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Background The existing endoscopic scores for Ulcerative Colitis (UC) such as the Mayo Endoscopic Subscore (MES) and the Ulcerative Colitis Endoscopic Index of Severity (UCEIS) are objectively categorize the severity of the disease based on presence or absence of endoscopic findings. Therefore, they may not reflect the range of clinical severity within each category. But, Inflammatory bowel disease expert endoscopists do not only categorize the severity, but rather diagnose the overall impression of degree of inflammation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop an AI that can accurately represent the complexed assessment of endoscopic severity of UC by expert endoscopists, similarly to Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Methods To enable the AI to perform continuous evaluations of inflammation in line with the strategy used by IBD expert endoscopists, we did not utilize scores determined from images using MES or UCEIS for physician data. Rather, we incorporated data for the relationships identified by IBD expert endoscopists who compared the severity of paired images. This study was conducted using a method that incorporates data on relationships identified by comparing the severity of paired images created from 59595 endoscopic images by an IBD expert endoscopist into a Ranking- Convolutional Neural Network, and then the severity was then expressed on a scale called UC Endoscopic Gradation Scale (UCEGS) rather than a score. Using 4,000 images for which the MES had been assessed beforehand by an IBD expert endoscopist, correlation coefficients were calculated to ensure that there were no inconsistencies in assessments of severity made using results of this novel AI diagnosed UCEGS and the current MES score. The correlation coefficients of the means of the UCEGS results for the 50 test images evaluated by the five IBD expert endoscopists and the novel AI were also calculated. Results Spearman's correlation coefficient between MES and AI-diagnosed UCEGS was approximately 0.89, indicating a strong positive correlation for the order of severity between the AI-diagnosed UCEGS and MES. Correlation coefficient between IBD expert endoscopists and the AI of the evaluation results were all higher than 0.95 (P Conclusion In this study, we developed a novel AI that does not rely on conventional scoring methods but instead aims to leverage the intelligence of IBD expert endoscopists when evaluating the disease status of UC. This AI quantifies inflammation as a gradient, allowing for an automated visualization of the expert endoscopist's assessment of mucosal inflammation.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by devastating and progressive lung parenchymal fibrosis, resulting in poor patient prognosis. An aberrant recapitulation of developmental lung gene expression, including genes for transforming growth factor (TGF)-β and WNT, has been widely implicated in the pathogenic IPF wound healing process that results from repetitive alveolar epithelial injury. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been shown to carry bioactive molecules and to be involved in various physiological and pathological processes. Here, we demonstrate that, by attenuating WNT signaling, human bronchial epithelial cell-derived EVs (HBEC EVs) inhibit TGF-β mediated induction of both myofibroblast differentiation and lung epithelial cellular senescence. This effect of HBEC EVs is more pronounced than that observed with mesenchymal stem cell-derived EVs. Mechanistically, the HBEC EV microRNA (miRNA) cargo is primarily responsible for attenuating both myofibroblast differentiation and cellular senescence. This attenuation occurs via inhibition of canonical and non-canonical WNT signaling pathways. Among enriched miRNA species present in HBEC EVs, miR-16, miR-26a, miR-26b, miR-141, miR-148a, and miR-200a are mechanistically involved in reducing WNT5A and WNT10B expression in LFs, and in reducing WNT3A, WNT5A, and WNT10B expression in HBECs. Mouse models utilizing intratracheal administration of EVs demonstrate efficient attenuation of bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis development accompanied by reduced expression of both β-catenin and markers of cellular senescence. These findings indicate that EVs derived from normal resident lung HBECs may possess anti-fibrotic properties. They further suggest that, via miRNA-mediated inhibition of TGF-β-WNT crosstalk, HBEC EVs administration can be a promising anti-fibrotic modality of treatment for IPF.

High temperature superconducting (HTS) coils wound with HTS wires have very low normal zone propagation velocity (NZPV) and complicated quench behaviors because the wires have a high thermal stability and large specific heat. According to these reasons, in case of HTS coils and magnets, it is difficult to expect the self-protection like low temperature superconducting (LTS) coils. In this paper, we suggest a method which can remove the insulation among turn-to-turn in the coil to improve the self-protection property of HTS coils. Because the thermal and electrical contacts along transverse direction are enhanced by no turn-to-turn insulation, the whole thermal stability of HTS coils begins to increase. Furthermore, although a quench occurs in the coil, it is possible to realize a self-protection of HTS coil because the current path of the coil is modified in order to avoid quenching. To confirm a quantitative evaluation for quench behavior of the suggested coil, we carried out the measurements with the coils having variety types of turn-to-turn insulation. The experimental results and the self-protection ability about the tested coils will be presented.

High temperature superconducting (HTS) motors electromagnetically consist of a rotator wound with HTS wires and an armature with conventional copper wires like Litz wire. The HTS rotor windings, as field coils, consist of a straight part and an end-ring part. Because a major rotation torque is induced by an interaction between magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors in the straight part, most of mechanical stresses in the motor occur at the straight part. An end-ring is placed in the edge of the straight part and used to connect to each adjacent straight-part coils. The magnetic fields by coil currents concentrate on the end-ring part, therefore, it is expected that the critical current of the entire coil, straight and end-ring, can be determined by the magnitude of the field in the end-ring. This paper deals with the overall Jc degradation in the end-ring part by self-field generated from the coil. In addition to electromagnetic analyses, we have performed a numerical analysis in order to evaluate mechanical stresses in the straight part of field coil by armature reaction on steady-state operation. The analytical results will be presented in this paper.

The stability and the protection of superconducting applications are very important issues. High temperature superconductor (HTS) is stable than low temperature superconductor (LTS). However, due to the high stability of HTS, HTS coils have complicate behaviors of normal transition – such as a recovery into the superconducting state or thermal runaway – which is determined by the magnitude of disturbance, coil size, the structure of winding wire and cooling condition. In this paper, we propose the quench protection system based on the active power method which can detect the quench by measuring the generating instantaneous active power in HTS coils. And the quench detection circuit adopted a software circuit by LabVIEW which was added a new quench protection technique to the circuit in order to improve its detection performance. Furthermore, it can monitor interior states of HTS coils with acquiring the only coil voltages in real time. To confirm the validity of the suggested technique, the experiments were performed with the hardware circuit for quench detection simultaneously. The experimental results are presented and discussed in this paper.

This paper presents the quench detection method with using normal transition behavior for HTS coil. If the HTS coil starts to propagate a normal zone by an initial quench, it will be recovered the superconducting state or runaway thermally. These behaviors were mainly determined by variety parameters like the magnitude of a disturbance, HTS coil size, the structure of winding wire and cooling condition. However, the first step of detection or protection for coils should be started from detecting the presence of a non-recovering normal zone. This paper classifies the initial quench behaviors of HTS wires or coils as a model of 3-type tendencies, and suggests suitable detection techniques for each tendency with using the end-to-end voltage of coil. In additional, this method is able to detect a quench without a decisive criterion used at other quench detection methods. In order to confirm the validity of the method, we used the HTS sample coil wound with YBCO tapes. This paper presents these results and the quench protection properties with fabricated detection method.

Recently, the superconducting devices using cryogenic and superconducting technologies were widespread in the field of electric power. The 2G wires with YBCO superconducting layer, metal substrate and stabilizer layer are expected to be used in future superconducting applications, because it has high Jc properties in high temperature and high magnetic fields. In order to operate safely at high transport currents, the thermal stability of the wounding wire should be addressed in terms of detection and protection against the quench. On the other hand, the understanding of the 3-dimensional normal zone expansion during a quench is very important to design the superconducting devices such as magnets and cables. This paper presents the results of an experimental study for normal zone propagation properties in the longitudinal and transverse directions using the pancake coil wound with 2G wires which have Cu and SUS stabilizers under the cryocooler cooling. And the minimum quench energy (MQE) of the pancake coils wound with two different kinds of stabilizers as functions of operating temperature and transport current will be described.

The estimation of sanitary sewer flows is required to effectively plan, design, build, operate, and maintain sewerage facilities. Existing flow estimation methods are crude and often not intended to represent actual conditions but rather to act as guidelines, often for design purposes. This study proposes a neural network approach to estimating actual sanitary flows under dry weather conditions. Development as well as validation showed the neural network model to produce results with an average error less than 16% when compared to measured data.

To clarify the importance of imaging plane in evaluation of invasion by tumor into muscle, 50 patients with bladder tumors underwent examination with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging performed with an oblique plane and the early phase of contrast enhancement. After the ideal oblique plane was selected, an oblique T2-weighted image was obtained. Gadopentetate dimeglumine was then administered, and an oblique T1-weighted image was obtained. The staging based on oblique T2-weighted and oblique contrast material-enhanced T1-weighted MR images was then correlated with histopathologic staging. The respective accuracies of oblique contrast-enhanced T1-weighted and oblique T2-weighted images were 78% and 60% for overall staging (P.05), 90% and 74% for differentiation between (a) stage T1 and lower-stage tumors and (b) stage T2 and higher-stage tumors (P.05), and 92% and 88% for differentiation between (a) stage T2 and lower-stage tumors and (b) stage T3a and higher-stage tumors (P.05). Oblique MR imaging performed in conjunction with the early phase of contrast enhancement showed significantly high staging accuracy, especially in differentiation between superficial tumors and tumors with superficial muscle invasion.

Methamphetamine (MAP) is known to alter behavior and cause deficits in learning and memory. While the major site of action of MAP is on mesolimbic dopaminergic pathways, the effects on learning and memory raise the possibility of important actions in the hippocampus. We have studied electrophysiologic and morphologic effects of MAP in the CA1 region of hippocampus from young male rats chronically exposed to MAP, male rats exposed during gestation only and the effects of bath perfusion of MAP onto brain slices from control rats. Pyramidal neurons in brain slices from chronically exposed rats had reduced membrane potential and membrane resistance. Long-term potentiation (LTP) was reduced as compared to control, but when MAP was acutely perfused over control slices the amplitude of LTP was increased. LTP in young adult animals that had been gestationally exposed to MAP showed reduced LTP as compared to controls. Morphologically CA1 pyramidal neurons in chronically exposed animals showed a high prevalence of extensive blebbing of dendrites. We conclude that the NMDA receptor and the process of LTP are also targets of MAP dysfunction, at least in the hippocampus.

Coronary artery fistula is a congenital abnormality that can present with a variety of cardiovascular complications. This article presents a patient with a coronary artery fistula outlining the pathophysiology and course of hospitalization, with particular emphasis on nursing management of a patient with coronary artery fistula.