Background: Treadmill training is an effective intervention method for improving the walking ability of stroke patients, and taping is effective for stabilizing joints. However, taping interventions have not been implemented during treadmill training. Objectives: To examine whether treadmill training with an elastic tape or treadmill training with a non-elastic tape could be more effective in stroke patients. Design: A single blinded, randomized, controlled, comparative study. Methods: 22 stroke patients were randomly allocated to two groups: the elastic group (treadmill gait training with ankle elastic tape on the paretic side) or the non-elastic group (treadmill gait training with non-elastic tape on the paretic side). All participants performed 60 min of comprehensive rehabilitation therapy and treadmill training with an elastic tape or non-elastic tape for 20 min. Results: 10-meter walk test and timed up-and-go test results after training differed significantly from baseline in both groups (P<.05), but significantly larger gains were observed in the elastic group (10-meter walk test, -17.1%; timed up-and-go test, -18.49%; P<.05, respectively). Conclusion: Treadmill gait training with elastic tape on the affected ankle joint might be more effective at improving the walking and balancing abilities of stroke patients.

Ecosystems provide various ecosystem services based on biodiversity. However, biodiversity is facing crises due to anthropogenic factors such as pollution, land use change, and climate change. Threats to biodiversity can significantly impact the provision and stability of ecosystem services, extending beyond simple species decline. To address threats to biodiversity, it is crucial to evaluate how anthropogenic factors affect not only biodiversity but also ecosystem services. This study aims to investigate the energy flux in a post-mining area based on the biodiversity of soil ecosystems and assess its suitability as an evaluation metric. It was observed that as the concentration of the primary pollutant, arsenic, increased, both the biomass of soil organisms and energy flux decreased. Furthermore, soil ecosystem multifunctionality may be negatively affected by pollution. These findings contribute to understanding the impact of pollution on soil ecosystem biodiversity and energy flux in post-mining areas and provide important information for more effective conservation and management of ecosystem services.

Even in an era where 8-meter class telescopes are common, small telescopes are considered very valuable research facilities since they are available for rapid follow-up or long term monitoring observations. To maximize the usefulness of small telescopes in Korea, we established the SomangNet, a network of 0.4{1.0 m class optical telescopes operated by Korean institutions, in 2020. Here, we give an overview of the project, describing the current participating telescopes, its scientic scope and operation mode, and the prospects for future activities. SomangNet currently includes 10 telescopes that are located in Australia, USA, and Chile as well as in Korea. The operation of many of these telescopes currently relies on operators, and we plan to upgrade them for remote or robotic operation. The latest SomangNet science projects include monitoring and follow-up observational studies of galaxies, supernovae, active galactic nuclei, symbiotic stars, solar system objects, neutrino/gravitational-wave sources, and exoplanets.

While the reverberation mapping technique is the best available method for measuring black hole mass in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) beyond the local volume, this method has been mainly applied to relatively low-to-moderate luminosity AGNs at low redshift. We present the strategy of the Seoul National University AGN Monitoring Project, which aims at measuring the time delay of the Hβ line emission with respect to AGN continuum, using a sample of relatively high luminosity AGNs out to redshift z ∼ 0.5. We present simulated cross correlation results based on a number of mock light curves, in order to optimally determine monitoring duration and cadence. We describe our campaign strategy based on the simulation results and the availability of observing facilities. We present the sample selection, and the properties of the selected 100 AGNs, including the optical luminosity, expected time lag, black hole mass, and Eddington ratio.

Intensive Monitoring Survey of Nearby Galaxies (IMSNG) is a high cadence observation program monitoring nearby galaxies with high probabilities of hosting supernovae (SNe). IMSNG aims to constrain the SN explosion mechanism by inferring sizes of SN progenitor systems through the detection of the shock-heated emission that lasts less than a few days after the SN explosion. To catch the signal, IMSNG utilizes a network of 0.5-m to 1-m class telescopes around the world and monitors the images of 60 nearby galaxies at distances D < 50 Mpc to a cadence as short as a few hours. The target galaxies are bright in near-ultraviolet (NUV) with MNUV < - 18.4 AB mag and have high probabilities of hosting SNe (0.06 SN yr-1 per galaxy). With this strategy, we expect to detect the early light curves of 3.4 SNe per year to a depth of R  19:5 mag, enabling us to detect the shock-heated emission from a progenitor star with a radius as small as 0.1 R. The accumulated data will be also useful for studying faint features around the target galaxies and other science projects. So far, 18 SNe have occurred in our target fields (16 in IMSNG galaxies) over 5 years, confirming our SN rate estimate of 0.06 SN yr-1 per galaxy.