Development of a miniature Twin Rotary Compressor

In this paper, we will introduce the miniature compressor, which is designed for various applications. Twin rotary compressor structure was adopted to reduced in size and minimize vibration. The weight of the miniature rotary compressor is about 20% that of the reciprocating compressor which has equivalent cooling capacity. To minimize the noise and vibration, the muffler and the cylinder are optimized and torque control algorithm is used for the compressor controller. For a variety of applications, developed compressor is designed for both HBP and LBP condition. Considering the mass-productivity and reliability, IPM type motor is designed

Fully integrated lab-on-a-disc for simultaneous analysis of biochemistry and immunoassay from whole blood

We report a fully integrated device that can perform both multiple biochemical analysis and sandwich type immunoassay simultaneously on a disc. The whole blood is applied directly to the disposable "lab-on-a-disc" containing different kinds of freeze-dried reagents for the blood chemistry analysis as well as reagents required for the immunoassay. The concentrations of different kinds of analytes are reported within 22 min by simply inserting a disc to a portable device. Using the innovative laser irradiated ferrowax microvalves together with the centrifugal microfluidics, the total process of plasma separation, metering, mixing, incubation, washing, and detection is fully automated. The analyzer is equipped with an optical detection module to measure absorbances at 10 different wavelengths to accommodate the various kinds of reaction protocols. Compared to the conventional blood analysis done in clinical laboratories, it is advantageous for point-of-care applications because it requires a smaller amount of blood (350 mu L vs. 3 mL), takes less time (22 min vs. several days), does not require specially trained operators or expensive instruments to run biochemical analysis and immunoassay separately.close554

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Cohort Profile: The Korean Vietnam War Veterans’ Health Study Cohort (KOVECO)

During the Vietnam War, many troops and citizen were exposed to large amounts of Agent Orange (AO), and the hazardous effects of AO are continuously being researched and reported. The Korean Vietnam War Veterans’ Health Study Cohort (KOVECO) is a retrospective cohort to demonstrate the health status of the Korean Vietnam War veterans and their second-generation offsprings. The KOVECO is a collaboration of data from the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs and the National Health Insurance Sharing Service from 2002 to 2018. The study participants were all Korean Vietnam War veterans and their second-generation offsprings, and the references were the general population in which gender and region were matched with the participants. As of 2002, 191,272 Vietnam War veterans (1,000,320 comparisons) and 1,963,402 s-generations (1,173,061 references) were included in the cohort. The KOVECO consists of personal information, medical facility visit information, and general health examination information. The KOVECO could act as a health surveillance system, which would be able to detect long-term health effects caused by exposure to AO and provide a direction for policy making through academic research

The antipyretic efficacy and safety of propacetamol compared with dexibuprofen in febrile children: a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, comparative, phase 3 clinical trial

Abstract Background We aimed to compare the antipyretic efficacy, safety, and tolerability between oral dexibuprofen and intravenous propacetamol in children with upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) presenting with fever. Methods Patients aging from 6 months to 14 years admitted for URTI with axillary body temperature ≥ 38.0 °C were enrolled and randomized into the study or control group. Patients in the study group were intravenously infused with propacetamol and subsequently oral placebo medication was administered. Patients in the control group were intravenously infused with 100 mL of 0.9% sodium chloride solution without propacetamol and then oral dexibuprofen was administered. We checked the body temperature of all patients at 0.5 h (hr), 1 h, 1.5 h, 2 h, 3 h, 4 h, and 6 h after oral placebo or dexibuprofen had been applied. Results A total of 263 patients (125 in the study group) were finally enrolled. The body temperatures of patients in the study group were significantly lower until 2 h after administration (37.73 ± 0.58 vs 38.36 ± 0.69 °C (p < 0.001), 37.37 ± 0.53 vs 37.88 ± 0.69 °C (p < 0.001), 37.27 ± 0.60 vs 37.62 ± 0.66 °C (p < 0.001), 37.25 ± 0.62 vs 37.40 ± 0.60 °C (p = 0.0452), at 0.5 h, 1 h, 1.5 h, and 2 h, respectively). The two groups showed no significant differences in terms of the range of body temperature decrease, the Area Under the Curve of body temperature change for antipyretic administration-and-time relationship, the maximum value of body temperature decrease during the 6 h test period, the number of patients whose body temperature normalized (< 37.0 °C), the mean time when first normalization of body temperature, and the development of adverse events including gastrointestinal problem, elevated liver enzyme, and thrombocytopenia. Conclusions Intravenous propacetamol may be a safe and effective choice for pediatric URTI patients presenting with fever who are not able to take oral medications or need faster fever control. Trial registration CRIS KCT0002888. Date of registration: July 31st, 2013

Bone Regeneration Using N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone as an Enhancer for Recombinant Human Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2 in a Rabbit Sinus Augmentation Model

The aim of this study was to determine whether N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) can decrease the dose of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) in sinus augmentation of rabbits. In each of 15 rabbits, 2 sinuses were randomly grafted using 1 of 3 treatment modalities: (i) biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP; control), (ii) rhBMP-2-coated BCP (BMP), or (iii) rhBMP-2-coated BCP soaked in NMP solution (BMP/NMP). The rabbits were sacrificed 2 weeks postoperatively. Histologic and histomorphometric analyses were performed. Bone formation in all groups was predominantly located close to the access window and the lateral walls. Newly formed bone within the total augmented area (NBTA) was greatest in BMP/NMP (1.94±0.69 mm2), followed by BMP (1.50±0.72 mm2) and BCP (1.28±0.52 mm2) (P>0.05). In the center of the augmentation (NBROI_C) and the area close to the sinus membrane (NBROI_M), BMP/NMP produced the largest area of NB (NBROI_C: 0.10±0.11 mm2; NBROI_M: 0.17±0.08 mm2); the corresponding NB values for BCP were 0.05±0.05 mm2 and 0.08±0.09 mm2, respectively (P>0.05 for all comparisons). The effect of NMP on bone regeneration was inconsistent between the specimens. Adding NMP as an adjunct to rhBMP-2-coated BCP produced inconsistent effects on bone regeneration, resulting in no significant benefit compared to controls