Background: Since the Omnibus Budget and Reconciliation Act was passed in South Korea in 1987, function-focused care (FFC) has been used in long-term care to achieve the highest possible levels of self-care and independence for older adults. However, many perceive nursing home residents with cognitive function impairments as having little restorative potential. Purpose: The purpose of this review is to report on evidence and strategies relating to FFC interventions in nursing home settings and to summarize the effects of FFC on the functional abilities of resident subgroups. Methods: A literature review using EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature was conducted for articles published between January 1, 2000, and February 20, 2016. Twenty-two eligible studies were identified. Relevant data were extracted, and the results were synthesized into an integrated literature review. Study quality was appraised using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool and the Risk of Bias Assessment tool for Non-randomized Studies. Results: This review included 22 trials that were of moderate to high quality. Our systematic review confirmed the FFC interventions as integrated and dedicated processes; the five key strategies underpinning effective FFC interventions; and the effectiveness of FFC interventions on physical, psychosocial, and cognitive functions. The five key strategies underpinning FFC interventions included interactive learning for caregivers, the content of learning programs for caregivers, residents’ preferences and interests, optimizing approaches according to residents’ functional status, and the conceptual frameworks of FFC interventions. Most of the studies ( n = 15) evaluated psychosocial functions and found significant improvements in aspects such as mood, affect, and behavioral problems. Likewise, the 13 studies assessing physical function found significant improvements in effectiveness in aspects such as movement, balance, and activities of daily living. Only four studies looked at cognitive function effectiveness, using measures such as place finding, verbal use, and memory. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: Our review found scientific evidence that FFC interventions improve functional abilities across various levels of cognitive function in nursing homes. Nursing homes may employ effective strategies to maximize the effects of FFC interventions and use educational materials to teach caregivers to implement FFC interventions competently.

The polysaccharides, saponins, and flavonoids of RA, and the whole extract of RA have been widely reported with their anticancer effects in preclinical studies and showed a potential application as a adjunctive cancer therapeutics with the activities of immunomodulation, anti-proliferation and attenuation of adverse effects induced by cytotoxic therapy.

BackgroundUse of lignocellulosic biomass has received attention lately because it can be converted into various versatile chemical compounds by biological processes. In this study, a two-step pretreatment with dilute sulfuric acid and aqueous ammonia was performed efficiently on rice straw to obtain fermentable sugar. The soaking in aqueous ammonia process was also optimized by a statistical method.ResultsResponse surface methodology was employed. The determination coefficient (R2) value was found to be 0.9607 and the coefficient of variance was 6.77. The optimal pretreatment conditions were a temperature of 42.75°C, an aqueous ammonia concentration of 20.93%, and a reaction time of 48 h. The optimal enzyme concentration for saccharification was 30 filter paper units. The crystallinity index was approximately 60.23% and the Fourier transform infrared results showed the distinct peaks of glucan. Ethanol production using Saccharomyces cerevisiae K35 was performed to verify whether the glucose saccharified from rice straw was fermentable.ConclusionsThe combined pretreatment using dilute sulfuric acid and aqueous ammonia on rice straw efficiently yielded fermentable sugar and achieved almost the same crystallinity index as that of α-cellulose.

No abstract

LEACHN model is useful to describe the nitrogen transport and transformation in soil but requires many input parameters. A sensitivity analysis can help to sort out the sensitive ones among many input parameters. A global sensitivity analysis technique, Latin Hypercube One factor At a Time (LH-OAT) method, was applied to LEACHN model in this study. Only a few parameters were found to be sensitive compared to many input parameters of the model from the sensitivity analysis. Using the results from the sensitivity analysis, calibration and validation of LEACHN model for nitrate leaching was performed for the experimental results from pot experiments that consisted of six types with different soil depth in mini-lysimeters and different fertilizer additions. The results indicated that the use of LH-OAT method could help the facile field application of LEACHN model. Model fitting could be improved by adopting current values in yearly crop parameters in validation.

Recently, an increasing attempt has been made to understand the influence of mood on socioeconomic decision-making. We tested in this study whether an unpleasant mood would lead to unfavorable decisions more frequently than a pleasant mood, and whether decisions under different moods can be explained in different ways. Healthy volunteers were assigned to either a pleasant or unpleasant mood group and listened to musical excerpts to induce pleasant or unpleasant mood. Both groups completed the ultimatum game as a responder with an unacquainted partner who was actually a confederate. The proposer’s offers were made in six different ratios of split (1:9, 2:8, 3:7, 4:6, 5:5, 6:4) in a preprogramed manner unbeknownst to the participants. After the completion of the task as a responder, the participant rated subjectively perceived fairness and emotional feelings about each split of offer. The statistical results showed that the unpleasant mood group rejected unfair offers more often compared to the pleasant mood group. Self-reported ratings of perceived fairness and emotional feelings did not statistically differ between the two groups. Interestingly, however, only in the unpleasant mood group, rejection rates of unfair offers were negatively correlated with perceived fairness. Both the pleasant and unpleasant mood groups showed a negative correlation between rejection rates of unfair offers and self-reported happiness. These results suggest a possibility that different decision strategies operate under different mood during a socioeconomic exchange.

No abstract

No abstract