USCID fourth international conference

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.Includes bibliographical references.Since 3000 BC, rice has been the main crop in the Korean Peninsula, and where currently most of the available irrigation water is used to grow paddy rice. Methods for calculating the quantity of irrigation water required developed in the 1990's were compared to quantities measured in the field. The largest difference between calculated and measured quantities occurred in April and May. Based on field data we obtained in the middle part of the Korean Peninsula, significant changes have occurred in rice management, which has changed the amount of irrigation water required. Rice is now transplanted earlier, and duration of the transplanting phase on the regional scale is shorter through mechanization and consolidation of land holdings. These changes need to be taken into account when calculating the quantity of water needed for irrigation

Description of the Diadegma fenestrale (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Campopleginae) Attacking the Potato Tuber Moth, Phthorimaea operculella (Lep.: Gelechiidae) New to Korea

Diadegma fenestrale is known as a parasitoid of the potato tuber moth, Phthorimaea operculella. The potato tuber moth, Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller) is one of the most destructive pest of potatoes. Also, we found this species attacking the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae). Ratio of parasitism is 20-30% and cocoon of lepidopteran was parasitic ichneumonid species after 3 days. This species and the genus Diadegma are recorded for the first time from Korea. In this paper, description of the parasitoid and photographs of the diagnostic characteristics are provided

Suppression of Dielectric Loss at High Temperature in (Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3 Ceramic by Controlling A-site Cation Deficiency and Heat Treatment

Dielectric capacitors are integral components in electronic devices that protect the electric circuit by providing modulated steady voltage. Explosive growth of the electric automobile market has resulted in an increasing demand for dielectric capacitors that can operate at temperatures as high as 400oC. To surpass the operation temperature limit of currently available commercial capacitors that operate in temperatures up to 125oC, Bi1/2Na1/2TiO3 (BNT), which has a large temperature-insensitive dielectric response with a maximum dielectric permittivity temperature of 300oC, was selected. By introducing an intentional A-site cation deficiency and post-heat treatment, we successfully manage to control the dielectric properties of BNT to use it for high-temperature applications. The key feature of this new BNT is remarkable reduction in dielectric loss (0.36 to 0.018) at high temperature (300oC). Structural, dielectric, and electrical properties of this newly developed BNT were systematically investigated to understand the underlying mechanism

Robot-assisted posterior retroperitoneoscopic adrenalectomy: single port access

Laparoscopic adrenalectomy has become a gold standard in adrenal gland surgery. More recently, some minimally invasive trials have been conducted on single access surgery on the adrenal gland. In this study, we introduce our first experiences of robot-assisted posterior retroperitoneoscopic adrenalectomy using single-port access and the da Vinci system

A Fatal Case of Intravascular Coagulation After Bee Sting Acupuncture

Bee stings can cause severe adverse reactions, leading to anaphylaxis, cardiovascular collapse, and death. In some cases, bee venom also induces disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). However, to our knowledge, there has been no fatal case of intravascular coagulation accompanied by anaphylaxis caused by bee sting acupuncture. Here, we report a fatal case of a 65-year-old woman with DIC, following anaphylactic shock after bee sting acupuncture. This case emphasizes that practitioners should consider anaphylaxis followed by coagulation abnormalities when a patient's vital signs are unstable after bee sting acupuncture

Lean or diabetic subtypes predict increased all-cause and disease-specific mortality in metabolic-associated fatty liver disease

Background Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) encompasses diverse disease groups with potentially heterogeneous clinical outcomes. We investigated the risk of all-cause and disease-specific mortality in MAFLD subgroups. Methods Using the Korean National Health Insurance Service database, participants were divided into four subgroups: no MAFLD, MAFLD-diabetes, MAFLD-overweight/obese, and MAFLD-lean. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) values for all-cause and disease-specific mortality according to MAFLD subgroups were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards models. Results Among 9,935,314 participants, those with MAFLD-diabetes showed the highest risk of all-cause and disease-specific mortality. The HRs (95% CI) for all-cause mortality were 1.61 (1.59–1.63), 1.36 (1.34–1.38), and 1.19 (1.18–1.20) in the MAFLD-diabetes, MAFLD-lean, and MAFLD-overweight/obese groups, respectively. The magnitude of cardiovascular disease and cancer-related risk showed the same pattern. The risk of liver-related mortality in the MAFLD-lean group (HR: 2.84, 95% CI: 2.72–2.97) was comparable with that in the MAFLD-diabetes group (HR: 2.85, 95% CI: 2.75–2.95). When stratified by body mass index, liver-related mortality was the highest in MAFLD-lean individuals in the underweight group (HR, 5.03, 95% CI: 4.23–5.97). Conclusions The MAFLD-lean and MAFLD-diabetes groups had a higher risk of all-cause and disease-specific mortality than did the MAFLD-overweight/obese group. Classifying MAFLD subgroups based on metabolic phenotypes might help risk stratification of patients with MAFLD.This work was supported in part by grants from the Seoul National University Hospital (04–2022-3140 and 30–2022-0340) and the Liver Research Foundation of Korea (Bio Future Strategies Research Project)