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The aim of this study was to develop a robust algorithm to quantify pulse sharpness that can complement the limitations of radial augmentation index (rAIx) and explore the role of this quantitative sharpness index in reflecting vascular aging or arterial stiffness. The pulse sharpness index (PSI) was developed by combining the end point angle and virtual height, and 528 radial pulses were analyzed. The PSI could be uniformly applied to various waveform morphologies, even those with no or vague tidal waves, unlike the rAIx. Significant sex differences were identified in the rAIx and PSI (P 2 = 0.701), and the PSI was found to have the greatest influence on arterial stiffness. This study confirmed that the PSI could be a quantitative index of vascular aging and has potential for use in inferring arterial stiffness with an advantage over the rAIx.

Background The purpose of this study was to assess the accuracy and safety of procedures using ultrasound equipment for acupuncture treatment. Methods A pilot, prospective randomized, single blinded, crossover clinical study on the accuracy and safety of ultrasound-guided Gyeontonghyeol; (BP-LE6) acupuncture treatment was conducted. Patients (n; = 13) with shoulder pain were randomly divided into 2 groups. During Visit 1, ultrasound-guided BP-LE6 acupuncture was administered to the experimental group. In the control group, patients received BP-LE6 acupuncture (without checking ultrasound images) by manipulating the ultrasound probe as if administering ultrasound-guided acupuncture. Visit 2 was arranged within 7-14 days and the remaining procedures, other than those administered in Visit 1, were performed. In both the experimental group and control group, the number of needle insertions, and time required for the treatment to result in the patients feeling de-qi; was recorded. The numeric rating scale (NRS) score for shoulder pain was recorded before and after the acupuncture treatment. Results The number of needle insertions was 5.31 ± 3.50 times in the experimental group, and 6.62 ± 3.38 times in the control group, however, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups (p; > 0.05). The mean time required to perform the procedure was 151.54 ± 48.59 seconds in the experimental group and 86.69 ± 37.17 seconds in the control group, which was statistically significantly different (p; < 0.05). The changes observed in numerical rating scale scores between groups were not statistically significantly different. Conclusions Although there was no statistically significant difference, administering acupuncture using ultrasound guidance may lead to accurate needling with a reduced number of needle insertion attempts. A large-scale clinical study of better design should be conducted in the future.

Introduction Gender differences are important intrinsic factors in wrist arterial pulse assessment in traditional Chinese and Korean medicine. The current study aimed to examine gender differences in wrist pulse waves at the Cun, Guan, and Chi positions of the wrist and to identify associations between physical indices and anatomical properties at all three positions. Methods One hundred thirty-nine middle-aged Korean men and women participated in this cross-sectional study. A blood analysis was performed, and blood pressure and medical history were recorded. Artery diameter and depth, blood flow velocity, and pulse wave were measured. Results The pulse power index (PPI), pulse depth index (PDI), and power spectrum density at the third harmonic frequency/first harmonic frequency (PSD_w3_w1) showed highly significant differences according to gender. Men exhibited larger PPI values than women at all three positions. The PDI and PSD_w3_w1 in men were higher at the Cun position than those in women, whereas the PDI at the Chi position was higher in women than in men. Gender differences in the spectral harmonic energy ratio were greater at the Guan and Chi positions than those at the Cun position. The subendocardial viability ratio differed significantly between genders. In women, the PDI was highly positively correlated with radial artery depth at all positions; however, in men, the PDI was only marginally correlated with artery depth at the Guan and Chi positions. Conclusion We suggest that gender differences should be considered in wrist artery pulse diagnosis, including those related to pulse diagnostic positions and anatomical properties.

Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze domestic and foreign clinical research into ultrasound-guided Oriental medicine acupuncture. Methods: Ultrasound-guided Oriental medicine acupuncture studies were retrieved from PubMed, CNKI, KISS, NDSL, and OASIS. Results: Of 6,260 articles, 17 articles were selected. There was 1 article in 2004, 1 in 2008, 2 in 2011, 1 in 2012, 4 in 2013, 3 in 2016, 2 in 2017, and 3 in 2018. Of the 17 selected articles 6 articles were studies of omalgia, 4 of knee pain and 2 of peroneal nerve palsy. In addition, there was 1 article of occipital headache, 1 of neck pain, 1 of tarsal tunnel syndrome, 1 of angioma and 1 of hiccup. In these 17 studies the ultrasound frequency range where mentioned, was 5-14 MHz. Conclusion: This study provided basic data as reference for the design of more diversified and systematic clinical research in the domestic Oriental medicine community in the future.

According to expansion of electric automobiles, the multi-layer nano thin film glass withheating source is researched to retain safety driving for winter. Generally, the tungsten wire is usedas a heating source of electric automobile glass. Due to its low visibility, silver (Ag) particles areresearched for years. Ag is widely used as a material of heater in the automobile industry since ithas relatively high heat and electrical conductivities. However, the multi-layer nano thin film glassusing Ag particles is under development stage and is not verified in the field, so recall and claimcan be raised. In this study, we will find the potential failure mechanism of the multi-layer nano thinfilm glass based on the properties, and then suggest accelerated life test method to verify 15 years inthe automobile application.

We present a new comprehensive scheme for generating grain boundary conformed, volumetric mesh elements from a three-dimensional voxellated polycrystalline microstructure. From the voxellated image of a polycrystalline microstructure obtained from the Monte Carlo Potts model in the context of isotropic normal grain growth simulation, its grain boundary network is approximated as a curvature-maintained conformal triangular surface mesh using a set of in-house codes. In order to improve the surface mesh quality and to adjust mesh resolution, various re-meshing techniques in a commercial software are applied to the approximated grain boundary mesh. It is found that the aspect ratio, the minimum angle and the Jacobian value of the re-meshed surface triangular mesh are successfully improved. Using such an enhanced surface mesh, conformal volumetric tetrahedral elements of the polycrystalline microstructure are created using a commercial software, again. The resultant mesh seamlessly retains the short- and long-range curvature of grain boundaries and junctions as well as the realistic morphology of the grains inside the polycrystal. It is noted that the proposed scheme is the first to successfully generate three-dimensional mesh elements for polycrystals with high enough quality to be used for the microstructure-based finite element analysis, while the realistic characteristics of grain boundaries and grains are maintained from the corresponding voxellated microstructure image.

To investigate the changes in radial pulse induced by thermal stresses (TSs). Sixty subjects were enrolled. Using an open-label, 2×2 crossover randomization design, both feet of each subject were immersed in 15 °C water for cold stress (CS) and in 40 °C water for heat stress (HS) for 5 min each. Radial pulse, respiration and electrocardiogram (ECG) signals were recorded before, during and immediately after the TSs. The analysis of heart rate variability revealed that CS increased the low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) components (P

Introduction Obesity is a chronic disease risk factor. The objective of this study was to assess the association of obesity with anatomical and physical indices at the Cun, Guan, and Chi positions related to the radial artery. Methods A total of 109 healthy subjects aged 30–50 years participated in this study. Binary logistic regression was performed to examine differences in physical and anatomical indices between normal and obese subject groups. Results The arterial diameter was associated with obesity at the Guan (adjusted p = 0.0441, adjusted OR = 1.65 [1.013–2.687]) and Chi positions (adjusted p = 0.0028, OR = 2.277 [1.327–3.908]) but not the Cun position. No association between the arterial blood flow velocity and obesity were observed at the three positions. The pulse depth index (PDI) was related to obesity at the Cun (adjusted p = 0.0038, OR = 2.119 [1.274–3.526]) and Guan positions (adjusted p = 0.0422, OR = 1.595 [1.017–2.503]). The high-frequency spectral energy proportion of the total pulse energy (HSEP) was significantly different only at the Chi position (adjusted p = 0.0418, OR = 0.571 [0.333–0.979]), and the spectral energy ratio (SER) was related to obesity only at the Guan position (adjusted p = 0.0468, OR = 1.76 [1.008–3.073]). Conclusion Our study demonstrated that the arterial diameter, PDI, HSEP, and SER were associated with obesity at one or more positions. Our findings suggest that obesity may be considered in arterial pulse diagnosis and anatomical characteristics.

A cryptic plasmid, pLU4, was isolated and sequenced from Lactobacillus reuteri strain LU4, a probiotic strain isolated from human feces in Korea. pLU4 was 33,411 bp in size with a G + C content of 40.1% and contained 41 putative open reading frames (ORFs) of more than 120 bp. Functions were assigned to 24 of these ORFS by a homologous sequence search and domain characterization, and the rest were annotated as conserved hypothetical proteins or hypothetical proteins, based on highly similar proteins found in other Lactobacillus species. A region encoding a cluster of conjugative transfer genes (trs or tra) in pLU4 showed high similarity and co-linearity with the trs region of plca36 and tra region of pLgLA39 from L. casei str. Zhang and L. gasseri, respectively. This is the first report of a trs cluster sequence from plasmids found in L. reuteri species. Comparative gene analysis revealed that pLU4 also encodes highly conserved genes for plasmid replication and stability found in several other Lactobacillus plasmids, indicating that plasmids from the genus Lactobacillus may contribute to horizontal gene transfer and adaptation to the environment. The findings of this study provide important information about these industrially relevant phenotypes and give insight into the structure, function, and evolution of large Lactobacillus conjugative plasmids.

예비과학교사 교육에서 강의식 수업의 한계를 극복하고, 디지털 네이티브 세대들에게 적합한 학습자 중심의 교육을 위하여 플립러닝 수업을 시도했다. 플립러닝 교수-학습 원리를 일반적인 수업모형 (ADDIE)에 적용하여 수업을 계획하고, 학습 자료를 개발했다. 개발된 플립러닝 학습 자료와 수업 설계에 대하여 전문가 패널의 델파이 방법과 타당도 검사를 통해 CVR .75 이상으로 검증 받았다. 플립러닝 수업자료를 과학교육론 강좌에 적용하여 교수 효과를 분석한 결과, 학생들의 학습동기와 흥미, 학습에 대한 자신감을 높이는데 도움이 되었지만, 학생들의 강의 만족도는 이전의 강의식 수업과 비교하여 30% 이상 떨어졌고, 학업 성취도 향상에 대한 자기 확신도 부족했다. 성공적인 플립러닝 수업을 위해서는 교수자-학생 간 의사소통과 개별화 수업이 충분하게 이루어질 수 있는 소인수 학급을 대상으로 해야 하며 학습자의 학습 부담을 줄이고, 선행학습 동영상 자료의 접근성을 강화해야 한다.

Pulse diagnosis is one of the representative diagnostic methods in Oriental medicine. In this study, a pulse pressure sensor array coated with silicone, which includes 6 piezo-resistive sensors and 1 thermistor, is fabricated for pulse measurement. It is necessary to coat the pulse sensor array with silicone to avoid the fracture or damage of pressure sensors when the sensor is in contact with the skin and a constant pressure is applied. However, the silicone coating on the pulse sensor array can cause signal interference among the sensors in the pulse sensor array. The interference number (IN), a calculation for expressing the degree of interference among channels, is changed according to the silicone thickness on the pulse sensor array. The IN is increased by a thick silicone coating, but the fabrication error, an important index for the mass production of the sensor array, is reduced by the thickness of the silicone coating. We propose that the thickness of the silicone on the pulse sensor array is an important consideration for the performance of the fabricated sensor and manufacturing repeatability.

Background Piezo-resistive pressure sensors are widely used for measuring pulse waves of the radial artery. Pulse sensors are generally fabricated with a cover layer because pressure sensors without a cover layer are fragile when they come into direct contact with the skin near the radial artery. However, no study has evaluated the dynamic pulse wave response of pulse sensors depending on the thickness and hardness of the cover layer. This study analyzed the dynamic pulse wave response according to the thickness and hardness of the cover layer and suggests an appropriate thickness and hardness for the design of pulse sensors with semiconductor device-based pressure sensors. Methods Pulse sensors with 6 different cover layers with various thicknesses (0.8 mm, 1 mm, 2 mm) and hardnesses (Shore type A; 30, 43, 49, 71) were fabricated. Experiments for evaluating the dynamic pulse responses of the fabricated sensors were performed using a pulse simulator to transmit the same pulse wave to each of the sensors. To evaluate the dynamic responses of the fabricated pulse sensors, experiments with the pulse sensors were conducted using a simulator that artificially generated a constant pulse wave. The pulse wave simulator consisted of a motorized cam device that generated the artificial radial pulse waveform by adjusting the stroke of the cylindrical air pump and an air tube that conveyed the pulse to the artificial wrist. Results The amplitude of the measured pulse pressure decreased with increasing thickness and hardness of the cover layer. Normalized waveform analysis showed that the thickness rather than the hardness of the cover layer contributed more to waveform distortion. Analysis of the channel distribution of the pulse sensor with respect to the applied constant dynamic pressure showed that the material of the cover layer had a large effect. Conclusions In this study, in-line array pulse sensors with various cover layers were fabricated, the dynamic pulse wave responses according to the thickness and the hardness of the cover layer were analyzed, and an appropriate thickness and hardness for the cover layer were suggested. The dynamic pulse wave responses of pulse sensors revealed in this study will contribute to the fabrication of improved pulse sensors and pulse wave analyses.

Introduction: In traditional East Asian medicine, the color and shape features of a tongue reflect the health of the body. The repeatability of computerized tongue diagnosis is highly dependent on the image acquisition process. In this study, a method for providing frontal and profile feedback gridlines for the tongue image acquisition process was proposed and the resulting color and shape repeatability was assessed. Methods: Eight subjects were recruited and 120 images were acquired. For each subject, 15 tongue images were acquired with three different gridline types, including no gridline (Group I), frontal gridlines (Group II), and frontal and profile gridlines (Group III) in a pseudo-randomized order. To evaluate repeatability, intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated from the mean values and histogram fitting parameters for Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage L*a*b*, profile angles, and tongue area ratios (TARs) of four edge regions, respectively. Results: The ICCs for all the color features in Group I were lower as compared with those in Group II and additionally, the ICCs for all the color features in Group III were larger compared with those in Group II. The ICCs of the shape features were lower than those of the color features. The ICCs of TARs in Group I were lower than those in Groups II and III. From the tip to the root of the tongue region, the ICCs of mean luminance tended to decrease in all the groups, but the intensity of the decline in Group III was lower than those in Group I and Group II. Conclusions: The proposed tongue image acquisition process with frontal and profile gridlines improved the repeatability of color and shape features and potentially improve diagnostic accuracy of computerized tongue diagnosis. © 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

In this paper, we first show that for any space X, there is a σ-complete Boolean subalgebra Z(ΛX) # of R(X) and that the subspace {α | α is a fixed σZ(X)-ultrafilter} of the Stone-space S(Z(ΛX)) is the minimal basically disconnected cover of X. Using this, we will show that for any countably locally weakly Lindelof space X, the set {M |M is a σ-complete Boolean subalgebra of R(X) containing Z(X) and s−1 M (X) is basically disconnected}, when partially ordered by inclusion, becomes a complete lattice.

The aim of this study is to investigate the characteristics on the profile of local ice load acting on side shell of port side in bow part due to broken ice during icebreaking of ships in ice covered waters. The first Korean icebreaking research vessel `ARAON` had a sea ice field trial in the Arctic Sea during early August, 2010, and the signals due to local ice impact measured from several strain gauges installed at bow part were gathered. It is known that these data with structural response characteristics due to local ice impact have some different characteristics with a typical hydraulic impact pressure - time history. In this study, the time history on the measured signals was analyzed and the characteristic values were presented using non-dimensional parameters.

The radial artery pulse is one of the major diagnostic indices used clinically in both Eastern and Western medicine. One of the prominent methods for measuring the radial artery pulse is the piezoresistive sensor array. Independence among channels and an appropriate sensor arrangement are important for effectively assessing the spatial-temporal information of the pulse. This study developed a circular-type seven-channel piezoresistive sensor array using face-down bonding (FDB) as one of the sensor combination methods. The three-layered housing structure that included independent pressure sensor units using the FDB method not only enabled elimination of the crosstalk among channels, but also allowed various array patterns to be created for effective pulse measurement. The sensors were arranged in a circular-type arrangement such that they could estimate the direction of the radial artery and precisely measure the pulse wave. The performance of the fabricated sensor array was validated by evaluating the sensor sensitivity per channel, and the possibility of estimating the blood vessel direction was demonstrated through a radial artery pulse simulator. We expect the proposed sensor to allow accurate extraction of the pulse indices for pulse diagnosis.

Tongue diagnosis is an essential process to noninvasively assess the condition of a patient's internal organs in traditional medicine. To obtain quantitative and objective diagnostic results, image acquisition and analysis devices called tongue diagnosis systems (TDSs) are required. These systems consist of hardware including cameras, light sources, and a ColorChecker, and software for color correction, segmentation of tongue region, and tongue classification. To improve the performance of TDSs, various types TDSs have been developed. Hyperspectral imaging TDSs have been suggested to acquire more information than a two-dimensional (2D) image with visible light waves, as it allows collection of data from multiple bands. Three-dimensional (3D) imaging TDSs have been suggested to provide 3D geometry. In the near future, mobile devices like the smart phone will offer applications for assessment of health condition using tongue images. Various technologies for the TDS have respective unique advantages and specificities according to the application and diagnostic environment, but this variation may cause inconsistent diagnoses in practical clinical applications. In this manuscript, we reviewed the current trends in TDSs for the standardization of systems. In conclusion, the standardization of TDSs can supply the general public and oriental medical doctors with convenient, prompt, and accurate information with diagnostic results for assessing the health condition.

Brachypodium, a monocot grass with wide distribution in temperate areas, has been considered a new model plant for many grass species, such as turfgrass or miscanthus, due to its small genome size, self-pollination, rapid life cycle, higher seed yield, and small stature. The objectives of this study were to compare the genetic diversity of natural and artificial populations, and to determine the effects of γ-radiation on genetic variability when evaluated by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. Two populations used in this study include 66 plant introductions (PI) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA; POP1), and 43 mutants derived from one of the plant introductions, Bd43 (PI 227011; POP2) treated with a γ-irradiation ranging from 100 to 600 Gy. The highest performance of the phenotypic traits was observed at 200 Gy for germination rate, 100 Gy for height, and 600 Gy for tiller number, implying that the LD50 for determining of optimum dosage depends on the physiological parameters measured. Based on AFLP analysis, POP2 showed higher polymorphism (79.4%), PIC (polymorphism information content; 0.162), and genetic diversity (0.195) than POP1 (59.4%, 0.113, and 0.130, respectively). Those three genetic parameters were evaluated for the mutants derived at various γ-radiation dosages and were found to be the highest when irradiated at 300 Gy. Artificial mutagenesis using γ-radiation improved genetic diversity compared to that of the natural population, and 300 Gy was a useful dosage to enlarge genetic variability in Brachypodium. Results suggest that a dosage maximizing the genetic diversity when evaluated with AFLP markers is an alternative index to LD50 for determining the optimum level for mutation induction.

L-ribose has recently attracted interest as a starting material for antiviral drug. It could be obtained from L-arabinose by epimerization reaction. Epimerization reaction was carried out with molybdenium oxide or molybdic acid catalyst and methanol/water solution. Reaction temperature, methanol percentage, and catalyst kind were selected to find an optimum reaction condition. Ion exhange chromatography was used for separating epimerization reaction mixture, and then HPLC chromatogram of L-ribose fraction obtained to calculate the yield of the reaction. Shodex ion exchange HPLC column(Model SC1011) and Phenomenex Luna HPLC column were compared to employ a convenient HPLC analysis. It was found that the usage of 20% methanol, , and 40 g/L molybdic acid gives the best reaction condition with a yield of 21%.

The purpose of this dissertation is finding the meaning and form of Euthanasia, Considering by Criminal law that the core of the debate over the `pros and cons` of euthanasia, And seeking measures about needs of currently Euthanasia legislation and institutional establishment. Through the remarkable progress, today`s medical science makes to cure the Incurable patients, and artificially prolong human life by life-support system. These changes of Healthcare Environments extending a permissible range of Euthanasia over the series of criminal discussions about Euthanasia. And medical treatment has been discussed from negative side to positive side. So, In the current legal system, seeking for realistic measure is demands of the times behind the penally and ethical problems. Therefore, I will study the needs of legal system and reestablish values about Respect for Human Life.

We propose a novel classification algorithm for the floating pulse and the sunken pulse using a newly defined coefficient (Cfs). To examine the validity of the proposed algorithm, we carried out a clinical test in which 12 oriental medical doctors made pairwise diagnoses on the pulses of volunteering subjects. 169 subjects were simultaneously diagnosed by paired doctors, and the diagnoses in 121 subjects were concordant, yielding an accuracy of 72% and a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.42, which indicates reasonable agreement between doctors. Two sampleT-tests showed that subjects in the sunken pulse group had significantly higher BMI andCfs(P<.05) than those in the floating pulse group. The pulse classification by the algorithm converged with the diagnoses of paired doctors with an accuracy up to 69%. With these results, we confirm the validity of the novel classification algorithm for the floating and sunken pulses.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by mutations in the CFTR chloride channel. Deletion of phenylalanine 508 (F508del), the most frequent CF mutation, impairs CFTR trafficking and gating. F508del-CFTR mistrafficking may be corrected by acting directly on mutant CFTR itself or by modulating expression/activity of CFTR-interacting proteins, that may thus represent potential drug targets. To evaluate possible candidates for F508del-CFTR rescue, we screened a siRNA library targeting known CFTR interactors. Our analysis identified RNF5 as a protein whose inhibition promoted significant F508del-CFTR rescue and displayed an additive effect with the investigational drug VX-809. Significantly, RNF5 loss in F508del-CFTR transgenic animals ameliorated intestinal malabsorption and concomitantly led to an increase in CFTR activity in intestinal epithelial cells. In addition, we found that RNF5 is differentially expressed in human bronchial epithelia from CF vs. control patients. Our results identify RNF5 as a target for therapeutic modalities to antagonize mutant CFTR proteins.

Background: The objectives of this pilot study were to examine the association between hypertension and physical factors of wrist pulse waves to avoid subjective diagnoses in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM). An additional objective was to assess the predictive power of individual and combined physical factors in order to identify the degree of agreement between diagnosis accuracies using physical factors and using a sphygmomanometer in the prediction of hypertension. Methods: In total, 393 women aged 46 to 73 years participated in this study. Logistic regression (LR) and a naive Bayes algorithm (NB) were used to assess statistically significant differences and the predictive power of hypertension, and a wrapper-based machine learning method was used to evaluate the predictive power of combinations of physical factors. Results: In both wrists, L-PPI and R-PPI (maximum pulse amplitudes in the left Gwan and right Gwan) were the factors most strongly associated with hypertension after adjusting for age and body mass index (p = < 0.001, odds ratio (OR) = 2.006 on the left and p = < 0.001, OR = 2.504 on the right), and the best predictors (NB-AUC = 0.692, LR-AUC = 0.7 on the left and NB-AUC = 0.759, LR-AUC = 0.763 on the right). Analyses of both individual and combined physical factors revealed that the predictive power of the physical factors in the right wrist was higher than for the left wrist. The predictive powers of the combined physical factors were higher than those of the best single predictors in both the left and right wrists. Conclusion: We suggested new physical factors related to the sum of the area on the particular region of pulse waves in both wrists. L-PPI and R-PPI among all variables used in this study were good indicators of hypertension. Our findings support the quantification and objectification of pulse patterns and disease in TCM and TKM for complementary and alternative medicine.

Cold and Heat pattern identification(CHPI) in traditional East Asian medicine(TEAM) is one of the major indicator to distinguish characteristics of disease and to determine treatment method. Basic parameters to determine CHPI include the pulse rate, respiration rate, and pulse power. Studies to associate physiological responses of human body by cold stress(CS) with CHPI in TEAM were rarely done so far. This study aims to explore the effects of cold stress on pulse signal via a feasibility study for three subjects and investigate some indices which can reflect autonomic nerve reaction(ANR). We measured radial pulse signals and respiration signal of the investigated subjects before the CS, during the CS which continues for 5 minutes, and immediately after the CS, respectively. Finally, we analyzed the pulse rate (P), respiration rate (R), pulse power, pulse depth, and pulse rate per respiration (P/R ratio). As a result, the P/R ratio showed a consistently decreasing tendency through the CS stimulation process, while other parameters behaved more complex and in subject-specific ways. It implies that, among candidate parameters, the P/R ratio is a simple but the most probable parameter that can be used as the ANR indicator. This result is also consistent with the theory in TEAM scripts, in which the P/R ratio is predicted to be a direct indicator for the CHPI. This pilot study shows that P/R ratio can be more appropriately associated with the ANR than heart rate or respiration rate alone. Extensive studies will be necessary to verify or confirm the P/R ratio as an appropriate and well defined parameter for ANR.

Introduction. According to traditional East Asian medicine (TEAM) theory, the tongue represents conditions of qi and blood. In the present study, the relationship between the tongue and the qi and blood in conditions with no apparent disease was investigated.Methods. A total of 454 elderly people with no apparent disease were recruited. Two Korean oriental medicine doctors classified subjects into a normal group (n = 402) and a sleep disorder group (n = 52). Three to five weeks after the experiment, 153 subjects were rerecruited for a second experiment. Two-dimensional color histograms, whose seven variables represent the color distribution in Commission Internationale de l'Éclairage 1976 (L*,a*,b*) color space, were produced from tongue images.Results. The color of the tongue body in the sleep disorder group appeared paler than that in the normal group, and the tongue coating in the normal group was less widely distributed compared with that in the sleep disorder group. The differences in tongue color between the normal at first experiment and sleep disorder at second experiment conditions were similar to the differences between the normal and the sleep disorder groups.Conclusions. The tongue states in the sleep disorder group indicate a qi and blood deficiency according to TEAM theory.

Background Human skin properties have been used as an important diagnostic component in traditional medicine as they change with health conditions. Sasang constitutional medicine (SCM) puts emphasis on the recognition of the constitution-specific skin features prior to the diagnostic decision of health. In this work, in search of skin-characteristics effectively reflecting SCM features, we compared several skin properties such as perspiration, visco-elasticity, elasticity, and elasticity hysteresis, in several candidate body parts. Methods We conducted a clinical study in which a total of 111 healthy females aged 50 – 70 years participated with their Sasang constitution (SC) types determined objectively by the Sasang constitutional analytic tool. Perspiration on the skin surface was estimated by using a capacitance sensor to measure the amount of moisture on the palm, forehead, and philtrum before and after a heating stimulus. We acquired the visco-elasticity, elasticity, and elasticity hysteresis at the forearm by Dermalab’s elasticity sensing device. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to evaluate the effect of SC on the nine skin features acquired. Results The visco-elasticity of the forearm of the Soeum-in (SE) group was significantly lower than that of the Taeeum-in (TE) group (F = 68.867, p

Sasang constitutional medicine (SCM) shares its philosophy with that of personalized medicine: it provides constitution-specific treatment and healthcare individualized for each patient. In this work, we propose the concept of the Sasang Health Index (SHI) as an attempt to assess the individualized health status in the framework of SCM. From the target population of females in their fifties and older, we recruited 298 subjects and collected their physiological data, including complexion, radial pulse, and voice, and their questionnaire responses. The health status of each subject was evaluated by two Korean medical doctors independently, and the SHI model was obtained by combining all the integrative features of the phenotype data using a regression technique. As a result, most subjects belonged to either the healthy, subhealthy, or slightly diseased group, and the intraclass correlation coefficient between the two doctors’ health scoring reached 0.95. We obtained an SHI model for each constitution type with adjustedR-squares of 0.50, 0.56, and 0.30, for the TE, SE, and SY constitution types, respectively. In the proposed SHI model, the significant characteristics used in the health assessment consisted of constitution-specific features in accordance with the classic literature and features common to all the constitution types.