Search

Objectives This study investigated the relationship between oral hygiene conditions, activities of daily living (ADL) and cognitive ability in older Korean patients in long-term care facilities. Methods Ninety older persons (65+) were randomly sampled from a possible 112 residents in a single facility. They participated in a 2-month-long survey. The Korean Modified Barthel Index was used to measure the ADL, and cognitive ability was measured using the Mini-Mental State Examination, Korean version. Oral hygiene status was measured using the Simplified Oral Hygiene Index and the Tongue Coating Index (TCI). Results Older participants with complete dependence manifested significantly poorer oral hygiene ( P < 0.05). Scores on the TCI were significantly higher in participants who were dentulous with partial dependence ( P < 0.05). A multiple regression analysis showed that dependence and being dentulous significantly predicted poorer oral hygiene ( P < 0.05). Conclusions This study suggests that older participants with complete dependence had poor oral hygiene on tooth surfaces, while participants with partial dependence had poor tongue hygiene. In addition, dentulous older participants had poorer tongue hygiene than edentulous ones. This indicates the need to assess tooth status and provide oral care services via ADL in long-term care facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the rubber forming process is used to fabricate a micro-channel titanium plate for a PEM fuel cell. The micro-channel plate is fabricated using a 200 ton hydraulic press, and various parameters (punch speed, press pressure, rubber thickness, rubber hardness) are investigated in order to evaluate the formability. TiN films are deposited by reactive DC magnetron sputtering (DCMS) with an electromagnetic field system (EMFS). For the uncoated titanium and TiN-coated titanium substrates, the hardness, surface roughness, and corrosion resistance are estimated by nano-indentation and electrochemical methods, respectively. The improved corrosion resistance of the TiN films can be attributed to the densification of the film caused by enhancement of nitrification with increasing high reactive nitrogen radicals. The uncoated titanium and TiN-coated titanium bipolar plates are combined with a unit cell for a performance test, and respective current densities of 0.396 and 0.888Acm-2 at 0.6V are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A total of 20 Mesostigmata species are recorded from the Korean Peninsula, of which 15 (Asca nubes Ishikawa, 1969, Lasioseius tomokoae Ishikawa, 1969, Evimirus uropodinus (Berlese, 1903), Macrocheles glaber (Müller, 1860), Macrocheles punctatus Ishikawa, 1967, Pachylaelaps ishizuchiensis Ishikawa, 1977, Gamasiphis pulchellus (Berlese, 1887), Ololaelaps ussurinensis Bregetova & Koroleva, 1964, Gamasellus humosus Ishikawa, 1969, Gamasholaspis variabilis Petrova, 1967, Parholaspulus hiasmaticus Petrova, 1967, Podocinum tsushimanum Ishikawa, 1970, Neoparasitus scleoides Ishikawa, 1969, Veigaia ochracea Bregetova, 1961, Uropoda similihamulifera Hiramatsu, 1979) are presented as first occurrences from this peninsula. Asca aphidioides (Linnaeus, 1758) is already reported from the southern part of the peninsula, but we present the first occurrence in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. One species (Trachytes koreana Kontschán & Lim, sp. nov.) is described and illustrated in this paper. Seventeen of the recovered species were collected in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea; the others were collected in the area of Republic of Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because biological wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) involve a long time-delay and various disturbances, in general, skilled operators manually control the plant based on empirical knowledge. And operators usually diagnose the plant using similar cases experienced in the past. For the effective management of the plant, system automation has to be accomplished based upon operating recipes. This paper introduces automatic control and diagnosis based upon the operator's knowledge. Fuzzy logic was employed to design this knowledge-based controller because fuzzy logic can convert the linguistic information to rules. The controller can manage the influent and external carbon in considering the loading rate. The input of the controller is not the loading rate but the dissolved oxygen (DO) lag-time, which has a strong relation to the loading rate. This approach can replace an expensive sensor, which measures the loading rate and ammonia concentration in the reactor, with a cheaper DO sensor. The proposed controller can assure optimal operation and prevent the over-feeding problem. Case-based diagnosis was achieved by the analysis of profile patterns collected from the past. A new test profile was diagnosed by comparing it with template patterns containing normal and abnormal cases. The proposed control and diagnostic system will guarantee the effective and stable operation of WWTPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]