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In this work, we demonstrate the bioavailability of dietary sialyllactose by concentration–time profiles in an osteoarthritis mini-pig model and suggest a potential therapeutic effect of sialyllactose on osteoarthritis.

The fidelity of motor control requires the precise positional arrangement of motor pools and the establishment of synaptic connections between these pools. In the developing spinal cord, motor nerves project to specific target muscles and receive proprioceptive input from the muscles via the sensorimotor circuit. LIM-homeodomain transcription factors are known to successively restrict specific motor neuronal fates during neural development; however, it remains unclear to what extent they contribute to limb-based motor pools and locomotor circuits. Here, we showed in mice that deletion ofIsl2resulted in scattered motor pools, primarily in the median motor column and lateral LMC (LMCl) populations, and lacked Pea3 expression in the hindlimb motor pools, accompanied by reduced terminal axon branching and disorganized neuromuscular junctions. Transcriptomic analysis ofIsl2- deficient spinal cords revealed that a variety of genes involved in motor neuron differentiation, axon development, and synapse organization were downregulated in hindlimb motor pools. Moreover, the loss ofIsl2impaired sensorimotor connectivity and hindlimb locomotion. Together, our studies indicate thatIsl2plays a critical role in organizing motor pool position and sensorimotor circuits in hindlimb motor pools.

Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) controls neuronal migration in the developing cortex when multipolar newborn neurons transform to become bipolar. However, by which mechanisms Cdk5 controls cell adhesion in migrating neurons are not fully understood. In this study, we examined the functional interaction between Cdk5 and N-cadherin (Ncad) in newborn neurons when they undergo the multipolar to bipolar transition in the intermediate zone (IZ). Detailed expression analysis revealed that both Cdk5 and Ncad were present in GFP-electroporated migrating neurons in the IZ. Misexpression of dominant negative Cdk5 into the embryonic brains stalled neuronal locomotion in the lower IZ in which arrested cells were round or multipolar. When Ncad was co-introduced with Cdk5DN, however, cells continue to migrate into the cortical plate (CP) and migrating neurons acquired typical bipolar morphology with a pia-directed leading process. Similarly, downregulation of CDK5 resulted in lesser aggregation ability, reversed by the expression of Ncad in vitro. Down-regulation of activity or protein level of CDK5 did not alter the total amount of NCAD proteins but lowered its surface expression in cells. Lastly, expression of CDK5 and NCAD overlapped in the IZ of the human fetal cortex, indicating that the role of Cdk5 and Ncad in neuronal migration is evolutionarily conserved.

Glufosinate-ammonium (GLA) is a broad-spectrum herbicide for agricultural weed control and crop desiccation. Due to many GLA-resistant crops being developed to effectively control weeds and increase harvest yields, herbicide usage and the residual GLA in food has increased significantly. Though perinatal exposure by the residual GLA in food might affect brain development, the developmental neurotoxicity of GLA is still unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of perinatal exposure to GLA on cortical development. The analysis revealed that perinatal GLA exposure altered behavioral changes in offspring, especially motor functional behavior. Moreover, perinatal GLA exposure affected cortical development, particularly by disrupting interneuron migration. These results provide new evidence that early life exposure to GLA alters cortical development.

Ginseng (Panax ginseng) is commonly used in Asia as a medicinal herb. In particular, fermented ginseng, GBCK25, has been recently developed to increase ginsenoside absorption. It also has other beneficial biological effects such as hemodynamic and anti-inflammation functions. Here, we investigated the potential toxicity of GBCK25 in Sprague–Dawley rats following 13 weeks of GBCK25 treatment by oral gavage at doses of 250, 500, or 1000 mg/kg/day and reversible toxic effects over a 4-week recovery phase. Ten male and female rats per group were randomly allocated to the main toxicology groups and five male and female rats per group were allocated to the 0 and 1000 mg/kg/day recovery groups, respectively. There was no mortality; significant clinical toxicity or microscopic findings; and changes in body weight, food consumption, hematological parameters, serum biochemistry, or absolute and relative organ weights in any of the groups. In conclusion, there were no toxicological changes upon repeated oral gavage of GBCK25 at doses of 250, 500, or 1000 mg/kg/day in Sprague–Dawley rats over 13 weeks. The no-observed-adverse-effect level of GBCK25 was 1000 mg/kg/day in both sexes of Sprague–Dawley rat.

Severe intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in premature infants triggers reactive gliosis, causing acute neuronal death and glial scar formation. Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has often showed improved CNS recovery in an IVH model, but whether this response is related to reactive glial cells is still unclear. Herein, we suggest that MSCs impede the response of reactive microglia rather than astrocytes, thereby blocking neuronal damage. Astrocytes alone showed mild reactiveness under hemorrhagic conditions mimicked by thrombin treatment, and this was not blocked by MSC-conditioned medium (MSC-CM) in vitro. In contrast, thrombin-induced microglial activation and release of proinflammatory cytokines were inhibited by MSC-CM. Interestingly, astrocytes showed greater reactive response when co-cultured with microglia, and this was abolished in the presence of MSC-CM. Gene expression profiles in microglia revealed that transcript levels of genes for immune response and proinflammatory cytokines were altered by thrombin treatment. This result coincided with the robust phosphorylation of STAT1 and p38 MAPK, which might be responsible for the production and release of proinflammatory cytokines. Furthermore, application of MSC-CM diminished thrombin-mediated phosphorylation of STAT1 and p38 MAPK, supporting the acute anti-inflammatory role of MSCs under hemorrhagic conditions. In line with this, activation of microglia and consequent cytokine release were impaired in Stat1-null mice. However, reactive response in Stat1-deficient astrocytes was maintained. Taken together, our results demonstrate that MSCs mainly block the activation of microglia involving STAT1-mediated cytokine release and subsequent reduction of reactive astrocytes.

Repeated dose oral toxicity and toxicokinetic of KDS2010, a new drug for Parkinson's disease, was investigated after 4-week repeated oral administration at 30, 50, 75, or 100 mg/kg/day in rats. Body weight and body weight gain decreased in rats of both sexes in the 75 and 100 mg/kg groups, and food consumption was reduced in male rats of the 75 and 100 mg/kg male groups. Histological alterations were observed in the kidney (urothelial hyperplasia, inflammatory cell infiltration in the renal pelvis, tubular vacuolation/degeneration, basophilic tubules, and hyaline droplets in the proximal tubules) of the 75 and 100 mg/kg male groups and the 50 and 100 mg/kg female groups. The 75 and 100 mg/kg male groups showed adverse effect in the testes (degeneration/exfoliation of germ cells, seminiferous tubules atrophy) and epididymis (cellular debris, oligospermia). These changes were partially recovered after a 2-week recovery period. However, basophilic tubules and hyaline droplets in the proximal tubules in the kidney and germ cell degeneration/exfoliation in the testis were not recovered. In toxicokinetics study, systemic exposure to KDS2010 increased proportionally in both sexes by in a dose -dependent manner. In addition, repeated administration for 4 weeks led to increased tendency of systemic exposure in both sexes compared with that in Day 1. In conclusion, KDS2010 was shown to target the kidney and testis with a no-observed-adverse-effect level of 50 and 30 mg/kg/day for males and females, respectively.

This study was conducted to determine the meat quality characteristics of pork belly from 3 different two-way crossbreeds of Yorkshire×Landrace (YL), Yorkshire×Berkshire (YB), and Yorkshire×Chester White (YC), which were domesticated for Korean consumers. Twenty pigs from each crossbreed (total n=60) were randomly selected when they reached the 110- 120 kg range of market weight, slaughtered, and cooled at 0oC for 24 h. The pork bellies on the left side of the cooled carcasses were then sampled and analyzed. The pH of pork bellies was the lowest in YC among the crossbreds. There was no significant difference in fat content by crossbred, but YB bellies had the lowest moisture content (p

This paper presents a method for restoring old films corrupted by scratches and blotches. In the proposed method, the reconstruction problem is formulated in a Bayesian framework, where a priori and likelihood are used to model the smoothness within the original images and between the original and observed images, respectively. As the proposed model uses no prior knowledge of scratches and blotches, it can be used to restore various types of degradation. In addition, to minimize the energy function derived in the proposed model, a modified version of DGAs is used, where chromosomes are evolved according to regionally assigned properties, thereby improving the convergence to stable solutions. The proposed restoration method was tested using well-known old films and artificially corrupted films, and the experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm is very efficient and the quality of the images reconstructed using the proposed method is competitive with that restored using existing film restoration methods.

LIM-homeodomain (HD) transcription factors form a multimeric complex and assign neuronal subtype identities, as demonstrated by the hexameric ISL1-LHX3 complex which gives rise to somatic motor (SM) neurons. However, the roles of combinatorial LIM code in motor neuron diversification and their subsequent differentiation is much less well understood. In the present study, we demonstrate that the ISL1 controls postmitotic cranial branchiomotor (BM) neurons including the positioning of the cell bodies and peripheral axon pathfinding. Unlike SM neurons, which transform into interneurons, BM neurons are normal in number and in marker expression in Isl1 mutant mice. Nevertheless, the movement of trigeminal and facial BM somata is stalled, and their peripheral axons are fewer or misrouted, with ectopic branches. Among genes whose expression level changes in previous ChIP-seq and microarray analyses in Isl1-deficient cell lines, we found that Slit2 transcript was almost absent from BM neurons of Isl1 mutants. Both ISL1-LHX3 and ISL1-LHX4 bound to the Slit2 enhancer and drove endogenous Slit2 expression in SM and BM neurons. Our findings suggest that combinations of ISL1 and LHX factors establish cell-type specificity and functional diversity in terms of motor neuron identities and/or axon development.

s Oscillations in Notch signaling are essential for reserving neural progenitors for cellular diversity in developing brains. Thus, steady and prolonged overactivation of Notch signaling is not suitable for generating neurons. To acquire greater temporal control of Notch activity and mimic endogenous oscillating signals, here we adopted a light-inducible transgene system to induce active form of Notch NICD in neural progenitors. Alternating Notch activity saved more progenitors that are prone to produce neurons creating larger number of mixed clones with neurons and progenitors in vitro, compared to groups with no light or continuous light stimulus. Furthermore, more upper layer neurons and astrocytes arose upon intermittent Notch activity, indicating that dynamic Notch activity maintains neural progeny and fine-tune neuron-glia diversity.

The purpose of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for productive traits in swine. Productive traits were considered on average daily gain (ADG), body height (BH) and body length (BL). Genetic analysis was consisted of 18,668 heads for productive traits which were based on on-farm performance tested from May, 2007 to Apr, 2011. For estimating genetic parameters on productive traits, single best model was fitted after finding source of variance on fixed and random effects and estimated with a multiple trait animal model by using DF-REML (Derivative-Free Restricted Maximum Likelihood). The estimated heritabilities of Duroc, Berkshire, Landrace and Yorkshire 0.22~0.58 for the average daily gain, 0.34~0.41 for the body height and 0.4~0.52 for the body length, respectively. Phenotypic correlations of average daily gain with body height and body length for the four breeds were 0.42~0.48, 0.53~0.58, 0.34~0.46 and 0.47~0.56, respectively. Phenotypic correlations of body height with body length were 0.41, 0.57, 0.52, 0.59, respectively. The estimated genetic correlation coefficients of average daily gain with body height and body length estimated for the four breeds were 0.34~0.47, 0.70~0.75, 0.17~0.38 and 0.50~0.53, respectively. The estimated genetic correlation coefficients of body height with body length were 0.57, 0.69, 0.61 and 0.71, respectively. (Key words : Genetic correlations, Animal model, Average daily gain, Body weight)

본 연구에서는 18,668두의 농장 검정된 종돈 자료를 이용하여 유전모수 및 육종가를 추정하였다. 2007년부터 5월부터 2011년 4월까지 영광 소재 N종돈장에서 검정된 Duroc, Berkshire, Landrace 및 Yorkshire종 18,668두에 대한 자료를 근거로 하여 돼지의 주요 경제형질인 90 kg 도달일령, 등지방두께 및 등심단면적에 대한 유전력, 유전상관, 표현형상관 및 육종가를 다형질 Animal model을 이용하여 추정하였다. 본 연구에서 추정된 Duroc종에 대한 90kg 도달일령, 등지방두께 및 등심단면적에 대한 유전력은 0.22, 0.62, 0.37로 추정되었으며 Berkshire종의 유전력은 0.52, 0.57 및 0.32로 나타났고 Landrace종의 각 형질의 유전력은 0.26, 0.51 및 0.23이었으며 Yorkshire종의 유전력은 0.29, 0.47 및 0.26을 나타내었다. 본 연구에서 추정된 Duroc의 주요 경제 형질간의 유전 상관 및 표현형 상관은 90 kg 도달일령과, 등지방두께, 등심단면적, 등지방와 등심단면적간에 각각 유전, 표현형상관 0.24, -0.25과 0.11, -0.21 그리고 -0.41 및 -0.19로 추정되었으며 Berkshire종 유전 상관 및 표현형 상관은 -0.01, -0.35 및 0.01, -0.28 그리고 등지방두께에 대한 등심단면적은 -0.68 및 -0.22를 나타내었다. Landrace종의 경우 유전 상관 및 표현형 상관이 90 kg 도달일령과, 등지방두께, 등심단면적, 등지방두께와 등심단면적간에 각각 유전, 표현형 상관 0.01,.-0.23과 0.03, -0.37 그리고 -0.17 및 -0.24로 추정 되었으며 Yorkshire종은 0.01, -0.23 및 0.03, -0.37 그리고 -0.17, -0.24로 추정 되었다. 연도별 유전적 개량 추세를 살펴보면 90 kg 도달일령의 경우 매년도달일령이 짧아지는 것을 나타냈으며 등지방두께의 경우 모든 품종에서 매년 두꺼워지는 것을 보였고 등심단면적은 각 품종이 매년 증감을 반복하는 것을 나타냈다. 【The objective of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters and breeding value of swine using their economic traits. The traits considered were age at 90 kilograms body weight (D90 kg), backfat thickness (BF) and eye muscle area (EMA). Estimation of genetic parameters and breeding value from 18,668 heads considering the economic traits were based on farm performance data from May 2007 to April 2011. Estimation of genetic parameters based on economic traits revealed that the single best model was fitted after finding source of variance on fixed and random effects and estimated by a multiple trait model using DF-REML (Derivative-FREE Restricted Maximum Likelihood). In this study, the estimated heritabilities of Duroc, Berkshire, Landrace and Yorkshire were about 0.22-0.59 for the D90 kg, 0.47-0.62 for the BF and 0.23-0.37 for the EMA. Genetic correlation of D90 kg with BF and EMA of the four breeds were -0.01-0.24 and -0.35--0.23, respectively. Moreover, the genetic correlation of BF with EMA was -0.68--0.17. On the other hand, the phenotypic correlation of D90 kg with BF and EMA of the four breeds were about 0.01-0.11 and -0.37--0.21, respectively, while the phenotypic correlation of BF with EMA was -0.68--0.17. Results showed that the genetic trends of breeding value every year were decreasing for D90 kg, increasing for BF while for EMA inconsistent values were obtained.】

Spinal muscular atrophy and hereditary motor and sensory neuropathies are characterized by muscle weakness and atrophy caused by the degenerations of peripheral motor and sensory nerves. Recent advances in genetics have resulted in the identification of missense mutations in TRPV4 in patients with these hereditary neuropathies. Neurodegeneration caused by Ca(2+) overload due to the gain-of-function mutation of TRPV4 was suggested as the molecular mechanism for the neuropathies. Despite the importance of TRPV4 mutations in causing neuropathies, the precise role of TRPV4 in the sensory/motor neurons is unknown. Here, we report that TRPV4 mediates neurotrophic factor-derived neuritogenesis in developing peripheral neurons. TRPV4 was found to be highly expressed in sensory and spinal motor neurons in early development as well as in the adult, and the overexpression or chemical activation of TRPV4 was found to promote neuritogenesis in sensory neurons as well as PC12 cells, whereas its knockdown and pharmacologic inhibition had the opposite effect. More importantly, nerve growth factor or cAMP treatment up-regulated the expression of phospholipase A(2) and TRPV4. Neurotrophic factor-derived neuritogenesis appears to be regulated by the phospholipase A(2)-mediated TRPV4 pathway. These findings show that TRPV4 mediates neurotrophic factor-induced neuritogenesis in developing peripheral nerves. Because neurotrophic factors are essential for the maintenance of peripheral nerves, these findings suggest that aberrant TRPV4 activity may lead to some types of pathology of sensory and motor nerves.

국내 소비자 기호에 적합한 한국형 비육돈 생산을 위한 국내에 보급된 돼지 품종의 육질 특성을 비교하기 위하여, Landrace(L), Yorkshire(Y), Duroc(D), Berkshire(B) 및 Chester White(C)의 다섯 가지 품종의 등심, 목심 및 삼겹살 부위에 대한 육질특성 분석 및 관능평가를 실시하였다. 등심 부위에 있어서 D품종의 지방함량이 다른 품종에 비해 높았으며, 목심과 삼겹살에서는 B품종의 지방함량이 가장 높았다. 육색에서는 C품종만이 등심과 목심 부위에서 a* 및 b*값이 낮았으며, 삼겹살에서는 지방층의 간섭으로 육색지수 차이가 크지 않았다. 지방함량이 낮은 부위인 등심과 목심에서는 Y품종이 D 및 B품종에 비하여 보수력이 우수하였으나 삼겹살의 가열감량은 D 및 B품종이 낮아, 보수력이나 가열감량과 같은 물리적 특성은 부위별로 매우 다른 양상을 보였다. 삼겹살의 경우 B품종은 높은 지방함량 수치에도 불구하고 가열하여 7일간 보관한 시료에서도 낮은 TBARS값을 보였다. 지방산의 경우 품종 및 부위별로 미세한 차이만 있었으며 품종보다는 사료의 성분 차이로 사료된다. 이화학적 분석 및 관능검사를 토대로 등심에서는 D품종이, 목심에서는 B품종의 육질특성이 상대적으로 우수한 것으로 평가되었으며, 삼겹살에서는 C품종만이 열등한 것으로 평가되었다. 품종별 육질특성을 비교하였을 때 부위별 육질특성이 일치되지 않는 경향을 보였으며, 본 연구결과는 국내 소비자의 선호부위로 알려진 목심과 삼겹살 부위의 육질특성을 간주하면서도 비선호 부위로 알려진 등심의 이용도를 높일 수 있는 돼지선발 체계에 기초적 자료로 이용될 것이다.

Objective To evaluate the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognostic factors of ovarian granulosa cell tumors. Methods Medical records of 113 patients presenting between January 1995 and December 2007 were retrospectively reviewed. Results One-hundred two patients had adult type disease, with a mean age of 46.2 years (range, 18 to 83 years) and a mean follow-up period of 54.7 months (range, 1 to 155 months). The distribution of FIGO stages was 86 patients at stage I, 11 at stage II, and 5 at stage III. During follow-up, ten patients recurred at a mean time of 48 months (range, 4 to 109 months). Among them, three patients died after a mean of 57 months (range, 25 to 103 months). In recurrence analysis, advanced stage (p=0.032) and presence of residual disease (p=0.012) were statistically significant, and age

A scratch detection and restoration is very important, as scratches are the most common form of degradation of old films. The goal of the current study is to develop a fully automated system that can detect all types of scratch with a low computational cost. This is achieved by defining the texture and shape properties from spatial domain, then using these for scratch detection. The proposed method involves two procedures: (1) the input image is divided into scratches and non-scratches using a neural network (NN)-based texture classifier and (2) some false alarms are removed by shape filtering using a morphological filter with new structuring elements defined based on the shape characteristics of scratches. To assess the validity of the proposed method, experiments were performed with several films, and the results showed that its performance was superior to that of other method.

From January 1995 to December 2000, medical records of 196 patients were collected from 14 hospitals nationwide and were reviewed retrospectively. We evaluated the clinicopathologic characteristics of malignant germ cell tumors in the ovaries of South Korean women and determined the prognostic factors affecting recurrence. The mean patient age was 23.8 years (range, 4-63 years), and the median follow-up period was 67 months (range, 1-128 months). The distribution of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage was as follows: 128 cases (65.3%) in stage I, 27 cases (13.8%) in stage II, 39 cases (19.9%) in stage III, and 2 cases (1.0%) in stage IV. Histologically, immature teratoma was the most common tumor type (n = 68), followed by dysgerminoma (n = 54), endodermal sinus tumor (n = 38), mixed form (n = 24), and choriocarcinoma (n = 12). A fertility-sparing operation was performed in 134 patients, staging operation in 43 patients, and hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy in 19 patients. Postoperative chemotherapy was administered in 166 patients, and the most common regimen was bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin (n = 120). Recurrence was observed in 13 patients (6.8%) and was influenced by the stage of the tumor and patient age (>40 years). The 5-year survival rate was 96.7%. During the follow-up period, 20 patients had 22 pregnancies that resulted in 17 normal deliveries at term and 5 abortions. The results of this study demonstrate that most malignant germ cell tumors of the ovary in Korean women are detected in the early stage and have excellent survival outcomes with conservative operation and platinum-based chemotherapy.

A simple method is devised for forming metal nanowires on flexible polymer film. The metal nanowires are prepared by electrodeposition into nanopores of anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) template on a silicon substrate. After the free-standing metal nanowires on the substrate are formed, the nanowires are directly transferred to a flexible polymer substrate. The tips of metal nanowires are physically nailed into the polymer substrate and then taken off from the silicon substrate. This simple method for transferring nanowires to soft polymer film is demonstrated to be applicable to large area, depending on the area of metal nanowires on the silicon substrate. The fabricated metal nanowires on polymer film can be used as high surface area catalysts for fuel cell applications.

Standard abdominoplasty techniques involve a low horizontal or W skin excision, muscle plication, and umbilical transposition. Newer techniques include suction-assisted lipectomy, the use of high lateral tension with fascial suspension, and external oblique muscle advancement. The author has modified these traditional procedures and added new techniques to improve the aesthetic and functional results of the abdominoplasty procedure. This modification provides a comprehensive approach to abdominal wall aesthetic improvement and rehabilitation. The comprehensive approach described includes four components: the "U-M dermolipectomy," "V umbilicoplasty," the rectus abdominis "myofascial release," and suction-assisted lipectomy. The patient is marked while standing for areas of suction lipectomy and undermining. The lower incision is designed as an open U with the lateral limbs placed inside the bikini line. The upper incision is a lazy M with the higher peaks located at the level of the flanks. Subcutaneous hydration is achieved to perform suction along the flanks, waistline, and iliac areas. Gentle suction of the flaps is also performed. The umbilicus is cored out in a heart shape. The flaps within the U-M marks are excised, and the undermining is performed to the xiphoid and costal margins. The rectus diastasis is marked, and the anterior rectus fascia is incised at the junction of the medial third with the central third of the width of the rectus sheath. Horizontal figure-eight plication sutures by using the lateral fascial edge enable easier infolding of the central tissue. The new recipient of the umbilicus is made by an incision in a V shape on the abdominal flap. The umbilicus is telescoped, and the triangular flap of the abdomen is sutured to the triangular defect of the umbilicus. Skin flap fixation to the umbilicus relieves tension in the lower portion of the flap. The upper skin flap, which is cut in an M manner, provides lateral tension and matches the length of the lower flap. A standard fascial suspension is used and closure is performed in layers. The techniques described here are intertwined procedures. Each facilitates the accomplishment of the other procedure, and they complement each other. They all attain the 12 objectives of the abdominoplasty described. These combined techniques have been used in 104 patients in a period of 11 years. Complications were minimal and easily manageable, except for one patient who required excision of a pseudobursa and retightening of the lower quadrants of the abdominal wall musculature to correct extreme lordosis. A comprehensive approach for the treatment of complex abdominal wall aesthetic and functional defects is presented. These require thoughtful integration of the four components mentioned. This approach has allowed predictable, reproducible, and aesthetically pleasing results.

Purpose To evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of concurrent chemoradiation with paclitaxel and carboplatin in patients with high-risk cervical cancer. Methods and Materials Patients after radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer, with at least 1 high-risk characteristic, were administered paclitaxel 135 mg/m2, carboplatin area under the curve = 5 every 3 weeks for 3 cycles concomitant with radiation therapy as adjuvant treatment. Results This prospective study enrolled 71 consecutive patients. Sixty-six patients (93%) completed the planned treatment. The majority of grade 3/4 neutropenia or nonhematologic toxicities were usually self-limited. Diarrhea grades 3/4 were observed in 4 patients (5.6%). One patient developed anaphylactic shock after infusion of paclitaxel. With a median follow-up of 57 months, recurrences occurred in 16 patients. Multivariable analysis indicated that common iliac lymph node involvement is an independent risk factor for disease recurrence (odds ratio 13.48; 95% confidence interval 2.93-62.03). In the intent-to-treat population (n=71), the estimated 5-year disease-free survival and overall survival rates were 77.3% and 80.3% respectively. In the per-protocol population (n=62), disease-free survival was 78.9% and overall survival was 83.9%. Conclusions Concurrent chemoradiation with paclitaxel/carboplatin is well tolerated and seems to be effective for patients who undergo radical hysterectomy. Therefore, a prospective, randomized controlled study should be designed to evaluate efficacy of this approach for patients with high-risk cervical cancer.

Traffic intersections are most dangerous situations for the pedestrian, in particular the blind or the visually impaired person. In this paper, we present a novel method for automatically recognizing the situations where a user stands on, to help safe mobility of the visually impaired in their travels. Here, the situation means the place type where a user is standing on, which is classified as sidewalk, roadway and intersection. The proposed method is performed by three steps: ROIs extraction, feature extraction and classification. The ROIs corresponding to the boundaries between sidewalks and roadways are first extracted using Canny edge detector and Hough transform. From those regions, features are extracted using Fourier transform, and they fed into two SVMs. One SVM is trained to learn the textural properties of sidewalk and the other is for intersection. On online stage, these two SVMs are hierarchically performed; the current situation is first categorized as sidewalks and others, then it is re-categorized as intersections and others. The proposed method was tested with about 500 outdoor images, then it showed the accuracy of 93.9 %.

This paper presents scratch restoration method that can deal with scratches of various lengths and widths in old film. The proposed method consists of detection and reconstruction. The detection is performed using texture and shape properties of the scratches: first, each pixel is classified as scratches and non-scratches using a neural network (NN)-based texture classifier, and then some false alarms are removed by shape filtering. Thereafter, the detected region is reconstructed. Here, the reconstruction is formulated as energy minimization problem, thus genetic algorithm is used as optimization algorithm. The experimental result with well-known old films showed the effectiveness of the proposed method.

A film restoration has been received considerable attention by many researchers, to support multimedia service of high quality. So far many techniques have been developed, however, such techniques do not permit the reconstruction of all kinds of degradation, because they have been developed based on their own specific environments and assumptions. This paper represents automatic restoration method for various type of degradation region. For this, we develop a stochastic method in MRF-MAP (Markov random field - maximum a posteriori) framework, where the restoration problem is formulated as the minimization problem of the posteriori energy function. Then, to minimize the energy function, we use distributed genetic algorithms (DGAs) that effectively deal with combinatorial problems. To assess the validity of the proposed method, it was tested on natural old films and artificially degraded films, and the results were compared with other methods. Then, the results show that the proposed method is superior to other methods.

The human papillomavirus (HPV)-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted cervical cancer vaccine has been demonstrated to be highly efficacious and immunogenic with a favorable safety profile. This study assessed the immunogenicity and safety of the HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine in healthy Korean girls aged 10-14 yr. This multi-center, observer-blind trial randomly assigned 321 healthy girls to receive three doses (0, 1, 6-month schedule) of HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine or hepatitis A vaccine. Immunogenicity against vaccine antigens was assessed one month post-Dose 3. Solicited and unsolicited adverse events (AEs) and serious AEs (SAEs) were recorded. In the according-to-protocol analysis, all initially seronegative subjects vaccinated with the HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine had seroconverted at Month 7, with a peak geometric mean titer (GMT) that was 600-fold higher than the natural infection titer of 29.8 EU/mL for HPV-16 and a peak GMT that was 400-fold higher than the natural infection titer of 22.6 EU/mL for HPV-18. The vaccine was well tolerated with no increase in reactogenicity with subsequent doses and no reports of vaccine-related SAEs. In conclusion, the HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine is shown to be highly immunogenic and generally well-tolerated in Korean girls aged 10-14 yr.

This paper presents a scratch detection method that automatically detects all kinds of scratches from each frame in old films. Generally, the scratch in old films has lower or higher brightness than neighboring pixels in its vicinity and it usually appears as a vertically long thin line. The proposed method is designed from these characteristics of a scratch, thus it consists of two major modules: a neural network-based texture classifier and a morphology-based shape filter with multiple structuring elements. First, the NN-based texture classifier divides the input image into scratch regions and non-scratch regions using the texture property of the scratch. Secondly, the morphology-based shape filter confirms the classified scratch region with structuring elements which is designed based on the shape characteristics of scratches. To assess the validity of the proposed method, the experiments have been performed on several old films and an animation, then the results confirms that the proposed method can detect all kinds of scratches and have the potential to be applied to the commercial systems.

In this paper, an automatic film line scratch removal system is developed that can deal with all kind of scratches. For this we use the spatial information of scratches: the scratch in old films has lower or higher brightness than neighboring pixels in its vicinity and usually appears as a vertically long thin line. Our system consists of scratch detection and scratch restoration. The scratches of various types are detected by neural network based texture classifier and morphology-based shape filter and then the degraded regions are restored using bilinear interpolation. To assess the validity of the proposed method, it has been tested with all kinds of scratches, and then experimental results show that the proposed approach leads to not only robust but also efficient scratch restoration.

Objective The objective of the study was to analyze the characteristics of cervical cancer associated with pregnancy. Study Design Forty patients with cervical cancer associated with pregnancy were retrospectively identified between 1995-2003. Three controls for each case were matched on the basis of age, stage, histology, and date of treatment. Results Sampling of cervical cytology after the second trimester was the most common cause of delayed diagnosis. Among 12 patients who delayed treatment for fetal maturity, 2 died of disease. There was no difference in overall survival between pregnant and nonpregnant patients with stage Ib tumors. In contrast to nonpregnant patients, the depth of stromal invasion was not correlated with the incidence of lymph vascular space involvement and lymph node metastasis in pregnant patients. Conclusion Thorough evaluation is warranted before deciding whether to delay treatment until fetal maturity. Pregnancy does not adversely affect the prognosis of early-stage cervical cancer significantly.

Objective(s). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radical hysterectomy on long-term survival in stage IB–IIB locally advanced cervical cancer by conducting a 10-year follow-up. Methods. Between August 1983 and May 1990, 80 locally advanced, stage IB–IIB cervical cancer patients with tumor diameter greater than or equal to 4 cm were treated with neoadjuvant VBP chemotherapy (cisplatin, vinblastine, and bleomycin) followed by radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymphadenectomy. After this therapeutic modality, patients were followed for more than 10 years. Ten-year survival rates and factors affecting recurrence after this therapy were evaluated. Results. Of 80 patients, 75 (93.7%) showed a reduction in tumor size after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. At pathologic examination, stage reduction was noted in 53 (66.2%) patients and 20 patients (25%) showed no residual or microinvasive cervical tumor. Pelvic lymph node metastases were found in 17 patients (21.3%). During the 10-year follow up, 2 patients were lost and 16 patients recurred. Overall 5-year and 10-year disease-free actual survival rates were 82.0 (64/78) and 79.4% (62/78), respectively. Clinical stage, initial tumor size, clinical response, and residual tumor size were not risk factors for recurrence after this therapy. However, pelvic lymph node metastasis was a significant risk factor for recurrence. Conclusion(s). Neoadjuvant VBP chemotherapy followed by radical hysterectomy in locally advanced, stage IB–IIB cervical cancer patients seemed to improve the long-term survival rate for these patients compared to that of conventional therapy. However, randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm this result.

Murine monoclonal antibody FEN-1 was derived by immunizing Balb/c mice with an affinity-purified endometrioid ovarian cancer-associated antigen recovered from ascites-derived immune complexes. Splenic lymphocytes from the immunized mouse were fused with the myeloma cells SP2/0-AG14 in the presence of PEG 1500. The hybrid cultures were screened for production of immunoglobulins reactive with an extract preparation of an endometrioid ovarian tumor by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and flow cytometry. One of the hybrids secretes a monoclonal antibody of the IgG3 subtype designated FEN-1, which reacts with 100% of endometrioid ovarian cancer containing adenoacanthoma by indirect immunoperoxidase on paraffin-embedded tissue. No detectable levels of antigen were found in squamous metaplasia associated with nonendometrioid tumors, and no reactivity occurred against endometrial adenocarcinomas, endometriosis, or normal ovary and endometrium. The antibody does not cross-react with mucinous tumors, nonepithelial tumors of the ovary, or gastrointestinal tissue. This antibody may be used as an aid in the diagnosis of nonmucinous ovarian carcinomas by immunohistology.

Objective : To assess the ability of risk of malignancy index (RMI) based on ultrasound findings, serum levels of CA 125, and menopausal status to discriminate between benign and malignant ovarian masses for preoperative screening. Methods : A retrospective study was conducted of 255 women with ovarian masses admitted for operation at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hanyang University Hospital between 1999 and 2003. The sensitivity and specificity of serum levels of CA 125, ultrasound findings, and menopausal status were calculated both separately and combined into a RMI to diagnose malignancy. Results : There were significant preoperative differences of ultrasound findings, serum CA 125 level, serum CA 19-9 level, platelet count and menopausal status between benign and malignant ovarian masses (P

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are a group of serine/threonine kinases which are activated in response to a diverse array of extracellular stimuli, and mediate signal transduction from the cell surface to the nucleus. The chemotherapeutic agents, growth factors and reproductive hormones have been demonstrated to activate MAPKs, suggesting that the MAPK signaling pathway plays an important role in the regulation of proliferation, apoptosis, survival and differentiation in response to these external stimuli in ovarian cancer. In addition to MAPKs as an oncogenic pathway, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) plays a role in a various range of important cellular processes associated with malignant characterestics including cell growth, survival and migration, which is a member of lipid kinases subfamily that phosphorylates and dephosphorylates the 3-position of the inositol ring of phosphoinositides in a membrane. In this review, recent results of the MAPK and PI3K signaling cascades by external stimuli, and potential roles of these oncogenic pathways as an oncogenic pathway are summarized in epithelial ovarian cancer.

The Sertoli-Leydig cell tumor is a rare sex cord stromal tumor that has low grade malignancy and low bilateral occurrence rate. About two third of recurrence appears within 1 year after the initial treatment and most common recurrence sites are intraperitoneal cavity and retroperitoneal lymph nodes. The frequency of malignant transformation is high in the poor differentiated cell type, retiform pattern, and tumor rupture. In young women with stage I, unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy is performed to preserve uterus and reproductive function. In more advanced stages, hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and pelvic lymph node dissection are performed and occasionally chemotherapy can be combined. We experienced a rare case of malignant metastasis in Sertoli-Leydig cell tumor, and presented with a brief review of literature.

Peritoneal pregnancies are classified as primary and secondary. Primary implantation on the peritoneum is extremely rare in extrauterine pregnancy and is a potentially life-threatening variation of ectopic pregnancy within the peritoneal cavity, representing a grave risk to maternal health. Secondary abdominal pregnancies are by far the most common and result from tubal abortion or rupture, or less often, after uterine rupture with subsequent implantation within abdomen. Early diagnosis and appropriate surgical management, regardless of stage of gestation, appear to be important in achieving good results. We report a case of primary peritoneal pregnancy in a 28-year-old woman, who had severe lower abdominal pain one day before laparotomy for a preoperative diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy. The conceptus was implanted on the left uterosacral ligament. A fresh embryo of approximately 8 weeks' gestation was found in the conceptus.