in the fields of industry, academia, and research. This platform was developed to increase the efficient use of national disease resources. In the KBN portal, the current status of disease resources collected in Korea can be checked online. Human bioresources and clinical information are provided to consumers through systematic search and efficient distribution programs. Additionally, by simultaneously operating the KBN Distribution Support Center, we are working to support the rapid and convenient distribution of human resources in response to the needs of consumers. To effectively utilize the open human bioresource sharing platform, it is necessary to introduce an integrated clinical information management system. Currently, the KBN is in the process of establishing standard terminology for data and applying a common data model for the integrated management of various clinical information held by the KBN. We provide communications through the KBN portal, which is interconnected with the distribution support center, regional biobanks, and consumers. In conclusion, the KBN portal will provide open innovation by creating a business or service model by delivering shared open data and internalizing external innovative capabilities.

The variability of physiologic 18F-FDG uptake in the myocardium has hampered the accurate evaluation of cardiac glucose metabolism. We investigated the effects of multiple factors, including fasting duration and physical activity, on the physiologic uptake of 18F-FDG by the myocardium in healthy participants. A total of 446 participants (predominantly male, 91%) in a health screening program were included in this retrospective study. For the visual analysis of myocardial 18F-FDG uptake, the participants were categorized into three groups according to qualitative visual scales (QVS). For the quantitative analysis, the maximum SUV of the left ventricular myocardium was measured. Significant differences were observed in fasting duration (p 6% (p = 0.005) showed significant association with myocardial FDG uptake in the Chi-squared test. The median value of fasting duration decreased significantly as the QVS of the myocardium increased. Twenty-nine of the 31 participants (93.5%) who fasted for 21.5 h or more showed a suppressed FDG uptake (mean SUVmax = 2.1). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, fasting duration (OR = 0.74, 95% CI 0.69–0.80, p 6% (OR = 0.29, 95% CI: 0.12 – 0.66, p = 0.004), uric acid (OR = 0.82, 95% CI 0.68–1.00, p = 0.049) and regular exercise with vigorous activity (OR = 1.75, 95% CI 1.13–2.70, p = 0.012) were significant factors for physiologic myocardial FDG uptake. Reduced physiologic 18F-FDG uptake of the myocardium was associated with longer fasting duration, higher level of HbA1c, and less frequency of regular exercise with vigorous activity. For the preparation of cardiac 18F-FDG PET, inclusion of longer fasting duration (more than 18 h) might be necessary for the adequate suppression of physiologic 18F-FDG myocardial uptake.

Post-menopausal depression (PMD) is a common psychological disorder accompanied by a cognitive deficit, which is caused by a series of uncontrolled emotional disruptions by strong environmental stressors during menopause. To overcome PMD-induced cognitive deficit, Green tea has been suggested as a dietary supplement because of its ameliorating effect on cognitive dysfunction induced by normal aging or neurodegenerative syndromes; however, its clinical use to improve PMD-accompanied cognitive deficit is still limited due to the controversy for the active ingredients and ambiguous mechanism of its action. Here, we developed modified high-temperature-processed green tea extract (HTP-GTE), which showed lower neuronal toxicity than the conventional green tea extract (GTE). We also demonstrated that HTP-GTE administration prevented the development of learned helplessness (LH) in a rat post-menopausal model. Additionally, HTP-GTE improved LH-induced cognitive impairments simultaneously with rescued the long-term synaptic plasticity. This occurred via the restoration of silent synapse formation by increasing the hippocampal BDNF-tyrosine receptor kinase B pathway in the helpless ovariectomized (OVX) rats. Likewise, we also identified that (−)-gallocatechin gallate was the main contributor of the HTP-GTE effect. Our findings suggested that HTP-GTE has a potential as a preventive nutritional supplement to ameliorate cognitive dysfunctions associated with PMD.

Human serum albumin (HSA) is the most abundant protein in human plasma and plays versatile biological role. HSA has been widely used to treat several diseases and develop biocompatible biomaterials for biomedical applications. However, pharmaceutical-grade HSA (p-HSA) showed the altered oxidative and ligand-binding properties compare to native HSA. To investigate the influences of the manufacturing process on the molecular state of HSA, we determined the first crystal structure of p-HSA using the commercial HSA solution without any defatting step and further purification and carried out mass spectrometry to identify bound ligands. The crystal structure of p-HSA revealed that medium- and long-chain fatty acids and tryptophan are bound to p-HSA and one free cysteine is oxidized to cysteine-sulfenic acid. The mass spectra of p-HSA also confirmed the existence of fatty acids and tryptophan in p-HSA. Our results enhance understanding of the molecular state of p-HSA and can be utilized to produce p-HSA solutions and HSA-based biomaterials that has a higher biorelevance.

Variation-aware leakage analysis becomes an essential design process as the technology node continuously shrinks. This article proposes a novel additive statistical leakage analysis method that uses exponential mixture model (EMM) to estimate the leakage distribution. Using a few leakage data for sub-blocks of an input circuit, we estimate any shape of leakage distribution regardless of new process nodes or operating conditions. Leakage distribution of an input circuit can be obtained by adding the leakage distributions of the sub-blocks. The proposed addition step sequentially adds the leakage distributions of sub-blocks that are expressed as EMMs. Before the addition step, we improve the accuracy by handling linear dependence among leakage simulation data of sub-blocks. In addition, we propose a method to reduce the number of components of an EMM to prevent exponential increase in runtime and memory during the addition process. The proposed method achieved 43.6 times improvement in goodness-of-fit of the estimated cumulative density functions compared to the best results of other analytic model-based methods.

Under the influence of the common goals of Education For All (EFA), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the international development realm, many countries around the world have reached a great level of development through continuous improvement in education since 2000. Meanwhile, Morocco could be one of the developing countries that struggle to resolve many problems resulting from having a weak educational system, which has been considered as one of the main obstacles to the country’s economic growth. The purpose of this article is to analyse the gender gap in access to primary education in rural areas of Morocco, focusing on primary school girls. Based on the investigation on the major obstacles, we carried out descriptive statistics with selected variables such as the adjusted net enrolment rate, the cumulative drop-out rate to the last grade, the gross intake ration (graduation ratio) to the last grade, and Gender Parity Index (GPI). In addition, we conducted a few private interviews via Skype with local stakeholders to underpin our research and to reflect personal ideas on the Moroccan educational system from their own perspective. Lastly, we suggested applicable solutions against those barriers from the perspective of education ODA.

We have developed a practical-scale dry disassembling process to dismantle PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) spent nuclear fuel assembly in the order of several tens of kilograms of heavy metal/batch to supply rod-cuts (cladding tube and UO2 pellets) for mechanical decladding process. Dry head-end disassembling process has advantages over the wet head-end process because of the lower risk of proliferation and treatment of spent fuel with relatively high heat and radioactivity. This study describes the main design considerations for the disassembling process of the spent nuclear fuel assembly during the dry head-end process. The down-ender, dismantling, extraction, and cutting technologies are analyzed and models have been designed for testing. The purpose of dry head-end disassembly process is to test the main device performance and to obtain scale-up data for practical-scale disassembling. With this in mind, design considerations were analyzed based on remoteness, and basic verification tests were performed. However, the authors used simulated fuel, instead of the actual spent fuel, owing to a lack of joint determination. In addition, in the present study, we did not consider the heat generated from minor actinides or the radioactivity of the fission product; these aspects will be considered in a future study. During the basic test performed in this study, a simulated assembly was completely disassembled using new methods, such as dismantling, extraction, and cutting processes. The practical-scale dry disassembling technology can be tested using scale-up data for reuse of the spent fuel.

In this study, porosity assessment of cement mortars containing Precious Slag (PS) Ball – an industrial waste produced by rapid cooling of slag generated from steel making process by Slag Atomizing...

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value and prognostic relevance of FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET-CT) in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study included 234 extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients who underwent FDG PET-CT between June 2008 and February 2016. The diagnostic performance of FDG PEG-CT was compared to that of contrast-enhanced multi-detector row CT (MDCT) and MRI. Independent prognosticators for poor survival were also assessed. RESULTS: The sensitivity of FDG PET-CT for detecting primary tumor and regional lymph node metastases was lower than that of MDCT or MRI (p < 0.001), whereas the specificity and positive predictive value for detecting regional lymph nodes metastases was significantly better in FDG PET-CT compared to MDCT and MRI (all p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the diagnostic yield of distant metastases detection among three diagnostic imaging techniques. In a multivariate analysis, maximum standardized uptake values (SUVmax) of the primary tumor (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.75; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.13-2.69) and of the metastatic lesions ≥ 5 (adjusted HR, 8.10; 95% CI, 1.96-33.5) were independent contributors to poor overall survival in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients. In a subgroup analysis of 187 patients with periductal infiltrating type of cholangiocarcinoma, an SUVmax of the primary tumor ≥ 5 was associated with an increased risk of regional lymph node (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.60; 95% CI, 0.55-4.63) and distant metastases (adjusted OR, 100.57; 95% CI, 3.94-2567.43) at diagnosis as well as with poor overall survival (adjusted HR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.04-3.15). CONCLUSION: FDG PET-CT showed lower sensitivity for detecting primary tumor and regional lymph node involvement than MDCT and MRI. However, the SUVmax of primary tumors and metastatic lesions derived from FDG PET-CT could have significant implications for predicting prognoses in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma patients.

Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is a useful imaging modality that visualizes glucose utilization. Diffuse colonic FDG uptake is frequently observed in patients being treated for diabetes mellitus (DM), especially with metformin. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether patients without increased colonic FDG uptake after taking oral hypoglycemic agents (OHA) are associated with insufficient glycemic control. A total of 279 subjects who underwent FDG PET/CT scans for health examinations and had been diagnosed with DM and taken an OHA before the day of the FDG PET/CT were included. Colonic FDG uptake in the study subjects was visually assessed, and the maximal and mean standard uptake value (SUV) was measured. Fasting blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels at both baseline and follow-up visits as well as DM management were compared according to the colonic FDG uptake. The mean age of study subjects was 48.8 years old, and 251 of subjects were male. Positive colonic FDG uptake was observed in 200 (71.7%) subjects. Fasting blood glucose and Hb1Ac levels on the day of FDG PET/CT were higher in subjects without positive colonic FDG uptake than those with positive colonic FDG uptake (p ≤ 0.001). But there was no significant difference between the two groups at follow-up visits. Patients with DM who did not show increased colonic FDG uptake after taking OHA were associated with higher fasting blood glucose and HbA1c levels on the day of FDG PET/CT.

Purpose Nonepileptic paroxysmal events (NPEs) are common in infancy and may be misinterpreted as epileptic seizures. With a knowledge of common NPEs, they can usually be diagnosed based on a detailed history and examination. So far, no studies have explored the semiological presentations of NPEs in infancy without video electroencephalographic (VEEG) recordings. We aimed to describe the phenomenology of NPEs in infancy to provide useful information to clinicians, enabling easier diagnoses without VEEG studies. Methods We reviewed the medical records of 63 patients aged from 1 to 12 months diagnosed with NPEs at Daegu Catholic University Medical Center from September 2006 to June 2017. We classified the phenomenological features into five types: abnormal body movement, eye changes, breathing abnormalities, behavioral symptoms, and autonomic symptoms. Results Of the 63 patients, 37 were male and 26 were female. The mean age at onset was 6 months, and the mean duration of symptoms was 22.5 days. Abnormal body movements were the most common feature (88.9%), followed by eye changes (31.7%), autonomic symptoms (11.1%), breathing abnormalities (6.3%), and behavioral abnormalities (3.2%). The most common type of abnormal body movements was shivering-like movement (32.1%). Initially, 30 patients (47.6%) were diagnosed with unclassified NPEs, nine (14.3%) with sleep myoclonus, six (9.5%) with benign paroxysmal tonic upward gaze, and five (7.9%) with benign myoclonus of infancy. During follow-up, two patients (3.2%) were diagnosed with epilepsy. Conclusion Knowledge of the phenomenological characteristics of NPEs in infancy can be useful for making a correct diagnosis.

Modern mobile systems are requested to execute diverse user scenarios. Depending on the types of user scenarios, mobile systems utilize hardware resources differently. Thus, power management policies of mobile systems must adapt to various user scenarios. In this paper, we propose a dynamic voltage/frequency scaling (DVFS) policy to increase the energy efficiency of multicore mobile systems by adapting to user scenarios. The proposed policy provides effective power management regardless of user scenarios by using operation characteristics that can represent the execution behavior of various user scenarios. Furthermore, the proposed policy is suitable for modern mobile systems in which online power management is essential, because it does not require preliminary knowledge of target scenarios. To balance the trade-off between energy consumption and quality-of-service (QoS), the proposed scenario-aware policy provides `just enough' processing speed to process the requested amount of work at the given parallelism level. To demonstrate the practicality of the proposed policy, we evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed scenario-aware policy for real-world user scenarios. Compared to the conventional DVFS policies, the proposed scenario-aware policy achieved a maximum of 25.5% energy saving on the mobile system that uses asymmetric multicore CPU, and a maximum of 30.7% energy saving on the mobile system that uses symmetric multicore CPU, without any QoS violation that degrades user experiences.

Background S1 transforaminal epidural steroid injection (S1-TFESI) results in positive clinical outcomes for the treatment of pain associated with the S1 nerve root. S1-TFESI via the transforaminal approach is commonly performed under fluoroscopic guidance. Ultrasound guidance is an alternative to mitigate radiation exposure. However, performing spinal procedures under ultrasound guidance has some limitations in confirming the position of the needle tip and vascular uptake. New techniques are therefore needed to make ultrasound and fluoroscopy complementary. Our objective was to describe a novel technique for S1-TFESI and confirm its reproducibility. Methods Records of patients with S1 radiculopathy were reviewed retrospectively; those treated using the new S1-TFESI technique were selected. Initially, ultrasound was used to distinguish anatomy of the sacral foramen and guide initial placement of the needle entry point. Fluoroscopy was subsequently used to confirm needle tip position and vascular injection. The number of times the needle required reinsertion was recorded, and ultrasound and C-arm images were stored. Results Sixty-seven S1-TFESIs were performed in 56 patients. All injections exhibited epidural spread of contrast media, not only to the S1 nerve. The cephalad angle was 16.25 ± 6.75° (range, 5–27°), the oblique angle was 2.48 ± 2.62° (range, 0–7°), and the mean number of attempts was 1.24 ± 1.25. Conclusions The new technique, involving the use of ultrasound to guide initial placement of the needle entry point, followed by confirmatory imaging and any needed adjustment with the use of fluoroscopy, can be a technique to complement the shortcomings of using ultrasound or fluoroscopy alone.

Herein, triethoxysilane-derived SiOx is used as a robust adhesive anchor to bind Si nanoparticles (NPs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to prepare a structurally reinforced Si/CNT microsphere composite. The chemical reaction between the silanol groups of triethoxysilane with the hydroxyl groups on the Si surface and acid-treated CNTs induce strong chemical bonds between the Si NPs and CNTs and among neighboring CNTs, facilitating electron-conduction pathways and structural integrity of the composite, even under severe stress/strain. Thus, the structurally reinforced Si/CNT/SiOx microsphere composite exhibits superior cyclability: ∼88% of its initial capacity of 1112 mA h g−1 is retained after 100 cycles at 0.5 A g−1. Moreover, the Si/CNT/SiOx composite exhibits a negligible change in electrode thickness after 100 cycles. The stable electrochemical behavior and negligible change in the electrode thickness are attributed to the maintenance of the electron-conduction pathways and structural integrity of the Si/CNT/SiOx composite, enabled by the binding of neighboring CNTs with the SiOx anchor.

To investigate macular ganglion cell complex (GCC) and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thicknesses in patients with hydroxychloroquine retinopathy of differing severity.Cross-sectional, case-control comparison study.From patients screened for hydroxychloroquine retinopathy between January 2016 and October 2021 using swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT), fundus autofluorescence (FAF), and standard automated perimetry, 66 patients with retinopathy and 66 without retinopathy were included by 1:1 propensity score matching based on age, sex, systemic diseases, history of tamoxifen and pentosan use, and kidney disease.Eyes with hydroxychloroquine retinopathy were divided into early, moderate, and severe stages. Inner-retinal thickness parameters, including macular GCC (RNFL + ganglion cell layer + inner plexiform layer) and peripapillary RNFL thicknesses, were automatically obtained using SS-OCT (DRI-OCT Triton, Topcon Inc., Japan) and compared between patients with and without retinopathy and between severity subgroups. The structure-function relationships between GCC or peripapillary RNFL thicknesses and perimetric parameters including mean deviation (MD) and visual field index (VFI) of Humphrey 30-2 test were evaluated.Macular GCC and peripapillary RNFL thickness parameters.The average macular GCC and peripapillary RNFL thicknesses were significantly decreased in patients with hydroxychloroquine retinopathy relative to those without retinopathy. Macular GCC thicknesses in 4 of 6 macular sectors and peripapillary RNFL thicknesses in 9 of 12 clock-hour sectors were significantly different between the groups. The differences in the average and sectoral macular GCC parameters were statistically significant among the severity subgroups, particularly between severe and earlier stages. Average macular GCC and peripapillary RNFL thicknesses significantly correlated with MD and VFI in all patients (all P.001).Macular GCC and peripapillary RNFL thinning was more prominent in eyes with severe hydroxychloroquine retinopathy, as indicative of inner-retinal thinning in eyes with advanced-stage disease. Further, as inner-retinal thinning showed a significant correlation with worse perimetric function, cautious evaluation of the inner retina may be required for eyes with advanced hydroxychloroquine retinopathy.

FRP (fiber-reinforced polymer)-reinforced concrete members have larger deflection than reinforced concrete members because of the low modulus of elasticity of the FRP bar. In this paper, we proposed a new effective moment of inertia equation to predict the deflection of FRP-reinforced concrete members based on the harmony search algorithm. The harmony search algorithm is used to optimize a function that minimizes the error between the deflection value of the experimental result and the deflection value expected from the specimen’s specifications. In the experimental part, four GFRP (Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer)- and BFRP (Basalt Fiber-Reinforced Polymer)-reinforced concrete slab specimens were manufactured and tested. FRP-reinforced concrete slabs were reinforced with GFRP and BFRP rebars on spiral rib surfaces. The effects of the FRP reinforcement ratio and balanced reinforcement ratio (ρf/ρfb), the moment of inertia of the transformed cracked section and the gross moment of inertia (Icr/Ig), and the cracking moment and the maximum service load moment (Mcr/Ma) on the effective moment of inertia have been considered. The experimental results and predicted results of the flexural testing of concrete slabs reinforced with FRP rebars were compared, and the experimental results were in good agreement with the calculated values using the proposed effective moment of inertia equation.

In this study, we experimentally demonstrate fabrication of ultra-smooth and crystalline barium titanate (BTO) films on magnesium oxide (MgO) substrates by engineering lattice strain and crystal structure via thermal treatment. We observe that oxygen-depleted deposition allows growth of highly strained BTO films on MgO substrates with crack-free surface. In addition, post-thermal treatment relaxes strain, resulting in an enhancement of ferroelectricity. Surface roughening of the BTO films caused by recrystallization during post-thermal treatment is controlled by chemical–mechanical polishing (CMP) to retain their initial ultra-smooth surfaces. From Raman spectroscopy, reciprocal space map (RSM), and capacitance–voltage (C–V) curve measurements, we confirm that the ferroelectricity of BTO films strongly depend on the relaxation of lattice strain and the phase transition from a-axis to c-axis oriented crystal structure.

In this study, we evaluated the topographic pattern of retinal edema in eyes with macular edema (ME) secondary to branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) using a widefield retinal thickness map of optical coherence tomography and its association with ME recurrence. In 87 eyes with ME secondary to BRVO who were treated with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections and followed up for ≥ 1 years, 12 × 9 mm macular volume scans of swept-source optical coherence tomography (DRI-OCT Triton; Topcon Inc, Japan) were performed and retinal thickness maps were automatically generated at baseline and follow-up visits. Topographic patterns of retinal edema on the maps at baseline and 1 month after the first anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment were classified as extramacular (outside the ETDRS grid), macular (within the grid), and combined pattern and correlated with ME recurrences. Seventy-five of 87 (86.2%) eyes with BRVO ME showed combined edema at baseline. There were 4 topographic patterns of edema at 1 month following anti-VEGF injection as follows: no residual edema, extramacular only, macular only, and combined edema. In contrast to the baseline pattern, the pattern of retinal edema 1 month following anti-VEGF therapy showed significant association with 6-month recurrence, number of ME recurrences during a 1-year period, and time to first recurrence. (all P

In this study, we investigated the patterns of visual field (VF) defects and the diagnostic abilities of VF tests using different strategies in Asian patients with hydroxychloroquine retinopathy. Patients screened for hydroxychloroquine retinopathy using optical coherence tomography, fundus autofluorescence, VF, and/or multifocal electroretinography were included. The VF was performed using the Humphrey 30-2 and/or 10-2 strategy, and 2,107 eyes of 1,078 patients with reliable results, including 136 eyes of 68 patients with hydroxychloroquine retinopathy, were analyzed. The characteristics of VF findings were evaluated and the sensitivity and specificity were compared between the 30-2 and 10-2 tests in subgroups of retinopathy severity and pattern. The most common VF defect pattern was partial- or full-ring scotoma in both the 10-2 and 30-2 tests. Among the eyes with hydroxychloroquine retinopathy that underwent both tests, 14.2% showed a disparity between the two tests, almost all at the early stage. In overall and early pericentral retinopathy, the sensitivity of the 30-2 test was significantly higher than that of the 10-2 test (95.7% vs. 77.1% and 90.6% vs. 53.1%, respectively; P P