Purpose: This study investigates the effect of 60° semi-squat exercises according to three different types of support surfaces. The effects were examined on joint position sense and balancing ability using stable and unstable surfaces in patients afflicted with post-stroke hemiplegia. Methods: Subjects were instructed to perform three sets of 60° semi-squat exercises according to the characteristics of the support surface conditions. The three ground states were bilateral stable surface (BSS), nonaffected side unstable surface (NUS), and bilateral unstable surface (BUS). The joint position sense, characteristics of body sway, and dynamic balance were analyzed according to floor conditions before and after the experiment. A balance-pad (50 cm W × 41 cm L × 6 cm H; Alcan Airex AG, Sins, Switzerland) was used for the unstable floor. Results: The 60° semi-squat exercises applied to hemiplegic patients showed the highest statistical significance in joint position sense in the NUS group, and Timed Up and Go test (TUG) in the BUS group (p < 0.05). Conclusion Functional training using an unstable surface can be applied as a meaningful intervention method for improving the balance and joint position sense of stroke patients.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the mediating effects of anxiety and sleep quality in the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and irritability among psychiatric patients. Methods: A total of 105 psychiatric patients completed questionnaires on anxiety sensitivity (Korean version of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3), irritability (Korean version of the Brief Irritability Test), anxiety (Korean-Beck Anxiety Inventory), and sleep quality (Korean version of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index). Data analyses were conducted using regression analyses and the bootstrap sampling method. Results: The major findings of this study were as follows: First, anxiety sensitivity positively predicted irritability. Second, anxiety significantly mediated the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and irritability, but not sleep quality. Last, the sequential mediating effect of anxiety and sleep quality was significant in the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and irritability. Conclusion These results suggest that anxiety and sleep quality should be considered in the pathway from anxiety sensitivity to irritability. Therefore, addressing anxiety and sleep quality in anxiety sensitivity interventions may help prevent the development of irritability.

The National Health Promotion Fund has grown as the increase of tax on tobacco consumption, but more than half of the fund was spent on health insurance supporting. It is important to use the fund appropriately to keep legitimacy and sustainability of health promotion. Therefore, services regarding health promotion should be a priority in spending health promotion fund, and operation system should be established to manage and administer the fund properly.
Financial Management ; Health Promotion ; Illegitimacy ; Insurance, Health ; Korea ; Taxes ; Tobacco Use

Recently, single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technology has enabled the discovery of novel or rare subtypes of cells and their characteristics. This technique has advanced unprecedented biomedical research by enabling the profiling and analysis of the transcriptomes of single cells at high resolution and throughput. Thus, scRNA-seq has contributed to recent advances in cardiovascular research by the generation of cell atlases of heart and blood vessels and the elucidation of mechanisms involved in cardiovascular development and diseases. This review summarizes the overall workflow of the scRNA-seq technique itself and key findings in the cardiovascular development and diseases based on the previous studies. In particular, we focused on how the single-cell sequencing technology can be utilized in clinical field and precision medicine to treat specific diseases.

A 12-year-old castrated male Persian cat presented with abdominal distension, anorexia, and no defecation. The radiography revealed ascites, pleural effusion, and a cranioventral mediastinal mass. Ultrasonography showed a well-defined mass lesion within a thickened ileal segment with a transmural loss of layering and multiple hyperechoic nodules arising from the peritoneum. Computed tomography showed peritoneal thickening with contrast enhancement, a bulky heterogeneous ileal mass, and mesenteric involvement with diffuse nodules. An alimentary lymphoma was confirmed by fine needle aspiration of the small intestinal mass. Peritoneal lymphomatosis is rarely reported as a metastatic manifestation in veterinary medicine. This report describes the imaging features of lymphoma with peritoneal lymphomatosis in a cat.

Subgaleal hematomas are accumulation of blood between periosteum and galea aponeurosis. A 2-year-old male Chihuahua was presented with a severe head swelling after trauma. Radiography and computed tomography (CT) showed a massive swelling encircling the entire calvarial vault, extending toward the cervical neck and crossing the suture line. It was heterogeneously, mild hyperdense fluid to soft tissue attenuating with contrast enhancement on CT images. On day 4, physical and imaging examination showed resolution of the calvarial swelling. Subgaleal hematoma should be considered as a differential diagnosis when there is a massive soft tissue swelling over the skull on physical and imaging examinations.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Bone formation and bone resorption continuously occur in bone tissue to prevent the accumulation of old bone, this being called bone remodeling. Osteoblasts especially play a crucial role in bone formation through the differentiation and proliferation. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the effects of Scytosiphon lomentaria extract (SLE) on osteoblastic proliferation and differentiation in MC3T3-E1 cells. MATERIALS/METHODS: A cell proliferation assay, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity assay, alizarin red staining and protein expression analysis of osteoblastic genes were carried out to assess the osteoblastic proliferation and differentiation. RESULTS: The results indicated that treatment of SLE promoted the proliferation of MC3T3-E1 cells and improved ALP activity. And, SLE treatment significantly promoted mineralized nodule formation compared with control. In addition, cells treated with SLE significantly upregulated protein expression of ALP, type 1 collagen, bone morphogenetic protein 2, runt-related transcription factor 2, osterix, and osteoprotegerin. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate that SLE promote differentiation inducement and proliferation of osteoblasts and, therefore may help to elucidate the transcriptional mechanism of bone formation and possibly lead to the development of bone-forming drugs.
Alkaline Phosphatase ; Bone and Bones ; Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 ; Bone Remodeling ; Bone Resorption ; Cell Proliferation ; Collagen Type I ; Osteoblasts* ; Osteogenesis ; Osteoprotegerin ; Transcription Factors