Fishbone-Associated Actinomycosis of the Anterior Cervical Space: A Diagnostic Dilemma

We report the imaging and pathologic findings of fishbone-associated actinomycosis of the anterior cervical space in a 57-year-old man, misdiagnosed preoperatively as a malignancy originating from thyroglossal duct cyst. CT revealed an enhancing mass containing a small abscess pocket and two sharp linear calcifications within it, which infiltrated into the strap muscle. Pathologic examination demonstrated two fishbones within the actinomycotic abscess. Fishbone-associated actinomycosis should be considered when a cervical mass contains sharp linear calcifications

Ultrahigh areal number density solid-state on-chip microsupercapacitors via electrohydrodynamic jet printing

Microsupercapacitors (MSCs) have garnered considerable attention as a promising power source for microelectronics and miniaturized portable/wearable devices. However, their practical application has been hindered by the manufacturing complexity and dimensional limits. Here, we develop a new class of ultrahigh areal number density solid-state MSCs (UHD SS-MSCs) on a chip via electrohydrodynamic (EHD) jet printing. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first study to exploit EHD jet printing in the MSCs. The activated carbon-based electrode inks are EHD jet-printed, creating interdigitated electrodes with fine feature sizes. Subsequently, a drying-free, ultraviolet-cured solid-state gel electrolyte is introduced to ensure electrochemical isolation between the SS-MSCs, enabling dense SS-MSC integration with on-demand (in-series/in-parallel) cell connection on a chip. The resulting on-chip UHD SS-MSCs exhibit exceptional areal number density [36 unit cells integrated on a chip (area = 8.0 mm x 8.2 mm), 54.9 cells cm(-2)] and areal operating voltage (65.9 V cm(-2))

Late-1980s regime shift in the formation of the North Pacific subtropical mode water

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2020. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans 125(2), (2020): e2019JC015700, doi:10.1029/2019JC015700.The formation mechanism as well as its temporal change of the North Pacific subtropical mode water (NPSTMW) is investigated using a 50‐year (1960–2009) ocean general circulation model hindcast. The volume budget analysis suggests that the formation of the NPSTMW is mainly controlled by the air‐sea interaction and ocean dynamics, but there is a regime shift of the relative importance between the two around late‐1980s. While the local air‐sea interaction process is a main driver of the NPSTMW formation prior to late‐1980s, ocean dynamics including the vertical entrainment become dominant since then. The NPSTMW formation is affected by the North Pacific Oscillation simultaneously in the early period, but with a few years lag in the later period. The interdecadal change of the driving mechanism of the interannual variability of the NPSTMW is probably due to the stronger (weaker) influence of local atmospheric forcing in the western North Pacific and unfavorable (favorable) wind stress curl condition for the remote oceanic forcing from the central North Pacific during the former (later) period. This regime shift may be related to the change of centers of the actions of the wind stress curl since the late‐1980s.The CORE2 data set was obtained from https://data1.gfdl.noaa.gov/nomads/forms/core/COREv2.html. The World Ocean Atlas 2009 and the Polar Hydrographic Climatology data set were obtained from https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/WOA09/pr_woa09.html and http://psc.apl.washington.edu/nonwp_projects/PHC/Climatology.html, respectively. The OSCAR data were taken from https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/OSCAR_L4_OC_third‐deg. The database of mixed layer depth is downloaded from http://mixedlayer.ucsd.edu. The data set of the Argo floats was taken from http://uskess.whoi.edu/. The sea surface height data observed by the satellite are available from AVISO (http://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/duacs/). The EN4 data set was downloaded from https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/en4/. This study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant NRF‐2009‐C1AAA001‐0093, funded by the Korea government (MEST). The numerical simulation in this paper was supported by the Supercomputing Center of Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI), with its supercomputing resources and technical support (KSC‐2018‐CRE‐0117). Y.‐O. Kwon was funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) EaSM2 OCE‐1242989. Y. H. Kim was partly supported by research projects entitled “Investigation and prediction system development of marine heatwave around the Korean Peninsula originated from the subarctic and western Pacific” (20190344) funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF). G. Pak was supported by in‐house projects of the Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology (PE99711, PE99811).2020-09-0

Redirected Walking in Infinite Virtual Indoor Environment Using Change-blindness

We present a change-blindness based redirected walking algorithm that allows a user to explore on foot a virtual indoor environment consisting of an infinite number of rooms while at the same time ensuring collision-free walking for the user in real space. This method uses change blindness to scale and translate the room without the user's awareness by moving the wall while the user is not looking. Consequently, the virtual room containing the current user always exists in the valid real space. We measured the detection threshold for whether the user recognizes the movement of the wall outside the field of view. Then, we used the measured detection threshold to determine the amount of changing the dimension of the room by moving that wall. We conducted a live-user experiment to navigate the same virtual environment using the proposed method and other existing methods. As a result, users reported higher usability, presence, and immersion when using the proposed method while showing reduced motion sickness compared to other methods. Hence, our approach can be used to implement applications to allow users to explore an infinitely large virtual indoor environment such as virtual museum and virtual model house while simultaneously walking in a small real space, giving users a more realistic experience.Comment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-ZKavhXxd

Application of Recycled Zero-Valent Iron Nanoparticle to the Treatment of Wastewater Containing Nitrobenzene

Zero-valent iron (ZVI) was synthesized using iron oxide, a byproduct of pickling line at a steel work. ZVI with a mean particle size of 500 nm was synthesized. The reaction activity of the synthesized ZVI was much higher than commercial ZVI. When applied to the decomposition of nitrobenzene (NB), the ZVI particles underwent corrosion and passivation oxide film formation, resulting in particle size decrease. The NB decomposition rate increased with increasing ZVI dosage level and with decreasing pH. The solution pH increased monotonously with increasing reaction duration, whereas the aniline concentration showed a maximum at 50 min. Based on the GC/MS analysis, NB is presumed to be reduced into aniline via reductive intermediates such as azobenzene and azoxybenzene. When combined with a subsequent biological process, the synthesized ZVI will be able to decompose NB in wastewater effectively

The Effect of Fish Consumption on Blood Mercury Levels of Pregnant Women

In the present study, we examined the relationship between average fish consumption, as well as the type of fish consumed and levels of mercury in the blood of pregnant women. We also performed follow-up studies to determine if blood mercury levels were decreased after counseling and prenatal education. To examine these potential relationships, pregnant women were divided into two groups: a study group was educated to restrict fish intake, whereas a control group did not receive any prenatal education regarding fish consumption. We measured blood mercury level and performed follow-up studies during the third trimester to examine any differences between the two groups. Out of the 63 pregnant women who participated in our study, we performed follow-up studies with 19 pregnant women from the study group and 12 pregnant women from control group. The average initial blood mercury level of both groups was 2.94 µg/L, with a range of 0.14 to 10.75 µg/L. Blood mercury level in the group who ate fish more than four times per month was significantly higher than that of the group who did not consume fish (p = 0.02). In follow-up studies, blood mercury levels were decreased in the study group but slightly increased in the control group (p = 0.014). The maternal blood mercury level in late pregnancy was positively correlated with mercury levels of cord blood (r = 0.58, p = 0.047), which was almost twice the level found in maternal blood. Pregnant women who consume a large amount of fish may have high blood mercury levels. Further, cord blood mercury levels were much higher than that of maternal blood. Because the level of fish intake appears to influence blood mercury level, preconceptual education might be necessary in order decrease fish consumption