Effect of Aroma Hand Massage on Anxiety and Immune Function in Patients with Gynecology Surgery under Local Anesthesia

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of aroma hand massage on anxiety and immune function in patients who had gynecology surgery under local anesthesia. METHODS: The research design was a nonequivalent control group with pre- and posttest design. Data were collected from June 5 to October 6, 2010. Participants included 20 patients in the aroma hand massage group, 20 patients in a hand massage group, and 20 in a control group. As an experimental treatment, hand massage was carried out following the hand massage protocol. Measures consisted of the State Trait Anxiety, Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) for anxiety, vital signs (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate), and salivary cortisol for anxiety, and immunoglobulin A for immune function. RESULTS: Aroma hand massage and hand massage group showed lower levels in NRS for anxiety, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and pulse rate (p<.001) compared to controls. No group differences were found for state anxiety, salivary cortisol and immunoglobulin A. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that aroma hand massage and hand massage are effective in reducing anxiety and can be complementary alternative interventions for women having gynecology surgery under local anesthesia

What Questions do People Ask on a Human Papillomavirus Website? A Comparative Analysis of Public and Private Questions

Objective: In 2004, we launched the question and answer (Q&A) section on a human papillomavirus (HPV) website (www.hpvkorea.org) that provides ample and regularly updated information about HPV. The purpose of this study is to collect data pertaining to questions posed on this website about HPV and its related diseases and analyze the type of questions and frequency before and after introduction of HPV vaccine in Korea. Using these results, we intend to determine the clinical and practical implications for doctors treating HPV and for HPV website providers

PD-1 deficiency protects experimental colitis via alteration of gut microbiota

Programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) is a coinhibitory molecule and plays a pivotal role in immune regulation. Here, we demonstrate a role for PD-1 in pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Wild-type (WT) mice had severe wasting disease during experimentally induced colitis, while mice deficient for PD-1 (PD-1(-/-)) did not develop colon inflammation. Interestingly, PD-1(-/-) mice cohoused with WT mice became susceptible to colitis, suggesting that resistance of PD-1(-/-) mice to colitis is dependent on their gut microbiota. 16S rRNA gene-pyrosequencing analysis showed that PD-1(-/-) mice had altered composition of gut microbiota with significant reduction in Rikenellaceae family. These altered colon bacteria of PD-1(-/-) mice induced less amount of inflammatory mediators from colon epithelial cells, including interleukin (IL)-6, and inflammatory chemokines. Taken together, our study indicates that PD-1 expression is involved in the resistance to experimental colitis through altered bacterial communities of colon.112Ysciescopuskc

Effect of Incivility, Resilience, and Social Support Experienced by Nursing Students on Burnout in Clinical Practice

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to determine effect of incivility, resilience, and social support experienced by nursing students on burnout in clinical practice. METHODS: Subjects were 140 nursing students who agreed to participate in this study. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation and stepwise multiple regression with SPSS WIN 23.0 program. RESULTS: Burnout showed significantly positive correlation with incivility but significantly negative correlations with resilience and social support. Factors affecting burnout were satisfaction with major-dissatisfaction, satisfaction with major-average, social support, grade, and relationship with peers. Satisfaction with major (dissatisfaction) had the greatest effect on burnout, explaining 41% of the total variance. CONCLUSION: According to this study, dissatisfaction with major was identified as the most significant factor influencing burnout of nursing students in clinical practice. Therefore, it is important to develop and implement programs that can reduce dissatisfaction with major and increase social support and relationship with peers in order to lower burnout of nursing students. In addition, a systemic management of fourth-grade students with a high level of clinical practice is necessary to reduce the level of clinical practice. The authors declared no conflict of interest

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of neoagarobiose hydrolase from Saccharophagus degradans 2-40

Many agarolytic bacteria degrade agar polysaccharide into the disaccharide unit neoagarobiose [O-3,6-anhydro-α-L-galactopyranosyl-(1→3)-D-galactose] using various β-agarases. Neoagarobiose hydrolase is an enzyme that acts on the α-1,3 linkage in neoagarobiose to yield D-galactose and 3,6-anhydro-L-galactose. This activity is essential in both the metabolism of agar by agarolytic bacteria and the production of fermentable sugars from agar biomass for bioenergy production. Neoagarobiose hydrolase from the marine bacterium Saccharophagus degradans 2-40 was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and crystallized in the monoclinic space group C2, with unit-cell parameters a = 129.83, b = 76.81, c = 90.11 Å, β = 101.86°. The crystals diffracted to 1.98 Å resolution and possibly contains two molecules in the asymmetric unit

Immunomodulatory and Antidiabetic Effects of a New Herbal Preparation (HemoHIM) on Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Mice

HemoHIM (a new herbal preparation of three edible herbs: Angelica gigas Nakai, Cnidium officinale Makino, and Paeonia japonica Miyabe) was developed to protect immune, hematopoietic, and self-renewal tissues against radiation. This study determined whether or not HemoHIM could alter hyperglycemia and the immune response in diabetic mice. Both nondiabetic and diabetic mice were orally administered HemoHIM (100 mg/kg) once a day for 4 weeks. Diabetes was induced by single injection of streptozotocin (STZ, 200 mg/kg, i.p.). In diabetic mice, HemoHIM effectively improved hyperglycemia and glucose tolerance compared to the diabetic control group as well as elevated plasma insulin levels with preservation of insulin staining in pancreatic -cells. HemoHIM treatment restored thymus weight, white blood cells, lymphocyte numbers, and splenic lymphocyte populations (CD4 + T and CD8 + T), which were reduced in diabetic mice, as well as IFN-production in response to Con A stimulation. These results indicate that HemoHIM may have potential as a glucose-lowering and immunomodulatory agent by enhancing the immune function of pancreatic -cells in STZ-induced diabetic mice

Depression and suicide risk prediction models using blood-derived multi-omics data

More than 300 million people worldwide experience depression; annually, ~800,000 people die by suicide. Unfortunately, conventional interview-based diagnosis is insufficient to accurately predict a psychiatric status. We developed machine learning models to predict depression and suicide risk using blood methylome and transcriptome data from 56 suicide attempters (SAs), 39 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), and 87 healthy controls. Our random forest classifiers showed accuracies of 92.6% in distinguishing SAs from MDD patients, 87.3% in distinguishing MDD patients from controls, and 86.7% in distinguishing SAs from controls. We also developed regression models for predicting psychiatric scales with R2 values of 0.961 and 0.943 for Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression???17 and Scale for Suicide Ideation, respectively. Multi-omics data were used to construct psychiatric status prediction models for improved mental health treatment

Epitaxial Growth of a Single-Crystal Hybridized Boron Nitride and Graphene layer on a Wide-Band Gap Semiconductor

Vertical and lateral heterogeneous structures of two-dimensional (2D) materials have paved the way for pioneering studies on the physics and applications of 2D materials. A hybridized hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and graphene lateral structure, a heterogeneous 2D structure, has been fabricated on single-crystal metals or metal foils by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). However, once fabricated on metals, the h-BN/graphene lateral structures require an additional transfer process for device applications, as reported for CVD graphene grown on metal foils. Here, we demonstrate that a single-crystal h-BN/graphene lateral structure can be epitaxially grown on a wide-gap semiconductor, SiC(0001). First, a single-crystal h-BN layer with the same orientation as bulk SiC was grown on a Si-terminated SiC substrate at 850 oC using borazine molecules. Second, when heated above 1150 oC in vacuum, the h-BN layer was partially removed and, subsequently, replaced with graphene domains. Interestingly, these graphene domains possess the same orientation as the h-BN layer, resulting in a single-crystal h-BN/graphene lateral structure on a whole sample area. For temperatures above 1600 oC, the single-crystal h-BN layer was completely replaced by the single-crystal graphene layer. The crystalline structure, electronic band structure, and atomic structure of the h-BN/graphene lateral structure were studied by using low energy electron diffraction, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, and scanning tunneling microscopy, respectively. The h-BN/graphene lateral structure fabricated on a wide-gap semiconductor substrate can be directly applied to devices without a further transfer process, as reported for epitaxial graphene on a SiC substrate.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figure