Reliability and Validity of Non-invasive Blood Pressure Measurement System Using Three-Axis Tactile Force Sensor.

Blood pressure (BP) is a physiological parameter reflecting hemodynamic factors and is crucial in evaluating cardiovascular disease and its prognosis. In the present study, the reliability of a non-invasive and continuous BP measurement using a three-axis tactile force sensor was verified. All the data were collected every 2 min for the short-term experiment, and every 10 min for the long-term experiment. In addition, the effects on the BP measurement of external physical factors such as the tension to the radial artery on applying the device and wrist circumference were evaluated. A high correlation between the measured BP with the proposed system and with the cuff-based non-invasive blood pressure, and reproducibility, were demonstrated. All data satisfied the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation criteria. The external physical factors did not affect the measurement results. In addition to previous research indicating the high reliability of the arterial pulse waveforms, the present results have demonstrated the reliability of numerical BP values, and this implies that the three-axis force sensor can be used as a patient monitoring device.

Association of SUMO1 and UBC9 genotypes with tumor response in non-small-cell lung cancer treated with irinotecan-based chemotherapy.

Irinotecan induces small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO)-1 conjugation to topoisomerase-I, leading to enhanced sensitivity to irinotecan. In this study, we genotyped SUMO1 and UBC9 polymorphisms in 147 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with irinotecan chemotherapy to investigate the association between genotypes and tumor response rate. Immunohistochemistry for SUMO1 and UBC9 was performed in 42 tumor samples and correlated with genotypes. The UBC9 10920CG genotype was associated with significantly higher response rate than the C/C genotype (81 vs 37%, P=0.0002). This predictive effect on tumor response was also seen in multivariate analysis (odds ratio=8.5, P=0.003). Moreover, tumors arising from the UBC9 10920CG genotype were associated with higher prevalence of SUMO1 overexpression compared with those with CC genotype (78 vs 31%, P=0.021). This finding suggests that the UBC9 10920CG genotype enhances sensitivity to irinotecan chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC through upregulation of SUMO1 in tumor cells.

The Impact of Immigrant Parental Stress on the Risk of Child Maltreatment among Korean Immigrant Parents.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether immigrant parental stress predicts the risk of child maltreatment better than previously identified risk factors. Data were collected from 366 Korean immigrant parents who have at least one unmarried child (migrant or U.S. born child). Participants completed the Conflict Tactics Scales: Parent-Child version (CTSPC) and Immigrant Parental Stress Inventory (IPSI). A series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify significant predictors for the risk of child maltreatment. The final model with immigrant parental stress significantly predicted the risk of child maltreatment better than the initial model including only previously identified risk factors. Immigrant parental stress was the strongest predictor of psychologically aggressive and neglectful behaviors. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are suggested.

Adaptive Weighted Nuclear Norm Minimization for Removing Speckle Noise from Optical Coherence Tomography Images.

Low-rank matrix approximation is widely used in various fields of computer science, and weighted nuclear norm minimization (WNNM) has demonstrated improved results by shrinking the different weights of singular values. In this paper, an adaptive WNNM is proposed, considering the relative significance of image information by modifying the WNNM. As a result, singular values that contain more important information are relatively saved, whereas those that contain less crucial information are drastically reduced. When applying this method to noised image with black and white dot-noised images, the algorithm showed improved performance in both instances. Especially, when applied to images with white dot noise, the denoised results were outstanding. In addition, the proposed algorithm was successfully applied onto the optical coherence tomography images, numerically and visually.

Simultaneous presentation of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor and moyamoya disease associated with neurofibromatosis type 1 in a child.

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1) is a rare hereditary disorder, which is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. It is characterized by multiple caféau- lait spots of the skin, benign cutaneous neurofibromas, skeletal dysplasia and learning disability. The association of NF-1 with benign and malignant tumors is well established. The lifetime risk of patients with NF-1 developing malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs) has been estimated to be 8-13%. Such tumors can develop in any part of the body, but their occurrence in the gastrointestinal tract is rare. Patients with NF-1 have a wide spectrum of vascular abnormalities. Cerebrovascular lesions have been found in approximately 2.5% of children with NF1. We encountered a case of NF-1 with MPNSTs in the gastrointestinal tract and moyamoya disease.

Traditional v. modified dietary patterns and their influence on adolescents' nutritional profile.

Korea has experienced exceptionally rapid economic developments. Even though the country has managed to maintain aspects of its traditional diet, dietary habits are changing, especially among adolescents. This study was carried out to identify prevailing dietary patterns among Korean adolescents and to compare the nutrient intakes and dietary behaviours between the patterns. A 3 d diet record, collected from 671 Korean adolescents aged 12-14 years in Seoul, Korea, was assessed. By cluster analysis, subjects were classified into a modified (69.9 %) and a traditional (30.1 %) dietary pattern group. The modified group consumed more bread, noodles, cookies and pizza/hamburgers compared with the traditional group, which consumed mainly rice and kimchi (fermented cabbage). The modified group had significantly higher intakes of all nutrients. It had a higher total daily energy intake (7719 kJ), a higher daily energy intake from fat (29.8 %) and a higher cholesterol intake (326 mg/d), compared with the traditional group (6686 kJ, 24.8 % and 244 mg/d, respectively). The modified group was more likely to consume fast foods, fried foods and carbonated beverages even though they consumed more fresh fruits and milk, while the traditional group was more likely to have a rice-based diet and not to skip breakfast. These results suggest that monitoring dietary behaviours of adolescents, especially in a society experiencing a nutrition transition, is necessary in order to identify both negative and positive changes in respect of risk factors for nutrition-related chronic diseases as well as for undernutrition.