Experimental Infection of Dogs with Avian-Origin Canine Influenza A Virus (H3N2)

Susceptible dogs were brought into contact with dogs experimentally infected with an avian-origin influenza A virus (H3N2) that had been isolated from a pet dog with severe respiratory syndrome. All the experimentally infected and contact-exposed dogs showed elevated rectal temperatures, virus shedding, seroconversion, and severe necrotizing tracheobronchitis and bronchioalveolitis

Guided bone regeneration with beta-tricalcium phosphate and poly L-lactide-co-glycolide-co-epsilon-caprolactone membrane in partial defects of canine humerus

This study was performed to evaluate the effect of beta-tricalcium phosphate and poly L-lactide-co-glycolide-co-epsilon-caprolactone (TCP/PLGC) membrane in the repair of partial bone defects in canine proximal humerus. Three adult mixed-breed dogs were used during the experimental period. The length of the defect was quarter of the full length of humerus, and width of the defect was quarter of middle diameter of the lateral aspect of humerus. The humeri of each dog were divided into treatment (TCP/PLGC) and control groups. The defect was covered with TCP/PLGC membrane in treatment group. To evaluate regeneration of the bone, computerized tomography (CT) and histopathologic examination were performed. The radiopaque lines were appeared at the original defect sites in TCP/PLGC group but below the original site in control at 4th week. Radiopacity and thickness of the defect sites, and radiopaque lines were more increased at 8th week than those of 4th week. Histopathologic findings revealed fibrous connective tissue migration into the defect and the migration inhibited the structure of new cortex to be placed in the original level in control whereas new cortex growth was found in the level of original line in TCP/PLGC group. However, the new cortical bone in the TCP/PLGC group was thinner and less organized than the adjacent intact cortex, and the amount of new cancellous bones were also scanty. The result suggested that TCP/PLGC membrane is a good guided bone regeneration material to restore the original morphology of humerus in partial defect

A study on the development of a cost model based on the owner's decision making at the early stages of a construction project

Decision making at the early stages of a construction project has a significant impact on the project, and various scenarios created based on the owner's requirements should be considered for the decision making. At the early stages of a construction project, the information regarding the project is usually limited and uncertain. As such, it is difficult to plan and manage the project (especially cost planning). Thus, a cost model that could be varied according to the owner's requirements was developed. The cost model that was developed in this study is based on the case‐based reasoning (CBR) methodology. The model suggests cost estimation with the most similar historical case as a basis for the estimation. In this study, the optimization process was also conducted, using genetic algorithms that reflect the changes in the number of project characteristics and in the database of the model according to the owner's decision making. Two optimization parameters were established: (1) the minimum criteria for scoring attribute similarity (MCAS); and (2) the range of attribute weights (RAW). The cost model proposed in this study can help building owners and managers estimate the project budget at the business planning stage. Santruka Sprendimu priemimas ankstyvuoju statybos projekto etapu turi didele itaka projektui ir ivairiems scenarijams, remiantis savininko reikalavimais, kuriu turi būti laikomasi priimant sprendimus. Ankstyvaisiais statybos projekto etapais informacijos apie projekta paprastai yra nedaug ir ji nera patikima. Del to sudetinga planuoti ir taisyti projekta (ypač išlaidu planavima). Todel šio tyrimo metu buvo sukurtas kainos modelis, kuris galetu būti keičiamas atsižvelgiant i savininko poreikius. Kainos modelis, kuris buvo sukurtas šio tyrimo metu, remiasi atveju analize, pagrista argumentu metodika (angl. CBR). Modelis siūlo samatinius skaičiavimus su panašiausiais ankstesniais atvejais, kurie yra skaičiavimo pagrindas. Šio tyrimo metu procesas buvo optimizuotas naudojant genetinius algoritmus, rodančius projektu skaičiaus kitima tam tikro modelio duomenu bazeje pagal savininko priimamus sprendimus. Buvo nustatyti du optimizavimo parametrai: 1) minimalūs kriterijai veiksniu panašumui ivertinti (angl. MCAS); 2) veiksniu svoriu vertinimo intervalas (angl. RAW). Kainos modelis, pasiūlytas šiame tyrime, gali padeti pastatu savininkams ir valdytojams ivertinti projekto biudžeta verslo planavimo etape. First Published Online: 18 Oct 201

Chronic exposure to dexamethasone may not affect sugammadex reversal of rocuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade: an in vivo study on rats

Background Chronic glucocorticoid exposure is associated with resistance to nondepolarizing neuromuscular blocking agents. Therefore, we hypothesized that sugammadex-induced recovery would occur more rapidly in subjects exposed to chronic dexamethasone compared to those who were not exposed. This study evaluated the sugammadex-induced recovery profile after neuromuscular blockade (NMB) in rats exposed to chronic dexamethasone. Methods Sprague–Dawley rats were allocated to three groups (dexamethasone, control, and pair-fed group) for the in vivo study. The mice received daily intraperitoneal dexamethasone injections (500 μg/kg) or 0.9% saline for 15 days. To achieve complete NMB, 3.5 mg/kg rocuronium was administered on the sixteenth day. The recovery time to a train-of-four ratio ≥ 0.9 was measured to evaluate the complete recovery following the sugammadex injection. Results Among the groups, no significant differences were observed in the recovery time to a train-of-four ratio ≥ 0.9 following sugammadex administration (P = 0.531). The time to the second twitch of the train-of-four recovery following rocuronium administration indicated that the duration of NMB was significantly shorter in Group D than that in Groups C and P (P = 0.001). Conclusions Chronic exposure to dexamethasone did not shorten the recovery time of sugammadex-induced NMB reversal. However, the findings of this study indicated that no adjustments to sugammadex dosage or route of administration is required, even in patients undergoing long-term steroid treatment

Enabling multi-level relevance feedback on PubMed by integrating rank learning into DBMS

Background: Finding relevant articles from PubMed is challenging because it is hard to express the user's specific intention in the given query interface, and a keyword query typically retrieves a large number of results. Researchers have applied machine learning techniques to find relevant articles by ranking the articles according to the learned relevance function. However, the process of learning and ranking is usually done offline without integrated with the keyword queries, and the users have to provide a large amount of training documents to get a reasonable learning accuracy. This paper proposes a novel multi-level relevance feedback system for PubMed, called RefMed, which supports both ad-hoc keyword queries and a multi-level relevance feedback in real time on PubMed. Results: RefMed supports a multi-level relevance feedback by using the RankSVM as the learning method, and thus it achieves higher accuracy with less feedback. RefMed "tightly" integrates the RankSVM into RDBMS to support both keyword queries and the multi-level relevance feedback in real time; the tight coupling of the RankSVM and DBMS substantially improves the processing time. An efficient parameter selection method for the RankSVM is also proposed, which tunes the RankSVM parameter without performing validation. Thereby, RefMed achieves a high learning accuracy in real time without performing a validation process. RefMed is accessible at http://dm.postech.ac.kr/refmed. Conclusions: RefMed is the first multi-level relevance feedback system for PubMed, which achieves a high accuracy with less feedback. It effectively learns an accurate relevance function from the user's feedback and efficiently processes the function to return relevant articles in real time.1114Nsciescopu

Comparisons of the Effects of Stent Eccentricity on the Neointimal Hyperplasia between Sirolimus-Eluting Stent versus Paclitaxel-Eluting Stent

PURPOSE: Previous studies suggested that asymmetric stent expansion did not affect suppression of neointimal hyperplasia (NIH) after sirolimus-eluting stents (SES) implantation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of stent eccentricity (SE) on NIH between SES versus paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES) using an intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) analysis from the randomized trial. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Serial IVUS data were obtained from Post-stent Optimal Expansion (POET) trial, allocated randomly to SES or PES. Three different SE (minimum stent diameter divided by maximum stent diameter) were evaluated; SE at the lesion site with maximal %NIH area (SE-NIH), SE at the minimal stent CSA [SE-minimal stent area (SE-MSA)], and averaged SE through the entire stent (SE-mean). We classified each drug-eluting stents (DES) into the concentric (≥ mean SE) and eccentric groups (< mean SE) based on the mean value of SE. RESULTS: Among 301 enrolled patients, 233 patients [SES (n = 108), PES (n = 125)] underwent a follow-up IVUS. There was no significant correlation between %NIH area and SE-NIH (r = - 0.083, p = 0.391) or SE-MSA (r = - 0.109, p = 0.259) of SES. However, SE-NIH of PES showed a weak but significant correlation with %NIH area (r = 0.269, p < 0.01). As to the associations between SEmean and NIH volume index, SES revealed no significant correlation (r = - 0.001, p = 0.990), but PES showed a weak but significant correlation (r = 0.320, p < 0.01). However, there was no difference in the restenosis rate between the eccentric versus concentric groups of both DES. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that lower SE of both SES and PES, which means asymmetric stent expansion, may not be associated with increased NIH.ope

NICE 2023 Zero-shot Image Captioning Challenge

In this report, we introduce NICE project\footnote{\url{https://nice.lgresearch.ai/}} and share the results and outcomes of NICE challenge 2023. This project is designed to challenge the computer vision community to develop robust image captioning models that advance the state-of-the-art both in terms of accuracy and fairness. Through the challenge, the image captioning models were tested using a new evaluation dataset that includes a large variety of visual concepts from many domains. There was no specific training data provided for the challenge, and therefore the challenge entries were required to adapt to new types of image descriptions that had not been seen during training. This report includes information on the newly proposed NICE dataset, evaluation methods, challenge results, and technical details of top-ranking entries. We expect that the outcomes of the challenge will contribute to the improvement of AI models on various vision-language tasks.Comment: Tech report, project page https://nice.lgresearch.ai

Protocol for a randomised controlled trial evaluating the effects of providing essential medicines at no charge: the Carefully seLected and Easily Accessible at No Charge Medicines (CLEAN Meds) trial

Introduction: Cost-related non-adherence to medicines is common in low-income, middle-income and high-income countries such as Canada. Medicine non-adherence is associated with poor health outcomes and increased mortality. This randomised trial will test the impact of a carefully selected list of essential medicines at no charge (compared with usual medicine access) in primary care patients reporting cost-related non-adherence. Methods and analysis This is an open-label, parallel two-arm, superiority, individually randomised controlled trial conducted in three primary care sites (one urban, two rural) in Ontario, Canada, that was codesigned by a community guidance panel. Adult patients (≥18 years) who report cost-related non-adherence to medicines are eligible to participate in the study. Participants will be randomised to receive free and convenient access to a carefully selected list of 125 essential medicines (based on the WHO’s Model List of Essential Medicines) or usual means of medicine access. Care for patients in both groups will otherwise be unchanged. The primary outcome of this trial is adherence to appropriately prescribed medicines. Secondary outcomes include medicine adherence, appropriate prescribing, blood pressure, haemoglobin A1c, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, patient-oriented outcomes and healthcare costs. All participants will be followed for at least 12 months. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval was obtained in all three participating sites. Results of the main trial and secondary outcomes will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal and discussed with members of the public and decision makers. Trial registration number NCT02744963

Physical-Layer Security with Irregular Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for 6G Networks

The goal of 6G is to make far-reaching changes in communication systems with stricter demands, such as high throughput, extremely low latency, stronger security, and ubiquitous connectivity. Several promising techniques, such as reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), have been introduced to achieve these goals. An RIS is a 2D low-cost array of reflecting elements that can adjust the electromagnetic properties of an incident signal. In this paper, we guarantee secrecy by using an irregular RIS (IRIS). The main idea of an IRIS is to irregularly activate reflecting elements for a given number of RIS elements. In this work, we consider a communication scenario in which, with the aid of an IRIS, a multi-antenna base station establishes a secure link with a legitimate single-antenna user in the presence of a single-antenna eavesdropper. To this end, we formulate a topology-and-precoding optimization problem to maximize the secrecy rate. We then propose a Tabu search-based algorithm to jointly optimize the RIS topology and the precoding design. Finally, we present simulation results to validate the proposed algorithm, which highlights the performance gain of the IRIS in improving secure transmissions compared to an RIS. Our results show that exploiting an IRIS can allow additional spatial diversity to be achieved, resulting in secrecy performance improvement and overcoming the limitations of conventional RIS-assisted systems (e.g., a large number of active elements)