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BACKGROUND Hypoxia and anemia are among the risk factors for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). The kidneys are important organs that sense oxygen levels and regulate red blood cell synthesis via erythropoietin production. We investigated the contribution of abnormal renal function (reflected by serum creatinine [SCr] levels) to severe ROP in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants. METHODS In the present study, we enrolled 242 VLBW infants of gestational age (GA) ranging between 25 and 32 weeks who were admitted at Soonchunhyang Cheonan University Hospital between Nov 2014 and Dec 2019. The cut-off value for normal SCr for each GA group based was defined as 95th percentile of SCr based on a reference chart developed in a previous study. Risk factors for ROP requiring treatment were analyzed using logistic regression. RESULTS Of the 242 infants, 63 (26%) were high SCr group and 30 (12.4%) infants had ROP requiring treatment. GA (odds ratio 0.38, 95% confidence interval 0.23–0.61) and high SCr group (4.68 [1.10–19.90]) were independent factors for ROP requiring treatment. CONCLUSIONS In VLBW infants, high SCr within the first 4 weeks after birth is one of the risk factors for ROP requiring treatment.

Purpose: There are many patients visited to ED in an alcohol intoxicated state. For these patients, it is difficult to predict by only clinical examination whether he/she would have brain lesion. The purpose of this study is to research whether it is possible to predict brain lesion by only clinical examination findings, with comparing patients with/without actual brain lesions. Methods: A retrospective study was performed at a university hospital for the period 11 months with the medical records. As for the inclusion group, head trauma patients with objectively proved drunk, judging by their blood ethanol concentration, and performed the brain CT were selected. In terms of medical record, Glasgow coma scale (GCS), the presence of neurologic abnormalities, the presence of lesion on brain CT of the patients, were examined. From laboratory results, blood ethanol concentration, platelet count, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) and glucose concentration were identified. Results: For this study, there were total 80 patients of inclusion group. There was no statistically significant difference in terms of GCS score and neurological examination abnormalities, between the group with brain lesion and the group without brain lesion on brain CT. Conclusion: Alcohol intoxicated patient with head trauma visits the ED, it is not possible to distinguish or determine whether brain lesion exists or not by only clinical findings. In order to check the lesion existence, the image examination, therefore, should be considered and performed. [ J Trauma Inj 2016; 29: 99-104 ]

Human breast milk (HBM) contains many bioactive components that protect infants from various microorganisms. Pattern recognition receptors on phagocytic cells recognize microbial pathogens and promote the innate immune system. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of HBM on the expression of pattern recognition receptors and innate cytokines in the monocytic cell line THP-1 and the phagocytic activity of RAW264.7 macrophages. Expression levels of specific mRNAs in THP-1 cells were quantitated using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Phagocytic activity was measured by fluorescence microscopy to detect the uptake of fluorescent dye-labeled carboxylate-modified polystyrene latex beads in RAW264.7 macrophages. HBM stimulated the phagocytic activity of RAW264.7 macrophages. HBM increased mRNA expression of pattern recognition receptors, including the cluster of differentiation 14 and toll-like receptor 2 and 4, and various innate cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin-1β, C-X-C motif chemokine 8, and C-C motif chemokine ligand 2, in THP-1 monocytic cells. Furthermore, milk oligosaccharides in HBM, such as lacto- N-fucopentaose I, enhanced the expression of pattern recognition receptors and various innate cytokines. HBM is able to modulate the innate immune response by upregulating the expression of pattern recognition receptors and various innate cytokines in monocytes/macrophages.

Objective: The aim of this study is to develop the predictive model for motor developmental delay in Korean preterm infants beyond neonatal intensive care unit. Methods: The authors retrospectively investigated the medical records of premature infants who had undergone developmental test and discharged from the single regional newborn intensive care center. We collected 30 independent variables and the motor scale of the Korean version of Bayley scale of infant and toddler development III (K-Bayley III). The predictive modeling was conducted by 3 steps: 1) data preprocessing, 2) training predictive models, and 3) evaluation of final performance of each model. We used sensitivity as a primary evaluation metrics, and F1 score and area under precision-recall curve (AUPRC) as a secondary metrics. Results: Total 359 subjects were enrolled in the study. Ten percent of subjects were below 80 in the motor scale (coding as ‘1’ in the dependent variable). Recurrent neural network model showed the best performance (sensitivity 1.00, F1 score 0.36, AUPRC 0.22). XGBoost model (sensitivity 0.71, F1 score 0.63, AUPRC 0.65) and ridge logistic regression model (sensitivity 0.71, F1 score 0.56, AUPRC 0.60) also showed good performance. Conclusion: Machine learning approach showed good predictive value for motor delay in Korean preterm infants. The further research by using big data from multicenter is needed.

Quercetin, a naturally occurring flavonoid, has been heralded as a promising chemopreventive agent. This study was undertaken to probe the molecular mechanisms underlying the anti-cancer activity of quercetin in malignant mesothelioma (MM) cells. Quercetin at low doses elicited apoptotic cell death on MM MSTO-211H cells, as signified by pyknotic and fragmented nuclei, increased annexin V binding, and increased proportion of cells with hypodiploid DNA. Preceding these changes, quercetin induced up-regulation of p53 at both mRNA and protein levels without altering its ubiquitination, and increased caspase-3/7 activity with the resultant cleavages of procaspase-3 and PARP. Analyses of nuclear p53 level, p53 reporter gene, and RT-PCR toward p53-regulated genes demonstrated that induced p53 is transcriptionally active. The proportion of cells at sub-G0/G1 peak and G2/M phase increased in a quercetin concentration-dependent fashion, which were blocked by the pan-caspase inhibitor Z-VAD. Additionally, quercetin and gemcitabine produced a significant synergistic effect on inhibiting MS-TO-211H cell growth. Given that quercetin induced preferential p53-upregulating, growth-inhibiting, and apoptosis-activating effects on MM cells, the use of quercetin may be a potential therapeutic strategy for enhancing anti-cancer efficacy of existing chemotherapy in MM.

Japanese housing supply rate reaching over hundred percent, accordingly, residential development issues for the private developers have changed from the profit-oriented to providing management and services with the awareness of social responsibility. This study investigates the neighborhood management projects by the private developers in Japan to suggest a sustainable management model for the residential development focusing on the roles and responsibilities of developers. Housing policies and planning issues are reviewed and analyzed based on the residential development projects in Japan. Based on the increase trend of social responsibility of the developers, the characteristics of management practices are examined in five case studies regarding the residential areas managed continuously by developers after the sales. By conducting field visits and in-depth interview with practitioners, the issues of management are classified into five categories: Landscape Management; Community Development; Change of Generation; Convenient Lifestyle; and Crime or Disaster Prevention. The study suggests the essential management plans for each phase of residential development: formation, growth, and maturation. Finally, the importance of sustainable neighborhood management is highlighted to create sustainable profits and to maintain the quality of the residential environment in the era of aging and shrinking society.

Quercetin, a member of the flavonoids, has been heralded as chemopreventive agent, generally because of its free radical-scavenging and antiproliferative activities. In this process, NF-E2-related factor-2 (Nrf2) plays a role in protecting cells from oxidative damage; however, the exact mechanisms in which bronchial epithelial cells respond to quercetin by activating Nrf2 are not fully understood. Here, we report the role of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activation in response to quercetin. Quercetin treatment decreased the viability of human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. ERK1/2 was activated within 10 min of quercetin addition and then remained increased above control level throughout 48 h, whereas AKT phosphorylation was suppressed from the first 1 h of quercetin treatment. Inhibition of Erk1/2 phosphorylation attenuated quercetin-induced loss of cell viability. Nrf2 levels in both nuclear and whole cell lysates increased after quercetin treatment and was accompanied by the increase of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) protein level, indicating that increased HO-1 expression is Nrf2-mediated. Activation of the Nrf2/HO-1 system after quercetin treatment was suppressed by the pretreatment with MEK inhibitor, PD98059. Also, silencing Nrf2 with siRNA decreased cell viability and augmented cytotoxic effect of anticancer drug LBH589. Overall, our results indicate that quercetin induces the up-regulation of Nrf2-mediated HO-1 expression, at least in part, via MEK/ERK1/2 signaling, as an adaptive mechanism which may provide advantages for cell proliferation and enhance survival despite endogenous and/or exogenous oxidative insults.

DDP-64, based on various controlled operations, is a 64-bit Feistel-like block cipher consisting of 10 rounds with a 128-bit key. It was designed to attempt to have a high security level and a high speed performance in hardware on ubiquitous computing systems and multimedia. In this paper, however, we show that DDP-64 doesn't have a high security level, more precisely, we show that it is vulnerable to related-key differential attack. This attack, which is much faster than the key exhaustive search, requires about 254 data and 254 time complexities. This work is the first known cryptanalytic result on DDP-64 so far.

Cryptographic applications, such as data confidentiality and authentication, must be used for secure data communications. PRNG(Pseudo-Random Number Generator) is a basic cryptographic component which is supposed to be satisfied by criteria that we provable security and randomness properties. PRNG it used for generating an initial value or key value of cipher and security of whole cryptographic module depends on the security of PRNG. In this paper, we introduce an PRNG based on a block cipher and prove their security.