Morgellons disease is a rare disease with unknown etiology. Herein, we report the first case of Morgellons disease in Korea. A 30-year-old woman presented with a 2-month history of pruritic erythematous patches and erosions on the arms, hands, and chin. She insisted that she had fiber-like materials under her skin, which she had observed through a magnifying device. We performed skin biopsy, an...

We evaluated the relation of specific sources and components of fiber with diagnosis of distal colon (n = 531) or rectal (n = 159) adenomatous polyps or hyperplastic (n = 327) polyps in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. We studied 16,448 men free of cancer or polyps in 1986, who underwent endoscopy in 1986-1994, and who provided diet and medical history. Relative risks (RRs) and 95% con...

Let X be a semi-stable arithmetic surface over the spectrum S of the ring of integers in a number field K. We assume that the generic fiber XK is geometrically irreducible and has positive genus. Consider a line bundle L on X , which is non-negative on every vertical fiber and equipped with an admissible metric (in the sense of Arakelov [A]) of positive curvature. In [S] we have shown that any ...

The impact of dietary fiber on fecal digestion is well-known and provides a comprehensive approach toward nutrient digestibility and availability. Little quantitative information is available on digestion of fiber in the different segments of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). The objectives of this study were to obtain a method allowing the quantification of the digestive process in different s...

Amplification and simultaneous phase regeneration of DPSK signals is demonstrated using a phase-sensitive amplifier. Phase-sensitive gain is achieved in a Sagnac fiber interferometer comprised of nonpolarization maintaining, highly nonlinear fiber operating in the un-depleted pump regime. Both the pump and signal are RZ-DPSK pulse trains. The amplifier is capable of producing greater than 13 dB...

We generate sub-four-cycle pulses (41.6 fs) with 12 μJ of pulse energy in the mid-infrared spectral range (center wavelength 3.4 μm) from a high-repetition-rate, collinear three-stage optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA) operating at 50 kHz. Apodized aperiodically poled MgO:LiNbO3 crystals with a negative chirp rate are employed as gain media to achieve ultrabroadband phase-matchi...

This paper presents the design & simulation of an Optical Fiber Bragg Grating (OFBG) sensor for stress, strain measurement and also demonstrates the methodology to arrive at the optimal grating pitch dimensions for a given interrogating wavelength. The wavelength chosen for interrogation of the Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor is from the third window so as to minimize the attenuation of the li...

In some patients, eosinophilic gastroenteritis(EG) occurs in those with food allergy. We experienced a non-atopic asthmatic who had an EG associated with food allergy to fish and eggs, and blood eosinophilia. A skin prick test and RAST to causative food allergens showed a negative result. A fiber-optic endoscopic biopsy from the gastric mucosa showed an intense eosinophilic infiltration. We cou...

We have systematically measured the differential stress-optic coefficient, DeltaC, in a number of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) fibers drawn with different stress, ranging from 2 up to 27 MPa. DeltaC was determined in transverse illumination by measuring the dependence of birefringence on additional axial stress applied to the fiber. Our results show that DeltaC in PMMA fibers has a negative...

During eukaryotic transcription, RNA-polymerase activity generates torsional stress in DNA, having a negative impact on the elongation process. Using our previous studies of chromatin fiber structure and conformational transitions, we suggest that this torsional stress can be alleviated, thanks to a tradeoff between the fiber twist and nucleosome conformational transitions into an activated sta...