Role of Staphylococcal Superantigen in Atopic Dermatitis: Influence on Keratinocytes

Staphylococcus aureus may perform an crucial function in atopic dermatitis (AD), via the secretion of superantigens, including staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE) A or B, and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1). Dysregulated cytokine production by keratinocytes (KCs) upon exposure to staphylococcal superantigens (SsAgs) may be principally involved in the pathophysiology of AD. We hypothesized that lesional KCs from AD may react differently to SsAgs compared to nonlesional skin or normal skin from nonatopics. We conducted a comparison of HLA-DR or CD1a expression in lesional skin as opposed to that in nonlesional or normal skin by immunohistochemistry (IHC). We also compared, using ELISA, the levels of IL-1α, IL-1β, and TNF-α secreted by cultured KCs from lesional, nonlesional, and normal skin, after the addition of SEA, SEB and TSST-1. IHC revealed that both HLA-DR and CD1a expression increased significantly in the epidermis of lesional skin versus nonlesional or normal skin in quite a similar manner. IL-1α, IL-1β, and TNF-α secretion was also significantly elevated in the cultured KCs from lesional skin after the addition of SsAgs. Our results indicated that KCs from lesional skin appear to react differently to SsAgs and increased proinflammatory cytokine production in response to SsAgs may contribute to the pathogenesis of AD

Wave energy system using piezoelectric panel

In this research, we research the characteristics of a new type of wave-power generation system that\ud deducts ocean wave energy to the front part by installing a piezo-electric element on the outside of the existing harbor\ud structure. The wave-power generation system proposed in this research might be applied to a variety of marine structure,\ud which makes it possible to add wave-power generation capacity to the original structural function. Furthermore, it cost\ud relatively less to build multiple generators, which makes its wave-power generation for a bigger launch. Moreover, it\ud might be developed in link with a tourism complex by adopting the wave-power generation system. Accordingly, we\ud analyze the usability of the existing marine structure and characteristics and current research trend in the ocean wave\ud energy retrieval of the wave-power generation system. In addition, in order to review hydrographic characteristics of the\ud proposed system, seen from the result of carrying out 2-D cross-section hydrographic model test, it is confirmed that the\ud maximum wave pressure and voltage increase when in the cases of higher wave and longer period. The result from\ud hydrographic model test indicates that wave-power generation system using piezoelectric element has different\ud generation volume depending upon crushing wave height rather than incidence cycle. It also indicates that the\ud generation volume increase in positive proportion to the size of ocean wave energy

Parametric resonance of magnetization excited by electric field

Manipulation of magnetization by electric field is a central goal of spintronics because it enables energy-efficient operation of spin-based devices. Spin wave devices are promising candidates for low-power information processing but a method for energy-efficient excitation of short-wavelength spin waves has been lacking. Here we show that spin waves in nanoscale magnetic tunnel junctions can be generated via parametric resonance induced by electric field. Parametric excitation of magnetization is a versatile method of short-wavelength spin wave generation, and thus our results pave the way towards energy-efficient nanomagnonic devices

Helicobacter pylori Infection and Halitosis – Evidence, Hypothesis, and Korean Red Ginseng to Mitigate Its Effect

Halitosis is a common and ignored condition, but in some, it is a disease-associated health problem, suggestive of overt disease conditions and hasaffected about 25–30% of world’s population, bothering nonmedical social disturbance in many people. Although two kinds, pseudohalitosis and halitophobia, are also concerned, genuine halitosis originated from the oral cavity, such as gingivitis, caries, and poor oral hygiene, in 80% and the remaining 20% are extraoral sources of halitosis, which should not be ignored because of stigmata suggestive of overt tissue dysfunctions, for instance, poor nutrition and hygiene, alcohol abuse, smoking, and systemic illness such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, liver cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, and chronic renal diseases. In this chapter, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)–associated halitosis as one of the extragastric manifestations is introduced. Since diagnostics of halitosis includes subjective methods (examiner’s sense of smell) and objective methods (instrumental analysis), under the hypothesis of a possible relationship between H. pylori infection and objective halitosis, the real levels of volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) in the breath showed significant correlation between VSC levels and the degree of H. pylori–associated erosive gastritis as well as gastric cancer. These findings are further validated through either measuring H2S level in gastric juices of H. pylori–infected gastritis or checking the expressions of cystathionine-γ-lyase (CSE) and cystathionine-β-synthase (CBS) responsible for H2S generation in biopsied stomach. The eradication of H. pylori significantly ameliorated halitosis, accompanied with significant reductions in gastric H2S levels (p<0.01). Korean red ginseng was very effective in either reducing H. pylori–associated H2S or alleviating halitosis in patients with H. pylori–associated chronic atrophic gastritis. Conclusively, H. pylori infection demonstrates to have an important relationship with the development of halitosis, and its eradication could possibly promote the improvement of this condition

Avifauna of Bangtaesan Mountain, Gangwon-do, Korea

AbstractAn investigation on avifauna of the Bangtaesan Mountain was carried out from February until November, 2010 and it drew the results as follow. The number of birds observed in the whole Bangtaesan Mountain region was 989 individuals of 51 species (Maximum counts). Considering the results from literature research in addition, at least 90 species 1,000 individuals are thought to live in this region. In result, dominant species proved to be Yellow-throated Bunting (Emberiza elegans), Marsh Tit (Parus palustris), Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyana), Eastern Crowned Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus coronatus), Varied Tit (Parus varius), and more. Most of birds breeding in the forest of Korea were found to constitute these dominant bird species. Entire species diversity index appeared to be 3.35 relatively a high level; 3.34 in the south slopes while 3.22 in the north slopes showing relatively a high level in the south. Of them, 12 species including Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) were the Protected Birds species nominated and protected by the Cultural Heritage Administration or the Ministry of Environment, while 10 and 6 species were the natural monument species and endangered species level, respectively. Should further consistent surveys be carried out, a broader range of species would be found to breed, and therefore the Bangtaesan Mountain region including the area where the protected species are observed is believed to need a conservation and management through protected area designation

Speaker Diarization with Lexical Information

This work presents a novel approach for speaker diarization to leverage lexical information provided by automatic speech recognition. We propose a speaker diarization system that can incorporate word-level speaker turn probabilities with speaker embeddings into a speaker clustering process to improve the overall diarization accuracy. To integrate lexical and acoustic information in a comprehensive way during clustering, we introduce an adjacency matrix integration for spectral clustering. Since words and word boundary information for word-level speaker turn probability estimation are provided by a speech recognition system, our proposed method works without any human intervention for manual transcriptions. We show that the proposed method improves diarization performance on various evaluation datasets compared to the baseline diarization system using acoustic information only in speaker embeddings