ARID1B is a specific vulnerability in ARID1A-mutant cancers

Summary Recent studies have revealed that ARID1A is frequently mutated across a wide variety of human cancers and also has bona fide tumor suppressor properties. Consequently, identification of vulnerabilities conferred by ARID1A mutation would have major relevance for human cancer. Here, using a broad screening approach, we identify ARID1B, a related but mutually exclusive homolog of ARID1A in the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex, as the number one gene preferentially required for the survival of ARID1A-mutant cancer cell lines. We show that loss of ARID1B in ARID1A-deficient backgrounds destabilizes SWI/SNF and impairs proliferation. Intriguingly, we also find that ARID1A and ARID1B are frequently co-mutated in cancer, but that ARID1A-deficient cancers retain at least one ARID1B allele. These results suggest that loss of ARID1A and ARID1B alleles cooperatively promotes cancer formation but also results in a unique functional dependence. The results further identify ARID1B as a potential therapeutic target for ARID1A-mutant cancers

Power in Dentistry: A Foucauldian Shift in South Korea

The established method of understanding power in dentistry is based on the early Foucauldian discourse that dentistry enforces oral health discipline to the people on behalf of state power. This exhibits the hierarchy between dentists and patients, which clearly appears in clinical dentistry and effectively explains the responsibility of oral care assigned to patients. However, there presents no way to becoming free from the framework in the discourse as a resistance. Beyond the political aspect of the medico-sociological framework, this paper seeks a different way to understand power in dentistry through ???care of the self???, a late Foucauldian concept. First, based on the current discussion of the dentist-patient relationship (DPR), the paper examines two trends of clinical dental treatments in South Korea. The high prevalence of dental implant and orthognathic surgery indicates that traditional prejudices including ableism and pursuit of Western beauty still remain in South Korea albeit with the society overcoming paternalism in DPRs. These dental phenomena, however, contain excesses that cannot be explained only by traditional prejudice, and this paper attempts to interpret them as the pursuit of care of the self that appears in the dentist???s professionalism and the patient???s self-determination. In dentistry, care of the self can be introduced in the form of empowerment, which is implemented through the improvement of oral health literacy and shared decision-making. This paper argues that this interpretation helps surmount the traditional dyadic model of the DPR and revise the understanding of power in dentistry.N

Autonomous vehicles and street design: Exploring the role of medians in enhancing pedestrian street crossing safety using a virtual reality experiment

As traffic lanes and on-street parking spots can potentially be downsized with the introduction of autonomous vehicles (AVs), the possibility of additional spare road space becoming available arises in future urban streets. While discussions on converting the leftover space into pedestrian-friendly alternatives exist, allocating that limited space to which alternative is foreseen to be another practical issue shared in both urban and transportation planning. However, evidence-based guidance on the issue provided from the actual verification on whether or to what extent the proposed alternatives may have an effect seems to be absent. Therefore, with an emphasis on pedestrian safety, this study focused on the "median strip" alternative as a first example and, through a VR simulation experiment aimed at empirically examining its suggested role on enhancing street crossing safety and further exploring its possible influence on pedestrians' trust toward autonomous driving. With 99 participants, perceived safety (individual assessments of safety), performance-based safety (crossing success/abandonment and collision occurrence), and trust were either questioned or recorded for nine scenarios with varying crossing conditions. A combination of multilevel models and cross-tabulation results indicate that medians seem especially significant in ensuring the performance-based safety results of pedestrians even when AVs are driving at high speeds or with smaller gaps, thus suggesting it a win-win option for both. Insights and implications on the role and management of medians in future streets are further provided

Spatially Varying Relationships between Alien Plant Distributions and Environmental Factors in South Korea

Invasive alien plants can severely threaten biodiversity and cause economic losses in the agricultural industry; therefore, identifying the critical environmental factors related to the distribution of alien plants plays a crucial role in ecosystem management. In this study, we applied partial least squares regression (PLSR) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) to estimate the important environmental factors affecting the spread of two invasive and expansive plants, Lactuca scariola L. and Aster pilosus Willd., across South Korea. GWR provides more accurate predictions than ordinary least squares regression, and the local coefficients of GWR allow for the determination of the spatial relationships between alien plant distributions and environmental variables. Based on the model’s results, the distributions of these alien species were significantly associated with anthropogenic effects, such as human population density, residential area, and road density. Furthermore, the two alien species can establish themselves in habitats where native plants cannot thrive, owing to their broad tolerance to temperature and drought conditions. This study suggests that urban development and expansion can facilitate the invasion of these species in metropolitan cities

Association of periodontitis with oral malodor in Korean adults.

This study aimed to evaluate the association of periodontitis with the organoleptic score (OLS)-defined oral malodor after validating OLS with odoriferous sulfur compounds in mouth air among Korean adults. A total of 330 adults aged 47-86 years were recruited from the Yangpyeong health cohort, South Korea, in 2015. Oral malodor was assessed using a 6-point OLS by a trained dentist and validated with the concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (HS) and methyl mercaptan (MM) using a gas chromatographer. Periodontitis was measured by assessing the radiographic alveolar bone loss on digital orthopantomography. Statistical analyses including descriptive statistics, partial correlation, ANOVA, and multivariable logistic regression with putative confounders were applied. OLS was significantly correlated with the concentrations of HS and MM (partial r = 0.401 and 0.392, respectively; both p<0.001) after controlling for confounders. Individuals with periodontitis had 1.8 times the risk of OLS-defined oral malodor in multivariable models (adjusted odds ratio = 1.77 in the model with the number of teeth and 1.82 in the model with denture wearing; p = 0.047 and 0.035, respectively). Periodontitis was associated with OLS-defined oral malodor among Korean adults independent of known confounders. Periodontal conditions should be considered for clinical practice and research of oral malodor

Modelling localized charge-injection region of the p-channel low-temperature polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistor

The low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) thin-film transistor (TFT) is the optimal device for the backplane of the organic light-emitting diode display. At the end the p-channel LTPS TFT fabrication, a charge-injection stress with a strong negative drain bias and a positive gate bias are applied to reduce the off-current by injecting electrons into the gate insulator near the drain. In this study, the charge density and the length of the charge-injection region in the gate insulator were estimated by comparing the measured TFT characteristics with the simulation models with various charge-injection lengths and charge densities. It was found that the effective length of the charge-injection region was 0.96 µm and the charge density was −3 × 1012/cm2 for the 2-µm-channel-length device when VGS was +20 V and VDS was −10 V under the charge-injection stress condition. It was also found, based on the analysis of the electric field distribution under the bias stress condition, that the charge density and the length of the charge-injection region were invariant against the channel length variation. Therefore, the measured TFT characteristics also accorded closely with the simulation models for different channel lengths, such as 4 and 10 µm, when the same characteristic values of the charge-injection region were employed

Characteristic Sleep Patterns and Associated Obesity in Adolescents

Poor sleep adversely affects health and may cause obesity. Poor sleep includes short sleep duration, low quality of sleep, and sleep discrepancy. Although most studies have focused on the association between sleep duration and obesity, poor sleep is a significant risk factor for obesity. Adolescents have characteristic sleep patterns which correspond to poor sleep. Adolescents sleep late due to various biological and psychosocial factors; also, they wake up early to be on time for school. This causes them to sleep less. To make up for this sleep debt, adolescents sleep more on non-school days, which causes sleep discrepancies. Therefore, since adolescents have characteristic sleep patterns, an in-depth investigation is needed to identify whether poor sleep is a risk for obesity. This article presents an overview of the characteristic sleep patterns of adolescents, and reviews studies on the association of each sleep pattern with obesity

Graphical user interface design to improve understanding of the patient-reported outcome symptom response.

BackgroundSymptom monitoring application (SMA) has clinical benefits to cancer patients but patients experience difficulties in using it. Few studies have identified which types of graphical user interface (GUI) are preferred by cancer patients for using the SMA.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study aimed to identify preferred GUI among cancer patients to use SMA. Total of 199 patients were asked to evaluate 8 types of GUIs combining text, icon, illustration, and colors using mixed-methods. Subgroup analyses were performed according to age and gender.ResultsThe mean age of the patients was 57 and 42.5% was male. The most preferred GUI was "Text + Icon + Color" (mean = 4.43), followed by "Text + Icon" (mean = 4.39). Older patients (≥ 60 years) preferred "Text + Icon" than younger patients (p for interaction ConclusionSimple and intuitive text and icons were the most useful GUI for cancer patients to use the SMA. Researchers need to be careful when applying realistic face drawings to cancer symptom monitoring applications because they can recall negative images of cancer

Management of Central Precocious Puberty in Children with Hypothalamic Hamartoma

Hypothalamic hamartoma (HH) is a rare, congenital, and benign lesion of the tuber cinereum, typically presenting with central precocious puberty (CPP), gelastic seizure, and developmental delay. This study aimed to investigate CPP in HH patients and compare clinical features between before and after gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist treatment. A total of 30 HH patients under 18 years of age who visited Severance Children’s Hospital between January 2005 and May 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Fourteen patients were male (46.7%) and sixteen (53.3%) were female, with a mean age at diagnosis was4.2 ± 2.9 years. During follow-up, 24 patients (80.0%) were diagnosed with CPP, 15 patients (50.0%) had gelastic seizure, and 13 patients (43.3%) had developmental delay. The gelastic seizure was significantly associated with sessile type HH rather than pedunculated type HH (85.7% vs. 18.8%, p = 0.001). After GnRH agonist treatment, discrepancies between bone age and chronological age decreased (3.3 ± 1.3 years to 2.0 ± 1.7 years, p = 0.002). Additionally, height standard deviation score for bone age was increased, and predicted adult height increased significantly in females, while males showed an increasing trend. Clinical symptoms of HH were closely associated with the location of HH, and GnRH agonist treatment was safe and effective in the management of CPP caused by HH