Current Management and Future Strategies of Gastric Cancer

The overall prognosis of gastric cancer has gradually improved over the past decades with growing awareness of potential carcinogens, surveillance programs and early diagnosis, as well as advances in surgical techniques and multimodality treatments. Nevertheless, the outcome of advanced stage disease still remains poor with currently available treatments, and a worldwide consensus on the standard management thereof has not been established. To improve prognosis and quality of life in gastric cancer patients, both standardization and individualization of managements are imperative. Diagnostic tests and surgical procedures need to be further sophisticated and standardized based on more recent evidences from ongoing and future randomized controlled trials, while comprehensive management should be individualized to each patient. Future challenges lie with how to optimize personalized therapies by deciphering biological complexity of gastric cancer and incorporating molecular biomarkers in clinical practice to forecast prognosis and to guide targeted therapeutics in adjunct to current standards of care

Improving Exploration And Exploitation Capability Of Harmony Search Algorithm

Harmony Search (HS) is a meta-heuristic algorithm which was first introduced in 2001 and it became a widely used optimization algorithm in various areas in engineering application as well as in water resources planning and management. However, as most meta-heuristic algorithms are, the HS shows a good performance in global search but not as good in local search. This study aims the improvement of both exploration and exploitation capability of the algorithm. The mission has been carried out by changing algorithm operators or parameters in the search process. Several types of Improved Harmony Search (IHS) have been successfully developed resulting better exploiting (local) search. Alternative way is to utilize the superior local search of other models or algorithms. The combined, so called hybrid algorithms can significantly supplement the weak local search aspect of the original HS. A newly developed hybrid algorithm, Smallest Small World Cellular Harmony Search (SSWCHS), is developed and proposed shorter characteristic path length and higher clustering coefficient, resulting good exploration and exploitation efficiency. Application to benchmark functions and design of pipe networks proves the superior performance of the newly developed hybrid algorithm

Formation characteristics and photoluminescence of Ge nanocrystals in HfO[sub 2]

Genanocrystals (NCs) are shown to form within HfO₂ at relatively low annealing temperatures (600–700 °C) and to exhibit characteristic photoluminescence(PL) emission consistent with quantum confinement effects. After annealing at 600 °C, sample implanted with 8.4×10¹⁵ Ge cm⁻² show two major PL peaks, at 0.94 and 0.88 eV, which are attributed to no-phonon and transverse-optical phonon replica of Ge NCs, respectively. The intensity reaches a maximum for annealing temperatures around 700 °C and decreases at higher temperatures as the NC size continues to increase. The no-phonon emission also undergoes a significant redshift for temperatures above 800 °C. For fluences in the range from 8.4×1015 to 2.5×10¹⁶ cm⁻², the average NC size increases from ∼13.5±2.6 to ∼20.0±3.7 nm. These NC sizes are much larger than within amorphous SiO₂. Implanted Ge is shown to form Ge NCs within the matrix of monoclinic (m)-HfO₂ during thermal annealing with the orientation relationship of [101]m-HfO₂//[110]Ge NC.S.H.C. and R.G.E. acknowledge supports from the Korea Research Foundation Grant Grant No. KRF-2007-521- C00094 and from the Australian Research Council Discovery Project, respectively

Molecular Detection of Dirofilaria immitis Specific Gene from Infected Dog Blood Sample Using Polymerase Chain Reaction

Background: Dirofilaria immitis, a filarial nematode, is the most important parasite-affecting dogs, causing cardiopulmonary dirofilariasis. Current diagnostic tools for detecting D. immitis include morphological assays, antigen detection, and X-ray. Herein, we developed a method for the molecular detection of D. immitis in blood using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Methods: The study was conducted at Eulji University, Republic of Korea in 2016. To detect D. immitis-specific gene regions, we aligned the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) genes of seven filarial nematodes and designed primers targeting the unique region. We used dog glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH)-targeted primers as the internal control. We conducted PCR-amplified genomic DNA from canine blood samples. The products were confirmed by sequencing. Results: Gene alignment revealed a D. immitis COI-specific gene region, and the activity of designed primers was confirmed by PCR and sequencing. Plasmid DNA made from the PCR products was a positive control. The limit of detection for our method was 50 copies. The D. immitis COI and dog GAPDH genes could be discriminated from blood samples simultaneously. Conclusion: This study provides a method for highly specific and sensitive molecular diagnosis of D. immitis used as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool from the early stage of infection

Comprehensive understanding of cathodic and anodic polarization effects on stability of nanoscale oxygen electrode for reversible solid oxide cells

Whereas solid oxide cells (SOCs), which perform dual functions of power generation (fuel-cell mode) and energy storage (electrolysis mode) with high efficiency at high temperatures, are considered a potent candidate for future energy management systems, it is yet far from their practical use due to the fact that the stable long-term operations have not been achieved. Particularly, degradations of oxygen-electrode in the both electrolysis and fuel-cell operations are considered as the most imminent issues that should be overcome. Unfortunately, even the origins and mechanisms of degradation in the oxygen-electrode have not been clearly established due to the difficulties in precise assessments of microstructural/compositional changes of porous electrode, which is a typical form in actual solid oxide cells, and due to the diversities in operating conditions, electrode structure and material, fabrication history, and so on. We simultaneously investigated the degradation phenomena in electrolysis and fuel-cell operations for 540h using identical two half cells composed of a geometrically well-defined, nanoscale La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ (LSCF) dense film with a thickness of ~ 70 nm on Ce0.9Gd0.1O2-δ electrolyte. Owing to the benefit of well-defined geometry of LSCF thin film, the microstructural/compositional changes in LSCF films were successfully analyzed in nanoscale, and the correlation between the components of electrochemical impedance and the major origins resulting in degradations was clarified. Furthermore, we suggest the most probable degradation mechanisms, and importantly, it is newly suggested that kinetic demixing/decomposition of LSCF, which is not readily observable in the typical porous-structured electrode, are highly probable to affect the both fuel-cell and electrolysis long-term degradations

Metabolic pathway prediction of core microbiome based on enterotype and orotype

IntroductionIdentification of key microbiome components has been suggested to help address the maintenance of oral and intestinal health in humans. The core microbiome is similar in all individuals, whereas the diverse microbiome varies across individuals, based on their unique lifestyles and phenotypic and genotypic determinants. In this study, we aimed to predict the metabolism of core microorganisms in the gut and oral environment based on enterotyping and orotyping.Materials and methodsGut and oral samples were collected from 83 Korean women aged 50 years or older. The extracted DNA was subjected to next-generation sequencing analysis of 16S rRNA hypervariable regions V3–V4.ResultsGut bacteria were clustered into three enterotypes, while oral bacteria were clustered into three orotypes. Sixty-three of the core microbiome between the gut and oral population were correlated, and different metabolic pathways were predicted for each type. Eubacterium_g11, Actinomyces, Atopobium, and Enterococcus were significantly positively correlated between the gut and oral abundance. The four bacteria were classified as type 3 in orotype and type 2 in enterotype.ConclusionOverall, the study suggested that collapsing the human body’s multidimensional microbiome into a few categories may help characterize the microbiomes better and address health issues more deeply

Relationships among Disability, Quality of Life, and Physical Fitness in Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: An Investigation of Elderly Korean Women

Study DesignA cross-sectional, case-control study.PurposeTo investigate associations between physical fitness measures and disabilities related to back pain and quality of life (QOL) by the presence of symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) in elderly Korean women.Overview of LiteratureLSS leads to decreased functioning and reduced QOL. However, correlations among physical fitness, disability, and QOL have not been investigated in elderly women with LSS.MethodsParticipants included women aged 65 years and older (n=192), divided into a study group (n=38) and a control group (n=154) based on the presence/absence of LSS. All participants underwent physical function and fitness tests. Oswestry disability index (ODI) scores and EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L) scores were used to assess disability and health-related QOL.ResultsThe results for the handgrip strength, sit-and-reach, functional reach, and timed up and go (TUG) tests were significantly higher in the control group than the LSS group. ODI scores were significantly higher and EQ-5D-5L scores significantly lower in the LSS group. TUG and functional reach test scores were significantly correlated with ODI scores, and handgrip strength was strongly interrelated with ODI and EQ-5D-5L scores in the LSS group. No other physical fitness measures showed statistically significant relationships with ODI or EQ-5D-5L scores.ConclusionsIn elderly Korean women with LSS, back pain-related disability and QOL are significantly associated with some physical fitness parameters such as handgrip strength. Handgrip strength reflects general muscle strength, which is significantly interrelated with the level of disability and QOL. Our results suggest that enhancing generalized muscle strength helps to reduce disability due to back pain and improve QOL in patients with LSS