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Minimally invasive therapies using stent technology are currently limited by stent-induced granulation tissue formation adjacent to the stent. The effectiveness of photothermal therapy (PTT) using a gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-coated stent for treating stent-induced granulation tissue formation in the rat esophagus was investigated. All experiments were approved by the animal research committee of our institution. An AuNP-coated, self-expandable metallic stent (SEMS) was produced to conduct PTT under near-infrared laser irradiation. Forty rats were randomly divided into four groups (10 rats each). The animals in group A (non-coated SEMS) and group B (AuNP-coated SEMS with local heating at 65 °C at 4 weeks) were sacrificed 4 weeks after stent placement. The rats in group C (AuNP-coated SEMS with local heating at 65 °C at 4 weeks) and group D (AuNP-coated SEMS with local heating at 65 °C at 4 and 8 weeks) were sacrificed 8 weeks after stent placement. The effectiveness of local heating was assessed by histopathology. All procedures were successful in all of the animals. Seven rats were excluded because of stent migration (n = 2) and death (n = 5). Granulation tissue formation-related variables were significantly higher in group A than in groups B–D (all p  < 0.05). Heat-shock protein 70 (HSP70) and TUNEL expression were significantly lower in group A than in groups B–D (all p  < 0.05). Granulation tissue formation-related variables were significantly higher in group C than in groups B and D (all p  < 0.05). PTT using AuNP-coated SEMS successfully treated granulation tissue formation after stent placement in the rat esophagus.

This study investigates how International Relations (IR) as an academic discipline emerged and evolved in South Korea, focusing on the country's peculiar colonial and postcolonial experiences. In the process, it examines why South Korean IR has been so state-centric and positivist (American-centric), while also disclosing the ways in which international history has shaped the current state of IR in South Korea, institutionally and intellectually. It is argued that IR intellectuals in South Korea have largely reflected the political arrangement of their time, rather than demonstrate academic independence or leadership for its government and/or civil society, as they have navigated difficult power structures in world politics. Related to this, it reveals South Korean IR's twisted postcoloniality, which is the absence – or weakness – of non-Western Japanese colonial legacies in its knowledge production/system, while its embracing the West/America as an ideal and better model of modernity for South Korea's security and development. It also reveals that South Korean IR's recent quest for building a Korean School of IR to overcome its Western dependency appears to be in operation within a colonial mentality towards mainstream American IR.

China is seen as undemocratic, illiberal, and autocratic by many who live outside it, and the terms ＂democracy＂ and ＂China＂ are often difficult to reconcile. Nonetheless, Beijing has been actively employing the concept of democracy both domestically and on the international stage in recent years. This paper aims to critically examine how Beijing conceptualizes and advocates for democracy at home and abroad. It also endeavors to explore the implications for the country's domestic and global governance, particularly in relation to the US-centered liberal international order in the context of critical international relations studies. In so doing, this paper will focus methodologically on Beijing's official documents and state media outlets, presenting an argument that is twofold. First, by promoting its unique form of democracy known as ＂whole-process people's democracy,＂ Beijing domestically intertwines democracy with authoritarianism, hierarchy, and dictatorship. This whole-process people's democracy appears to function at home as a tool of regime security that is characterized by a rule that is of and for the people but not by the people. Second, China on the international stage has adopted Western-style liberal values to advocate for enhanced democracy in international relations. Through its strategic adoption of these liberal values, Beijing accuses the United States of a hegemonic liberal hypocrisy in international relations while appearing to aspire to a world that is fragmented into essentially different entities.

Although CT radiomics has shown promising results in the evaluation of vertebral fractures, the need for manual segmentation of fractured vertebrae limited the routine clinical implementation of radiomics. Therefore, automated segmentation of fractured vertebrae is needed for successful clinical use of radiomics. In this study, we aimed to develop and validate an automated algorithm for segmentation of fractured vertebral bodies on CT, and to evaluate the applicability of the algorithm in a radiomics prediction model to differentiate benign and malignant fractures. A convolutional neural network was trained to perform automated segmentation of fractured vertebral bodies using 341 vertebrae with benign or malignant fractures from 158 patients, and was validated on independent test sets (internal test, 86 vertebrae [59 patients]; external test, 102 vertebrae [59 patients]). Then, a radiomics model predicting fracture malignancy on CT was constructed, and the prediction performance was compared between automated and human expert segmentations. The algorithm achieved good agreement with human expert segmentation at testing (Dice similarity coefficient, 0.93–0.94; cross-sectional area error, 2.66–2.97%; average surface distance, 0.40–0.54 mm). The radiomics model demonstrated good performance in the training set (AUC, 0.93). In the test sets, automated and human expert segmentations showed comparable prediction performances (AUC, internal test, 0.80 vs 0.87, p = 0.044; external test, 0.83 vs 0.80, p = 0.37). In summary, we developed and validated an automated segmentation algorithm that showed comparable performance to human expert segmentation in a CT radiomics model to predict fracture malignancy, which may enable more practical clinical utilization of radiomics.

In this article we examine the ways in which middle power diplomacy (MPD) knowledge is produced in the South Korean IR community, specifically in the context of critical IR studies. In doing so, we attempt to address the questions of who produces MPD knowledge, why, for whom, and for what purposes, while also identifying the meta-theoretical underpinnings of MPD knowledge. Our critical review of the literature suggests that current South Korean MPD knowledge is a Korean version of hegemonic stability theory, which aims to secure the US liberal hegemony in world politics. We therefore argue that South Korean MPD knowledge may limit South Korea’s agency in IR as well as its scholarly thinking space for discerning novel ways of peacefully coexisting with others and sensing possible systemic transformations of global politics.

This article considers the 1950s postcolonial period in Korea after Japanese colonialism and the international context of the Cold War from the standpoint of the ROK and examines how the subaltern South Korean state (re)appropriated and (re)formulated the Cold War discourse of anti-communism in Asia. During that period, South Korea, along with other East Asian states, formed an international association called the Asian Peoples' Anti-Communist League (APACL). During the 1950s, the subaltern ROK thus joined a new, nuanced, Western-centric (if not colonial) structure—the Cold War—and proactively and strategically appropriated anti-communism to ensure its national survival. Carving out a place at the bottom of the Western-centric Cold War hierarchy became part of state building for non-Western South Korea. Moreover, the Cold War was a context in which ideology (anti-communism) mixed with blood (war and violence) on a daily basis. Subaltern South Korea was constitutive of the Cold War in Asia and beyond. Indeed, this article illustrates that the Cold War itself was a co-construction between the hegemonic powers and subalterns.

We report the design, fabrication and characterization of a carbon nanotube enabled open-type X-ray system for medical imaging. We directly grew the carbon nanotubes used as electron emitter for electron gun on a non-polished raw metallic rectangular-rounded substrate with an area of 0.1377 cm2 through a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition system. The stable field emission properties with triode electrodes after electrical aging treatment showed an anode emission current of 0.63 mA at a gate field of 7.51 V/μm. The 4.5-inch cubic shape open type X-ray system was developed consisting of an X-ray aperture, a vacuum part, an anode high voltage part, and a field emission electron gun including three electrodes with focusing, gate and cathode electrodes. Using this system, we obtained high-resolution X-ray images accelerated at 42–70 kV voltage by digital switching control between emitter and ground electrode.

This study aims to examine South Korean middle power diplomacy discourses using premodern Korea's diplomatic thinking-cum-practice of sadae (serving the great) as a heuristic device. It is argued that current discourses of South Korea as a middle power resonate with sadae because they strive to secure the existing liberal international order led by the West and the United States. It also argues that it is both necessary and healthy for South Korean middle power diplomacy studies to denaturalize its self-evident faith in the existing liberal international order-a not universal but particular order among several possible others in history-with South Korea celebrating and appropriating liberal values. This would prepare South Korean middle power diplomacy research to tackle uncertainty, difference, and pluralism in global politics while producing more responsible and responsive scholarship in international relations.

This study contributes to the nascent worlding of the study of normative power by undertaking a parallel assessment of Normative Power Europe (NPE) and Normative Power China (NPC). There seems to have been a qualitative change in the EU's and China's international standing. While in the immediate post-Cold War period the EU was asserting its ability to set the range of legitimate international behavior and China appeared to be a reactive adopter of such norms, in recent years China is positioned as a normative entrepreneur and the EU's ability has been challenged both in Europe and internationally. This study claims that such change in fortunes is not merely a result of recent developments, but pivots on the distinct repertoires of NPE and NPC – acquis communautaire for the EU and guanxi for China. The acquis communautaire suggests a \"rule-based\" framework for setting what passes for \"normal\" in global life, while guanxi offers a \"relational\" one. Such distinct points of departure have led to the evolution of distinct concepts and practices of normative power. The comparative study of NPE and NPC concludes by drawing attention to the nascent struggle for recognition of normative powers in global life. Bu çalışma, Normatif Güç Avrupa (NGA) ve Normatif Güç Çin (NGÇ)'i değerlendirerek yeni oluşmakta olan normatif güç çalışmalarına katkı sağlamaktadır. AB ve Çin'in uluslararası konumlarında niteliksel bir değişme olduğu gözlenmektedir. Soğuk Savaş sonrası dönemde, AB uluslararası alanda meşru olarak kabul edilen davranışların kapsamını belirleme kapasitesi olduğunu ileri sürerken, Çin bu tarz normları reaktif bir şekilde benimser görünmekteydi. Son yıllarda ise Çin normatif bir girişimci olarak kendini konumlandırırken, AB'nin yetkinliğine hem Avrupa'da hem de uluslararası alanda meydan okunmaktadır. Bu makale, yaşanan değişimin sadece son zamanlarda yaşanan gelişmelerin bir sonucu olmadığını, NGA ve NGÇ'nin eksenlerinin de belirleyici olduğunu savunmaktadır. Topluluk müktesebatı, küresel düzende \"normal\" olarak kabul edilenin \"kural temelli\" bir çerçeve içinde belirlenmesi gerektiğini savunurken, guanşi \"bağlamsal\" bir çerçeve önermektedir. Bu farklı ayrılma noktaları, normatif gücün farklı konsept ve pratiklerinin gelişimine neden olmaktadır. NGA ve NGE'nin karşılaştırıldığı bu çalışma, küresel düzende normatif güçlerin tanınması için ortaya çıkmakta olan mücadeleye dikkati çekerek sona ermektedir.