Background We performed a prospective survey on the adverse reactions following the first dose of two types of vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in healthcare workers (HCWs) in South Korea. Methods HCWs at a tertiary referral hospital in Seoul, South Korea, received a chimpanzee adenovirus-vectored vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) or an mRNA-based vaccine (BNT162b2) between March 5 and March 26, 2021. The HCWs were asked to report adverse reactions through a mobile self-report questionnaire for three days after vaccination. Results A total of 7,625 HCWs received the first dose of ChAdOx1 or BNT162b2 vaccine during the study period. Of them, 5,866 (76.9%) HCWs (ChAdOx1, n = 5,589 [95.3%]; BNT162b2, n = 277 [4.7%]) participated at least once in the survey, of whom 77% were female and 86% were younger than 50 years. The overall adverse reaction rate was 93% in the ChAdOx1 group and 80% in the BNT162b2 group ( P < 0.001). Both local and systemic reactions were more commonly reported in the ChAdOx1 group, and the difference was larger in systemic reactions such as fever and fatigue. In the ChAdOx1 group, the incidence of adverse reactions was significantly higher in females and those in the younger age groups, while the BNT162b2 group showed such difference according to age. Conclusion In our prospective survey, vaccine-associated adverse reactions were more commonly reported in the ChAdOx1 group than in the BNT162b2 group. Females and younger age groups experienced vaccine-associated adverse reactions more frequently.

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The precision alignment of high-performance, wide-field optical systems is generally a difficult and often laborious process. We report a new merit function regression method that has the potential to bring to such an optical alignment process higher efficiency and accuracy than the conventional sensitivity table method. The technique uses actively damped least square algorithm to minimize the Zernike coefficient-based merit function representing the difference between the designed and misaligned optical wave fronts. The application of this method for the alignment experiment of a Cassegrain type collimator of 900mm in diameter resulted in a reduction of the mean system rms wave-front error from 0.283 lambda to 0.194 lambda;, and in the field dependent wave-front error difference from +/-0.2 lambda to +/-0.014 lambda in just two alignment actions. These results demonstrate a much better performance than that of the conventional sensitivity table method simulated for the same steps of experimental alignment.

Purpose-Granulation tissue is common in otitis media (OM), yet little is known about the signaling pathways in the formation of granulation tissue in response to infections. In this study, we sought to investigate the activation of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) signaling pathway in the formation of granulation tissue in response to middle ear pathogens.Materials and Methods-Rat OM models were made by inoculating pneumococcus type 6A (Pn6A), non-typeable H. influenzae (NTHi) into the middle ear cavity, or by obstructing the eustachian tube (ETO). Various pathway activities in the middle ear mucosa were analyzed with microarrays.Results-The TGF-β signaling pathway was highly regulated in the middle ear cleft with bacterial OM but not ETO. In bacterial OM, the TGF-β signaling pathway products were higher in NTHi-infected ears than in Pn6A-infected ears.Conclusion-Bacterial OM triggers granulation tissue to thrive in the middle ear cleft of rats. NTHi is more potent than Pn6A in the formation of granulation tissue. ETO alone did not contribute to granulation tissue formation in the middle ear.

We have developed a new IR optical system that consists of three mirrors and four lenses, and that operates in the temperature range 8°C-32°C. This temperature range can induce thermoelastic deformation in the lenses and their mounting subassembly, leading to a large defocus error associated with the displacement of the lenses inside the barrel. We suggest using a new three-shell-based athermalization structure composed of two materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion (Invar and aluminum). A finite element analysis and the experiment data were used to confirm that this new athermalization barrel had a defocus error sensitivity of 11.6 nm/°C; this is an improvement on the widely used conventional single-shell titanium barrel model, which has a defocus error sensitivity of 29.8 nm/°C. This paper provides the technical details of the new athermalization design, and its computational and experimental performance results.

PDGFs and their receptors may play a role in the proliferation of developing cochlear hair cells.

A simple phase-shifting method in a wedge-plate lateral shearing interferometer is described. Simply moving the wedge plate in an in-plane parallel direction gives the amount of phase shift required for phase-shifting interferometry because the thickness of a wedge plate is not constant and varies along the wedge direction. This method requires only one additional linear translator to move the wedge plate. The required moving distance for a phase shift of the wave front with this method is of the order of a millimeter, whereas the typical moving distance for another method that uses a piezoelectric transducer is of the order of a wavelength. This method yields better precision in controlling the moving distance than do the other methods.

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