Schwannomatosis of the tibial nerve

Schwannoma is the most common type of benign tumor arising from the sheaths of the peripheral nerves. It occurs as a solitary tumor in most cases, but when it appears in multiple forms, it is necessary to differentiate it from plexiform schwannoma, schwannomatosis, neurofibroma and malignant peripheral nerve tumors. The authors experienced schwannomatosis in the tibial nerve without the features of neurofibromatosis type 2, so here we present a case report and literature review

Risk factors for delayed and non-union following transfibular ankle arthrodesis

Background: This study was to identify risk factors associated with delayed union and non-union in patients who underwent transfibular ankle arthrodesis.Methods: This study included 43 patients who underwent ankle arthrodesis using transfibular approach between January 2012 and September 2018 and were followed up for more than 12 months. The patients were divided into two groups according to delayed union or non-union. Group A included patients who had delayed union or non-union and Group B included patients without these complications. Variables that could contribute to non-union including etiologies, age, chronic renal failure, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, pre-operative talus bone quality, pre-operative angulation of the talus and fixation methods were evaluated.Results: The mean time to bone union was 12.7±7.25 weeks. Group A included 12 patients with 5 cases of non-union and 7 cases of delayed union and group B included 31 patients. Infection of the ankle joint (OR, 1.73; p=0.041) was risk factor for non-union and delayed union on the basis of multivariate analysis.Conclusions: We concluded that infection of the ankle joint is the most significant risk factor for delayed union and nonunion in our study. Careful attention should be paid preoperatively, intraoperatively and postoperatively to patients who have this risk factor to obtain a satisfactory surgical outcome

Effects of Kimchi Extract and Temperature on Embryostasis of Ascaris suum Eggs

To determine the effects of kimchi extracts at different temperatures on larval development, Ascaris suum eggs were mixed with soluble part of 7 different brands of commercially available kimchi and preserved at either 5℃ or 25℃ for up to 60 days. A. suum eggs incubated at 25℃ showed marked differences in larval development between kimchi extract and control group. While all eggs in the control group completed embryonation by day 21, only 30% of the eggs in the kimchi extract group became embryonated by day 36 and about 25% never became larvated even at day 60. At 5℃, however, none of the eggs showed larval development regardless of the incubation period or type of mixture group. To determine the survival rate of A. suum eggs that showed no embryonation after being preserved at 5℃, eggs preserved in kimchi extracts for 14, 28, and 60 at 5℃ were re-incubated at 25℃ for 3 weeks in distilled water. While all eggs in the control group became larvated, eggs in the kimchi extract group showed differences in their embryonation rates by the incubation period; 87.4 % and 41.7% of the eggs became embryonated after being refrigerated for 14 days and 28 days, respectively. When refrigerated for 60 days, however, no eggs mixed in kimchi extract showed larval development. Our results indicate that embryogenesis of A. suum eggs in kimchi extract was affected by duration of refrigeration, and that all eggs stopped larval development completely in kimchi kept at 5℃ for up to 60 days

On the Csorgo-Révész increments of finite dimensional Gaussian random fields

In this paper, we establish some limit theorems on the combined Csorgo-Révész increments with moduli of continuity for finite dimensional Gaussian random fields under mild conditions, via estimating upper bounds of large deviation probabilities on suprema of the finite dimensional Gaussian random fields.Csorgo-Révész increment; Gaussian process; random field; modulus of continuity; quasi-increasing; regularly varying function; large deviation probability.

Development of Micro-Heaters with Optimized Temperature Compensation Design for Gas Sensors

One of the key components of a chemical gas sensor is a MEMS micro-heater. Micro-heaters are used in both semiconductor gas sensors and NDIR gas sensors; however they each require different heat dissipation characteristics. For the semiconductor gas sensors, a uniform temperature is required over a wide area of the heater. On the other hand, for the NDIR gas sensor, the micro-heater needs high levels of infrared radiation in order to increase sensitivity. In this study, a novel design of a poly-Si micro-heater is proposed to improve the uniformity of heat dissipation on the heating plate. Temperature uniformity of the micro-heater is achieved by compensating for the variation in power consumption around the perimeter of the heater. With the power compensated design, the uniform heating area is increased by 2.5 times and the average temperature goes up by 40 °C. Therefore, this power compensated micro-heater design is suitable for a semiconductor gas sensor. Meanwhile, the poly-Si micro-heater without compensation shows a higher level of infrared radiation under equal power consumption conditions. This indicates that the micro-heater without compensation is more suitable for a NDIR gas sensor. Furthermore, the micro-heater shows a short response time of less than 20ms, indicating a very high efficiency of pulse driving

AD-YOLO: You Look ONly Once in Training Multiple Sound Event Localization and Detection

Sound event localization and detection (SELD) combines the identification of sound events with the corresponding directions of arrival (DOA). Recently, event-oriented track output formats have been adopted to solve this problem; however, they still have limited generalization toward real-world problems in an unknown polyphony environment. To address the issue, we proposed an angular-distance-based multiple SELD (AD-YOLO), which is an adaptation of the "You Look Only Once" algorithm for SELD. The AD-YOLO format allows the model to learn sound occurrences location-sensitively by assigning class responsibility to DOA predictions. Hence, the format enables the model to handle the polyphony problem, regardless of the number of sound overlaps. We evaluated AD-YOLO on DCASE 2020-2022 challenge Task 3 datasets using four SELD objective metrics. The experimental results show that AD-YOLO achieved outstanding performance overall and also accomplished robustness in class-homogeneous polyphony environments.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in IEEE ICASSP 202

An Active and Soft Hydrogel Actuator to Stimulate Live Cell Clusters by Self-folding

The hydrogels are widely used in various applications, and their successful uses depend on controlling the mechanical properties. In this study, we present an advanced strategy to develop hydrogel actuator designed to stimulate live cell clusters by self-folding. The hydrogel actuator consisting of two layers with different expansion ratios were fabricated to have various curvatures in self-folding. The expansion ratio of the hydrogel tuned with the molecular weight and concentration of gel-forming polymers, and temperature-sensitive molecules in a controlled manner. As a result, the hydrogel actuator could stimulate live cell clusters by compression and tension repeatedly, in response to temperature. The cell clusters were compressed in the 0.7-fold decreases of the radius of curvature with 1.0 mm in room temperature, as compared to that of 1.4 mm in 37 degrees C. Interestingly, the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-2 (IGFBP-2) in MCF-7 tumor cells exposed by mechanical stimulation was expressed more than in those without stimulation. Overall, this new strategy to prepare the active and soft hydrogel actuator would be actively used in tissue engineering, drug delivery, and micro-scale actuators

A Case Study on Small- and Centralized Biogas Plants and Energy Production Capacities in South Gyeongsang Province

Objectives The primary goals of this research were to assess the viability and practicality of small-scale village facilities as well as central commercial biogas plants. Additionally, the study aimed to create predictive models by exploring various codigestion scenarios. Methods The study conducted a comprehensive analysis of available biomass and its maximum energy potential through anaerobic digestion in every city, county, and village within South Gyeongsang province. Five distinct codigestion scenarios were explored, encompassing assessments of processing capacity, energy production potential, and the necessary digester capacity for anaerobic digestion. At the village level, the scenarios comprised: C1, which involved sole digestion of manure; C2, codigestion of manure and food waste in a 7:3 ratio; C3, codigestion of pig slurry and slaughterhouse waste in a 9:1 ratio; C4, multiple codigestion with PS:FW:SW=6.5:2.8:0.8; and finally, C5, involving the addition of sewage and sewage sludge to the codigestion process of C4's biomass. Results and Discussion The biomass generated in South Gyeongsang province was 9430 tons/day, with a methane production potential of 167 million cubic meters/year. This biomass had an energy production potential of 156,000 TOE/year and a potential electricity generation of 732.7 GW/year, based on the annual petroleum conversion ton. Codigestion (C5) enabled up to 720% more electricity generation compared to sole digestion of manure (C1). Mixing pig slurry and food waste in a 7:3 ratio resulted in approximately 18% more electricity production compared to the case where manure was mixed with slaughterhouse by-products in a 9:1 ratio. Conclusion Biomass imbalance was significant in most regions, particularly due to high variations in food waste generation between regions. Obtaining alternative resources and integrating various biomass for anaerobic digestion, especially in rural areas, is crucial for achieving stable anaerobic digestion and high methane production. Regions with high biomass density are predicted to support large-scale biogas facilities following European standards, while 25 villages showed the potential for small-scale biogas facilities