Earticle

Influenza virus undergoes continuous changes, evolving into different types every year; in fact, there are up to 198subtypes of the influenza virus. Each subtype infects a different animal species and has different levels of infectivity. The infection pattern and time of outbreak of each subtype can be analyzed to predict its infectivity. Conventional approaches involve the use of simple DNA or protein sequencing methods to evaluate the viral toxicity. However, this approach cannot explain complex biological behavior resulting from various interactions. In this study, a new mathematical model was developed to evaluate the central dogma, and the model was used to predict the pandemic, epidemic, or reassortment nature of the virus.

Implantable Drug Delivery System (IDDS) emerges as an achievement in healthcare that promises to optimize the therapeutic properties of drug and reduce the risks in life threatening disorders like cancer, ischemic heart attack, brain stroke, aids. The design of an implantable drug delivery system that has been made viable by the convergence of a controller for decision making and a drug delivery mechanism that delivers drug at the site of action has been discussed. This paper presents a first of its kind survey on the need for an implantable drug delivery system along with the research projects being carried out in the area of control design and drug delivery mechanisms. The advantages of IDDS are detailed with the challenges and design constraints that are faced while designing these systems. With IDDS, the patient compliance and quality of life can be enhanced considerably. This paper also investigates the possible future research scope and applications of IDDS such as for chronic disorders that need to be regularly monitored and timely treated.

This paper is to develop a comprehensive model for measuring information system performance for treating chronic adhesive capsulitis. The data were collected by interview and questionnaires from August 10 to September 25, 2015. The X²-test was used to observe a statistically significant difference of general characteristics between experimental and control group. As a result, firstly, for marital status, the percent of single (21.3%) in the experimental group were significantly a lower rate than the proportion (36.0%) of single in the control group (X²=3.41, p<0.05). Secondly, for the effectiveness of massage therapy, respondents’ score (32.19±0.57) after application significantly increased than respondents (17.59±1.55) before application of a comprehensive model (t=-0.16, p=0.00). Thirdly, for health practice, the result of follow-up survey in patients with adhesive capsulitis of shoulder, the mean scores of health practice showed an increase in the experimental group, regardless of the time elapsed of 60 days after the information application. Therefore, the comprehensive model of this system will contribute to reducing chronic adhesive capsulitis of shoulder in the future.

A growing number of patients are supported by dialysis in older age. Care of these patients can be challenging due to chronic healthcare conditions, diminished quality of life, and an increased risk of death. The purposes of this study were to measure self-care behaviors in elderly hemodialysis (HD) patients and to identify variables associated with self-care behaviors. The subjects were 113 elderly patients on HD who visited a tertiary hospital in Seoul between November 5th and 30th, 2012, and consented to participate in the study. The SPSS WIN 15.0 program was used of data analysis. The mean score for self-care behaviors was 3.14. Caring for an arteriovenous fistula, followed by taking medication showed the highest scores for self-care activities, and engaging in social activities and diet control showed the lowest scores. The mean score for social support was 76.8. Significant negative correlation was observed between self-care behaviors and serum phosphorus, and potassium concentration, and significant positive correlation was observed between self-care behaviors and social support. Age, education level, and social support predicted value accounted for 36.8% of the variance in self-care behaviors in elderly hemodialysis patients. Dialysis providers should recognize self-care behaviors as an important nursing issue for elderly hemodialysis patients, and self-care and self-efficacy training should be provided to improve patients’ confidence in performing self-care behaviors.

Simulated gait experiments have provided evidence of the possibility of falls when test subjects experienced abnormal gait (fluctuating gait cycle). Falls will lead to increased healthcare and social cost. This study explored the possibility to classify normal gaits (stable gait cycle) and abnormal gaits. A triaxial accelerometer was used to capture 3-dimensional values of trunk acceleration data for 144 healthy subjects. Normal and abnormal gait experiments were carried out and the experiment data was analyzed statistically. Quantitative analysis results revealed significant differences between the values of trunk acceleration of normal and abnormal gaits. The values of trunk acceleration of abnormal gaits in medio-lateral, anterior-posterior and vertical directions are 257%, 376% and 217% larger than those of a normal gait respectively. A threshold based algorithm to classify normal and abnormal gaits was proposed and evaluated by the developed prototype classifier using the smartphone. The prototype classifier has achieved 100% accuracy in the ability to classify normal and abnormal gaits.

Emerging of global infectious diseases threat to worldwide induced numerous patients through person to person infection. In previous study, we investigated effects of traveling nationwide using expressway data on the spread of H1N1 influenza virus in Korea during 2009–2010. As a result, influenza epidemic patterns of the 2009 were correlated with some region traffic flow. In this study, we focused on Seoul which region is a highest density of population in Korea. Also using system dynamics-based simulation of the spread of an infectious disease in each of the 25 districts in Seoul was performed. Consequently, the decrease in the number of infected people in the district with a large floating population size was more significant than that with a high population density. This study is meaningful as it visualized the number of infected people on the map, which includes actual geographical information and the changes over time in the number of individuals that belong to S, I, and R classes of population. Also mathematical model based on Korea unique traffic and population movement information could be used. These results can be applying additional population and traffic data in the future, and support making decisions when establishing an effective infectious disease control strategy.

Musculoskeletal modeling nowadays is becoming the most common tool for studying and analyzing human motion. Besides its potential in predicting muscle activity and muscle force during active motion, musculoskeletal modeling can also calculate many important kinetic data that are difficult to measure in vivo, such as joint force or ligament force. This paper will validate muscle activity predicted by the model during a static motion like knee flexion motion (squat motion). In this experiment, knee flexion motion was performed by 5 healthy subjects and modeled by using Gait Lower Extremity model from AnyBody Modeling System (AMS). Eight lower limb muscle activity prediction from the model will be validated by 8 EMG electrodes that measured the same muscles during squat motion. Muscle activity pattern and the position of onset would be used as a key factor in this validation study. Pearson correlation coefficient will be used to compare the pattern of both graphs. Knee joint force prediction from the model will also be compared with the literature studies. The result showed that 3 muscles showed high correlation coefficient, while the other 4 muscles showed slightly medium and one showed low correlation. Time delay of muscle activation between the model and EMG was recorded from Vastus Medialis muscle (18.38 ms) and Vastus Lateralis (22.8 ms), with muscle activation from the model was late compared to EMG. In conclusion, this statistical study has shown some detail differences between EMG and muscle activity prediction from the model. Knee flexion motion can be used as a trap motion when validating muscle activity of a musculoskeletal model, because the model will activate muscle activity based on motion data of markers, while in knee-flexed position, there was no marker’s movement, but the EMG was highly active due to the posture of the subjects in maintaining the knee-flexed position. However, the knee compressive force prediction from the model has showed positive confirmation from the literatures.

This randomized controlled study with a comparative experimental design investigated the effects of using lidocaine spray with regard to the pain and anxiety of patients administered a contrast medium during venipuncture. Data were collected from 55 patients who visited the Department of Radiology at N General Hospital, Seoul, for undergoing computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, met the subject-selection criteria, and provided consent for participating in the study during February and March 2015. The visual analog scale (VAS) was used to measure subjective pain, and the objective pain behavior checklist developed by Park was used to measure objective pain. Subjective anxiety was measured using the VAS, and the anxiety state was measured using the anxiety scale revised and supplemented by Leek. The study found that the experimental group sprayed with lidocaine during venipuncture scored significantly lower points for subjective pain (t = -2.86, p = .006), objective pain (t = -3.82, p < .001), subjective anxiety (F = 4.36, p = .042), and anxiety state (F = 5.02, p = .028) than did the control group. These findings indicate that lidocaine spraying influences pain reduction.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of selective functional movement assessment (SFMA)-based therapeutic corrective exercise on knee joint pain in a patient with patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) after pregnancy. PFPS is one of the most common causes of knee pain. The present study was conducted in a 35-year-old woman with chronic PFPS following pregnancy. She was seen every other day, 3 times a week for 8 weeks. Physical therapy was performed for tight muscles and fascia in the front, rear, left, and right following mat relaxation, with use of a form roller and corrective exercises suitable for SFMA after simple manual therapy. Corrective exercises were performed with pattern assist, unload, pattern assist with load, and load, based on a 4 × 4 matrix and the patient's status and exercise capacity. For each corrective exercise, photographic materials were also provided so that the patient could carry out the corrective exercises at home. The treatment time per session was 50 minutes. Multi-Segmental Flexion showed improvement from Dysfunctional Non-painful (DN) to Functional Non-painful (FN), Multi-Segmental Extension showed improvement from DP to FN, Single Leg Stance (both right and left) showed improvement from DN to FN, and Overhead Deep Squat showed improvement from DP to FN. The Straight Leg Raising (SLR) test showed an increase on the right from 82° to 90° and from 63° to 81° on the left. The Kujala questionnaire score increased from 63 to 94. The visual analogue scale (VAS) score decreased from 8 to 3. SFMA-based therapeutic corrective exercise was effective for chronic PFPS after pregnancy in this patient

There are many medical imaging modalities used for the analysis and cure of various diseases. One of the most important of these modalities is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). MRI is advantageous over other modalities due to its high spatial resolution and the excellent capability of discrimination of soft tissues. In this paper, an automated classification approach of normal and pathological MRI is proposed. The proposed model three simple stages; preprocessing, feature extraction and classification. Two types of features; color moments and texture features have been considered as main features for the description of brain MRI. A probabilistic classifier based on logistic function has been used for the MRI classification. A standard data set consisting of one hundred and fifty images has been used in the experiments, which was divided into 66% training and 34% testing. The proposed approach gave 98% accurate results for training data set and 94% accurate results for the testing data set. For validation of the proposed approach, 10-Fold cross validation was applied, which gave 90.66% accurate results. The classification capability of probabilistic classifier has been compared with the different state of art classifiers, including Support Vector Machine (SVM), Naïve Bayes, Artificial Neural Network (ANN), and Normal densities based linear classifier.

Parkinson's disease is a chronic progressive disease of the nervous system associated with the basal ganglia and is characterized by rigidity, bradykinesia, tremor, and insta-bility of posture. In addition, it causes indirect disabilities and complications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of self-check home exercise on fall prevention in patient with Parkinson’s disease. The present study included 20 patients who met the study criterion, which was a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. The present study was conducted over 12 weeks in the exercise therapy center of the G University Hospital. Periodically, once a month at the first, fifth, and ninth-week sessions, a neurosurgeon, a rehabilitation physician, a nurse in charge of neurosurgery programs dedicated to Park-inson's disease, a physiotherapist, and an occupational therapist attended the home exer-cises program to provide group lessons to subjects, to provide feedback regarding the home exercises program, and to carry out a self-monitoring checklist performance rate. The results showed significant differences in TUG, FRTA, FRTP, FES, STS, 10MWT, MBI, and QoL (p<.05). The present study involved showing patients with Parkinson's disease how to easily perform home exercises and how to provide ongoing feedback for motivation. The home exercises program of the present study is expected to improve the lives of patients with Parkinson's disease.

One of the foremost issues in material, spiritual and cultural development is self-management of personal health. The concept of personal health management includes the maintenance and promotion of human health, regular living, physical fitness and improvement, and disease prevention. In this paper, a mobile health care hospital service platform for optimal personal health management is proposed. It not only improves upon the problem of a complex visiting route, but also reduces waiting time for health care through a mobile application provided by the hospital service platform. In such cases, the hospital service platform provides convenient personal health care services and appropriate management of personal health.

This paper compares the performance of Genetic Algorithm and Population-based Incremental Learning algorithm on a student ranking application. The proposed student ranking application focuses on proving the students’ achievements in fields like attendance, achievements and backlogs apart from academics. This application produces the output according to the prioritized weights inputted by the user. Genetic Algorithm and Population-based Incremental Learning is evolutionary search based optimization algorithm which can arrive at near-optimal solution faster by using randomized techniques. These are stochastic search based algorithms that include randomness to escape local optima. The two algorithms are compared based on the accuracy of optimal value, number of generations and time taken to reach optimal value.

In this paper, modified architecture of CMOS capacitive fingerprint sensor readout circuit is presented for general type of a switched capacitive integrator scheme. The proposed architecture supports wide and flexible operation range without ADC. It also operates faster than a typical integrator scheme for one frame image capture. The circuit includes an analog comparator in each pixel and counters. The referenced analog voltage of each sensor cell is controlled by an external or internal bias.

This study was conducted to determine the level of knowledge about breast cancer and health seeking behaviors of breast cancer survivors in Iloilo City, Philippines. The respondents of this investigation were the 43 breast cancer survivors. Based on the findings, breast cancer survivors were knowledgeable about breast cancer and they practiced correct health seeking behaviors. The level of knowledge in the rehabilitative aspect seemed to influence their curative health seeking behavior. The results still highlight the importance of further education to improve the knowledge about breast cancer in the promotive, preventive, and curative aspects as well as the health seeking practices of breast cancer survivors. The lack of generalizability because of the small sample size, underscores the need to investigate in a larger prospective study.

Comparative investigation of the antimicrobial effectiveness of cinnamaldehyde incorporated soy protein isolate (SC) films and cinnamaldehyde-SPI coated polypropylene/polypropylene (SC/OPP/PE) films were investigated. Minimum inhibitory and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MIC, MBC) of cinnamaldehyde against Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhymurium, Bacillus cereus, and Enterobacter sakazakii were investigated. Addition of cinnamaldehyde into SPI increased the tensile strength, whereas decreased the water vapor permeability and elongation at film breakage. Size of antimicrobial zone in disc diffusion test was decreased in cast films and no diffusion was found in coated OPP/PE films but concentration dependently deduction of total microbial count was found when three different sprouts (radish, broccoli, alfalfa) were packed with CASPI-OPP/PE film by pouch type. It indicated that cinnamaldehyde with low concentration could diffuse to environment and could be effective on antimicrobial for preservation of food packaging.

Open heart surgery patients exhibit greater prevalence of delirium and moderate or higher level of anxiety. These symptoms may hinder postoperative recovery and health, and may even lead to complications. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of preoperative video information on delirium, anxiety, and nursing satisfaction of open heart surgery patients. This quasiexperimental study utilized a nonequivalent control group with a non-synchronized design, and was conducted from March 15, 2012 to December 1, 2014. The subjects consisted of 50 patients, of whom 25 comprised the experimental group and 25 the control group. On the day prior to surgery, the experimental group was provided with informative videos while the control group was provided with information through traditional medium. Delirium was diagnosed through CAM-ICU, while anxiety levels and Nursing Satisfaction were determined through STAI and questionnaire, respectively. Data was analyzed through SPSS WIN 21.0. The results showed no statistically significant difference (p=.260) in delirium incidences, but improvements were observed in anxiety levels (p=.028) and nursing satisfaction (p=.004). Thus, this study recommends the use of video information as part of nursing intervention for open heart surgery patients so as to reduce their anxiety levels and improve nursing satisfaction.

Medical robots are sensitive tools to improve the surgery’s performance. One of the most active research area in this field is control of medical robot. In this research, nonlinear, stable and robust Sliding Mode controller (SMC) is used as a based controller. This algorithm works based on the functional operation. The main traditional functions for this algorithm are switching and saturation functions. In this research, fuzzy algorithm is used to design a unique function to adjust the output performance. According to this research, the chattering eliminated based on applied modified sliding function, which is more robust than conventional sliding mode controller.

This research assessed the effects of body shape awareness on body mass index (BMI) based on 165 male and female college students in the G city. First, in assessing satisfaction levels of body shape based on body mass index-based normal weight, there were only 7 (36.8%) male students dissatisfied with their body while there were 95 (85.6%) female students feeling dissatisfied (p<0.001). Second, looking at the difference between real body mass index and idealistic body mass index, all 13 real body mass index -based overweight students (100%) wanted to lose weight to reach idealistic body mass index-based normal weight (p<0.001). Third, looking at the association between body mass index and body shape awareness factors, body mass index and interest in body shape were negatively correlated while body mass index and body shape awareness were positively correlated. In conclusion, both male and female students preferred underweight over normal weight, mandating the need to induce the establishment of self-awareness for healthy body shape. Therefore, awaken the importance of eating a thing, due to the false body image does not adversely affect a weight control behavior such as not wrong eating habits formed or validation may be necessary proactive nutrition education and counseling about the correct body awareness and healthy eating.

This study aimed to determine the association between CRE and depression by BMI and BIP and help school-age children do health management though good body image formation. The participants for the study were 240 school-age children in South Korea. The sample include 130 boys (58.8%) and 91 girls (41.2%) children, 10-13years old (mean age=11.9, SD=0.86). Data analysis was performed using SPSS 21.0 for descriptive statistics, χ2 –test, ANOVA. In this study, many of the school-age children thought that they were obese and made lots of attempts to lose weight, though they had normal weight. And children in the BMI-N group were more vulnerable to CRE and scored higher for depression as they were more likely to think that they were fat than those in the BMI-U and O groups. This result suggests the need to put greater emphasis on education to allow normal-weight children to develop correct BIP and eating habits. It is therefore necessary to allow children to recognize their subjective body image and help children with distorted BIP establish a good body image.

The purpose of this study is to verify the effects of parenting programs with DVDs containing various cases of parent-child relationship for the parents who are nurturing their own child. The program was implemented to the experimental group in a total of 6 sessions, 120 minutes per a session. The data were processed with SPSS WIN 18.0 in covariance analysis. The parenting program consists of inhaling-exhaling respiration, drawing fish bowl family, understanding the Think-Feel-Do cycle, being an effective role model for one's children, family enrichment activity such as positive ‘ I ‘ message, avoiding struggles, and writing letters of encouragement. As a result, the anger level decreased significantly more from the experimental group than from the control group, which suggests that this program should be implemented to parents with difficulty of anger management.

This study was performed to enhance the concern about oral health and introduce the importance about awareness and knowledge by ascertaining differences according to working types and environmental characteristics. This study was conducted with two target groups, 70 businessmen and 70 forwarding agents in Samcheok-si, Gangwon-do by a self-administered questionnaire survey included items regarding general characteristic, oral health surroundings care & living habit, oral health awareness & practice, and oral health concern from May 23, 2016 to May 31, 2016. And the collected data was analyzed by frequency analysis and t-test in SPSS v19.0. The result showed there were significant differences between two target groups in awareness about halitosis, auxiliary oral hygiene devices, dental health insurance, and experience & importance about oral health education. This is an important factor that influences the effectiveness of education by finding out what workers want to know, what they want to learn, or what they need to know for themselves or their oral health promotion. The necessity of oral health education should be perceived and promoted through checking oral health surroundings care and analyzing awareness about oral health education experience & importance between two target groups.

The present study was conducted to biomechanics data on snowboard riding in order to help the improvement of the performance of the members of the national snowboarding team. Based on the results of this study, the following conclusions can be drawn. In neutral positions, the ‘up’motions were taken in which the heights of the right and left hips were relatively the highest and at the moments of turns in both directions, ‘down’motions were taken in which the heights of the right and left hips were relatively the lowest. During front side turns, the right ankle angle became smaller than the left ankle angle so that the toe edge moved deeper into the snow. Muscle activity during front side turns, the right vastus intermedius muscle, the right biceps femoris muscle, the right gastrocnemius muscle, and the right anterior tibial muscle were shown to be major activated muscles. During backside turns, the right vastus lateralis muscle, the right vastus intermedius muscle, the left biceps femoris muscle, and the right anterior tibial muscle (12.64%) were observed as major activated muscles. Plantar pressure analysis during front side turns, the largest vertical force and plantar pressure acted on the left front food and the right hind foot. During backside turns, the largest vertical force and plantar pressure acted on the left hind foot and the right hind foot. In further studies, the comparison of positions in successive turns is recommended.