In conclusion, specific brain regions were identified that are associated with craving among subjects with AUD.

This study aimed to investigate the differences in brain functions during verbal working memory between individuals with alcohol use disorders (AUD) and normal controls. fMRI was used to scan brain activations associated with verbal working memory while participants performed 2-back and 0-back tasks. A total of 21 young male college students participated in the study. Eleven of those who clinically met the criteria for AUD were assigned to the AUD group, whereas ten demographically similar subjects who were social drinkers but not AUD were assigned to the normal control group. The AUD group showed less activation in bilateral frontal and precentral, left superior temporal, left superior parietal, and left cerebellar cortex during the 2-back task relative to 0-back task compared to the normal control group. In contrast, the control group showed less activation only in the right uncus than the AUD group. These results suggest that subjects with AUD present abnormality in brain functioning during verbal working memory.

This study is a descriptive research conducted to provide basic resources for the production course and programs by identifying knowledge and attitudes toward dementia of nursing students and social welfare students. The participants were 451 students of nursing science and social welfare in four-year university at J-do. Data were collected from October 1, 2012 to October 20, 2012, by using structured questionnaires and analyzed by using SPSS 20.0 program. The participants showed relatively high level of knowledge. Nursing students(16.42±1.77 point, range 0～20) showed higher level of knowledge than social welfare students(16.02±2.30 point, range 0～20)(p=.015). Both students showed relatively positive attitudes(nursing 40.48±4.29 point, social welfare 40.54±4.62 point, range 10～50). The higher the participants' knowledge and interests in dementia, attitudes toward dementia were more positive. Based on the result, it is required to develop various education program and research to promote knowledge and attitudes toward dementia.•

The purpose of this study is to analyze the acoustic characteristics of Korean alveolar sibilant sounds of children with cerebral palsy by acoustic analysis. Thirteen children with spastic cerebral palsy aging from 6 to 10 years old, were selected by an articulation test, and compared with a control group of thirty children. The meaningless monosyllable CV, disyllable VCV(/asa/) and frame sentence including target syllables CV were measured. C was from the /s, s'/, and V was from the set /a, i, u, ɛ, o, ɯ, ʌ/. Multi-Speech was used for data recording and analysis. As a result, the frication duration of lenis-glottalized alveolar sibilant of children with cerebral palsy was significantly shorter than that of the control group in CV, VCV and frame sentence. The vowel duration in the following lenis-glottalized alveolar sibilant of children with cerebral palsy was significantly longer than that of the control group in CV, VCV and frame sentence. The children with cerebral palsy showed frequency and intensity of friction intervals which were significantly lower than in the control group in CV, VCV and frame sentence. In the comparison of the lenis-glottalized alveolar sibilant by the children with cerebral palsy group's phonation types, the frication duration showed a significant difference between the phonation types in CV, VCV and between the phonetic contexts. The glottalized-sibilant was longer than the lenis-sibilant in all the phonetic contexts. The subsequent vowel duration showed a significant difference between the phonation types in VCV and between the phonetic contexts(p<.05). The vowel duration in the following glottalized-sibilant was longer than the vowel duration in the following lenis-sibilant in all the phonetic contexts. In the frequency there was a significant difference between the phonation types in CV, and in the intensity there was a significant difference between the phonation type in CV and VCV. The children with spastic cerebral palsy had difficulty in articulating the alveolar sibilant due to poor control ability in laryngeal, respiration and articulatory movements which require fine motor coordination. This study quantitatively analyzes the acoustic parameters of the alveolar sibilant in various phonetic contexts. Therefore, the results are expected to help provide fundamental data for an intervention of articulation treatment for children with cerebral palsy.

Beneficial effects of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) supplement on age-associated chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and diabetes, have been reported. However, its mechanism of action in hepatocellular carcinoma in vivo has not been investigated in detail. We have previously shown that during hepatocellular carcinogenesis, DHEA treatment decreases formation of preneoplastic glutathione S-transferase placental form-positive foci in the liver and has antioxidant effects. Here we aimed to determine the mechanism of actions of DHEA, in comparison to vitamin E, in a chemically-induced hepatocellular carcinoma model in rats. Sprague-Dawley rats were administered with control diet without a carcinogen, diets with 1.5% vitamin E, 0.5% DHEA and both of the compounds with a carcinogen for 6 weeks. The doses were previously reported to have anti-cancer effects in animals without known toxicities. With DHEA treatment, cytosolic malate dehydrogenase activities were significantly increased by ~5 fold and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase activities were decreased by ~25% compared to carcinogen treated group. Activities of Se-glutathione peroxidase in the cytotol was decreased significantly with DHEA treatment, confirming its antioxidative effect. However, liver microsomal cytochrome P-450 content and NADPH-dependent cytochrome P-450 reductase activities were not altered with DHEA treatment. Vitamin E treatment decreased cytosolic Se-glutathione peroxidase activities in accordance with our previous reports. However, vitamin E did not alter glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase or malate dehydrogenase activities. Our results suggest that DHEA may have decreased tumor nodule formation and reduced lipid peroxidation as previously reported, possibly by increasing the production of NADPH, a reducing equivalent for NADPH-dependent antioxidant enzymes. DHEA treatment tended to reduce glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase activities, which may have resulted in limited supply for de novo synthesis of DNA via inhibiting the hexose monophophaste pathway. Although both DHEA and vitamin E effectively reduced preneoplastic foci in this model, they seemed to function in different mechanisms. In conclusion, DHEA may be used to reduce hepatocellular carcinoma growth by targeting NADPH synthesis, cell proliferation and anti-oxidant enzyme activities during tumor growth.