S.H. Kim

Expression of human leukocyte antigen-G and its correlation with interleukin-10 expression in cervical carcinoma.

Objective: To determine human leukocyte antigen (HLA)‐G and interleukin (IL)‐10 expression and the relationship between HLA‐G expression and clinicopathologic features in patients with cervical cancer. Method: Tissue samples were obtained from 40 patients with cervical cancer and 15 control patients with a normal cervix. Quantitative real‐time RT‐PCR for mRNA and western blot analysis for protein expression were used. Result: Both HLA‐G and IL‐10 mRNA expression in cervical cancer tissues was significantly greater than normal controls (P < 0.001, P = 0.005). Protein expression of HLA‐G and IL‐10 in the cancer group was also significantly greater than in the controls (P < 0.001, P = 0.021). There was an inverse relationship between FIGO stage and HLA‐G mRNA expression (P = 0.046). Conclusion: HLA‐G and IL‐10 might play an important role in cancer progression of the cervix. High HLA‐G mRNA expression may be related to early carcinogenesis since it was associated with early‐stage cervical cancer.

Treatment of FGF-2 on stem cells from inflamed dental pulp tissue from human deciduous teeth

OBJECTIVEnThe purposes of this study were to isolate and characterize stem cells from inflamed pulp tissue of human functional deciduous teeth (iSHFD) and to evaluate the influence of fibroblastic growth factor-2 (FGF-2) on the regenerative potential.nnnMATERIALS AND METHODSnWe successfully isolated mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from the inflamed dental pulp tissue of human deciduous teeth and demonstrated that their regenerative potential could be enhanced by the application of FGF-2 (20 ng ml(-1)) during ex vivo expansion. Isolated stem cells expanded in FGF-2 were characterized using a colony-forming assay, proliferation, migration, in vitro differentiation, in vivo ectopic transplantation assay, and gene expression profiling.nnnRESULTSnMSCs isolated from the inflamed pulp tissue of functional deciduous teeth potentially possess the qualities of those from human exfoliated deciduous teeth. FGF-2 applied to iSHFD during expansion enhanced the colony-forming efficiency of these cells, increased their proliferation and migration potential, and reduced their differentiation potential in vitro. However, the ectopic transplantation of iSHFD/FGF-2 in vivo increased the formation of dentin-like material.nnnCONCLUSIONnFGF-2 expansion of stem cells from inflamed pulp tissues of human deciduous teeth can be a good source of stem cells for future clinical applications and a novel way of using discarded inflamed tissues.

A study on thermal behaviour of curved steel box girder bridges considering solar radiation

Solar radiation induces non-uniform temperature distribution in the bridge structure depending on the shape of the structure and shadows cast on it. Especially in the case of curved steel box girder bridges, non-uniform temperature distribution caused by solar radiation may lead to unusual load effects enough to damage the support or even topple the whole curved bridge structure if not designed properly. At present, it is very difficult to design bridges in relation to solar radiation because it is not known exactly how varying temperature distribution affects bridges; at least not specific enough for adoption in design. Standard regulations related to this matter are likewise not complete. In this study, the thermal behavior of curved steel box girder bridges is analyzed while taking the solar radiation effect into consideration. For the analysis, a method of predicting the 3-dimensional temperature distribution of curved bridges is used. It uses a theoretical solar radiation energy equation together with a commercial FEM program. The behavior of the curved steel box girder bridges is examined using the developed method, while taking into consideration the diverse range of bridge azimuth angles and radii. This study also provides reference data for the thermal design of curved steel box girder bridges under solar radiation, which can be used to develop design guidelines.

Prognostic significance of DNA quantification by flow cytometry in ovarian tumors

The objective of our study is to evaluate prognostic significance of DNA quantification by flow cytometry in ovarian tumor.

Prognostic factors and expression of p53 and mdm‐2 in uterine sarcomas

Objectives: To evaluate the clinicopathologic prognostic factors of uterine sarcoma, and determine whether overexpression of p53 and mdm‐2 proteins correlate with overall survival and prognostic factors. Methods: Thirty specimens from 43 patients with uterine sarcoma were available for slide review and evaluated by immunohistochemistry at Yonsei and Ajou University Medical Centers for the expression of p53 and mdm‐2. Results: Overall survival was found to correlate to histologic type of uterine sarcoma, surgical stage, tumor grade, and mitotic index. Whereas 63% of the sarcomas expressed p53, with a significant correlation to overall survival, 60% expressed mdm‐2, with a significant correlation to the mitotic index but not to overall survival. Conclusion: Histologic type, surgical stage, tumor grade, mitotic index, and p53 expression were prognostic factors of the overall survival of patients with uterine sarcoma.

Pretreatment levels of serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen and urine polyamines in women with squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix

Objectives: To investigate whether pretreatment levels of serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) and urine polyamines can predict lymph node metastases in patients with early stage cervical carcinoma. Methods: Pretreatment measurement of serum SCCA and urine polyamine levels was carried out for 419 women. Of those women, 104 with stage IB and IIA cancer received radical surgery and had tumor size reassessed postoperatively. Results: The women had increased levels of serum SCCA (> 2.0 ng/mL) and elevated urine polyamines (> 45 μmol/g of creatinine) with advanced cancer stage (P < 0.01). The median SCCA level was significantly higher in women with metastatic disease than that in those without lymph node involvement (3.9 vs. 1.1; P < 0.01). Women with nodal involvement also had significantly higher median levels of urine polyamines than those without nodal disease. Conclusions: Pretreatment measurement of SCCA and urine polyamine levels may help in predicting lymph node metastases in women with early stage cervical carcinoma.

Analysis and Response of SSH Brute Force Attacks in Multi-User Computing Environment

SSH provides a secure, encrypted communication channel between two end point systems using public key encryption. But SSH brute force attack is one of the most significant attacks. This kind of attack aims to login to the SSH server by continually guessing a large number of user account and password combinations. In this paper, we analyze logs of SSH brute force attacks in 2014 and propose a failed-log based detection mechanism in high performance computing service environment.

High Performance Computing: Infrastructure, Application, and Operation

The last decades have witnessed an increasingly indispensible role of high performance computing (HPC) in science, business and financial sectors, as well as military and national security areas. To introduce key aspects of HPC to a broader community, an HPC session was organized for the first time ever for the United States and Korea Conference (UKC) during 2012. This paper summarizes four invited talks that each covers scientific HPC applications, large-scale parallel file systems, administration/maintenance of supercomputers, and green technology towards building power efficient supercomputers of the next generation. Category: Embedded computing, Green computing

Prealbumin changes in gynecologic patients undergoing intra-abdominal surgery

Poor nutritional status in patients undergoing surgery is well known to increase post-operative morbidity and mortality by deteriorating various organ functions and the immune system of the host w1x. Visceral proteins such as albumin and transferrin have been accepted as relatively objective, reproducible and reliable parameters for the assessment of host nutritional status. However, these protein parameters have relatively long halflives. They are not suitable for the detection of immediate perioperative alterations in nutritional status. Serum prealbumin(transthyretin or thyroxinebinding prealbumin ) is compatible with serum albumin with regards to its convenient sampling and objectivity. Serum prealbumin differs from albumin in that it has a relatively short half-life of 48 h and does not accumulate in the body to undergo redistributionw1–4x. Therefore, any fluctuations in nutritional status can be detected rapidly. Prealbumin has been considered an effective indicator of malnutrition in cancer patients w2,3x. It has been demonstrated to reflect changes in the

Quantitative Measurement Method for Possible Rib Fractures in Chest Radiographs

Objectives This paper proposes a measurement method to quantify the abnormal characteristics of the broken parts of ribs using local texture and shape features in chest radiographs. Methods Our measurement method comprises two steps: a measurement area assignment and sampling step using a spline curve and sampling lines orthogonal to the spline curve, and a fracture-ness measurement step with three measures, asymmetry and gray-level co-occurrence matrix based measures (contrast and homogeneity). They were designed to quantify the regional shape and texture features of ribs along the centerline. The discriminating ability of our method was evaluated through region of interest (ROI) analysis and rib fracture classification test using support vector machine. Results The statistically significant difference was found between the measured values from fracture and normal ROIs; asymmetry (p < 0.0001), contrast (p < 0.001), and homogeneity (p = 0.022). The rib fracture classifier, trained with the measured values in ROI analysis, detected every rib fracture from chest radiographs used for ROI analysis, but it also classified some unbroken parts of ribs as abnormal parts (8 to 17 line sets; length of each line set, 2.998 ± 2.652 mm; length of centerlines, 131.067 ± 29.460 mm). Conclusions Our measurement method, which includes a flexible measurement technique for the curved shape of ribs and the proposed shape and texture measures, could discriminate the suspicious regions of ribs for possible rib fractures in chest radiographs.