Effect of Home-Based Self-Management Intervention for Community-Dwelling Patients with Early Parkinson's Disease: A Feasibility Study.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a home-based self-management intervention in community-dwelling patients with early Parkinson's diseases (PD). DESIGN: A randomized-controlled design. METHODS: Thirty-two patients participated (15=intervention, 17=control), and the intervention group received 16 weeks of the intervention. FINDINGS: Physical activity and non-motor symptoms improved more in the intervention group than in the control group. CONCLUSION: Home-based self-management intervention was effective in improving physical activity and non-motor symptoms for them. CLINICAL EVIDENCE: Home-based intervention - comprising education, telephone counseling, smartphone-based message and information, and smart wearable devices - was feasible for patients with early PD.

[Predictive validity of the Braden Scale for pressure ulcer risk: a meta-analysis].

PURPOSE: The Braden Scale is one of the most intensively studied risk assessment scales used in identifying the risk of developing pressure sore. However, not all studies show that the predictive validity of this scale is sufficient. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Braden Scale for predicting pressure ulcer development. METHODS: Articles published 1946 and 2013 from periodicals indexed in Ovid Medline, Embase, CINAHL, KoreaMed, NDSL and other databases were selected, using the following keywords: 'pressure ulcer'. The QUADAS-II was applied to assess the internal validity of the diagnostic studies. Selected studies were analyzed using meta-analysis with MetaDisc 1.4. RESULTS: Thirty-eight diagnostic studies with high methodological quality, involving 17,934 patients, were included. Results of the meta-analysis showed that the pooled sensitivity and specificity of the Braden Scale were 0.74 (95% CI: 0.72-0.76), 0.75 (95% CI: 0.74-0.76) respectively. However the predictive validity of the Braden Scale has limitation because there was high heterogeneity between studies. CONCLUSION: The Braden Scale's predictive validity of risk for pressure ulcer is interpreted as at a moderate level. However there is a limitation to the interpretation of the results, because of high heterogeneity among the studies.

Measurement of local two-phase flow parameters of nanofluids using conductivity double-sensor probe.

A two-phase flow experiment using air and water-based γ-Al2O3 nanofluid was conducted to observe the basic hydraulic phenomenon of nanofluids. The local two-phase flow parameters were measured with a conductivity double-sensor two-phase void meter. The void fraction, interfacial velocity, interfacial area concentration, and mean bubble diameter were evaluated, and all of those results using the nanofluid were compared with the corresponding results for pure water. The void fraction distribution was flattened in the nanofluid case more than it was in the pure water case. The higher interfacial area concentration resulted in a smaller mean bubble diameter in the case of the nanofluid. This was the first attempt to measure the local two-phase flow parameters of nanofluids using a conductivity double-sensor two-phase void meter. Throughout this experimental study, the differences in the internal two-phase flow structure of the nanofluid were identified. In addition, the heat transfer enhancement of the nanofluid can be resulted from the increase of the interfacial area concentration which means the available area of the heat and mass transfer.

Irreversible oxidation of the active-site cysteine of peroxiredoxin to cysteine sulfonic acid for enhanced molecular chaperone activity.

The thiol (-SH) of the active cysteine residue in peroxiredoxin (Prx) is known to be reversibly hyperoxidized to cysteine sulfinic acid (-SO(2)H), which can be reduced back to thiol by sulfiredoxin/sestrin. However, hyperoxidized Prx of an irreversible nature has not been reported yet. Using an antibody developed against the sulfonylated (-SO(3)H) yeast Prx (Tsa1p) active-site peptide (AFTFVCPTEI), we observed an increase in the immunoblot intensity in proportion to the H(2)O(2) concentrations administered to the yeast cells. We identified two species of hyperoxidized Tsa1p: one can be reduced back (reversible) with sulfiredoxin, and the other cannot (irreversible). Irreversibly hyperoxidized Tsa1p was identified as containing the active-site cysteine sulfonic acid (Tsa1p-SO(3)H) by mass spectrometry. Tsa1p-SO(3)H was not an autoxidation product of Tsa1p-SO(2)H and was maintained in yeast cells even after two doubling cycles. Tsa1p-SO(3)H self-assembled into a ring-shaped multimeric form was shown by electron microscopy. Although the Tsa1p-SO(3)H multimer lost its peroxidase activity, it gained approximately 4-fold higher chaperone activity compared with Tsa1p-SH. In this study, we identify an irreversibly hyperoxidized Prx, Tsa1p-SO(3)H, with enhanced molecular chaperone activity and suggest that Tsa1p-SO(3)H is a marker of cumulative oxidative stress in cells.