• Title/Summary/Keyword: sensory information

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A Preliminary Epidemiologic Study on Korean Veterans Exposed to Herbicides in Vietnam War (파월국군장병의 고엽제 위해에 관한 예비적 역학조사)

  • Kim, Joung-Soon;Lee, Hyun-Sul;Lee, Hong-Bok;Lee, Won-Young;Park, Young-Joo;Kim, Sung-Soo
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.27 no.4 s.48
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    • pp.711-734
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    • 1994
  • Among chemical agents in herbicides, dioxin (2, 3, 7, 8-tetrachloro dibenzo-$\rho$-dioxin : TCDD), a chemical contaminant in herbicides sprayed during the Vietnam War has been known to be the major agent causing toxic effects. Approximately 320,000 korean soldiers participated the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1974. Although the potential hazards of the herbicides among Korean veterans exposed were implicated, the problem had not been a public issue until 1991 when Korean veterans were informed U.S. companies, the herbicides manufacturer payed fund, from which a trust fund for New Zealand and Australian Class members were established in 1985. After a series of appeals and demonstration by the Korean Veterans demanding medical care and compensation for their serious health damages, a bill of medical care and compensation for herbicides victims was promulgated in March 1993 and become effective from May 1993, This study was carried out with two major objectives : the first to understand the health problems caused from the herbicides by reviewing literatures published, and the second to examine the nature and extent of health impacts among Korean veterans exposed and to develop valid study methods for the major study by interviewing and reviewing records on a part of veterans (638 persons) registered and completed medical examination in Seoul Veterans Administration Hospital from June to October 1993. The results obtained are as followings: 1. The literature review of 107 papers revealed that 1) Dioxin is teratogenic, carcinogenic and affects almost all organs including nervous, endocrine, and reproductive systems in animal experiments. 2) The diseases showing evidence of causal association were Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's disease, lung cancer, lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, chloroacne and polyneuropathy when judged on the basis of consistency in study results and biological plausibility. 2. Interview and medical record review study on 638 veterans, though limited validity owing to lack of control group, crude estimates of dioxin exposure levels (no biomarkers measurable), and uncertainty of diagnosis, showed that: 1) Most of the study subject's were in their 40's of age and had been dispatched to Vietnam during the period from $1965{\sim}1970$ around one year. 2) Most frequently complained symptoms in medical examination were motor weakness (32%), sensory abnormalities in extremities (23%), skin diseases (22%), and pain in extremities (20%) whereas in Interview they were more frequent in order of skin problem (44%), motor weakness (38%), sensory abnormalities and pain in extremities(17% and 19% each). Kappa indices on the same category of complaints between two sources of information were variable and relatively low. 3) On medical examination, only a part of the 638 subjects had initial impression (442 pts) and final diagnosis (218 pts) suggesting decision making on diagnosis appeared to be difficult even with all available modern medical technologies: in initial impression disorders from peripheral and central neuropathy were predominant whereas in final diagnosis various types of skin disorder were most frequent 4) When dose-response relationship between several conditions (from questionnaire) and arbitrary exposure scores were examined by CMH linear trend test, spontaneous abortion, sexual problems and health problem of offsprings showed statistically significant linear trends. However, pregnancy, accident and suicidal attempts did not show any relationship in this study capacity. 5) Among complaints, psychosis and neurosis (anxiety, phobia) in interview study, and memory disorder and psychosis in medical record study revealed linear trend. 6) Skin disorder was the only condition showing linear trend in initial impression and none in final diagnosis on medical examination. Even though objective to select out dioxin-related disease or group of diseases from this study was not achieved the research experiences provided firm basis for developing various methodological approaches. 3. From this preliminary study we concluded that a larger scale major epidemiologic study on health impacts of herbicides among Korean veterans exposed is not only Indispensible but also well designed study with more valid exposure information and diagnosis may be able to establish causal relationship between certain groups of diseases and exposure to the herbicides among Korean veterans.

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Exploration of Neurophysiological Mechanisms underlying Action Performance Changes caused by Semantic Congruency between Perceived Action Verbs and Current Actions (지각된 행위동사와 현재 행위의 의미 일치성에 따른 행위 수행 변화의 신경생리학적 기전 탐색)

  • Rha, Younghyoun;Jeong, Myung Yung;Kwak, Jarang;Lee, Donghoon
    • Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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    • v.27 no.4
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    • pp.573-597
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    • 2016
  • Recent fMRI and EEG research for neural representations of action concepts insist that processing of action concepts evoke the simulation of sensory-motor information. Moreover, there are several behavioral studies showing that understanding of action verbs or sentences describing actions interfere or facilitate current action performance. However, it is unclear that online interaction between processing of action concepts and current action is based on the simulation of sensory-motor information, or other neural mechanisms. The present research aims to explore the underlying neural mechanism that how the perception of action language influence the performance of current action using high-spacial temporal resolution EEG and multiple source analysis techniques. For this, participants were asked to perform a cued-motor reaction task in which button-pressing hand action and pedal-stepping foot action were required according to the color of the cue, and we presented auditorily action verbs describing the responding actions (i.e., /press/, /step/, /stop/) just before the color cue and examined the interaction effect from the semantic congruency between the action verbs and the current action. Behavioral results revealed consistently a facilitatory effect when action verbs and responding actions were semantically congruent in both button-pressing and pedal-stepping actions, and an inhibitory effect when semantically incongruent in the button-pressing action condition. In the results of EEG source waveform analysis, the semantic congruency effects between action verbs and the responding actions were observed in the Wernicke's area during the perception of action verbs, in the anterior cingulate gyrus and the supplementary motor area (SMA) at the time when the motor-cue was presented, and in the SMA and primary motor cortex (M1) during action execution stage. Based on the current findings, we argue that perceived action verbs evoke the facilitation/inhibition effect by influencing the expectation and preparation stage of following actions rather than the directly activating the particular motor cortex. Finally we discussed the implication on the neural representation of action concepts and methodological limitations of the current research.

Synaptic Organization of Vibrissa Afferent Terminals in the Trigeminal Interpolar Nucleus (삼차신경중간핵에서 저역치기계자극수용기 유래 들신경섬유 종말의 연접양상)

  • Ahn, Hyoung-Joon;Paik, Sang-Kyoo;Bae, Yong-Chul;Choi, Jong-Hoon;Kim, Chong-Youl
    • Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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    • v.30 no.1
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    • pp.87-106
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    • 2005
  • In order to evaluate the mechanism of transmission as well as processing of sensory information originating from low-threshold mechanoreceptor in oral and maxillofacial region at primary synaptic region of trigeminal nervous system, vibrissa afferent fibers of adult cat were labeled with intra-axonal HRP injection. Serial sections containing labeled boutons were obtained from the piece of trigeminal interpolar nucleus. Under electron microscope, total 30 labeled boutons were observed, and ultrastructural characteristics, frequency of occurence, synaptic organizations of vibrissa afferent terminals were analysed. The results were as follows: 1. Labeled boutons contained clear, spherical synaptic vesicles with diameter of 45$\sim$55nm. They formed asymmetrical synapse with dendrites showing definite postsynaptic density, larger synaptic cleft, multiple synaptic structures at various regions. With unlabeled axon terminals(p-ending) containing polymorphic synaptic vesicles, they formed symmetrical synapse showing indefinite postsynaptic density and narrower synaptic area. 2. Each labeled bouton formed 1 to 15 synapses, the average of 4.77$\pm$3.37 contacts per labeled bouton, with adjacent neuronal profiles. Relatively complex synaptic organization, which formed synapses with more than 5 neuronal profiles, was observed in a large number(46.7%, n=14) of labeled boutons. 3. Axo-somatic synapse was not observed. The number of axo-dendritic synapse was 1.83$\pm$1.37 per labeled bouton. Majority(85.0%) of axo-dendritic synapses were formed with dendritic shafts, nonprimary dendrites(n=47, 1.57$\pm$1.38/1 bouton), however, synapses formed with primary dendrites(n=6, 0.20$\pm$0.41/1 bouton) or dendritic spines(n=2, 0.07$\pm$0.25/1 bouton) were rare. 4. 76.7%(n=23) of labeled boutons formed axo-axonic synapse (2.93$\pm$2.36/1 bouton) with p-endings containing pleomorphic vesicles. Synaptic triad, in which p-endings formed synapses with labeled boutons and dendrites adjacent to the labeled boutons simultaneoulsy, were also observed in 60.0%(n=18) of labeled boutons. From the above results, vibrissa afferent terminals of adult cat showed distinctive synaptic organization in the trigeminal interpolar nucleus, thus, suggests their correlation with the function of the trigeminal interpolaris nucleus, which participates in processing of complex sensory information such as two-point discrimination and motivational-affective action. Further studies on physiologic functions such as quantitative analysis on ultrastructures of afferent terminals and nerve transmitters participating in presynaptic inhibition are required.

A Study on the Curriculum for Record Management Science Education - with focus on the Faculty of Cultural Information Resources, Surugadai University; Evolving Program, New Connections (기록관리학의 발전을 위한 교육과정연구 -준하태(駿河台)(스루가다이)대학(大學)의 경우를 중심(中心)으로-)

  • Kim, Yong-Won
    • Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.69-94
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    • 2001
  • The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current status of the records management science education in Japan, and to examine the implications of the rapid growth of this filed while noting some of its significant issues and problems. The goal of records management science education is to improve the quality of information services and to assure an adequate supply of information professionals. Because records management science programs prepare students for a professional career, their curricula must encompass elements of both education and practical training. This is often expressed as a contrast between theory and practice. The confluence of the social, economic and technological realities of the environment where the learning takes place affects both. This paper reviews the historical background and current trends of records management science education in Japan. It also analyzes the various types of curriculum and the teaching staff of these institutions, with focus on the status of the undergraduate program at Surugadai University, the first comprehensive, university level program in Japan. The Faculty of Cultural Information Resources, Surugadai University, a new school toward an integrated information disciplines, was opened in 1994, to explore the theory and practice of the management diverse cultural information resources. Its purpose was to stimulate and promote research in additional fields of information science by offering professional training in archival science, records management, and museum curatorship, as well as librarianship. In 1999, the school introduced a master program, the first in Japan. The Faculty has two departments and each of them has two courses; Department of Sensory Information Resources Management; -Sound and Audiovisual Information Management, -Landscape and Tourism Information Management, Department of Knowledge Information Resources Management; -Library and Information Management, -Records and Archives Management The structure of the entire curriculum is also organized in stages from the time of entrance through basic instruction and onwards. Orientation subjects which a student takes immediately upon entering university is an introduction to specialized education, in which he learns the basic methods of university education and study, During his first and second years, he arranges Basic and Core courses as essential steps towards specialization at university. For this purpose, the courses offer a wide variety of study topics. The number of courses offered, including these, amounts to approximately 150. While from his third year onwards, he begins specific courses that apply to his major field, and in a gradual accumulation of seminar classes and practical training, puts his knowledge grained to practical use. Courses pertaining to these departments are offered to students beginning their second year. However, there is no impenetrable wall between the two departments, and there are only minor differences with regard requirements for graduation. Students may select third or fourth year seminars regardless of the department to which they belong. To be awarded a B.A. in Cultural Information Resources, the student is required to earn 34 credits in Basic Courses(such as, Social History of Cultural Information, Cultural Anthropology, History of Science, Behavioral Sciences, Communication, etc.), 16 credits in Foreign Languages(including 10 in English), 14 credits on Information Processing(including both theory and practice), and 60 credits in the courses for his or her major. Finally, several of the issues and problems currently facing records management science education in Japan are briefly summarized below; -Integration and Incorporation of related areas and similar programs, -Curriculum Improvement, -Insufficient of Textbooks, -Lack of qualified Teachers, -Problems of the employment of Graduates. As we moved toward more sophisticated, integrated, multimedia information services, information professionals will need to work more closely with colleagues in other specialties. It will become essential to the survival of the information professions for librarians to work with archivists, record managers and museum curators. Managing the changes in our increasingly information-intensive society demands strong coalitions among everyone in cultural Institutions. To provide our future colleagues with these competencies will require building and strengthening partnerships within and across the information professions and across national borders.

Glycemic Index Lowering Effects of Breads Supplemented with Resistant Starch, Whole Rye Grain and Fructooligosaccharide (저항전분, 통호밀 및 프락토올리고당을 첨가한 식빵의 개발과 Glycemic index 감소 효과)

  • Park, Min-A;Lee, Joung-Won;Shin, Mal-Shick;Ly, Sun-Yung
    • Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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    • v.12 no.2
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    • pp.189-197
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    • 2007
  • Low glycemic index (GI) foods have been reported to be very important in the control of blood glucose levels in diseases such as diabetes mellitus and obesity, which are becoming more prevalent in Korea. Bread consumption at breakfast and as a snack is also on the rise. To provide low GI alternatives, breads supplemented with dietary fibers-fructooligosaccharide (FOS), ground whole rye, and 2 types of resistance starch (RS2 and RS4)-were developed. The GIs for these breads were evaluated with 13 healthy college students (M6, F7) and sensory tests were done. Four kinds of breads were made through the modification of a basic recipe for white bread (the control, B) as follows: for Bf, the entire amount of sugar was replaced with FOS. For Ryef, 50% of the white wheat flower was replaced with roughly ground wholerye (20 mesh: 12-20 mesh = 1 : 3) in addition to replacing sugar with FOS. For RS2f and RS4f, 20% of the white wheat flower was replaced with RS2 or RS4, in addition to replacing sugar with FOS. The overall preference score of Bf was similar to that of B, while those of Ryef, RS2f and RS4f were lower than that of B, but showed the acceptable degree of the overall preference. The glycemic indices of Ryef and RS2f were 46.1 and 45.9 respectively, which were significantly lower than the GI of B, 67.8. The GIs of Bf and RS4f were, however, 66.7 and 80.5 respectively, showing no significant difference compared to B. The glycemic loads for a 30 g serving were 9.5, 5.9, 6.2, 11.0 and 9.0 for B, Bf, Ryef, RS2f and RS4f, respectively. In conclusion, addition of RS2 or roughly ground whole rye to the dough formula significantly lowered the GI. Since the preferences shown for those two breads were acceptable, they may be recommended as a substitute for white bread fir persons who need blood glucose management. More studies on the bread making process are required to improve preference and acceptance. Although GI lowering effects for F and RS4 were not found in this study, further studies are needed to verify their effects.

A Study on the Eating Out Behavior of University Students in Seoul (서울시내 대학생의 외식행동에 관한 조사 연구)

  • Chung, Chin-Eun;Kim, Hee-Sun
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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    • v.16 no.2
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    • pp.147-157
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    • 2001
  • In order to investigate the eating out behavior of university students, this survey was conducted using the questionaires for 710 students(369 male, 341 female) from 11 universities in Seoul. It was revealed that 39.4% of the subjects spent $60,000{\sim}100,000$ won for monthly eating out cost and 57.8% of them ate out more than once a day. Most of them expended less than 3,500 won for lunch, while 36.5% of them spent $4,000 {\sim}5,000$ won for dinner. Dinner was regarded more important than lunch. Korean foods were the most preferred menu for eating out with friends and fast foods were the second. But Boonsik(snack bar foods), Chinese foods and Japanease foods were rarely selected. Frequency of selecting fast foods was 8 times greater than that of Boonsik. This indicates that the preference of western flavor and the pursuit of convenience is getting more obvious. While dating, western foods were preferred, followed by Korean foods, fast foods. The 80 kinds of foods were reported as favored eating out foods. Although 50 among 80 were Korean foods, the rest of them were Koreanized foreign foods most of those were western style. This may suggest that when the students become adults, they will be much fond of western dish for their dinning out. This tendency of preferring western flavor were much apparent in foods for dinner compared with lunch. In both sexes, the standard of food choice was in the order of taste, price, mood, hygiene, service and brand name. But male students were more conscious of price and service while female students were more concerned about taste and hygiene. Most unsatisfying feature in restaurant was unstable atmosphere for both sexes. Taste was the most important sensory factor in selecting the foods, followed by appearance, smell and texture. Major source of restaurant information was recommendation by friends or relatives. But the use of internet or magazine was negligible. Female students had more positive attitude, compared with male students, in using restaurant information and pursuing eating out for gourmet. The dining out menu of which price ranges about $3,000{\sim}5,000$ won could be preferable foods for most people. Therefore, instead of blaming them for eating too much fast foods, new menus which fit the food preference and affordability of the students should be developed.

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The effect of a low-sodium label on acceptability and perceived saltiness intensity of a dipping sauce for fried pork cutlets (저염 표시가 포크커틀릿 소스의 짠맛 인식과 기호도에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Min-Ji;Kang, Baeg-Won;Kim, Jong-Wook;Lee, Mi-Young;Chung, Seo-Jin;Hong, Jae-Hee
    • Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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    • v.49 no.1
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    • pp.72-79
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    • 2017
  • This study was conducted to investigate the effects of a low-sodium label on acceptability and sensory attributes of a dipping sauce for fried pork cutlets. Two sauce samples, CON (normal sodium level) and LOW-Na (50% sodium level), were evaluated. Consumers (n=77) rated expectations and actual perception of overall liking, purchase intent, and intensities of saltiness, sweetness, sourness, fruit flavor, and degree of flavor balance without and with a carrier (fried pork cutlet) in blind and informed settings. In the informed test, CON labeled as Low-Na (PLACEBO) was additionally tested to examine the placebo effect of information. The low-sodium labeling significantly increased the expected liking and purchase intent, but decreased the expected saltiness. However, the label did not influence actual liking or purchase intent. A significant decrease in actual saltiness was observed only in Low-Na, not in PLACEBO, indicating the label is influential only when actual perception matched the expectation.

A Study on Perceptual Skill Training for Improving Performance - Focusing on sports cognitive aspects - (경기력 향상을 위한 지각기술훈련에 대한 고찰 - 스포츠 인지적 측면 중심으로-)

  • Song, Young-Hoon
    • Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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    • v.35 no.1
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    • pp.299-305
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    • 2018
  • Perception refers to the process of acquiring all the information about the environment through various sensory organs such as the visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory senses and integrating and interpreting the information transmitted to the brain. The ability to use these perceptions efficiently is called perceptual skill, and perceptual skill is an important factor for improving performance in the field of sports. As a result, many researchers have developed various perceptual training programs to maximize these perceptual skills while they have also progressed on attempting to verify their effects. The perceptual skill training introduced in this study is a training method that focuses on visual perception and is a training method that is applied in the United States and Europe. to improve sports performance. As a result of carrying out the perceptual skills training based on the kicker's important clue (the kicker's hip - the angle of the body and foot before kicking) to the goalkeeper in the situation of a soccer penalty kick improved the ability of predicting the direction of the ball while even in tennis, carrying out the perceptual skills training based on the server's important clue (position, ball, racket) improved the accuracy of the ability to predict in the direction of serve. Recently, there have been numerous research studies that were carried out on such perceptual skills training, but the number of studies conducted are insufficient, especially in Korea where research studies on perceptual training seem to be in a relatively neglected state. In addition, extensive studies need to be carried out to investigate whether the improvement of perceptual skills in the laboratory situation can be transitioned to an actual performance situation. Therefore, in order to elevate sports performance, researchers need to examine the perceptual training program's extent of necessity as well as the research direction regarding its effects.

Development and Tree-Dimensional Kinematic Analysis of the Dual Chamber-based Drinking Aid for Stroke Patients: A Prospective Pilot Study (이중 체임버 구조가 내장된 뇌졸중 환자용 컵의 개발과 3차원 동작분석을 통한 운동 형상학적 유용성 검증: 전향적 예비연구)

  • Heo, Seo Yoon;Kim, Kyeong-Mi
    • Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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    • v.53 no.12
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    • pp.180-190
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    • 2016
  • This prospective pilot clinical trial mainly focuses on developing dual chamber-based assistive cups which are suitable for stroke patients who have struggled with using there affected arms. It is unable to provide motor and sensory enhancement during drinking activities and to examine the feasibility of the devices for acute phase, even for chronic stroke survivors. The stroke patients(n=16; male=8, female=8), in this trial, were provided informed consent to the investigation. All the individuals participated in 1 weeks of training for using cups, randomized over dedicated dual chamber based assistive cups(DC) or placebo-cups(PC) training. All the participants were assessed within 1 week before and after the intervention period. 3-dimensional motion analysis, sEMG(surface electromyography) and 3-dimensional trunk movement were assessed. The result presents DC data group compared with PC showed, they needed lesser ROM(range of motion) at the phase of drinking in shoulder movements and lesser muscle activities on upper trapezius, deltoid middle fiber and triceps brachii muscles, lesser tilting movement on front and back side in drinking phase, the differences were statistically significant(p<.05). Dual chamber-based assistive cup could be one of efficient way to complete ADLs(activities of daily living), especially drinking tasks, and these evidence data may contribute to determine certain rehabilitation policies related to assistive devise usage.

Neural Activation in the Somatosensory Cortex by Electrotactile Stimulation of the Fingers: A Human fMRI Study

  • Seok, Ji-Woo;Jang, Un-Jung;Sohn, Jin-Hun
    • Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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    • v.33 no.5
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    • pp.395-405
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    • 2014
  • Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate 1) somatotopic arrangement of the second and third fingers in SI area 2) difference of neural activation in the SI area produced by stimulation with different frequencies 3) correlation between the intensity of tactile perception by different stimulus intensity and the level of brain activation measurable by means of fMRI. Background: Somatosensory cortex can obtain the information of environmental stimuli about "where" (e.g., on the left palm), "what" (e.g., a book or a dog), and "how" (e.g., scrub gently or scrub roughly) to organism. However, compared to visual sense, the neural mechanism underlying the processing of specific electrotactile stimulus is still unknown. Method: 10 right-handed subjects participated in this study. Non-painful electrotactile stimuli were delivered to two different finger tips of right hand. Functional brain images were collected from 3.0T MRI using the single-shot EPI method. The scanning parameters were as follows: TR and TE were 3000, 35ms, respectively, flip angle 60, FOV $24{\times}24cm$, matrix size $64{\times}64$, slice thickness 4mm (no gap). SPM5 was used to analyze the fMRI data. Results: Significant activations produced by the stimulation were found in the SI, SII, the subcentral gyrus, the precentral gyrus, and the insula. In all participants, statistically significant activation was observed in the contralateral SI area and the bilateral SII areas by the stimulation on the fingers but ipsilaterally dominant. The SI area representing the second finger generally located in the more lateral and inferior side than that of the third finger across all the subjects. But no difference in brain area was found for the stimulation of the fingers by different frequencies. And two typical patterns were observed on the relationship between the perceived psychological intensity and the amount of voxels in the primary sensory cortex during the stimulation. Conclusion: It was possible to discriminate the representation sites in the SI by electrotactile stimulation of digit2 and digit3. But we could not find the differences of the brain areas according to different stimulation frequencies from 3 to 300Hz. Application: The results of the study can provide a deeper understanding of somatosensory cortex and offer the information for tactile display for blinds.