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Background: The 2015 MERS outbreak in South Korea was the largest event outside of the Middle East. Under such circumstances, individuals tend to resort to non-conventional solutions such as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to manage health. Thus, this study aims to examine characteristics of CAM use among outpatients in a community hospital setting during the 2015 MERS outbreak and to assess potential predictors of CAM use during the epidemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 331 patients (response rate: 82.75%) at a community hospital located in Seoul, South Korea. The survey instrument included 36 questions on the use of CAM, demographic characteristics, health status, and respondents' perceptions and concerns about MERS infection. Chisquare test and logistic regression were conducted for data analysis using SPSS ver. 21.0., and a p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant for all analyses. Results: 76.1% of respondents used one or more types of CAM modalities during the MERS outbreak. Consumption of easily accessible modalities such as multivitamin (51.2%) and food products (32.1%) was most popular, and the majority of CAM users relied on mass media (52.4%) and the internet (27.4%) to obtain information on CAM. The use of CAM was associated with age between 40 and 49, age over 50, prior CAM use, and dissatisfaction with the government response to the MERS outbreak. Conclusions: CAM was commonly used by outpatients during the 2015 MERS outbreak in Korea, and mass media was the main source of information. Establishing a media platform is of paramount importance to provide reliable information and ensure the safety of its use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine whether school-aged children with Kawasaki disease (KD) have an increased risk for early atherosclerosis. Methods: The study included 98 children. The children were divided into the following groups: group A (n=19), KD with coronary arterial lesions that persisted or regressed; group B (n=49), KD without coronary arterial lesions; and group C (n=30), healthy children. Anthropometric variables and the levels of biochemical markers, including total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), apolipoprotein A, apolipoprotein B, homocysteine, highsensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and brachial artery stiffness using pulse wave velocity were compared among the three groups. Results: There were no significant differences in blood pressure and body index among the three groups. Additionally, there was no sex-specific difference. Moreover, the levels of triglyceride, HDL-C, apolipoprotein A, and hs-CRP did not differ among the three groups. However, the levels of total cholesterol (P=0.018), LDL-C (P =0.0003), and apolipoprotein B (P =0.029) were significantly higher in group A than in group C. Further, the level of homocysteine and the aortic pulse wave velocity were significantly higher in groups A and B than in group C (P=0.0001). Conclusion: School-aged children after KD have high lipid profiles and arterial stiffness indicating an increased risk for early atherosclerosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a case of a 7-year-old boy who had cholestasis after trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole combination therapy. Liver biopsy was performed 36 days after the onset of jaundice because of no evidence of improving cholestasis. Liver histology revealed portal inflammation, bile plug, and biliary stasis around the central vein with the loss of the interlobular bile ducts. Immunohistochemical stains for cytokeratin 7 and 19 were negative. These findings were consistent with those of vanishing bile duct syndrome (VBDS). Chlestasis was progressively improved with dose increment of urosodeoxycholic acid from conventional to high dose. This is the first case report of trimethoprime-sulfamethoxazole associated VBDS in Korean children. The case suggests that differential diagnosis of VBDS should be considered in case of progressive cholestatic hepatitis with elevation of alkaline phosphatase and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase after or during taking medicine to treat nonhepatobiliary diseases illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers strategies on how to foster self-regulation and self-determination in infants and toddlers with visual impairments. The author stresses that self-regulation and self-determination are skills that should be nurtured early for all children. Parents of children with visual impairments can improve these abilities by reducing their children's excessive dependence on others and providing environments that promote motor skills, spatial perception and movement.

Studies were conducted to observe the solubility of phenanthrene, anthracene, and pyrene in four water-immiscible liquids (WILs) and the mass transfer of PAH in a two-liquid-phase (TLP) system. The order of solubility in WILs for three different PAHs was phenanthrene> pyrene>> anthracene. Among the WILs tested in a TLP system, paraffine oil did not affect the mass transfer of three PAHs, while silicone oil reduced the mass transfer of anthracene significantly because paraffine oil had a higher solubilizing capacity for anthracene than silicone oil. When initial PAHs concentration increased up to 2500 mg PAHs/kg soil, the mass transfer of phenanthrene and pyrene were hardly influenced, while that of anthracene was reduced to 40%. As the amount of light paraffine oil decreased, the mass transfer of anthracene decreased significantly compared to that of phenanthrene and pyrene. Based on the present results, it was confirmed that the mass transfer of PAHs from soil to WIL was governed mainly by the solubilizing capacity of WIL for PAHs. This is the first report on the mass transfer of PAHs from soil to WIL, in which the mechanism of TLP process can be understood more clearly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Figaro-type gas sensor system was investigated for the monitoring of volatile organic contaminants (VOC) in the exhaust gas from a soil vapor extraction (SVE) process. Benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene (BTEX), and their mixtures, were tested as representative contaminants. Reasonably good correlation factors >0.98 were obtained between the GC analyses and the sensor responses for each component, and for the total gas concentrations. Although the composition of the exhaust gas from SVE process, as well as the amount of each component, change with time, the sensor can be used to estimate the residual amount of contaminants by measuring the total concentrations in the exhaust gas. The sensor can be utilized as a valuable tool for the monitoring of SVE process by indicating when the operation to remediate a contaminated site should be stopped. The proposed ceramic gas sensor system may be a good alternative to existing methods, because it can satisfy the essential monitoring necessities of SVE processes, and has many advantages over other fully equipped instrumentation, as a cost-effective device, with long-term monitoring stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]