Lipid Profile Change after Thyroidectomy

Chih Hao Chu,Soo Young Kim,Yong Sang Lee,Hang-Seok Chang 대한갑상선-내분비외과학회 2020 The Koreran journal of Endocrine Surgery Vol.20 No.3

Purpose: Thyroid diseases and lipid metabolic abnormalities have been reported to be correlated. In patients with thyroid cancer, thyroid stimulating hormone levels are suppressed to prevent recurrence. Many studies have reported dyslipidemia associated with thyroid function, although its extent before and after thyroidectomy remains to be studied. This study aimed to determine the lipid levels for administering accurate lipid treatment in thyroid cancer patients post thyroidectomy. Methods: In total, 1,203 patients with thyroid cancer who underwent thyroidectomy between June 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016 at the Thyroid Cancer Center, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University, were enrolled in the study. Of these, patients aged <19 years and taking medication for dyslipidemia were excluded. Finally, we enrolled 295 thyroid cancer patients who underwent thyroidectomy and whose lipid profiles were confirmed pre- and post-operatively. Results: The total cholesterol levels in the lobectomy group without levothyroxine supplementation were significantly increased 1 year after surgery than those before surgery (168.17±29.19 mg/dL vs. 182.50±34.03 mg/dL, P=0.003). Additionally, the triglyceride (TG) levels were significantly decreased in the lobectomy with levothyroxine supplementation and total thyroidectomy groups, whereas cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels showed no significant change. No significant changes in the levels of cholesterol, LDL-C, and TG were observed in all the 3 groups. Conclusion: Extent of surgery and levothyroxine supplementation had an insignificant impact on the levels of cholesterol, LDL-C, TG, and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol compared pre- and post-operatively.

Design Customization of Respiratory Mask based on 3D Face Anthropometric Data

Chih-Hsing Chu,Szu-Hao Huang,Chih-Kai Yang,Chun-Yang Tseng 한국정밀공학회 2015 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol. No.

This study presents a machine learning based method for design customization of a 3D respiratory mask. A parametric model of a3D human face was constructed from an anthropometric database consisting of 495 facial models. An AdaBoost.R algorithm wasapplied to identify a set of measurable parameters most related to the facial geometry. The correlation between parameters wasestimated using principal component analysis and linear regression. With those parameter values as input, the parametric modelgenerates 3D meshes of a human face that serve as a design reference for the construction of a customized respiratory mask of agood fit. We conducted a series of experiments with 10-fold cross-validation to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Classifying Endemic Fagaceae Species in Taiwan using Leaf Images

( Hao-chun Hsu ),( Cheng-hao Lee ),( Chih-kai Yang ),( Fang-hua Chu ),( Ming-jer Tsai ),( Yan-fu Kuo ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

Fagaceae is one of the plant family which dominate the broad-leaved forests in Taiwan and have considerable value in economy and ecology. Traditionally, plant species identification based on leaf morphologies and is conducted using naked-eye observation. This study is proposed to distinguish the Fagaceae species using image processing and machine learning. In this study, leaf images of 10 Fagaceae species were collected. A serial of traits relevant to leaf morphologies, such as morphological, color, shape, and venation traits, were quantified from the leaf images. A support vector machine classifier was then developed to identify the species using the quantified traits. The proposed approach reached an identification accuracy of 95.8%.

Eosinophilia in Pleural Effusions: a Speculative Negative Predictor for Malignancy

Chu, Fang-Yeh,Liou, Ching-Biau,Sun, Jen-Tang,Bei, Chia-Hao,Liou, Tse-Hsuan,Tan, N-Chi,Yu, Yun-Chieh,Chang, Chih-Chun,Yen, Tzung-Hai,Su, Ming-Jang Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2016 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.17 No.3

Background: Eosinophilic pleural effusion (EPE) is an eosinophil count more than 10% on cytology of pleural samples. Recently, it was reported that malignancy had been the most prevalent cause inducing EPE. Therefore, we conducted an analysis on the prevalence and etiology of EPE and investigated the relationship between EPE and malignancy. Materials and Methods: Data for pleural cell differential count from patients receiving thoracentesis during the period from January 2008 to December 2013 were compared with clinical data and established diagnosis of patients obtained via electronic chart review. Results: A total of 6,801 requests of pleural cytology from 3,942 patients with pleural effusion who had received thoracentesis were available at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital from 2008 to 2013, and of these subjects, 115 (2.9%) were found to have EPE. The most frequent cause of EPE was malignancy (33.0%, n=38), followed by parapneumonic effusions (27.8%, n=32), tuberculosis pleuritis (13.9%, n=16), transudate effusions (12.2%, n=14) and the presence of blood or air in pleural space (10.4%, n=12). Additionally, an inverse relationship of eosinophilia in pleural fluid was identified in patients with malignancy and EPE. The cut-off eosinophil count in pleural fluid was 15% for the most accurate discrimination between malignancy and benign disorders in patients with EPE. At the cut-off level, the sensitivity and specificity were 65.8% and 67.5%, respectively. Conclusions: Pleural fluid eosinophilia was a speculative negative predictor for malignancy, despite the fact that cancers, including lung cancers and metastatic cancers to lung, were the most leading cause of pleural fluid eosinophilia. An inverse correlation was observed between the pleural eosinophil percentage and the likelihood of malignancy in patients with EPE.

Clinical Significance of Smudge Cells in Peripheral Blood Smears in Hematological Malignancies and Other Diseases

Chang, Chih-Chun,Sun, Jen-Tang,Liou, Tse-Hsuan,Kuo, Chin-Fu,Bei, Chia-Hao,Lin, Sheng-Jun,Tsai, Wei-Ting,Tan, N-Chi,Liou, Ching-Biau,Su, Ming-Jang,Yen, Tzung-Hai,Chu, Fang-Yeh Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2016 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.17 No.4

Background: It is reported that the percentage of smudge cells in the blood smear could be a prognostic indicator in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. However, the clinical significance of smudge cells in other hematological malignancies, solid tumors or non-malignant diseases is less clear. Hence, this study was conducted to survey the clinical significance of smudge cells in hematological cancers and other disorders. Materials and Methods: From January to November, 2015, the clinical data of patients who received blood examination with differential counts for clinical purpose and were found to have smudge cells in the peripheral blood film in Far Eastern Memorial Hospital were selected. The percentage of smudge cells and patient outcomes were evaluated for further univariate and survival analyses. Results: A total of 102 patients with smudge cells in their blood smears were included. Smudge cells were frequently presented in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA; n=30), infections (n=23), hematological cancers (n=23) and solid cancers (n=10). There was no relationship between the percentage of smudge cells and the patient mortality in all diseases (OR: 1.08, 95% CI: 0.47-2.48, P=1.000) as well as the OHCA group (OR: 1.91, 95% CI: 0.38-9.60, P=0.694). It was observed that in patients with all cancers with the percentage of smudge cells less than 50% had a lower mortality rate in comparison with those who had the percentage of smudge cells of 50% or more (OR: 22.29, 95% CI: 2.38-208.80, P<0.001). Additionally, it was seemingly that patients with smudge cells of 50% or more had a lower survival rate than those with smudge cells less than 50% in all cancers with follow-up at 2-month intervals, but without statistical significance (P=0.064). Conclusions: Our survey indicated that in all cancers, those who had higher percentage of smudge cells were prone to have poor outcomes when compared with the subjects with lower percentage of smudge cells. This finding was quite different from the results of previous studies in which the race-ethnicity of most study populations was non-Asian; hence, further investigations are required. Besides, there was no apparent association of the percentage of smudge cells with patient outcomes in all diseases, including OHCA.

A Smart Manufacturing Solution for Multi-Axis Dispenser Motion Planning in Mixed Production of Shoe Soles

Yuan-Ping Luh,Liao-Chuan Huang,Hao-Jan Lu,Chih-Hsing Chu 한국정밀공학회 2020 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.7 No.3

Mixed production is a practical solution to realize the idea of mass product customization. The production system needs to adapt to raw materials of product variants appearing in the production line, and thus to properly complete the manufacturing task. Such system autonomy is a core competence in smart manufacturing. This paper presents a smart manufacturing solutionfor shoe sole gluing in mixed production environment. The solution automatically guides a 5-axis CNC dispensing machine to perform the gluing task of a sole randomly placed on the worktable without use of fi xturing. A single RGB-D camera is used to capture the color and depth data of the work environment. A two-stage algorithm is implemented to provide the intelligence required by the solution using the captured data as input. The LINEMOD method fi rst determines a rough pose from training data of all shoe soles at pre-defi ned orientations. A trimmed interactive closest point (ICP) method then refi nes the pose using the rough one as the initial solution. Pre-determined working paths are transformed into the correct location around the sole with the refi ned pose. The corresponding motion commands drive the dispenser controller to complete the gluing task without collision. Test results of real shoe soles validate the eff ectiveness of the proposed solution. This work contributes to smart manufacturing in the shoe making industry, which has been less studied in the past.