The study demonstrated a high prevalence of anticytoplasmic autoantibodies in patients with acute hepatitis A. These data would be useful to aid interpretation of indirect immunofluorescence testing in patients with acute hepatitis, especially in areas with a high prevalence of HAV.

No abstract

Background : We evaluated the performance and false positive rate of Mediace RPR test (Sekisui, Japan), a newly introduced nontreponemal test using a chemistry autoanalyzer.Methods : The sensitivity of Mediace RPR test was analyzed using sera from 50 patients with syphilis in different stages (8 primary, 7 secondary, and 35 latent), 14 sera positive with fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption (FTA-ABS) IgM, and 74 sera positive with conventional rapid plasma regain (RPR) card test (Asan, Korea) and also positive with Treponema pallidum hemagglutination (TPHA) test or FTA-ABS IgG test. The specificity was analyzed on 108 healthy blood donors. We also performed RPR card test on 302 sera that had been tested positive with Mediace RPR test and also performed TPHA or FTA-ABS IgG test to analyze the false positive rate of Mediace RPR test. A cutoff value of 0.5 R.U. (RPR unit) was used for Mediace RPR test.Results : Mediace RPR test on syphilitic sera of different stages (primary, secondary, and latent stages) and FTA-ABS IgM positive sera showed a sensitivity of 100%, 100%, 82.9% and 100%, respectively. Among the 74 sera positive with conventional RPR card test and TPHA or FTA-ABS IgG test, 55 were positive with Mediace test. The specificity of Mediace RPR test on blood donors was 97.2%. Among the 302 sera positive with Mediace RPR test, 137 sera (45.4%) were negative by RPR card and TPHA/FTA-ABS IgG tests.Conclusions : Although the sensitivities of Mediace RPR were good for primary and secondary syphilis, due to its high negative rate of Mediace RPR over the conventional RPR positive samples, further studies are necessary whether it can replace conventional nontreponemal test for screening purpose. Moreover, in view of the high false positive rate, positive results by Mediace RPR test should be confirmed with treponemal tests. (Korean J Lab Med 2008;28:312-8)

This article presents the implementation of position control of a mobile inverted pendulum (MIP) system by using the radial basis function (RBF) network. The MIP has two wheels to move on the plane and to balance the pendulum. The MIP is a nonlinear system whose dynamics is nonholonomic. The goal of this study was to control the MIP to maintain the balance of the pendulum while tracking a desired position of the cart. The reference compensation technique scheme is used as a neural network control method for the MIP. The back-propagation learning algorithm of the RBF network is derived for online learning and control. The control algorithm has been embedded on a DSP 2812 board to achieve real-time control. Experimental results are conducted and show successful control performances of both balancing and tracking the desired position of the MIP.

Background: Humor is composed of a cognitive element related to the detection of humor and an affective element related to the appreciation of humor. To investigate activated areas of the brain related to the two components of humor and to identify neural substrates associated with the degree of humor intensity, 13 participants were scanned while watching cartoons. Findings: While watching humorous scenes, various areas of the brain were activated, including (1) the inferior gyrus, an area involved in reconciling ambiguous semantic content with stored knowledge, and (2) the temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus, brain regions associated with the feeling of mirth. Further, humor intensity was positively correlated with BOLD signal magnitude in the nucleus accumbens, a region known to be involved in psychologically and psychopharmacologically driven rewards.Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate a two-component neural circuit model of humor processing and a key region important in pleasurable feelings accompanied by humor.

The study was carried to identify the impact on nationwide genetic evaluation and to obtain basic materials for the development of strategies in Swine Improvement Network Project (SINP). Data consisted of pedigree records of 235,511 and performance records of 70,747 for Duroc from 1987 to 2010 were collected by Korea Animal Improvement Association. Performance traits included three point back fat thickness (Shoulder, Belly, Waist), loin area, days to 90 kg and average daily gain. Exchange of genetic resources cross the breeding farms was not high, and furthermore the sizable farms which can accommodate genetic evaluation within the farm were scarce. Three data sets (individual farm evaluation: I, two subgroup evaluation: S, and whole eight farm evaluation: P) were used for genetic analysis. Genetic variances were larger in subordinate farms than in joiners farms for connectedness, and consequently the heritabilities were generally higher in subordinate farms than in joiner farms with I. The standard errors of heritability were small in the order of I, S and P. Estimated average inbreeding coefficients were 1.12%, 0.95% and 1.53% for joiner and subordinate group with S and population with P, respectively. The estimated correlations of breeding values with I and P were lowest. The correlations of breeding values with I and P for traits ranged 0.22 to 0.45 for moved parent animals and 0.24 to 0.72 for all animals. The results in the study suggest that nationwide evaluation uses more pedigree information and improves accuracy. Furthermore SINP for connectedness could help to improve the accuracy of evaluation.

No abstract

No abstract