• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.151-165
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• 2008

Objectives : To evaluate the effects of Head Acupuncture versus Upper and Lower Limbs Acupuncture on signal activation of Blood Oxygen Level Dependent(BOLD) fMRI on the Brain and Somatosensory Cortex. Subjects and Methods : 10 healthy normal right-handed female volunteer were recruited. The average age of the 10 subjects was 30 years old. The BOLD functional MRI(fMRI) signal characteristics were determined during tactile stimulation was conducted by rubbing 4 acu-points in the right upper and lower limbs($LI_1$, $LI_{10}$, $LV_3$, $ST_{36}$). After stimulation of Head Acupuncture in Sishencong($HN_1$), $GB_{18}$, $GB_9$, $TH_{20}$ of Left versus Upper and Lower Limbs Acupuncture($LI_1$, $LI_{10}$, $LV_3$, $ST_{36}$ of Right) and took off needles. Then the BOLD fMRI signal characteristics were determined at the same manner. Results : 1. When touched with cotton buds(sensory stimulation), left Parietal Lobe, Post-central Gyrus, primary somatosensory cortex(BA 1, 2, 3), and primary motor cortex(BA 4) were mainly activated. When $ST_{36}$ was stimulated, Frontal Lobe, Parietal Lobe, Cerebellum, and Posterior Lobe as well as Inter-Hemispheric displaying a variety of regions. 2. In signal activation before and after Head Acupuncture reaction, it showed signal activation after removing the acupuncture needle and right Somatosensory Association Cortex, Postcentral Gyrus, and Parietal Lobe were more activated. 3. In reactions of before and after Upper and Lower Limb Acupuncture, it also showed signal activation after removing the acupuncture needle and bilateral Occipital Lobe, Lingual Gyrus, visual association cortex, and Cerebellum were activated. 4. After acupuncture stimulation, In Upper and Lower Limb Acupuncture Group, left frontal Lobe, Precentral Gyrus and Bilateral parietal lobe, Postcentral Gyrus and Primary Somatosensory Cortex(BA 2) were activated. In Head Acupuncture Group, which has most similar activation regions, but especially right Pre-Post central Gyrus, Primary Somatosensory Cortex(BA 3), Primary Motor Cortex, frontal Lobe and Parietal Lobe were activated. Conclusions : When sensory stimulation was done with cotton buds on four acup-points($LI_1$, $LI_{10}4, $LV_3$, $ST_{36}$), while bilaterally activated, contralateral sense was more dominant. It showed consistency with cerebral cortex function. When $ST_{36}$ was stimulated Frontal Lobe, Parietal Lobe, Cerebellum, Posterior Lobe as well as Inter-Hemispheric were stimulated. In Head Acupuncture, it showed more contralateral activation after acupuncture. In Upper and Lower Limb Acupuncture, it showed typically contralateral activation and deactivation of limbic system after acupuncture stimulation. Therefore, there were different fMRI BOLD signal activation reaction before and after Head Acupuncture vs Upper and Lower Limb Acupuncture which might be thought to be caused by acu-points' sensitivity and different sensory receptor to response acupuncture stimulation.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Sensory Integration
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2011

Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate attitude of grade-schoolers toward children with disabilities. Methods : The subjects of this study were grade-schoolers who have not received an inclusive education in Gim-hae. The study was surveyed from October second to 17th in 2008. The survey was categorized into three parts; comradeship, activity, and study. Each part of the survey consists of 10 questions. Data were analyzed by SPSS (version 12.0). Results : The results were as follows; First, the attitude of girls toward disabled students was non-significant compared to boys. Second, the order of attitude degree in grade of students was 4, 6, and 5. The attitude toward children with disabilities showed statistically significant difference according to grade(F=3.546, p<0.05). Third, the attitude of students who have experience of contact with people with disabilities was non-significant compared to non-experienced students. Conclusion : In conclusion, therefore peer groups in lower class levels showed more positive attitude toward the children with disabilities. The result will be useful information for understanding disabled children and making positive attitude. Also it is expected that occupational therapists help disabled children to participate in school life successfully using these information.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2020

The present study was aimed to explore the neuroprotective role of imatinib in global ischemia-reperfusion-induced cerebral injury along with possible mechanisms. Global ischemia was induced in mice by bilateral carotid artery occlusion for 20 min, which was followed by reperfusion for 24 h by restoring the blood flow to the brain. The extent of cerebral injury was assessed after 24 h of global ischemia by measuring the locomotor activity (actophotometer test), motor coordination (inclined beam walking test), neurological severity score, learning and memory (object recognition test) and cerebral infarction (triphenyl tetrazolium chloride stain). Ischemia-reperfusion injury produced significant cerebral infarction, impaired the behavioral parameters and decreased the expression of connexin 43 and phosphorylated signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (p-STAT3) in the brain. A single dose administration of imatinib (20 and 40 mg/kg) attenuated ischemia-reperfusion-induced behavioral deficits and the extent of cerebral infarction along with the restoration of connexin 43 and p-STAT3 levels. However, administration of AG490, a selective Janus-activated kinase 2 (JAK2)/STAT3 inhibitor, abolished the neuroprotective actions of imatinib and decreased the expression of connexin 43 and p-STAT3. It is concluded that imatinib has the potential of attenuating global ischemia-reperfusion-induced cerebral injury, which may be possibly attributed to activation of JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway along with the increase in the expression of connexin 43.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.831-842
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• 1997

The purpose of the study was to test the reliability and validity of the Korean version of Task Self-Efficacy Scale for activities of dally living (ADL). The Task Self-Efficacy Scale was developed by Roberts(1996) for low-intensity exercise study with older people to predict their performance of ADL. The scale was translated and back translated by bilingual persons, and then was modified to resolve variations in the translations. The Korean version of Self-Efficacy Scale for ADL was then administered to 193 elderly people including 95 hospitalized patients and 98 outpatients or healthy people. Face to face interview was used to fill out the structured questionnaire, and each interview took approximately 30 minutes. The subjects for the study were 80 women and 112 men with an age range of 65 to 95 years(M=71 years) of whom 82.6% classified themselves as moderate or quite active Most subjects(80.2%) had an education level of elementary school or less. The Self-Efficacy Scale for ADL is measured on a 0 to 10 VAS, assessing three areas of ADL : self care activities, household tasks, and motor tasks. The higher the score is, the higher person's confidence in performing ADL. Psychometric testing revealed that the scale was found to be internally consistent, showing a Cronbach's alpha of .97 The scale was significantly correlated with subjects' level of activity and subjective assessment of their health status. Moderate correlation with health-related hardiness scale also supported the validity. Factor analysis was performed to confirm whether the scale represents the three sub-areas as suggested in the literature. The results of the factor analysis led to a three factor solution according to Kaiser's criterion, but the items were not strongly and cleanly loaded for the third factor. This can be explained in that, among the three sub-ADL areas of the self-efficacy scale, the areas of self care activities and household tasks seem to have similar levels of difficulty in performance with not enough differences for the self-efficacy scale to distinguish between the two areas. Therefore, one factor solution was suggested since ADL can be seen as a unit of activities at similar level of difficulty in performance. One factor solution explained 68.1% of variance of the 19-item scale and all items were correlated over .6 with the factor, showing that the selected factor solution fits the model. The results indicated that the Korean version of Task Self-Efficacy Scale for ADL was reliable and valid in producing useful information to evaluate the effects of various interventions toward promoting health and quality of life for elderly people.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.651-660
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of task-oriented circuit training(: TOCT) on upper extremity function and quality of life in chronic stroke patients. 20 stroke patients were randomized and divided into 2 groups: a preservation therapy group and TOCT group. The intervention sessions were given five times a week for four weeks. The Stroke Impact Scale(: SIS), EuroQual-5Domains(: EQ-5D), Fugl-Myer Assessment(: FMA), Motor Activity Log(: MAL), Canadian Occupational Performance Measure(: COPM) were used to measure the upper extremity function and the quality of life. In results, Two groups improved in upper extremity function after the intervention(p<.05). The EQ-5D scores of TOCT group were a significantly higher than preservation group(p<.05). The Ironing, Folding towels, Hang out towels on drying rack in COPM scores in both of performance and satisfaction have improved more than preservation group(p<.05). In conclusion, the TOCT has significant helpful effect to chronic stroke patients. These findings can be used to chronic stroke patient as an intervention for upper extremity function and quality of life.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.445-452
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• 2015

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulatory technique that delivers a low-intensity direct current to the cortical areas, thereby facilitating or inhibiting spontaneous neuronal activity. This study was designed to examine the changes in various sensory functions after tDCS. A single-center, single-blinded, randomized trial was conducted to determine the effect of a single session (August 4 to August 29) of tDCS with the current perception threshold (CPT) in 50 healthy volunteers. Nerve conduction studies (NCS) were performed in relation to the median sensory and motor nerves on the dominant hand to discriminate peripheral nerve lesions. The subjects received anodal tDCS with 1mA for 15 minutes under two different conditions, with 25 subjects in each group. The conditions were as follows: tDCS on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and sham tDCS on DLPFC. The parameters of the CPT was recorded with a Neurometer$^{(R)}$ at frequencies of 2000, 250 and 5 Hz in the dominant index finger to assess the tactile sense, fast pain and slow pain, respectively. In the test to measure the CPT values of the DLPFC in the anodal tDCS group, the values increased significantly in all of 250 and 5 Hz. All CPT values decreased for the sham tDCS. These results showed that DLPFC anodal tDCS can modulate the sensory perception and pain thresholds in healthy adult volunteers. This study suggests that tDCS may be a useful strategy for treating central neurogenic pain in rehabilitation medicine.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.16-26
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• 2007

Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is a serine protease catalyzing the proteolytic conversion of plasminogen into plasmin, which is involved in thrombolysis. During last two decades, the role of tPA in brain physiology and pathology has been extensively investigated. tPA is expressed in brain regions such as cortex, hippocampus, amygdala and cerebellum, and major neural cell types such as neuron, astrocyte, microglia and endothelial cells express tPA in basal status. After strong neural stimulation such as seizure, tPA behaves as an immediate early gene increasing the expression level within an hour. Neural activity and/or postsynaptic stimulation increased the release of tPA from axonal terminal and presumably from dendritic compartment. Neuronal tPA regulates plastic changes in neuronal function and structure mediating key neurologic processes such as visual cortex plasticity, seizure spreading, cerebellar motor learning, long term potentiation and addictive or withdrawal behavior after morphine discontinuance. In addition to these physiological roles, tPA mediates excitotoxicity leading to the neurodegeneration in several pathological conditions including ischemic stroke. Increasing amount of evidence also suggest the role of tPA in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis even though beneficial effects was also reported in case of Alzheimer's disease based on the observation of tPA-induced degradation of $A{\beta}$ aggregates. Target proteins of tPA action include extracellular matrix protein laminin, proteoglycans and NMDA receptor. In addition, several receptors (or binding partners) for tPA has been reported such as low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP) and annexin II, even though intracellular signaling mechanism underlying tPA action is not clear yet. Interestingly, the action of tPA comprises both proteolytic and non-proteolytic mechanism. In case of microglial activation, tPA showed non-proteolytic cytokine-like function. The search for exact target proteins and receptor molecules for tPA along with the identification of the mechanism regulating tPA expression and release in the nervous system will enable us to better understand several key neurological processes like teaming and memory as well as to obtain therapeutic tools against neurodegenerative diseases.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.2055-2063
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to have a preliminary study in order to identify changes in occupational performance skills and visual perception of patients with mild dementia, who have been provided with a group occupational therapy program, within community day-care center. The subjects of this study were 9 people with mild dementia living in a community. The period of administration was for 60 minutes per session three times a week during four weeks. We assessed their visual perception function(MVPT) and occupational performance(AMPS). One group pre-post test design was implemented as an experimental study to compare the results between before and after applying the group occupational therapy program within sensory, physical, creative activity. While a statistically significant difference between before and after the program of motor skills(occupational performance skill) is not shown, the visual perception function and occupational performance of patients with mild dementia improved significantly after receiving occupational therapy program(p<0.01, p<0.05). Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the group occupational therapy program is helpful to manage the occupational performance skills and visual perception of patients with mild dementia in community day-care center.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.429-434
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• 2012

This paper presents a technology for manipulating external devices by Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system. Recently, BCI based rehabilitation and assistance system for disabled people, such as patient of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), general paralysis, and so on, is attracting tremendous interest. Especially, electroencephalogram (EEG) signal is used to organize the BCI system by analyzing the signals, such as evoked potential. The general findings of neurophysiology support an availability of the EEG-based BCI system. We concentrate on the event-related synchronization of motor imagery EEG signal, which have an affinity with an intention for moving control of external device. To analyze the brain activity, short-time Fourier transform and particle swarm optimization are used to optimal feature selection from the preprocessed EEG signals. In our experiment, we can verify that the power spectral density correspond to range mu-rhythm(${\mu}8$~12Hz) have maximum amplitude among the raw signals and most of particles are concentrated in the corresponding region. Result shows accuracy of subject left hand 40% and right hand 38%.

• Archives of Reconstructive Microsurgery
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 1997

A peripheral nerve when approximation of the ends imparts tension at the anastomosis and with a relatively long segment defect after excision of neuroma and neurofibroma cannnot be repaired by early primary suture. The one of the optimistic reconstruction method of severed peripheral nerves is to restore tension-free continuity at the repair site putting an autogenous nerve graft into the neural gap despite of ancipating motor or sensory deficit of the donor nerve area. To overcome the deficit of the autogenous nerve graft, several other conduits supplying a metabolically active environment which is able to support axon regeneration and progression, providing protection against scar invasion, and guiding the regrowing axons to the distal stump of the nerve have been studied. An author have used ipsilateral femoral vein, ipsilateral femoral vein filled with fresh thigh muscle, and autogenous sciatic nerve for the sciatic nerve defect of around 10 mm in length to observe the regeneration pattern in rat by light and electron microscopy. The results were as follows. 1. Light microscopically regeneration pattern of nerve fibers in the autogenous graft group was more abundant than vein graft and vein filled with muscle group. 2. On ultrastructural findings, the proxial end of the graft in various groups showed similar regenerating features of the axons, myelin sheaths, and Schwann cells. The fascicular arrangement of the myelinated and unmyelinated fibers was same regardless of the type of conduits. There were more or less increasing tendency in the number and the diameter of myelinated fibers correlated with the regeneration time. 3. In the middle of the graft, myelinated nerve fibers of vein filled with muscle group were more in number and myelin sheath was thinner than in the venous graft, but the number of regenerating axons in autogenous nerve graft was superior to that in both groups of the graft. The amount of collagen fibrils and amorphous materials in the endoneurial space was increased to elapsed time. 4. There was no difference in regenerating patterns of the nerve fibers of distal end of the graft. The size and shape of the myelinated nerve fbers were more different than that of proximal and middle portion of the graft. From the above results, the degree of myelination and regenerating activity in autogenous nerve is more effective and active in other types of the graft and there were no morphological differences in either ends of the graft regardless of regeneration time.