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Backgroud Volar plate avulsion fractures of the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint are a common hand injury and have been treated conservatively with favorable results. We assumed that conservative treatment of volar plate avulsion fractures of the PIP joint would be unsuccessful if the fracture fragment, even if small, was much displaced or rotated and that delayed excision of the avulsion fractures would result in good outcomes. We report clinical and radiological outcomes of conservative treatment of volar plate avulsion fractures of the PIP joint and risk factors for failure of conservative treatment. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the clinical and radiological outcomes of 88 volar plate avulsion fractures (85 patients) treated conservatively at first. In 18 of these fractures, delayed excision of the fracture fragment was required after an average of 75 days of conservative treatment for limited motion or pain of the joint. We compared parameters between failed cases and successful cases after conservative treatment. Results Compared to the successful cases, the failed cases had a higher prevalence of joint dislocation at the time of injury and greater pain, larger flexion contracture, and less further flexion after conservative treatment. The shape, comminution, and size of the fracture fragments were not related with the need for operation, but the operative cases had greater displacement and rotation of the fracture fragments than the conservative cases. After fragment excision, postoperative protection of the joint was not necessary, pain was reduced, and the mean range of motion increased. Conclusions The presence of joint dislocation and greater displacement and rotation of the fragments may be associated with the failure of conservative treatment of volar plate avulsion fractures. Failed cases after conservative treatment could be resolved by delayed fragment excision with favorable results. Therefore, it might be appropriate to consider conservative treatment at first in almost all volar plate avulsion fractures of stable PIP joints.

Unique among human viruses, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) encodes several homologs of cellular interferon regulatory factors (vIRFs). Since KSHV expresses multiple factors that can inhibit interferon (IFN) signaling to promote virus production, it is still unclear to what extent vIRFs contribute to these specific processes during KSHV infection. To study the function of vIRFs during viral infection, we engineered 3xFLAG-tagged-vIRF and vIRF-knockout recombinant KSHV clones, which were utilized to test vIRF expression, as well as their requirement for viral replication, virus production, and inhibition of the type I IFN pathway in different models of lytic KSHV infection. Our data show that all vIRFs can be expressed as lytic viral proteins, yet were dispensable for KSHV production and inhibition of type I IFN. Nevertheless, as vIRFs were able to suppress IFN-stimulated antiviral genes, vIRFs may still promote the KSHV lytic cycle in the presence of an ongoing antiviral response.

Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is a human oncogenic virus, which maintains the persistent infection of the host by intermittently reactivating from latently infected cells to produce viral progenies. While it is established that the replication and transcription activator (RTA) viral transcription factor is required for the induction of lytic viral genes for KSHV lytic reactivation, it is still unknown to what extent RTA alters the host transcriptome to promote KSHV lytic cycle and viral pathogenesis. To address this question, we performed a comprehensive time course transcriptome analysis during KSHV reactivation in B-cell lymphoma cells and determined RTA-binding sites on both the viral and host genomes, which resulted in the identification of the core RTA-induced host genes (core RIGs). We found that the majority of RTA-binding sites at core RIGs contained the canonical RBP-Jκ-binding DNA motif. Subsequently, we demonstrated the vital role of the Notch signaling transcription factor RBP-Jκ for RTA-driven rapid host gene induction, which is consistent with RBP-Jκ being essential for KSHV lytic reactivation. Importantly, many of the core RIGs encode plasma membrane proteins and key regulators of signaling pathways and cell death; however, their contribution to the lytic cycle is largely unknown. We show that the cell cycle and chromatin regulator geminin and the plasma membrane protein gamma-glutamyltransferase 6, two of the core RIGs, are required for efficient KSHV reactivation and virus production. Our results indicate that host genes that RTA rapidly and directly induces can be pivotal for driving the KSHV lytic cycle. IMPORTANCE The lytic cycle of KSHV is involved not only in the dissemination of the virus but also viral oncogenesis, in which the effect of RTA on the host transcriptome is still unclear. Using genomics approaches, we identified a core set of host genes which are rapidly and directly induced by RTA in the early phase of KSHV lytic reactivation. We found that RTA does not need viral cofactors but requires its host cofactor RBP-Jκ for inducing many of its core RIGs. Importantly, we show a critical role for two of the core RIGs in efficient lytic reactivation and replication, highlighting their significance in the KSHV lytic cycle. We propose that the unbiased identification of RTA-induced host genes can uncover potential therapeutic targets for inhibiting KSHV replication and viral pathogenesis.

배경 및 목적: 본 연구에서는 ADSD 환자가 보툴리늄 독소-A 주입을 받은 뒤 증상이 정상 음성과 비교하였을 때 어느 정도까지 회복이 가능한지에 대한 객관적인 수치 자료를 제시하고자 한다. 방법: GRBAS 척도 중 S척도에 따라 두 군으로 나눈 ADSD 환자군 각각 6명, 총 12명과 정상군 12명을 대상으로 정상군과 환자군의 보툴리늄 독소-A 주입...

This paper investigates the relationships among national identity, national pride, and happiness, using a nationally representative survey dataset from South Korea. Two dimensions of national identity—civic and ethnic—are considered, after factor-analyzing eight survey items. The results demonstrate that national pride is positively associated with happiness, but empirical evidence is scarce regarding the relationship between national identity and happiness. Also, we have not found alleged moderating effects of national identity on the relationship between national pride and happiness. Lack of statistically significant effects of national identity is not consistent with the pre-existing findings from cross-national surveys. Given that national identity is deeply rooted in a historically unique context of each nation, this study calls for a more nuanced conceptualization of national identity and culture-specific measures to fully grasp its association with happiness.

The frequency in which noise energy is generated, that is, the point where the preceding vowel ends is the cut-off frequency. Thereupon, this study intends to examine the correlations between, cut-off frequencies, cut-off frequencies changed by the following vowel, and cut-off frequencies and nasalance score, of fricatives and affricates with the subjects of children with the cleft palate and normal children. The subjects of this study are total 12 children residing in Seoul and Gyeonggi area. Six are the children diagnosed to have the cleft palate and whose chronological age are more than six, and another six are the normal children who are also more than six and whose chronological age and sex correspond to those of the former. Each subject was presented with nonsyllable environment and sentence environment(50 environment) of fricatives and affricates. Regarding meaningless syllable environment and sentence environment of fricatives and affricates, children with the cleft palate had lower cut-off frequencies than normal children. As a result of comparative study on correlations between cut-off frequencies and nasalance score of children with the cleft palate and normal children, it doesn`t show statistically significant correlations in both meaningless syllable environment and sentence environment of normal children, but it has statistically significant correlations in sentence environment of children with the cleft palate.

Generating heat and maintaining body temperature is the primary function of brown adipose tissue (BAT). Previous studies have implicated microRNAs, including miR-193b and miR-365-1, in BAT differentiation. We used mouse genetics to further understand the specific contributions of these two miRs. BAT function in mice with an inactivated miR-193b-365-1 locus, as determined by their response to the selective β3 adrenergic receptor agonist CL316.243 and their tolerance to cold exposure, was normal and expression of genes associated with functional BAT, including Prdm16 and Ucp1, was unaffected. In addition, genome-wide expression profiles of miRNAs and mRNAs in BAT in the presence and absence of miR-193b-365-1 were determined. In summary, these data demonstrate, in contrast to earlier work, that the development, differentiation, and function of BAT do not require the presence of miR-193b and miR-365-1.

The changes of medical environments such as the growth of a patient with a chronic disease and the elderly, and the advance of the IT technology require highly qualified medical service of new paradigm. For the reason, home health management service has been focused with much expectations and interests. Our proposed home health management system (H2MS) monitors and manages daily physiological status which is easily acquired from multiple-sensor based ubiquitous bio-signal sensor during sleeping, bathing, evacuating, and living at home. H2MS is largely consisted of four functional subsystems: multiple-sensor based ubiquitous bio-signal sensor, home health intermediary client (H2IC), home health center (H2C), and home health service provider (H2SP). Each subsystem carried out their own processes and collaborated on a work with each other. H2MS provides various home health services for the wellness, as well as the elderly, chronic patient's illness, or terminal illness. Also, it is available to suggest various services: an early warning service according to the change of health status, advice service for health improvement, and appointment service for medical treatment. Moreover, this early warning service makes promptly emergency repairs as soon as occurrence of physiologically abnormal symptom. Consequently, early warning reports reduce the frequent intervention of high costed service of medical professionals.

The changes of medical environments such as the growth of a patient with a chronic disease and the elderly, and the advance of the IT technology require highly qualified medical service of new paradigm. For the reason, home health management service has been focused with much expectations and interests. Our proposed home health management system (H2MS) monitors and manages daily physiological status which is easily acquired from multiple-sensor based ubiquitous bio-signal sensor during sleeping, bathing, evacuating, and living at home. H2MS is largely consisted of four functional subsystems: multiple-sensor based ubiquitous bio-signal sensor, home health intermediary client (H2IC), home health center (H2C), and home health service provider (H2SP). Each subsystem carried out their own processes and collaborated on a work with each other. H2MS provides various home health services for the wellness, as well as the elderly, chronic patient's illness, or terminal illness. Also, it is available to suggest various services: an early warning service according to the change of health status, advice service for health improvement, and appointment service for medical treatment. Moreover, this early warning service makes promptly emergency repairs as soon as occurrence of physiologically abnormal symptom. Consequently, early warning reports reduce the frequent intervention of high costed service of medical professionals.

In this paper, survival estimate under ventricular fibrillation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, administration of drug (epinephrine), measurement of coronary perfusion pressure and ECG signal is investigated. In 360 segments derived from ECG signal and coronary perfusion pressure data of 18 test dogs with experimental cardiac arrest of cardiac cause, several features are inspected for classification of a group of a return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC). Feature vectors, such as spectral moment, median and peak frequency, level-crossing spectrum, average segment amplitude, extracted from the time and frequency domain analysis are initially tested for the use of statistical analysis, and then Support Vector Machine finds the best boundary line discriminating between ROSC and Non-ROSC. Consequently, determination of the experimental period leading the best performance of Support Vector Machine results in a high sensitivity and specificity of ROSC estimate.

Body movement is one of the important factors in sleep analysis. This paper is expected to evaluate a person’s sleep condition and analysis of sleep disease much efficiently. Because polysomnography (PSG) method must directly attach a sensor to a body, subjects are going to feel probably inconvenience.

Continuously motivating people to exercise regularly is more important than finding a barriers such as lack of time, cost of equipment or gym membership, lack of nearby facilities and poor weather or night-time lighting. Our proposed system presents practicable methods of motivation through a web-based exercise prescription service. Users are instructed to exercise according to their physical ability by means of an automated individual prescription of exercise checked and approved by a personal trainer or exercise specialist after being tested with the HIMS, fitness assessment system. Furthermore, utilizing BIOFIT exercise prescriptions scheduled by an expert system can help users exercise systematically. Automated individual prescriptions are built in XML based documents because the data needs to be flexible, expansible and convertible structures to process diverse exercise templates. Web-based exercise prescription service makes users stay interested in exercise even if they live in many different environments.

This work presents an alternative return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) estimate using indirectly induced presumption that coronary perfusion pressure (CPP) correlates with the extracted parameter from the ventricular fibrillation (VF) ECG signal. In past studies, it is revealed that successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) needs at least 30/spl sim/40mmHg CPP during the aortic diastolic period. In 360 segments derived from 18 test dogs with experimental cardiac arrest of cardiac cause, we analyzed the ability of 4 spectral features of VF before countershock to discriminate or not between segments that correspond to CPP. The median frequency (MF), peak frequency (PF), average segment amplitude (ASA) and maximum segment amplitude (MSA) were studied. After preprocessing the raw data acquired from the specific experimental setup and protocol, we verified CPP is a serious estimate of ROSC, and then we analyzed the extracted parameters corresponding to CPP by multiple regression. In the specific conditional frequency domain (MF: 9.42/spl sim/12.42Hz, PF: 8.71/spl sim/13.08Hz, ASA: > 0.19mV), CPP is correlated to the extracted parameter with 0.71 /spl plusmn/ 0.05 coefficient of multiple determination (R/sup 2/). The combination of MF, PF, and ASA achieved a 79.47 /spl plusmn/ 3% sensitivity and 41.67 /spl plusmn/ 4% specificity in testing.