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Background/Aims: This study aimed to review the indications, methods, cooperation, complications, and outcomes of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG). Methods: Questionnaires were sent to 200 hospitals, of which 62 returned their questionnaires, with a response rate of approximately 30%. Descriptive statistics were calculated to analyze the responses to the questionnaires. Results: In 2019, a total of 1,052 PEGs were performed in 1,017 patients at 62 hospitals. The main group who underwent PEG was older adult patients with brain disease, particularly stroke. Nutritional supply was an important purpose of the PEG procedure. “The pull method” was the most commonly used for initial PEG insertion. The complications related to PEG were mostly mild, with leakage being the most common. Patients who underwent PEG procedures were primarily educated regarding the post-procedure management and complications related to PEG. Preoperative meetings were skipped at >50% of the institutions. Regarding the cooperation between the nutrition support team (NST) and the physician performing PEG, few endoscopists answered that they cooperated with NST before and after PEG. Moreover, the rate of NST certification obtained by physicians performing PEG and the frequency of attendance at NST-related conferences were relatively low. Conclusions: This study shows a similar trend to that found in the previous PEG guidelines. However, it covers new aspects, including team-based work for PEG procedure, nutrition support, and education for patients and guardians. Therefore, each medical institution needs to select an appropriate method considering the medical environment and doctor’s abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study uses an acceptability judgment experiment designed to explore the nature of Korean why-stripping with reference to voice. First, it investigates whether the acceptability of Korean why-stripping is affected by the voice mismatch between antecedent and ellipsis clauses. Second, it examines whether there is a difference in acceptability between passive antecedents with active ellipsis clauses (Passive-Active) and active antecedents with passive ellipsis clauses (Active-Passive). One finding indicates that Korean why-stripping prefers voice matches over voice mismatches: voice matches make it easier to link the remnant to its correlate in the antecedent clause. The other finding indicates that Passive-Active why-stripping is more acceptable than Active-Passive why-stripping. The study also evaluates whether the second finding supports Arregui et al.’s (2006) Recycling Hypothesis according to which passive clauses are more likely to be remembered as active than the other way around, creating an illusion of grammaticality or Poppels and Kehler’s (2019) hypothesis according to which there exists a penalty against passive ellipsis clauses, which applies to both matched and mismatched cases of English VP ellipsis. The results confirm the hypothesis of Poppels and Kehler in that Active-Active why-stripping is more acceptable than Passive-Passive why-stripping and that Passive-Active why-stripping is more acceptable than Active-Passive why-stripping [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Design: Level III retrospective study. Purpose: We investigated the impact of short-segment lumbar fusion on the restoration of global sagittal alignment and the correlations between spino-pelvic parameters and clinical outcomes. Overview of Literature: Sagittal imbalance leads to energy consumption and pain in maintaining a standing position. For adult spinal deformity, it is critical to create optimal lumbar lordosis (LL) in order to achieve restoration of sagittal imbalance. However, surgeons do not pay attention to correcting LL in short-segment lumbar fusion. Methods: A total of 69 patients with transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) for degenerative spinal disease were evaluated with a minimum 2-year follow-up. All patients underwent TLIF with hyper-lordotic angle cages to achieve higher LL. Radiological spino-pelvic parameters including sagittal vertical axis (SVA) and clinical outcomes using the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) were evaluated. Results: The average LL was 35.8°±9.9° before surgery, 42.3°±9.3° 1 year after surgery, and 40.3°±10.2° 2 years after surgery (p <0.01). The average SVA was 43.1±6.2 mm before surgery, 21.2±4.9 mm 1 year after surgery, and 34.0±4.7 mm 2 years after surgery (p <0.01). The average LL and SVA improved in two- or three-segment fusion, but not in one-segment fusion. The correlation between ΔLL and ΔSVA was significant in all segment fusions. The correlation between ΔLL and ΔSVA was more significant at the L4–5 and L5–S1 segments than at L3–4. ODI was significantly correlated with SVA (p <0.05). NRS showed no correlation with the radiological parameters. Conclusions: Two- or three-segment lumbar fusion using hyper-lordotic angle cages improved LL and SVA. A significant correlation between the correction of LL and SVA was found. Higher correction of LL using hyper-lordotic angle cages is thus recommended in short-segment lumbar fusion, since postoperative improvements of SVA significantly affect clinical outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linguistic Research 38(2): 271-299. The present study uses an acceptability judgment experiment designed to investigate whether the acceptability of Korean why-stripping is affected by (i) the polarity difference of the antecedent clause, (ii) the marker ani ‘not’ immediately preceding why, or (iii) the type (i.e., short-form or long-form) of negation in the antecedent clause. We propose that way ‘why’ in Korean why-stripping originates in CP and the non-wh remnant is a focus phrase associated with way ‘why’, following Yoshida et al.’s (2015) clausal ellipsis analysis of English why-stripping. Based on the experimental findings, we show that Korean why-stripping favors affirmative antecedent contexts over negative antecedent contexts, as expected from the processing perspective (Fischler et al. 1983; Herbert and Kübler 2011). We also show that the pre-why (i.e., clause-initial) ani ‘not’ in Korean why-stripping is not a negative marker but a discourse marker of conveying elements of surprise or disbelief (cf. Koo 2008). We further show that the type (i.e., short-form or long-form) of negation in the antecedent clause does not matter in why-stripping. In sum, we defend a grammar-plus-processing analysis of Korean why-stripping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-modality imaging is beneficial for both preclinical and clinical applications as it enables complementary information from each modality to be obtained in a single procedure. In this paper, we report the design, fabrication, and testing of a novel tri-modal in vivo imaging system to exploit molecular/functional information from fluorescence (FL) and photoacoustic (PA) imaging as well as anatomical information from ultrasound (US) imaging. The same ultrasound transducer was used for both US and PA imaging, bringing the pulsed laser light into a compact probe by fiberoptic bundles. The FL subsystem is independent of the acoustic components but the front end that delivers and collects the light is physically integrated into the same probe. The tri-modal imaging system was implemented to provide each modality image in real time as well as co-registration of the images. The performance of the system was evaluated through phantom and in vivo animal experiments. The results demonstrate that combining the modalities does not significantly compromise the performance of each of the separate US, PA, and FL imaging techniques, while enabling multi-modality registration. The potential applications of this novel approach to multi-modality imaging range from preclinical research to clinical diagnosis, especially in detection/localization and surgical guidance of accessible solid tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Design: Retrospective study. Purpose: To investigate the influence of fat infiltration at low back extensor muscles on osteoporotic vertebral fracture. Overview of Literature: In persons with stronger back muscles, the risk of osteoporotic vertebral fractures will likely be lower than in those persons with weaker back muscles. However, the degree of influence of fat infiltration of the back extensor muscle on osteoporotic vertebral fracture remains controversial. Methods: Two hundred and thirty-seven patients who had undergone lumbar spine magnetic resonance imaging and bone mineral density (BMD) were enrolled in this study. The amount of low back extensor muscle was determined using the pseudocoloring technique on an axial view of the L3 level. The patients were divided into two groups: osteoporotic vertebral fracture group (group A) and non-fracture group (group B). The amount of low back extensor muscle is compared with BMD, degenerative change of disc, osteophyte grade of facet joint and promontory angle to reveal the association between these factors. Results: A negative correlation is found between age and the amount of low back extensor muscle (p =0.001). The amount of low back extensor muscle in group A and group B was 60.3%±14.5% and 64.2%±9.3% respectively, thus showing a significantly smaller amount of low back extensor muscle in the osteoporotic vertebral fracture group (p =0.015). Conclusions: Fat infiltration of low back extensor muscle was increased in osteoporotic vertebral fracture patients. Therefore, fat infiltration of low back extensor muscle in an elderly person may be a risk factor of osteoporotic vertebral fracture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relative surgical risk and problems in hip hemiarthroplasty for treatment of an unstable intertrochanteric fracture in elderly patients over 80 years old. Materials and Methods: Between April 2005 and May 2010, 58 patients whose age was over 80 years were available for inclusion in this study. They were divided into two groups: group 1 included 30 patients with femoral neck fracture and group 2 included 28 patients with intertrochanteric fracture. No significant differences in average age, concomitant disease, and walking ability before development of fracture were noted between the two groups. The following factors, including interval from development of fracture to operation, operation time, amount of blood loss, start time of walking after operation, duration of hospital stay, complications, revision rate, and walking ability were compared between the two groups. Results: Operation time was an average of 85.2 minutes in group 1 and 97.5 minutes in group 2(P=0.03). The amount of bleeding was an average of 483 cc in group 1 and 695 cc in group 2(P=0.006). Similar results for walking start and recovery of walking ability after operation were observed in the two groups. No significant differences were observed in duration of hospital stay, complications, and revision rate. While 25 patients in group 1(83.3%) showed restoration of walking ability after operation to the same level of walking before injury, 19 patients in group 2(67.8%) showed restoration of walking ability postoperatively. Conclusion: Even though patients in group 2 showed a longer operation time and a higher amount of blood loss, compared with those in group 1, patients in group 2 had similar surgical risk and complications, compared with those in group 1. Therefore, primary hip hemiarthropalsty could be a good treatment option for intertrochanteric fracture in elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A UHF band near-field antenna using microstrip lines and stubs for tagging stacked tags in a smart table is presented. It is shown that a suitable near-field reader antenna can be designed from signal lines, ground lines, and several stubs to generate coupled electric and magnetic fields. The proposed near-field reader antenna satisfactorily operates in a UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) smart table, and the measurements show that the antenna is capable of detecting 200 stacked tags in a reading area of 200 mm × 190 mm and achieves a detection rate of 97% when the tags are stacked in a smart table. The proposed UHF RFID smart table is successfully implemented for casino chip management. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 52: 1116–1119, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.25115 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several dielectric as well as conducting pipes buried in the lossy half ground are reconstructed from the scattered fields measured along the air–earth interface. The iterative inversion method using the hybrid optimization algorithm combining the genetic and Levenberg–Marquardt algorithms is used in finding the positions, sizes, and medium parameters, such as the permittivities and conductivities, of the buried pipe cylinders, as well as those of the background lossy half ground. Ill posedness of the inversion caused by the errors in the measured scattered fields is regularized by filtering out the evanescent modes of the scattered fields. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 31: 140–143, 2001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]