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In this study, we analyzed the complete mitochondrial genome of Eudynamys scolopaceus using Illumina and Pacbio next-generation sequencing. The total length of the mitogenome was 18,170 bp and contained 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNAs, 22 transfer RNAs, a non-coding control region, and two repeat regions. The order of the genes and genome structure were the same as those in a previous publication in other Cuculidae species. A phylogenetic tree constructed with 13 PCGs indicated that E. scolopaceus is closely related to Urodynamis taitensis and genus Cuculus.

Long-distance migratory birds travel more rapidly in spring than in autumn, as they face temporal breeding constraints. However, several species travel slower in spring owing to environmental influences, such as food availability and wind conditions. GPS trackers were attached to 17 Whooper Swans (Cygnus cygnus) inhabiting northeastern Mongolia, to determine their migration routes and stopover sites in spring and autumn. Differences between spring and autumn migrations, migration-influencing parameters, and the effect of spring stopover site temperatures were analyzed. Six swans completed perfect tours between their wintering and breeding sites, and these data were used for analysis. Spring migration lasted 57 days, with 49.2 days spent at 3.7 stopover sites. Autumn migration lasted 21.5 days, with 17.5 days spent at 1.0 stopover sites. Thus, the swans traveled more rapidly in autumn than in spring. Migration distance, number of stopovers, migration speed, and straightness were important migration determinants in both spring and autumn. Migration distance, stopover duration, number of stopovers, daily travel speed, travel duration, and migration speed differed significantly between spring and autumn. During spring migration, the temperature at the current stopover sites and that at the future stopover sites displayed significant variations (t ​= ​1585.8, df ​= ​631.6, p ​

Large gulls are generalist predators that play an important role in Arctic food webs. Describing the migratory patterns and phenology of these predators is essential to understanding how Arctic ecosystems function. However, from all six large Arctic gull taxa, including three long-distance migrants, to date seasonal movements have been studied only in three and with small sample sizes. To document the flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull, a widespread but little-studied Siberian migrant, we monitored 28 individuals with GPS loggers over a mean period of 383 days. Birds used similar routes in spring and autumn, preferring coastal to inland or offshore routes, and travelled 4000–5500 km between their breeding (Siberia) and wintering grounds (mainly the Republic of Korea and Japan). Spring migration mainly occurred in May, and was twice as fast and more synchronized among individuals than autumn migration. Migration bouts mainly occurred during the day and twilight, but rates of travel were always higher during the few night flights. Flight altitudes were nearly always higher during migration bouts than during other bouts, and lower during twilight than during night or day. Altitudes above 2000m were recorded during migrations, when birds made non-stop inland flights over mountain ranges and vast stretches of the boreal forest. Individuals showed high inter-annual consistency in their movements in winter and summer, indicating strong site fidelity to their breeding and wintering sites. Within-individual variation was similar in spring and autumn, but between individual variation was higher in autumn than in spring. Compared to previous studies, our results suggest that the timing of spring migration in large Arctic gulls is likely constrained by snowmelt at breeding grounds, while the duration of migration windows could be related to the proportion of inland versus coastal habitats found along their flyways (‘fly-and-forage’ strategy). Ongoing environmental changes are hence likely in short term to alter the timing of their migration, and in long term possibly affect the duration if e.g. the resource availability along the route changes in the future.

Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) express complex behavioral patterns (aggressiveness) in defensive mechanisms for their survival. Their phenotypic expression of defensive behavior is influenced by internal and external stimuli. Knowledge of this behavior has recently become increasingly important, though beekeepers are still faced with the challenges of selecting defensive and less-defensive bred lines. Field evaluation of defensive behavior among bred lines of honey bees is required to overcome the challenges. Chemical cues (alarm pheromone and isopentyl acetate mixed with paraffin oil) and physical and visual stimuli (dark leather suede, colony marbling, and suede jiggling) were used to evaluate defensiveness and orientation among five bred lines of honeybee colonies. Our results showed that both chemical assays recruited bees, but the time of recruitment was significantly faster for alarm pheromone. Honeybees’ response to both assays culminated in stings that differed among bred lines for alarm pheromone and paraffin when colonies were marbled. Honeybee orientation defensiveness varied among bred lines and was higher in more defensive bred lines compared to less-defensive bred lines. Our findings suggest that it is crucial to repeatedly evaluate orientation defensiveness at the colony level and among bred lines when selecting breeding colonies.

The purpose of this study is to understand the characteristics of mathematical reasoning of elementary preservice teachers (EPTs). For this purpose, 68 EPTs were presented with two tasks related to mathematical reasoning, and their written responses were analyzed. The EPTs' mathematical reasonings were investigated on the one hand as a whole and on the other hand between the three groups -the full successful, partial successful, and unsuccessful provers-, with focusing on the affordances from and strategies for using examples proposed in the CAPS framework. As the results of this study, it was revealed that the EPTs had insufficient competencies in terms of exploring with examples, finding structural features, building generalizations, developing conjectures, and producing proofs. In contrast, the EPTs had great strength with regard to representing their chosen examples in formal expression, which was a decisive contributor on the one hand but an impediment on the other in producing valid justifications to the given conjectures. Based on the results, the implications for elementary preservice teacher education were suggested.

Abstract Background Infectious diseases that can cause epidemics, such as COVID-19, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV, constitute a major social issue, with healthcare providers fearing secondary, tertiary, and even quaternary infections. To alleviate this problem, telemedicine is increasingly being viewed as an effective means through which patients can be diagnosed and medications prescribed by doctors via untact Thus, concomitant with developments in information and communication technology (ICT), medical institutions have actively analyzed and applied ICT to medical systems to provide optimal medical services. However, with the convergence of these diverse technologies, various risks and security threats have emerged. To protect patients and improve telemedicine quality for patient safety, it is necessary to analyze these risks and security threats comprehensively and institute appropriate countermeasures. Methods The security threats likely to be encountered in each of seven telemedicine service areas were analyzed, and related data were collected directly through on-site surveys by a medical institution. Subsequently, an attack tree, the most popular reliability and risk modeling approach for systematically characterizing the potential risks of telemedicine systems, was examined and utilized with the attack occurrence probability and attack success probability as variables to provide a comprehensive risk assessment method. Results In this study, the most popular modelling method, an attack tree, was applied to the telemedicine environment, and the security concerns for telemedicine systems were found to be very large. Risk management and evaluation methods suitable for the telemedicine environment were identified, and their benefits and potential limitations were assessed. Conclusion This research should be beneficial to security experts who wish to investigate the impacts of cybersecurity threats on remote healthcare and researchers who wish to identify new modeling opportunities to apply security risk modeling techniques.

Hospital biomedical engineering teams are responsible for establishing and regulating medical equipment management programs (MEMPs); these programs ensure the safety and reliability of medical devices. Concomitant with rapid technological advancements, medical devices have been developed that are now being integrated with information and communication technology. However, with the convergence of such diverse technologies, internal and external security threats are continuously increasing. Thus, to reduce medical device security threats, important devices must be identified and prioritized. In this study, we propose a multicriteria decision-making model that prioritizes medical devices by extending the Fennigkoh and Smith model to include security threats. First, we formulate criteria for evaluating medical device functions based on the classification of the medical devices according to their unique functions, connections, and data types. Then, through threat modeling, we develop a method of identifying and evaluating security threats to these devices. We discuss establishing a safer MEMP by analyzing the attack occurrence probability (AOP) and attack success probability (ASP) of medical devices and the inherent security threats that these devices face, none of which are considered in the existing model. Thus, by using the enhanced Fennigkoh and Smith model, our proposed approach enables the development of improved security-enhanced MEMPs, including cybersecurity risk assessments.

The generative adversarial neural network has shown a novel result in the image generation area. However, applying it to a semantic segmentation inpainting task exhibits instability due to the different data distribution. To solve this problem, we propose an unsupervised semantic segmentation inpainting method using an adversarial deep neural network with a newly introduced preprocessing method and loss function. For stabilizing the adversarial training for semantic segmentation inpainting, we match the probability distribution of the segmentation maps with the developed preprocessing method. In addition, a new cross-entropy total variation loss for the probability map is introduced to improve the segmentation inpainting work by smoothing the segmentation map. The experimental results demonstrate the proposed algorithm’s effectiveness on both synthetic and real datasets.

Abstract Background Several studies suggest that statin may increase the risk of new-onset diabetes mellitus (NODM). This study aimed to evaluate the association between the duration and recent use of statin, and the risk of NODM, based on population-based data sets. Methods We used the South Korean National Health Insurance Service National Sample Cohort database for this nationwide case–control study. Of the 1 million participants, 6417 participants with NODM in 2012–2013 and 32,085 controls without diabetes (1:5 propensity score matched with age, sex, index year, and year of diabetes diagnosis) were included. In these patients, we examined the statin prescription record for 3 years preceding the outcome. We used conditional logistic regression to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results After adjustment of covariates, there were no significant differences in the risk of NODM when analyzed according to cumulative use days. The risk of NODM was increased only in the short-term and recent user group (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.82) whose cumulative prescription days are less than 6 months and whose last prescription is within 6 months of diagnosis. Conclusions The risk of NODM was not associated with an increase in the cumulative duration of statin use or with non-recent use. Only recent short-term use of statin was associated with an increased risk of NODM. Diabetes screening are warranted during initial statin therapy.

A small amount of 1-aminoanthraquinone (AAQ) was used as an electro-polymerizable additive in a liquid electrolyte. AAQ was electrochemically oxidized to form a thin conductive poly(1-aminoanthraquinone) (PAAQ) layer on a sodium-ion cathode material, Na3V2(PO4)2F3 (NVPF), at approximately 4.0 V during the initial charging processes. The resulting PAAQ layer provided an effective conduction pathway in the NVPF electrode, and thus enhanced the cycling performance in terms of the discharge capacity, cycling stability and rate capability. Our study demonstrates a simple and efficient approach to boost the electrochemical performance of a NVPF cathode for sodium-ion batteries.

The main objectives of this research are to evaluate the effects of delamination defects on the measurement of electrical resistivity of reinforced concrete slabs through analytical and experimental studies in the laboratory, and to propose a practical guide for electrical resistivity measurements on concrete with delamination defects. First, a 3D finite element model was developed to simulate the variation of electric potential field in concrete over delamination defects with various depths and lateral sizes. Second, for experimental studies, two reinforced concrete slab specimens (1500 mm (width) by 1500 mm (length) by 300 mm (thickness)) with artificial delamination defects of various dimensions and depths were fabricated. Third, the electrical resistivity of concrete over delamination defects in the numerical simulation models and the two concrete slab specimens were evaluated by using a 4-point Wenner probe in accordance with AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Office) T-358. It was demonstrated from analytical and experimental studies in this study that shallow (50 mm depth) and deep (250 mm depth) delamination defects resulted in higher and lower electrical resistivity (ER) values, respectively, as compared to measurements performed on solid concrete locations. Furthermore, the increase in size of shallow defects resulted in an increase in concrete resistivity, whereas the increase in sizes of deep delamination defects yielded opposite results. In addition, measurements done directly above the steel reinforcements significantly lowered ER values. Lastly, it was observed from experimental studies that the effect of delamination defects on the values of electrical resistivity decreases as the saturation level of concrete increases.

Lithium–sulfur batteries are attractive candidates for next generation high energy applications, but more research works are needed to overcome their current challenges, namely: (a) the poor electronic conductivity of sulfur, and (b) the dissolution and migration of long-chain polysulfides. Inspired by eco-friendly and bio-derived materials, we synthesized highly porous carbon from cinnamon sticks. The bio-carbon had an ultra-high surface area and large pore volume, which serves the dual functions of making sulfur particles highly conductive and acting as a polysulfide reservoir. Sulfur was predominantly impregnated into pores of the carbon, and the inter-connected hierarchical pore structure facilitated a faster ionic transport. The strong carbon framework maintained structural integrity upon volume expansion, and the unoccupied pores served as polysulfide trapping sites, thereby retaining the polysulfide within the cathode and preventing sulfur loss. These mechanisms contributed to the superior performance of the lithium-sulfur cell, which delivered a discharge capacity of 1020 mAh g−1 at a 0.2C rate. Furthermore, the cell exhibited improved kinetics, with an excellent cycling stability for 150 cycles with a very low capacity decay of 0.10% per cycle. This strategy of combining all types of pores (micro, meso and macro) with a high pore volume and ultra-high surface area had a synergistic effect on improving the performance of the sulfur cathode.

ObjectivesThis study attempted to identify the factors that contribute to successful telemedicine service. This was done by analyzing the operational state of successful telemedicine services offered in Gangwon Province of Korea and their outcome for the last fifteen years.MethodsA comparative analysis was made based on reports and a thesis on the satisfaction rate of patients and providers, patient compliance to treatment, and economic assessment of Gangwon telemedicine service, which were carried out in three periods: the years 2006, 2010, and 2012.ResultsThe satisfaction surveys in all three periods showed similar results for patients (4.46±0.70 point) and healthcare practitioners, including nurses (3.82±0.62 point) and physicians (3.60±0.56 point), in decreasing order from the year 2012. Through the survey of patients' compliance with treatment, it was confirmed that telemedicine services increased patients' compliance with drug administration, facilitated improvement of lifestyle habits, improved glycated hemoglobin for patients with diabetes mellitus, and enhanced the rate of blood pressure control. In the survey conducted on patients' willingness to pay for telemedicine services in 2007, it was found that those patients were willing to pay about $3.5 for services.ConclusionsThe telemedicine services of Gangwon Province increased patients' compliance with drug administration, improved blood glucose control, enhanced blood pressure control for patients with hypertension, and provided economic advantage.

We propose a local feature descriptor based on moment. Although conventional scale invariant feature transform (SIFT)-based algorithms generally use difference of Gaussian (DoG) for feature extraction, they remain sensitive to more complicated deformations. To solve this problem, we propose MIFT, an invariant feature transform algorithm based on the modified discrete Gaussian-Hermite moment (MDGHM). Taking advantage of MDGHM’s high performance to represent image information, MIFT uses an MDGHM-based pyramid for feature extraction, which can extract more distinctive extrema than the DoG, and MDGHM-based magnitude and orientation for feature description. We compared the proposed MIFT method performance with current best practice methods for six image deformation types, and confirmed that MIFT matching accuracy was superior of other SIFT-based methods.

The nonstructural 5B (NS5B) protein of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) with RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) activity plays a pivotal role in viral replication. Therefore, monitoring of its naturally occurring mutations is very important for the development of antiviral therapies and vaccines. In the present study, mutations in the partial NS5B gene (492 bp) from 166 quasispecies of 15 genotype-1b (GT) treatment-naïve Korean chronic patients were determined and mutation patterns and frequencies mainly focusing on the T cell epitope regions were evaluated. The mutation frequency within the CD8+ T cell epitopes was significantly higher than those outside the CD8+ T cell epitopes. Of note, the mutation frequency within predicted CD4+ T cell epitopes, a particular mutational hotspot in Korean patients was significantly higher than it was in patients from other areas, suggesting distinctive CD4+ T cell-mediated immune pressure against HCV infection in the Korean population. The mutation frequency in the NS5B region was positively correlated with patients with carrier-stage rather than progressive liver disease (chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma). Furthermore, the mutation frequency in four codons (Q309, A333, V338 and Q355) known to be related to the sustained virological response (SVR) and end-of treatment response (ETR) was also significantly higher in Korean patients than in patients from other areas. In conclusion, a high degree of mutation frequency in the HCV GT-1b NS5B region, particularly in the predicted CD4+ T cell epitopes, was found in Korean patients, suggesting the presence of distinctive CD4+ T cell pressure in the Korean population. This provides a likely explanation of why relatively high levels of SVR after a combined therapy of pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) in Korean chronic patients with GT-1b infections are observed.

For the commercial applications of hydrogen separation membranes, both high hydrogen selectivity and permeability (i.e., perm-selectivity) are required. However, it has been difficult to fabricate thin, dense Pd alloy composite membranes on porous metal support that have a pore-free surface and an open structure at the interface between the Pd alloy films and the metal support in order to obtain the required properties simultaneously. In this study, we fabricated Pd alloy hydrogen separation membranes with dense/porous hybrid structure for high hydrogen perm-selectivity. The hydrogen selectivity of this membrane increased owing to the dense and pore-free microstructure of the membrane surface. The hydrogen permeation flux also was remarkably improved by the formation of an open microstructure with numerous open voids at the interface and by an effective reduction in the membrane thickness as a result of the porous structure formed within the Pd alloy films.

Molecular mechanisms related to occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, particularly those based on genotype C infection, have rarely been determined thus far in the ongoing efforts to determine infection mechanisms. Therefore, we aim to elucidate the mutation patterns in the surface open reading frame (S ORF) underlying occult infections of HBV genotype C in the present study. Nested PCRs were applied to 624 HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) negative Korean subjects. Cloning and sequencing of the S ORF gene was applied to 41 occult cases and 40 control chronic carriers. Forty-one (6.6%) of the 624 Korean adults with HBsAg-negative serostatus were found to be positive for DNA according to nested PCR tests. Mutation frequencies in the three regions labeled here as preS1, preS2, and S were significantly higher in the occult subjects compared to the carriers in all cases. A total of two types of deletions, preS1 deletions in the start codon and preS2 deletions as well as nine types of point mutations were significantly implicated in the occult infection cases. Mutations within the "a" determinant region in HBsAg were found more frequently in the occult subjects than in the carriers. Mutations leading to premature termination of S ORF were found in 16 occult subjects (39.0%) but only in one subject from among the carriers (2.5%). In conclusion, our data suggest that preS deletions, the premature termination of S ORF, and "a" determinant mutations are associated with occult infections of HBV genotype C among a HBsAg-negative population. The novel mutation patterns related to occult infection introduced in the present study can help to broaden our understanding of HBV occult infections.

A new fuzzy inference technique is presented to replace the conventional fuzzy inference process of type-2 fuzzy logic systems. Because conventional type-2 fuzzy logic systems demand a large amount of memory, they cannot be used by most embedded systems, which do not have enough memory space. To overcome this problem, a new fuzzy inference technique for singleton type-2 fuzzy logic systems is presented in this paper which designs mapping functions from input variables to firing sets and brings out the firing sets directly without using as much memory.

Previous studies have proved the presence of several distinct types of mutations in hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections, which are related to the progression of liver disease. However, few reports have detailed the mutation frequencies and mutation patterns in the precore/core (preC/C) region, which are based on the clinical status and HBeAg serostatus. Our aim in this study is to investigate the relationships between the preC/C mutations and clinical severity or HBeAg serostatus from patients chronically infected with HBV genotype C. A total of 70 Korean chronic patients, including 35 with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), participated in this study. HBV genotyping and precore/core mutations were analyzed by direct sequencing. All patients were confirmed to have genotype C infections. Mutations in the C region were distributed in a non-random manner. In particular, mutations in the MHC class II restricted region were found to be significantly related to HCC. Six (preC-W28*, C-P5H/L/T, C-E83D, C-I97F/L, C-L100I and C-Q182K/*) and seven types (preC-W28*, preC-G29D, C-D32N/H, C-E43K, C-P50A/H/Y, C-A131G/N/P and C-S181H/P) of mutations in the preC/C region were found to be related to HCC and to affect the HBeAg serostatus, respectively. In conclusion, our data indicated that HBV variants in the C region, particularly in the MHC class II restricted region, may contribute to the progress of HCC in chronic patients infected with genotype C. In addition, we found several distinct preC/C mutations in the Korean chronic cohort, which affect the clinical status of HCC and HBeAg serostatus of patients infected with genotype C.

We report multifunctional organic semiconductor materials for both organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) based on a novel bis-lactam core, 1,5-naphthyridine-2,6-dione (NTD). Two different NTD derivatives, NTDC-N and NTDC-N-4F, are designed and synthesized to investigate the effects of π-conjugation extension and fluorination of an end group on molecular properties and optoelectronic device performance. Grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) results confirm that the two molecules are face-on oriented with compact stacking which is favorable for OPV applications. Under optimum conditions, OPVs based on NTDC-N and NTDC-N-4F as acceptor materials exhibit PCEs of 7.5% and 8.2%, respectively, with PCE-10 as the donor material. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images illustrate a smoother surface morphology for NTDC-N-4F compared to that for NTDC-N, which contributes to better performance. In addition, OFET applications of NTDC-N and NTDC-N-4F show decent ambipolar mobilities of 10-3-10-2 cm² V-1 s-1. These results demonstrate that NTD can be applied in numerous different optoelectronic devices for multiple purposes as a versatile organic semiconducting building block depending on its molecular design strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This study aimed to assess the variability of transrectal shear wave elastography (SWE) using a designed phantom. Materials and Methods In a phantom, the SWE values were examined by two radiologists using agarose and emulsion silicone of different sizes (1, 2, and 3 cm) and shapes (round, cubic) at three depths (1, 2, and 3 cm), two region of interest (ROI) and locations (central, peripheral) using two ultrasound machines (A, B from different vendors). Variability was evaluated using the coefficient of variation (CV). Results The CVs decreased with increasing phantom size. Significant changes in SWE values included; agarose phantom at 3 cm depth (p < 0.001; machine A), 1 cm depth (p = 0.01; machine B), emulsion silicone at 2 cm depth (p = 0.047, p = 0.020; both machines). The CVs increased with increasing depth. Significant changes in SWE values included; 1 cm agarose (p = 0.037, p = 0.021; both machines) and 2 cm agarose phantom (p = 0.047; machine A). Significant differences in SWE values were observed between the shapes for emulsion silicone phantom (p = 0.032; machines A) and between ROI locations on machine B (p ≤ 0.001). The SWE values differed significantly between the two machines (p < 0.05). The intra-/inter-operator agreements were excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.9). Conclusion The phantom size, depth, and different machines affected the variability of transrectal SWE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]