Phenotype augmentation using generative AI for isocitrate dehydrogenase mutation prediction in glioma.

This study investigated the effects of feature augmentation, which uses generated images with specific imaging features, on the performance of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation prediction models in gliomas. A total of 598 patients were included from our institution (310 training, 152 internal test) and the Cancer Genome Atlas (136 external test). Score-based diffusion models were used to generate T2-weighted, FLAIR, and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted image triplets.

Analysis of tick-borne pathogens using next-generation sequencing in ticks from wild animals in the Republic of Korea.

Importance: Climate and anthropogenic changes have resulted in the growth of tick populations and tick-borne pathogens worldwide. Standardized surveillance systems are essential for novel tick-borne pathogens in the Republic of Korea (ROK). Analysis of blood-fed ticks suggests that zoonotic pathogens have the potential to circulate between ticks and wild animals in natural environments.

KC-UNIT: Multi-kernel conversion using unpaired image-to-image translation with perceptual guidance in chest computed tomography imaging.

Computed tomography (CT) images are reconstructed from raw datasets including sinogram using various convolution kernels through back projection. Kernels are typically chosen depending on the anatomical structure being imaged and the specific purpose of the scan, balancing the trade-off between image sharpness and pixel noise. Generally, a sinogram requires large storage capacity, and storage space is often limited in clinical settings.

Trophic niche partitioning among three sympatric anuran species in a South Korean forest ecosystem based on stable isotope analysis.

Stable isotope analysis (SIA) is a powerful tool for assessing resource use and trophic structure, enhancing understanding of coexistence mechanisms among sympatric species. In this study, we analyzed carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) stable isotopes in bone collagen of three coexisting anuran species-Bombina orientalis, Rana uenoi, and R. huanrenensis-from South Korean forest to evaluate their isotopic niches, resource partitioning, and within-population variation.

Circulation of tick-borne pathogens in wildlife of the Republic of Korea.

Habitat loss of wildlife and increased human activities in their habitat provide more opportunities for human-wild animal contact. These artificial environments influence humans by facilitating the transmission of tick-borne pathogens. Therefore, we aimed to detect and understand circulating tick-borne pathogens in the natural environment by analyzing blood and spleen samples of wild animals admitted to wildlife rescue centers in the Republic of Korea.

Prevalence of the Cladosporium cladosporioides Species Complex in the Mycelia-Like Skin Crusts of Migratory Yellow-Throated Buntings (Emberiza elegans) in Korea.

Understanding the ecological characteristics and environmental factors of migratory songbirds is essential for their conservation as well as pathogen management that may cross ecological and political boundaries. In this study, we conducted a bird trapping and banding survey and report on fungal DNA detected from birds with putative fungal skin infections. We analyzed the mycobiome of mycelia-like skin crusts of the yellow-throated bunting (Emberiza elegans), a common migratory songbird with declining population in Korea, using DNA metabarcoding targeting the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) region, the actin (ACT) gene, and the translation elongation factor 1 - α (TEF) gene.

Perpetuation of Avian Influenza from Molt to Fall Migration in Wild Swan Geese (): An Agent-Based Modeling Approach.

Wild waterfowl are considered to be the reservoir of avian influenza, but their distinct annual life cycle stages and their contribution to disease dynamics are not well understood. Studies of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus have primarily focused on wintering grounds, where human and poultry densities are high year-round, compared with breeding grounds, where migratory waterfowl are more isolated. Few if any studies of avian influenza have focused on the molting stage where wild waterfowl congregate in a few selected wetlands and undergo the simultaneous molt of wing and tail feathers during a vulnerable flightless period.

Detection of tick-borne pathogens in blood-fed ticks from animals across nine Asian countries.

Unlabelled: Climate change, land development, and increased outdoor human activity have increased the prevalence and distribution of tick-borne pathogens, causing public health issues. Asia is a pivotal region of emerging infectious diseases caused by zoonotic disease. Therefore, this study aimed to construct effective surveillance systems and establish preventive strategies against novel tick-borne diseases.

First detection of Bandavirus dabieense in ticks collected from migratory birds in the Republic of Korea.

The causative agent of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is Bandavirus dabieense, an emerging tick-borne zoonotic pathogen. Migratory birds have often been suggested as potential carriers of ticks that can transmit Bandavirus dabieense; however, their role remains unclear. The Republic of Korea (ROK) holds an important position as a stopover on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.

Approximating Intermediate Feature Maps of Self-Supervised Convolution Neural Network to Learn Hard Positive Representations in Chest Radiography.

Recent advances in contrastive learning have significantly improved the performance of deep learning models. In contrastive learning of medical images, dealing with positive representation is sometimes difficult because some strong augmentation techniques can disrupt contrastive learning owing to the subtle differences between other standardized CXRs compared to augmented positive pairs; therefore, additional efforts are required. In this study, we propose intermediate feature approximation (IFA) loss, which improves the performance of contrastive convolutional neural networks by focusing more on positive representations of CXRs without additional augmentations.

Generative AI in glioma: Ensuring diversity in training image phenotypes to improve diagnostic performance for IDH mutation prediction.

Background: This study evaluated whether generative artificial intelligence (AI)-based augmentation (GAA) can provide diverse and realistic imaging phenotypes and improve deep learning-based classification of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) type in glioma compared with neuroradiologists.

Methods: For model development, 565 patients (346 IDH-wildtype, 219 IDH-mutant) with paired contrast-enhanced T1 and FLAIR MRI scans were collected from tertiary hospitals and The Cancer Imaging Archive. Performance was tested on internal (119, 78 IDH-wildtype, 41 IDH-mutant [IDH1 and 2]) and external test sets (108, 72 IDH-wildtype, 36 IDH-mutant).

Transboundary Cooperation in the Tumen River Basin Is the Key to Amur Leopard () Population Recovery in the Korean Peninsula.

The interconnected forest regions along the lower Tumen River, at the Sino-North Korean border, provide critical habitats and corridors for the critically endangered Amur Leopard (). In this region, there are two promising corridors for leopard movement between China and North Korea: the Jingxin-Dapanling (JD) and Mijiang (MJ) corridors. Past studies have confirmed the functionality of the JD corridor, but leopards' utilization of the MJ corridor has not yet been established or confirmed.

Generation and characterization of a humanized ACE2 mouse model to study long-term impacts of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has officially ended, the persistent challenge of long-COVID or post-acute COVID sequelae (PASC) continues to impact societies globally, highlighting the urgent need for ongoing research into its mechanisms and therapeutic approaches. Our team has recently developed a novel humanized ACE2 mouse model (hACE2ki) designed explicitly for long-COVID/PASC research. This model exhibits human ACE2 expression in tissue and cell-specific patterns akin to mouse Ace2.

Ixodid ticks from wild and domestic animals in East and Central Asian flyways.

Tick-borne diseases have a significant impact on human and animal populations, posing an increasing threat to public health, particularly in the context of climate change. Along with the various natural hosts of ticks, birds play a notable role in transmitting ticks and tick-borne pathogens, indicating the importance of monitoring flyways and establishing a cooperative network for comprehensive surveillance and to collect diverse tick samples across various regions. This study aimed to develop an international network for surveillance of disease, collection of sufficient tick samples, and overall identification of the geographical distribution of host and ticks in Asian regions, especially in 11 countries on East Asian and Central Asian flyways.

Discovery, validation, and prodrug design of an ACE2 activator for treating bacterial infection-induced lung inflammation.

Exacerbated inflammatory responses can be detrimental and pose fatal threats to the host, as exemplified by the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in millions of fatalities. Developing novel drugs to combat the damaging effects of inflammation is essential for both preventive measures and therapeutic interventions. Accumulating evidence suggests that Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) possesses the ability to optimize inflammatory responses.

Microplastics in gastrointestinal tracts of gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) chicks on King George Island, Antarctica.

Microplastics (< 5 mm) have been found in marine ecosystems worldwide, even in Antarctic ecosystems. In this study, the stomach and upper intestines of 14 dead gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) chicks were collected and screened for microplastics on King George Island, a gateway to Antarctic research and tourism. A total of 378 microplastics were identified by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, with 27.

The mitophagy receptor NIX induces vIRF-1 oligomerization and interaction with GABARAPL1 for the promotion of HHV-8 reactivation-induced mitophagy.

Recently, viruses have been shown to regulate selective autophagy for productive infections. For instance, human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), also known as Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), activates selective autophagy of mitochondria, termed mitophagy, thereby inhibiting antiviral innate immune responses during lytic infection in host cells. We previously demonstrated that HHV-8 viral interferon regulatory factor 1 (vIRF-1) plays a crucial role in lytic replication-activated mitophagy by interacting with cellular mitophagic proteins, including NIX and TUFM.

Global assessment of marine plastic exposure risk for oceanic birds.

Plastic pollution is distributed patchily around the world's oceans. Likewise, marine organisms that are vulnerable to plastic ingestion or entanglement have uneven distributions. Understanding where wildlife encounters plastic is crucial for targeting research and mitigation.

A Hospital-Based Infant Safe Sleep Intervention and Safe Sleep Practices Among Young Women: A Prospective Longitudinal Study.

Introduction: The rates of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) are still high in the U.S. The longitudinal effects of SUID preventive education on infant safe sleep practices are less known.

Improving Birth Outcomes Among Low-Income Families: The Effect of a Home Visiting Intervention.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recognizes the benefit of home visiting programs in promoting positive birth outcomes. Despite this recommendation, previous studies have found mixed results with respect to the impact of home visits on birth outcomes. We evaluated the impact of the Comprehensive Health Investment Project (CHIP) home visiting services on improving birth outcomes among low-income families.

Efficacies of Potential Probiotic Candidates Isolated from Traditional Fermented Korean Foods in Stimulating Immunoglobulin A Secretion.

The aim of this study was to evaluate efficacies of selected lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in inducing immunoglobulin A (IgA) secretion. Twenty-five different LAB isolated from traditional fermented Korean foods were characterized for their probiotic properties and screened to identify those that could stimulate lamina propria cells (LPCs) from Peyer's patch to secret IgA . Among them, four strains ( CJW55-10, CJW18-6, CJW56-11, and CJN2696) were found to be strong IgA inducers.

CheSS: Chest X-Ray Pre-trained Model via Self-supervised Contrastive Learning.

Training deep learning models on medical images heavily depends on experts' expensive and laborious manual labels. In addition, these images, labels, and even models themselves are not widely publicly accessible and suffer from various kinds of bias and imbalances. In this paper, chest X-ray pre-trained model via self-supervised contrastive learning (CheSS) was proposed to learn models with various representations in chest radiographs (CXRs).

Supramolecular filaments for concurrent ACE2 docking and enzymatic activity silencing enable coronavirus capture and infection prevention.

Coronaviruses have historically precipitated global pandemics of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) into devastating public health crises. Despite the virus's rapid rate of mutation, all SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants are known to gain entry into host cells primarily through complexation with angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Although ACE2 has potential as a druggable decoy to block viral entry, its clinical use is complicated by its essential biological role as a carboxypeptidase and hindered by its structural and chemical instability.

Toxoplasma gondii and Rickettsia spp. in ticks collected from migratory birds in the Republic of Korea.

Migratory birds disperse ticks and associated tick-borne pathogens along their migratory routes. Four selected pathogens of medical importance (Coxiella burnetii, Rickettsia spp., Francisella tularensis, and Toxoplasma gondii) were targeted for detection in 804 ticks (365 pools) collected from migratory birds at Hong and Heuksan Islands in the Republic of Korea (ROK) from 2010 to 2011 and 2016.