Malakoplakia of the Kidney Extending to the Descending Colon in a Patient with Secondary Adrenal Insufficiency: A Case Report

Malakoplakia is an uncommon but distinctive type of chronic granulomatous inflammation that occurs most commonly in the genitourinary tract, especially the urinary bladder. Most patients have associated conditions characterized by some degree of immunosuppression, as seen in solid-organ transplants, autoimmune diseases requiring steroid use, chemotherapy, chronic systemic diseases, alcohol abuse and poorly controlled diabetes. We report an unusual case of the renal malakoplakia that involved the perirenal space, extending to the descending colon in a 65-year-old Korean woman with secondary adrenal insufficiency and diabetes mellitus

Predictive Coding Strategies for Developmental Neurorobotics

In recent years, predictive coding strategies have been proposed as a possible means by which the brain might make sense of the truly overwhelming amount of sensory data available to the brain at any given moment of time. Instead of the raw data, the brain is hypothesized to guide its actions by assigning causal beliefs to the observed error between what it expects to happen and what actually happens. In this paper, we present a variety of developmental neurorobotics experiments in which minimalist prediction error-based encoding strategies are utilize to elucidate the emergence of infant-like behavior in humanoid robotic platforms. Our approaches will be first naively Piagian, then move onto more Vygotskian ideas. More specifically, we will investigate how simple forms of infant learning, such as motor sequence generation, object permanence, and imitation learning may arise if minimizing prediction errors are used as objective functions

Performance Evaluation of Positioning Techniques Based on UWB Radio

In this paper, performances of positioning techniques based on UWB radio are evaluated. The positioning techniques for UWB systems, SS, and time based algorithms, TOA and TDOA, are the target ones to be analyzed. Using the reported CRLB of each algorithm, the location estimation error is obtained. The estimation error variation to the number of base stations is reported also.This work is supported in part by ITRC and Seoul R&BD Program (10544)

Effects of 92% oxygen administration on cognitive performance and physiological changes of intellectually and developmentally disabled people

Background: The present study addressed how 92% oxygen administration affects cognitive performance, blood oxygen saturation (SpO(2)), and heart rate (HR) of intellectually and developmentally disabled people. Methods: Seven males (28.9 +/- 1.8 years) and seven females (34.4 +/- 8.3 years) with intellectual and developmental disabilities (disabled level 2.1 +/- 0.5) completed an experiment consisting a 0-back task with normal air (21% oxygen) administered in one run and hyperoxic air (92% oxygen) administered in the other run. The experimental sequence in each run consisted of a 1-min adaptation phase, 2-min control phase, and 2-min 0-back task phase, where SpO(2) and HR were gauged for each phase. Results: The administration of 92% oxygen increased 0-back task performance of intellectually and developmentally disabled people, in association with increased SpO(2) and decreased HR. Our results demonstrate that sufficient oxygen supply subserving cognitive functions, even as a short-term effect, could increase cognitive ability for the intellectually and developmentally disabled people. Conclusions: It is concluded that enriched oxygen can positively affect, at least in the short-term, the working memory of those with intellectual and developmental disabilityopen0

Controlling the Magnetic Anisotropy of the van der Waals Ferromagnet Fe3GeTe2 through Hole Doping.

Identifying material parameters affecting properties of ferromagnets is key to optimized materials that are better suited for spintronics. Magnetic anisotropy is of particular importance in van der Waals magnets, since it not only influences magnetic and spin transport properties, but also is essential to stabilizing magnetic order in the two-dimensional limit. Here, we report that hole doping effectively modulates the magnetic anisotropy of a van der Waals ferromagnet and explore the physical origin of this effect. Fe3-xGeTe2 nanoflakes show a significant suppression of the magnetic anisotropy with hole doping. Electronic structure measurements and calculations reveal that the chemical potential shift associated with hole doping is responsible for the reduced magnetic anisotropy by decreasing the energy gain from the spin-orbit induced band splitting. Our findings provide an understanding of the intricate connection between electronic structures and magnetic properties in two-dimensional magnets and propose a method to engineer magnetic properties through doping

Trends in Cancer Screening Rates among Korean Men and Women: Results from the Korean National Cancer Screening Survey (KNCSS), 2004-2010

PURPOSE: The Korean National Cancer Screening Survey (KNCSS) is a continuous nationwide survey implemented by the National Cancer Center in Korea since 2004. The purpose of the present study was to report trends in cancer screening rates for the five major cancers (stomach, liver, colorectal, breast, and cervix uteri) in Korean men and women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study used KNCSS data collected between 2004 and 2010. The survey was conducted on Korean men aged 40-74 years and Korean women aged 30-74 years with no history of cancer diagnosis. The annual percentage change and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were used to examine changes in annual screening rates. RESULTS: Screening rates with recommendation increased by 4.4% annually for stomach cancer, 1.5% for liver cancer, 2.8% per year for colorectal cancer, 4.5% for breast cancer, and 1.2% for cervix uteri cancer. The increasing trend in cancer screening rates, with the exception of liver cancer, was significant. CONCLUSION: Cancer screening rates have increased consistently from 2004 to 2010 among Korean men and women. Stomach and breast cancer screening rates in particular have increased markedly.ope

Effect of Metal Door On Indoor Radio Channel

This paper reports the variation of indoor radio channel caused by metal door. The simulation results using the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method and measurement results using the vector network analyzer in frequency domain are used for the characterization of received signal strength variation by metal door. Target frequency bands are three - sensor band, 802.11b ISM band, and 802.11a UNII band. From the simulation and measurement results, the effect of door angle to the received signal strength in three frequency bands and effect of radio frequency to variation are investigated. And, FDTD simulation parameters for different environments are suggested

Frequency-Dependent UWB Channel Characteristics in Office Environments

This paper reports frequency-dependent ultrawideband (UWB) channel characteristics. Measurements were performed in 103 receiver locations of six different office environments. From the measured data, the effect of frequency on the pathloss properties of a UWB signal is analyzed. After analyzing the pathloss behavior to propagation environments, the pathloss exponent variation models are developed in various environments as a function of frequency. Based on these models, pathloss prediction is performed, and the accuracy of the prediction is compared with those of existing pathloss models. In addition, the frequency-dependent UWB channel correlation characteristics are investigated. For the frequency correlation statistics of the UWB channel, double-slope models representing correlation coefficients are established with and without line-of-sight (LOS) paths. Using these correlation models, a channel gain estimation algorithm is proposed. The performance of the proposed estimation algorithm is evaluated with estimation parameters, and it is confirmed that the proposed estimation algorithm has better performance than the conventional algorithm using a linear interpolation algorithm.Brain Korea 21 Project IT R&D Program of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy/Institute for Information Technology Advancement under Grant 2008-F-007-01, Intelligent Wireless Communication Systems in 3 Dimensional Environmen