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A retrospective review.We investigated the longitudinal change of cervical alignment parameters including C2-7 lordosis, C2-7 sagittal vertical axis (SVA), T1 slope, and segmental angle (SA) after two-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF).Cervical alignment may influence postoperative clinical outcomes. Several studies have suggested that cervical alignment may serve as a parameter for assessing cervical deformities similar to those used to assess thoracolumbar spine deformities. However, to our knowledge, no studies have investigated the effect of ACDF on cervical sagittal alignment.We enrolled patients whom had ACDF, 23 patients with stand-alone cages and 22 with plate augmentation. Radiologic parameters including C2-7 lordosis, C2-7 SVA, T1 slope, and SA at the operated level were evaluated preoperatively and at 1 week and 6 months postoperatively. The differences between preoperative and 6-month postoperative parameter values were designated as Δvalues. T1S-CL was calculated as the T1 slope minus C2-7 lordosis. Clinical outcome were obtained by the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and the Neck Disability Index (NDI).ΔC2-7 SVA was significantly correlated with ΔT1S-CL and ΔC2-7 lordosis. ΔC2-7 lordosis was significantly correlated with ΔSA. ΔC2-7 lordosis had a significantly greater impact on ΔT1S-CL than did ΔT1 slope. The ΔSA and ΔC2-7 lordosis in the ACDF-plate were significantly higher than those in the in ACDF-cage. ΔT1S-CL and ΔC2-7 SVA in the ACDF-plate were significantly lower than those in the ACDF-cage.C2-7 SVA after two-level ACDF was affected more significantly by the SA and C2-7 angle than by the T1 slope. Two-level ACDF with plate restored more cervical lordosis by obtaining more segmental lordosis at the operated level and was more effective in terms of cervical alignment compared with ACDF using stand-alone cages.3.

In this paper, we propose a local path planning method based on RANGER algorithm and autonomy manager for autonomous navigation of UGV in urban environment. LPP method is designed to generate the local path in sensing area by using lane and curb of pavement and autonomy manager is designed to make a decision which transit the status of LPP component to a proper status for current navigation environment. A field test is conducted with scenarios in real urban environment in which crossroad, crosswalk and pavement are included and the performance of proposed method is validated.

The present paper has demonstrated suppression of dioxin emission from poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC)/titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanohybrids. In our previous paper, we suggested a novel idea for the preparation of PVC/TiO2 nanohybrid through TiO2 nanoparticle-integrated hyperbranched poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (HPCL-TiO2), aiming at a breakthrough to solve the unresolved problem in the conventional PVC/TiO2 composites related to the poor dispersion of TiO2 nanoparticles in PVC polymer. The integration of TiO2 nanoparticles onto the HPCL could be successfully carried out by a dip-coating method based on the spontaneous self-assembly between TiO2 and HPCL. In this study, three kinds of hyperbranched poly(ɛ-caprolactone)s (HnPCLs) were prepared by varying the number, n, of monomeric units on the branched backbone chains. Thereby, it was possible to control the numbers of functional ends and the contents of TiO2 in the HnPCL-TiO2. The loadings of TiO2 in the HnPCL-TiO2s were found to be 4.37, 3.26, and 2.93 wt% for n of 5, 10, and 20, respectively. The preparation of PVC/HnPCL-TiO2 (60/40) blends was performed through solution blending of HnPCL-TiO2 with PVC in tetrahydrofurane (THF) as solvent, and the dispersities of TiO2 in the resulting nanohybrids were investigated by field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The FE-SEM/EDS results showed that TiO2 nanoparticles were dispersed well in PVC matrix, while some agglomerates of TiO2 was observed in the PVC + TiO2 sample prepared from the solution blending of PVC with the same amount of TiO2. The incineration experiments were performed by using a temperature-controllable electric furnace at 350 °C under the flow of ambient air, and the exhaust gases resulting from the incineration process were collected. Prior to the identification of the components emitted in the incineration process, the GC experiments for calibration were performed on several commercial standards of dioxin and organic compounds known to be dioxin precursors. The GC results on the exhaust gases from the incineration of samples showed that the emissions of dioxin and precursors were largely suppressed with the increasing content of TiO2 in PVC/HnPCL-TiO2, i.e., the order of PVC/H5PCL-TiO2 > PVC/H10PCL-TiO2 > PVC/H20PCL-TiO2, as compared with those in the neat PVC/HnPCL without TiO2. Especially, the PVC/H5PCL-TiO2 with a maximum TiO2 loading of 1.6 wt% showed removal efficiencies of ca. 60% up to 70% over the dioxin and dioxin precursors, which is equivalent to one and half to several times as much as the PVC + TiO2 samples prepared through the conventional route. The remarkable enhancement of the suppression of dioxin emission in the PVC/HnPCL-TiO2 might be attributed to the improvement of the degree of TiO2 dispersion in the nanohybrid.

In this paper, we propose a methodology solving the problem of the hardware-software partitioning in reconfigurable systems using a Y-chart design space exploration and implement a simulator according to the methodology. The methodology generates a mapping set between tasks and hardware elements using the hardware element model and the application model. We evaluate the throughput by simulating cases in each mapping set. With the throughput evaluation result, we can select the mapping case with the highest throughput. We also propose an heuristic improving the simulation time by reducing the mapping set on the basis of the relationship between workload and parallelism. Simulation results show that we can reduce the size of mapping set which poses difficulties on hardware-software partitioning by up to 80%.

Modern embedded system employs a hybrid architecture which contains a general micro processor and reconfigurable devices such as FPGAS to retain flexibility and to meet timing constraints. It is a hard and important problem for embedded system designers to explore and find a right system configuration, which is known as design space exploration (DSE). With DES, it is possible to predict a final system configuration during the design phase before physical implementation. In this paper, we implement a timing analysis simulator for a DSE on a hybrid embedded system. The simulator, integrating exiting timing analysis tools for hardware and software, is designed by extending Y-chart approach, which allows quantitative performance analysis by varying design parameters. This timing analysis simulator is expected to reduce design time and costs and be used as a core module of a DSE for a hybrid embedded system.

Summary Background and purpose Histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis (HNL) is a cervical lymphadenitis that occurs rarely in children. This study was conducted to identify the clinical characteristics of lymphadenitis in children and compare the clinical characteristics observed in children and adults. Subject and methods The clinical characteristics, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of the 20 patients 18 years of age or younger who were diagnosed with HNL based on histological tests conducted at Gyeongsang University Hospital from January 1998 to December 2006 were analyzed. Results HNL affected males and females at a 1:1 ratio, but HNL was more common in boys (8:3) among the children and HNL affected more girls among the adolescents (2:7). Cervical lymphadenopathy was the main symptom. The antinuclear antibody test was positive in three patients. Two relapse cases were reported, but both patients recuperated within several months without complications. Conclusions HNL affected males and females at an equal incidence (1:1). But HNL occurred more often in male children than in female children, and more often in female adolescents than in male adolescents. Relapse occurred in 10% of the cases. HNL could progress into systemic lupus erythematosus in the three cases that were ANA-positive. Thus, a long follow-up period is important.

갑상선 암종 중 여포상 암종(follicular carcinoma)은 전 체에서 5~15%를 차지하며, 수술 후 조직병리학적 소견으 로 인접한 갑상선 실질 침범 유무에 따라 미세 침습 여포상 암 종(minimally invasive follicular carcinoma, MIFC)과 광 범위 침습 여포상 암종(widely invasive follicular carcinoma, WIFC)으로 나눌 수 있다. 미세 침습 여포상 암종 을 포함한 갑상선 여포상 암종은 대부분 성인에서 발견되고 소아에서 드물다고 보고되어 있다. 그러나 소아라도 갑상선 부위에 단독 종괴가 만져질 경우 갑상선 암종을 반드시 감별해야 한다. 하지만 소아의 갑상 선 암종은 매우 드물어 15세 이하 악성 종양의 1.5%를 차지 하며, 남아보다는 여아에서 2~3배 많이 발생하고 대부분 7 세 이후에 발생한다. 본 저자들은 2세 소아에서 최소 침습 갑상선 여포상 암종 1예를 경험하여 문헌고찰과 함께 보고하는 바이다. 증 례

Intractable aspiration may be the most severe life-threatening problem for handicapped children with altered laryngeal function secondary to neurologic disorders or abnormal laryngeal anatomy. If medical therapy fails to prevent intractable aspiration, surgical treatment of the upper airway from the digestive tract is necessary to prevent recurrent aspiration of the respiratory system. Here we describe a patient who underwent a laryngotracheal separation for intractable aspiration following a cerebral palsy. Laryngotracheal separation is relatively easy to perform and potentially reversible. It is known as a good choice of treatment for handicapped child with intractable aspiration. Korean J Otorhinolaryngol-Head Neck Surg 2010;53:444-7 Key WordsZZPneumonia·Aspiration·Tracheostomy.