This editorial explores the clinical implications of organizing pneumonia(OP)secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis,as presented in a recent case report.OP is a rare condition characterized by inflammation in the alveoli...This editorial explores the clinical implications of organizing pneumonia(OP)secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis,as presented in a recent case report.OP is a rare condition characterized by inflammation in the alveoli,which spreads to alveolar ducts and terminal bronchioles,usually after lung injuries caused by infections or other factors.OP is classified into cryptogenic(idiopathic)and secondary forms,the latter arising after infections,connective tissue diseases,tumors,or treatments like drugs and radiotherapy.Secondary OP may be triggered by infections caused by bacteria,viruses,fungi,mycobacteria,or parasites.Key diagnostic features include subacute onset of nonspecific respira-tory symptoms such as dry cough,chest pain,and exertional dyspnea.Imaging with computed tomography scans typically reveals three patterns:(1)Bilateral subpleural consolidation;(2)Nodular consolidation;and(3)A reticular pattern.Bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage helps exclude other causes.Standard treatment consists of corticosteroid therapy tapered over 6 months to 12 months.This editorial highlights clinical and diagnostic strategies to ensure timely and effective patient care.展开更多
BACKGROUND Organizing pneumonia secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis is rare.Moreover,the temporal boundary between pulmonary tuberculosis and secondary organizing pneumonia has not been defined.We report a case of sec...BACKGROUND Organizing pneumonia secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis is rare.Moreover,the temporal boundary between pulmonary tuberculosis and secondary organizing pneumonia has not been defined.We report a case of secondary organizing pneumonia associated with pulmonary tuberculosis occurring after nine months of antituberculosis treatment.CASE SUMMARY A 54 years old man,previously diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis and tuberculous pleurisy,underwent nine months of antituberculosis treatment.Follow-up lung computed tomography revealed multiple new subpleural groundglass opacities in both lungs,and a lung biopsy confirmed organizing pneumonia.Treatment continued with anti-tuberculosis agents and hormone therapy,and subsequent dynamic pulmonary computed tomography exams demonstrated improvement in lesion absorption.No disease recurrence was observed after corticosteroid therapy discontinuation.CONCLUSION When treating patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis,if an increase in lesions is observed during anti-tuberculosis treatment,it is necessary to consider the possibility of tuberculosis-related secondary organizing pneumonia,timely lung biopsy is essential for early intervention.展开更多
Adult-onset Stil's disease(AOSD)is a rare condition that lies between autoinflammatory syndrome and autoimmune disease.The main clinical manifestations include fever,chills,rash,joint swelling and pain,peripheral ...Adult-onset Stil's disease(AOSD)is a rare condition that lies between autoinflammatory syndrome and autoimmune disease.The main clinical manifestations include fever,chills,rash,joint swelling and pain,peripheral blood leukocytosis,splenomegaly,etc.It is a systemic disease affecting between 1 and 34 people per million.The average age of onset is 35 years old,with a slightly higher prevalence rate in women.Since AOSD lacks early specific symptoms and signs,non-specialist doctors have limited understanding of the disease,and patients are prone to clinical misdiagnosis,mistreatment,and delayed disease progression.This paper reports a patient whose AOSD was misdiagnosed as acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia.展开更多
Both anti-glomerular basement membrane(GBM)disease and the anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody(ANCA)-associated vasculitis(AAV)are common causes of pulmonary-renal syndrome.Organizing pneumonia(OP),a special pattern ...Both anti-glomerular basement membrane(GBM)disease and the anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody(ANCA)-associated vasculitis(AAV)are common causes of pulmonary-renal syndrome.Organizing pneumonia(OP),a special pattern of interstitial lung disease,is extremely rare either in AAV or anti-GBM disease.We report an old woman presented with OP on a background of co-presentation with both ANCA and anti-GBM antibodies.展开更多
BACKGROUND Pulmonary fibrosis often occurs as a sequel of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19);however,in some cases,it can rapidly progress,similar to the acute exacerbation of interstitial lung disease.Glucocorticoids...BACKGROUND Pulmonary fibrosis often occurs as a sequel of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19);however,in some cases,it can rapidly progress,similar to the acute exacerbation of interstitial lung disease.Glucocorticoids are the standard treatment for severe COVID-19 pneumonia requiring oxygen supply;however,the post-COVID-19 efficacy of high-dose steroid therapy remains unclear.Here,we presented a case of an 81-year-old man who developed acute respiratory failure after COVID-19 and was treated with glucocorticoid pulse therapy.CASE SUMMARY An 81-year-old man with no respiratory symptoms was admitted due to a diabetic foot.He had been previously treated for COVID-19 pneumonia six weeks prior.However,upon admission,he suddenly complained of dyspnea and required a high-flow oxygen supply.Initial simple chest radiography and computed tomography(CT)revealed diffuse ground-glass opacities and consolidation in both lungs.However,repeated sputum tests did not identify any infectious pathogens,and initial broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy did not result in any clinical improvement with the patient having an increasing oxygen demand.The patient was diagnosed with post-COVID-19 organizing pneumonia.Thus,we initiated glucocorticoid pulse therapy of 500 mg for three days followed by a tapered dose on hospital day(HD)9.After three days of pulse treatment,the patient's oxygen demand decreased.The patient was subsequently discharged on HD 41,and chest radiography and CT scans have almost normalized nine months after discharge.CONCLUSION Glucocorticoid pulse therapy may be considered when the usual glucocorticoid dose is ineffective for patients with COVID-19 sequelae.展开更多
BACKGROUND Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia(COP),formerly known as bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia,is an extremely rare disease in pregnancy.In this case,we report on COP diagnosed in recurrent pneumonia...BACKGROUND Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia(COP),formerly known as bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia,is an extremely rare disease in pregnancy.In this case,we report on COP diagnosed in recurrent pneumonia that does not respond to antibiotics in pregnant woman.CASE SUMMARY A 35-year-old woman with no prior lung disease presented with concerns of chest pain with cough,sputum,dyspnea,and mild fever at 11 wk’gestation.She was diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia and treated with antibiotics;her symptoms improved temporarily.Four weeks after discharge,she was readmitted with aggravated symptoms.Chest computed tomography demonstrated multifocal patchy airspace consolidation and ground-glass opacities at the basal segments of the right lower lobe,at the lateral basal segment of the lower lobe,and at the lingular segment of the left upper lobe.Bronchoalveolar lavage revealed an increased lymphocyte count and a decreased CD4/CD8 ratio.Prednisolone(0.5 mg/kg/d)was administered for 10 d after the second admission.Dyspnea improved after 3 d of steroid treatment and other symptoms improved on the 5th day of steroid administration.Post-delivery transbronchial lung biopsy further revealed the presence of granulation tissue with fibroblasts in smallbronchiole lumens.CONCLUSION This case suggests that it is important to differentiate COP from atypical pneumonia in the deteriorated condition despite antibiotic treatment.展开更多
To improve the nonlinear approximating ability of cerebellar model articulation controller(CMAC), by introducing the Gauss basis functions and the similarity measure based addressing scheme, a new kind of fuzzy CMAC...To improve the nonlinear approximating ability of cerebellar model articulation controller(CMAC), by introducing the Gauss basis functions and the similarity measure based addressing scheme, a new kind of fuzzy CMAC with Gauss basis functions(GFCMAC) was presented. Moreover, based upon the improvement of the self organizing feature map algorithm of Kohonen, the structural self organizing algorithm for GFCMAC(SOGFCMAC) was proposed. Simulation results show that adopting the Gauss basis functions and fuzzy techniques can remarkably improve the nonlinear approximating capacity of CMAC. Compared with the traditional CMAC,CMAC with general basis functions and fuzzy CMAC(FCMAC), SOGFCMAC has the obvious advantages in the aspects of the convergent speed, approximating accuracy and structural self organizing.展开更多
A tool-wear monitoring system for metal turning operations is presented based on the combinative application of fuzzy logic and unsupervised neural network. A group of self-organizing map (SOM) neural networks is es...A tool-wear monitoring system for metal turning operations is presented based on the combinative application of fuzzy logic and unsupervised neural network. A group of self-organizing map (SOM) neural networks is established based on the typical cutting condition combinations, and each of networks is corresponding to a typical cutting condition. For a specifie cutting condition, the fuzzy logic method is used to select an optimum trained SOM network. The proposed monitoring system, ealled the Fuzzy-SOM-TWC, is used to classify tool states based on the in-time measurement of force, aeoustic emission(AE), and motor eurrent signals. An approximate 98%--100% correct classification of tool-wear status is obtained by testing the system with a series data samples under freely selected cutting conditions.展开更多
Determination of homogenous precipitation-based regions is a very important task in effective management of water resources. The present study tried to propose an effective precipitation-based regionalization methodol...Determination of homogenous precipitation-based regions is a very important task in effective management of water resources. The present study tried to propose an effective precipitation-based regionalization methodology by conjugating both temporal pre-processing and spatial clustering approaches in a way to take advantage of multiscale properties of precipitation time series. Annual precipitation data of 51 years(1960-2010) for 31 rain gauges(RGs) were collected and used in proposed clustering approaches. Discreet wavelet transform(DWT) was used to capture the time-frequency attributes of the time series and multiscale regionalization was performed by using k-means and Self Organizing Maps(SOM) clustering techniques. Daubechies function(db) was selected as mother wavelet to decompose the precipitation time series. Also, proper boundary extensions and decomposition level were applied. Different combinations of the approximation(A) and detail(D) coefficients were used to determine the input dataset as a basis of spatial clustering. The proposed model's efficiency in spatial clustering stage was verified using three different indexes namely, Silhouette Coefficient(SC), Dunn index and Davis Bouldin index(DB). Results approved superior performance of k-means technique in comparison to SOM. It was also deduced that DWT-based regionalization methodology showed improvements in comparison to historical-based models. Cross mutual information was used to investigate the RGs of cluster 3's homogeneousness in DWT-k-means approach. Results of non-linear correlation approach verified homogeneity of cluster 3. Verifications based on mean annual precipitation values of rain gauges in each cluster also approved the capability of multiscale approach in precipitation regionalization.展开更多
BACKGROUND Since the acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia(AFOP) was first described by Beasley in 2002, some case reports of patients aged from 38 d to 80 years have been published worldwide, but there is still no...BACKGROUND Since the acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia(AFOP) was first described by Beasley in 2002, some case reports of patients aged from 38 d to 80 years have been published worldwide, but there is still no standard therapy for this disease and the treatment methods remain controversial. Both steroid and immunosuppressive agents, such as cyclophosphamide or mycophenolate mofetil, have been reported to be effective in some studies, but with many side effects, especially in patients of advanced age. CASE SUMMARY We herein report an 81-year-old female patient who was admitted to our hospital due to dry cough, and breathlessness for 1 mo. She was treated with broadspectrum antibiotics and anti-fungal therapy, but without improvement in both symptoms and radiological findings, and her respiratory status worsened, and she required bed rest almost the whole day. Computed tomography-guided percutaneous needle lung biopsy was performed and histopathology examination confirmed the diagnosis of AFOP. She was then successfully treated with a steroid monotherapy, which resulted in a satisfactory clinical outcome without serious complications. CONCLUSION We conclude that complete remission of AFOP can be achieved by steroid monotherapy in patients of advanced age.展开更多
We theoretically analyze the organizing filament of small amplitude scroll waves in general excitable media by perturbation method and explicitly give the expressions of coefficients in Keener theory. In particular fo...We theoretically analyze the organizing filament of small amplitude scroll waves in general excitable media by perturbation method and explicitly give the expressions of coefficients in Keener theory. In particular for the excitable media with equal diffusion, we obtain a close system for the motion of the filament. With an example of the Oregonator model, our results are in good agreement with those simulated by Winfree.展开更多
The mass organizing power is a distinctive feature of the Communist Party of China,an important criterion to test the nature of the proletarian party,and an essential condition to transform the Party’s organizational...The mass organizing power is a distinctive feature of the Communist Party of China,an important criterion to test the nature of the proletarian party,and an essential condition to transform the Party’s organizational advantages into strength superiority.In order to improve the mass organizing power,on the basis of giving full play to the traditional advantages,we’re required to carry out the mass line,and from the perspective of political construction,highlight political functions,strengthening work practices and organization system,taking advantage of technologies,promoting capacity,and intensifying the sense of responsibility,thus to provide a steady stream of power for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.展开更多
One of the main disadvantages of fractal image data compression is a loss time in the process of image compression (encoding) and conversion into a system of iterated functions (IFS). In this paper, the idea of the in...One of the main disadvantages of fractal image data compression is a loss time in the process of image compression (encoding) and conversion into a system of iterated functions (IFS). In this paper, the idea of the inverse problem of fixed point is introduced. This inverse problem is based on collage theorem which is the cornerstone of the mathematical idea of fractal image compression. Then this idea is applied by iterated function system, iterative system functions and grayscale iterated function system down to general transformation. Mathematical formulation form is also provided on the digital image space, which deals with the computer. Next, this process has been revised to reduce the time required for image compression by excluding some parts of the image that have a specific milestone. The neural network algorithms have been applied on the process of compression (encryption). The experimental results are presented and the performance of the proposed algorithm is discussed. Finally, the comparison between filtered ranges method and self-organizing method is introduced.展开更多
Varieties of approaches and algorithms have been presented to identify the distribution of elements. Previous researches based on the type of problem, categorized their data in proper clusters or classes. This means t...Varieties of approaches and algorithms have been presented to identify the distribution of elements. Previous researches based on the type of problem, categorized their data in proper clusters or classes. This means that the process of solution could be supervised or unsupervised. In cases, where there is no idea about dependency of samples to specific groups, clustering methods (unsupervised) are applied. About geochemistry data, since various elements are involved, in addition to the complex nature of geochemical data, clustering algorithms would be useful for recognition of elements distribution. In this paper, Self-Organizing Map (SOM) algorithm, as an unsupervised method, is applied for clustering samples based on REEs contents. For this reason the Choghart Fe-REE deposit (Bafq district, central Iran), was selected as study area and dataset was a collection of 112 lithology samples that were assayed with laboratory tests such as ICP-MS and XRF analysis. In this study, input vectors include 19 features which are coordinates x, y, z and concentrations of REEs as well as the concentration of Phosphate (P<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>) since the apatite is the main source of REEs in this particular research. Four clusters were determined as an optimal number of clusters using silhouette criterion as well as k-means clustering method and SOM. Therefore, using self-organizing map, study area was subdivided in four zones. These four zones can be described as phosphate type, albitofyre type, metasomatic and phosphorus iron ore, and Iron Ore type. Phosphate type is the most prone to rare earth elements. Eventually, results were validated with laboratory analysis.展开更多
In this paper, we begin with the swift changes in the knowledge economy time,analyze the implication of the agility, and consider the agile virtual enterprise as the mainorganizational form for the manufacturing enter...In this paper, we begin with the swift changes in the knowledge economy time,analyze the implication of the agility, and consider the agile virtual enterprise as the mainorganizational form for the manufacturing enterprises to realize agility. We classify the agilevirtual enterprises into products alliance style and knowledge alliance style, and compares theirmain features and profit distribution models. As a result, we give four basic structures for thebuilding and running of the agile virtual enterprises.展开更多
BACKGROUND Acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia(AFOP)is a rare,noninfective lung disease,histologically characterized by a patchy distribution of intra-alveolar fibrin“balls”and organizing pneumonia.The clinical...BACKGROUND Acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia(AFOP)is a rare,noninfective lung disease,histologically characterized by a patchy distribution of intra-alveolar fibrin“balls”and organizing pneumonia.The clinical manifestations of AFOP are nonspecific.Diagnosis depends on pathology.Surgical lung biopsy is optimal for tissue sampling to diagnose AFOP.However,many patients have no tolerance to the operation,including mentally and physically.There is still no standard therapy for AFOP and the methods remain controversial.Therefore,further clinical attention and discussion are warranted.CASE SUMMARY A 53-year-old woman presented with fever,cough and dyspnea for 15 d.Antiinfective therapy was ineffective.Chest computed tomography showed bilateral patchy consolidation,especially in the lower lobes.We performed both ultrasound-guided transbronchial lung biopsy and ultrasound-guided percutaneous fine needle puncture at different lung lesion locations.Both samples supported the diagnosis of AFOP.The patient had a good clinical course after treatment with methylprednisolone,and no side effects of steroids.CONCLUSION Percutaneous needle biopsy combined with transbronchial lung biopsies may be a good choice in the absence of surgical biopsy.Methylprednisolone alone is effective in the treatment of idiopathic AFOP.展开更多
We investigated the factors predicting radiation-induced organizing pneumonia (RIOP) relapse after tangential breast irradiation. The participants included 23 patients diagnosed with RIOP at the St. Marianna Universit...We investigated the factors predicting radiation-induced organizing pneumonia (RIOP) relapse after tangential breast irradiation. The participants included 23 patients diagnosed with RIOP at the St. Marianna University School of Medicine Hospital between January 2008 and March 2015. Relapse was defined as the appearance of new lesions on diagnostic images during follow-up or after commencing treatment. The relapse-free survival rate and the following 9 parameters were compared between patients with and without RIOP relapse: 1) age (less than vs. equal to or more than the median);2) white blood cell count (less than vs. equal to or more than the median);3) C-reactive protein (CRP) level at the time of RIOP diagnosis (less than normal, more than normal/ less than borderline, and more than borderline);4) boost irradiation (yes vs. no);5) maximum lung depth on linacgraphy (less than vs. equal to or more than the median);6) hormone therapy (yes vs. no);7) chemotherapy (yes vs. no);8) RIOP ratio in the whole lung (less than vs. equal to or more than the median) at the time of RIOP diagnosis;and 9) use of corticosteroids (yes vs. no). The Kaplan-Meier method was used for statistical analysis, with relapse as the cutoff. The follow-up period spanned the date of RIOP onset to May 30, 2015. The level of significance for 2-sided tests was p < 0.05. Relapse was evident in 14 patients (60.8%). The relapse-free survival rate was significantly greater in the normal CRP group (less than 0.30 mg/dl) than in the abnormal CRP group (more than 0.36 mg/dl) (p = 0.044) and in the normal/borderline CRP group (less than 0.36 mg/dl) than in the high CRP group (more than 0.70 mg/dl) (p < 0.01). The CRP level at RIOP onset may be a useful predictor of relapse after breast-conserving therapy.We investigated the factors predicting radiation-induced organizing pneumonia (RIOP) relapse after tangential breast irradiation. The participants included 23 patients diagnosed with RIOP at the St. Marianna University School of Medicine Hospital between January 2008 and March 2015. Relapse was defined as the appearance of new lesions on diagnostic images during follow-up or after commencing treatment. The relapse-free survival rate and the following 9 parameters were compared between patients with and without RIOP relapse: 1) age (less than vs. equal to or more than the median);2) white blood cell count (less than vs. equal to or more than the median);3) C-reactive protein (CRP) level at the time of RIOP diagnosis (less than normal, more than normal/ less than borderline, and more than borderline);4) boost irradiation (yes vs. no);5) maximum lung depth on linacgraphy (less than vs. equal to or more than the median);6) hormone therapy (yes vs. no);7) chemotherapy (yes vs. no);8) RIOP ratio in the whole lung (less than vs. equal to or more than the median) at the time of RIOP diagnosis;and 9) use of corticosteroids (yes vs. no). The Kaplan-Meier method was used for statistical analysis, with relapse as the cutoff. The follow-up period spanned the date of RIOP onset to May 30, 2015. The level of significance for 2-sided tests was p < 0.05. Relapse was evident in 14 patients (60.8%). The relapse-free survival rate was significantly greater in the normal CRP group (less than 0.30 mg/dl) than in the abnormal CRP group (more than 0.36 mg/dl) (p = 0.044) and in the normal/borderline CRP group (less than 0.36 mg/dl) than in the high CRP group (more than 0.70 mg/dl) (p < 0.01). The CRP level at RIOP onset may be a useful predictor of relapse after breast-conserving therapy.展开更多
Background: Differentiating cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) from community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) can be difficult in some cases. Objective: To clarify the clinical utility of procalcitonin (PCT) levels for d...Background: Differentiating cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) from community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) can be difficult in some cases. Objective: To clarify the clinical utility of procalcitonin (PCT) levels for differentiating between COP and CAP. Methods: Blood PCT levels, leukocyte count, C-reactive protein concentration, number of segments involved on computed tomography (CT) images, and pneumonia severity assessment scale were retrospectively investigated from clinical charts and chest CT images of COP and CAP patients who were admitted to our hospital from 2012 to 2014. The clinical characteristics of COP patients were compared to those of CAP patients for whom causative organisms were not detected. Results: There were 16 COP and 94 CAP patients for whom causative organisms were not detected. Blood PCT levels of all COP patients were less than 0.16 ng/dL, and significantly lower than those of CAP patients (p = 0.0004), while the number of involved segments was significantly higher than that of CAP patients (p = 0.0001). Blood PCT levels and the number of involved segments remained independently significant for differentiating between COP and CAP by multivariate analysis. Receiver operating characteristics curve analysis revealed that 7 was the best cut-off number for involved segments to differentiate between COP and CAP patients with low PCT levels (sensitivity 85.7%, specificity 94.7%). Conclusion: A combination of PCT levels and number of involved segments on CT images is useful for differentiation between COP and CAP.展开更多
In this paper we applied the technique of Self Organizing Map (SOM) to segment individuals based on their credit information. SOM is an unsupervised machine learning method that reduces data complexity and dimensional...In this paper we applied the technique of Self Organizing Map (SOM) to segment individuals based on their credit information. SOM is an unsupervised machine learning method that reduces data complexity and dimensionality while keeping sits original topology, which is superior to other dimension reduction methods especially when features in data have unclear nonlinear relations. Through this method we provide more clear and intuitive segmentation that other traditional methods cannot achieve.展开更多
The purpose of this study is to understand limitations and possibilities of organizing independent contractors by focusing on insurance solicitors in South Korea. Among various types of precarious employment, insuranc...The purpose of this study is to understand limitations and possibilities of organizing independent contractors by focusing on insurance solicitors in South Korea. Among various types of precarious employment, insurance solicitors are an exemplar case of independent contractor jobs in Korea. According to the narrow interpretation on the employment relationship by the courts, the labor standard law does not treat insurance solicitors as workers. And, most of insurance solicitors are not affiliated with labor unions. As a result, insurance solicitors are outside labor protections. Under this context, insurance solicitors attempted to organize their own union--Korean Insurance Agents' Union (KIAU) in the early 2000s, and turned it into a branch of Korean Finance and Service Workers' Union (KFSWU) in 2004. However, the KIAU lost its membership rapidly since the mid-2000s and has failed to revitalize itself until now. So, in this study, the author focuses on the changes in the employment structure behind the growth of the insurance industry in the private sector and the reason why union organizing of independent contractors was not successful.展开更多
文摘This editorial explores the clinical implications of organizing pneumonia(OP)secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis,as presented in a recent case report.OP is a rare condition characterized by inflammation in the alveoli,which spreads to alveolar ducts and terminal bronchioles,usually after lung injuries caused by infections or other factors.OP is classified into cryptogenic(idiopathic)and secondary forms,the latter arising after infections,connective tissue diseases,tumors,or treatments like drugs and radiotherapy.Secondary OP may be triggered by infections caused by bacteria,viruses,fungi,mycobacteria,or parasites.Key diagnostic features include subacute onset of nonspecific respira-tory symptoms such as dry cough,chest pain,and exertional dyspnea.Imaging with computed tomography scans typically reveals three patterns:(1)Bilateral subpleural consolidation;(2)Nodular consolidation;and(3)A reticular pattern.Bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage helps exclude other causes.Standard treatment consists of corticosteroid therapy tapered over 6 months to 12 months.This editorial highlights clinical and diagnostic strategies to ensure timely and effective patient care.
基金Supported by The Science and Technology Innovation Program of Changde City.
文摘BACKGROUND Organizing pneumonia secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis is rare.Moreover,the temporal boundary between pulmonary tuberculosis and secondary organizing pneumonia has not been defined.We report a case of secondary organizing pneumonia associated with pulmonary tuberculosis occurring after nine months of antituberculosis treatment.CASE SUMMARY A 54 years old man,previously diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis and tuberculous pleurisy,underwent nine months of antituberculosis treatment.Follow-up lung computed tomography revealed multiple new subpleural groundglass opacities in both lungs,and a lung biopsy confirmed organizing pneumonia.Treatment continued with anti-tuberculosis agents and hormone therapy,and subsequent dynamic pulmonary computed tomography exams demonstrated improvement in lesion absorption.No disease recurrence was observed after corticosteroid therapy discontinuation.CONCLUSION When treating patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis,if an increase in lesions is observed during anti-tuberculosis treatment,it is necessary to consider the possibility of tuberculosis-related secondary organizing pneumonia,timely lung biopsy is essential for early intervention.
文摘Adult-onset Stil's disease(AOSD)is a rare condition that lies between autoinflammatory syndrome and autoimmune disease.The main clinical manifestations include fever,chills,rash,joint swelling and pain,peripheral blood leukocytosis,splenomegaly,etc.It is a systemic disease affecting between 1 and 34 people per million.The average age of onset is 35 years old,with a slightly higher prevalence rate in women.Since AOSD lacks early specific symptoms and signs,non-specialist doctors have limited understanding of the disease,and patients are prone to clinical misdiagnosis,mistreatment,and delayed disease progression.This paper reports a patient whose AOSD was misdiagnosed as acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia.
文摘Both anti-glomerular basement membrane(GBM)disease and the anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody(ANCA)-associated vasculitis(AAV)are common causes of pulmonary-renal syndrome.Organizing pneumonia(OP),a special pattern of interstitial lung disease,is extremely rare either in AAV or anti-GBM disease.We report an old woman presented with OP on a background of co-presentation with both ANCA and anti-GBM antibodies.
文摘BACKGROUND Pulmonary fibrosis often occurs as a sequel of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19);however,in some cases,it can rapidly progress,similar to the acute exacerbation of interstitial lung disease.Glucocorticoids are the standard treatment for severe COVID-19 pneumonia requiring oxygen supply;however,the post-COVID-19 efficacy of high-dose steroid therapy remains unclear.Here,we presented a case of an 81-year-old man who developed acute respiratory failure after COVID-19 and was treated with glucocorticoid pulse therapy.CASE SUMMARY An 81-year-old man with no respiratory symptoms was admitted due to a diabetic foot.He had been previously treated for COVID-19 pneumonia six weeks prior.However,upon admission,he suddenly complained of dyspnea and required a high-flow oxygen supply.Initial simple chest radiography and computed tomography(CT)revealed diffuse ground-glass opacities and consolidation in both lungs.However,repeated sputum tests did not identify any infectious pathogens,and initial broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy did not result in any clinical improvement with the patient having an increasing oxygen demand.The patient was diagnosed with post-COVID-19 organizing pneumonia.Thus,we initiated glucocorticoid pulse therapy of 500 mg for three days followed by a tapered dose on hospital day(HD)9.After three days of pulse treatment,the patient's oxygen demand decreased.The patient was subsequently discharged on HD 41,and chest radiography and CT scans have almost normalized nine months after discharge.CONCLUSION Glucocorticoid pulse therapy may be considered when the usual glucocorticoid dose is ineffective for patients with COVID-19 sequelae.
文摘BACKGROUND Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia(COP),formerly known as bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia,is an extremely rare disease in pregnancy.In this case,we report on COP diagnosed in recurrent pneumonia that does not respond to antibiotics in pregnant woman.CASE SUMMARY A 35-year-old woman with no prior lung disease presented with concerns of chest pain with cough,sputum,dyspnea,and mild fever at 11 wk’gestation.She was diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia and treated with antibiotics;her symptoms improved temporarily.Four weeks after discharge,she was readmitted with aggravated symptoms.Chest computed tomography demonstrated multifocal patchy airspace consolidation and ground-glass opacities at the basal segments of the right lower lobe,at the lateral basal segment of the lower lobe,and at the lingular segment of the left upper lobe.Bronchoalveolar lavage revealed an increased lymphocyte count and a decreased CD4/CD8 ratio.Prednisolone(0.5 mg/kg/d)was administered for 10 d after the second admission.Dyspnea improved after 3 d of steroid treatment and other symptoms improved on the 5th day of steroid administration.Post-delivery transbronchial lung biopsy further revealed the presence of granulation tissue with fibroblasts in smallbronchiole lumens.CONCLUSION This case suggests that it is important to differentiate COP from atypical pneumonia in the deteriorated condition despite antibiotic treatment.
文摘To improve the nonlinear approximating ability of cerebellar model articulation controller(CMAC), by introducing the Gauss basis functions and the similarity measure based addressing scheme, a new kind of fuzzy CMAC with Gauss basis functions(GFCMAC) was presented. Moreover, based upon the improvement of the self organizing feature map algorithm of Kohonen, the structural self organizing algorithm for GFCMAC(SOGFCMAC) was proposed. Simulation results show that adopting the Gauss basis functions and fuzzy techniques can remarkably improve the nonlinear approximating capacity of CMAC. Compared with the traditional CMAC,CMAC with general basis functions and fuzzy CMAC(FCMAC), SOGFCMAC has the obvious advantages in the aspects of the convergent speed, approximating accuracy and structural self organizing.
基金Supported by the International Science and Technology Cooperation Project(2008DFA71750)the National Key Technology R&D Program(2008BAF32B00)~~
文摘A tool-wear monitoring system for metal turning operations is presented based on the combinative application of fuzzy logic and unsupervised neural network. A group of self-organizing map (SOM) neural networks is established based on the typical cutting condition combinations, and each of networks is corresponding to a typical cutting condition. For a specifie cutting condition, the fuzzy logic method is used to select an optimum trained SOM network. The proposed monitoring system, ealled the Fuzzy-SOM-TWC, is used to classify tool states based on the in-time measurement of force, aeoustic emission(AE), and motor eurrent signals. An approximate 98%--100% correct classification of tool-wear status is obtained by testing the system with a series data samples under freely selected cutting conditions.
文摘Determination of homogenous precipitation-based regions is a very important task in effective management of water resources. The present study tried to propose an effective precipitation-based regionalization methodology by conjugating both temporal pre-processing and spatial clustering approaches in a way to take advantage of multiscale properties of precipitation time series. Annual precipitation data of 51 years(1960-2010) for 31 rain gauges(RGs) were collected and used in proposed clustering approaches. Discreet wavelet transform(DWT) was used to capture the time-frequency attributes of the time series and multiscale regionalization was performed by using k-means and Self Organizing Maps(SOM) clustering techniques. Daubechies function(db) was selected as mother wavelet to decompose the precipitation time series. Also, proper boundary extensions and decomposition level were applied. Different combinations of the approximation(A) and detail(D) coefficients were used to determine the input dataset as a basis of spatial clustering. The proposed model's efficiency in spatial clustering stage was verified using three different indexes namely, Silhouette Coefficient(SC), Dunn index and Davis Bouldin index(DB). Results approved superior performance of k-means technique in comparison to SOM. It was also deduced that DWT-based regionalization methodology showed improvements in comparison to historical-based models. Cross mutual information was used to investigate the RGs of cluster 3's homogeneousness in DWT-k-means approach. Results of non-linear correlation approach verified homogeneity of cluster 3. Verifications based on mean annual precipitation values of rain gauges in each cluster also approved the capability of multiscale approach in precipitation regionalization.
文摘BACKGROUND Since the acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia(AFOP) was first described by Beasley in 2002, some case reports of patients aged from 38 d to 80 years have been published worldwide, but there is still no standard therapy for this disease and the treatment methods remain controversial. Both steroid and immunosuppressive agents, such as cyclophosphamide or mycophenolate mofetil, have been reported to be effective in some studies, but with many side effects, especially in patients of advanced age. CASE SUMMARY We herein report an 81-year-old female patient who was admitted to our hospital due to dry cough, and breathlessness for 1 mo. She was treated with broadspectrum antibiotics and anti-fungal therapy, but without improvement in both symptoms and radiological findings, and her respiratory status worsened, and she required bed rest almost the whole day. Computed tomography-guided percutaneous needle lung biopsy was performed and histopathology examination confirmed the diagnosis of AFOP. She was then successfully treated with a steroid monotherapy, which resulted in a satisfactory clinical outcome without serious complications. CONCLUSION We conclude that complete remission of AFOP can be achieved by steroid monotherapy in patients of advanced age.
文摘We theoretically analyze the organizing filament of small amplitude scroll waves in general excitable media by perturbation method and explicitly give the expressions of coefficients in Keener theory. In particular for the excitable media with equal diffusion, we obtain a close system for the motion of the filament. With an example of the Oregonator model, our results are in good agreement with those simulated by Winfree.
基金The research is supported by the foundation of National Social Science Planning Fund Project“Research on General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Thought of Ideals and Beliefs for Youth”(18BKS016).
文摘The mass organizing power is a distinctive feature of the Communist Party of China,an important criterion to test the nature of the proletarian party,and an essential condition to transform the Party’s organizational advantages into strength superiority.In order to improve the mass organizing power,on the basis of giving full play to the traditional advantages,we’re required to carry out the mass line,and from the perspective of political construction,highlight political functions,strengthening work practices and organization system,taking advantage of technologies,promoting capacity,and intensifying the sense of responsibility,thus to provide a steady stream of power for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
文摘One of the main disadvantages of fractal image data compression is a loss time in the process of image compression (encoding) and conversion into a system of iterated functions (IFS). In this paper, the idea of the inverse problem of fixed point is introduced. This inverse problem is based on collage theorem which is the cornerstone of the mathematical idea of fractal image compression. Then this idea is applied by iterated function system, iterative system functions and grayscale iterated function system down to general transformation. Mathematical formulation form is also provided on the digital image space, which deals with the computer. Next, this process has been revised to reduce the time required for image compression by excluding some parts of the image that have a specific milestone. The neural network algorithms have been applied on the process of compression (encryption). The experimental results are presented and the performance of the proposed algorithm is discussed. Finally, the comparison between filtered ranges method and self-organizing method is introduced.
文摘Varieties of approaches and algorithms have been presented to identify the distribution of elements. Previous researches based on the type of problem, categorized their data in proper clusters or classes. This means that the process of solution could be supervised or unsupervised. In cases, where there is no idea about dependency of samples to specific groups, clustering methods (unsupervised) are applied. About geochemistry data, since various elements are involved, in addition to the complex nature of geochemical data, clustering algorithms would be useful for recognition of elements distribution. In this paper, Self-Organizing Map (SOM) algorithm, as an unsupervised method, is applied for clustering samples based on REEs contents. For this reason the Choghart Fe-REE deposit (Bafq district, central Iran), was selected as study area and dataset was a collection of 112 lithology samples that were assayed with laboratory tests such as ICP-MS and XRF analysis. In this study, input vectors include 19 features which are coordinates x, y, z and concentrations of REEs as well as the concentration of Phosphate (P<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>) since the apatite is the main source of REEs in this particular research. Four clusters were determined as an optimal number of clusters using silhouette criterion as well as k-means clustering method and SOM. Therefore, using self-organizing map, study area was subdivided in four zones. These four zones can be described as phosphate type, albitofyre type, metasomatic and phosphorus iron ore, and Iron Ore type. Phosphate type is the most prone to rare earth elements. Eventually, results were validated with laboratory analysis.
文摘In this paper, we begin with the swift changes in the knowledge economy time,analyze the implication of the agility, and consider the agile virtual enterprise as the mainorganizational form for the manufacturing enterprises to realize agility. We classify the agilevirtual enterprises into products alliance style and knowledge alliance style, and compares theirmain features and profit distribution models. As a result, we give four basic structures for thebuilding and running of the agile virtual enterprises.
基金Supported by Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province,No.2021-MS-287。
文摘BACKGROUND Acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia(AFOP)is a rare,noninfective lung disease,histologically characterized by a patchy distribution of intra-alveolar fibrin“balls”and organizing pneumonia.The clinical manifestations of AFOP are nonspecific.Diagnosis depends on pathology.Surgical lung biopsy is optimal for tissue sampling to diagnose AFOP.However,many patients have no tolerance to the operation,including mentally and physically.There is still no standard therapy for AFOP and the methods remain controversial.Therefore,further clinical attention and discussion are warranted.CASE SUMMARY A 53-year-old woman presented with fever,cough and dyspnea for 15 d.Antiinfective therapy was ineffective.Chest computed tomography showed bilateral patchy consolidation,especially in the lower lobes.We performed both ultrasound-guided transbronchial lung biopsy and ultrasound-guided percutaneous fine needle puncture at different lung lesion locations.Both samples supported the diagnosis of AFOP.The patient had a good clinical course after treatment with methylprednisolone,and no side effects of steroids.CONCLUSION Percutaneous needle biopsy combined with transbronchial lung biopsies may be a good choice in the absence of surgical biopsy.Methylprednisolone alone is effective in the treatment of idiopathic AFOP.
文摘We investigated the factors predicting radiation-induced organizing pneumonia (RIOP) relapse after tangential breast irradiation. The participants included 23 patients diagnosed with RIOP at the St. Marianna University School of Medicine Hospital between January 2008 and March 2015. Relapse was defined as the appearance of new lesions on diagnostic images during follow-up or after commencing treatment. The relapse-free survival rate and the following 9 parameters were compared between patients with and without RIOP relapse: 1) age (less than vs. equal to or more than the median);2) white blood cell count (less than vs. equal to or more than the median);3) C-reactive protein (CRP) level at the time of RIOP diagnosis (less than normal, more than normal/ less than borderline, and more than borderline);4) boost irradiation (yes vs. no);5) maximum lung depth on linacgraphy (less than vs. equal to or more than the median);6) hormone therapy (yes vs. no);7) chemotherapy (yes vs. no);8) RIOP ratio in the whole lung (less than vs. equal to or more than the median) at the time of RIOP diagnosis;and 9) use of corticosteroids (yes vs. no). The Kaplan-Meier method was used for statistical analysis, with relapse as the cutoff. The follow-up period spanned the date of RIOP onset to May 30, 2015. The level of significance for 2-sided tests was p < 0.05. Relapse was evident in 14 patients (60.8%). The relapse-free survival rate was significantly greater in the normal CRP group (less than 0.30 mg/dl) than in the abnormal CRP group (more than 0.36 mg/dl) (p = 0.044) and in the normal/borderline CRP group (less than 0.36 mg/dl) than in the high CRP group (more than 0.70 mg/dl) (p < 0.01). The CRP level at RIOP onset may be a useful predictor of relapse after breast-conserving therapy.We investigated the factors predicting radiation-induced organizing pneumonia (RIOP) relapse after tangential breast irradiation. The participants included 23 patients diagnosed with RIOP at the St. Marianna University School of Medicine Hospital between January 2008 and March 2015. Relapse was defined as the appearance of new lesions on diagnostic images during follow-up or after commencing treatment. The relapse-free survival rate and the following 9 parameters were compared between patients with and without RIOP relapse: 1) age (less than vs. equal to or more than the median);2) white blood cell count (less than vs. equal to or more than the median);3) C-reactive protein (CRP) level at the time of RIOP diagnosis (less than normal, more than normal/ less than borderline, and more than borderline);4) boost irradiation (yes vs. no);5) maximum lung depth on linacgraphy (less than vs. equal to or more than the median);6) hormone therapy (yes vs. no);7) chemotherapy (yes vs. no);8) RIOP ratio in the whole lung (less than vs. equal to or more than the median) at the time of RIOP diagnosis;and 9) use of corticosteroids (yes vs. no). The Kaplan-Meier method was used for statistical analysis, with relapse as the cutoff. The follow-up period spanned the date of RIOP onset to May 30, 2015. The level of significance for 2-sided tests was p < 0.05. Relapse was evident in 14 patients (60.8%). The relapse-free survival rate was significantly greater in the normal CRP group (less than 0.30 mg/dl) than in the abnormal CRP group (more than 0.36 mg/dl) (p = 0.044) and in the normal/borderline CRP group (less than 0.36 mg/dl) than in the high CRP group (more than 0.70 mg/dl) (p < 0.01). The CRP level at RIOP onset may be a useful predictor of relapse after breast-conserving therapy.
文摘Background: Differentiating cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) from community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) can be difficult in some cases. Objective: To clarify the clinical utility of procalcitonin (PCT) levels for differentiating between COP and CAP. Methods: Blood PCT levels, leukocyte count, C-reactive protein concentration, number of segments involved on computed tomography (CT) images, and pneumonia severity assessment scale were retrospectively investigated from clinical charts and chest CT images of COP and CAP patients who were admitted to our hospital from 2012 to 2014. The clinical characteristics of COP patients were compared to those of CAP patients for whom causative organisms were not detected. Results: There were 16 COP and 94 CAP patients for whom causative organisms were not detected. Blood PCT levels of all COP patients were less than 0.16 ng/dL, and significantly lower than those of CAP patients (p = 0.0004), while the number of involved segments was significantly higher than that of CAP patients (p = 0.0001). Blood PCT levels and the number of involved segments remained independently significant for differentiating between COP and CAP by multivariate analysis. Receiver operating characteristics curve analysis revealed that 7 was the best cut-off number for involved segments to differentiate between COP and CAP patients with low PCT levels (sensitivity 85.7%, specificity 94.7%). Conclusion: A combination of PCT levels and number of involved segments on CT images is useful for differentiation between COP and CAP.
文摘In this paper we applied the technique of Self Organizing Map (SOM) to segment individuals based on their credit information. SOM is an unsupervised machine learning method that reduces data complexity and dimensionality while keeping sits original topology, which is superior to other dimension reduction methods especially when features in data have unclear nonlinear relations. Through this method we provide more clear and intuitive segmentation that other traditional methods cannot achieve.
文摘The purpose of this study is to understand limitations and possibilities of organizing independent contractors by focusing on insurance solicitors in South Korea. Among various types of precarious employment, insurance solicitors are an exemplar case of independent contractor jobs in Korea. According to the narrow interpretation on the employment relationship by the courts, the labor standard law does not treat insurance solicitors as workers. And, most of insurance solicitors are not affiliated with labor unions. As a result, insurance solicitors are outside labor protections. Under this context, insurance solicitors attempted to organize their own union--Korean Insurance Agents' Union (KIAU) in the early 2000s, and turned it into a branch of Korean Finance and Service Workers' Union (KFSWU) in 2004. However, the KIAU lost its membership rapidly since the mid-2000s and has failed to revitalize itself until now. So, in this study, the author focuses on the changes in the employment structure behind the growth of the insurance industry in the private sector and the reason why union organizing of independent contractors was not successful.