The Current Status of Knowledge and Behavior Related to STI Prevention among High School Students in Korea

This study explores coping with STIs and related factors including knowledge, sexual behavior, and sex education among Korean adolescents. Anonymous self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 135 male and 150 female high school students. The results showed that 2.1% of participants had had sexual experience. Males had less information than females (p<0.05); 38.5% of males did not consult anyone. In contrast, females acquired information from and consulted with their parents. Although females' sexual abstinence behavior was higher than that of males (p<0.001), there were no significant differences in the STI knowledge test. Regarding sex education, 32.4–59.5% of students had received education on STIs. Students' degree of satisfaction with sexual knowledge was 10.2%, their understanding of STIs was poor, and they could not cope with having a checkup. In conclusion, high school students receive insufficient education to protect themselves from STIs. Their knowledge was not related to sexual abstinence behavior and coping behavior. Therefore, schools in Korea should provide high school students with appropriate education on STI prevention and coping behavior. In addition, an environment that facilitates consultation and clinics for helping young people deal with sexual problems should be provided

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Concerning the Prevention of STIs among High School Students in Northern, Thailand

The objectives of this study were to examine the current state of knowledge and sexual behavior concerning the prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infections(STIs), and to evaluate attitudes toward safe sex and coping with STIs. We performed a self-administered questionnaire and focus group interview among 197 high school students in Northern, Thailand. We also determined the presence or absence of chlamydia and gonorrhea infections in urine samples taken from 70 students. The participants were actively concerned with emotional relationships and homosexuality, but held negative attitudes toward sexual behavior including premarital sex and kiss, and had less chance for sex education along with their developmental stages. Consciousness of sexuality, knowledge level of STI prevention, self-efficacy toward safe sex, and coping ability with STIs were significantly higher in females than in males. In the urine test, all of the participants as a sub-set of those surveyed had negative results for STIs. In conclusion, the knowledge level of the participants on STI prevention correlated with self-efficacy toward safe sex and coping ability with STIs. Thus, the authors of this study conclude that sex education is effective for students to get comprehensive knowledge about STI prevention, and educators need to consider students' individual sexual issues

Highly Metastatic Ovarian Yolk Sac Carcinoma in a Rat

We investigated a highly metastatic ovarian yolk sac carcinoma in a 52-week-old female Crl:CD(SD) rat. Macroscopically, the present case had severe ascites, bilateral ovarian masses and numerous nodules in the abdominal and thoracic cavities. Histopathologically, these masses and nodules were generally composed of two types of cells mimicking a parietal and visceral yolk sac. The parietal cells were round to polygonal, contained eosinophilic droplets and were arranged in nests and cords in the eosinophilic matrix. Both the intracytoplasmic droplets and the matrix were stained positively with PAS. The visceral cells were cylindriform, and proliferated in papillary and tubular patterns and occasionally formed Shiller-Duval body-like structures. In the dissemination sites, the neoplastic cells proliferated on the surface of the various tissues and often infiltrated into deeper parts of the tissues. Immunohistochemically, both neoplastic cells were positive for α-fetoprotein and keratin, and the eosinophilic matrix was positive for laminin. Ultrastructurally, the parietal cells had dilated rough endoplasmic reticulums, which were filled with electron-lucent laminated structures. The visceral cells had poorly to moderately developed intracytoplasmic organelles and were interconnected with desmosomes. Taken together, the present tumor was diagnosed as yolk sac carcinoma arising from the ovary and was characterized by not only high metastasis but also invasive infiltration with biphasic proliferation of the parietal and visceral cells

Hox genes of the direct-type developing sea urchin Peronella japonica

Peronella japonica is a direct-type developing sea urchin that metamorphoses in 3 days without feeding, providing a good system to analyze developmental mechanisms especially at later larval stages to metamorphosis. We surveyed the Hox genes of P. japonica by PCR and RT-PCR, and isolated 13 Hox-type sequences. Phylogenetic analysis and database searches resulted in identification of all the P. japonica orthologs of the Hox genes that have been reported in other sea urchins, plus 3 Hox-type genes: the Evx-type, the Xlox-type genes, and an additional posterior Hox gene. This is the first report to show the Evx in echinoderms. The present results revealed the putative Hox gene cluster of P. japonica, which contains three anterior, four medial, and four posterior genes plus the Evx. The organization is essentially similar to the vertebrate Hox cluster except for only a single gene for Hox4-5 types. The C-terminal amino acid sequence outside the homeodomain of Hox4/5 suggested that loss of Hox4 might have occurred in the echinoderm lineage