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Objective To compare the visibility and procedural parameters between a standard spinal needle and a new laser-etched needle (LEN) in real-time ultrasonography guided lumbar medial branch access in a phantom of the lumbosacral spine Methods We conducted a prospective single-blinded observational study at a rehabilitation medicine center. A new model of LEN was manufactured with a standard 22-gauge spinal needle and a laser etching machine. Thirtytwo inexperienced polyclinic medical students performed ultrasonography-guided lumbar medial branch access using both a standard spinal needle and a LEN with scanning protocol. The outcomes included needle visibility score, needle elapsed time, first-pass success rate, and number of needle sticks. Results The LEN received significantly better visibility scores and shorter needle elapsed time compared to the standard spinal needle. First-pass success rate and the number of needle sticks were not significantly different between needles. Conclusion A new LEN is expected to offer better visibility and enable inexperienced users to perform an ultrasonography-guided lumbar medial branch block more quickly. However, further study of variables may be necessary for clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cell of origin for prostate cancer remains a subject of debate. Genetically engineered mouse models have demonstrated that both basal and luminal cells can serve as cells of origin for prostate cancer. Using a human prostate regeneration and transformation assay, our group previously demonstrated that basal cells can serve as efficient targets for transformation. Recently, a subpopulation of multipotent human luminal cells defined by CD26 expression that retains progenitor activity in a defined organoid culture was identified. We transduced primary human prostate basal and luminal cells with lentiviruses expressing c-Myc and activated AKT1 (myristoylated AKT1 or myrAKT1) to mimic the MYC amplification and PTEN loss commonly detected in human prostate cancer. These cells were propagated in organoid culture before being transplanted into immunodeficient mice. We found that c-Myc/myrAKT1-transduced luminal xenografts exhibited histological features of well-differentiated acinar adenocarcinoma, with strong androgen receptor (AR) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) expression. In contrast, c-Myc/myrAKT1-transduced basal xenografts were histologically more aggressive, with a loss of acinar structures and low/absent AR and PSA expression. Our findings imply that distinct subtypes of prostate cancer may arise from luminal and basal epithelial cell types subjected to the same oncogenic insults. This study provides a platform for the functional evaluation of oncogenes in basal and luminal epithelial populations of the human prostate. Tumors derived in this fashion with defined genetics can be used in the preclinical development of targeted therapeutics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical models for the shear behavior of rock joints are suggested from the results of direct shear tests using a servo-controlled shear testing machine. Cement mortar replicas of rock joints are tested while varying the normal stiffness, initial normal stress, joint roughness coefficient and joint wall compressive strength. The test results are analyzed to investigate the effects of loading conditions and material properties on the surface resistance index and normal displacement behavior of the joints. In this study, the ratio of the shear stress to normal stress was defined as the surface resistance index because it shows friction-related characteristics between joint surfaces. Empirical models of the surface resistance index and normal displacement behavior are suggested. In the empirical models, dimensionless terms are adopted to avoid the scale effect and thus enhance the applicability of the suggested models. The suggested models can be applied to predict the shear behavior of rock joints, including pre-peak and post-peak shear stress levels, regardless of the loading condition. To verify the suggested models, additional shear tests of the rock joints and cement mortar replica specimens are carried out, and the performance of the models is compared with those of other models such as Barton's empirical model. The suggested models are applied to the test results of previous studies. The predictions of the suggested models corresponded well with the experimental results for the overall stress levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an algorithm for fault detection, faulted phase and winding identification of a three-winding power transformer based on the induced voltages in the electrical power system. The ratio of the induced voltages of the primary-secondary, primary-tertiary and secondary-tertiary windings is the same as the corresponding turns ratio during normal operating conditions, magnetic inrush, and over-excitation. It differs from the turns ratio during an internal fault. For a single phase and a three-phase power transformer with wye-connected windings, the induced voltages of each pair of windings are estimated. For a three-phase power transformer with delta-connected windings, the induced voltage differences are estimated to use the line currents, because the delta winding currents are practically unavailable. Six detectors are suggested for fault detection. An additional three detectors and a rule for faulted phase and winding identification are presented as well. The proposed algorithm can not only detect an internal fault, but also identify the faulted phase and winding of a three-winding power transformer. The various test results with Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP)-generated data show that the proposed algorithm successfully discriminates internal faults from normal operating conditions including magnetic inrush and over-excitation. This paper concludes by implementing the algorithm into a prototype relay based on a digital signal processor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, parallel, dose-escalation study to assess the pharmacokinetics, platelet response, safety, and tolerability of supratherapeutic doses of eltrombopag (100 mg, 150 mg, and 200 mg once daily) administered for 5 days to 33 healthy adult volunteers. Plasma eltrombopag concentrations accumulated between days 1 and 5, with average increases of 66% to 81% for area under the plasma concentration— time curve from time zero to the end of the 24-hour dosing interval (AUC0-τ ) and 32% to 45% for maximum observed plasma concentration (Cmax) across doses. After 5 days of dosing, AUC0-τ was dose-proportional and Cmax was less than dose-proportional over eltrombopag 100 to 200 mg with slope estimates (90% confidence intervals) of 0.92 (0.45-1.39) and 0.76 (0.29-1.22), respectively. Platelet counts peaked at day 14, and maximum change from baseline platelet count increased dose-dependently, with mean platelet count increases of 14, 67, 107, and 150 Gi/L for placebo and eltrombopag 100 mg, 150 mg, and 200 mg, respectively. There was no notable difference in day 14 mean platelet aggregation between eltrombopag (59 to 74%) and placebo (67%), although this was not tested statistically. There was no notable difference in adverse event frequency across eltrombopag doses. Eltrombopag pharmacokinetics and platelet response were dose-dependent, and doses up to 200 mg/d were well tolerated, with safety profiles similar to placebo. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes a study to determine the optimal parameter of a resistive superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) applied to an electric power grid. The resistive SFCL, which is designed to provide the quick system protection during a fault, affects the entire system by reducing the fault current and improving the transient stability. In order to determine the optimal parameter of the resistive SFCL systematically, the eigenvalue analysis for an entire system is used. Generally, the eigenvalue analysis is useful to evaluate the relationship between parameter of a controller and stability of an electric power system. Therefore, the optimal parameter of the SFCL is determined based on the analysis of eigenvalues corresponding to low-frequency oscillations. Moreover, this optimal parameter obtained by the proposed method is compared with that determined by applying the equal-area criterion. The effectiveness of the optimal parameter for the SFCL is evaluated by time-domain simulation. The results show that the optimal resistive value determined by the eigenvalue analysis improves the damping performance of low-frequency oscillations effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new power quality index (PQI), which is directly related to the generation of distortion power from non-linear harmonic loads, is introduced to determine their harmonic pollution ranking in a distribution power system. The electric load composition rate (LCR) and the total harmonic distortion (THD) for the estimated currents on each harmonic load are used to define the proposed PQI. The reduced multivariate polynomial (RMP) model with one-shot training property is applied to realize the PQI. Then, the ranking of distortion power for each nonlinear load, which has adverse effect on the entire system, is determined. It is proven that the relative ranking based on the PQI matches that based on the distortion power directly computed from each harmonic load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increase in power consumption can cause serious stability problems in electric power systems if there are no on- going or impending construction projects of new power plants or transmission lines. Additionally, such increase can result in large power losses of the system. In costly and environmentally effective manner to avoid constructing the new infrastructures such as power plants, transmission lines, etc., the distributed generation (DG) has been paid great attention so far as a potential solution for these problems. The beneficial effects of DG mainly depend on its location and size. Therefore, selection of optimal location and size of the DG is a necessary process to maintain the stability and reliability of existing system effectively before it is connected to a power grid. However, the systematic and cardinal rule for this issue is still an open question. In this paper, a method to determine the optimal locations of multiple DGs is proposed by considering power loss. Also, their optimal sizes are determined by using the Kalman filter algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Output limits of the power system stabilizer (PSS) can improve the system damping performance immediately following a large disturbance. Due to nonsmooth nonlinearities arising from the saturation limits, these values cannot be determined by the conventional tuning methods based on linear analysis. Only ad hoc tuning procedures can been used. A feedforward neural network (with a structure of multilayer perceptron neural network) is applied to identify the dynamics of an objective function formed by the states and, thereafter, to compute the gradients required in the nonlinear parameter optimization. Moreover, its derivative information is used to replace that obtained from the trajectory sensitivities based on the hybrid system model with the differential-algebraic-impulsive-switched structure. The optimal output limits of the PSS tuned by the proposed method are evaluated by time-domain simulation in both a single-machine infinite bus system and a multimachine power system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the estimation of the electric load composition on a consumer side of a distributed power system. That is to say, the purpose of estimation is to determine the amount of each load class with respect to the total electric current waveform from instrument reading. To carry out this work, the reduced multivariate-polynomial model is applied when the distributed power system has the electric loads supplied from the different voltage level through a nonideal transformer. The estimation problem in this paper is also considered with relation to the power-quality issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the performances of a multilayer perceptron neural network (MLPN) and a radial basis function neural network (RBFN) for online identification of the nonlinear dynamics of a synchronous generator in a power system. The computational requirement to process the data during the online training, local convergence, and online global convergence properties are investigated by time-domain simulations. The performances of the identifiers as a global model, which are trained at different stable operating conditions, are compared using the actual signals as well as the deviation signals for the inputs of the identifiers. Such an online-trained identifier with fixed optimal weights after the global convergence test is needed to provide information about the plant to a neurocontroller. The use of the fixed weights is to provide against a sensor failure in which case the training of the identifiers would be automatically stopped, and their weights frozen, but the control action, which uses the identifier, would be able to continue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares two indirect adaptive neu- rocontrollers, namely a multilayer perceptron neurocontroller (MLPNC) and a radial basis function neurocontroller (RBFNC) to control a synchronous generator. The different damping and transient performances of two neurocontrollers are compared with those of conventional linear controllers, and analyzed based on the Lyapunov direct method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel optimal neurocontroller that replaces the conventional controller (CONVC), which consists of the automatic voltage regulator and turbine governor, to control a synchronous generator in a power system using a multilayer perceptron neural network (MLPN) and a radial basis function neural network (RBFN). The heuristic dynamic programming (HDP) based on the adaptive critic design technique is used for the design of the neurocontroller. The performance of the MLPN-based HDP neurocontroller (MHDPC) is compared with the RBFN-based HDP neurocontroller (RHDPC) for small as well as large disturbances to a power system, and they are in turn compared with the CONVC. Simulation results are presented to show that the proposed neurocontrollers provide stable convergence with robustness, and the RHDPC outperforms the MHDPC and CONVC in terms of system damping and transient improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

배경: SARS-CoV-2 Omicron is currently the dominant variant circulating globally. The WHO has added a new category to its variant tracking system called VOC-LUMs, which focuses on variants that may require priority attention and monitoring. BA.5 is a VOC-LUMs. We would like to report two confirmed cases of BA.5 obtained while strengthening genetic monitoring for overseas travelers to prevent the inflow and spread of VOC-LUM in South Korea. 방법: We collected nasopharyngeal swab samples that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 as confirmed by rRT-PCR. We prepared WGS libraries and sequenced them on MiSeq. For phylogenetic tree analysis, we aligned whole genomic sequences using CLC genomic workbench and inferred maximum-likelihood phylogenetic trees using MEGA software. 결과: We obtained SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sublineage BA.5 results following WGS of two cases. We analyzed mutations in the BA.5 variants of travelers (Table 1, 2). The Nextclade analysis revealed that both SARS CoV-2 genomes in this study belonged to clade 22B (Figure 1). The entire sequences of BA.5 variants identified in this study were also subjected to phylogenetic analysis with BA.5 full sequences from different geographical origins downloaded from the GISAID database (Figure 2). The genome derived from the Turkish traveler showed high homology to sequences reported in England and Denmark, forming a single clade. The genome derived from the Saudi Arabian traveler was confirmed to form a clade with the sequence reported in the UK. 결론: The high transmissibility of the new variant has potential to replace the current dominant variant. Therefore, there is a need for continuous genetic monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 variants introduced into the country. Although genetic information of SARS-CoV-2 is continuously reported worldwide, there are countries where genetic analyses are not performed in real time; hence, identification of the virus among travelers is essential to confirm the virus epidemic at the destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence rate for scarlet fever in South Korea is rising. During 2008-2015, we collected group A Streptococcus isolates and performed emm and exotoxin genotyping and disk-diffusion antimicrobial tests. Scarlet fever in South Korea was most closely associated with emm types emm4, emm28, emm1, and emm3. In 2015, tetracycline resistance started increasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precise measurement of postvoid residual (PVR) urine volume is a key factor in assessing patients with voiding dysfunction, including those with lower urinary tract problems. The safe and noninvasive ultrasound bladder scan is the preferred mode to measure PVR volume. However, this procedure has a false-positive rate up to 9%, in the presence of ovarian cysts, renal cysts, ascites, or uterine myoma with cystic degeneration. Until now, cystic lesions are known to cause false positivity in ultrasound bladder scanner. However, we encountered falsely-elevated PVR in two cases of non-cystic uterine myomas. We present these cases with detailed radiologic images and volume measurement data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we developed a novel heart rate (HR) monitoring approach in which we measure the pressure variance of the surface of the ear canal. A scissor-shaped apparatus equipped with a piezoelectric film sensor and a hardware circuit module was designed for high wearability and to obtain stable measurement. In the proposed device, the film sensor converts in-ear pulse waves (EPW) into electrical current, and the circuit module enhances the EPW and suppresses noise. A real-time algorithm embedded in the circuit module performs morphological conversions to make the EPW more distinct and knowledge-based rules are used to detect EPW peaks. In a clinical experiment conducted using a reference electrocardiogram (ECG) device, EPW and ECG were concurrently recorded from 58 healthy subjects. The EPW intervals between successive peaks and their corresponding ECG intervals were then compared to each other. Promising results were obtained from the samples, specifically, a sensitivity of 97.25%, positive predictive value of 97.17%, and mean absolute difference of 0.62. Thus, highly accurate HR was obtained from in-ear pressure variance. Consequently, we believe that our proposed approach could be used to monitor vital signs and also utilized in diverse applications in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIM Eltrombopag, an oral, nonpeptide thrombopoietin receptor agonist, inhibits the organic anion transporting polypeptide 1B1 (OATP1B1) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) in vitro. OATP1B1 is important for hepatic uptake of rosuvastatin and inhibition of this transporter could reduce cholesterol-lowering efficacy and increase the risk of exposure-dependent toxicities. In contrast, BCRP is an efflux transporter and inhibition of this transporter could increase both hepatic and plasma rosuvastatin concentrations, resulting in increased efficacy and toxicity. To determine if co-administration of eltrombopag with rosuvastatin alters plasma rosuvastatin exposure, an open-label study was conducted in 42 healthy adult subjects. METHODS Subjects received rosuvastatin and eltrombopag orally: day 1, rosuvastatin 10 mg single dose; days 6 to 9, eltrombopag 75 mg once daily; day 10, eltrombopag 75 mg once daily and rosuvastatin 10 mg single dose. Adverse event assessments were performed daily and at the follow-up visit. Plasma samples for pharmacokinetic analysis were collected days 1 to 5 and days 10 to 14. RESULTS Co-administration of eltrombopag with rosuvastatin increased geometric mean (90% confidence interval) plasma rosuvastatin AUC(0,∞) by 55% (42%, 69%) and Cmax by 103% (82%, 126%) in the overall study population, with a larger interaction in the non-Asian compared with Asian subjects. CONCLUSIONS Concomitant administration of eltrombopag with rosuvastatin was associated with increased rosuvastatin exposure. The therapeutic index of HMG Co-A reductase inhibitors may be reduced by the concomitant use of eltrombopag. In subjects taking eltrombopag, a reduced dose of HMG Co-A reductase inhibitors may be needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/purpose: Eltrombopag is an oral, small molecule, thrombopoietin receptor agonist approved in the United States for the treatment of chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura and under investigation for treatment of thrombocytopenia due to other etiologies. In vitro studies identified a phototoxic potential for eltrombopag that was not confirmed in subsequent animal studies at exposures up to 11 times the human clinical exposure. A randomized study in healthy men and women was conducted to more fully characterize the photosensitizing potential of a therapeutic dose of eltrombopag (75 mg q.i.d.). Methods: In this placebo-controlled, randomized, parallel group study, the photosensitizing potential of eltrombopag was evaluated in 36 healthy subjects with 12 subjects per group treated for 6 days with eltrombopag 75 mg q.i.d., placebo q.i.d., or positive control ciprofloxacin 500 mg b.i.d. (a mild photosensitizer). The primary endpoint was the photosensitizing potential of eltrombopag in comparison with the placebo on day 6 as measured by the phototoxic index (PI) at 24-h postirradiation, delayed erythema, and the change from baseline in minimum erythemal dose (MED) at 24-h postirradiation. The PI and MED were determined at discrete wavelengths in the ultraviolet (UV) and visible light spectrum from 290 to 430 nm. Results: At wavelengths of 295±5, 300±5, 305±30 nm, and solar simulator whole spectrum (SS WS), there were no notable median differences in delayed PI or change from baseline MED at 24-h postirradiation after administration of eltrombopag 75 mg q.i.d., placebo, or ciprofloxacin 500 mg b.i.d. Mild phototoxicity induced by ciprofloxacin 500 mg b.i.d. was observed at wavelengths of 335±30 and 365±30 nm within the UVA region. Following administration of ciprofloxacin, the median difference in delayed PI relative to placebo at wavelengths of 335±30 and 365±30 nm was increased to 0.75 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.222–2.037] and 1.20 (95% CI, 0.404–1.720), respectively. However, there was no evidence that photosensitivity was increased following administration of eltrombopag 75 mg q.i.d. There were no significant differences between median delayed PI following administration of repeat doses of eltrombopag 75 mg q.i.d. and repeat doses of placebo at wavelengths of 335±30 and 365±30 nm. Comparing eltrombopag 75 mg q.i.d. with ciprofloxacin 500 mg b.i.d., the median difference in delayed PI for wavelengths of 335±30 and 365±30 nm was decreased to −0.94 (95% CI, −2.037 to −0.289) and −1.38 (95% CI, −1.882 to −0.432), respectively. With 6 days of treatment, eltrombopag and placebo did not increase the photosensitivity of the skin, while the positive control ciprofloxacin did increase the photosensitivity of skin, resulting in mild phototoxicity. Administration of eltrombopag for 6 days was well tolerated; no deaths, serious adverse events (AEs), or drug-related AEs leading to discontinuation were observed during the study. There were no meaningful differences in AEs reported between the eltrombopag-treated group and either the placebo or ciprofloxacin-treated group. Conclusion: Repeat dosing of eltrombopag 75 mg q.i.d. for 6 days in healthy men and women did not induce photosensitivity at any wavelength tested (UVA, ultraviolet B) in this study. Eltrombopag is well tolerated and does not induce photosensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the study to analyse the effect of the superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) on an electric power grid with the wind-turbine generation, which is a representative renewable energy source. Its connection to a power system might more easily increase the short-circuit current during a fault toward its maximum utilization level, which is closer to the rating of circuit breaker, when compared to the case without the wind-turbine system. This can aggravate the reliability of the overall power system. The SFCL can provide the quick system protection during a severe fault. The performance of dynamic damping improvement by the SFCL is evaluated in the existence of the wind-turbine generation system. Therefore, its effectiveness as a protective device for the wind-turbine system is verified with the several case studies by time-domain simulation based on the power systems computer aided design/electromagnetic transients including DC (PSCAD/EMTDC) software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a sensitivity analysis of similar days (SD) parameters to increase the accuracy of artificial neural network (ANN) and SD-based short-term price forecasting. Work presented in this paper is an extended version of previous works done by the authors to integrate ANN and SD method for predicting electricity price. The focus here is on sensitivity analysis of SD parameters while keeping the parameters same for ANN to forecast hourly electricity prices in the Pennsylvania--New Jersey--Maryland (PJM) (regional transmission organization in northeast America) electricity market. Several cases are simulated by choosing (a) two, (b) three, (c) four, and (d) five SD parameters to calculate the norm. In addition, sensitivity analysis has been carried out by changing the time framework of SD (d = 15,30, 45, 60) and the number of selected similar price days (N = 5, 10). From sensitivity analysis, it is identified that the optimized mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) is obtained using case-c with d = 30 and N = 10. MAPE of reasonably small value, along with forecast mean square error and mean absolute error of around 2$/MWh and 1$/MWh, is obtained for the PJM data, which has correlation coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.7758 between load and electricity price. Numerical results show that forecasts generated by the developed ANN model based on the optimized case are accurate and efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study to determine the optimal resistive value of a superconducting fault-current limiter (SFCL) for enhancing the transient stability of a power system more effectively. A resistive type of SFCL, which provides quick system protection, is modeled. Then, the optimal resistive value of the SFCL connected in series with a transmission line during a short-circuit fault is systematically determined by applying the equal-area criterion based on the power-angle curves. To verify the effectiveness of the optimal value of the proposed SFCL for reducing the value of fault current, several case studies are carried out by both simulation and experimental tests, particularly including the 220-V/300-A-scale laboratory and 13.2-kV/630-A-scale distribution system hardware tests. The results show that the optimal resistive value of the SFCL determined by the proposed method improves effectively the transient stability and damping performances during a fault over the other values determined by an ad hoc approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Load forecasting is essential in the electricity market for the participants to manage the market efficiently and stably. Many techniques for load forecasting, which are, for example, multiple linear regression, stochastic time series, Kalman filter, expert system, and computational intelligences such as fuzzy systems and artificial neural networks, have been investigated so far. This paper proposes a novel hybrid load forecasting algorithm, which combines the fuzzy linear regression method and the general exponential smoothing method with the analysis of temperature sensitivities. The fuzzy linear regression method is used to consider the lower load-demands in weekends and Monday than on weekdays. The normal load of weekdays is forecasted by the general exponential smoothing method. Moreover, the temperature sensitivities are used to improve the accuracy of the load forecasting with the relation to the daily load and temperature. The test results show that the proposed algorithm improves the accuracy of the load forecasting in 1996. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prostate cancer is a heterogeneous disease composed of divergent molecular and histologic subtypes, including prostate adenocarcinoma (PrAd) and neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC). While PrAd is the major histology in prostate cancer, NEPC can evolve from PrAd as a mechanism of treatment resistance that involves a transition from an epithelial to a neurosecretory cancer phenotype. Cell surface markers are often associated with specific cell lineages and differentiation states in normal development and cancer. Here, we show that PrAd and NEPC can be broadly discriminated by cell-surface profiles based on the analysis of prostate cancer gene expression datasets. To overcome a dependence on predictions of human cell-surface genes and an assumed correlation between mRNA levels and protein expression, we integrated transcriptomic and cell-surface proteomic data generated from a panel of prostate cancer cell lines to nominate cell-surface markers associated with these cancer subtypes. FXYD3 and CEACAM5 were validated as cell-surface antigens enriched in PrAd and NEPC, respectively. Given the lack of effective treatments for NEPC, CEACAM5 appeared to be a promising target for cell-based immunotherapy. As a proof of concept, engineered chimeric antigen receptor T cells targeting CEACAM5 induced antigen-specific cytotoxicity in NEPC cell lines. Our findings demonstrate that the surfaceomes of PrAd and NEPC reflect unique cancer differentiation states and broadly represent vulnerabilities amenable to therapeutic targeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wearable devices are being explored and investigated as a promising computing platform as well as a source of personal big data for the post smartphone era. To deal with a series of rapidly developed wearable prototypes, a well-structured strategy is required to assess the prototypes at various development stages. In this paper, we first design and develop variants of advanced wearable user interface prototypes, including joystick-embedded, potentiometer-embedded, motion-gesture and contactless infrared user interfaces for rapidly assessing hands-on user experience of potential futuristic user interfaces. To achieve this goal systematically, we propose a conceptual test framework and present a case study of using the proposed framework in an iterative cyclic process to prototype, test, analyze, and refine the wearable user interface prototypes. We attempt to improve the usability of the user interface prototypes by integrating initial user feedback into the leading phase of the test framework. In the following phase of the test framework, we track signs of improvements through the overall results of usability assessments, task workload assessments and user experience evaluation of the prototypes. The presented comprehensive and in-depth case study demonstrates that the iterative approach employed by the test framework was effective in assessing and enhancing the prototypes, as well as gaining insights on potential applications and establishing practical guidelines for effective and usable wearable user interface development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: ASP3026 is a second-generation anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor that has potent in vitro activity against crizotinib-resistant ALK-positive tumors. This open-label, multicenter, first-in-human phase I study (NCT01284192) assessed the safety, pharmacokinetic profile, and antitumor activity of ASP3026. Methods: Advanced solid tumor patients received oral ASP3026 in 3 + 3 dose-escalation cohorts at doses of 25-800 mg once daily in 28-day cycles. The endpoints were to identify the maximum tolerated dose (MTD), the recommended phase II dose (RP2D), and the pharmacokinetic profile of ASP3026. A phase Ib expansion cohort enrolled patients with metastatic, crizotinib-resistant ALK-positive solid tumors at the RP2D, and response was evaluated by RECIST 1.1. Results: The dose-escalation cohort enrolled 33 patients, including three crizotinib-resistant, ALK-positive patients, and the dose-expansion cohort enrolled another 13 crizotinib-resistant, ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. ASP3026 demonstrated both linear pharmacokinetics and dose-proportional exposure for area under the plasma concentration-time curve and maximum concentration observed with a median terminal half-life of 35 h, supporting the daily dosing. Grade 3 rash and elevated transaminase concentrations were dose-limiting toxicities observed at 800 mg; hence, 525 mg daily was the MTD and RP2D. The most common treatment-related adverse events were nausea (38 %), fatigue (35 %), and vomiting (35 %). Among the 16 patients with crizotinib-resistant ALK-positive tumors (15 NSCLC, 1 neuroblastoma), eight patients achieved partial response (overall response rate 50 %; 95 % confidence interval 25-75 %) and seven patients (44 %) achieved stable disease. Conclusions: ASP3026 was well tolerated and had therapeutic activity in patients with crizotinib-resistant ALK-positive advanced tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  A standard of International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has defined the flicker measuring specification in an analog manner. But the analog specs are inefficient when implementing a flickermeter in the real world according to the standard. Therefore, it is necessary to convert its original analog filters to the corresponding digital forms as well as applying other digital processing techniques such as data sampling, bit resolution, and filtering theory. Even though a digital flickermeter may meet the requirements of the IEC standard, its outputs will vary according to the analog-to-digital filtering conversion methods used such as bilinear transformation, impulse invariance transformation, and covariance invariant transformation. This paper presents the characteristics of various filter conversion methods and the influences on the digital implementation of a flickermeter, which are simulated by using MATLAB®. Finally, this paper concludes with which methods are the most adequate to implement an IEC digital flickermeter, helping ultimately to avoid ambiguities from analog prototypes described in original standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with design and operating test of a novel hybrid FCL. The FCL system consists of a coil, a fast switch and a resistor for bypassing the fault current. The switch is driven by novel non-inductive coil suggested in this paper but an extra driving coil is required for fast switch in existing hybrid FCL. We used two kinds of HTS wire for the coil. The impedance of the coil was negligible in normal operation. But different quench characteristics of HTS wires caused asymmetric current distribution which induced effective magnetic flux in the coil during faults. The switch was opened by repulsive force from this magnetic flux in fast response to the fault. Then, all current were flew through the normal conductive bypass resistor connected in parallel to both the coil and the switch. Electromagnetic analysis of the coil based on finite element method was performed. Also, a small-scale asymmetric non-inductive coil was designed, fabricated and tested. The proposed hybrid FCL system showed fast and efficient current limiting characteristic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a sensitivity analysis of neural network (NN) parameters to improve the performance of electricity price forecasting. The presented work is an extended version of previous works done by authors to integrate NN and similar days (SD) method for predicting electricity prices. Focus here is on sensitivity analysis of NN parameters while keeping the parameters same for SD to forecast day-ahead electricity prices in the PJM market. Sensitivity analysis of NN parameters include back-propagation learning set (BP-set), learning rate (η), momentum (α) and NN learning days (dNN). The SD parameters, i.e. time framework of SD (d=45 days) and number of selected similar price days (N=5) are kept constant for all the simulated cases. Forecasting performance is carried out by choosing two different days from each season of the year 2006 and for which, the NN parameters for the base case are considered as BP-set=500, η=0.8, α=0.1 and dNN=45 days. Sensitivity analysis has been carried out by changing the value of BP-set (500, 1000, 1500); η (0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2), α (0.1, 0.2, 0.3) and dNN (15, 30, 45 and 60 days). The most favorable value of BP-set is first found out from the sensitivity analysis followed by that of η and α, and based on which the best value of dNN is determined. Sensitivity analysis results demonstrate that the best value of mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) is obtained when BP-set=500, η=0.8, α=0.1 and dNN=60 days for winter season. For spring, summer and autumn, these values are 500, 0.6, 0.1 and 45 days, respectively. MAPE, forecast mean square error and mean absolute error of reasonably small value are obtained for the PJM data, which has correlation coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.7758 between load and electricity price. Numerical results show that forecasts generated by developed NN model based on the most favorable case are accurate and efficient. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on resistive superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs) using coated conductor(CC) has now been advanced from development to commercialization stage. It is necessary to investigate the recovery characteristics of SFCL for effective application to power system. In Korea, if the SFCL is directly inserted to distribution power grid, it must be recovered in 0.5 s after fault. Since temperature sensor is not accurate in liquid. nitrogen bathe and temperature of CC, after falling down below 92 K, is impossible to be measured by electrical method, it is difficult to measure the temperature of SFCL during the recovery of YBCO CC. In this paper, an experimental method was proposed to determine the recovery of resistive SFCLs. Under over-current for 0.1 s, maximum temperature of high temperature superconductor (HTS) wire increased to 300 K; after a few seconds, recovery time was measured by increasing DC current. With these experiments, thermal relaxation time required for the temperature of CC to decrease to 77 K was analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) using high temperature superconducting (HTS) wire has been developed in Korea. While the first-generation wire has difficulty in adopting various matrices because it is made by PIT process, the second-generation wire has flexibility in the design of its stabilizer. In general, coated conductor (CC) tape is clad with a thick metal layer as a stabilizer on the superconducting layer such as YBCO. In addition, the metal layer has good electrical conductivity. However, resistive SFCL, when a fault occurs, limits fault current using high resistance of the stabilizer. Therefore, the design of stabilizer is one of the most important parts in the design of SFCL. In this paper, over-current characteristics of CC tapes clad with stabilizers having various specifications were experimentally investigated. It was possible to design the stabilizer of CC based on calculation. An SFCL rated on 13.2 kV/630 A was designed using the optimal design of the stabilizer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since resistive superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs) are inserted to a power system directly, it is necessary to recover instantly after the clearance of a fault. Most resistive SFCLs using BSCCO bulk or thick film have a recovery time of tens of seconds. An SFCL using YBCO coated conductor (CC) has a large surface area contacted to liquid nitrogen. Joule heat flux of the SFCL is smaller than that of other types when a fault occurs. Therefore, it is important for the SFCL employing CC to investigate a recovery time. In this paper, the recovery characteristics of SFCL with respect to applied voltage were analysed in a power system. All tests were performed in liquid nitrogen and sub-cooled nitrogen. From this result, the parameters for recovery time were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with analysis of the operational characteristics of a resistive non-inductive winding type based superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) by using YBa2Cu3Oy (YBCO) coated conductor (CC), and its characteristics are analysed through experiments. A non-inductive winding type SFCL system has non-inductive solenoid type coils wound with the YBCO CC and each coil has four windings of the CC in opposite direction to cancel off each inductance, connected in parallel each other. In the experiment, a resistive SFCL was developed and the short circuit test was performed during 0.1 s. The load was pure resistance and the fault switch was closed when a fault occurs. In order to measure the current, shunt resistance was used. A hall sensor was installed in the center of the SFCL to investigate the non-inductivity. The experimental results are given with the theoretical predictions by using finite difference method (FDM). This analysis is expected to be used in the electrical circuit application as well as the SFCL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]