Adjuvant therapy with toceranib for hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma in a Pomeranian.

A 10-year-old spayed female Pomeranian dog was referred for hepatic mass evaluation. Blood tests revealed mildly elevated alkaline phosphatase activities. Computed tomography revealed a mass with multiple nodules on the right hepatic medial lobe adjacent to the caudal vena cava; histopathology confirmed mixed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CC). Because of incomplete resection, adjuvant therapy was recommended. As tumour cells showed PDGFR-α, c-Kit, and FGFR1 overexpression, the anticancer effect of tyrosine kinase inhibitors was evaluated on the cells; toceranib was the most effective and was administered starting with an extra-labelled dose. The dog remained stable for 2.3 years with mild adverse effects. To our knowledge, this is the first successful clinical application of toceranib in a dog with mixed HCC-CC.

Teaching Practicum During COVID-19: Pre-Service English Language Teachers' Professional Identities and Motivation.

As the pandemic has brought in a paradigm shift in the way we educate and interact with our students, it has also had profound impacts on the practicum of pre-service teacher education. Focusing on the case of 14 South Korean student teachers who completed their teaching practicum in Spring 2020, this paper explores how the new form of teaching practicum, triggered by the current outbreak, affected student teachers' professional development and their views on teaching practice and profession. In particular, it examines the ways by which teaching practicums conducted under unpredictable circumstances negatively or positively affect student teachers' professional identities as teaching practitioners and their motivation to become a teacher. The findings of this study show that the teaching practicum conducted in times of crisis enabled pre-service English language teachers to develop a positive image toward teachers and teaching profession, and realize their potential as innovative and inspiring teachers in the post COVID-19 era.

Skin accumulation of advanced glycation end products and cardiovascular risk in Korean patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Background: The formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) takes place during normal aging; however, their production is faster in people having diabetes. The accumulated AGEs reportedly play a role in the occurrence of various age-related disorders. Furthermore, the skin autofluorescence (SAF) technique can be used to detect accumulated AGEs levels. There are few reports on the association between skin accumulation of AGEs and risk of complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods: In this study, we aimed to describe the association between the skin accumulation of AGEs and cardiovascular risk factors in Korean patients with type 2 diabetes. A total of 310 Korean patients with diabetes were enrolled, and the levels of AGEs were measured using SAP. Levels of fasting blood glucose (FBS), triglycerides, total cholesterol, low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, proteinuria, arterial pulse wave velocity (PWV), and blood vessel age were measured using an automatic waveform analyzer. General linear models were used to identify the independent effect of AGEs after adjusting for covariates (age, weight, and duration of diabetes). Results: The skin levels of AGEs were strongly correlated with the diabetes duration. Significant independent associations were observed for AGEs with FBS (P < 0.01), proteinuria (P < 0.001), and PWV (P < 0.001). The advanced glycated product was independently associated to the arterial pulse wave conduction velocity that is used as a representative method for measuring arteriosclerosis by analysis early cardiovascular risk factors. Conclusion: Our results show that an increase in SAF levels in Korean patients with type 2 diabetes is associated with PWV and vein age, and thereby with arterial stiffness. Therefore, our results suggest that AGEs are associated with cardiovascular risk factors. The level of AGEs can thus be used as an indicator of cardiovascular diseases in the clinical diagnosis of patients with type 2 diabetes.

Meaning and reference from a probabilistic point of view.

The rise of Bayesian models of cognition requires that traditional questions in epistemology and metaphysics, such as how models relate to reality and how one observer's models relate to another's, be reframed in probabilistic terms. In this paper we take up these questions beginning from a subjective (Bayesian) conception of probability, in which distinct observers hold potentially different probabilistic models of the world, with no one observer necessarily possessing the "true" one. The key question is what terms in a probabilistic theory mean-that is, what they refer to and what their truth conditions are. We address this question with tools from information theory. We introduce the translation uncertainty, a generalization of the Kullback-Leibler divergence that expresses the discrepancy between two observers' probabilistic models of a common environment. We derive a number of basic information-theoretic relationships among observers, showing for example that the probability that two Bayesian observers will classify the world similarly (called the concordance) depends on the translation uncertainty between their respective models of the world. Our framework suggests a pathway to a semantics for a "probabilistic language of thought."

Implementing English for Medical Purposes (EMP) in South Korea: Nursing students' ongoing needs analysis.

Despite the growing popularity of English for Medical Purposes courses for nurses and nursing students in the East Asian region, relatively little research has been done to investigate whether these courses meet students' specific pragmatic or learning needs. Drawing on the analysis of questionnaires and interview data collected from 66 South Korean nursing students who enrolled in the Medial English course, the study aims to demonstrate the students' specific learning purposes and their pragmatic needs that are highly relevant to the values and conventions of the target discourse community. The findings of the study suggest that while most students agree with the need for English for Specific Purposes courses, they report that the current courses do not fully fit their needs and expectations because of (a) an English-only classroom policy, (b) limited academic literacy in English, and (c) non-localized materials. Findings help language educators, policy makers and researchers in the East Asian region to better understand the importance of looking at specificity of English for Medical Purposes courses and the students' unique needs, and provide them with suggestions for enhancing the effectiveness and specificity of English for Medical Purposes courses.

Annual Change of Peak Expiratory Flow Rate in Asthma and COPD / 결핵및호흡기질환

BACKGROUND: Measurement of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) in a follow-up examination for a chronic airway disease is useful because it has the advantages of being a simple measurement and can be repeated during examination. The aim of this study was to examine the annual decrease of PEFR in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and to confirm the factors which influence this decrease. METHODS: From May, 2003 to September, 2010, the annual decrease of PEFR was obtained from asthma and COPD patients attending an outpatient pulmonary clinic. PEFR was measured using a Mini-Wright peak flow meter (Clement Clarke International Ltd. UK), and we conducted an analysis of factors that influence the change of PEFR and its average values. RESULTS: The results showed an annual decrease of 1.70+/-12.86 L/min the asthmatic patients and an annual decrease of 10.3+/-7.32 L/min in the COPD patients. Age and FEV1 were the predictive factors influencing change in asthma, and FEV1 and smoking were the predictive factors influencing change in COPD. CONCLUSION: We confirmed the annual decreasing PEFR in patients with chronic airway disease and identified factors that work in conjunction with FEV1 to influence the change.

Electrochemical determination of carbohydrate-binding proteins using carbohydrate-stabilized gold nanoparticles and silver enhancement.

A highly sensitive electrochemical lectin biosensor has been developed for the first time using carbohydrate-stabilized gold nanoparticles and silver-enhancement technique. A target lectin protein, Concanavalin A (Con A), was specifically bound to the self-assembled monolayer of thiolated mannose on a gold electrode. Mannose-stabilized gold nanoparticles were added to form a sandwich-type complex with the Con A and were followed by silver-enhancement process to coat the mannose-stabilized gold nanoparticles with silver metal. The coated metallic silver was dissolved in an acidic solution and the resulting silver ions were detected by anodic stripping voltammetry. The present lectin biosensor gave a linear response (R(2)=0.999) for Con A concentration from 0.084 µg/mL to 50.0 µg/mL with a remarkable detection limit (S/N=3) of 0.070 µg/mL, which is much lower compared to those obtained with the reported microgravimetric and colorimetric detection methods.