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Objective The risk of suicide is assessed by identifying the relationship between alcohol-use patterns and suicidal ideation in Korean employees.Methods The study involved 13,858 employees who underwent workplace mental health screening at the Workplace Mental Health Institute of Kangbuk Samsung Hospital over a 6-year period between 2014 and 2019. Analysis was performed separately for Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Korea (AUDIT-K) items related to the frequency/volume of alcohol consumption (items 1 to 3, AUDIT-C) and those regarding alcohol dependence/related problems (items 4 to 10, AUDIT-D/P). Subjects were then classified into three groups on the basis of the presence or absence of clinical depression and suicidal ideation. The groups’ sociodemographic factors and clinical features of depression, anxiety, and alcohol-use patterns were analyzed with a chi-square test as well as one-way analysis of variance, followed by a post hoc test using the Bonferroni correction.Results AUDIT-K and AUDIT-D/P scores were significantly associated with the presence or absence of clinical depression as well as the presence or absence of suicidal ideation (p

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Managing hydrocephalus in patients with vestibular schwannoma (VS) is controversial. We evaluated the clinical factors associated with hydrocephalus. METHODS Between 2000 and 2019, 562 patients with VS were treated at our institute. We applied endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV), external ventricular drainage (EVD), and ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunts to patients with hydrocephalus. The relationships of patient, tumor, and surgical variables with the hydrocephalus outcome were assessed. RESULTS Preoperative hydrocephalus (Evans ratio ≥0.3) was present in 128 patients. Six patients who received a preresectional VP shunt were excluded after analyzing the hydrocephalus outcome. Seven of the remaining 122 patients had severe hydrocephalus (Evans ratio ≥0.4). Primary tumor resection, VP shunting, ETV, and EVD were performed in 60, 6, 57, and 5 patients, respectively. The hydrocephalus treatment failure rate was highest in the EVD group. Persistent hydrocephalus was present in five (8%) and seven (12%) patients in the primary resection and ETV groups, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that severe hydrocephalus, the cystic tumor, and the extent of resection (subtotal resection or partial resection) were associated with hydrocephalus treatment failure. CONCLUSIONS Larger ventricles and a higher cystic portion are predictive of persistent hydrocephalus. We recommend attempting near-total tumor resection in patients with VS.

CIGS solar cells with power conversion efficiency (PCE) in the range of 1.82%–12.30% were obtained by using two-step process, and were further analyzed through various measurement techniques. Material parameters showed diverse values and some trends depending on the device performance. The lower performance device showed small integrated PL intensity, short minority life time, larger defect density and lower activation energy, whereas the higher performance device showed opposite values. We investigated relationship between material parameters and PCE of solar cells, and found that some physical parameters such as integrated PL intensity, minority life time, defect density, and difference between band gap and activation energy (Eg-Ea), which all reflect defect states in bulk and at pn interface, are strongly related with PCE and would be used as a good indicator to evaluate device performance quickly.

The aim of this study is to identify occupational stress associated with the development of new-onset anxiety symptoms and the dose-response relationship between sleep duration and the onset of anxiety symptoms. Data from 29,251 healthy employees who had undergone at least two comprehensive health examinations at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital Health Screening Center were analysed. Anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Beck Anxiety Inventory. Occupational stress and sleep duration were measured using a self-reported questionnaire about total sleep time and the Korean Occupational Stress Scale-Short Form (KOSS-SF), respectively. Flexible parametric proportional hazards model used to estimate the hazard ratios. Compared with the groups without case-level anxiety, discomfort in an organizational climate, high job demands, job insecurity, organizational injustice and lack of reward were associated with the onset of case-level anxiety. Compared with less than 6 hr of sleep per day, the beneficial level of sleep duration was 7 ≤ to

Objective The aim of study is to investigate the relationship between serum vitamin D, c-reactive protein (CRP) levels, and anxiety symptoms.Methods Serum vitamin D and CRP levels of 51,003 Korean adult participants were collected retrospectively. Anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Korean version of Beck Anxiety Inventory. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio (ORs) of anxiety symptoms by serum vitamin D and CRP levels. The regression was adjusted for covariates, and each model was adjusted mutually for vitamin D and CRP levels.Results Compared with sufficient vitamin D levels (≥20 ng/mL), insufficient (10–19.99 ng/mL) and deficient (

Maintaining adequate levels of sleep and physical activity (PA) as self-help for the prevention of new-onset anxiety symptoms is becoming more important.A cohort study was performed with 134,957 adults, free of anxiety symptoms at baseline who underwent at least two comprehensive health screening examinations between 2012 and 2017. At baseline, the amount of PA was measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form and sleep duration per day was assessed using a self-report questionnaire. The study's end point was new-onset anxiety symptoms, defined as a Beck Anxiety Inventory score of ≥19.During 361,969 person-years of follow-up, 5086 participants developed case-level anxiety. Compared with a reference (0-600 METs-min/wk), a U-shaped relationship was observed between PA and case-level anxiety. The most beneficial levels of PA for reducing incident anxiety symptoms were higher in men than women (men: 1800-3000 METs-min/wk HR, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.78-0.81], 3000-6000 METs-min/wk HR, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.70-0.93]; women: 600-1,200 METs-min/wk HR, 0.86 [95% CI, 0.76-0.98]). In comparison with a reference (6 h), the relationship between sleep duration and case-level anxiety also had a U-shaped pattern. The optimal sleep duration for decreasing the onset of case-level anxiety was 7-8 h, regardless of sex (men: HR, 0.75 [95% CI, 0.63-0.90]; women; HR, 0.61 [95% CI, 0.54-0.70]).PA, sleep duration, and anxiety symptoms were measured using self-report questionnaires.The results of this study revealed the appropriate levels of PA and total sleep time for reducing incident anxiety symptoms.

Objective Fibrin sealants have been used for hemostasis, sealant for cerebrospinal fluid leakage, and adhesive barrier in neurosurgery. Further, as its clinical use and role of an effective drug delivery vehicle have been proposed. This study was performed to measure antibacterial activity and continuous local antibiotic release from different concentrations of vancomycin-impregnated fibrin sealant in vitro. Methods Antibacterial activity was investigated by disk diffusion test by measuring the diameter of the growth inhibition zone of bacteria (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, ATCC29213) from vancomycin-embedded fibrin sealant disc diluted at five different concentrations (C1-C5; 8.33, 4.167, 0.83, 0.083, and 0.0083 mg/disc, respectively). Continuous and conditioned release of vancomycin concentration (for 2 weeks and for 5 days, respectively) were also measured using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. To mimic the physiologic wound conditions with in vitro, conditioned vancomycin release in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) was measured and replaced PBS for five consecutive days, half a day or completely daily. Results In the disk diffusion test, the mean diameters of bacterial inhibition zone were 2.54±0.07 cm, 2.61±0.12 cm, and 2.13±0.15 cm (C1, C2, and C3 respectively) but 1.67±0.06 cm and 1.23±0.15 cm in C4 and C5, respectively. Continuous elution test elicited the peak release of vancomycin from the fibrin sealant at 48 hours, with continued release until 2 weeks. However, conditioned vancomycin release decreased to half or more on day 2, however, the sustainable release was measured over the therapeutic dose (10-20 μg/mL) for 5 days and 4 days in assays of half and total exchange of PBS. Conclusion This study suggests that fibrin sealant can provide an efficient vehicle for antibiotic drug release in a wide range of neurosurgical procedures and the safe and effective therapeutic dose will be at the concentration embedded of 4.167 mg/disc or more of vancomycin.

Numerous confidence estimation methods have been proposed for classification neural networks; however, this problem has not been well addressed for regression neural networks. That is, softmax layers are not available in regression networks and the interpretation of confidence becomes less clear. To alleviate these problems, a simple but effective method is proposed that computes the confidences of regression results. First, the confidence is considered as a scalar value representing relative error‐levels. Then, a mini‐batch based training method based on this interpretation is developed. Precisely, in each mini‐batch, desired outputs for confidence values are assigned by sorting current errors. Experimental results on the loose wheel nut detection problem as well as a simulated example have shown that the proposed method can be successfully applied to regression problems.

Objective The aim of this study is to determine the dose-response relationship between physical activity and anxiety symptoms. Methods We included data of 124,434 participants who had comprehensive health-screening examinations from January 1st, 2012, to December 31st, 2016, in Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Seoul and Suwon, South Korea. We measured the level of physical activity using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-short form (IPAQ-SF) and estimated anxiety symptoms using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). BAI scores of 19 and above were defined as cases. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association between physical activity and BAI-defined anxiety. Furthermore, we assessed whether sex differences might affect the relationship between physical activity and BAI-defined anxiety by stratifying our data. Results Compared with the sedentary group (0-600 METs-min/week), individuals achieving 600-6,000 METs-min/wk had a significantly lower risk of BAI-defined anxiety with a U-shaped relationship in general adults. After stratifying our data by sex, we found that optimal ranges of physical activity were 600-9,000 METs-min/wk for men, but 1,200-3,000 METs-min/wk for women. Conclusion We identified a U- or J-shaped association between physical activity and anxiety symptoms, suggesting an optimal dose and upper limit of physical activity for decreasing anxiety symptoms. Optimal levels and upper limits of physical activity for reducing anxiety symptoms were higher for men than for women.

As per the 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on the classification of central nervous system tumors, solitary fibrous tumors (SFTs) and hemangiopericytomas (HPCs) constitute a single disease entity, known as SFT/HPC. This study provides a clinical analysis of these tumors and describes the treatment outcomes of SFT/HPCs. This retrospective study included 76 patients with histopathologically proven SFT/HPC. Reclassification according to the 2016 WHO guideline was done for patients who were diagnosed with SFT or HPC based on the 2007 WHO classification. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated for all patients and subgroups. The median follow-up period was 77.9 months. The median RFS and OS were 126.5 and 136.8 months, respectively. The 1-, 5-, 10-, and 15-year RFS rates were 93%, 72%, 40%, and 40%, respectively. The 1-, 5-, 10- and 15-year OS rates were 97%, 89%, 54%, and 35%, respectively. In multivariable analyses, stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS; p = 0.009, hazard ratio [HR] 6.986), female sex (p = 0.023, HR 1.76), and age over 45 (p = 0.037, HR 2.74) were associated with shorter RFS. Patients who underwent SRS as initial treatment had a shorter OS than that of patients who underwent primary resection (p

The aim of this study was to evaluate prognostic factors including surgical, radiographic, and histopathologic analyses in anaplastic oligodendroglioma (AO) patients. We reviewed the electronic records of 95 patients who underwent surgery and were diagnosed with AO for 20 years. The primary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Univariate and multivariable analyses included clinical, histopathological, and radiographic prognostic factors. Subgroup analysis was performed in isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH1/2)-mutant and 1p/19q-codeleted patients. The median PFS and OS were 24.7 months and 50.8 months, respectively. The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year PFS were 75.8%, 42.9%, 32.4%, and 16.4%, respectively. Furthermore, the 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year OS were 98.9%, 76.9%, 42.9%, and 29.7%, respectively. The median PFS and OS of the IDH1/2-mutant and 1p/19q-codeleted patients were 54.2 and 57.8 months, respectively. In univariate analyses, young age, frontal lobe, weak enhancement, gross total resection (GTR), low Ki-67 index, 1p/19q codeletion, and IDH1/2 mutations were associated with a favorable outcome. In multivariable analyses, IDH1/2 mutation was related to better PFS and OS. In subgroup analysis, GTR was associated with favorable outcomes.

Aims To evaluate the bidirectional relationship between blood pressure (BP) and depressive symptoms using a large prospective cohort study. Methods Prospective cohort study was performed in 276 244 adults who participated in a regular health check-up and were followed annually or biennially for up to 5.9 years. BP levels were categorised according to the 2017 American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association hypertension guidelines. Depressive symptoms were assessed using Centre for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CESD) questionnaire and a cut-off score of ≥25 was regarded as case-level depressive symptoms. Results During 672 603.3 person-years of follow-up, 5222 participants developed case-level depressive symptoms. The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) [95% confidence interval (CI)] for incident case-level depressive symptoms comparing hypotension, elevated BP, hypertension stage 1 and hypertension stage 2 to normal BP were 1.07 (0.99–1.16), 0.93 (0.82–1.05), 0.89 (0.81–0.97) and 0.81 (0.62–1.06), respectively (p for trend p for trend p for trend Conclusions In this large cohort study of young and middle-aged individuals, higher BP levels were independently associated with a decreased risk for developing case-level depressive symptoms and depressive symptoms were also associated with incident hypertension. Further studies are required to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the bidirectional association between BP levels and incident depression.

Objectives Our study aimed to analyze the demographic and clinical characteristics of children and adolescents during their first visit to psychiatric outpatient departments for the management of suicidal ideation and behavior, and to compare the changes before and in 2012 or later. Methods This multicenter study was conducted at five university hospitals in a metropolitan area in South Korea. Medical records of patients aged 6-18 years were retrospectively reviewed from January 2009 to December 2016. Patients were analyzed by classifying them into suicidal and non-suicidal groups based on their visit to the hospital for management of suicidal ideation or suicide attempt and other mental problems, respectively. Results There were differences in the year of visit, diagnosis, education level, and referral sources between patients in the suicidal and non-suicidal groups. Multiple regression analysis was conducted based on the sex, education level, referral by school, and diagnosis of depression in patients in the suicidal group, which revealed significant association. Conclusion Suicide-related problems were significantly associated with the sex, education level, referral by school, and a diagnosis of depression in the patients. A well-connected referral system would be necessary for professional mental health management of high-risk children and adolescents.

Objective In this study, the relationship between occupational stress and suicidal ideation was investigated, focusing on gender differences among Korean employees. Methods Cross-sectional data for 53,969 workers were collected at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital health screening centers. Risk of suicidal ideation was assessed using a self-reported questionnaire examining suicidal ideation during the past year. Occupational stress was measured using 24 items of the Korean Occupational Stress Scale-Short Form (KOSS-SF). Logistic regression analysis was employed to estimate the odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals of the relationships between suicidal ideation and components of occupational stress. Results In multivariable-adjusted models, all job stress contributed to increased risk of suicidal ideation in males. Most subscales, except insufficient job control and organizational system, were risk factors of suicidal ideation in females. Further adjustments for depression markedly attenuated this relationship. However, the effects of insufficient job control and lack of reward on suicidal ideation remained significant in males, and interpersonal conflict remained significant in females. Conclusion The results suggest that occupational stress plays a significant role in increasing risk of suicidal ideation through elevation of depressive symptoms. Gender differences in components of occupational stress associated with suicidal ideation were also observed.

This study explores factors affecting adoption of two stormwater management practices, rain gardens and rain barrels. Mail survey data from Columbia, Missouri indicate adoption rates of 3.12 percent (rain gardens) and 7.47 percent (rain barrels). This unique dataset enables us to distinguish among nonadopters using knowledge levels, and to investigate the effect of practice-specific barriers. Clustered multinomial logistic regressions reveal serious gardeners are more likely to adopt both practices. Specific barriers differ by practice and type of nonadopter. Adding practice-specific barriers increased pseudo R2 values from 0.12 to 0.22 for rain gardens and from 0.13 to 0.26 for rain barrels.

Advent of the 3D scene reconstruction framework using the RGB-D camera has enabled users to easily construct their indoor environment in a virtual space and has allowed them to experience an immersive augmented reality with the reconstructed 3D scene. Technically, the early stage of the 3D scene reconstruction framework using the RGB-D camera is based on the frame-to-model registration. It tries to iteratively estimate the transformation parameters of the camera between the incoming depth frame and its previously reconstructed 3D model. However, due to the nature of the frame-to-model registration, the conventional framework has an inherent drift problem caused by the accumulated alignment error. In this paper, we propose a new 3D scene reconstruction framework with the improved camera tracking capability to reduce the drift problem. There are two types of constraints in this work: colorimetric and geometric constraints. For the colorimetric constraint, we impose the more weights on the reliable feature correspondences obtained from color image frames. For the geometric constraint, we compute the consistent surface normal vector for the noisy point cloud data. Experimental results show that the proposed framework reduces the absolute trajectory error representing the amount of the drift and shows a more consistent trajectory in comparison to the conventional framework.

Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) involving the hypothalamic–pituitary axis (H–P axis) is a rare intracranial neoplasm. We aimed to determine the unique characteristics and treatment outcomes of patients with PCNSL at the H–P axis and review the literature. We retrospectively reviewed the electronic medical records of patients with PCNSL in our institute from 2000 to 2017. We analyzed patient characteristics, clinicopathologic features, imaging results, and treatment outcomes. Furthermore, we searched the PubMed database and gathered more cases from published studies to analyze patient treatment outcomes. A total of 488 patients were diagnosed with central nervous system lymphoma at our institute. Seven (1.4%) patients had H–P axis involvement, five had diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and two had mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma. All patients had anterior pituitary lobe dysfunction, and two had posterior lobe dysfunction. The median progression-free survival (PFS) for seven patients was 29.0 (range: 0.9–48.1) months, and the 3-year survival rate was 42.9%. Pooled analysis included 45 patients. The median PFS for these patients was 7.0 months (0.9–52.0), and the 2-year survival rate was 20%. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that the patients with visual field defects had better prognosis (p = 0.0153 and 0.043, respectively). PCNSL at the H–P axis is associated with a higher rate of pituitary dysfunction than other parasellar pathologies. PCNSL at the H–P axis has a worse treatment outcome than PCNSL at other sites. However, visual field defect is related to a favorable prognosis in these patients.

Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) often results in back pain and radicular pain and is frequently treated with minimally invasive non-surgical methods in Korean Armed Forces Hospitals. Automated percutaneous lumbar discectomy (APLD) has been reported to have good clinical outcomes with low complication rates; however, the clinical efficacy of APLD performed in young male soldiers is uncertain. In order to clarify the efficacy of APLD for the treatment of LDH in young male soldiers, we designed a retrospective case–control study to compare patients who received APLD with patients treated with epidural steroid injection (ESI) alone. A total of 181 patients were enrolled and divided into the APLD (n = 92) and ESI (n = 89) groups according to the treatment modality. A simple logistic regression analysis was conducted to clarify the difference between the two. To optimize patient selection, APLD group was additionally divided for subgroup analysis into favorable (n = 59) and unfavorable (n = 33) groups based on satisfaction scales. A simple logistic analysis was also performed. The differences between pre- and postoperative numerical rating scale of pain (P = .0027) and hospital-own satisfaction scale (P = .0045) of the APLD group were significantly better compared to those of the ESI group. In terms of subgroup analysis, single-level pathology (P = 0.244) and protruded disc (P = .0443) were associated with favorable outcomes, whereas dual pathology and extruded disc were related with unfavorable outcomes. APLD using Dekompressor, performed in young male soldiers with back and radicular pain owing to LDH, showed better clinical outcomes compared to the ESI only therapy. Additionally, a single-level pathology with protruded disc was associated with favorable outcomes and may be indicated for treatment.

The aim of this study was to identify gender- and age-specific occupational stress associated with depressive symptoms among Korean employees. Data of 73,014 employees aged 18 and above who had undergone comprehensive health examinations at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital Health Screening Center, South Korea, in January 2012 and who were followed up until December 2017 were collected, and 63,959 (participation rate: 87.59%, men: 50,413, women: 13,546) were finally analyzed. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals of the relationship between occupational stress and depressive symptoms. In light of gender and age differences in the association between occupational stress and depressive symptoms, interaction and stratification by gender and age groups were tested. During 238,630 person-years of follow-up, case-level depressive symptoms developed in 4227 participants (an incident rate of 1.8%). There were gender differences in the relationship between job stress and incident depressive symptoms. For men, high job demand, job insecurity, lack of reward, and discomfort in their organizational climate were associated with incident depressive symptoms in all age groups. Insufficient job control was associated with the development of depressive symptoms only in midlife and organizational injustice only in early adulthood. For women, the results for high job demand, organizational injustice, and discomfort in an organizational climate were associated with the onset of depressive symptoms from early adulthood to the midlife decade. The results suggest gender and age differences in the relationship between occupational stress and incident depressive symptoms.

This study aims to identify the optimal amount and appropriate state of physical activity for reducing incident depressive symptoms.The data of 107,901 Korean adults who had undergone at least two annual health examinations from 2012 to 2015 were analyzed. At baseline, the amount of physical activity was measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form and metabolic equivalents (METs)-min/wk., which is the amount of oxygen consumed while sitting at rest per week. In addition, one-year changes in physical activity were categorized into four groups: persistent sedentary, maintenance, relapse, and adoption groups. For the study's endpoint, new-onset depressive symptoms (score of ≥21) were considered, defined by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Rating Scale for Depression. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify the optimal amount and appropriate state of physical activity for reducing incident depressive symptoms.Compared with sedentary status (600 METs-min/wk), achieving 1200-3000 METs-min/wk. was associated with a lower risk of incident depressive symptoms, illustrating a U-shaped relationship. The results show that the amount of physical activity for reducing the onset of depressive symptoms was higher for men (1800-3000 METs-min/wk.: HR, 0.84 [95% CI, 0.74-0.95]) than women (1200-1800 METs-min/wk.: HR, 0.84 [95% CI, 0.71-0.99]). In terms of one-year changes in physical activity, compared to the persistent sedentary group, the maintenance group was associated with a lower risk of the development of depressive symptoms in both sexes (men: HR, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.71-0.93]; women: HR, 0.84 [95% CI, 0.75-0.94]). Women in the adoption group showed a positive effect in terms of a decrease in incident depressive symptoms (HR, 0.87 [95% CI, 0.76-0.99]).This study suggests an optimal amount of physical activity for reducing the onset of depressive symptoms. In addition, maintaining an appropriate level of physical activity for one year proved beneficial for decreasing incident depressive symptoms.

Background: The relationship between blood pressure (BP) level and depression remains controversial. We evaluated the bidirectional relationship between BP and depressive symptoms using a large prospective cohort study. Methods: Prospective cohort study was performed in 172,102 adults who participated in a regular health checkup and were followed annually or biennially for up to 5.9 years. BP levels were categorized according to the 2017 American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association hypertension guidelines. Depressive symptoms were assessed using Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CESD) questionnaire and a cut-off score of ≥25 was regarded as depression. Findings: During 672,603.3 person-years of follow-up, 5,222 participants developed depression. The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) [95% confidence interval (CI)] for incident depression comparing hypotension, elevated BP, hypertension stage 1, and hypertension stage 2 to normal BP were 1.07 (0.99-1.16), 0.92 (0.82-1.05), 0.88 (0.80-0.96) and 0.77 (0.58-1.01), respectively (p for trend

Objective Social anxiety disorder (SAD) shows relatively delayed responses to pharmacotherapy when compared to other anxiety disorders. Therefore, more effective early therapeutic decisions can be made if the therapeutic response is predictable as early as possible. We studied whether the therapeutic response at 12 weeks is predictable based on the early improvement with escitalopram at 1 week. Methods The subjects were 28 outpatients diagnosed with SAD. The subjects took 10–20 mg/day of escitalopram. The results of the Liebowitz social anxiety scale (LSAS), Hamilton anxiety rating scale, and Montgomery-Asberg depression rating scale were evaluated at 0, 1, 4, 8, and 12 weeks of treatment. Early improvement was defined as a ≥10% reduction in the LSAS total at 1 week of treatment, and endpoint response was defined as a ≥35% reduction in the LSAS total score. The correlation between clinical characteristics and therapeutic responses was analyzed by simple linear regression. The correlation between early improvement responses and endpoint responses was analyzed by multivariate logistic regression analysis and receiver operating characteristic curves. Results When we adjusted the influence of a ≥35% reduction in the LSAS total endpoint score on a ≥10% reduction of the LSAS total score at 1 week of treatment for the patients’ age, the early improvement group at 1 week of treatment was expected to show stronger endpoint responses compared to the group with no early improvement. Conclusion The results suggest that a ≥10% reduction in the LSAS total score in a week can predict endpoint treatment response.

OBJECTIVE Anaplastic oligodendroglioma (AO) is a rare intracranial malignant neoplasm and its treatment remains challenging. The aim of this study was to evaluate prognostic factors including surgical, radiographic, and histopathologic analyses in AO patients. METHODS We reviewed the electronic records of 95 consecutive patients who underwent surgical procedures and were diagnosed with AO from 1998 to 2018. The primary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Univariate and multivariable analyses included clinical, histopathological, and radiographic prognostic factors. Subgroup analysis was performed in isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH1/2)-mutant and 1p/19q-codeleted patients. RESULTS The median PFS and OS were 24.7 months and 50.8 months, respectively. The progression-free 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year survival were 75.8%, 42.9%, 32.4%, and 16.4%, respectively. Furthermore, the overall 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year survival were 98.9%, 76.9%, 42.9%, and 29.7%, respectively. The median PFS and OS of the IDH1/2-mutant and 1p/19q-codeleted patients were 54.2 and 57.8 months, respectively. Age under 60, frontal lobe location, weak enhancement, gross total resection (GTR), lower Ki-67 index, 1p/19q codeletion, and IDH1/2 mutations were associated with a favorable outcome. Among them, IDH1/2 mutation was the only variable related to better PFS and OS in multivariable analysis. GTR was associated with favorable outcomes in the subgroup analysis. CONCLUSIONS IDH1/2 mutation status was the most important prognostic factor in AO patients. Additionally, in the subgroup analysis, GTR showed better prognosis for IDH1/2-mutant and 1p/19q-codeleted patients.

Vitamin D deficiency has been reported to be associated with various neuropsychiatric disorders. However, there are few studies addressing deficient vitamin D levels and suicidal ideation.Serum vitamin D of 157,211 Korean adult participants were measured using electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. A self-reported questionnaire was used to assess whether participants experienced suicidal ideation. Logistic regression model was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) of suicidal ideation according to vitamin D levels. The regression was adjusted for a range of covariates.Compared with sufficient vitamin D levels (≥20 ng/mL), deficient vitamin D levels (10 ng/mL) were significantly associated with the risk of suicidal ideation (OR = 1.138, 95% Cl = 1.027-1.262). However, the OR of suicidal ideation was not significantly different between the vitamin D insufficient group (10-19.99 ng/mL) and sufficient group (≥20 ng/mL) (OR = 0.988, 95% Cl = 0.932-1.047).Deficient vitamin D levels were significantly associated with the risk of suicidal ideation. However, the risk of suicidal ideation was not significantly different between the vitamin D insufficient group and sufficient group.

Background : Recent studies on the prospective association between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and depression have reported conflicting findings. Methods : A cohort study was performed with 115,223 middle-aged adults, free of depression at baseline, who underwent at least 2 comprehensive exams between 2012 and 2015. MetS was assessed according to the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III. The study endpoint was new onset of depression, defined as a Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale score ≥ 16. Results : Over 253,451.6 person-years, 6,833 participants developed depression. When the participants with 0 MetS components were set as a reference, the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio (HR, 95% confidence interval [CI]) for incident depression formed a U-shaped curve with the number of MetS components (p for trend = 0.229): 1 (1.07 [1.02–1.15]); 2 (0.92 [0.82–1.06]); 3 (0.85 [0.78–1.07]); 4 (1.16 [1.06–1.32]); and 5 MetS components (1.25 [1.10–1.54]). The presence or absence of MetS was not significant in new-onset depression. In examining potential clustering and synergistic effects of the constituent parts, waist circumference was the major driving factor of incident depression, and its relative excess risk due to interaction increased with the number of combinations. Limitations : We used a self-reported depression scale, and the follow-up period was relatively short. Conclusions : Future studies investigating the risk for incident depression should place more focus on the number of MetS abnormalities and specific MetS factors, such as waist circumference, than the presence or absence of MetS.

This study investigated the dose-response relationship between physical activity and depression. We collected data from 99,846 participants who had no medical contraindications to exercise. Using the short-form Korean version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, total physical activity was computed in metabolic equivalents (METs). We used the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Rating Scale for Depression to assess depressive symptoms and set a cut off score of 21. Logistic regression analyses were used to determine any relationships. To assess the effect of sex difference on the association between physical activity and depression, we stratified our data by sex. Compared with the sedentary group (0-600 METs-min/week), 1-15 times the recommended minimum physical activity was associated with a significantly lower risk of depression in all adults. The optimal range for a lower risk of depression was 2-3 times the recommended minimum. After stratifying our data by sex, we found that optimal ranges were 10-15 times the recommended minimum physical activity in men and 3-5 times in women. This study established a U-shaped dose-response relationship between physical activity and depression. The optimal range and upper threshold for anti-depression effect of physical activity were higher in men than in women.

The purpose of this research was to find the most appropriate process for making yacon leaf tea. We applied both green tea and black tea brewing and fermenting methods for producing yacon leaf tea. This research included consumer test and descriptive analysis of professional trained panel on yacon tea tastes and flavors. Both consumer test and descriptive evaluation preferred yacon tea produced by black tea brewing and fermenting methods because it tasted less bitter and had a sweet, delicate taste. According to orthogonal transformation resulting from varimax rotation, first principal component was positively affected by black tea brewing and fermenting methods, while it was negatively affected by green tea brewing and fermenting methods. As a result, the study concluded black tea brewing and fermenting methods were appropriate for producing yacon leaf tea.

Background: Blood glucose fluctuation is linked to mortality in critically or non-critically ill patients, as well as cardiovascular events after acute myocardial infarction. However, its association with poststroke outcome is largely unknown. The aim of this study was to determine whether initial glucose fluctuation is related to cardiovascular mortality in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods: We registered consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke in Soonchunhyang University Hospital between Mar 2005 and Feb 2015. Six hundred and thirty-nine diabetic patients within 72 hours from stroke onset were included. Serum glucose levels were checked 4 times per day during the first 3 hospital days. J-indices were calculated for glycemic variability in all patients, and divided into 4 groups by quartiles. Cardiovascular death and modified Rankin scale at 3 months were prospectively recorded. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed after adjusting covariates for outcome variables. Results: Cardiovascular deaths at 3 months were identified in 57 patients (8.9%): 11 (7.1%), 8 (5.1%), 13 (8.0%) and 25 (15.2%) in each of the J-index quartiles, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated that the incidence of cardiovascular deaths were significantly associated with the group of highest J-index (odds ratio 3.38; 95% confidence interval 1.15-12.04; P=.04). Conclusion: Fluctuation of serum glucose during the first 3 days was associated with cardiovascular death at 3 months after acute ischemic stroke. Further studies are required to determine the pathophysiologic correlation between glycemic variation and cardiovascular deaths. J Neurocrit Care 2015;8(2):91-97

Background Although recent studies have shown that the elevation of serum triglyceride (TG) is related to the increased incidence of ischemic stroke, the relationship between hypertriglyceridemia and subtypes of ischemic stroke is largely unknown. This study attempted to evaluate whether hypertriglyceridemia is associated with lacunar stroke in diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods A total of 2141 consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke were enrolled from March 2005 to April 2014, excluding the subjects with undetermined/other determined etiology or no lipid data. We compared the lipid profiles among stroke subtypes. The estimated serum TG levels and the interaction between DM and stroke subtypes were determined by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and Tukey's multiple comparison. Results In ANCOVA test, the difference of estimated TG between DM and non-DM patients was largest in small-vessel occlusion (SVO; 159.7 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 143.2-176.2] versus 122.4 [95% CI, 106.1-138.7]), and a significant interaction was observed between DM and stroke subtypes for TG levels (P = .013) but not for total cholesterol (P = .363), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P = .171), or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P = .231). By Tukey's multiple comparison, SVO was consistently associated with DM for serum TG levels (P Conclusions In acute ischemic stroke with DM, serum TG level was significantly associated with lacunar infarction adjusting for other lipid profiles and vascular risk factors. Further studies are warranted to reveal the pathophysiologic implication of hypertriglyceridemia for lacunar infarction in type 2 DM.

Objective To investigate the antibacterial activity of SHH extracted with either water or ethanol against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and combinatory antimicrobial effect with ciprofloxacin (CIP) by time kill assay and checkerboard dilution test. Methods The antibacterial activity determined by broth dilution method indicated that the antibacterial activity of Sami-Hyanglyun-Hwan (SHH) water extract (SHHW) and SHH ethanol extract (SHHE) ranged from 250 to 2 000 μg/mL and 125 to 1 000 μg/mL against MRSA, respectively. Results In the checkerboard method, the combinations of SHHE with CIP had a partial synergistic or synergistic effect against MRSA. The time-kill curves showed that a combined SHHE and CIP treatment reduced the bacterial counts dramatically after 24 h. Conclusions The present study demonstrates the therapeutic ability of SHHE against MRSA infections.

The quality of depth images is important in the 3D video system to represent complete 3D contents. However, the original depth image from a depth camera has a low resolution and a flickering problem which shows vibrating depth values in terms of temporal meaning. This problem causes an uncomfortable feeling when we look 3D contents. In order to solve a low resolution problem, we employ 3D warping and a depth weighted joint bilateral filter. A temporal mean filter can be applied to solve the flickering problem while we encounter a residual spectrum problem in the depth image. Thus, after classifying foreground and background regions, we use an upsampled depth image for a foreground region and temporal mean image for background region. Test results shows that the proposed method generates a time consistent depth video with a high resolution.

Template matching is used for many applications in image processing. One of the most researched topics is object tracking. Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) is the basic statistical approach to match images. NCC is used for template matching or pattern recognition. A template can be considered from a reference image, and an image from a scene can be considered as a source image. The objective is to establish the correspondence between the reference and source images. The matching gives a measure of the degree of similarity between the image and the template. A problem with NCC is its high computational cost and occasional mismatching. To deal with this problem, this paper presents an algorithm based on the Sum of Squared Difference (SSD) and an adaptive template matching to enhance the quality of the template matching in object tracking. The SSD provides low computational cost, while the adaptive template matching increases the accuracy matching. The experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm is quite efficient for image matching. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated by several situations in the results section.

Recently, the augmented reality and virtual reality fields have been actively researched and a lot of major companies have been aggressively investing the fields. On the core of the research field, the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm which estimates the camera's position in a global coordinate and simultaneously constructs a 3D environment map firmly settled. Among typical components of modern SLAM framework, we are focusing on a loop closure detection for determining whether the current position of a robot agent was visited previously. The conventional algorithms for the loop closure detection relied on clustering hand-crafted features like SIFT, SURF, and ORB which appear a weakness to handle variations in the image such as a viewpoint change, illumination change, deformation, and occlusion. In this paper, we propose a local patch descriptor using a deep convolutional generative adversarial network to deal with the variations. The experiment result displays the proposed method well clusters the image patches with similar appearances better than the hand-craft features.

Stereo matching methods are used mainly to obtain the depth information in stereo images. Since stereo images are taken from two different viewpoints for the same scene, we have occlusion regions that are visible in only one image, but not in the other image. Because the occlusion region lacks information on corresponding points, disparity errors occur in the disparity map. In order to correct the occlusion region, we propose a disparity map refinement method based on coarse-to-fine (CTF) image segmentation. Experimental results show the proposed method generates a higher quality depth information than other methods; in particular the proposed method reduces disparity errors in discontinuity regions.

Objective The pathophysiology of social anxiety disorder (SAD) is not yet well understood, but previous research has suggested that oxytocin is associated with social behavior and may play a role in human anxiety states and anxiety-related traits. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible relationship between social anxiety symptoms and plasma oxytocin levels. Methods Twenty-three male patients with SAD and 28 healthy male controls participated in this study. All participants were assessed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Multivariate regression analysis was performed to identify associations between plasma oxytocin levels and SAD. Results In multiple regression models, after controlling for age and years of education, we found that higher oxytocin levels were significantly associated with higher total LSAS scores (R2 =0.157, coefficient=0.145, 95% CI=-0.0005-0.291, p=0.051) and fear subscale scores (R2 =0.134, coefficient=0.083, 95% CI=0.007-0.159, p=0.034) in the SAD group. Conclusion In this study, increased plasma oxytocin levels were associated with higher social anxiety symptoms among SAD patients, but not among controls. This might be because among SAD patients, higher oxytocin (OT) secretion is an insufficient compensatory attempt to reduce social anxiety symptoms.

In this paper, we propose a method for real-time depth image refinement. In order to improve the quality of the depth map acquired from Kinect camera, we employ constant memory and texture memory which are suitable for a 2D image processing in the graphics processing unit (GPU). In addition, we applied the joint bilateral filter (JBF) in parallel to accelerate the overall execution. To enhance the quality of the depth image, we applied the JBF hierarchically using the compute unified device architecture (CUDA). Finally, we obtain the refined depth image. Experimental results showed that the proposed real-time depth image refinement algorithm improved the subjective quality of the depth image and the computational time was 260 frames per second.

Tectorigenin (TTR) is an O-methylated isoflavone derived from the rhizome ofBelamacanda chinensis(L.) DC. It is known to perform a wide spectrum of biological activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor. The aim of this study is to examine the mechanism of antibacterial activity of TTR against methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus(MRSA). The anti-MRSA activity of TTR was analyzed in combination assays with detergent, ATPase inhibitors, and peptidoglycan (PGN) derived fromS. aureus. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to monitor survival characteristics and changes inS. aureusmorphology. The MIC values of TTR against all the tested strains were 125 μg/mL. The OD(600) of each suspension treated with a combination of Triton X-100, DCCD, and NaN3with TTR (1/10 × MIC) had been reduced from 68% to 80%, compared to the TTR alone. At a concentration of 125 μg/mL, PGN blocked antibacterial activity of TTR. This study indicates that anti-MRSA action of TTR is closely related to cytoplasmic membrane permeability and ABC transporter, and PGN at 125 μg/mL directly bind to and inhibit TTR at 62.5 μg/mL. These results can be important indication in study on antimicrobial activity mechanism against multidrug resistant strains.

Carvone is one of the naturally occurring monoterpenes, the largest class of secondary metabolites in plants, and exists in two enantiomers, R-carvone (R-car) and S-car. The objective of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial activity of R-car and S-car with gentamicin (GET) against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). MRSA is a major human pathogen that causes serious problems, including hospital-acquired pneumonia, abscesses and surgical wound infections. Nosocomial MRSA infections often exhibit multidrug resistance. In the present study, antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed with R-car, S-car and GET using the broth microdilution method. Minimal inhibitory concentration values for R- and S-car against six different strains of S. aureus ranged between 500 and 1,000 μg/ml. Anti-MRSA activity was evaluated using the checkerboard and time-kill assays to investigate the potential synergistic effects of different combinations of the carvone enantiomers and GET. R-car plus S-car, R-car plus GET and S-car plus GET exhibited significant synergistic activity against MRSA. These findings suggest that the single-agent anti-MRSA activities of R-car, S-car and GET are effectively increased through combination therapy. This study showed that carvone may be a potential adjuvant antimicrobial agent.

BACKGROUND It is rare for CNS lymphoma which involves the hypothalamic-pituitary axis. It could result in misdiagnoses such as pituitary adenoma, craniopharyngioma, or glioma. We report clinical findings of eight cases of either primary or secondary lymphoma involving the hypothalamic-pituitary axis(H-P axis). METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 488 patients who were diagnosed as CNS lymphoma from 2000 to 2017 in our institute. There were eight patients (8/488, 1.6%) who had H-P axis involvement in radiographic findings while six patients received chemotherapy. We analyzed patient characteristics, pathologies, clinical features, laboratory findings, imaging, and treatment outcome. RESULTS The mean age was 48-year-old (range 18~80) and male to female ratio was 5:3. We performed endonasal TSA for four patients, endoscopic biopsy for two patients, and stereotactic biopsy for two patients. There were six patients of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and two patients of MALT lymphoma. Seven patients were PCNSL and one patient was metastasized lymphoma. All patients had hormone imbalance whereas three patients had visual disturbance and one patient had diabetes insipidus. Initial serum LDH was 337±167IU/L(range 169~567 except one patient). MRI finding was different from the usual pattern which was low SI in T1 and high SI with perilesional edema in T2, on the other hands, our patients group revealed that five patients(62.5%) had iso SI in both T1 and T2, and only two patients(25%) showed perilesional edema in T2. Median OS and PFS of six patients who received chemotherapy were 34.8 months(range 0.9~93.7) and 33.0 months(range 0.9~93.4), respectively. Two patients(25%) died in 26 days and 51 days after diagnosis because of pneumonia and cardiac arrest, respectively. And one patient lost to follow up after diagnosis. CONCLUSION CNS lymphoma involving H-P axis is rare, however, we need to understand its unique characteristic.

The loop closure detection (LCD) problem in simultaneous localization and mapping has been an important research topic to reconstruct three-dimensional environments and estimate a camera trajectory accurately. Although the bag-of-visual-word (BoVW) scheme has been used widely and has shown good results, it has several problems in some aspects, such as occlusion, deformation, illumination change, and viewpoint change. In order to tackle the challenges, we propose an LCD method using the BoVW method with a local patch descriptor obtained from the learning-based approach. We have trained a neural network model with a place-oriented dataset and extract the descriptors for the local patches from the trained neural network model. In addition, we have constructed the ground-truth label for the evaluation. Our experiment shows promising results, compared to the state-of-the-art LCD method. The implementation of the proposed deep convolutional generative adversarial network descriptor, as well as the evaluation toolbox, can be found online at https://github.com/JustWon/DCGAN_Descriptor.