Hypertrophic scars and keloids are fibroproliferative disorders that may arise after any deep cutaneous injury caused by trauma, burns, surgery, etc. Hypertrophic scars and keloids are cosmetically ...problematic, and in combination with functional problems such as contractures and subjective symptoms including pruritus, these significantly affect patients' quality of life. There have been many studies on hypertrophic scars and keloids; but the mechanisms underlying scar formation have not yet been well established, and prophylactic and treatment strategies remain unsatisfactory. In this review, the authors introduce and summarize classical concepts surrounding wound healing and review recent understandings of the biology, prevention and treatment strategies for hypertrophic scars and keloids.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
The goal of the study was to determine whether endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided biliary drainage (EUS-BD) is comparable to conventional transpapillary stenting with endoscopic retrograde ...cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in palliation of malignant distal biliary obstruction. Although ERCP for the palliation of malignant biliary obstruction is the standard of care, post-procedure pancreatitis and stent dysfunctions are not uncommon. While EUS-BD has garnered interest as a viable alternative when ERCP is impossible, its role as a primary palliation of malignant distal biliary obstruction is yet to be proven.
We performed random allocation to EUS-BD or ERCP in 125 patients with unresectable malignant distal biliary obstruction at four tertiary academic referral centers in South Korea.
Technical success rates were 93.8% (60/64) for EUS-BD and 90.2% (55/61) for ERCP (difference 3.6%, 95% 1-sided confidence interval lower limit -4.4%, P = 0.003 for noninferiority margin of 10%). Clinical success rates were 90.0% (54/60) in EUS-BD and 94.5% (52/55) in ERCP (P = 0.49). Lower rates of overall adverse events (6.3% vs 19.7%, P = 0.03) including post-procedure pancreatitis (0 vs 14.8%), reintervention (15.6% vs 42.6%), and higher rate of stent patency (85.1% vs 48.9%) were observed with EUS-BD. EUS-BD was also associated with more preserved quality of life (QOL) than transpapillary stenting after 12 weeks of the procedure.
This study demonstrated comparable technical and clinical success rates between EUS-BD and ERCP in relief malignant distal biliary obstruction. Substantially longer duration of patency coupled with lower rates of adverse events and reintervention, and more preserved QOL were observed with EUS-BD (cris.nih.go.kr, Identifier: KCT0001396, https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/search/search_result_st01_en.jsp?seq=9716<ype=&rtype= ).
Acute gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is not an uncommon complication of oral anticoagulation (OAC) therapy that requires medication cessation. However, drug cessation may cause fatal stroke or ...systemic embolization in patients at high thromboembolic risk. Here we sought to find an appropriate anticoagulation cessation strategy in cases of GI bleeding during OAC therapy.
This single-center retrospective cohort analysis was performed between 2010 and 2018. Patients were enrolled if the following three consecutive conditions were met: 1) electrocardiography electrocardiography-proven atrial fibrillation; 2) OAC therapy; and 3) GI bleeding. We divided the drug cessation strategy into the continuation and discontinuation groups. During 1-year follow-up, the rates of major thromboembolic and rebleeding events were calculated.
One hundred and forty-six patients (continuation n = 54 vs. discontinuation n = 92 group) were enrolled. Patients in the discontinuation group were more likely to be older (69.8 ± 9.0 yrs vs. 74.9 ± 8.9 yrs, p = 0.001), while patients in the continuation group were more likely to have undergone cardiac valve surgery (51.9% vs. 20.7%, p<0.001). The presence of a mechanical mitral valve was a determinant of continuation strategy (38.9% vs. 7.5%, p<0.001). However, the mean CHA₂DS₂-VASc (3.4±1.3 vs. 4.1±1.6, p = 0.010) and Glasgow-Blatchford (8.0±2.4 vs. 8.9±2.5, p = 0.037) scores were higher in the discontinuation group. Two major embolic strokes occurred in each group (3.7% vs. 2.2%, p = 0.585). Four of 54 (7.4%) and five of 92 (5.4%) patients had rebleeding events during follow-up (p = 0.632). One embolic event in the continuation group and one rebleeding event in the discontinuation group were fatal. The Glasgow-Blatchford score was a predictor of 1-year rebleeding events (odds ratio OR, 1.36; 95% confidence interval CI, 0.68-2.20; p = 0.028). The high CHA₂DS₂-VASc score showed a strong trend (OR, 1.71; 95% CI, 0.92-3.20; p = 0.089) in 1-year thromboembolic events.
No single risk factor or drug cessation strategy was attributed to adverse clinical events after GI bleeding. The risk of future thrombotic or rebleeding events should be individualized and controlled for based on a pre-existing stratification system.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Although access control based on human face recognition has become popular in consumer applications, it still has several implementation issues before it can realize a stand-alone access control ...system. Owing to a lack of computational resources, lightweight and computationally efficient face recognition algorithms are required. The conventional access control systems require significant active cooperation from the users despite its non-aggressive nature. The lighting/illumination change is one of the most difficult and challenging problems for human-face-recognition-based access control applications. This paper presents the design and implementation of a user-friendly, stand-alone access control system based on human face recognition at a distance. The local binary pattern (LBP)-AdaBoost framework was employed for face and eyes detection, which is fast and invariant to illumination changes. It can detect faces and eyes of varied sizes at a distance. For fast face recognition with a high accuracy, the Gabor-LBP histogram framework was modified by substituting the Gabor wavelet with Gaussian derivative filters, which reduced the facial feature size by 40% of the Gabor-LBP-based facial features, and was robust to significant illumination changes and complicated backgrounds. The experiments on benchmark datasets produced face recognition accuracies of 97.27% on an E-face dataset and 99.06% on an XM2VTS dataset, respectively. The system achieved a 91.5% true acceptance rate with a 0.28% false acceptance rate and averaged a 5.26 frames/sec processing speed on a newly collected face image and video dataset in an indoor office environment.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
A forward osmosis membrane consisting of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets cooperatively cross-linked by ethylenediamine (EDA) molecule and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) polymer chain is proposed. Desirable ...GO-based nanocomposite membrane must satisfy the conflicting requirements of high water flux and salt rejection simultaneously, which is yet to be achieved. In this study, the GO/EDA/PAA nanocomposite structure demonstrates that good water flux (52 LMH) and salt rejection (97%) can be achieved simultaneously by cooperatively employing the short monomer molecule EDA and the long PAA polymer chain within the channel region of the GO nanocomposite membrane structure. It is suggested that the membrane-wide network of hydrogen bonds between the GO nanosheets and the PAA chains aligned parallel to them is supplemented by anchoring carbon-nitrogen covalent bonds between GO and EDA molecules to form the nanocomposite structure. The nanocomposite structure resulting from the configurations of EDA molecules and PAA chains within the channel region provide an optimal condition for blocking hydrated salt ions while allowing the flow of water molecules. Also, it functions as a reinforcement of the membrane structure for the improved structural integrity.
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•The GO nanosheets are cooperatively cross-linked by EDA and PAA simultaneously.•The configurations of EDA molecules and PAA chains in the membrane form a nanocomposite structure.•The GO/EDA/PAA 8.1:0.9:1 membrane overcomes the trade-off relationship between the flux and rejection.•The d-spacing and performance of membrane can be controlled by its compositions.•A good structural stability is achieved by incorporating the cross-linkers to GO.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
In more than 400 older patients with AML who could not receive myeloablative therapy, the incidence of composite complete remission was higher (66.4% vs. 28.3) and the median overall survival was ...longer (14.7 vs. 9.6 months) among patients who received azacitidine plus venetoclax (a B-cell lymphoma 2 antagonist) than among those who received azacitidine alone.
The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) to hydrocarbons is a challenging task because of the issues in controlling the efficiency and selectivity of the products. Among the various ...transition metals, copper has attracted attention as it yields more reduced and C2 products even while using mononuclear copper center as catalysts. In addition, it is found that reversible formation of copper nanoparticle acts as the real catalytically active site for the conversion of CO2 to reduced products. Here, it is demonstrated that the dinuclear molecular copper complex immobilized over graphitized mesoporous carbon can act as catalysts for the conversion of CO2 to hydrocarbons (methane and ethylene) up to 60%. Interestingly, high selectivity toward C2 product (40% faradaic efficiency) is achieved by a molecular complex based hybrid material from CO2 in 0.1 m KCl. In addition, the role of local pH, porous structure, and carbon support in limiting the mass transport to achieve the highly reduced products is demonstrated. Although the spectroscopic analysis of the catalysts exhibits molecular nature of the complex after 2 h bulk electrolysis, morphological study reveals that the newly generated copper cluster is the real active site during the catalytic reactions.
Dinuclear copper complex immobilized on graphitized mesoporous carbon exhibits more efficient CO2 reduction activity than that of the mononuclear composite material. Although postcatalytic analysis of the material displays the existence of molecular nature, morphological study shows copper clustering as the real active site. The importance of porous structure, substrate, and controlling the local pH in C2 product selectivity is demonstrated.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Current‐induced control of magnetization in ferromagnets using spin–orbit torque (SOT) has drawn attention as a new mechanism for fast and energy efficient magnetic memory devices. Energy‐efficient ...spintronic devices require a spin‐current source with a large SOT efficiency (ξ) and electrical conductivity (σ), and an efficient spin injection across a transparent interface. Herein, single crystals of the van der Waals (vdW) topological semimetal WTe2 and vdW ferromagnet Fe3GeTe2 are used to satisfy the requirements in their all‐vdW‐heterostructure with an atomically sharp interface. The results exhibit values of ξ ≈ 4.6 and σ ≈ 2.25 × 105 Ω‐1 m‐1 for WTe2. Moreover, the significantly reduced switching current density of 3.90 × 106 A cm−2 at 150 K is obtained, which is an order of magnitude smaller than those of conventional heavy‐metal/ferromagnet thin films. These findings highlight that engineering vdW‐type topological materials and magnets offers a promising route to energy‐efficient magnetization control in SOT‐based spintronics.
All‐van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure with an atomically sharp interface based on topological semimetal shows spin–orbit torque (SOT)‐driven magnetization switching. These findings highlight that engineering vdW‐type topological materials and magnets offers a promising route to energy‐efficient magnetization control in SOT‐based spintronics.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
An ultrathin linear-to-linear polarization converter exhibiting a high polarization conversion ratio (PCR) in an ultrawide bandwidth is fabricated on a printed circuit board (PCB). It is based on a ...bilayer slot structure that is electrically connected by via holes. Front- and back-sided slot structures are arranged in mutually orthogonal directions and function as receivers and radiators, respectively. The via holes provide a route for the transfer of electromagnetic energy received by the front-sided slot structures to the back-sided slot structures and radiate an electromagnetic wave having polarization orthogonal to that of the input electromagnetic wave. Moreover, two slots are employed for each unit cell design, and the locations of the via holes are carefully determined to achieve broadband polarization conversion. The via-hole positions that change the surface current distribution around the slot apertures enable the control of multiple resonance frequencies. Via holes are positioned to make first and second resonance frequencies that are blue-shifted toward the third resonance frequency, which broadens the operational band of the perfect polarization conversion. The 0.8 mm thick polarization converter exhibits PCR greater than 99% in the frequency band from 24.5 to 47 GHz.
Although the efficacy of palliative bilateral biliary drainage using self-expandable metal stents has been demonstrated, it is unclear which bilateral method is optimal for advanced malignant hilar ...biliary strictures (MHSs). This pilot study compared bilateral stent-in-stent (SIS) with stent-by-stent (SBS) deployment for advanced MHSs.
Patients with inoperable high-grade MHSs were enrolled in this prospective randomized multicenter study. The primary outcome was the rate of adverse events, whereas secondary outcomes were technical and clinical success, reintervention, therapeutic outcomes, stent patency, and survival duration.
This study randomized 69 of 74 pathologically diagnosed patients to the SIS (n = 34) or SBS (n = 35) groups. The total adverse event rate after stent deployment did not differ between the 2 groups (23.5% in the SIS group vs 28.6% in the SBS group, P = .633). The primary technical success rate was 100% (34/34) and 91.4% (32/35) in the SIS and SBS groups, respectively (P = .081). The clinical success rate was 94.1% (32/34) and 90.6% (29/32), respectively (P = .668). The stent patency rate at 3 months was 85.3% in the SIS group and 65.7% in the SBS group (P = .059). At 6 months, the stent patency rate was 47.1% and 31.4%, respectively (P = .184). The median cumulative stent patency and survival probability did not differ between the 2 groups.
Efficacy of bilateral SIS and SBS deployment may be similar in terms of total adverse events, technical and clinical success, stent patency, and survival. The stent patency rates at 3 and 6 months was higher in the SIS group without statistical difference. (Clinical trial registration number: NCT01141088.)
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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