Development of KAISTSAT-4 Expanding the Role of Small Satellite for Scientific Research

The fourth Korean small satellite, KAISTSAT-4, is under development by Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC) of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The KAISTSAT-4 program was commenced on October 1998 with multiple mission objectives, which include exploring space science, deploying satellite-based data collection system and development of precision star sensor. Despite severe constraints on mass and size, these advanced science and engineering payloads are expected to deliver various useful results and exhibit the unique role of small satellite. We present an overview of the KAISTSAT-4 mission and describe its current status. Finally the prospect of future small satellite programs is briefly introduced

Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) Sample Preparation of Si(1-x)Gex in c-Plane Sapphire Substrate

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration-invented X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods, including the total defect density measurement method and the spatial wafer mapping method, have confirmed super hetero epitaxy growth for rhombohedral single crystalline silicon germanium (Si1-xGex) on a c-plane sapphire substrate. However, the XRD method cannot observe the surface morphology or roughness because of the method s limited resolution. Therefore the authors used transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with samples prepared in two ways, the focused ion beam (FIB) method and the tripod method to study the structure between Si1-xGex and sapphire substrate and Si1?xGex itself. The sample preparation for TEM should be as fast as possible so that the sample should contain few or no artifacts induced by the preparation. The standard sample preparation method of mechanical polishing often requires a relatively long ion milling time (several hours), which increases the probability of inducing defects into the sample. The TEM sampling of the Si1-xGex on sapphire is also difficult because of the sapphire s high hardness and mechanical instability. The FIB method and the tripod method eliminate both problems when performing a cross-section TEM sampling of Si1-xGex on c-plane sapphire, which shows the surface morphology, the interface between film and substrate, and the crystal structure of the film. This paper explains the FIB sampling method and the tripod sampling method, and why sampling Si1-xGex, on a sapphire substrate with TEM, is necessary

That's What I Said: Fully-Controllable Talking Face Generation

The goal of this paper is to synthesise talking faces with controllable facial motions. To achieve this goal, we propose two key ideas. The first is to establish a canonical space where every face has the same motion patterns but different identities. The second is to navigate a multimodal motion space that only represents motion-related features while eliminating identity information. To disentangle identity and motion, we introduce an orthogonality constraint between the two different latent spaces. From this, our method can generate natural-looking talking faces with fully controllable facial attributes and accurate lip synchronisation. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method achieves state-of-the-art results in terms of both visual quality and lip-sync score. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to develop a talking face generation framework that can accurately manifest full target facial motions including lip, head pose, and eye movements in the generated video without any additional supervision beyond RGB video with audio

Dermoid cysts: Epidemiology and diagnostic approach based on clinical experiences

Background Dermoid cysts are congenital tumors that are benign. Dermoid cysts with intracranial extension can cause serious neurological complications. It is important, therefore, to determine whether a patient has a dermoid cyst when their chief concern at a doctor’s visit is a mass in the head or neck area. In this study, we present a literature review of dermoid cysts and an analysis of the authors’ experiences, with the goal of providing guidance useful for the diagnosis and treatment of dermoid cysts. Methods This study retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 62 patients who visited the two medical clinics with which the authors are affiliated. The patients were enrolled between October 2003 and January 2017. Results Of the 62 patients analyzed in this study, 32 were 0 to 5 years of age (52%) and 23 were 17 years of age or older (37%). Forty-seven patients underwent 1 or more imaging study during the process of diagnosis. Thirty-two patients were suspected to have a dermoid cyst. Forty-nine patients were analyzed to determine the depth of the cyst. Bone was seen in 43 patients through imaging tests or during actual surgery, and nine of the 43 had bony problems (21%). Conclusions This study found that dermoid cysts were present in many adults, and that a high rate of deep lesions was observed, as well as many cases in which even the bone was affected. These results suggest, therefore, that dermoid cysts should be considered, and medical professionals should actively conduct imaging studies

Multifunctional Beam Manipulation at Telecommunication Wavelengths Enabled by an All-Dielectric Metasurface Doublet

Multifunctional metasurfaces, which are planar devices featuring diverse functionalities, have attracted tremendous attention as they enable highly dense integration and miniaturization of photonic devices. Previous approaches based on spatial/spectral multiplexing of meta‐atoms on single metasurfaces are supposed to be inevitably limited in their functional diversity. An additional degree of freedom for design, achieved by cascading multiple metasurfaces into a single metasystem, promotes new combinations of functions that cannot be achieved with single‐layered metasurfaces. In this study, an all‐dielectric metasurface doublet (MD) is developed and implemented by vertically concatenating two arrays of rectangular nanoresonators on either side of a quartz substrate, in which distinct phase profiles are encoded for transverse magnetic and transverse electric polarized light. Multifunctional beam manipulation with concurrent increased beam deflection, beam reduction, and polarizing beam splitting is achieved at telecommunication wavelengths near 1550 nm. The MD is accurately created via lithographical nanofabrication, thus eliminating the extremely demanding post‐fabrication alignment. The proposed multifunctional metasurface is highly anticipated to expedite the development of advanced technologies for large‐scale photonic integration, optical metrology, light detection and ranging, spectroscopy, and optical processing.This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Ministry of Education (grant no. 2018R1A6A1A03025242) and the Korean government (MSIT) (no. 2020R1A2C3007007) and a research grant of Kwangwoon University in 2020. The work was partly supported by the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT110100853, D.-Y.C.) and performed in part at the ACT node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility

NFATc1 regulates the transcription of DNA damage-induced apoptosis suppressor

AbstractDNA damage induced apoptosis suppressor (DDIAS), or human Noxin (hNoxin), is strongly expressed in lung cancers. DDIAS knockdown induced apoptosis in non-small cell lung carcinoma A549 cells in response to DNA damage, indicating DDIAS as a potential therapeutic target in lung cancer. To understand the transcriptional regulation of DDIAS, we determined the transcription start site, promoter region, and transcription factor. We found that DDIAS transcription begins at nucleotide 212 upstream of the DDIAS translation start site. We cloned the DDIAS promoter region and identified NFAT2 as a major transcription factor (Im et al., 2016 [1]). We demonstrated that NFATc1 regulates DDIAS expression in both pancreatic cancer Panc-1 cells and lung cancer cells

Two cases of female hydrocele of the canal of nuck

The processus vaginalis within the inguinal canal forms the canal of Nuck, which is a homolog of the processus vaginalis in women. Incomplete obliteration of the processus vaginalis causes indirect inguinal hernia or hydrocele of the canal of Nuck, a very rare condition in women. Here, we report 2 cases of hydrocele of the canal of Nuck that were diagnosed with ultrasonography in both cases and magnetic resonance imaging in 1 case to confirm the sonographic diagnosis. High ligation and hydrocelectomy were conducted in both patients. In 1 patient, 14 months later, the occurrence of contralateral inguinal hernia was suspected, but did not require surgery. The other patient had a history of surgery for left inguinal hernia 11 months before the occurrence of right hydrocele of the canal of Nuck. In both cases, the occurrence of an inguinal hernia on the contralateral side was noted

Therapeutic genome editing for Charcot-marie-tooth disease type 1a

Charcot-Marie-Tooth 1A (CMT1A) is the most common inherited neuropathy without a known therapy, which is caused by a 1.4 Mb duplication on human chromosome 17, which includes the gene encoding the peripheral myelin protein of 22 kDa (PMP22). Overexpressed PMP22 protein from its gene duplication is thought to cause demyelination and subsequently axonal degeneration in the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Here, we targeted regulatory region of human PMP22 to normalize overexpressed PMP22 level in C22 mice, a mouse model of CMT1A harboring multi copies of human PMP22. Direct local intraneural delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 designed to target TATA-box of PMP22 before the onset of disease, downregulates gene expression of PMP22 and preserves both myelin and axons. Notably, the same approach was effective in partial rescue of demyelination even after the onset of disease. Collectively, our data present a potential therapeutic efficacy of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated targeting of regulatory region of PMP22 to treat CMT1A. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

The Effect of Electrical Muscle Stimulation and In-bed Cycling on Muscle Strength and Mass of Mechanically Ventilated Patients: A Pilot Study

Background Critically ill patients experience muscle weakness, which leads to functional disability. Both functional electrical stimulation (FES) and in-bed cycling can be an alternative measure for intensive care unit (ICU) patients who are not feasible for active exercise. The aim of this study was to examine whether FES and in-bed cycling have a positive effect on muscle mass in ICU patients. Methods Critically ill patients who received mechanical ventilation for at least 24 hours were included. After passive range of motion exercise, in-bed cycling was applied for 20 minutes, and FES was applied for 20 minutes on the left leg. The right leg received in-bed cycling and the left leg received both FES and in-bed cycling. Thigh circumferences and rectus femoris cross-sectional area (CSA) were assessed with ultrasonography before and after the intervention. Muscle strength was assessed by Medical Research Council scale. Results A total of 10 patients were enrolled in this study as a pilot study. Before and after the intervention, the CSA of right rectus femoris increased from 5.08 ± 1.51 cm2 to 6.01 ± 2.21 cm2 , which was statistically significant (P = 0.003). The thigh circumference was also increased and statistically significant (P = 0.006). There was no difference between left and right in regard to FES application. There is no significant change in muscle strength before and after the intervention (right and left, P = 0.317 and P = 0.368, respectively). Conclusions In-bed cycling increased thigh circumferences rectus femoris CSA. Adding FES did not show differences