Effect of Oxygen Vacancy on the Conduction Modulation Linearity and Classification Accuracy of Pr0.7Ca0.3MnO3 Memristor.

An amorphous Pr0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (PCMO) film was grown on a TiN/SiO2/Si (TiN-Si) substrate at 300 °C and at an oxygen pressure (OP) of 100 mTorr. This PCMO memristor showed typical bipolar switching characteristics, which were attributed to the generation and disruption of oxygen vacancy (OV) filaments. Fabrication of the PCMO memristor at a high OP resulted in nonlinear conduction modulation with the application of equivalent pulses. However, the memristor fabricated at a low OP of 100 mTorr exhibited linear conduction modulation. The linearity of this memristor improved because the growth and disruption of the OV filaments were mostly determined by the redox reaction of OV owing to the presence of numerous OVs in this PCMO film. Furthermore, simulation using a convolutional neural network revealed that this PCMO memristor has enhanced classification performance owing to its linear conduction modulation. This memristor also exhibited several biological synaptic characteristics, indicating that an amorphous PCMO thin film fabricated at a low OP would be a suitable candidate for artificial synapses.

Discovery of Parasite Eggs in Archeological Residence during the 15th Century in Seoul, Korea.

During civil engineering construction near Sejong-ro, Jongro-ku, Seoul, cultural sites were found that are thought to have been built in the 15th century. This area was home to many different people as well as the leaders of the Yi dynasty. To gain further insight into the life styles of the inhabitants of the old capital, soil samples were collected from various areas such as toilets, water foundations, and drainage ways. Parasite eggs were examined by microscopy after 5 g soil samples were rehydrated in 0.5% trisodium phosphate solution. A total of 662 parasite eggs from 7 species were found. Species with the highest number of eggs found were Ascaris lumbricoides (n=483), followed by Trichuris trichiura (138), Trichuris vulpis (21), Fasciola hepatica (8), Clonorchis sinensis (6), Paragonimus westermani (4), and Metagonimus yokogawai (2). These findings indirectly indicate the food habits of the people in Yi dynasty.

Discovery of Parasite Eggs in Archeological Residence during the 15th Century in Seoul, Korea

During civil engineering construction near Sejong-ro, Jongro-ku, Seoul, cultural sites were found that are thought to have been built in the 15th century. This area was home to many different people as well as the leaders of the Yi dynasty. To gain further insight into the life styles of the inhabitants of the old capital, soil samples were collected from various areas such as toilets, water foundations, and drainage ways. Parasite eggs were examined by microscopy after 5 g soil samples were rehydrated in 0.5% trisodium phosphate solution. A total of 662 parasite eggs from 7 species were found. Species with the highest number of eggs found were Ascaris lumbricoides (n=483), followed by Trichuris trichiura (138), Trichuris vulpis (21), Fasciola hepatica (8), Clonorchis sinensis (6), Paragonimus westermani (4), and Metagonimus yokogawai (2). These findings indirectly indicate the food habits of the people in Yi dynasty.

One-year clinical outcomes in invasive treatment strategies for acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction complicated by cardiogenic shock in eld-erly patients / 老年心脏病学杂志（英文版）

Objective To investigate the clinical outcomes of an invasive strategy for elderly (aged≥75 years) patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) complicated by cardiogenic shock (CS). Methods Data on 366 of 409 elderly CS patients from a total of 6,132 acute STEMI cases enrolled in the Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry between January 2008 and June 2011, were collected and analyzed. In-hospital deaths and the 1-month and 1-year survival rates free from major adverse cardiac events (MACE;defined as all cause death, myocardial infarction, and target vessel revascularization) were reported for the patients who had undergone invasive (n=310) and conservative (n=56) treatment strategies. Results The baseline clinical characteristics were not significantly different between the two groups. There were fewer in-hospital deaths in the invasive treatment strategy group (23.5%vs. 46.4%, P＜0.001). In addition, the 1-year MACE-free survival rate after invasive treatment was significantly lower compared with the conservative treatment (51%vs. 66%, P=0.001). Conclusions In elderly patients with acute STEMI complicated by CS, the outcomes of invasive strategy are similar to those in younger patients at the 1-year follow-up.

Quantitation of BK virus DNA for diagnosis of BK virus-associated nephropathy in renal transplant recipients.

Quantitative measurement of BK virus DNA (Q-BKDNA) has been used for the early diagnosis and monitoring of BK virus-associated nephropathy (BKVAN). This study was designed to determine the BKDNA cutoff for the diagnosis of BKVAN. Between June 2005 and February 2007, 64 renal transplant recipients taken renal biopsies due to renal impairment submitted plasma and urine for Q-BKDNA. Eight BKVAN patients (12.5%) had median viral loads of 6.0 log10 copies/mL in plasma and 7.3 log10 copies/mL in urine. Among 56 non-BKVAN patients, 45 were negative for Q-BKDNA; 4 were positive in plasma with a median viral load of 4.8 log10 copies/ mL, and 10 were positive in urine with a median viral load of 4.8 log10 copies/mL. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that a cutoff of 4.5 log10 copies/mL in plasma and a cutoff of 5.9 log10 copies/mL in urine had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 96.4%, respectively. A combined cutoffs of 4 log10 copies/ mL in plasma and 6 log10 copies/mL in urine had better performance with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 98.2% than each cutoff of urine or plasma. QBKDNA with the combined cutoffs could reliably diagnose BKVAN in renal transplant recipients.

[Evaluation of the OC-SENSOR neo system for testing fecal occult blood].

BACKGROUND: Fecal occult blood tests (FOBTs) have been widely used as a means of colorectal cancer screening. Automated FOBTs using immunologic principles have the advantages such as quantitation, high specificity, and high throughput. We evaluated a newly-introduced automated FOBT analyzer, OC-SENSOR neo (OC neo) (Eiken Chemical Co., Japan). METHODS: The precision, linearity, and carry-over rate of OC neo were assessed with specimens prepared in accordance with the guidelines of CLSI. We performed a parallel test between OC neo and OC-SENSOR I (OC I) (Eiken Chemical Co.) using 300 consecutive stool specimens and 60 OC I-positive specimens. The results were analyzed with SPSS version 13.0 (SPSS Inc., USA). RESULTS: The coefficients of variation (CV) of within-run, between-run, and between-day using OCControl L (Eiken Chemical Co.) of ca. 150 ng/mL were 3.5-7.8%, 4.5-8.8% and 4.9-5.0%, respectively. The linear regression coefficient and carry-over rate with the range of 67.8-939.4 ng/mL were 0.9998 (P<0.001), and 0.1%, respectively. Correlation coefficient between OC neo and OC I was R2=0.954 (P<0.001) for 60 OC I-positive specimens. The positive and negative interpretations of 300 consecutive specimens by OC neo were completely consistent with those of OC I. CONCLUSIONS: Because OC neo showed an excellent performance and a good correlation with OC I, OC neo warrants to be a reliable quantitative FOBT system for high volume laboratories.

Clonal spread of Staphylococcus aureus heterogeneously resistant to vancomycin in a university hospital in Korea.

Since vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (VISA) was first reported in Japan in 1997, there has been great concern that heterogeneous vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (hetero-VISA) is the putative precursor of VISA. To investigate the prevalence, clinical significance, and molecular epidemiology of S. aureus with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin, all consecutive isolates of S. aureus isolated from clinical specimens from December 1998 to August 1999 at Asan Medical Center were screened for VISA and hetero-VISA by using brain heart infusion agar containing 4 microg of vancomycin/ml. Screen-positive isolates were confirmed by susceptibility testing and population analysis of subpopulations with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin. The isolates confirmed as hetero-VISA were typed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Medical records were reviewed to evaluate the clinical significance and risk factors for the acquisition of hetero-VISA. Of the 4,483 isolates that were tested, 53 were screen positive; no VISA was detected, but 24 isolates (0.54%) from 22 patients were hetero-VISA. All but two strains appeared to be clones of the Korean VISA strain, AMC11094, in the PFGE analysis. A total of 18 patients were in intensive care units, and 16 underwent major surgeries during the same admission. Only 10 of the 22 patients had previous methicillin-resistant S. aureus infections and 11 had previous vancomycin or teicoplanin therapy. Only 7 of the 22 patients from whom hetero-VISA strains were isolated were infected, and the remaining 15 patients were colonized. All seven infected patients were successfully treated with vancomycin. These results suggest that hetero-VISA can be treated with vancomycin, but the spread of hetero-VISA clonal to VISA is of concern, since many believe that VISA can arise from hetero-VISA, although this phenomenon was not observed in this study.