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(1) Background: Nutrition is a key determinant of sarcopenia in later life. (2) Methods: A systematic review of prospective cohort studies examining association of diet quality with muscle mass (MM), muscle strength (MS) or physical performance (PP) among older adults was conducted. A total of 22,885 results were obtained from a literature search in MEDLINE via PubMed and EMBASE up to November 2020. Inclusion criteria included diet quality assessment via dietary indices or statistical approaches, a sample of adults aged 45 years and over at baseline in a longitudinal study design. (3) Results: Of the 22,885 cohort studies, 14 studies were eligible. Meaningful results were obtained for the Mediterranean diet and Nordic diet regarding the decrease of sarcopenia risk, however results from non-European countries were inconsistent. In addition, due to the insufficient number of studies on Japanese Food Guide Spinning Top (JFG-ST), dietary variety score (DVS), and dietary quality index-international (DQI-I), effectiveness was difficult to prove. Studies using factor analysis to examine dietary patterns suggested that the risk of sarcopenia is increased with a high in saturated fat diet such as westernized pattern etc. (4) Conclusion: In this systematic review it was found that various diet qualities are meaningful to a decreased risk of sarcopenia.

In this study, multiwalled carbon nanotube (CNT)-nickel hybrid materials were prepared from CNTs by the impregnation of nickel at various CNT/nickel mass ratios. The presence of nickel nanoparticles on CNTs influences the spillover effect on hydrogen storage capacity. A thermal reduction method was employed to increase the contacts between the nickel metal particles and the carbon support, thus facilitating hydrogen spillover. The as-obtained nickel-decorated CNTs exhibited a high hydrogen storage capacity of 0.87 wt.% at 298 K and 100 bar, resulting in an enhancement factor of 2.5 relative to the untreated CNTs. These experimental results demonstrate that the presence of nickel creates hydrogen-favorable sites that can lead to improved hydrogen storage capacities based on the spillover effect.

Conventional sol-gel solutions have received significant attention in thin-film transistor (TFT) manufacturing because of their advantages such as simple processing, large-scale applicability, and low cost. However, conventional sol-gel processed zinc tin oxide (ZTO) TFTs have a thermal limitation in that they require high annealing temperatures of more than 500 °C, which are incompatible with most flexible plastic substrates. In this study, to overcome the thermal limitation of conventional sol-gel processed ZTO TFTs, we demonstrated a ZTO TFT that was fabricated at low annealing temperatures of 350 °C using self-combustion. The optimized device exhibited satisfactory performance, with μsat of 4.72 cm2/V∙s, Vth of −1.28 V, SS of 0.86 V/decade, and ION/OFF of 1.70 × 106 at a low annealing temperature of 350 °C for one hour. To compare a conventional sol-gel processed ZTO TFT with the optimized device, thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses (TG-DTA) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were implemented.

This paper introduces a method for improving the sensitivity to NO2 gas of a p-type metal oxide semiconductor gas sensor. The gas sensor was fabricated using CuO nanowires (NWs) grown through thermal oxidation and decorated with ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) using a sol-gel method. The CuO gas sensor with a ZnO heterojunction exhibited better sensitivity to NO2 gas than the pristine CuO gas sensor. The heterojunction in CuO/ZnO gas sensors caused a decrease in the width of the hole accumulation layer (HAL) and an increase in the initial resistance. The possibility to influence the width of the HAL helped improve the NO2 sensing characteristics of the gas sensor. The growth morphology, atomic composition, and crystal structure of the gas sensors were analyzed using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction, respectively.

Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate recent clinical studies on the effect of acupuncture for urticaria worldwide. Methods Based on the PubMed search with the key search terms of 'urticaria, acupuncture', dated between 2002 to 2015, a total of 9 randomized controlled trials (RCTs),...

In solution-processed zinc tin oxide (ZTO) dual-active-layer (DAL) thin-film transistors (TFTs), a thermal limitation exists whereby the ZTO channel layer requires a high annealing temperature—above 470 °C—to achieve stable performance. This disadvantage has been overcome by applying ZnO/SnO2 channel structures and additional annealing methods. However, these methods are expensive due to equipment requirements. Therefore, we aimed at lowering the annealing temperature of solution-processed ZnO/SnO2 TFTs by varying the molar ratio and annealing conditions of the channel layers. The optimized TFTs were fabricated at an annealing temperature of 350 °C without employing additional annealing methods. The fabricated TFTs showed superior and more stable performance as compared to ZTO TFTs annealed at 350 °C. The electrical characteristics of the fabricated ZnO/SnO2 TFTs included a saturation mobility (µsat) of 3.04 cm2/V·s, an on-off-current ratio (ION/OFF) of 1.41 × 106, a threshold voltage (Vth) of 3.04 V, and a subthreshold swing (SS) of 1.49 V/dec. Based on X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results, compared with the ZTO DAL channel layer, the ZnO/SnO2 channel layer showed an increased ratio of metal-oxygen bonds and a decreased ratio of metal-hydroxyl bonds in O 1s deconvolution peaks.

Limited conventional energy resources and serious environmental calamities have motivated researchers to find new and efficient sources of energy. The considerable efforts devoted to this end include the development of bio-diesel, solar cells, coal liq-uefaction/gasification technologies, and fuel cells. Hydrogen is considered by many an ideal energy source owing to its renewable and clean energy characteristics. In addition, it mostly produces water, which is eco-friendly compared to the byproducts of many other energy sources [1-6]. To use hydrogen as an energy source, various hydrogen stor -age methods such as the use of metal hydrides, liquefied hydrogen, and adsorption of hydrogen in porous materials have been studied [7-14]. The adsorption of hydrogen in porous materials is particularly suitable for hydrogen storage, which is critical for suit -ably utilizing hydrogen energy, owing to the reversibility and stability of this method. To date, the wide ranging attempts to develop hydrogen storage mechanisms include studies on carbon materials [15-17], metal-organic frameworks, and zeolites [18-21]. Carbon materials offer many advantages for hydrogen storage, such as easy preparation, suitable surface functional groups, low mass density, thermal stability, and hydropho -bicity [22-24]. Carbon aerogels (CAs) in particular have been recognized as potential hydrogen storage materials because of their suitable structural properties, controllable mass densities, high specific surface areas, and mesopore volumes. However, it is neces -sary to modify the surfaces of carbon materials in order to reach the hydrogen storage capacities determined by the US Department of Energy (DOE).Carbon materials containing transition metals such as platinum, copper, vanadium, and nickel exhibit attractive hydrogen storage properties [10,22,25]. Nickel is particularly prom -ising since it is easily obtained on Earth, and it is inexpensive compared to other metals and enhances hydrogen storage properties. Improved hydrogen storage capacities have been obtained with nickel-plated porous carbon nanofibers owing to the spillover of hydrogen molecules onto the metal-carbon interfaces. In general, the presence of nickel particles on carbon materials has been shown to enhance the hydrogen storage capacity [3,9,19].In this work, CAs were chemically activated by KOH to produce well-developed pore structures and ultimately increase the hydrogen storage capacities. Nickel-loaded activated carbon aerogels (ACAs/Ni hybrid materials) with various nickel content were prepared. Ni particles were loaded onto ACAs to introduce hydrogen-favorable active sites onto the ACA surfaces and improve the hydrogen storage capacities.The CAs were prepared using resorcinol as the carbon precursor and formaldehyde as the initiator. Resorcinol (7.5 g) was dissolved in a solution of distilled water (75 mL) and formaldehyde (25 g). Sodium carbonate was then added to this solution, and the mixture was stirred for 3 h in an open container and dried for 3 h at room temperature. Subsequently, the wet gel was dried at 80°C for 48 h and then immersed in an acetone solution for 24 h without stirring. The aerogels were obtained after drying at 80°C for 24 h. Prior to use, the aerogels were carbonized in a furnace with a heating rate of 2°Cmin

Background: To date, much research has been conducted to measure needle manipulation quantitatively and objectively. This study was performed to quantitatively measure the differences in the amount of stimulation caused by various rotation frequencies and angles in twisting–rotating acupuncture needle manipulation. Methods: The torque Z force exerted on a tissue was measured at various rotation frequencies and angles by rotating a needle with a needle force measurement system attached to a needle insertion tissue model. Results: The results show that with rotation frequency at 60°, the torque Z force increased significantly from 0.023 N mm to 0.118 N mm as the rotation angle increased (p 0.88; p

Introduction: Undernutrition is associated with an increased risk of tuberculosis (TB). Moreover, recent studies have suggested that obesity has protective effect to TB. Aims and objectives: To evaluate the association between body mass index (BMI) and TB in a Korean population. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study based on database of the National Health Insurance database. Individuals aged 20–89 years who underwent health examinations between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2006 were included. The latest record of BMI was collected and categorized as underweight ( Results: Among 304,202 individuals, 3,835 (1.26%) incident TB cases were detected. Incidence of TB decreased as BMI was increased. After adjusting age, sex, household income, smoking status, alcohol use, and diabetes, risk of TB was lower in the overweight and the obese, compared with participants whose BMI was normal range. Risk of developing TB for participants with obese class II was nearly 2.5-fold lower than those with normal BMI (aHR, 0.40; 95% CI 0.30 to 0.54). Conclusions: Our study suggests that high BMI might be associated with decreased risk of TB in a Korean population.

We propose a coefficient of friction for quantifying the needle grasp sensation of acupuncture needles applied using the liftingthrusting method. To measure the force exerted on an acupuncture needle, six tissue specimens of varying hardness were selected and the lifting-thrusting method was applied to the samples using a needle insertion measurement system. The measured values of the force can be expressed as friction coefficients through analysis with a modified Karnopp friction model. Needle grasp was measured using the visual analog scale (VAS). By comparing the coefficients of friction and the VAS values, we determined that the subjective phenomenon of needle grasp can be quantified with Cp (the positive coefficient of the kinetic friction). Objective measurements of changes in sensation can thus be obtained by determining Cp.

Purpose To obtain three-dimensional (3D) MR angiography having high contrast between vessel and stationary background tissue, a novel technique called sliding time of flight (TOF) is proposed. Methods The proposed method relies on the property that flow-related enhancement (FRE) is maximized at the blood-entering slice in an imaging slab. For the proposed sliding TOF, a sliding stack-of-stars sampling and a dynamic MR image reconstruction algorithm were developed. To verify the performance of the proposed method, in vivo study was performed and the results were compared with multiple overlapping thin 3D slab acquisition (MOTSA) and sliding interleaved ky (SLINKY). Results In MOTSA and SLINKY, the variation of FRE resulted in severe venetian blind (MOTSA) or ghost (SLINKY) artifacts, while the vessel-contrast increased as the flip angle of radiofrequency (RF) pulses increased. On the other hand, the proposed method could provide high-contrast angiograms with reduced FRE-related artifacts. Conclusion The sliding TOF can provide 3D angiography without image artifacts even if high flip angle RF pulses with thick slab excitation are used. Although remains of subsampling artifacts can be present in the reconstructed images, they can be reduced by MIP operation and resolved further by regularization techniques. Magn Reson Med 73:1177–1183, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

【The purpose of this study was to explore how experiential factors in sportswear stores influenced store satisfaction, brand preference, and purchase intention among potential consumers, and to reveal the moderating effects of impulsive buying. The subjects of this study were 306 male and female adults in their 20s and 30s, who had visited sports brand stores within the past year. To analyze the data, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ , structural model analysis and path analysis were performed. The results of this study were as follows. First, there is a strong relationship between store satisfaction and experiential factors in sportswear apparel stores. All experiential factors significantly influenced store satisfaction in a positive direction. Second, consumers' store satisfaction positively influenced on brand preference. Third, consumers' store satisfaction had positive influences on their purchasing intention. Fourth, consumers' impulsive buying tendency showed significant moderating effect on the experiential factors. Consumers with low level of impulsive buying tended to be influenced more by 'think', 'relate', and 'sense' experiential factors on their store satisfaction. However, consumers with a high level of impulsive buying tendency revealed that they were more likely to be influenced by 'act' and 'feel' experiential factors.】

Purpose To significantly reduce the background phase effects, especially at the air–tissue interface, and to enhance the desirable local structures of veins in susceptibility-weighted imaging. Methods In the proposed reconstruction method called Magnitude of Complex Filtering, a complex-valued magnetic resonance image is acquired using a flow-compensated high-resolution 3D gradient-echo sequence and the magnitude of the complex-valued image is set to 1 so that the phase information, which contains details of the local susceptibility, is emphasized. Then, the nonlinear filter of the Magnitude of Complex Filtering method is applied to the complex-valued image with a constant magnitude. This filter utilizes the magnitude of the low-pass and high-pass filtered complex data to selectively reduce the background phase effects while enhancing the local structures. The filter output is then processed to generate a susceptibility-weighted image. Results Compared with the conventional susceptibility-weighted images generated by a homodyne high-pass filter, the susceptibility-weighted images from the proposed Magnitude of Complex Filtering method show significant improvement; the undesirable artifacts at the air–tissue interface regions and the brain boundaries are significantly reduced, while the contrast of the local structures of veins is enhanced. Conclusion The Magnitude of Complex Filtering method successfully reduced most background phase effects without requiring additional processing or scan time. Magn Reson Med 71:1324–1335, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In this study, a method for whole-body diffusion-weighted imaging (wbDWI) during continuous table motion has been developed and implemented on a clinical scanner based on a short-Tau inversion recovery echo-planar DWI sequence. Unlike currently available multistation wbDWI, which has disadvantages such as long scanning times, poor image quality, and troublesome data realignment, continuously moving table wbDWI can overcome these technical problems while extending the longitudinal field of view in MRI systems. In continuously moving table wbDWI, images are acquired consecutively at the isocenter of the magnet, having less geometric distortions and various possibilities of spatial and temporal coverage of an extended field of view. The acquired images, together with an apparent diffusion coefficient analysis, show that continuously moving table wbDWI can be used by appropriately adapting the table velocity, scan range, radiofrequency coils, slice resolutions, and spatio-temporal acquisition schemes according to various clinical demands. Magn Reson Med, 2011. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

e20051 Background: Chest computed tomography (CT) has become increasingly popular for screening and various reasons, and many cases of ground-glass opacity pulmonary nodules (GGN) that cannot be detected by simple chest radiography have been found incidentally. However, the natural history of GGN is not well understood and guidelines for the evaluation and follow-up of GGN have not yet been established yet. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical and CT scan characteristics associated with the growth of GGNs. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed GGN on chest CT performed between March 2011 and February 2014 at a tertiary referral hospital. Data were collected for the patient's age, sex, underlying lung disease, history of malignancy or comorbidities, size, border, number of GGN and presence of solid portion in GGN. For each GGN, an increase in size over time was investigated. We applied a Cox regression analysis to identify factors associated with the growth of GGN. Results: In a total of 504 patients, 916 GGN were found on chest CT. The mean age of the subjects was 59.6 years and 37% of men. The mean follow-up was 17.1 months. Cox regression analysis was performed on age, sex, history of malignancy, maximum diameter of GGN, number of GGN, margins of GGN, and presence of solid portion in GGN. History of malignancy (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.770, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.049-2.986, p = 0.032), solitary nodule (adjusted HR 2.335, 95% CI 1.401-3.867, p = 0.001), and nodules with the longest diameter of 10 mm or more (adjusted HR 1.833, 95% CI 1.032-3.253, p = 0.039) were associated with the growth of GGN. Conclusions: A history of malignancy, solitary nodule, and nodules with the longest diameter of 10 mm or more may increase in size in the future. Therefore, the history of malignancy and the size and number of nodules should be considered to determine the duration of follow-up and appropriate biopsy timing.

The pulsatile motion artifacts in the radial spin-echo diffusion-weighted-imaging (rSE-DWI) are analyzed and a method to improve the image quality of the rSE-DWI using the projection data regeneration method is proposed in this work. In general, ECG-triggering is used together with the rSE-DWI in order to prevent the loss of projection data, where the amount of loss depends on the data acquisition timing in the cardiac cycle. The ECG-triggering reduces the artifacts related to the cardiac pulse to some extent, but still leaves some degraded projection data while increasing the data acquisition time. Thus, the projection data regeneration method is proposed in order to improve the image quality. In the proposed method, the projection data is acquired by the rSE-DWI from which a temporary image is generated by an inverse Radon transform (IRT). The projection data acquired at each view angle is tested to figure out whether it is damaged by the pulsatile motion, and then the degraded data are replaced with the data that are regenerated by the Radon transform (RT) of the temporary image. The regeneration process is repeated until the image gains reasonable quality. In the meanwhile, the thermal noise of the signal is removed using the mask generated by thresholding the intensity of the projection data. In order to demonstrate the efficiency, the proposed method for the improvement of image quality is applied to a phantom and in-vivo images. The quality of the DW images acquired by either ECG-triggered or non-triggered rSE-DWI can be improved using the proposed method without increasing the imaging time.

Objectives: Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic cholestatic liver disease that may progress to end stage liver cirrhosis. Benefits of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) treatment has been investigated through large clinical studies. However, most of the studies were done in western countries and recent increase in prevalence of this relatively uncommon chronic liver disease draws attention in Korea. As early UDCA treatment effectively prevent the grave consequences of PBC progression, early diagnosis and lifelong management with UDCA is important. This study was designed to investigate the clinical features of PBC and response rates of UDCA treatments in Ewha Womans University Medical Center. Methods: Clinical data of PBC patients diagnosed between 2001 and 2014 at Ewha Womans University Medical Center were analyzed retrospectively. Results: A total of 35 patients with mean follow-up duration of 42 months were enrolled. At the diagnosis, 72.7% of the patients were asymptomatic, 5.7% had decompensated liver cirrhosis. The mean serum alkaline phosphate (ALP) level was 2.65 times upper limit of normal . UDCA was prescribed in 91.4% of the patients (n=32), among which 77.4% exhibited biochemical responses defined as serum ALP less than 2 upper limit of normal at 6 months (Mayo criteria). Conclusion: Most PBC patients were asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis and the average biochemical responses rate to UDCA treatment were ranged from 60.0% to 78.9% according to various response criteria. To elucidate the clinical features and courses of Korean PBC patients in detail, larger scale investigations and longer clinical follow up studies are warranted. (Ewha Med J 2015;38(3):106-111) Received July 8, 2015 Accepted September 17, 2015