Clinical and Radiographic Features of Adult-onset Ankylosing Spondylitis in Korean Patients: Comparisons between Males and Females

The objective of this study was to investigate clinical and radiographic features and gender differences in Korean patients with adult-onset ankylosing spondylitis. Multicenter cross-sectional studies were conducted in the rheumatology clinics of 13 Korean tertiary referral hospitals. All patients had a confirmed diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis according to the modified New York criteria. Clinical, laboratory, and radiographic features were evaluated and disease activities were assessed using the Bath ankylosing spondylitis disease activity index. Five hundred and five patients were recruited. The male to female ratio was 6.1:1. Average age at symptom onset was 25.4±8.9 yr and average disease duration was 9.6±6.8 yr. Males manifested symptoms at a significantly earlier age. HLA-B27 was more frequently positive in males. Hips were more commonly affected in males, and knees in females. When spinal mobility was measured using tragus-to-wall distance and the modified Schober's test, females had significantly better results. Radiographic spinal changes, including bamboo spine and syndesmophytes, were more common in males after adjustment of confounding factors. In conclusion, we observed significant gender differences in radiographic spinal involvement as well as other clinical manifestations among Korea patients with adult-onset ankylosing spondylitis. These findings may influence the timing of the diagnosis and the choice of treatment

Injury Profiles in Korean Youth Soccer

We aimed to analyze injury profiles and injury severity in Korean youth soccer players. Data on all injuries that occurred in U-15 youth soccer players during the 2019 season were collected from 681 players of 22 teams through a medical questionnaire. The questionnaire was based on injury surveillance procedures of the Federation International de Football Association Medical and Research Centre and International Olympic Committee, and it comprised questions on demographic characteristics, training conditions, and injury information. Among all players, defenders accounted for 33.0%, followed by attackers (30.7%), midfielders (26.8%), and goalkeepers (7.9%). Most players played soccer on artificial grounds (97.4%). Injuries occurred more frequently during training (56.3%) than during matches (43.7%). Recurrent injury rate was 4.4% and average days to return to full activities were 22.58. The ankle (26.6%) and knee joints (14.1%) were the most common injury locations, and ligament sprains (21.0%), contusions (15.6%), and fractures (13.9%) were the most frequent injury types. In conclusion, Korean youth soccer players have a high injury risk. Therefore, researchers and coaching staff need to consider these results as a key to prevent injuries in youth soccer players and injury prevention programs may help decrease injury rate by providing injury management

Network Analysis on Green Technology in National Research and Development Projects in Korea

This study examined how green technology (GT) has evolved recently in the domain of national research and development (R&D) in Korea. The analysis considered social network analysis by using keywords of national R&D projects in environmentally benign (‘green’ in this paper) technologies. Data for analysis were collected from the R&D database of the National Science and Technology Information Service (NTIS). By selecting the official GT category in the NTIS’s database, we gathered 53,896 GT R&D projects from 2011 to 2016 inclusive. By constructing a co-occurrence matrix with keywords, we conducted a centrality analysis (including degree, closeness, betweenness centrality) and visualized the network matrix to display a cluster map. This study presents the following findings: (1) the chronical trends of GT R&D, (2) focused fields of GT R&D, (3) the relations between keywords and GTs, and (4) the characteristics and problems in GT R&D. The paper ends with suggested policy implications to boost national GT R&D and to develop GTs in the future

Anisotropic Constructive Shearwave Interference Measurement of Transversely Anisotropic Materials

status: Published onlin

Incidence of Sport Injuries in the Manchester 2019 World Taekwondo Championships: A Prospective Study of 936 Athletes from 145 Countries

We aimed to describe injury incidence and patterns at the 2019 World Taekwondo Championships (WTC), and to compare them with those of previous WTCs, based on new World Taekwondo (WT) competition rules, medical codes, and the Protector and Scoring System (PSS). This prospective cohort study utilized data obtained through the WT Injury Surveillance System. All athletes with injuries were evaluated by on-site sports medicine specialists, and ultrasonography was used to assess all musculoskeletal injuries. Of 936 athletes, 60 injuries were recorded (6.4 injuries/100 athletes, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 4.8–8.0), and 4.5% (n = 42) sustained at least one injury. Males had a higher risk of sustaining injuries than females (incidence rate ratio: 1.57; 95% CI: 0.89–2.76). The most common sites, type, and mechanism were lower extremities (n = 26, 43.33%), contusion/hematoma/bruises (n = 33, 55.0%), and contact with another athlete (n = 50, 83.33%). Overall, the injury patterns associated with the mechanism of injury were similar in both the 2019 and 2017 WTCs. Refined WT competition rules and a re-established PSS at the 2019 WTC reduced the overall and severe injury incidence. Our findings can help revise Taekwondo competition rules, enhance protective equipment, optimize on-site venue medical systems, and develop injury prevention projects