PURPOSE: This study was intended for the enhancement of the elderly's quality of life helping them overcome their physiological changes about aging and reinforcing their vitality. METHODS: An nonequivalent control group post-test design was used for the study. The methods to perform the abdominal respiration exercise and to blow the pan-flute were demonstrated to 31 experimental subjects and 36 control subjects. The eight-week 30 minute daily home respiration exercise recipes were prescribed to the subjects. Mobile spirometers were used to measure FVC, FEV1, FFV1 / FVC, SaO2, breathing discomfort. Daily life satisfaction scores were recorded. Music therapy accompanied the eight-week respiration program. A post-test was performed in the same manner as the pre-test. The gathered data were analysed by SPSS/WIN program. RESULTS: 1) The pulmonary function and daily life satisfaction were significantly improved in the experimental group. 2) Both the experimental and control groups did not show significant differences in SaO2. 3) The breathing discomfort was significantly reduced in the experimental group. CONCLUSION: The respiration exercise program for the elderly through the pan-flute improves the respiration activity of the elderly and enhances their daily life satisfaction scores. Therefore, this program produces effects in enhancing the quality of life for the elderly.
Aged ; Aging ; Humans ; Music Therapy ; Quality of Life ; Respiration

PURPOSE: This study was intended to determine how the choice of music affects the physiological and psychological status of women college student during music therapy. METHODS: A nonequivalent experimental group pretest-posttest design was used. 19 out of 54 subjects were assigned to listen to their favorite music and 17 to their unfavorite music for 20 minutes using MP3 players and headphones. Anxiety, blood pressure, pulse and blood glucose levels of the subjects were measured before treatment. The data was analyzed by Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon signed rank test using the SPSS/WIN 10.0 program. RESULTS: The result showed that systolic blood pressure, blood glucose and anxiety level decreased significantly in the favorite music group. however systolic blood pressure, pulse rate and anxiety level increased significantly in the unfavorite music group. The favorite music group showed a significantly higher level of satisfaction than the unfavorite music group. CONCLUSION: Choice of music affects the physiological and psychological status of an individual. Favorite music listening would enhance the effect of music therapy. Therefore, selection of music must be considered in light of the subject's preference and characteristics.
Anxiety ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Female ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Light ; MP3-Player ; Music ; Music Therapy

PURPOSE: This study was intended to determine how the choice of music affects the physiological and psychological status of women college student during music therapy. METHODS: A nonequivalent experimental group pretest-posttest design was used. 19 out of 54 subjects were assigned to listen to their favorite music and 17 to their unfavorite music for 20 minutes using MP3 players and headphones. Anxiety, blood pressure, pulse and blood glucose levels of the subjects were measured before treatment. The data was analyzed by Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon signed rank test using the SPSS/WIN 10.0 program. RESULTS: The result showed that systolic blood pressure, blood glucose and anxiety level decreased significantly in the favorite music group. however systolic blood pressure, pulse rate and anxiety level increased significantly in the unfavorite music group. The favorite music group showed a significantly higher level of satisfaction than the unfavorite music group. CONCLUSION: Choice of music affects the physiological and psychological status of an individual. Favorite music listening would enhance the effect of music therapy. Therefore, selection of music must be considered in light of the subject's preference and characteristics.
Anxiety ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Female ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Light ; MP3-Player ; Music ; Music Therapy

PURPOSE: This study was done to examine how medication contamination in a single-dose glass ampule is affected by minute glass flakes generated in different methods of cutting the ampule. METHOD: Sixty medicationcontaining glass ampules were randomly assigned to two groups. The number of glass flakes, resulting from two different cutting methods (with cotton and without cotton), were counted under the microscope. Contamination was evaluated by extracted the medication with a syringe and culturing it in E. coli, coliform, and aerobic bacteria culture media. Result: Fewer glass flakes were found in the ampules when the ampule was cut with cotton. The use of cotton, however, did not significantly change the degree of drug contamination. CONCLUSION: Although minute glass flakes generated in the ampule cutting operation did not significantly contaminate the medication and the use of cotton decreased the number of glass flakes in the ampules, glass flakes injected into the blood and tissues of the patient remain a risk factor. Therefore, pre-filled syringes or syringes with filters would be alternative methods and safeguards against the possible injection of glass flakes generated while cutting the ampule.
Bacteria, Aerobic ; Culture Media ; Drug Contamination ; Glass ; Humans ; Risk Factors ; Syringes

No abstract available.
Humans ; Male ; Prostate* ; Prostate-Specific Antigen*

No abstract available.
Humans ; Male ; Prostate* ; Prostate-Specific Antigen*

PURPOSE: To identify age, gender, medication, seasons and place of fall, and areas of the fractures from the fall among the hospitalized elderly patients in order to provide the basic data for future fall prevention program for the elderly. METHODS: This study was conducted for 106 elderly patients admitted into a university hospital by fractures from the fall during the period from January 1, 1999 to December 31, 1999. Data on the age, gender, medication, season and place of the fall, areas of the fracture were collected based on their medical records. RESULT: The age range of the subjects were from 60 to 96 years old. The subjects were aged between 60-69 years old 49(46.2%), between 70-79 years old 31(29.2%), between 80-89 years old 24(22.6%), and over 90 years old 2(1.9%). Male patients comprised was 34(28.3%), while female patients comprised 76(71.7%). The fall occurred in Winter most frequently 34(32%). The place of the fall included room 81(76.4%), streets 13(12.3%), bathroom 6(5.7%), stair 4(3.8%), and mountain 2(1.9%). Twenty-two subjects (20.8%) had medication regularly, while 84 subjects (79.2%) had no medication. The areas of the fracture from the fall included upper extremities 20(18.9%) and lower extremities 86(81.1%). Radius fracture (7.5%) was the area where the fracture occurred most frequently in upper extremities and femur fracture (52.8%) was the area where the fracture occurred most frequently in lower extremities. A significant difference was found in the fracture area by age, season and place of the fall (p<.05). No significant difference was found in the fracture area by gender and medication. In all age groups, seasons and places of the fall, occurrence of fracture in lower extremity was significantly higher than that in upper extremity.
Aged* ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Femur ; Humans ; Lower Extremity ; Male ; Medical Records ; Radius Fractures ; Seasons ; Upper Extremity

PURPOSE: This study was done to determine how a hospital life guidance movie enhanced the understanding of hospital life by elderly in-patients. METHOD: A non-equivalent control group post-test design was used for the study. The experimental group watched a movie on guidance for hospital life while an in-patient control group read corresponding guidance booklets. The understanding and satisfaction from the respective programs for the two groups were surveyed with a questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS. RESULTS: The group which watched the movie had a better understanding of hospital life than the group which read the booklets. The patients who watched the movie also expressed more satisfaction with their guide program than the patients who only read the booklets. Understanding of hospital life had relevance to satisfaction with the given program. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggests that a movie on hospital life provides better guidance which helps the prospective patients understand and adapt better to their hospital life. Therefore, this type of movie is considered to be an effective medium to provide guidance to elderly in-patients.
Aged ; Humans ; Pamphlets ; Patient Admission ; Patient Education as Topic ; Questionnaires

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the torque effect of orthodontic wires. Ten types of orthodontic wires (five types of materials, two types of cross-sectional dimensions) were selected. Each group of wire type was constituted with five specimens. These specimens were tested on the universal testing machine(Instron) with specially-designed jig. The torque-twist curve of each wire was obtained and the results were analyzed statistically. The results were as follows: 1. 0.017" X 0.025" wire showed more torque effect than 0.016" X 0.022" wire at the same twist. 2. Torque effect was the greatest in stainless steel and the least in Nitinol. 3. The maximum amount of torque was the greatest in heat-treated Blue Elgiloy and the least in Nitinol.
Orthodontic Wires* ; Stainless Steel ; Torque*

PURPOSE: The Fas-associated death domain (FADD) constitutes a novel protein that specifically associates with the cytoplasmic death domain of Fas, and induces apoptosis. FADD is composed of a death effector domain (DED) and a death domain. In this study, we evaluated the in vivo antitumor effect of the FADD, or FADD-DED, gene in renal cell carcinoma cells, using a plasmid vector expressing the human FADD and FADD-DED genes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The cDNA of the human FADD and FADD-DED genes were amplified by RT-PCR, and cloned to the pCR(R) 3.1. The expressions of the cloned FADD and FADD-DED (pCR(R)3.1-FADD and pCR3.1-FADD-DED) were observed by Western blot analysis. The efficacy of the growth inhibition by the cloned FADD and FADD-DED genes was tested, in vitro, on A498 and Caki-1 human renal cell carcinoma cell lines using the MTT assay. To evaluate the apoptosis, DNA fragmentation and caspase-3 assays were performed. RESULTS: Expressions of the FADD protein, and the FADD-DED, of the transfected A498 and Caki-1 cells had increased by 48 and 24 hours, respectively, compared with the control cell lines. The cytotoxicity of the pCR3.1-FADD and pCR3.1-FADD-DED on the A498 and Caki-1 cells significantly increased compared to the empty vector. The increased cytotoxicity of the FADD- or FADD-DED-transfected cell lines was associated with enhanced apoptosis, as assessed by DNA fragmentation and caspase-3 assays. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that the cloned FADD or FADD-DED expression plasmid vector efficiently inhibited the growth of A498 and Caki-1 human renal cell carcinoma cell lines. These data suggest that the exogenous FADD or FADD-DED expressions may have therapeutic applications in renal cell carcinomas.
Apoptosis* ; Blotting, Western ; Carcinoma, Renal Cell* ; Caspase 3 ; Cell Line ; Clone Cells ; Cytoplasm ; DNA Fragmentation ; DNA, Complementary ; Humans ; Plasmids