The Impact of Prenatal Massage Experience Upon The Mother’s Delivery Confidence And Stress/ Anxiety

This study examined the differences in delivery confidence and levels of stress/anxiety among pregnant women based on their experiences with prenatal massage. For this research, the researcher randomly sampled and selected 629 expecting mothers, who were members of an online community for expecting mothers, between August 15 and August 30, 2022, and collected survey data, which was analyzed using the SPSS 25.0 statistical package program. The results of this study are as follows: First, examining the differences in delivery confidence according to prenatal massage experience, it was found that prenatal massage experience has a significant impact on delivery confidence. Mothers with more experience had higher confidence in delivery. Second, prenatal massage experience was found to have a significant effect on the levels of stress and anxiety, with mothers lacking prenatal massage experience showing higher levels of stress and anxiety. The results of this study suggest that professional and systematic education on prenatal massage is necessary to contribute to the development of programs for pregnant women that can increase consumer satisfaction as part of the general prenatal program

Predictive Numerical Simulations on the Formation of Internal Transport Barriers in the Reversed Shear Regime of KSTAR Tokamak

Numerical simulations have been carried out to predict the formation of internal transport barriers (ITBs) in the reversed shear (RS) regime of Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) tokamak by using the ASTRA-1.5D transport code coupled with a simplified neutral beam injection (SINBI) code developed for this work. The present simulations employ a multi-mode transport model, MMM95, for anomalous transport calculations and use neutral beam injection for additional plasma heating and current drive. The simulations for the KSTAR plasmas reveal that ITBs are formed in the RS regime by control of flow shear and by very low magnetic shear, and steep gradient regions apparently reside in both the ion and the electron temperature profiles. Suppression of plasma transport has been considered in this simulation work in two ways: control of the coefficient deciding the strength of flow shearing rate and addition of the effect of magnetic shear to the flow shear.Supported by the Korea Basic Science Institute

Susceptibility to Oxidative Stress is Greater in Korean Patients with Coronary Artery Disease than Healthy Subjects

There are some evidences that the increased oxidative stress and thus increased oxidizability of lipoproteins and DNA can contribute to the development of certain human diseases, such as cardiovascular disease. To confirm the association of DNA damage with cardiovascular disease, we investigated susceptibility of DNA to oxidation in lymphocytes and oxidative stress related parameters in blood of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Subjects were consisted of 42 patients (27 men, 15 women) with documented CAD and 49 apparently healthy subjects (33 men, 16 women) as controls. Cellular DNA damage induced by 100 µM H2O2 was measured using Comet assay and quantified by TL. There were no differences in age (61.4 ± 1.7 years vs 62.0 ± 2.2 years) between the two groups. All the findings were shown to be independent of either sex or smoking habit. The patients showed significantly higher TL (87.3 ± 1.6 µm) compared to the control (79.3 ± 1.7 µm, p<0.01). Plasma TRAP, vitamin C, γ-tocopherol, and α-carotene levels in patients group were lower than those of control groups, while erythrocytic catalase activity increased in patients group. In conclusion, we observed that reduced overall antioxidant status was closely connected to higher susceptibility of DNA damage in CAD patients

Numerical Simulation on Mode Transition of Atmospheric Dielectric Barrier Discharge in Helium-Oxygen Mixture

A one-dimensional numerical simulation of a homogeneous dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) has been carried out for a nonequilibrium helium-oxygen mixture plasma to understand the influences of oxygen additive on its discharge characteristics at atmospheric pressure. The numerical results obtained by solving continuity equations for plasma species and Poisson equation show that, depending on the amount of oxygen added, the homogenous barrier discharge turns out to have two fundamental modes: glow and Townsend. When oxygen is rare, the discharge has similar characteristics to the dc glow discharge at low pressure. As the oxygen additive increases, the discharge characteristics of the glow mode are destroyed and changed into the Townsend mode. The reason for this mode transition is due to the fact that oxygen plays an important role both in quenching helium metastables and in attaching electrons on it in the plasma. As a practical method of sustaining the glow mode even with high oxygen concentration in the discharge, adjustment of the frequency of applied driving voltage is introduced. The numerical simulation reveals that the glow mode recovers from the Townsend mode by increasing the frequency while the amount of oxygen is highly contained. Finally, discharge operation regimes for the glow and Townsend modes are numerically obtained, which are dependent on both oxygen additive and applied frequency

Geometrical Effects of the Discharge System on the Corona Discharge and Chemically Active Species Generated in Wire-Cylinder and Wire-Plate Reactors

Time-dependent one- and two-dimensional numerical models are developed to analyze the in uence of the design and the operating conditions on streamer propagation and active-species generation in wire-cylinder and wire-plate reactors. One-dimensional calculations for the corona model of a wire-cylinder reactor showed that fixed ratios of the wire to the cylinder radii, a/b, and the applied voltage to the cylinder radius, Va/b, were the key design parameters for controlling the discharge characteristics. In addition, shape of pulse voltage externally applied to the electrodes is newly suggested for generating a near-uniform electric field over the entire discharge region. Two-dimensional calculations for a wire-plate reactor found that the wire-to-wire spacing, c, along the parallel-plate direction should be at least twice the wire-to-plate distance, d, to produce non-equilibrium plasmas effectively for generating a large volume of resultant chemically active species (c/d > 2)

Long-term Prognosis of thin Glomerular Basement Membrane Nephropathy in Children: A Retrospective Single Center Study

Purpose Thin glomerular basement membrane nephropathy (TBMN) is, along with the IgA nephropathy, the most common cause of asymptomatic hematuria in Korean children. TBMN is usually a benign renal disease not requiring treatment and is associated with a good prognosis, but some cases hematuria is indicative of a state of progressive renal insufficiency. We aimed to retrospectively evaluate clinical manifestations and renal prognosis of patients with TBMN. Methods Among the 428 renal biopsies performed on children at Yeungnam University Hospital between January 2000 and February 2017, 167 patients were diagnosed as having TBMN. We retrospectively investigated 167 pediatric patients and identified 59 children with follow-up duration >3 years. Results Among 59 patients, there were 33 boys and 26 girls. Mean age of onset of hematuria was 7.18±2.64 years, and mean time from onset of disease until a renal biopsy was performed was 2.48±2.10 years. There were no clinical features or laboratory findings among studied children to indicate decreased renal function during follow-up; however, one case progressed to chronic kidney disease (CKD) due to an unknown cause. There were seven patients among these related a positive family history of hematuria or renal insufficiency. Concluson Although almost all patients had normal renal functions during follow-up, there were one patient who progressed to CKD and seven patients with family history of hematuria or renal insufficiency. Moreover, four among the 428 patients over 17 years underwent repeat renal biopsies, which showed results different from their earlier biopsies.Thus, large-scales studies may be required to determine long-term prognosis of TBMN in children, and further evaluation for Alport syndrome in TBMN cases is essential