• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.232-236
• /
• 2012

Purpose: With an increase in life expectancy, more elderly patients are presenting with gastric cancer. As a result it is yet be resolved whether laparoscopy assisted distal gastrectomy is a suitable treatment for elderly patients with early gastric cancer. This study retrospectively compared surgical outcomes of laparoscopy assisted distal gastrectomy between elderly and nonelderly patients with gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: The study group was comprised of 316 patients who underwent laparoscopy assisted distal gastrectomy between April 2005 and December 2010. Of these patients, 93 patients whose ages were 65 years or more were compared with 223 patients who were younger. Results: There were no differences in the short term outcome or minor complication rate between the elderly patients and the nonelderly patients. The hospital stay was significantly longer and the major complication rate was significantly higher for the elderly patients compared with nonelderly patients. Conclusions: Laparoscopy assisted distal gastrectomy for early gastric cancer in the elderly patients had comparable operation time and blood loss with the nonelderly group. However, the safety and advantage of laparoscopy assisted distal gastrectomy in the elderly patients need to be further studied in higher volume trials.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.55-58
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of sea urchin shell powder, used in broiler diet, on Esherichia coli and Salmonella in litter produced by the broilers. A total of 120 broiler chickens were fed 1 of 3 treatment diets (10 chickens per pen) in a randomized block design treatments with 4 replications. Sea urchin shell powder was used in the concentrations of 0.5% and 1% in the basal diets; the control diet was constituted of basal diet. During the 3-week feeding trials, none of the treatments significantly affected the E. coli populations in poultry litter at weeks 0 and 1, nor did they affect the and S. enterica populations at weeks 1 and 3. However, dietary sea urchin shell powder addition affected the population of E. coli at weeks 2 and 3, and that of S. entericaat weeks 0 and 2 (P<0.05). It is therefore concluded that the use of dietary sea urchin shell powder (0.5% and 1%) will be beneficial enough to reduce E. coli, rather than S. enterica in poultry litter over short-term periods.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.73-89
• /
• 2006

Complementary and alternative medicine has gained popularity and respectability in recent years in the United States. Since aging is often associated with chronic health conditions that commonly lead to physical and psychosocial disabilities (e.g., depression, functional and/or cognitive disabilities, and decreased quality of life), older adults often seek options to maintain health and treat chronic conditions as an adjunct to conventional medical care. Herbal products, the most commonly used among various complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), should be used with caution due to potential herbal-drug interactions (related to polypharmacy) and herbal-disease interactions (related to comorbidities). Five of the most common chronic conditions in older adults are chronic pain, cardiovascular problems, hypertension, diabetes, and chronic lung problems. A high rate of falls or risk of falling is also a problem unique to this older population. For these conditions, only a few types of CAM (e.g., acupuncture, qi gong, tai chi) were tested, with promising results. However, in spite of evidence supporting the use of certain types of CAM to alleviate some common chronic conditions, findings are limited in terms of other types of CAM tested and both short and long-term effects. More rigorous clinical trials of various CAM types are thus warranted to advance scientific knowledge and establish evidence-based practices to care for the growing number of older adults who deserve to have a better quality of life.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.295-306
• /
• 1994

The object of this experiment was to suggest the suitable cutting frequency and cutting height for orchardgrass (0G)-red clover(RC) mixtures under the intensive system of short-term pasture utilization. The fields trials were conducted over 3-year period(1991-1993) to evaluate dry matter yield, botanical composition, chemical composition and CP, DDM yield on the cutting frequency (30, 40 and 50 days) and cutting height(5, 7 and 9cm) With decreasing the cutting frequency, the DM yield of OG in the OG-RC mixtures was significantly increased(P

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.212-215
• /
• 2019

Purpose: This study examined whether there is a difference in motor learning through short-term repetitive movement practice in stroke survivors with a unilateral brain injury compared to normal elderly participants. Methods: Twenty-six subjects who were divided into a stroke group (n=13) or sex-aged matched normal elder group (n=13) participated in this study. To evaluate the effects of motor learning, the participants conducted a tracking task for visuomotor coordination. The accuracy index was calculated for each trial. Both groups received repetitive tracking task training of metacarpophalangeal joint for 50 trials. The stroke group performed a tracking task in the upper extremity insi-lesional to the damaged hemisphere, and the normal elder group performed the upper extremity matched for the same side. Results: Two-way repetitive ANOVA revealed a significant difference in the interactions ($time{\times}group$) and time effects. These results indicated that the motor skill improved in both the stroke and normal elder group with a tracking task. On the other hand, the stroke group showed lesser motor learning skill than the normal elder group, in comparison with the amount of motor learning improvement. Conclusion: These results provide novel evidence that stroke survivors with unilateral brain damage might have difficulty in performing ipsilateral movement as well as in motor learning with the ipsilateral upper limb, compared to normal elderly participants.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.467-479
• /
• 2022

Working memory (WM), which plays a vital role in daily activities, is a memory system that temporarily stores and processes information when people are engaged in complex cognitive activities. The influence of music on WM has been widely studied. In this work, we conducted a series of n-back memory experiments with different task difficulties and multiple trials on 14 subjects under the condition of no music and Alpha wave leading music. The analysis of behavioral data show that the change of music condition has significant effect on the accuracy and time of memory reaction (p<0.01), both of which are improved after the stimulation of Alpha wave music. Behavioral results also suggest that short-term training has no significant impact on working memory. In the further analysis of electrophysiology (EEG) data recorded in the experiment, auto-regressive (AR) model is employed to extract features, after which an average classification accuracy of 82.9% is achieved with support vector machine (SVM) classifier in distinguishing between before and after WM enhancement. The above findings indicate that Alpha wave leading music can improve WM, and the combination of AR model and SVM classifier is effective in detecting the brain activity changes resulting from music stimulation.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.290-300
• /
• 2022

Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the safety of SU-Eohyeol pharmacopuncture (SUEP) by assessing its potential to cause chromosomal abnormalities in Chinese hamster lung cells (CHL/IC). Methods: A dose-curve was conducted to determine the highest dose of SUEP. Doses of 10, 5, 2.5, 1.25, 0.625, and 0.313% were used, and no cytotoxicity or SUEP precipitation was observed. SUEP doses of 10, 5, and 2.5%, with positive and negative controls, were used in a chromosome aberration test. Results: In this study, the frequency of abnormal chromosomal cells in the SUEP group did not show a statistically significant difference from that of the negative control group in short-term treatments with and without metabolic activation and the continuous treatment without metabolic activation. Compared with the negative control group, the positive control group had a significantly higher frequency of cells with structural chromosomal abnormalities. This test's results satisfied all conditions for determining the results. Conclusion: SUEP did not induce chromosomal aberrations under the conditions of this study. Other toxicity evaluations, safety studies in humans, and various clinical trials are required to evaluate the safety and efficacy of SUEP.

• Korean Circulation Journal
• /
• v.53 no.5
• /
• pp.273-293
• /
• 2023

Pulsed field ablation (PFA) was recently rediscovered as an emerging treatment modality for the ablation of cardiac arrhythmias. Ultra-short high voltage pulses are leading to irreversible electroporation of cardiac cells subsequently resulting in cell death. Current literature of PFA for pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) consistently reported excellent acute and long-term efficacy along with a very low adverse event rate. The undeniable benefit of the novel ablation technique is that cardiac cells are more susceptible to electrical fields whereas surrounding structures such as the pulmonary veins, the phrenic nerve or the esophagus are not, or if at all, minimally affected, which results in a favorable safety profile that is expected to be superior to the current standard of care without compromising efficacy. Nevertheless, the exact mechanisms of electroporation are not yet entirely understood on a cellular basis and pulsed electrical field protocols of different manufactures are not comparable among one another and require their own validation for each indication. Importantly, randomized controlled trials and comparative data to current standard of care modalities, such as radiofrequency- or cryoballoon ablation, are still missing. This review focuses on the "pearls" and "pitfalls" of PFA, a technology that has the potential to become the future leading energy source for PVI and beyond.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.9
• /
• pp.4327-4333
• /
• 2016

Purpose: To systematically review efficacyand safety of robotic gastrectomy (RG) compared with conventional laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG) for gastric carcinoma. Materials and Methods: A systematic literature search was carried out using PubMed, Cochrane Library, CBM, CNKI, WanFang, VIP and other sources like relevant references to obtain comparative studies assessing the effectiveness and safety between RG and LG published between 2013 and 2016. Then the literature was screened and the data were extracted by 2 independent reviewers. The quality of the literature was assessed, and the data analyzed using Stata/SE 14 software. Fixed effects or random effects models wereapplied according to heterogeneity. Results: A total of 12 non-randomized observational clinical studies involving 3,580 patients were included, of which 1,096 had undergone RG and 2,484 had received LG. The results of the meta-analysis showed in terms of effectiveness, RG was associated with less blood loss, less time to first flatus and greater number of harvested lymph nodes, but there were no significant differences in proximal and distal resection margins, compared with LG. In terms of efficiency, RG was associated with shorter hospital stay, but longer operative time. In terms of safety, there were no statistically significant differences in complications, mortality and conversions between RG and LG. Conclusions: RG can achieve comparable or better short-term and radical effects than LG, with respect to effectiveness, efficiency and safety in treatment of gastric carcinoma. Future studies involving RG should focus on decreasing operative time and reducing cost. Moreover, there is a need for randomized controlled trials comparing the two techniques with long-term follow-up.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.408-424
• /
• 2023

Central post-stroke pain (CPSP) is an incapacitating disorder that impacts a substantial proportion of stroke survivors and can diminish their quality of life. Conventional therapies for CPSP, including tricyclic antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and opioids, are frequently ineffective, necessitating the investigation of alternative therapeutic strategies. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is now recognized as a promising noninvasive pain management method for CPSP. rTMS modulates neural activity through the administration of magnetic pulses to specific cortical regions. Trials analyzing the effects of rTMS on CPSP have generated various outcomes, but the evidence suggests possible analgesic benefits. In CPSP and other neuropathic pain conditions, high-frequency rTMS targeting the primary motor cortex (M1) with figure-eight coils has demonstrated significant pain alleviation. Due to its associaton with analgesic benefits, M1 is the most frequently targeted area. The duration and frequency of rTMS sessions, as well as the stimulation intensity, have been studied in an effort to optimize treatment outcomes. The short-term pain relief effects of rTMS have been observed, but the long-term effects (> 3 months) require further investigation. Aspects such as stimulation frequency, location, and treatment period can influence the efficacy of rTMS and ought to be considered while planning the procedure. Standardized guidelines for using rTMS in CPSP would optimize therapy protocols and improve patient outcomes. This review article provides an up-to-date overview of the incidence, clinical characteristics, outcome of rTMS in CPSP patients, and future perspective in the field.