The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on treatment outcomes in critically ill patients with carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) bloodstream infection (BSI). This single-centre, retrospective cohort study was conducted in a 1,048-bed university-affiliated tertiary hospital in the Republic of Korea from January 2021 to March 2022. The study participants included consecutive hospitalised adult patients (aged ≥18 years) in the intensive care unit with CRAB monomicrobial BSI. During the study period, a total of 70 patients were included in our study, and 24 (34.3%) were diagnosed with COVID-19. The 28-day mortality rate was 64.3%. In the multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis, diagnosis of COVID-19 (hazard ratio (HR), 2.91; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.45–5.87), neutropenia (HR, 2.76; 95% CI: 1.04–7.29), Pitt bacteraemia score (per point; HR, 1.30; 95% CI: 1.19–1.41), and appropriate definite antibiotic therapy (HR, 0.31; 95% CI: 0.15–0.62) were independent predictors of 28-day mortality in patients with CRAB BSI. In conclusion, our findings suggested that COVID-19 has a negative prognostic impact on patients with CRAB BSI. Further study is needed to investigate the specific mechanisms of how COVID-19 worsens the prognosis of CRAB infection.

We compared the pregnancy and live birth rates following transfer of early-stage embryos or blastocysts produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer using in vitro-matured oocytes. In total 102 ovaries were collected from dromedary camels at a local abattoir; from these 1048 cumulus–oocytes complexes (COCs) were aspirated and cultured for 42 h in a commercial maturation medium. Metaphase II oocytes were subjected to nuclear transfer. Somatic cell nuclear transfer-derived embryos were cultured in a commercial embryo medium for 2 or 7 days. Next, 71 early-stage embryos were surgically transferred to the left fallopian tube of 28 recipients and 47 blastocysts were transferred to the left uterine horn of 26 recipients. Early pregnancy was detected by serum progesterone (P4), and pregnancy was confirmed using ultrasonography on days 30 and 90 after embryo transfer. Pregnancy rate based on P4 level was 17.86% (5/28) and 11.54% (3/26) for early-stage embryo and blastocyst transfer, respectively. In the early-stage embryo group, out of five recipients, one recipient had lost the pregnancy by the first ultrasonography on day 30; two other recipients aborted at 14 and 24 weeks, and two recipients gave live births. In the blastocyst group, out of three recipients, one lost the pregnancy at an early stage and two recipients gave live births. Therefore, for dromedary camels, we recommend transvaginal blastocyst transfer from the standpoint of the pregnancy and live birth rate, ease of the transfer procedure, and comfort and safety of the recipients.

On a real hypersurface $M$ in a complex two-plane Grassmannian ${{G}_{2}}\left( {{\mathbb{C}}^{m+2}} \right)$ we have the Lie derivation $\mathcal{L}$ and a differential operator of order one associated with the generalized Tanaka–Webster connection ${{\widehat{\mathcal{L}}}^{\left( k \right)}}$. We give a classification of real hypersurfaces $M$ on ${{G}_{2}}\left( {{\mathbb{C}}^{m+2}} \right)$ satisfying $\widehat{\mathcal{L}}_{\xi }^{\left( k \right)}\,S\,=\,{{\mathcal{L}}_{\xi }}S$, where $\xi$ is the Reeb vector field on $M$ and $s$ the Ricci tensor of $M$.

We report on the formation of highly flexible and transparent TiO2/Ag/ITO multilayer films deposited on polyethylene terephthalate substrates. The optical and electrical properties of the multilayer films were investigated as a function of oxide thickness. The transmission window gradually shifted toward lower energies with increasing oxide thickness. The TiO2 (40 nm)/Ag (18 nm)/ITO (40 nm) films gave the transmittance of 93.1% at 560 nm. The relationship between transmittance and oxide thickness was simulated using the scattering matrix method to understand high transmittance. As the oxide thickness increased from 20 to 50 nm, the carrier concentration gradually decreased from 1.08 × 1022 to 6.66 × 1021 cm−3, while the sheet resistance varied from 5.8 to 6.1 Ω/sq. Haacke's figure of merit reached a maximum at 40 nm and then decreased with increasing oxide thickness. The change in resistance for the 60 nm-thick ITO single film rapidly increased with increasing bending cycles, while that of the TiO2/Ag/ITO (40 nm/18 nm/40 nm) film remained virtually unchanged during the bending test.

A 44-year-old man developed sudden non-fluent aphasia and right hemiplegia due to left striatocapsular infarction (Figure). Neurologic examination revealed gaze deviation to the right with eyes closed, but not with eyes open (Video). There was no spontaneous or gaze-evoked nystagmus, even after elimination of visual fixation. Leftward pursuit was impaired in a craniotopic frame of reference, and horizontal saccades were hypometric in both directions. Head impulse test was normal in the horizontal plane and there were no visual field defects. The contralesional gaze deviation with eye closure persisted for ten days.

Next-generation sequencing technique has been known as a useful tool for de novo transcriptome assembly, functional annotation of genes and identification of molecular markers. This study was carried out to mine molecular markers from de novo assembled transcriptomes of four chilli pepper varieties, the highly pungent ‘Saengryeg 211’ and non-pungent ‘Saengryeg 213’ and variably pigmented ‘Mandarin’ and ‘Blackcluster’. Pyrosequencing of the complementary DNA library resulted in 361,671, 274,269, 279,221, and 316,357 raw reads, which were assembled in 23,607, 19,894, 18,340 and 20,357 contigs, for the four varieties, respectively. Detailed sequence variant analysis identified numerous potential single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and simple sequence repeats (SSRs) for all the varieties for which the primers were designed. The transcriptome information and SNP/SSR markers generated in this study provide valuable resources for high-density molecular genetic mapping in chilli pepper and Quantitative trait loci analysis related to fruit qualities. These markers for pepper will be highly valuable for marker-assisted breeding and other genetic studies.

Background: The influences of demographics, culture, language, and environmental changes on Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores are considerable.

Methods: Using a sample of 7452 healthy, community-dwelling elderly Koreans, aged 55 to 94 years, who participated in the four ongoing geriatric cohorts in Korea, we investigated demographic influences on MMSE scores and derived normative data for this population. Geropsychiatrists strictly excluded subjects with cognitive disorders according to the protocol of the Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Packet (CERAD-K) Clinical Assessment Battery (CERAD-K-C).

Results: Education (standardized β = 0.463), age (standardized β = −0.303), and gender (standardized β = −0.057) had significant effects on MMSE scores (p < 0.001). The score of MMSE increase 0.379 point per 1-year education, decrease 0.188 per 1-year older, and decrease 0.491 in women compared to men. Education explained 30.4% of the scores’ total variance, which was much larger than the variances explained by age (8.4%) or gender (0.3%). Accordingly, we present normative data for the MMSE stratified by education (0, 1–3, 4–6, 7–9, 10–12, and ≥ 13 years), age (60–69, 70–79, and 80–89 years), and gender.

Conclusions: We provide contemporary education-, age-, and gender-stratified norms for the MMSE, derived from a large, community-dwelling elderly Korean population sample, which could be useful in evaluating individual MMSE scores.

Both luminous efficiency and lifetime in blue fluorescence organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) have been improved by modified HTMs with higher LUMO energy levels. The LUMO energy levels of HTM were increased by modifying substituent in HTM molecules. Two HTMs containing ortho and meta biphenyl substituent and one HTM containing thiophene substituent were synthesized via palladium catalyzed amine coupling reactions to compare with a para biphenyl substituent HTM-1 as a standard molecule. According to TDDFT calculations, these three modified HTMs showed 0.05-0.15 eV higher LUMO energy levels compared to the para biphenyl substituent HTM-1. The luminous efficiency and the lifetime (LT90) of OLEDs using HTM-2 at 500 cd/m2 have been enhanced up to 20 % and 52 %, respectively, compared to the standard device using HTM-1.

Background: Low education and illiteracy are associated with an increased risk of dementia. This study aimed to develop a neuropsychological test battery applicable to both illiterate and literate elderly and to assess its reliability and validity for a diagnosis of dementia.

Methods: We developed the Literacy Independent Cognitive Assessment (LICA), which consists of 13 subtests assessing memory, language, visuoconstruction, executive function, attention and calculation. We investigated its reliability and validity on 152 patients with dementia, 66 with mild cognitive impairment and 639 normal controls.

Results: The subtests were found to be applicable to most of the illiterate normal controls (97.3%) and were found to have high inter-rater reliabilities (r = 0.85–1.00, p < 0.001) and moderate to high test-retest reliabilities (r = 0.50–0.86, p < 0.001). The LICA performed well in discriminating participants across Clinical Dementia Rating stages and showed excellent internal consistency and good concurrent validity with the Korean Mini-mental State Examination in both literate and illiterate participants. The area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic was 0.985 in each of the two literacy groups. Sensitivity and specificity of the LICA to make a diagnosis of dementia was 91.9% and 91.8% at the cutoff point of 186.0 in the literate subjects and 96.2% and 91.1% at the cutoff point of 154.5 in the illiterate subjects. The battery was factored into two separate factors consisting of verbal memory tests and tests for other cognitive domains.

Conclusion: The LICA is a valid and reliable instrument for a diagnosis of dementia in both illiterate and literate elderly.

We report the realization of the p-type conductivity and the enhancement of the photoluminescence (PL) intensity in undoped ZnO films treated with high-energy (1 MeV) electron-beam irradiation (HEEBI), suggesting that the HEEBI process is compatible with a low-temperature requirement for the fabrication of transparent thin film transistors with good efficiency on a plastic substrate. The p-type conductivity of the films was revealed by the Hall, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and PL measurements after being electron-irradiated in air at room temperature. The major acceptor-like defects were determined to be oxygen interstitial and zinc vacancy. A model was proposed in terms of O as well as Zn diffusion to explain the observed results. It was also observed that HEEBI treatment has little influence on the optical transmittance of ZnO films, whereas HEEBI treatment shifts the optical band gap toward the lower energy region from 3.29 to 3.28 eV.

A novel route to organic-inorganic composites was described based on biomineralization of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based hydrogels. The 3-dimensional hydrogels were synthesized by radical crosslinking polymerization of poly(ethylene glycol fumarate) (PEGF) in the presence of ethylene glycol methacrylate phosphate (EGMP) as an apatite-nuclating monomer, acrylamide (AAm) as a composition-modulating comonomer, and potassium persulfate (PPS) as a radical initiator. We used the urea-mediated solution precipitation technique for biomineralization of hydrogels. The apatite grown on the surface and interior of the hydrogel was similar to biological apatites in the composition and crystalline structure. Powder x-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the calcium phosphate crystalline platelets on hydrogels are preferentially aligned along the crystallographic c-axis direction. Inductively-coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) analysis showed that the Ca/P molar ratio of apatites grown on the hydrogel template was found to be 1.60, which is identical to that of natural bones. In vitro cell experiments showed that the cell adhesion/proliferation on the mineralized hydrogel was more pronounced than on the pure polymer hydrogel.

The Ni silicide-mediated phase transformation of amorphous to crystalline silicon (c-Si) was studied using transmission electron microscopy. Amorphous silicon (a-Si) films coated with very thin Ni layer (∼10-1Å) were annealed at various temperatures. Randomly oriented NiSi2 precipitates were observed in the Ni deposited a-Si film annealed at 400°C. The nucleation of the epitaxial c-Si has occurred on the {111} faces of the octahedral NiSi2 precipitate at 430°C and then caused to the variation in the shape of the NiSi2 precipitates. During the growth of c-Si, the needle-like morphology developed from the migration of NiSi2 precipitates through the a-Si matrix leaving a trail of c-Si. The collision of a migrating NiSi2 precipitate with a stationary NiSi2 precipitates in the a-Si film gave rise to the change in the morphology of the growing Si grain and the formation of additional c-Si needles on variants of the <111> direction.