Urine Cotinine Should Be Involved in Initial Evaluation of Tinnitus in Adolescents

Objectives Smoking is associated with hearing loss, while the correlation between tinnitus and smoking is not fully elucidated. This study aimed to evaluate risk factors of tinnitus in adolescents in terms of smoking, and we identified a rectifiable parameter that can be serially monitored. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, with 2,782 participants aged 12 to 18 years, from 2008 through 2011. Participants with history of ear disease, hearing loss, and inadequate responses to questionnaires were excluded. We investigated the prevalence of tinnitus and tinnitus-related annoyance by questionnaire and sought potential risk factors in blood and urine tests and smoking history. Results The prevalence of tinnitus in the 12- to 18-year-old population was 17.5%, with 3.3% reporting tinnitus-related annoyance. On univariate analysis, the prevalence of tinnitus increased with age (P<0.001) and was higher among girls (P=0.012). Blood tests and urinalysis showed significant correlation between tinnitus and red blood cell count, alkaline phosphatase levels, and urine cotinine (P=0.002, P<0.001, P=0.018, respectively). In multivariate analysis, the urine cotinine level was the only parameter associated with tinnitus (odds ratio, 1.000; 95% confidence interval, 0.999 to 1.000; P=0.038). Smoking was also significantly correlated with tinnitus (P=0.043), and amount of smoking with tinnitus-related annoyance (P=0.045). However, current smoking and past smoking were not correlated with tinnitus. Conclusion Urine cotinine may be a rectifiable marker for management of tinnitus in adolescents. This suggests that smoking cessation should be incorporated in the management of tinnitus in adolescents

Relationship Between Diet and Tinnitus: Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Objectives This study aimed to analyze the association between nutritional intake and tinnitus prevalence by evaluating a large cross-sectional cohort. Methods Data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey collected between 2013 and 2015 were analyzed. The study population consisted of 7,621 individuals aged 40 to 80 years with complete tinnitus-related data. Individuals with inadequate responses to tinnitus history, noise exposure in the work place, or subjective hearing loss were excluded. Prevalence of tinnitus and tinnitus-related annoyance, and nutrition intake were measured using this questionnaire, and associations between tinnitus and nutritional data were evaluated by binary logistic regression analysis. Results Subjective tinnitus was reported by 1,435 individuals with subjective normal hearing (18.8%). Prevalence of tinnitus increased with age. However, among individuals with tinnitus, the proportion of individuals with tinnitus-related annoyance was similar across age groups. Older age, female sex, lower body mass index (BMI), and less vitamin B2 intake were significantly associated with tinnitus (P<0.001, P=0.002, P=0.041, P=0.013, respectively). Vitamin B2 intake was significantly less in individuals with tinnitus who were middle-aged (ages 51–55 and 56–60 years, P=0.012 and P=0.020, respectively). Less intake of water, protein, and vitamin B3 were associated with tinnitus-related annoyance (P=0.038, P=0.009, and P=0.005, respectively). Prevalence of annoyance was significantly associated with less water intake in younger ages (age 45–55 years) but with less protein and vitamin B3 intake in older ages (age 66–80 years). Conclusion Reduced intake of vitamin B2 and B3, water, and protein may be associated with tinnitus and tinnitus-related annoyance, and further studies regarding the importance of adequate nutritional intake in the tinnitus management need to be performed

Can Endoscopic Tympanoplasty Be a Good Alternative to Microscopic Tympanoplasty? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Although efficacies and proportions of tympanoplasty performed via endoscopic ear surgery (EES) have gradually introduced, it remains unclear whether total EES is a good alternative to microscopic ear surgery (MES). Herein, we aimed to compare therapeutic effects of EES and MES in patients receiving tympanoplasty or myringoplasty. A search of MEDLINE, PubMed, and Embase databases was conducted to compare the efficacies of EES and MES. Two investigators independently reviewed all studies and extracted data with a standardized form. We assessed risk of bias and calculated pooled odds ratio (OR) estimates with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Thirteen studies (607 EES patients and 678 MES patients) met inclusion criteria for quantitative meta-analysis. In pooled analysis, those who undergo EES have 0.99 times the OR of graft success compared to those with MES (95% CI, 0.84 to 1.16; P=0.894). In qualitative analysis, comparable hearing improvement was observed between the two groups, despite inconsistent audiometric evaluation. The air-bone gaps (ABGs) improved 2.02 dB less in EES than in MES (mean difference of improvements of ABGs, 2.02; 95% CI, –3.84 to –0.20; P=0.029); however, substantial heterogeneity and publication bias limited the integrity of this analysis. Further, EES significantly decreased canalplasty rate, wound complications, and operation time, compared to MES. Moreover, patients receiving EES reported higher cosmetic satisfaction than patients receiving MES. EES can be a good alternative to MES in terms of comparable graft success rate and hearing outcomes in patients receiving tympanoplasty or myringoplasty. Moreover, EES was less invasive, resulting in higher cosmetic satisfaction, reduced morbidity, and shorter operation time. Our results may affect decision-making and outcome prediction in cases of EES; however, confirmation is needed to clarify potential bias

Prognostics and health management of composite structures under multiple impacts through electromechanical behavior and a particle filter

Self-sensing techniques are restricted to monitoring the various types of damage caused during repeated impact testing, and only a few studies have investigated the prognostics of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs); in these studies, the electrical resistance of CFRPs was gauged in real time during multiple-impact testing. Therefore, real-time prognostics and health management using electromechanical behavior data obtained from CFRP structures under repeated impact testing are proposed herein. The health condition of the CFRP is observed in real time during impact testing using mechanical and electromechanical behavior data. Further, the types of failure observed during impact testing are investigated using real-time self-sensing data. Moreover, a particle filter is used for predicting the electromechanical behavior and the remaining number of useful impacts during repeated impact testing conducted using a physics-based prog-nostics tool. The applicability of the proposed methodology was confirmed by monitoring and predicting impact damage growth on the wind-turbine blade within a 5% prediction error. An advanced-condition- based monitoring technique with the diagnostics and prognostics of the current health state was designed successfully, and an application of the introduced method was demonstrated for industrial use.(c) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Machine learning aided design of smart, self-sensing fiber-reinforced plastics

Numerous techniques have been developed for the non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of impact damage in fiber reinforced plastics (FRPs), following the increasing demands for their safety and maintenance. Considering the large-scale detection and the vast amount of data involved, machine learning (ML) can be utilized in NDE for damage type analysis and impact damage localization. Furthermore, self-sensing using carbon fiber in FRPs is an emerging technique for NDE that can be combined with ML. In this study, ML was used to design smart FRPs by selecting the fiber type and electrode distance considering the cost and electromechanical sensitivity. Furthermore, a novel algorithm for structural health self-sensing was suggested using an artificial neural network. The developed ML algorithms are advantageous since they do not require a theoretical model when all the factors and the variables of FRPs, such as the maximum absorbed impact energy, maximum impact force, initial electrical resistance, number of electrodes, fiber types, and electrode distance, are to be considered. The algorithm was trained using given input data and the target, and the output could be successfully obtained when new input data were provided. Therefore, the proposed ML algorithms hold great potential and applicability to FRP design and for NDE methods

Classification of problematic Internet usage types by motives and contexts with elementary and secondary school-aged counseling clients

Background and aims Past research on the classification of problematic Internet use (PIU) has focused on symptom-based severity and usage motive in order to understand its mechanism. Recently, usage context, such as family or social relationships, has been identified as a key influencing factor of PIU. Therefore, we extended the classification of PIU to include usage context in addition to symptom-based severity and usage motive. Methods To classify PIU types, we conducted two studies. First, we performed a clustering analysis, where 265 counseling cases were clustered into usage types in terms of motive and context. After characterizing each usage type, we examined their hierarchical relationships by considering symptoms. Second, we performed a focus group interview with six counselors to increase the transferability of usage types. This transferability was established by matching counselors’ quotations to the usage types. When usage types showed consistency between quotations and the clustering analysis, we identified the progression patterns between hierarchical relationships. Results The clustering analysis of motive and context yielded six usage types with three hierarchical relationships. The focus group interview results verified the transferability of these six types and identified two progression patterns between the hierarchical relationships. Discussion and conclusion Although usage motive and context were given equal weight before the clustering analysis, the resulting types revealed that usage context played a greater role in the classification process

The Benefits and Risks of Prophylactic Central Neck Dissection for Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: Prospective Cohort Study

Objectives. This study evaluated the benefits of performing prophylactic central neck dissection (CND) with total thyroidectomy (TT) in management of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients who were clinically node-negative at presentation. Methods. A total of 257 patients with stage T1 or T2 PTC and without preoperative evidence of lymph node involvement (N0) were enrolled in this prospective study. The patients were randomly assigned to two groups: (1) a total thyroidectomy (TT) group (n=104) or (2) a TT plus CND group (n=153). The two groups were compared for their perioperative data, complication rates, disease recurrence rates, and clinical outcomes. Results. The two groups of patients were similar in age, sex ratio, follow-up duration, and tumor size (P=0.227, 0.359, 0.214, and 0.878, resp.). The two groups showed similar rates of disease recurrence (3.9% in the TT group versus 3.3% in the TT plus CND group); however, complications occurred more frequently in the TT plus CND group; especially transient hypocalcemia (P=0.043). Conclusions. Patients treated with TT plus CND had a higher rate of complications with similar recurrence rate. We believe that CND may not be routinely recommended when treating patients with PTC

Injection laryngoplasty of human adipose-derived stem cell spheroids with hyaluronic acid-based hydrogel improves the morphological and functional characteristics of geriatric larynx

As the geriatric population increased, the need of treatment for laryngeal atrophy and dysfunction increased. This study was performed to evaluate the effects of injection of human adipose-derived stem cell (hASC) spheroid-loaded catechol-conjugated hyaluronic acid (HA-CA) hydrogel on therapeutic rejuvenation of the geriatric larynx. Stem cell spheroids with hyaluronic acid-based hydrogel were injected into the laryngeal muscles of 18-month-old Sprague–Dawley rats. The effects of hASC spheroids were examined in the following four groups: SHAM, injected with PBS; GEL, injected with HA-CA hydrogel; MONO, injected with single hASCs in HA-CA hydrogel; and SP, injected with hASCs spheroids in HA-CA hydrogel. The rejuvenation efficacy in geriatric laryngeal muscle tissues at 12 weeks postinjection was evaluated and compared by histology, immunofluorescence staining, and functionality analysis. Total myofiber cross-sectional area and myofiber number/density, evaluated by detection of myosin heavy chain with antibodies against laminin and fast myosin heavy chain, were significantly higher in the SP group than in the other groups. The lamina propria of the larynx was evaluated by alcian blue staining, which showed that the HA was increased significantly in the SP group compared to the other groups. In functional analysis, the glottal gap area was significantly reduced in the SP group compared to the other groups. The phase difference in the vocal fold during vibration was also smaller in the SP group than in the other groups, but the difference did not reach statistical significance. Injection of hASC spheroids with hyaluronic acid-based hydrogel improves the morphological and functional characteristics of geriatric larynx.This research was supported by the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Korean government (MSIT), Republic of Korea (No. 2019M3A9H1103617 and No. 2020R1A4A4079931), a grant of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (No. HI14C1277) and the Tech-nology Innovation Program (or Industrial Strategic Technology Development Program-Bio-industrial technology development- customized diagnostic treatment products) (No. 20014955, Devel-opment of Intelligent Automation System for mass production of cell therapy products) funded By the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE), Republic of Korea

Smart fiber orientation monitoring system in a mold via electrical route modeling

The orientation of unidirectional carbon fibers (UDCFs) in a manufacturing process is critical to the mechanical properties of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs). This study presents a method to monitor the orientation of UDCFs on a mold using electrical resistance during the CFRP manufacturing process. An equivalent electrical model for UDCFs was proposed to develop an in situ sensor in a mold. The orientation of UDCFs during the CFRP manufacturing process is investigated in terms of its orthotropic electrical properties. The proposed technique can have strong implications on in situ monitoring of composite molding process where the fiber orientation is unseen by monitoring electrical resistance with Cu tapes as electrodes

Polarity-tunable magnetic tunnel junctions based on ferromagnetism at oxide heterointerfaces

Complex oxide systems have attracted considerable attention because of their fascinating properties, including the magnetic ordering at the conducting interface between two band insulators, such as LaAlO3 (LAO) and SrTiO3 (STO). However, the manipulation of the spin degree of freedom at the LAO/STO heterointerface has remained elusive. Here, we have fabricated hybrid magnetic tunnel junctions consisting of Co and LAO/STO ferromagnets with the insertion of a Ti layer in between, which clearly exhibit magnetic switching and the tunnelling magnetoresistance (TMR) effect below 10 K. The magnitude and the of the TMR are strongly dependent on the direction of the rotational magnetic field parallel to the LAO/STO plane, which is attributed to a strong Rashba-type spin orbit coupling in the LAO/STO heterostructure. Our study provides a further support for the existence of the macroscopic ferromagnetism at LAO/STO heterointerfaces and opens a novel route to realize interfacial spintronics devices.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure