Active Countermeasures Research Articles

Electromyography of Sedentary Behavior: Identifying Potential for Cardiometabolic Risk Reduction.

Muscle activation during interruptions to prolonged sedentary time is a hypothesized mechanism underlying observed cardiometabolic benefits. We examined associations of quadriceps and hamstring muscle activity patterns with cardiometabolic risk markers and how these patterns varied between different sitting-interruption countermeasures. Electromyographic (EMG) data (shorts) were gathered for 1 to 2 d from healthy adults in a free-living study ( n = 172, age 40.9 ± 12.9, BMI 23.6 ± 1.3) and a laboratory-based study ( n = 12, age 47.0 ± 7.7, BMI 30.0 ± 4.7). Patterns examined were average EMG (aEMG;%EMG MVC ); EMG activity duration (% above signal baseline 3 μV); and usual (weighted medians) EMG activity bout amplitude (%EMG MVC ) and duration (s). In the free-living study, these were regressed against risk markers (waist, fat percentage, fasting plasma glucose, total cholesterol, high-density lipid cholesterol, low-density lipid cholesterol, triglycerides); in the laboratory study, EMG patterns for the muscle groups were compared between sitting and the active countermeasures. In the free-living study, lower-extremity muscles displayed minimal overall activity, with hamstrings and quadriceps using only 2.6% and 2.0% of their capacity (%EMG MVC ), respectively, and being active for 30% and 25% of the time. Higher hamstring aEMG and EMG activity duration were beneficially associated with waist, high-density lipid cholesterol and fat percentage (duration only) and a longer quadriceps usual EMG activity bout duration was beneficially associated with fasting plasma glucose. In the laboratory study, compared with prolonged sitting, active seated or upright active-interruption countermeasures modified these EMG patterns; brief (6 min) walking and simple resistance activities (SRA) were more beneficial than was a bout of standing (30 min) with the SRAs being the only intervention that matched daily aEMG levels. Upright and physically active interruptions to sitting appear to be required to increase the typically low muscle engagement observed in free-living contexts, promoting muscle activity patterns that may help ameliorate cardiometabolic risk.

Analysis of Distortions in the Implementation of the "Double Reduction" Policy

Since the promulgation of the "double reduction" policy, a number of policy distortions have arisen, which have greatly constrained the actual implementation of the policy. Therefore, active countermeasures should be taken to address these problems: reforming the promotion and evaluation systems, maintaining the main focus of school education, improving the financial guarantee mechanism for after-school services, and strengthening the governance of extracurricular training institutions, so as to enhance the effectiveness of the policy's implementation.

Securitising information in European borders: how can democracies balance openness with curtailing Russian malign information influence?

ABSTRACT The EU views malign information influence (MII) as a threat, and this has been enhanced with the Russian invasion of Ukraine resulting in a ban on several Russian media. This article adds to research on the dilemmas of democracies in combatting MII, by consulting the public on whether the ban was a proportionate and effective measure and if it stained the EU’s moral authority. Combining focus groups with a survey of the Swedish population, we found robust support for the ban – slightly stronger among women and increasing with age – and little backlash towards the EU. Respondents supported active countermeasures yet recognised problems with curtailing the free flow of information. The results indicate a need for refinement of an ideal-type model of countermeasures to MII (Hellman and Wagnsson 2017). We suggest a new category – “fortifying” – that highlights shared state/individual responsibility and the strengthening of citizens, authorities and the media. We conclude by suggesting a need for additional research on how to balance values of freedom and security and whether public support of bans relies on the precarious geopolitical situation resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine or if securitisation of information is an enduring trend.

Optimal Position Design for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Relay-Assisted Covert Communication Based on Active Countermeasures

Optimal Position Design for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Relay-Assisted Covert Communication Based on Active Countermeasures

Trade Policy of the «Nowgorodfahrer» from Lübeck in the Late 15th Century

The article presents an analysis of Hanseatic documentation to define specifics of the trading strategy of the «Nowgorodfahrer» from Lübeck guild in the late 15th century. The traditional Hanseatic-Russian exchange of merchandise where the
 Lübeck people trading with the Russians exclusively being brokered by of the Livonians, during the period in question finally became incompatible with growing interests of Lübeck corporation, and this is the reason why the «Nowgorodfather» made an attempt to change it by reducing the privileges of Livonian merchants and received active countermeasures of the town council of Reval (Tallinn) in return for. At the same time,
 the guild’s impact on the Hanseatic branch in Brügge increased, which makes it possible to draw conclusion that the representtives of «Nowgorodfather» were poised to take control of the Brügge-Novgorod merchandise transit. It was essential to recall that the considered events took place in the period of weakening of the Hanseatic-Russian trade. Contrary to established opinion in historiography, the author reasons that in the late 15th century, the trade with Novgorod was not overtaken by events either for the Lübeck people or for the Livonians. This position is also confirmed by the amount of costs of the «Nowgorodfather» for embassies to Moscow and other costs connected with actions focused on the resume of Hanseatic-Russian trade.

Multi-passive coherent location radar system for detection range and range-doppler resolution in Tarakan

The presence of many radio frequency illuminators in an area provides an opportunity to be used as a transmission source for a passive radar system called a passive coherent locator (PCL). Unlike the active radar, the passive radar provides advantages such as low cost without an active transmitter, potential for broad range measurements, portable in construction, anti-detectable by active radar or electronic counter measures (ECM), etc. Just like other areas where there are many PCL in Tarakan such as FM radio transmission (RRI), many base-stations (BTS) from 4G-LTE network, digital TV transmission, access-point (AP) from wireless fidelity (WiFi), and so on. This paper will present and analyze all of these PCLs which include predictions of performance and ambiguity function (AF). Performance prediction is related to range detection which provides information about target detection range, radar cross section, and range-velocity resolution. While AF analyzes the transmit waveform of all PCL which gives a limit of resolution to the range and Doppler of adjacent targets. The results of the evaluation and analysis of performance predictions show that FM radio transmission (RRI) has a range and velocity resolution of 1 km and 12 m/s, respectively and the detection range at a maximum SNR of 15 dB is around 4 km. While the results of the AF evaluation on the PCL obtained range and Doppler resolution of around 2.73 km and 500 Hz, respectively.

A Comparative Study on Military Climate Crisis Management Policies in South Korea and the United States

The climate crisis is emerging as an extreme crisis for the entire earth and humanity. Recently, the 6th IPCC report was published, but the forecast results are even more disastrous. Accordingly, the United States, one of the world's strongest developed countries, is doing its best to prepare active countermeasures against the climate crisis in the field of defense. In particular, the United States recognizes the climate crisis as one of the biggest threats to national security, and is designing policies based on this perception. However, in the case of South Korea, there is no continuously policy for responding to the climate crisis in the defense sector. In this study, in order to think about the problems of South Korea's defense climate crisis management policy, a comparative study was conducted with the U.S. defense climate crisis management policy. As a result, specific policies for each field are being conceived and implemented in the U.S. defense climate crisis management policy. However, in the case of South Korea, it was confirmed that there is no recognition of the climate crisis as a threat by the Ministry of National Defense and no specific policy.

High-resolution vibroacoustic characterization of DLR’s Falcon 2000LX ISTAR aircraft

In the framework of CleanSky2’s Airframe project DA9, engine tonal noise is a cooperation between Dassault Aviation and DLR. The project aims to enhance the understanding and mitigation of engine-related tonal noise in the aircraft cabin. The presented work was done to get an in-depth understanding of the vibroacoustic behavior of DLR’s Falcon 2000LX ISTAR aircraft. A two and a half weeks long vibroacoustic ground test was conducted utilizing artificial shaker excitation and operational engine excitation. The responses were measured using a roving grid of accelerometers at more than 1200 positions, meaning a subset of about 250 sensors were installed at every given time and then moved along the fuselage in a predetermined way to get a high-resolution measurement of aircrafts fuselage. The accelerometer data were than processed to show operational deflections shapes and calculate experimental structural intensity vector fields to analyze the energy transfer through the structure for optimized placement of active or passive counter measures. Specifically, the transport of tonal frequencies generated by the engines was analyzed.

Decoupling analysis between economic growth and aluminum cycle: From the perspective of aluminum use and carbon emissions

Increasing aluminum demand under the clean energy and low-carbon transformation background increases the fuzziness of relationships between economic growth and aluminum use or aluminum related carbon emissions. To figure this out, this paper established an aluminum use and carbon emissions integrated decoupling model within the framework of anthropogenic aluminum cycle. A material flow analysis (MFA) during 2000–2020 for China's aluminum cycle was firstly conducted to quantify both aluminum flow and carbon emissions in each aluminum life-cycle process. Then, this paper evaluated and decomposed the decoupling index of aluminum use-economy and carbon emission-economy via the LMDI decomposition model. Results show that: (1) secondary aluminum has not become effective supplement for primary aluminum in China; (2) the expansive negative decoupling state was the most prevalent state. The decoupling effects of carbon emission were better than that of aluminum use; (3) technology improvement was an important impactor to decoupling process but didn't offset the growth in aluminum consumption or carbon emissions at most of the time. The government and industry organizers should implement active countermeasures to stimulate aluminum companies developing technology to improve aluminum use efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.

텍스트 마이닝 기법을 활용한 노인장기요양기관 부당청구 판례 분석 연구

The increasing number of unfair claims in long-term care facilities has emerged as a risk factor for threatening the finances of the Korean national health insurance and increasing medical expenses, considering the imminent danger to super-aged society, since the implementation of the Long-term Care Insurance Act for the Elderly. Therefore, we aim to provide alternatives for unfair claim prevention and recidivism. The court's precedents and text-mining analysis were used to identify issues and factors in unfair claims to meet our research goals. Ninety-one cases (i.e., eighty-five elderly care facilities and six elderly care communal homes) were collected from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2020. Our results revealed that fourty-four were fined, seventy-two received probation, and eighteen were sentenced to imprisonment, of the first verdicts by trial courts for senior medical welfare facilities. Among the defendants (n = 146), ninety-nine were top managers; thirteen were care workers; and five were social workers. The indictments consisted of seven violations, and of three most representative contents were violations of the Long-Term Care Insurance Act for the Elderly, of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (fraud), fraud, violations of the Elderly Welfare Act, business embezzlement and forgery of private documents. In the first trial, TF-IDF analysis indicated four keywords, 'regulations and announcements,' 'working hours,' 'additions,' 'competition,' and mandatory personnel, such as physical therapists, social workers, and nursing assistants. In the second trial, 'field investigation,' 'sanitation,' and 'resident' were the main words. Topic Modeling of the first trial showed that 'nursing care workers & sanitation center,' 'nursing care staff assignment standards,' 'social worker & physical therapist,' 'notifications and laws,' 'working hours & exploitation,' 'defendants & victim.' In the second trial, 'accused & supreme unjust (heavy),' 'placement criteria & deception (acts),' 'long-term care benefit & breach of working hours,' 'victim's claim & crime of fraud,' 'false service,' 'staff assignment standards & deceiving (acting),' and 'defendant's working rules & field investigation.' Thus, we explored causes and issues with unfair claims. Finally, we proposed several preventative solutions: ①. change in the perception of operators and works of long-term care institutions, ②. transparent management, ③. a thorough understanding of relevant regulations, such as laws and public announcements, and prevention of errors in interpretation, and lastly ④. active countermeasures focused on improving unfair claims instead of punishment.

ЩОДО РОЗПОДІЛУ ОДНОРІДНИХ ЗАСОБІВ УРАЖЕННЯ ЗА СУКУПНІСТЮ ОБ’ЄКТІВ ПРОТИВНИКА З УРАХУВАННЯМ РИЗИКІВ

Russian armed aggression against Ukraine has intensified research by Ukrainian scientists related to the development of weapons and military equipment and increasing the effectiveness of its combat use. The first months of the war showed that aviation and rocket troops and artillery are one of the key elements in the conduct of most large-scale operations in order to repulse the enemy and destroy his manpower and weapons and military equipment. In order to achieve the necessary results in carrying out various types of military operations, it becomes necessary to constantly make decisions on the use of certain troops (forces), means of destruction in order to destroy the enemy and inflict such losses on him, contributing to the achievement of the main goal of the operation. One of the important issues in the study of the problems of the optimal use of weapons is the solution of problems of target distribution of different content. For example, distribution over homogeneous or heterogeneous targets, protected or not protected, etc. The most relevant for research is the solution of the problem of distributing homogeneous means of attack over a set of objects of destruction, taking into account their degree of protection. Therefore, in the article, the authors propose one approach to the distribution of homogeneous weapons over the totality of enemy objects, taking into account the risks of hitting one's own weapons and the coefficients of importance of enemy objects in case of defeat. The proposed methodological approach is based on a mathematical model of decision-making on the defeat of enemy targets under conditions of risk, that is, their active countermeasures. Further prospects for research on the topic of the article include the need for practical implementation of the proposed approach in the form of calculation programs, as well as the search for the possibility of adapting it to the decision-making environment under conditions of uncertainty. Keywords: means of destruction, means of counteraction, mathematical programming, probability of defeat, weapons and military equipment, decision-making under risk.

Applicability Assessment of Active Safety Systems for Motorcycles Using Population-Based Crash Data: Cross-Country Comparison among Australia, Italy, and USA

The role of powered two-wheeler (PTW) transport from the perspective of a more sustainable mobility system is undermined by the associated high injury risk due to crashes. Motorcycle-based active safety systems promise to avoid or mitigate many of these crashes suffered by PTW riders. Despite this, most systems are still only in the prototype phase and understanding which systems have the greatest chance of reducing crashes is an important step in prioritizing their development. Earlier studies have examined the applicability of these systems to individual crash configurations, e.g., rear-end vs. intersection crashes. However, there may be large regional differences in the distribution of PTW crash configurations, motorcycle types, and road systems, and hence in the priority for the development of systems. The study objective is to compare the applicability of five active safety systems for PTWs in Australia, Italy, and the US using real-world crash data from each region. The analysis found stark differences in the expected applicability of the systems across the three regions. ABS generally resulted in the most applicable system, with estimated applicability in 45–60% of all crashes. In contrast, in 20–30% of the crashes in each country, none of the safety systems analyzed were found to be applicable. This has important implications for manufacturers and researchers, but also for regulators, which may demand country-specific minimum performance requirements for PTW active safety countermeasures.

Towards a flexible and generalizable computational model-based framework for mitigation of spatial disorientation in sensory-deprived environments

PurposeSpatial disorientation (SD), an incorrect perception of one's orientation, position or motion, jeopardizes the safety and performance of aviators, astronauts, and professionals in other domains such as SCUBA and firefighting. Active countermeasures can assist navigators in real-time with maintaining orientation – and may mitigate the deleterious impacts of SD. A necessary component of such a system, however, is a method by which to estimate possible SD being experienced, and detect when intervention is warranted. Computational tools utilizing models of human spatial orientation perception provides an unobtrusive means to estimate the spatial awareness of the navigator. Previously proposed computational detection methods, however, have been designed to capture specific SD events that are commonly experienced by fixed-wing aircraft pilots. We propose a generalizable computational framework that can be adapted to different environments, vehicles (e.g., spacecraft) and operating theatres. ProposalWe leverage the state-of-the-art Observer model to compute spatial orientation perception in sequence with an integrative algorithm to capture the severity of orientation misperception over time. A Bayesian likelihood model is used for system and parameter identification of the proposed algorithm candidates we have developed. A novel two-part experimental methodology is proposed to first gather necessary data for informing likelihood estimators (e.g., estimates of SD), and then assess the potential system benefits (e.g., safety, control performance) while using a well-tuned computational detection tool in real-time. ImplementationSimulated motion stimuli were used in the development of algorithm candidates and optimization techniques. Our simulation results and application of the generalized framework to various navigation environments demonstrate the utility of capturing all state parameters related to orientation perception (e.g., acceleration, angular velocity, zenith etc.) which enables the system to capture the continuum of SD involving a variety of different stimuli. As a proof-of-concept effort, we have developed an experimental paradigm representing a helicopter piloting scenario in the presence of mission-related distractions. ConclusionThe proposed computational tool, when appropriately fitted for the environment of relevance, may be used to trigger real-time countermeasure interventions for the goal of mitigating adverse impacts of SD events in operational environments. SD can manifest in drastically different ways given the sensory environment, such as an absence of a tonic loading of gravity during spaceflight. The integrative and generalizable nature of this framework may facilitate translatable progress in SD mitigation research across the many domains which it plagues.

지체장애 독거노인가구를 위한 고령자 맞춤형 주택개조에 대한 거주 후 평가 연구

With the aging of the world"s population, Korea is facing a super-aged society, so active countermeasures are urgently needed. Home modification is an important mechanism for adapting to retirement life and is a key topic that can reduce the national welfare burden. This study attempted to understand the effect of an aging-friendly customized home modification through the reaction of the elderly residents. Accordingly, first the characteristics of the modified features and the residents respectively, second the fit between them for each modified feature, and third the effectiveness of the entire modification through measures of lifw quality such as perceived self-reliance and expectation of continuous residence and happiness. In order to understand the resident response, a graphic scale was used by replacing the 5-step Likert scale text with the FPRS" face icon. The target households were elderly women living alone with physical disabilities, whose houses currently had aging friendly customized modification. Interview and observation techniques were used for the investigation. As results, very positive responses to various dimensions of user benefits were identified for each changed feature of the houses in which the deficiency part of the previous houses were supplemented by modification. In addition, the remarkable improvement of the three aspects of life quality was also confirmed. This proved the overall effectiveness of customized home modification at a limited cost, along with the accumulation of satisfaction with various modified features. In particular, it is meaningful that it has shown the rationality of the customized modification process previously done to improve residents’ self-reliance and expectation of continuous residence which are the core topics and hopes of Aging In Place.

Joint use of frequency-time division and antinoise coding in radio communication systems with FHSS

In the context of continuous improvement of radio prospecting and active radio jamming technics along with introduction of automated active countermeasures systems (ACS), the frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) radio communication systems (RCS) are widely used in order to improve reliability and noise immunity of data transmission. The noise immunity of the RCS affected by unintentional or deliberate interference can be significantly perfected by the combined use of frequency-time division and antinoise coding. This paper explores the case when the interference created by an ACS system with a limited transmitter power covers a part of the RCS frequency range. The receiver gets input mix of the wanted signal, the receiver noise, and probably a deliberate interference also considered as a noise. The article analyzes the noise immunity of signals reception with FHSS in the low-speed radio systems with joint use of frequency-time division of information subsymbols and noise combating codes when the deliberate interference destructively impacts a part of the RCS working band. Dependence of the bit error probability on the signal-to-noise ratio is calculated for the joint use of frequency division of information subsymbols and noise combating codes. It is shown that due to effective use of the frequency-energy resource of a radio line, considering the use of correction codes, a quite high noise immunity of RCS under the influence of deliberate interference can be assured. The indicated dependences of the error probability on the signal-to-noise ratio confirm that the reliability of data transmission can be significantly increased by the proper combination of signal spectrum spreading, applying of correction codes, and frequency division of subsymbols followed by their weight processing.

A mathematical model for describing the operation of airborne gun-laying radars in conditions of active counteraction to enemy interference and military-economic assessment of the feasibility of its implementation

The combat capabilities of modern means of warfare in the air largely depend on the reliable operation of on-board electronic means (OEM) and weapon control systems of fighter aircraft. Therefore, in the course of military operations, each of the warring parties seeks to disorganise the operation of the enemy's radio-electronic systems and weapon controls as much as possible and ensure the stable operation of their own OEM by all means. This task is assigned to the means of electronic warfare (EW). During air combat, this task is assigned to the aircraft jamming station, whose place and role in modern air combat is constantly growing. The efficiency of the operation of this system is directly related to the aircraft survivability during a combat mission. This study considers the developed approach to the output of initial data on modelling the operation of airborne radars in conditions of interference and simultaneous active counteraction to enemy interference stations. The authors in this study have suggested a mathematical description of the air combat situation, which occurs when using methods of active countermeasures to enemy airborne interference systems by changing the parameters of the operation of the airborne gun-laying radar (AGLR). Indicators and criteria that characterise the effectiveness of the operation of airborne radars, depending on the method of counteraction used, were proposed, including a sequence of possible applications of the known four methods of counteraction, taking into account the features of their application.

Semi-Supervised Classification of the State of Operation in Self-Lubricating Journal Bearings Using a Random Forest Classifier

For a tribological experiment involving a steel shaft sliding in a self-lubricating bronze bearing, a semi-supervised machine learning method for the classification of the state of operation is proposed. During the translatory oscillating motion, the system may undergo different states of operation from normal to critical, showing self-recovering behaviour. A Random Forest classifier was trained on individual cycles from the lateral force data from four distinct experimental runs in order to distinguish between four states of operation. The labelling of the individual cycles proved to be crucial for a high prediction accuracy of the trained RF classifier. The proposed semi-supervised approach allows choosing within a range between automatically generated labels and full manual labelling by an expert user. The algorithm was at the current state used for ex post classification of the state of operation. Considering the results from the ex post analysis and providing a sufficiently sized training dataset, online classification of the state of operation of a system will be possible. This will allow taking active countermeasures to stabilise the system or to terminate the experiment before major damage occurs.

Review of domestic and international legislative trends related to surrogate mother contracts, and differences in perspective between medicine and law

The medical development of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) significantly assists infertile couples who are unable to conceive or carry a child as a result of congenital or acquired diseases. However, the process of artificial insemination by surrogacy arrangements or surrogate pregnancy has caused continued controversy surrounding legal and ethical issues. While surrogacy arrangements/surrogate pregnancy are considered invalid in the court, such measures are in practice performed with the assistance of doctors. From the legal perspective, although the measures are not recognized as the form of pregnancy and birth, the practice of surrogacy has already existed from the medical & practical viewpoints, indicating a significant gap between two sides. There are growing concerns about problems with surrogate pregnancy. The absence of stated regulations on such practice could lead to the failure in fulfilling duty by mutual parties, therefore having difficulty in securing the legal status of a baby. The health of a surrogate mother can be possibly damaged. Additionally, the intervention of illegal brokers could lead to the dangers of excessive commercialization. In fact, there are few statistics on how many children are formally born through such practice, therefore causing social problems for a long time, such as the related fraud, refusal to surrender a child, etc. In spite of such problems, it is hard to come up with active countermeasures or prepare statistics. Accordingly, this paper explores the differing views between the court and the medical community on surrogate pregnancy. By conducting a comparative study on the latest social status and the systems at home and abroad, this paper is aimed to arrive at a conclusion on desirable improvements in the system based on in-depth interviews with surrogacy-related experts in Korea. To accomplish this, the paper provides a change in the current system and a review of intervention. In addition, to secure safety of surrogate mothers and contracting parties and prevent any harm, the paper presents a viewpoint on whether a social consensus can be reached as to what issues should be considered top priority regarding the progress of discussions in the future.

Methods for managing hydrogeological and seismic hazards on the Italian railway infrastructure

As dramatically confirmed by the recent earthquakes in Amatrice and Visso in 2016, and by the collapse of a road bridge along the Savona-Torino highway in 2019, Italy and all its constructions and infrastructures passing through its territory are potentially exposed to considerable seismic and hydrogeological risks. Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), in its role of Infrastructure Manager, is responsible for the management and safety of the rail traffic on the Italian network. RFI has therefore implemented a safety management system that ensures the control of the risks associated with railway operations, including seismic and hydrogeological risks. The first part of the paper provides an overview on the exposition of the Italian railway network. The strategies adopted by RFI for mitigating the abovementioned risks are then described as based on a combination of passive and active countermeasures. Eventually, the paper describes the future trends and developments for updating and improving the internal procedures and the tools currently available for reducing the consequences on the railway network of potentially harmful natural events.

A Single Medical Marker for Diagnosis of Methamphetamine Addiction - DNA Methylation of SHATI/NAT8L Promoter Sites from Patient Blood.

Methamphetamine (METH) is one of the most widely distributed psychostimulants worldwide. Despite active counter measures taken by different countries, neither overall usage of METH nor the frequency of repeat users has reduced over the past decade. METH induces abuse and dependence as it acts on the central nervous system and temporarily stimulates the brain. The recidivism rate for abuse of stimulants in Japan is very high and therefore prevention of repeated usage is paramount. However, we lack information about the relationship between METH users and genomic changes in humans in Japan, which would provide important information to aid such efforts. Shati/Nat8l is a METH-inducible molecule and its overexpression has protective effects on the brain upon METH usage. Here we investigated the effect of METH usage on DNA methylation rates at the promoter site of SHATI/NAT8L. We used DNA samples from human METH users, who are usually difficult to recruit in Japan. We measured DNA methylation at SHATI/NAT8L promoter sites by pyrosequencing method using 193 samples of METH users and 60 samples of healthy subjects. In this method, DNA methylation is measured by utilizing the property that only non-methylated cytosine changes to urasil after bisulfite conversion. We found that the rate of DNA methylation at six CpG islands of SHATI/NAT8L promoter sites is significantly higher in METH users when compared to healthy subjects. These results suggest that the DNA methylation rate of SHATI/NAT8L promotor regions offers a new diagnostic method for METH usage.