Elderly women are reported to have greater risk of falls. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the possible gender differences in the reaction performance of ankle joint muscles, which have dominant role in the control of sagittal plane balance. Twenty-six elderly men and women with comparable mean age participated in this study. Reaction times to the audible beeps were measured in the tibialis anterior muscle and gastrocnemius muscle. Reaction time variables included premotor time, electromechanical delay and total reaction time. Gender difference in each reaction time was investigated by independent t-test. In both muscles, premotor time was longer in men but the electromechanical delay was longer in women (p < 0.05). Resulting total reaction time was longer in men in tibialis anterior muscle (p < 0.01) and it tended to be longer in men also in gastrocnemius muscle (p = 0.25). The results demonstrates that the overall reaction performances of elderly women is better than or comparable to those of elderly men in ankle joint muscles. This suggests that the reaction performance of ankle muscles is hardly the cause of the greater risk of falls in elderly women.

Tumor cell morphology is closely related to its migratory behaviors. An active tumor cell has a highly irregular shape, whereas a spherical cell is inactive. Thus, quantitative analysis of cell features is crucial to determine tumor malignancy or to test the efficacy of anticancer treatment. We use 3D time-lapse phase-contrast microscopy to analyze single cell morphology because it enables to observe long-term activity of living cells without photobleaching and phototoxicity, which is common in other fluorescence-labeled microscopy. Despite this advantage, there are image-level drawbacks to phase-contrast microscopy, such as local light effect and contrast interference ring. Therefore, we first corrected for non-uniform illumination artifacts and then we use intensity distribution information to detect cell boundary. In phase contrast microscopy image, cell is normally appeared as dark region surrounded by bright halo ring. Due to halo artifact is minimal around the cell body and has non-symmetric diffusion pattern, we calculate cross sectional plane which intersects center of each cell and orthogonal to first principal axis. Then, we extract dark cell region by analyzing intensity profile curve considering local bright peak as halo area. Finally, we calculated the Fourier descriptor that morphological characteristics of cell to classify tumor cells into active and inactive groups. We validated classification accuracy by comparing our findings with manually obtained results.

The inspiratory flow rate of a human is changed with the amount of the workload. The flow characteristic is affected by the inspiratory flow rate. In the flow field of airway, the both of turbulence intensity and secondary flow affect the deposition pattern of particles which is important for the drug-aerosol targeting. Thus the analysis of the flow characteristic in a human airway is important. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the inspiratory flow rate on the flow characteristics in a human airway. The tubular airway is consistent with the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx and trachea. The relatively inspiratory flow rate is used at each case of human states regarding the workload. By the effect of geometric airway changes, transition to turbulent airflow after the larynx can occur with relaminarization further downstream. The low Reynolds number k-${\omega}$ turbulence model is used for analysis with flow regime. As the inspiratory flow rate is larger, the turbulence kinetic energy and secondary flow intensity increase in airway. On the other hand, the area of recirculation zone is smaller.

Many studies have reported that housework done using household appliances may affect biomechanical characteristics of the musculoskeletal system. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of housework done using a pulsator washing machine on joints and muscles. We calculated joint torques and muscle strengths on the basis of an experimental/virtual three-dimensional motion analysis for six healthy females using the pulsator washing machine at different heights (H) and depths (D) of the inside drum (H (mm){\times}D (mm), Trial1: $962.5{\times}609.4$, Trial2: $962.5{\times}624.4$, Trial3: $982.5{\times}644.4$, Trial4: $995.5{\times}642.4$, Trial5: $1015.5{\times}677.4$). The joint torques and muscle strengths tended to be considerably different during torso flexion in the sagittal plane for all the trials. The maximum joint torques for the thoracic vertebra, left ankle, and right shoulder measured in Trial4 were significantly higher than those measured in the other trials (p < 0.05); in addition, those for the thoracic vertebra and both ankles measured in Trial5 were significantly higher than those measured in the other trials (p < 0.05). The maximum muscle strengths for the left trapezius muscle and both tibialis anterior muscles measured in Trial5 were significantly higher than those measured in the other trials (p < 0.05). These results indicate that housework done using a pulsator washing machine may affect joint torques and muscle strengths, and these effects are dependent on the height and/or depth of the inside drum of the pulsator washing machine.

This study was designed to investigate the effect of a combined stimulus which was composed of chiropractic massage and thermotherapy on the relief of mental and physical stress. Fifteen healthy male subjects were treated with three type of stimuli; control (without any stimulus), a single stimulus (only chiropractic) and a combined stimulus. To evaluate the effects of stimuli, visual analogue scale (VAS), trunk extension, electromyogram (EMG) on erector spinae muscle and electrocardiogram (ECG) were measured and analyzed before and after stimuli. In the control group, there were no significant changes in EMG root mean square (RMS) value and low Frequency/high Frequency (LF/HF) ratio (p > 0.05, p > 0.05). However, both stimulus groups showed significant increases in trunk extension and EMG RMS values (p < 0.05, p < 0.05), but significant decreases in LF/HF ratios (p < 0.05). Particularly the decrement rate in LF/HF ratio was significantly higher in the combined stimulus group than that in the single stimulus group (p < 0.05). Also, a significantly lower VAS was recorded after combined stimulus. Our findings indicate that the combined stimulus might not only improve flexibility and strength of muscle, but also active parasympathetic nerve activity. The combined stimulus may thus contribute to relieve the stress and to enhance the muscle function.

In this study, we developed transdermal direct drug delivery device using micro-needle painlessly. We has fabricated micro-needle that is 130 ${\mu}m$ thickness and 250 ${\mu}m$length with 10 ${\mu}m$ spiral groove for rolling down drug. Head part of micro-needle device is composed of 20ea micro-needles, an on-off valve and a protective cap. Glass bottle for containing drug is connected to head part of micro-needle device. We examined the puncture characteristic testing using porcine skin and drug delivery testing using porcine, rat skin with Indian Ink.

It is widely known that sciatic nerve injury (SNI) can negatively affect the biomechanical characteristics of the musculoskeletal system. However, there were no studies that evaluated and compared denervated side with another side limb at the same time. In this study, sixteen male 12-week-old mice were allocated into two groups: HEMI (Right Sciatic nerve denervated) and CON (Control). Both limbs were scanned using micro-CT at 0 week and 4 weeks. There were significant differences in relative variation (RV) of BMD and all structural parameters compared CON and HEMI in right tibia (p < 0.05). Tb.Th and Tb.Sp distributions were differed CON with HEMI in right tibia. In left tibia, there were significant differences in RV of BMD (p < 0.05) and Tb.Sp distribution. These result means that SNI can induce bone loss in the both side tibiae. However, there was a different profile of bone loss between left and right tibiae.

While much has been learned about the mechanisms of metastatic spread of cancer to bone, there has been little headway in establishing guidelines for monitoring the alteration in bone quality and estimating fracture risk. The aims of this study are, therefore, 1) to evaluate bone quality induced by metastatic bone tumor by analyzing the characteristics on bone microarchitecture and degree of bone mineralization and 2) analyze fracture risk increased secondary to the bone quality changes by metastatic bone tumor through calculating mechanical rigidities based on in-vivo micro CT images. For this study, eighteen female SD rats (12 weeks old, approximate 250 g) were randomly allocated in Sham and Tumor groups. W256 (Walker carcinosarcoma 256 malignant breast cancer cell) was inoculated in the right femur (intraosseous injection) in Tumor group, while 0.9% NaCl (saline solution) was injected in Sham group. The right hind limbs of all rats were scanned by in-vivo micro-CT to acquire structural parameters and degree of bone mineralization at 0 week, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks after surgery. At the same time, urine was collected by metabolic cages for a biochemical marker test in order to evaluate bone resorption. Then, bone metastasis had been directly identified by positron emission tomography. Finally, axial, bending and torsional rigidities had been calculated based on in-vivo micro CT images for predict fracture risk. The results of this study showed that metastatic bone tumor might induce significant decrease in bone quality and increase of fracture risk. This study may be helpful to monitoring a degree of bone metastasis and predicting fracture risk due to metastatic bone tumor. In addition, this noninvasive diagnostic methodology may be utilized for evaluating other bone metabolic diseases such as osteoporosis.