ArhGAP9, a novel MAP kinase docking protein, inhibits Erk and p38 activation through WW domain binding

We have identified human ArhGAP9 as a novel MAP kinase docking protein that interacts with Erk2 and p38α through complementarily charged residues in the WW domain of ArhGAP9 and the CD domains of Erk2 and p38α. This interaction sequesters the MAP kinases in their inactive states through displacement of MAP kinase kinases targeting the same sites. While over-expression of wild type ArhGAP9 caused MAP kinase activation by the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) to be suppressed and preserved the actin stress fibres in quiescent Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts, over-expression of an ArhGAP9 mutant defective in MAP kinase binding restored EGFR-induced MAP kinase activation and resulted in significant disruption of the stress fibres, consistent with the role of Erk activation in disassembly of actin stress fibres. The interaction between ArhGAP9 and the MAP kinases represents a novel mechanism of cross-talk between Rho GTPase and MAP kinase signaling

The effect of glaucoma filtration surgery on structural and functional eye parameters in a short-term study

Glaucoma filtration surgery (trabeculectomy) is an effective glaucoma treatment method that provides significant intraocular pressure (IOP) reduction. Indications for this method are in cases where other forms of therapy, like medicines or lasers, have failed, other forms of therapy are not suitable (compliance or side-effects are a problem), in cases where a target pressure is required to prevent clinically significant disease progression that cannot be reached with topical medications and/or laser and in cases that have such advanced glaucoma and high IOP at presentation that other forms of treatment are unlikely to be successful. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of glaucoma surgery on the structural and functional eye parameters at different stages of glaucoma. A total of 96 eyes of 96 patients (only one eye from each patient) with different stages of glaucoma (stages 2 to 4) who were undergoing trabeculectomy were recruited. Quadrant retinal nerve fibre layer RNFL) thickness (33 patients), cup/disc vertical and horizontal ratio (36 patients) and MD of visual fields (27 patients) were analysed up to one week before and 1 month after the successful surgery. The results show that the MD value was slightly improved in 50%, 85.7%, and 71.4% of patients with glaucoma stages 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The mean RNFL of all four optic nerve head quadrants increased slightly after the surgery for patients with glaucoma stage 2; in contrast, a decrease in the mean RNFL values for all four quadrants was observed for patients with glaucoma stage 4. Statistically significant changes in the mean values for the optic nerve horizontal c/d ratio after glaucoma surgery were observed (p = 0.033) in contrast to the vertical c/d values (p = 0.77). In total, improvement of the horizontal and vertical c/d ratio was detected in 61.1% and 55.6% of the glaucoma patients, respectively. Although the observed changes were statistically insignificant, the positive influence of glaucoma surgery on the structural and functional eye parameters was more pronounced in moderate stages than in advanced or severe stages of glaucoma.publishersversionPeer reviewe

The visual object tracking VOT2016 challenge results

The Visual Object Tracking challenge VOT2016 aims at comparing short-term single-object visual trackers that do not apply pre-learned models of object appearance. Results of 70 trackers are presented, with a large number of trackers being published at major computer vision conferences and journals in the recent years. The number of tested state-of-the-art trackers makes the VOT 2016 the largest and most challenging benchmark on short-term tracking to date. For each participating tracker, a short description is provided in the Appendix. The VOT2016 goes beyond its predecessors by (i) introducing a new semi-automatic ground truth bounding box annotation methodology and (ii) extending the evaluation system with the no-reset experiment. The dataset, the evaluation kit as well as the results are publicly available at the challenge website (http: //votchallenge.net)

Distributed Data Exchange with Leap Motion

Collaborative virtual environments can connect people in social virtual spaces even when they are geographically distant from each other. Hand interactions are fundamental to enable natural collaboration and immersive experiences as they are a visually intuitive means of communication. However, scalability is challenging as numerous participants typically produce a large volume of visualisation data that may overload a single node if the management is centralised. In this paper we propose a transmission strategy where the high-throughput visualisation data (e.g. hand joints) is exchanged amongst participants in a distributed fashion. We use a level-of-detail strategy to further reduce the network traffic accounting for spatial distances amongst participants in the virtual space. We design an experiment where we analyse the network traffic in a virtual environment with up to seven participants whose hands are tracked using Leap Motion. We show that the proposed method can effectively reduce the network traffic of visualisation data when compared to a centralised approach

Daily Collection of Self-Reporting Sleep Disturbance Data via a Smartphone App in Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy: A Feasibility Study

Background Improvements in mobile telecommunication technologies have enabled clinicians to collect patient-reported outcome (PRO) data more frequently, but there is as yet limited evidence regarding the frequency with which PRO data can be collected via smartphone applications (apps) in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. Objective The primary objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of an app for sleep disturbance-related data collection from breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. A secondary objective was to identify the variables associated with better compliance in order to identify the optimal subgroups to include in future studies of smartphone-based interventions. Methods Between March 2013 and July 2013, patients who planned to receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer at Asan Medical Center who had access to a smartphone app were enrolled just before the start of their chemotherapy and asked to self-report their sleep patterns, anxiety severity, and mood status via a smartphone app on a daily basis during the 90-day study period. Push notifications were sent to participants daily at 9 am and 7 pm. Data regarding the patients demographics, interval from enrollment to first self-report, baseline Becks Depression Inventory (BDI) score, and health-related quality of life score (as assessed using the EuroQol Five Dimensional [EQ5D-3L] questionnaire) were collected to ascertain the factors associated with compliance with the self-reporting process. Results A total of 30 participants (mean age 45 years, SD 6; range 35-65 years) were analyzed in this study. In total, 2700 daily push notifications were sent to these 30 participants over the 90-day study period via their smartphones, resulting in the collection of 1215 self-reporting sleep-disturbance data items (overall compliance rate=45.0%, 1215/2700). The median value of individual patient-level reporting rates was 41.1% (range 6.7-95.6%). The longitudinal day-level compliance curve fell to 50.0% at day 34 and reached a nadir of 13.3% at day 90. The cumulative longitudinal compliance curve exhibited a steady decrease by about 50% at day 70 and continued to fall to 45% on day 90. Women without any form of employment exhibited the higher compliance rate. There was no association between any of the other patient characteristics (ie, demographics, and BDI and EQ5D-3L scores) and compliance. The mean individual patient-level reporting rate was higher for the subgroup with a 1-day lag time, defined as starting to self-report on the day immediately after enrollment, than for those with a lag of 2 or more days (51.6%, SD 24.0 and 29.6%, SD 25.3, respectively; P=.03). Conclusions The 90-day longitudinal collection of daily self-reporting sleep-disturbance data via a smartphone app was found to be feasible. Further research should focus on how to sustain compliance with this self-reporting for a longer time and select subpopulations with higher rates of compliance for mobile health care.OAIID:oai:osos.snu.ac.kr:snu2014-01/102/0000040632/5ADJUST_YN:YEMP_ID:A077602DEPT_CD:901CITE_RATE:3.428FILENAME:5.daily collection of self-reporting sleep disturbance data via a smartphone app_0.pdfDEPT_NM:보건학과SCOPUS_YN:YCONFIRM:YCONFIRM: