The purpose of this study was to validate the Sense of Well-Being Inventory (SWBI), a quality of life measure, for people with spinal cord injury. Four hundred and five participants were recruited from the Canadian Paraplegia Association for this study. The participants were asked to complete a research packet containing a demographic questionnaire, the SWBI, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Acceptance of Disability Scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the SWBI and correlational analyses of the SWBI factors with other psychosocial variables were conducted. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses validated a four-factor structure (financial, family and social, psychological, and physical wellbeing) for the SWBI. SWBI factors are positively related to self-esteem and disability acceptance. With continuing research to document reliability and validity, the SWBI appears to have great potential as a vocational rehabilitation outcome measurement for people with spinal cord injury.

We report on the formation of highly flexible and transparent TiO2/Ag/ITO multilayer films deposited on polyethylene terephthalate substrates. The optical and electrical properties of the multilayer films were investigated as a function of oxide thickness. The transmission window gradually shifted toward lower energies with increasing oxide thickness. The TiO2 (40 nm)/Ag (18 nm)/ITO (40 nm) films gave the transmittance of 93.1% at 560 nm. The relationship between transmittance and oxide thickness was simulated using the scattering matrix method to understand high transmittance. As the oxide thickness increased from 20 to 50 nm, the carrier concentration gradually decreased from 1.08 × 1022 to 6.66 × 1021 cm−3, while the sheet resistance varied from 5.8 to 6.1 Ω/sq. Haacke's figure of merit reached a maximum at 40 nm and then decreased with increasing oxide thickness. The change in resistance for the 60 nm-thick ITO single film rapidly increased with increasing bending cycles, while that of the TiO2/Ag/ITO (40 nm/18 nm/40 nm) film remained virtually unchanged during the bending test.

Background: Mortality associated with depression may be influenced by severity of depression and gender. We investigated the differential impacts on all-cause mortality of late-life depression by the type of depression (major depressive disorder, MDD; minor depressive disorder, MnDD; subsyndromal depression, SSD) and gender after adjusting comorbid conditions in the randomly sampled elderly.

Methods: One thousand community-dwelling elderly individuals were enrolled. Standardized face-to-face clinical interviews, neurological examination, and physical examination were conducted to diagnose depressive disorders and comorbid cognitive disorders. Depressive disorders were diagnosed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV) criteria and SSD to study-specific operational criteria. Five-year survivals were compared between groups using Cox proportional hazards models.

Results: By the end of 2010, 174 subjects (17.4%) died. Depressive disorder (p = 0.001) and its interaction term with gender (p < 0.001) were significant in predicting five-year survival. MDD was an independent risk factor for mortality in men (hazard ratio = 3.65, 95% confidence interval = 1.67–7.96) whereas MnDD and SSD were not when other risk factors were adjusted.

Conclusions: MDD may directly confer the risk of mortality in elderly men whereas non-major depression may be just an indicator of increased mortality in both genders.

Stream restoration is an important process affecting the ecological health of stream ecosystems. There have been numerous cases of restoration, dealing with either structural or biological changes. In Korea, most restoration projects have merely dealt with improving hydrological characteristics or water quality; however, in recent years the improvement of ecological characteristics has been an increasing focus for restoration projects. In this study, we utilized data collected from 5675 stream sites in May 2007 to discover general patterns of anthropogenic modification in Korean streams. The survey results after application of the stream modification index (SMI; presence or absence type; high scores indicate more disturbed) provided a general distribution of disturbed/undisturbed streams or rivers in the watershed. We then compared the level of modification with the socio-geographical patterns (population, land coverage, elevation, and slope) for the watershed. The results show that streams in highly populated areas suffered from human modification compared with other well-preserved stream sites. In metropolitan cities, urbanized areas had positive relationship as identified by a high SMI. On the other hand, agricultural land cover identified an SMI increase for lowland river area. In general, mountainous streams possessed a better status in stream morphology due to different land-cover patterns (i.e., mainly forested area); however, some mountainous areas were impacted by concentrated summer rainfall. We could distinguish the forcing variables (i.e., land use pattern) for the disturbed streams through a comparison between the SMI and geographical information; the SMI application was able to identify areas of high necessity for restoration.

The mechanical properties of silicon crystals are important from the viewpoint of wafer and device fabrication processes. It is now widely recognized that silicon undergoes a series of phase transformations when subjected to high pressures, using conventional high pressure devices, such as diamond anvils or hydrostatic pressure cells, or under indentation. Scratching on a silicon surface in the various conditions introduces various kinds of mechanical damage and stressed states. Micro-Raman spectroscopy was used to observe the phase transition of single crystal silicon. Several different phases were observed depending on scratching speed and scratched locations.

Superoxide dismutase has been known to play a role as an anti – oxidative system against oxidative injury during acute inflammation. To investigate the role of superoxide dismutase in eustachian tubal mucosa during acute otitis media (AOM), an animal model was made. Sprague – Dawley rats were inoculated with Streptococcus pneumoniae through the nasal cavity following development of virus – induced upper respiratory infection. The animals were divided into three groups according to their tympanic cavity conditions following bacterial inoculation; inoculated animals with no resultant AOM (no – AOM), animals with resultant AOM (AOM) and animals with resolving otitis media (recovery). The changes of superoxide dismutase in each tubal mucosa were compared with that of the normal control using immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting methods. On Western blot, there were little changes of optical density and surface area in no-AOM (213.5. ± .22.4, 13.2. ± .0.8.mm2) and recovery group (219.3. ± .18.7, 14.8. ± .0.7 mm2) compared to the normal control (223.5 ± 26.2, 16.7 ± 0.4 mm2). However, a marked decrease was found in the AOM model (167.6. ± .19.3, 6.5. ± .0.9 mm2). These findings suggest that superoxide dismutase may play a role in protecting tubal mucosa from free radical injury during AOM.

During the plasma etching of Al-Si-Cu alloy used as a metal interconnection, it is generally reported that the metal pillar (or conical residue) affecting the degradation of device yield is formed by the micromasking effect of copper compound. However, it is stilldisputed with the formation mechanism and composition of the micromasking material. Moreover, the elimination method of the metal pillar is not well known.

According to previous reports, it is argued that the micromasking material consists of Cu agglomerates, A12Cu, or CuC1, and the formation mechanism of the micromasking is due to byproduct during plasma etching or reaction product during metal depositionor etching. However, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive of x-ray (EDX), and high resolution Auger spectroscopy (HRAES), it is newly found that the micromasking consists of three layered structure, that is copper aluminum oxide, A12Cu, and Cu agglomerates. These results are quite different from previous reports. In addition, the removal methods of the metal pillar are suggested, which are high power dry etch process and multilayered metal deposition.