Analysis of Contact Allergens in Korean Polysensitized Patients by Patch Testing: A Pilot Study

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Comparison of Melanoma Subtypes among Korean Patients by Morphologic Features and Ultraviolet Exposure

BACKGROUND: Genetic alterations have been identified in melanomas according to different levels of sun exposure. Whereas the conventional morphology-based classification provides a clue for tumor growth and prognosis, the new classification by genetic alterations offers a basis for targeted therapy. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the biological behavior of melanoma subtypes and compare the two classifications in the Korean population. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed on patients found to have malignant melanoma in Severance Hospital from 2005 to 2012. Age, sex, location of the tumor, histologic subtype, tumor depth, ulceration, lymph node invasion, visceral organ metastasis, and overall survival were evaluated. RESULTS: Of the 206 cases, the most common type was acral melanoma (n=94, 45.6%), followed by nonchronic sun damage-induced melanoma (n=43, 20.9%), and mucosal melanoma (n=40, 19.4%). Twenty-one patients (10.2%) had the chronic sun-damaged type, whereas eight patients (3.9%) had tumors of unknown primary origin. Lentigo maligna melanoma was newly classified as the chronic sun-damaged type, and acral lentiginous melanoma as the acral type. More than half of the superficial spreading melanomas were newly grouped as nonchronic sun-damaged melanomas, whereas nodular melanoma was rather evenly distributed. CONCLUSION: The distribution of melanomas was largely similar in both the morphology-based and sun exposure-based classifications, and in both classifications, mucosal melanoma had the worst 5-year survival owing to its tumor thickness and advanced stage at the time of diagnosis.ope

파우스트적 질문과 던과 허버트의 종교시

학위논문(석사) --서울대학교 대학원 :영어영문학과,2008.Maste

CESCO의 e-marketing "무엇이든 물어보세요"

출근하자마자 회사 홈페이지의 Q&A 게시판을 체크하던 전찬혁 상무는, 기술연구소의 한 직원이 올린 답변을 보며 미소를 지었다 바퀴 공주가 등장하는 고객의 질문은 엉뚱했지만, 답변을 올린 직원은 질문을 무시하거나, 당황한 흔적이 없었다 오히려 고객의 질문에 잘 대응하고 있었다 답변은 적당하게 재치있고, 재미있었다 가벼운 유머로 흐르는 것을 막기 위해 바퀴벌레에 대한 전문적인 지식도 곁들어져 있었다. 2000년에 처음 회사 홈페이지를 만들었을 때만 해도 의아해 하는 사람들이 많았습니다. 벌레 잡고 쥐 잡는 해충 방제 회사와 인터넷의 홈페이지는 어울리지 않는다고 생각한 사람들이 많았으니까요. 하지만 이젠 대부분의 사람들은 세스코 하면 게시판의 성공을 먼저 떠올릴 것입니다. 인터넷이 마케팅의 수단으로써 중요한 역할을 차지하게 되면서 기업들의 홈페이지는 우후죽순처럼 늘어났지만, 그 수많은 홈페이지 중에서 세스코의 게시판 관리는 혁명적이라고 불릴 정도였으니 기대이상의 성공을 거둔 셈이죠. 라고 말하며 전 상무는 처음 홈페이지를 계획했던 2000년의 상황을 떠올렸다

네트워크 자원 관리를 위한 실시간 학습 기반 제어 프레임워크 개발

학위논문(박사) - 한국과학기술원 : 전기및전자공학부, 2023.8,[vi, 87 p. :]As network environments become more complex and user demands become more diverse, the limitations of rule-based network management techniques are becoming apparent. Therefore, learning-based network resource management techniques that can learn optimal policies without human intervention have been actively researched in recent years. However, under time-varying network environments, policies learned in an offline manner with limited environments cannot guarantee optimal performance. In this study, we investigate realtime learning-based control for network resource management that can learn the given network environment quickly and data-efficiently with minimal performance loss. Specifically, we propose a realtime learning-based control framework for the downlink scheduling algorithm and a realtime learning-based control framework for the congestion control technique. We first present a reinforcement learning-based network scheduling algorithm for a single-hop downlink scenario that achieves throughput optimality and converges to minimal delay. To this end, we first formulate the network optimization problem as a Markov decision process (MDP) problem. Then, we introduce a new state-action value function called $Q^+$-function and develop a reinforcement learning algorithm called $Q^+$-learning with UCB (Upper Confidence Bound) exploration which guarantees small performance loss during a learning process. We also derive an upper bound of the sample complexity in our algorithm, which is more efficient than the best known bound from Q-learning with UCB exploration by a factor of $\gamma^2$ where $\gamma$ is the discount factor of the MDP problem. Furthermore, we propose a novel realtime learning-based control framework for downlink scheduling under time-varying environments. We first transform a problem with the objective of optimal throughput and queueing delay under time-varying environments into a piece-wise non-stationary MDP problem and design modules needed to enable real-time learning with the transformed problem. Specifically, we propose a novel method to leverage prior experiences in order to learn new optimal policies more efficiently compared to the random exploration algorithm. Finally, we consider a realtime learning-based control framework for congestion control. Though ideas of exploiting learning-based controls have been tried, none of them has succeeded in realizing such an ideal control due to the following fundamental challenges: 1) While time-varying network states require a learning-based control to keep learning the environment and optimal actions, it is unknown how to let it learn the optimal action without performing poorly during the learning process, and 2) it is under-explored how to identify and classify such time-varying states that have not been encountered before (i.e., unseen environments) in a detailed manner, which is crucial for learning the environment continually. To provide an answer to these challenges, in this work, we propose a new learning-based congestion control, namely CLINE, with the following two techniques: 1) CLINE predicts best-projected actions under an unseen environment by exploiting and extrapolating its inductive bias on the mapping structure between current observable network states and optimal states, which is learned during its offline training process with a finite set of environments and further improved by an online calibration process. 2) CLINE identifies and classifies the given network much more precisely by utilizing packet timing information and makes it possible for the mapping structure to expand by accumulating the experiences in each unseen environment over time.한국과학기술원 :전기및전자공학부

Efficacy of allergen-specific immunotherapy for atopic dermatitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND: Allergen-specific immunotherapy (allergen-SIT) is the only treatment directed at the cause of IgE-mediated allergic diseases. However, there is controversy over the use of SIT for patients with atopic dermatitis. OBJECTIVE: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the efficacy of SIT for patients with atopic dermatitis. METHODS: We performed manual searches of reference lists and computerized searches of the MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases (through December 10, 2012) for randomized controlled trials that compared SIT with placebo for patients with atopic dermatitis. The outcome of interest was a dichotomous variable, in terms of treatment success; a meta-analysis was performed by using a random-effects analysis. Subgroup analyses were carried out to evaluate the effects of long-term treatment (more than 1 year), SIT for severe atopic dermatitis, SIT for children, and subcutaneous and sublingual administration of immunotherapy. RESULTS: We analyzed 8 randomized controlled trials that comprised a total of 385 subjects. We found that SIT has a significant positive effect on atopic dermatitis (odds ratio [OR], 5.35; 95% CI, 1.61-17.77; number needed to treat, 3; 95% CI, 2-9). SIT also showed significant efficacy in long-term treatment (OR, 6.42; 95% CI, 1.50-27.52) for patients with severe atopic dermatitis (OR, 3.13; 95% CI, 1.31-7.48), and when administered subcutaneously (OR, 4.27; 95% CI, 1.36-13.39). CONCLUSIONS: A meta-analysis provides moderate-level evidence for the efficacy of SIT against atopic dermatitis. However, these findings are based on an analysis of a small number of randomized controlled trials, with considerable heterogeneity among trials.ope

Lower vitamin D status is closely correlated with eczema of the head and neck

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Mohs micrographic surgery for extramammary Paget disease: A pooled analysis of individual patient data

BACKGROUND: Extramammary Paget disease (EMPD) is a rare intraepithelial neoplasm of the skin characterized by ill-defined margins and high recurrence rates after wide local excision. Although Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) has been proposed to decrease the rate of local recurrence, the efficacy of MMS for this condition has not yet been established. OBJECTIVE: We sought to assess the efficacy of MMS for the treatment of EMPD. METHODS: A comprehensive systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis was performed including all available clinical studies and case reports with 5 or more subjects describing the use of MMS for EMPD. RESULTS: Eight studies were identified and included in the current review: 3 retrospective studies and 5 case series. In all, 81 patients with 90 cases of MMS were included from these 8 studies. The overall recurrence rate for EMPD after MMS was 12.2% correlating with an estimated 5-year tumor-free rate of 83.6% by using Kaplan-Meier curve analysis. The treatment of EMPD with MMS resulted in significantly lower recurrence rates than wide local excision in this meta-analysis of 3 observational studies with comparators (odds ratio 0.20; 95% confidence interval 0.05-0.81). LIMITATIONS: Limitations include lack of controlled trials, small sample sizes in the included studies, and publication bias. CONCLUSION: The current evidence supports the efficacy of MMS in the treatment of EMPD. Further controlled clinical trials are needed.ope

Comparing the short-term outcomes of totally intracorporeal gastroduodenostomy with extracorporeal gastroduodenostomy after laparoscopic distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer: a single surgeon’s experience and a rapid systematic review with meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Since delta-shaped gastroduodenostomy was introduced, many surgeons have utilized laparoscopic distal gastrectomy (LDG) with totally intracorporeal Billroth I (ICBI) for gastric cancer, because it is expected to have several advantages over laparoscopic-assisted distal gastrectomy with extracorporeal Billroth I (ECBI). In this study, we compared these two reconstruction options to evaluate their outcomes. METHODS: The data of 166 gastric cancer patients who underwent LDG performed by a single surgeon between April 2009 and February 2012 were analyzed retrospectively. The subjects were divided into ECBI (n = 106) and ICBI (n = 60) groups, and then the clinical characteristics, surgical outcomes, symptoms, and change in BMI at 3 months after surgery were compared. Furthermore, a rapid systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted. RESULTS: The operative time was significantly shorter in the ICBI group (197.4 ± 45.5 vs. 157.1 ± 43.9 min), but blood loss was similar between the groups. Regarding surgical outcomes, there were no significant differences in the length of hospital stay, soft diet initiation, visual analogue scale, frequency of analgesics injection, and postoperative white blood cell counts and C-reactive protein levels between the groups. The surgical complication rates were 5.7 and 13.3% in the ECBI and ICBI groups, respectively, and one case of anastomosis leakage was observed in each group. At 3 months after surgery, reflux symptoms were more frequent in the ICBI group, but other gastrointestinal symptoms and the change of BMI were similar between the groups. The meta-analysis revealed no significant differences in the operative time, time to first flatus, length of hospital stay, frequency of analgesic usages, and rates of anastomosis complications between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: We could not demonstrate the clinical superiority of ICBI over ECBI based on our data and a rapid systematic review and meta-analysis. The anastomosis method may be selected according to patient conditions and the surgeon's preference.ope