The purpose of this study was to examine the influences of chronic shoulder pain on the muscle tone in trunk muscles. The study's subjects were 40 men and women in their 30 to 50s, which were divided into two groups. A chronic shoulder pain group consisted of 20 subjects who had been diagnosed with chronic shoulder pain by doctors, and a painless group consisted of 20 subjects who had experienced no such pain. An analysis was performed using electromyography on the muscle tone in the rectus abdominalis, external oblique, internal oblique, and erector spinae muscles under the same conditions between the two groups. The analysis results were as follows. The chronic shoulder pain group exhibited an overall high level of trunk muscle tone than the painless group, along with a statistically significant difference in the rectus abdominalis(p<.05). Moreover, the chronic shoulder pain group showed differences in the trunk muscle tone depending on the affected side. The chronic left shoulder pain group yielded higher levels of muscle tone in the right-side trunk muscles. In particular, the group revealed statistically significant differences in the rectus abdominalis and internal oblique(p<.05). The chronic right shoulder pain group exhibited higher levels of muscle tone in the left-side trunk muscles with a statistically significant difference in the internal oblique(p<.05). The above results suggested that chronic shoulder pain influences increases in the muscle tone in the trunk muscles on the opposite side to the affected shoulder.

The purpose of this study was to examine the degree of knowledge of care workers working at long term care hospitals and nursing homes on pressure ulcer. A total of 81 care workers including 34 at long term care hospitals and 47 at nursing homes were surveyed. 24 questions were used to evaluate their degree of knowledge on pressure ulcer. Their knowledge on pressure ulcer scored 12.84 out of the total score of 24 points(SD=3.40), which was equal to 53.50 (SD=24.23) out of 100 points. Their knowledge on the prevention of pressure ulcer was highest among the subareas of evaluation. Their knowledge on pressure ulcer statistically significantly differed according to education on pressure ulcer(P<.05). A pressure ulcer is a skin disorder that may be prevented and cured. At this point when long term care facilities are rapidly increasing, care workers highlevel knowledge on and good management of pressure ulcer is very important. Practically educating them on pressure ulcer including the provision of recent, updated relevant knowledge will be necessary.

The majority of strokes are caused by ischemia and result in brain tissue damage, leading to problems of the central nervous system including hemiparesis, dysfunction of language and consciousness, and dysfunction of perception. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase(PARP) on necrosis in neuronal cells that have undergone needle electrode electrical stimulation(NEES) prior to induction of ischemia. Ischemia was induced in male SD rats(body weight 300g) by occlusion of the common carotid artery for 5 min, after which the blood was reperfused. After induction of brain ischemia, NEES was applied to Zusanli(ST 36), at 12, 24 and 48 hours. Protein expression was investigated using immuno-reactive cells, which react to PARP antibodies in cerebral nerve cells, and Western blotting. The results were as follows: In the cerebral cortex, the number of PARP reactive cells after 24 hours significantly decreased(p<.05) in the NEES group compared to the GI group. PARP expression after 24 hours significantly decreased(p<.05) in the NEES group compared to the GI group. As a result, NEES showed the greatest effect on necrosis- related PARP immuno-reactive cells 24 hours after ischemia, indicating necrosis inhibition, blocking of neural cell death, and protection of neural cells. Based on the results of this study, NEES can be an effective method of treating dysfunction and improving function of neuronal cells in brain damage caused by ischemia.

The results from the Individual Plant Examination of External Event of Yonggwyang nuclear power plants, unit 3 & 4, in Korea have shown that the high degree of diversities of the experts' opinions on seismicity and attenuation models is su, pp.sed to be generic cause of uncertainty of APEs(annual exceedance probability) in the PAHA(probabilistic seismic hazard analysis). This study investigated the sensitivity of the focal depth, which is one of the most uncertain seismicity parameters in Korea, Significant differences in resultant values of annual exceedance probabilities and much more symmetrical shape of the resultant PDFs(probability density functions), in case of consideration of focal depth, are found. These two results suggest that, even for the same seismic input data set including the seismicity models and ground motion attenuation models, to consider focal depth additionally for probabilistic seismic hazard analysis evaluation makes significant influence on the distributions of uncertainties and probabilities of exceedance per year for the whole ranges of seismic hazard levels. These facts suggest that it is necessary to derive focal depth parameter more effectively from the historical and instrumental documents on earthquake phenomena in Koran Peninsula for the future study of PSHA.

Background : Haskap berries commonly refer to fruits of Lonicera caerulea L., recognized by the Japanese aborigines as the “The elixir of life.”. Due to their recent arrival on the North American market, haskap berries have not yet been positioned among other berries and compared in terms of their phytochemical content. And haskap berries have higher ascorbic acid and anthocyanin content than other berries known for their health-promoting benefits, such as blueberries. However, no study has reported on the antioxidant and anti-cancer activity of Lonicera caerulea stem. The purpose of this study is to present the current research on the chemical content, antioxidant and anti-cancer activities of Lonicera caerulea stem. Methods and Results : The stem of Lonicera caerulea L. ware dried in the shade at room temperature and extracted with 100% methanol. The extract was suspended in deionized water and partitioned sequentially with n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl-acetate and butanol (water saturated BuOH) fractions. Antioxidant activities were measured by determination of antioxidants, DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl). Cell viability was determined by the MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide] assay. All cell lines were purchased from the Korean Cell Line Bank (Seoul, Korea). All results were performed with three replications were processed statistically. By DPPH assay, the Lonicera caerulea L. the highest activity was obtained from the ethyl-acetate fraction (IC50=15.46 ㎍/㎖). By MTT assay, the chloroform fraction showed a significant growth inhibiting effect on MCF-7 (Human breast cancer, IC50=225.91 ㎍/㎖), COLO 205 (Human colon cancer, IC50=179.55 ㎍/㎖), but on AGS (Human stomach cancer) and other fractions it did not show effect. Conclusion : We demonstrated that Lonicera caerulea L. stem extract and fractions has antioxidant and antiproliferation activity in vitro. Further studies should identify the active constituents in Lonicera caerulea L stem to evaluate the potential in vitro antioxidant and antiproliferation activities of the extract.