Occupational Factors Associated with Changes in the Body Mass Index of Korean Male Manual Workers

OBJECTIVES: This study was carried out to analyze and compare the occupational factors that could influence changes in body mass index (BMI) in male manual workers stratified into short-term and long-term work experience groups. METHODS: The subjects were 299 male manual workers (sampled systematically) from 27 workplaces, who had undergone travelling medical examinations at a university hospital between March 28 and May 10, 2013, and had also undergone medical examinations at the same hospital in 2012. Their general and occupational characteristics were investigated through a structured, self-administered questionnaire. The BMI at each point in time was calculated based on the anthropometric results of the medical examinations. Multiple regression analyses were conducted on outcomes of the BMI change and predictors composed of the general and occupational characteristics, with the subjects stratified into groups with 5 years or less (short-term) versus more than 5 years (long-term) of work experience at the present post. RESULTS: In the short-term work experience group, the BMI increases of 3-shift workers and groups reporting disagreement with feeling “insufficient job control” and “lack of reward” at work, two of the subscales of job stress, were significantly higher than those of daytime workers and high-stress groups, respectively. In the long-term work experience group, However, although the BMI increase for 3-shift workers was also significantly higher than that of daytime workers, none of the job stress factors were significantly associated with a BMI increase, whereas the social factors of education and marital status were significant, and some lifestyle factors (such as smoking and regular exercise) were also significant. CONCLUSION: This study showed that, except for 3-shift work, the factors associated with BMI increase could differ depending on the length of job experience. Consequently, different strategies may be needed for workers with short-term versus long-term job experience when designing interventions for preventing their obesity

Acute Symptoms after a Community Hydrogen Fluoride Spill

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to describe the demographic characteristics, and clinical signs and symptoms of patients who visited a general hospital because of the release of chemically hazardous hydrogen fluoride that occurred on September 27, 2012 in Gumi City, Korea. METHODS: The medical records at 1 general hospital 9 km from the accident site were reviewed using a standardized survey format. There were 1,890 non-hospitalized and 12 hospitalized patients exposed to hydrogen fluoride between September 27 and October 13 2012. RESULTS: Among the 12 hospitalized patients, 11 were discharged within 1 week and the other was hospitalized for 10 days. The chief complaints were respiratory symptoms such as hemoptysis and shortness of breath, gastrointestinal symptoms, neurologic symptoms, sore throat, and lip burn. The number of non-hospitalized patients exhibited a bimodal distribution, peaking on the first and twelfth days after the accident. Their chief complaints were sore throat (24.1%), headache (19.1%), cough (13.1%), and eye irritation (9.2%); some patients were asymptomatic (6.2%). Patients who visited the hospital within 3 days (early patients) of the spill more often had shortness of breath (27.0%) and nausea (6.3%) as the chief complaints than patients who visited after 3 days (late patients) (3.5% and 2.6%, respectively). However, cough and rhinorrhea were more common in the late patients (14.0% and 3.3%, respectively) than in the early patients (5.0% and 0.0%, respectively). Patients who were closer to the accident site more often had shortness of breath and sputum as the chief complaints than patients who were farther away. The mean serum calcium concentration was 9.37 mg/dL (range: 8.4–11.0 mg/dL); none of the patients had a decreased serum calcium level. Among 48 pulmonary function test results, 4 showed decreased lung function. None of the patients had abnormal urine fluoride levels on the eighth day after exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Patients hospitalized due to chemical hazard release of hydrogen fluoride had acute respiratory, gastrointestinal, and neurologic health problems. Non-hospitalized patients have acute symptoms mainly related to upper respiratory irritation

Wideband Channel Measurements and Modeling for In-House Power Line Communication

This paper reports the results of extensive wideband channel measurements conducted on in-house outlets at 10~30MHz. Two kinds of measurements were performed: impulse response measurements and noise measurements. Impulse responses were obtained in two different time scales: 50 impulse responses taken for 1 minute to see short term variation and for 6 milliseconds to see very short term variation. Noise measurements were carried out to measure background noise, appliance noise and periodic noise. These measurements at a specific outlet are repeated in every other hour over 24 hours. The measured data were carefully reduced and analyzed to extract relevant information to obtain time-varying channel and noise characteristic for in-house power line communication

Normal Gallbladder Visualization during Post-Ablative Iodine-131 Scan of Thyroid Cancer

Whole body iodine-131 scan is a well-established imaging method for the detection of metastatic or residual tumor sites in patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer. Many false-positive iodine-131 scan findings mimicking metastatic thyroid cancer have long been reported. The authors describe a false positive uptake in normal gallbladder on post-ablative iodine-131 scan in a patient with papillary thyroid cancer. This finding should be considered to be another possible false-positive finding on iodine-131 whole body scan

Oral intake of Lactobacillus rhamnosus M21 enhances the survival rate of mice lethally infected with influenza virus

BackgroundInfluenza viruses cause acute respiratory disease. Because of the high genetic variability of viruses, effective vaccines and antiviral agents are limited. Considering the fact that the site of influenza virus entry is the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract, probiotics that can enhance mucosal immunity as well as systemic immunity could be an important source of treatment against influenza infection.MethodsMice were fed with Lactobacillus rhamnosus M21 or skim milk and were challenged with influenza virus. The resulting survival rate, lung inflammation, and changes in the cytokine and secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) levels were examined.ResultsBecause of infection (influenza virus), all the mice in the control group and 60% of the mice in the L. rhamnosus M21 group died; however, the remaining 40% of the mice fed with L. rhamnosus M21 survived the infection. Pneumonia was severe in the control group but moderate in the group treated with L. rhamnosus M21. Although there were no significant changes in the proinflammatory cytokines in the lung lysates of mice collected from both groups, levels of interferon-γ and interleukin-2, which are representative cytokines of type I helper T cells, were significantly increased in the L. rhamnosus M21-treated group. An increase in sIgA as well as the diminution of inflammatory cells in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was also observed in the L. rhamnosus M21-treated group.ConclusionThese results demonstrate that orally administered L. rhamnosus M21 activates humoral as well as cellular immune responses, conferring increased resistance to the host against influenza virus infection

Expression of Osteocalcin and Transglutaminase and Labelling of Bromodeoxyuridine during Fracture Healing in the Rat Tibia

The expression of osteocalcin and transglutaminase C(TGase C) during fracture healing was inwstigated with immunohistochemical studies. A transverse osteotomy was made at the proximal tibia in Sprague-Dawley male rats and immobilized with a small external skeletal fixator. The animals lU!l'e sacrificed serially I, 3, 5, 7, 14, 42 days respectively after fracture. Longitudinal sections of the healing bone were stained with pohclonal antibody against osteocalcin and TGase C, and monoclonal antibody against bromodeoxyuridine. During the intramembranous bone formation at the periosteum around the fracture site, osteocalcin was strongly expressed in the proliferating osteoprogenitor cells from the 1st day of fracture, and then, in osteoblasts, osteoid matrix and osteocytes. The expression of TGase C was weakly positive in both osteoprogenitor cells and osteoblasts. Ai the site of endochondral bone formation, which was first reoealed 5 days after fracture, cell proliferation occurred at the periphery of cartilaginous callus where the number of cells stained with BrdU was highest During the maturation of callus, those cells uere entrapped in the chondroid matrix and became larger and larger. Osteocalcin was demonstrated in the cytoplasm of chondrocytes, while chondroid matrix was negatiwly stained. TGase C was found in the cytoplasm of more centrally located and matured chondrocytes as compared with osteocalcin. Osteoid matrix was stained with osteocalcin but not with TGase C. These finding may suggest that osteocalcin participates in the early phase of endochondral bone formation, while TGase C participates in the late phase, suggesting the role of TGase C in matrix stabilization. But the reason for the difference in the expression of TGase C between the endochondral bone formation and intramembranous bone formation should be further inwstigated. Healing of IAA2Il immobilized fracture in this study was predominantly induced by intramembranous ossification rather than endochondral ossification. Periosteal osteoprogenitor cells appeared to initiate and to lead bone formation after osteotomy. These findings indicate that preservation of the periosteum is essential to achieve successful fracture healing

Gastric Yolk Sac Tumor: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Gastric yolk sac tumors are extremely rare and their prognosis is poor; most patients have widespread metastases at the time of diagnosis. The treatment of gastric yolk sac tumors consists of aggressive chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy and surgery. Here, we first report a case of gastric yolk sac tumor presenting as an early gastric cancer that was cured after a gastrectomy with lymphadenectomy

Simultaneous Multi-Vessel Subacute Stent Thromboses in Zotarolimus-Eluting Stents

Despite its low incidence, stent thrombosis (ST) is one of the most dreaded complications of percutaneous coronary intervention. Endeavor (Medtronics Europe SA) is a new zotarolimus-eluting stent (ZES) with a favorable safety profile that was reported in early and ongoing trials. However, few lethal stent thromboses related to this new drug eluting stent (DES) have been reported. We experienced a case of simultaneous subacute ZES thromboses, 6 days after stent implantations in the proximal left anterior descending artery and the proximal right coronary artery (RCA)