Objectives: With the rapid aging of the Korean population, interest in oral health is increasing among older adults. However, information and communication technology (ICT)-based programs for oral function rehabilitation exercises (OFRE), that are closely related to the systemic and cognitive health of older adults, are limited. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the applicability of ICT-based OFRE programs by identifying the demand from elder-care facility workers, who are the main providers, and to establish a basic plan for system development. Methods: This study was conducted using a Google Form questionnaire for approximately one month in September 2022 for workers at a day-and-night care center in Korea. Frequency analysis and chi-square tests were performed to identify the oral-health perceptions of center workers, and logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the need for ICT-based OFRE programs. Results: First, in patients undergoing oral function-related activities at the center, the need for OFRE was high, especially for mastication exercises (P<0.05). Second, participants with experience in using ICT-based rehabilitation programs were more positive about the usefulness of the new programs (P<0.001). Third, ease of use and simplicity of the program content were highly desirable, and group delivery was preferred. Conclusions This study confirmed the usefulness of ICT-based OFRE programs in facilities for older adults. The study findings are expected to be a basis for further development.

Background: Although there are growing demands for stem cell-based therapy for companion animals in various diseases, a few clinical trials have been reported. Moreover, most of them are the results from only one or a few times of stem cell injection. Objectives: The aim of this study is to describe a long-term treatment with allogeneic adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) in a dog with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which is a rare canine disease. Methods: The dog with RA received intravascular injection of allogeneic ASCs derived from two healthy donors once a month for 11 months. To assess therapeutic effects of ASCs, orthopedic examination and clinical evaluation was performed. Cytokines of tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 in the plasma were measured using ELISA analysis. Results: Despite this repeated and long-term administration of allogeneic ASCs, there were no side effects such as immunorejection responses or cell toxicity. The orthopedic examination score for the dog decreased after ASCs treatment, and the clinical condition of the dog and owner’s satisfaction were very good Conclusions Although ASCs has been suggested as one of the options for RA treatment because of its anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive functions, it has never been used to treat RA in dogs. The present report describes a case of canine RA treated with allogeneic ASCs for long-term in which the dog showed clinical improvement without adverse effects.

This paper describes a community effort to improve earlier versions of the full-text corpus of Genomics & Informatics by semi-automatically detecting and correcting PDF-to-text conversion errors and optical character recognition errors during the first hackathon of Genomics & Informatics Annotation Hackathon (GIAH) event. Extracting text from multi-column biomedical documents such as Genomics & Informatics is known to be notoriously difficult. The hackathon was piloted as part of a coding competition of the ELTEC College of Engineering at Ewha Womans University in order to enable researchers and students to create or annotate their own versions of the Genomics & Informatics corpus, to gain and create knowledge about corpus linguistics, and simultaneously to acquire tangible and transferable skills. The proposed projects during the hackathon harness an internal database containing different versions of the corpus and annotations.

This paper describes a community effort to improve earlier versions of the full-text corpus of Genomics & Informatics by semi-automatically detecting and correcting PDF-to-text conversion errors and optical character recognition errors during the first hackathon of Genomics & Informatics Annotation Hackathon (GIAH) event. Extracting text from multi-column biomedical documents such as Genomics & Informatics is known to be notoriously difficult. The hackathon was piloted as part of a coding competition of the ELTEC College of Engineering at Ewha Womans University in order to enable researchers and students to create or annotate their own versions of the Genomics & Informatics corpus, to gain and create knowledge about corpus linguistics, and simultaneously to acquire tangible and transferable skills. The proposed projects during the hackathon harness an internal database containing different versions of the corpus and annotations.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) has rapidly escalated in Asia (including Korea) due to increasing westernized diet patterns subsequent to industrialization. Factors associated with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress are demonstrated to be one of the major causes of IBD. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of Lycium barbarum (L. barbarum) on ER stress. MATERIALS/METHODS: Mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) cell line and polarized Caco-2 human intestinal epithelial cells were treated with crude extract of the L. chinense fruit (LF). Paracellular permeability was measured to examine the effect of tight junction (TJ) integrity. The regulatory pathways of ER stress were evaluated in MEF knockout (KO) cell lines by qPCR for interleukin (IL) 6, IL8 and XBP1 spliced form (XBP1s). Immunoglobulin binding protein (BiP), XBP1s and CCAAT/enhancer-binding homologous protein (CHOP) expressions were measured by RT-PCR. Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy (SICM) at high resolution was applied to observe morphological changes after treatments. RESULTS: Exposure to LF extract strengthened the TJ, both in the presence and absence of inflammation. In polarized Caco-2 pretreated with LF, induction in the expression of proinflammatory marker IL8 was not significant, whereas ER stress marker XBP1s expression was significantly increased. In wild type (wt) MEF cells, IL6, CHOP and XBP1 spliced form were dose-dependently induced when exposed to 12.5–50 µg/mL extract. However, absence of XBP1 or IRE1α in MEF cells abolished this effect. CONCLUSION: Results of this study show that LF treatment enhances the barrier function and reduces inflammation and ER stress in an IRE1α-XBP1-dependent manner. These results suggest the preventive effect of LF on healthy intestine, and the possibility of reducing the degree of inflammatory symptoms in IBD patients.
Animals ; Asia ; Carrier Proteins ; Cell Line ; Diet ; Endoplasmic Reticulum ; Epithelial Cells ; Fibroblasts ; Fruit ; Humans ; Immunoglobulins ; Inflammation ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; Interleukin-6 ; Interleukin-8 ; Interleukins ; Intestines ; Lycium ; Mice ; Microscopy ; Permeability ; Tight Junctions

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Visual assessment of medial temporal-lobe atrophy (MTA) has been quick, reliable, and easy to apply in routine clinical practice. However, one of the limitations in visual assessments of MTA is the lack of widely accepted age-adjusted norms and cutoff scores for MTA for a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study aimed to determine the optimal cutoff score on a T1-weighted axial MTA Visual Rating Scale (VRS) for differentiating patients with AD from cognitively normal elderly people. METHODS: The 3,430 recruited subjects comprising 1,427 with no cognitive impairment (NC) and 2003 AD patients were divided into age ranges of 50–59, 60–69, 70–79, and 80–89 years. Of these, 446 participants (218 in the NC group and 228 in the AD group) were chosen by random sampling for inclusion in this study. Each decade age group included 57 individuals, with the exception of 47 subjects being included in the 80- to 89-year NC group. The scores on the T1-weighted axial MTA VRS were graded by two neurologists. The cutoff values were evaluated from the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. RESULTS: The optimal axial MTA VRS cutoff score from discriminating AD from NC increased with age: it was ≥as ≥1, ≥2, and ≥3 in subjects aged 50–59, 60–69, 70–79, and 80–89 years, respectively (all p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: These results show that the optimal cutoff score on the axial MTA VRS for diagnosing of AD differed according to the decade age group. This information could be of practical usefulness in the clinical setting.
Aged ; Alzheimer Disease* ; Atrophy* ; Cognition Disorders ; Dementia* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Korea* ; Pemetrexed ; ROC Curve

Indoor animal husbandry environments are inevitably contaminated with endotoxins. Endotoxin exposure is associated with various inflammatory illnesses in animals. This cross-sectional study evaluated the relationship between the degree of endotoxin exposure and the cellular and humoral immune profiles of fattening pigs. Blood samples were taken from the jugular vein of 47 pigs from ten pig farms in Korea. Whole blood cell counts and plasma immunoglobulin (Ig) classes were determined. Peripheral-blood mononuclear cells were stimulated in vitro with concanavalin A for 48 h, and cytokines released into culture supernatants were measured. The barns in which the pigs lived were assessed for endotoxin levels in the total and respirable dust by using the limulus amebocyte lysate kinetic QCL method. Low and high endotoxin exposures were defined as ≤ 30 and > 30 EU/m³, respectively. Compared to pigs with low endotoxin exposure (n = 19), highly exposed pigs (n = 28) had higher circulating neutrophil and lymphocyte (particularly B cells) counts, IgG and IgE levels, interferon-gamma (IFNγ) and interleukin (IL)-4 productions, and lower IgA levels and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) production. The IL-4, IFNγ, and TNFα levels significantly correlated with endotoxin level and/or pig age. Constant exposure of pigs to high levels of airborne endotoxins can lead to aberrant immune profiles.
Agriculture ; Animal Husbandry ; Animals ; Blood Cell Count ; Concanavalin A ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Cytokines ; Dust ; Endotoxins ; Horseshoe Crabs ; Housing ; Immunity, Cellular ; Immunoglobulin A ; Immunoglobulin E ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulins ; In Vitro Techniques ; Interferon-gamma ; Interleukin-4 ; Interleukins ; Jugular Veins ; Korea ; Lymphocytes ; Methods ; Neutrophils ; Plasma ; Swine ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha

Microorganisms found in bioaerosols from animal confinement buildings not only foster the risk of spreading diseases among livestock buildings, but also pose health hazards to farm workers and nearby residents. This study identified the various microorganisms present in the air of swine, chicken, and cattle farms with different kinds of ventilation conditions in Korea. Microbial air samples were collected onto Petri dishes with bacterial or fungal growth media using a cascade impactor. Endotoxin levels in total dust were determined by the limulus amebocyte lysate kinetic QCL method. Prevalent Gram-positive bacteria were Staphylococcus (S.) lentus, S. chromogenes, Bacillus (B.) cereus, B. licheniformis, and Enterococcus faecalis, while the dominant fungi and Gram-negative bacteria were Candida albicans and Sphingomonas paucimobilis, respectively. Considering no significant relationship between the indoor dust endotoxin levels and the isolation of Gram-negative bacteria from the indoor air, monitoring the indoor airborne endotoxin level was found to be also critical for risk assessment on health for animals or workers. The present study confirms the importance of microbiological monitoring and control on animal husbandry indoor air to ensure animal and worker welfare.
Agriculture ; Animal Husbandry ; Animals ; Bacillus ; Bacteria* ; Candida albicans ; Cattle ; Chickens* ; Dust ; Enterococcus faecalis ; Farmers ; Fungi* ; Gram-Negative Bacteria ; Gram-Positive Bacteria ; Horseshoe Crabs ; Korea ; Livestock ; Methods ; Risk Assessment ; Sphingomonas ; Staphylococcus ; Swine ; Ventilation

PURPOSE: Purpose was to explore associations between sleep duration and metabolic syndrome (MS) risks, and to determine factors associated with self-rated health (SRH) of adults with MS compared to other adults. METHODS: This is a secondary data analysis based on the Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey KNHANES V (N=12662). Study instruments included sleep duration, MS risk factors, SRH and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). RESULTS: Mean age of participants was 43.68+/-12.26 years. Fifty-eight percent were women, and 18.3% were identified as having MS. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and SRH were significantly different according to sleep duration (p<.05) among all participants. In the non MS group, male gender, younger age (19~30 and 41~50 age brackets) upper income level, sufficient sleep duration, and high density lipoprotein (HDL) were positively associated with SRH, whereas, lower education levels (< or = middle school), glucose level, and waist circumference were negatively associated with SRH (p<.05). In the MS group, lower income, lower education levels (< or = middle school), glucose level, and waist circumference were negatively associated with SRH, whereas, having an occupation was positively associated with SRH (p<.05). CONCLUSION: Results suggest that tailored approaches are required for prevention and control of MS and sleep duration of each individual should be considered rather than applying standardized guidelines. However, as sleep quality was not included in the analysis, further investigations regarding influence of sleep quality on MS and SRH and controlling for other lifestyle and health behavior factors are required.
Adult ; Blood Glucose/analysis ; Blood Pressure/physiology ; Cholesterol, HDL/blood ; Female ; *Health Status ; Humans ; Male ; Metabolic Syndrome X/*physiopathology ; Middle Aged ; Odds Ratio ; Quality of Life ; Risk Factors ; Self Report ; *Sleep ; Young Adult

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have ability to differentiate into multi-lineage cells, which confer a great promise for regenerative medicine to the cells. The aim of this study was to establish a method for isolation and characterization of adipose tissue-derived MSC (pAD-MSC) and bone marrow-derived MSC (pBM-MSC) in pigs. Isolated cells from all tissues were positive for CD29, CD44, CD90 and CD105, but negative for hematopoietic stem cell associated markers, CD45. In addition, the cells expressed the transcription factors, such as Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog by RT-PCR. pAD-MSC and pBM-MSC at early passage successfully differentiated into chondrocytes, osteocytes and adipocytes. Collectively, pig AD-MSC and BM-MSC with multipotency were optimized in our study.
Adipocytes ; Adipose Tissue ; Bone Marrow ; Chondrocytes ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; Osteocytes ; Regenerative Medicine ; Swine ; Transcription Factors