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We describe the case of a 67-year-old woman who experienced lower back pain and radiating pain caused by lumbar spine treated with a transforaminal epidural steroid injection under fluoroscopic guidance. This report describes the complications and treatment of this condition.

Fine-control of structural properties of WO3. Faster and balanced charge transfer kinetics. Higher coloration efficiency.

A simple, air processable, DMF molecular ink-based process is presented through which it was able to achieve a new certified record efficiency of 14.4% for the low-gap CuIn(S,Se)2 device.

We report a facile, but robust approach to fabricate structurally stable giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs), on which a 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) bilayer membrane was made rigid by introducing amphiphilic block polymers. Particularly, we found that lateral co-assembly of an amphiphilic triblock copolymer (ATC) structured with a hydrophobic middle block and long molecular weight (20 K g/mol) hydrophilic end blocks remarkably enhanced the stretching modulus (k) of GUVs. When the membrane composition was optimized, the k value of ATC-hybridized GUVs increased to 6.2 × 108 Pa, which was approximately 10-fold higher than that of DPPC GUVs, thus leading to a much longer half-life. Moreover, we demonstrated that our ATC-hybridized GUVs enabled development of a fascinating vesicular model, which shows great potential as a structurally stable cell membrane mimic.

In this study, amorphous Ti-doped WO3 films with interpenetrated porous networks were successfully fabricated via a facile sol–gel method by using a hydrolysis-tolerant titanium coupling agent (TCA) as a Ti-dopant. We found that the TCA played multiple roles in forming electrochromic WO3 films. First, introducing a TCA into an acetylated peroxotungstic acid (A-PTA) precursor sol was found to prolong the shelf life, which is crucial for practical application. Second, the TCA also acted as a pore-forming agent to form an inter-penetrated porous network in the resultant amorphous WO3 films by annealing at 250 °C. Finally, the TCA generated a higher degree of oxygen vacancy in WO3 films than that in pure WO3 films. Combining all these properties, 8 wt% TCA-doped WO3 films exhibit much larger optical contrast, a faster switching speed and a higher coloration efficiency compared with the corresponding neat WO3 film. The superior electrochromic performances of the TCA-doped WO3 film were attributed to the synergistic effects of the porous structure and oxygen vacancies on the WO3 film, which facilitate the charge-transfer and promote the electrolyte infiltration.

The defects present in solution-processed perovskite light absorbing materials are responsible for deteriorating the performance and stability of perovskite solar cells. Therefore, suppressing the defect formation and passivating the pre-existing defects in perovskite materials are of paramount importance in pushing the efficiency of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) toward the theoretical limit and ensuring the long-term stability of PSCs. In this work, we report an efficient defect passivation route using a bidentate small organic molecule, pyrazine, which is capable of making either a monodentate or a bridging bidentate bond with under-coordinated Pb2+ ions mainly present in the surface and grain boundaries of perovskite films. The various analyses for the defect density and charge carrier lifetime of perovskite light absorbing layers demonstrated that pyrazine effectively passivated defects existing on the surface and grain boundaries of the perovskite films without affecting the morphology and crystallinity via a simple post-treatment procedure. As a result, the best untreated device obtained a power conversion efficiency of 19.14%, while an efficiency of 20.58% was achieved when pyrazine treated.

Nam, J.; Hong, S.; Lee, Y., and Kim, I., 2021. Correlation analysis between color and grain size of sand using a colorimeter. In: Lee, J.L.; Suh, K.-S.; Lee, B.; Shin, S., and Lee, J. (eds.), Crisis and Integrated Management for Coastal and Marine Safety. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 114, pp. 201–205. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. To determine the cause of coastline changes, it is necessary to monitor various parameters such as wave data, changes in water depth, seabed topography and quality, as well as sea currents. This study aims to derive a correlation between grain size and color of sand on a coast undergoing erosion in Namae 3-ri∼Sodol beach. Therefore, for a period of six years (2013 to 2018), the depths of the foam zone, the breaking band, and other factors were divided for each cross-base line (DL(±) 0.00 m, DL(-) 3.00 m, DL(-) 6.00 m, and DL(-) 9.00 m). Seabed samples were collected from four vertices, and the median particle size and color characteristics of sand were recorded. Results showed that the average D50 particle sizes for DL(±) 0.00 m, DL(-) 3.00 m, DL(-) 6.00 m, and DL(-) 9.00 m were 0.615 mm, 0.432 mm, 0.416 mm, and 0.410 mm, respectively. In addition, the color of the sand that was passed through the colorimeter is represented by L* (white-black), a* (green-red), and b* (yellow-blue); these colors were expressed as a number to present a unique value. DL(±) 0.00 m = L* 61.12082, a* 5.757663, b* 17.93326; DL(-) 3.00 m = L* 61.81803, a* 5.03382, b* 16.79151; DL(-) 6.00 m = L* 61.74719, a* 4.886109, b* 16.54382; and DL(-) 9.00 m = L* 61.70353, a* 4.815222, and b* 16.42189. Furthermore, the sand color values a* and b* were coordinated, distributed on the beach, and then a color range converted to the value of the radius of the polar coordinate (r) was presented and compared with the particle size. To compare the a* and b* values with the sand particle size, r is expressed as a first-order function. The R-square of the first-order function was 0.9411, which was found to be highly reliable, and the exponential function was found to have a reliability of 0.5573. This result shows that the a* and b* values can be inferred according to the particle size of the sand.

We investigated the clinical relevance of urinary cytokines/chemokines reflecting intrarenal immunologic micromilieu as prognostic markers and the optimal measurement timing after living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT). This prospective cohort study included 77 LDKT patients who were followed for ≥ 5 years. Patients were divided into control (n = 42) or acute rejection (AR, n = 35) group. Early AR was defined as AR occurring within 3 months. Serum and urine cytokines/chemokines were measured serially as follows: intraoperative, 8/24/72 h, 1 week, 3 months, and 1 year after LDKT. Intrarenal total leukocytes, T cells, and B cells were analyzed with immunohistochemistry followed by tissueFAXS. Urinary MCP-1 and fractalkine were also analyzed in a validation cohort. Urinary MCP-1 after one week was higher in the AR group. Urinary MCP-1, fractalkine, TNF-α, RANTES, and IL-6 after one week were significantly higher in the early AR group. Intrarenal total leukocytes and T cells were elevated in the AR group compared with the control group. Urinary fractalkine, MCP-1, and IL-10 showed positive correlation with intrarenal leukocyte infiltration. Post-KT 1 week urinary MCP-1 showed predictive value in the validation cohort. One-week post-KT urinary MCP-1 may be used as a noninvasive diagnostic marker for predicting AR after LDKT.

Introduction Hyperprogressive disease (HPD), characterized by accelerated tumor progression, has been proposed as a new pattern of progression after immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatment. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of HPD and investigate its predictive markers. Methods Clinical and radiological findings of 335 patients with advanced NSCLC treated with ICI monotherapy were retrospectively analyzed. Radiological data were quantitatively and longitudinally analyzed for tumor size and volume by comparing baseline and follow-up computerized tomography results. The findings were matched with individual genomic profiles generated by deep sequencing of 380 genes. Results Among 135 patients with progressive disease (PD), as assessed by the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1 criteria, 48 (14.3% of all patients and 35.6% of those with PD) and 44 (13.1% of all patients and 32.6% among those with PD) were found to have HPD by volumetry (HPDV) and assessed by RECIST 1.1 (HPDR), respectively. Patients with HPDV were associated with significantly inferior overall survival (OS) versus that of patients without HPDV with PD (median OS = 4.7 months [95% confidence interval: 3.5–11.9)] versus 7.9 months [95% confidence interval: 6.0–13.5] [p = 0.004]); OS did not differ between patients without and without HPDR. HPDV status was an independent factor in OS. A derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio greater than 4 and lactate dehydrogenase level greater than the upper limit of normal were significantly associated with HPDV. Moreover, we identified coinciding KRAS and serine/threonine kinase 11 gene (STK11) mutations in the cohort of patients with HPDV (three of 16), whereas none were found in the cohort of patients without HPDV (zero of 28). Conclusions Defining HPD treated with ICI on the basis of volumetric measurement is more precise than is defining it on the basis of one-dimensional analysis. Pre-ICI derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, lactate dehydrogenase level, and concurrence of STK11 and KRAS mutations could thus be used as potential biomarkers for HPD prediction.

Generally human sensibility is expressed in a certain language. To discover the sensibility of visitors in relation to the forest environment, it is...

We investigated the effect of nanocrystalline TiO2 doping on the electrochromic properties of tungsten trioxide (WO3) films. Here, we prepared various TiO2 nanocrystal-embedded amorphous WO3 films by a simple one-step dip-coating method. XRD data of the films show amorphous nature for both undoped and nanoparticle TiO2 doped WO3 films with anatase phase of TiO2 having (101) plane, which were further confirmed by TEM measurements. XPS of TiO2 doped WO3 film shows +6 oxidation state of W atom, implying the stoichiometric WO3 composition. The electrochromic properties of the films were investigated by in situ spectroelectrochemical methods, showing the markedly different behaviors of the films depending on the amount of nanocrystalline TiO2 doped. In particular, charge deintercalation kinetics of the films were significantly affected by the content of nanocrystalline TiO2 in amorphous WO3 matrix with 7 times faster deintercalation process by 30 wt% of TiO2 doping into WO3 at the expense of the reduced bleaching transmittance. This phenomenon may be associated with the effect of nanocrystalline TiO2 particles on blocking accessibility of Li ions to the trapping sites which has to be de-trapped if the ions are to be released.

Photochromic devices (PC) are considered as ideal candidates for integrated building applications because of their ability to control light and heat transfer into/out of building inner spaces without any external power supply. However, several issues restrict their practical application, including long-term stability concerns due to the volatile nature of the commonly used liquid electrolyte, the high replacement/installation cost associated with their rigid device architecture, and an extremely slow bleaching speed during reversion to their original state due to the lack of an external stimulus such as electricity. The present study aimed to resolve these bottlenecks. Firstly, we exploited a highly stable and conductive polymer-gel electrolyte based on UV-curable trivalent acrylate instead of using organic liquid-based electrolytes. Secondly, we explored a low-temperature UV-curing procedure to deposit the chromogenic WO3 and TiO2 layers, suitable for fabricating a flexible PC device. Finally, a catalytic amount of Pt nanoparticles was successfully incorporated on the surface of the WO3 layer using an identical UV-curing route, which was found to significantly enhances the bleaching speed of the resulting PC device. Thanks to the combined positive effects, the fabricated PC device displayed a deep contrast in coloration (approximately 60 %), unprecedented bleaching kinetic with 90 % recovery of its original transmittance value within 45 min in the dark condition, and prolonged long-term operation for over 1000 coloration-bleaching cycles. These results open way to making efficient PCs for not only smart windows but also for other bendable or wearable applications.

We have developed a transparent conducting oxide (TCO) free photoelectrochromic device with fast kinetics. The device can be colored fully in 3 min and bleach 95% within 30 min in dark. The addition of Pt catalyst in the WO3 layer catalyzes the back reaction in dark. The coloring is not affected by the addition of catalyst on the WO3 layer and the device shows the same amount of coloring as in the reference device. Both devices took 3 min to color completely but bleaching time was improved by a large margin. The reference device which does not have any Pt in WO3 or TiO2 layer takes 24 h to bleach fully compared to 30 min bleaching of Pt added device. The commercial feasibility of the device was checked by making a large area (60x48 cm2) prototype Further the thermal stability of the device was checked by keeping it under thermal stress at 65 °C. It was observed that the device was stable after 300 h. This device paves the way for commercializing the photoelectrochromic windows without the use of external power and transparent conducting oxide.

In this study, we demonstrate dye-sensitized solar cells showing an improved long-term stability at a high temperature by incorporating Zeolite molecular sieve in ionic liquid based electrolytes. The short-circuit photocurrent density of devices with 5 wt% of Zeolite molecular sieve increases by 17% on average relative to that of device without any additive, mainly owing to its light scattering effect. Moreover, the devices containing Zeolite molecular sieve show remarkable enhancement of the thermal stability at 60 °C for a period of 1200 hours under dark condition with a marginal variation of performance. On the contrary, the performance of devices without additives is continuously deteriorated during this period because of adverse effects of trace waters present in electrolytes, which can lead to dye molecules' detachment or degradation. This research study will pave a new way to fabricate thermally stable dye-sensitized solar cells with high efficiency.

Gait cycle partitioning is very important prior to human gait analysis such as gait modeling, gait recognition, gait feature analysis, etc. In this paper, we propose a new automatic gait cycle partitioning method based on two kinds of simple gait representation. Then, the propose method is applied to find keyframe corresponding the rest position for gait-based human identification system. To demonstrate the validity of the proposed method, the CASIA gait dataset A and the SOTON gait database are used to evaluate the recognition performance of the gait recognition system identifying subjects using the decision level fusion based on majority voting.

BACKGROUND A timely decision in the initial stages for patients with an acute illness is important. However, only a few studies have determined the prognosis of patients based on insufficient laboratory data during the initial stages of treatment. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to develop and validate time adaptive prediction models to predict the severity of illness in the emergency department (ED) using highly sparse laboratory test data (test order status and test results) and a machine learning approach. METHODS This retrospective study used ED data from a tertiary academic hospital in Seoul, Korea. Two different models were developed based on laboratory test data: order status only (OSO) and order status and results (OSR) models. A binary composite adverse outcome was used, including mortality or hospitalization in the intensive care unit. Both models were evaluated using various performance criteria, including the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and balanced accuracy (BA). Clinical usefulness was examined by determining the positive likelihood ratio (PLR) and negative likelihood ratio (NLR). RESULTS Of 9491 eligible patients in the ED (mean age, 55.2 years, SD 17.7 years; 4839/9491, 51.0% women), the model development cohort and validation cohort included 6645 and 2846 patients, respectively. The OSR model generally exhibited better performance (AUC=0.88, BA=0.81) than the OSO model (AUC=0.80, BA=0.74). The OSR model was more informative than the OSO model to predict patients at low or high risk of adverse outcomes (P CONCLUSIONS Early-stage adverse outcomes for febrile patients could be predicted using machine learning models of highly sparse data including test order status and laboratory test results. This prediction tool could help medical professionals who are simultaneously treating the same patient share information, lead dynamic communication, and consequently prevent medical errors.

Background The development and application of clinical prediction models using machine learning in clinical decision support systems is attracting increasing attention. Objective The aims of this study were to develop a prediction model for cardiac arrest in the emergency department (ED) using machine learning and sequential characteristics and to validate its clinical usefulness. Methods This retrospective study was conducted with ED patients at a tertiary academic hospital who suffered cardiac arrest. To resolve the class imbalance problem, sampling was performed using propensity score matching. The data set was chronologically allocated to a development cohort (years 2013 to 2016) and a validation cohort (year 2017). We trained three machine learning algorithms with repeated 10-fold cross-validation. Results The main performance parameters were the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and the area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC). The random forest algorithm (AUROC 0.97; AUPRC 0.86) outperformed the recurrent neural network (AUROC 0.95; AUPRC 0.82) and the logistic regression algorithm (AUROC 0.92; AUPRC=0.72). The performance of the model was maintained over time, with the AUROC remaining at least 80% across the monitored time points during the 24 hours before event occurrence. Conclusions We developed a prediction model of cardiac arrest in the ED using machine learning and sequential characteristics. The model was validated for clinical usefulness by chronological visualization focused on clinical usability.

BACKGROUND The development and application of clinical prediction models using machine learning in clinical decision support systems is attracting increasing attention. OBJECTIVE The aims of this study were to develop a prediction model for cardiac arrest in the emergency department (ED) using machine learning and sequential characteristics and to validate its clinical usefulness. METHODS This retrospective study was conducted with ED patients at a tertiary academic hospital who suffered cardiac arrest. To resolve the class imbalance problem, sampling was performed using propensity score matching. The data set was chronologically allocated to a development cohort (years 2013 to 2016) and a validation cohort (year 2017). We trained three machine learning algorithms with repeated 10-fold cross-validation. RESULTS The main performance parameters were the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and the area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC). The random forest algorithm (AUROC 0.97; AUPRC 0.86) outperformed the recurrent neural network (AUROC 0.95; AUPRC 0.82) and the logistic regression algorithm (AUROC 0.92; AUPRC=0.72). The performance of the model was maintained over time, with the AUROC remaining at least 80% across the monitored time points during the 24 hours before event occurrence. CONCLUSIONS We developed a prediction model of cardiac arrest in the ED using machine learning and sequential characteristics. The model was validated for clinical usefulness by chronological visualization focused on clinical usability.

We propose a polymeric nanovehicles (PNVs)-based enhanced transdermal delivery platform. A technical advance can be found in that delivery efficiency is significantly enhanced by effective adhesion of PNVs to the cell membrane, which is characterized noninvasively by using a confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM)-based skin visualization technique. To this end, the PNVs with a soft core phase were fabricated through co-assembly of two amphiphilic triblock copolymers, poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(e-caprolactone)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-b-PCL-b-PEO) and poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(propylene oxide)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-b-PPO-b-PEO). The softness of PNVs was tuned successfully, while maintaining the particle size at ∼110 nm, by incorporation of PEO-b-PPO-b-PEO into the PNVs to a volume fraction of 0.3. Through an ex vivo skin penetration test, we showed that transactivating transcriptional activator (TAT)-decorated soft PNVs could not only exert strong adhesion to skin but also increase cellular uptake, leading to a transdermal delivery efficiency that is twice that of a hard PNV control. Moreover, CLSM-based noninvasive visualization of a fluorescent drug probe in the skin showed that the adhesiveness and softness of the PNVs contributed directly to the enhancement of transdermal delivery.

Automatically controlling the optical transmittance of solar light provides an energy-saving strategy for designing energy-efficient buildings. Ideally, the smart windows should be able to show homogeneous and large-scale color-switching performance while modulating the intensity of daylight. Among the suitable candidates for smart windows, the photochromic device has a great potential for homogenous and large-scale color-switching material. In a photochromic device, the intercalation/deintercalation of Li-ions is a key step determining the kinetics and efficiencies of the coloring/bleaching process. Herein, we exploit operando Raman spectroscopy to investigate the photochromic mechanism, which reveals the movement of Li ions into specific sites within the tunnels that exist in hexagonal tungsten oxide (WO3). These spectroscopic results demonstrate that the intercalation/deintercalation of the Li ions is related to specific sites in the WO3 lattice which stabilizes the energy of the intermediate state during the coloring/self-bleaching process. Additionally, theoretical simulation supports that electrons, as well as Li ions, participate in the color-switching performance. This study improves our understanding of the photochromic performance of this special device and opens up a research field toward the development of smart windows applications.

Herein, we describe the design and operation of an indirect coal liquefaction plant with integrated coal-water slurry manufacturing, entrained flow gasification, Rectisol, and Fischer–Tropsch processes to produce liquid fuels for vehicles. The above plant contained an entrained flow gasifier (10 t/d test rig) operated using oxygen as a gasifying agent (21 bar, 1100 °C) and could stably produce synthesis gas (37.8 vol% H2, 36.4 vol% CO) at 600 Nm3/h. Due to the importance of impurities in synthetic liquid fuel production, more than 99% of H2S contained in synthesis gas was removed by the Rectisol process employing refrigerated methanol. An iron-based catalyst allowed liquid fuels containing wax, light/heavy oil, and alcohol fractions to be obtained by the Fischer–Tropsch process at a rate of 5 barrel per day, with detailed analysis confirming their compliance with various quality standards and thus their suitability for use as automobile diesel after distillation.

On August 15, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the nation׳s founding, South Korea declared “Low Carbon, Green Growth” as its new national agenda, and announced the country׳s commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions by 30% by 2020, relative to business-as-usual (BAU) scenario. According to the Korean GHG reduction roadmap in 2014, the transportation sector was allocated the highest GHG reduction rate of 34.3% in order to meet the national target. This study examined the effectiveness of policies that the South Korean government has imposed on the transportation sector and analyzed the ripple effect in terms of energy and environmental aspects if the policies are maintained until 2050 using Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning system (LEAP) model. The study considered five policies, in terms of scenarios: improved fuel efficiency (IFE), green cars distribution (GC, CGC), public transportation shift (PTS), and modal shift reinforcement (MS). To distinguish the effects of various eco-friendly vehicle models, the green car distribution scenario was subdivided into two: green car scenario and competitive green car scenario. The green car (GC) scenario is focused on clean diesel and hybrid cars, and the competitive green car (CGC) scenario centered on hydrogen fuel cell and electric vehicles. According to the scenario analysis conducted in the current study, the final energy and GHG reduction policies that the South Korean government has imposed on the transportation sector will reduce the final energy demand by 25.2–25.5%, and reduce GHG emissions by 21.3–21.6% in 2020, relative to BAU scenario. However, this number does not meet the national GHG reduction target rate of 34.3% in the Korean transportation sector. Therefore, more powerful and effective policies are needed to achieve the national target vis-a-vis GHG emissions reduction in the transportation sector.

In this paper, we discuss a gait representation based on the width of silhouette in terms of discriminative power and robustness against the noise in silhouette image for gait recognition. Its sensitivity to the noise in silhouette image are rigorously analyzed using probabilistic noisy silhouette model. In addition, we develop a gait recognition system using width representation and identify subjects using the decision level fusion based on majority voting. Experiments on CASIA gait dataset A and the SOTON gait database demonstrate the recognition performance with respect to the noise level added to the silhouette image.