Mild and moderate pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease is associated with increased coronary artery calcium.

BackgroundIt is increasingly evident that patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are more likely to die from heart disease than kidney failure. This study evaluated whether pre- dialysis CKD is an independent risk factor for coronary artery calcium (CAC).MethodsA total of 544 consecutive patients who underwent CAC scoring were analyzed. Eleven patients requiring hemodialysis were excluded. Patients were divided into three groups: normal glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (GFR > 90 mL/min/1.73 m²), mild CKD (90 ≥ GFR > 60 mL/min/1.73 m²), and moderate CKD (60 ≥ GFR > 30 mL/min/1.73 m²). Continuous and categorical variables were compared using analysis of variance and the χ² statistic. A multiple logistic regression model was used for detecting the association between total CAC score and GFR. An unadjusted model was used, followed by a second model adjusted for covariates known to be related to CAC. Another multivariable binary logistic model predicting the presence of CAC (>10) was performed and odds of incidence of CAC (>10) were calculated among the three GFR subgroups.ResultsAfter adjustment for covariates, patients with mild CKD had mean CAC scores 175 points higher than those with the referent normal GFR (P = 0.048), while those with moderate CKD had mean CAC scores 693 points higher than the referent (P < 0.001). After adjustment for covariates, patients with mild CKD were found to be 2.2 times more likely (95% confidence interval 1.3-3.7, P = 0.004) and patients with moderate CKD were 6.4 times more likely (95% confidence interval 2.9-14.3, P < 0.001) to have incident CAC compared with the group with normal GFR.ConclusionMild and moderate pre-dialysis CKD are independent risk factors for increased mean and incident CAC

Prediction of mechanical properties of Al alloys with change of cooling rate

The solidification process significantly affects the mechanical properties and there are lots of factors that affect the solidification process. Much progress has been made in the research on the effect of solidification on mechanical properties. Among them, the PF (Phase Field) model and CA (Cellular Automata) model are widely used as simulation methods which can predict nucleation and its growth, and the size and morphology of the grains during solidification. Although they can give accurate calculation results, it needs too much computational memory and calculation time. So it is difficult to apply the simulation to the real production process. In this study, a more practical simulation approach which can predict the mechanical properties of real aluminum alloys is proposed, by identifying through experiment the relationship between cooling rate and SDAS (Secondary Dendrite Arm Spacing) and mechanical properties. The experimentally measured values and the values predicted by simulation have relatively small differences and the mechanical properties of a variety of Al alloys are expected to be predicted before casting through use of the simulation

Bilateral Axillo-Breast Approach Robotic Thyroidectomy: Introduction and Update

Bilateral axillo-breast approach (BABA) endoscopic thyroidectomy was introduced at Seoul National University Hospital in 2004, and it has been used to treat a variety of benign and malignant thyroid diseases. In 2008, we began using the da Vinci robotic system with BABA endoscopic thyroidectomy and reported our initial experiences in 2009. Since then, the outcomes of many clinical studies have been reported. In this chapter, we will introduce the BABA robotic thyroidectomy (RoT) procedure and review evidence for the safety of performing BABA. First, we will introduce the history of BABA RoT, which is based on an endoscopic BABA method. Second, we will review the BABA RoT equipment, operating room (OR) set-up, and the procedures, including surgical indications. Third, technical, oncological, and functional evidence for the safety of performing BABA will be described. Fourth, we will highlight the esthetic superiority of BABA RoT compared with conventional thyroidectomy. Finally, the BABA robotic modified radical neck dissection procedure will be introduced, with mention of our experiences and special concerns. We conclude that BABA RoT is technically, oncologically, and functionally safe. In addition, its esthetic superiority should be emphasized. Further research on the prognosis of patients treated by BABA RoT should follow in the future

Unsupervised Visual Representation Learning via Mutual Information Regularized Assignment

This paper proposes Mutual Information Regularized Assignment (MIRA), a pseudo-labeling algorithm for unsupervised representation learning inspired by information maximization. We formulate online pseudo-labeling as an optimization problem to find pseudo-labels that maximize the mutual information between the label and data while being close to a given model probability. We derive a fixed-point iteration method and prove its convergence to the optimal solution. In contrast to baselines, MIRA combined with pseudo-label prediction enables a simple yet effective clustering-based representation learning without incorporating extra training techniques or artificial constraints such as sampling strategy, equipartition constraints, etc. With relatively small training epochs, representation learned by MIRA achieves state-of-the-art performance on various downstream tasks, including the linear/k-NN evaluation and transfer learning. Especially, with only 400 epochs, our method applied to ImageNet dataset with ResNet-50 architecture achieves 75.6% linear evaluation accuracy.Comment: NeurIPS 202

Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells Contribute to the Protective Immunity Induced by Intranasal Treatment with Fc-fused Interleukin-7 against Lethal Influenza Virus Infection

Developing a novel vaccine that can be applied against multiple strains of influenza virus is of utmost importance to human health. Previously, we demonstrated that the intranasal introduction of Fc-fused IL-7 (IL-7-mFc), a long-acting cytokine fusion protein, confers long-lasting prophylaxis against multiple strains of influenza A virus (IAV) by inducing the development of lung-resident memory-like T cells, called TRM-like cells. Here, we further investigated the mechanisms of IL-7-mFc-mediated protective immunity to IAVs. First, we found that IL-7-mFc treatment augments the accumulation of pulmonary T cells in 2 ways: recruiting blood circulating T cells into the lung and expanding T cells at the lung parenchyma. Second, the blockade of T cell migration from the lymph nodes (LNs) with FTY720 treatment was not required for mounting the protective immunity to IAV with IL-7-mFc, suggesting a more important role of IL-7 in T cells in the lungs. Third, IL-7-mFc treatment also recruited various innate immune cells into the lungs. Among these cells, plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) play an important role in IL-7-mFc-mediated protective immunity through reducing the immunopathology and increasing IAV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses. In summary, our results show that intranasal treatment with IL-7-mFc modulates pulmonary immune responses to IAV, affecting both innate and adaptive immune cells. ? 2017. The Korean Association of Immunologists.112Ysciescopuskc