PURPOSE: The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experience of becoming a mother after child-birth of Chinese immigrant women in Korea. METHODS: Ten Chinese immigrant women were recruited from multi-cultural center in the metropolitan area. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interview from July 2015 to May in 2016. Interview was conducted until the data were theoretically saturated. Data analysis was performed simultaneously with the data collection, and the contents of the interview were analyzed according to the Corbin and Strauss' grounded theory method. RESULTS: In total, 36 concepts were produced through the analysis, and similar concepts were combined to derive 16 categories. Based on the relation between the categories, the core category is analysed as ‘becoming culture integrating mothers’. The attainment process from this procedural approach are described as cultural intimidated stage, cultural conflicting stage, cultural cooperating stage, cultural integrating stage. There are three types of ‘becoming cultural integrating mothers’, integrating type, conflicting type, and intimidated type. CONCLUSION: Based on these results, it is suggested to develop the nursing intervention program including cultural sensitive education and consultation program for helping becoming a mother in each type of the Chinese immigrant women in Korea. In addition, nurse or nursing student education program to enhance the cultural sensitivity is also needed.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Data Collection ; Education ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; Female ; Grounded Theory* ; Humans ; Korea* ; Methods ; Mothers* ; Nursing ; Statistics as Topic ; Students, Nursing

PURPOSE: This study was to explore the postnatal care experiences among first time Chinese immigrant mothers living in Korea. METHODS: Data were collected by focus group interviews with 12 first time Chinese immigrant mothers utilizing 3 focus groups. After obtaining written informed consent from all participants, each session of the focus group was audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed by content analysis to identify major themes. RESULTS: Four major themes for postnatal care experiences were extracted from the data as follows. 1) Range over traditional, modern, Korean or Chinese postnatal care, 2) Struggle with newborn care, 3) Another struggle with breastfeeding, and 4) Difficulties in becoming a mother as an immigrant. CONCLUSION: Based on their postpartum care experiences, it is concluded that participants requested more professional practical and individualized education/training for successful breastfeeding and newborn care. Health care providers need to develop and implement integrated support and mentoring programs that include information and peer support system for the first time Chinese immigrant mothers living in Korea. This would decrease the difficulties of becoming a mother.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Breast Feeding ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; Focus Groups ; Health Personnel ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Informed Consent ; Korea* ; Mentors ; Mothers* ; Postnatal Care* ; Qualitative Research

PURPOSE: This study aimed to describe knowledge status of current research related to maternal adaptation of women immigrants by marriage in Korea. METHODS: Eighteen quantitative current researches published from January, 2006 to August, 2014 that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. These 18 articles finally selected for systemic review from 5,168 articles. All current researches included the mother within one year after childbirth and one variable related to maternal adaptation at least. RESULTS: Variables related to psychological adaptation (48.1%) were mostly studied. In detail, parenting stress (17.3%) and parenting competency (15.4%) were frequently surveyed. Also, social support (7.7%), husband rearing support (5.8%) of relational adaptation, and acculturation (3.8%) of cultural adaptation were importantly studied. In addition, frequently used instruments for each study variable were analyzed and evaluated. As major results, parenting stress and parenting efficacy were significantly influenced by social support or husband rearing support and acculturation, and had an effect on parenting behaviors. Various maternal education programs were effective in improving maternal role confidence or parenting efficacy and decreasing parenting stress. CONCLUSION: Nursing intervention programs for improving maternal adaptation should focus on decreasing parenting stress and increasing parenting efficacy by improving social support and acculturation level of women immigrants by marriage in Korea.
Acculturation ; Adaptation, Psychological ; Education ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Marriage* ; Mothers ; Nursing ; Parenting ; Parents ; Parturition ; Spouses

PURPOSE: IL-10 and IFN-gamma are amongst important cytokines, which are thought to have influence on organ transplantation outcome. The aim of this study was to investigate the IL-10 and IFN-gamma gene polymorphisms in Koreans, and their association with renal transplantation outcome. METHODS: Three SNP sites (-1082 G/A, -819 C/T, -592 C/A) of IL-10 promoter region and CA repeats in intron 1 of IFN-gamma gene were analyzed using PCR-single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and direct sequencing methods in 73 controls and 164 kidney allograft recipients. Association between polymorphisms of these genes and transplantation outcome was analyzed using chi square test or Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: The allele frequencies of the IL-10 and IFN-gamma genes showed no significant differences between the control and patient groups. The frequencies of IL-10 and IFN-gamma high producer alleles were markedly lower than those of Caucasians. The incidence of multiple acute rejection episodes was higher in IL-10low producer (-1082 AA) than intermediate producer (-1082 GA) group (8.6% vs 0%), and in IFN-gamma high producer ([CA]12 positive) than low producer ([CA]12 negative) group (11.9% vs 6.6%). The incidence of chronic renal allograft dysfunction was lower in IL-10 intermediate producer than low producer group (7.7% vs 18.0%), and also lower in the combination of IL-10 intermediate/IFN-gamma low producer type than in other combinations (0% vs 18.2%). However, all these differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: IL-10 and IFN-gamma have little influence on renal transplantation outcome in Koreans, probably due to quite limited polymorphisms of these genes in this population. The results of this study would be useful as basic data for renal transplantation in Koreans.
Alleles ; Allografts* ; Cytokines ; Gene Frequency ; Humans ; Incidence ; Interleukin-10* ; Introns ; Kidney Transplantation* ; Kidney* ; Organ Transplantation ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Transplants

Myxoid and round cell liposarcoma is a variant of liposarcoma characterized by a morphologic continuum in which tumor progression from low-grade myxoid to high-grade hypercellular or round cell areas may be observed. A 28-year old man presented with a painful skin colored subcutaneous mass on his left flank. The skin lesion was discovered about two months ago. Computed tomography revealed a well-defined tumor in the subcutaneous area without significant lymphadenopathy. A histopathologic study showed a nonencapsulated nodular growing tumor mass under the deep dermis composed of a mixture of atypical proliferating lipoblasts in a prominent myxoid stroma, occasional uniform round to oval shaped primitive nonlipogenic mesenchymal cells and plexiform, chicken wire shaped capillaries. Based on these findings, we diagnosed this case as myxoid and round cell liposarcoma. Because liposarcomas are large tumors of the deep subcutis or deeper soft tissue, they rarely come to the attention of the dermatologist. However, liposarcoma should be of concern, especially when rapid growing subcutaneous tumors are shown.
Abdomen ; Capillaries ; Chickens ; Dermis ; Liposarcoma ; Lymphatic Diseases ; Skin ; Subcutaneous Tissue

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of high school students' mental health on their academic achievement and school dropout rate by using longitudinal data. METHODS: For this study, 153 high schools were randomly sampled on a nationwide scale. The descriptive data was collected from a school information internet site which is organized by the Korean Ministry of Education. We used the schools' mean scores on the Adolescent Mental Health Problem-Behavior Questionnaire-II (AMPQ-II) scale which was used for estimating students' mental health in the 2013 school-based mental health screening test. The data analysis was conducted by using hierarchical regression analysis. RESULTS: The results of this study showed that the AMPQ-II scale's mean scores have significant effects on the following year's academic achievement and annual dropout rates. Especially, the AMPQ-II scale's mean scores tend to increase the school dropout rate in vocational schools. CONCLUSION: The finding of this study is that Korean high school students' mental health states significantly influence their academic achievement and school dropout rate.
Adolescent ; Education ; Humans ; Internet ; Mass Screening ; Mental Health* ; Statistics as Topic ; Student Dropouts*

BACKGROUND: Excessive exposure to reactive oxygen species (ROS) or decreased antioxidants leads to damage of proteins, lipids, and DNA. Previous studies suggest that oxidative stress may be important in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether oxidative stress is increased in atopic dermatitis patients compared to a normal control group, we examined DNA damage, lipid peroxidation, ROS production and antioxidant expression. METHODS: Patients with atopic dermatitis (n=16; mean Scoring Atopic Dermatitis [SCORAD] index=53.06) were investigated compared to a normal control group (n=25). To examine DNA damage in the cellular level, we performed comet assays on lymphocytes and granulocytes taken from patients and control group. To measure lipid peroxidation products, urine and plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were analyzed. To examine intracellular redox in lymphocytes, ROS were measured using flow cytometry. Expression of superoxide dismutase (SOD) 1, 2 antioxidants were analyzed using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RESULTS: Atopic dermatitis patients showed severe DNA damage compared to the control group in both lymphocytes (1.89 and 1.51, respectively, p<0.05) and granulocytes (2.07 and 1.58, respectively, p<0.05). While urine MDA levels were not significantly different between groups (1.64 and 1.13 microM/g respectively, p>0.05), plasma MDA levels were significantly increased in atopic dermatitis patients compared to controls (1.45 and 0.80 microM/g respectively, p<0.005). ROS production by activated lymphocytes was increased in atopic dermatitis patients compared to controls. SOD 1, 2 were expressed in all atopic dermatitis patients without significant increase compared to controls. CONCLUSION: Increased DNA damage, lipid peroxidation and ROS production in lymphocytes as indices of oxidative stress were observed in moderate to severe atopic dermatitis patients compared to normal control. Although precise mechanism of oxidative stress on the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis is not defined yet, decreasing ROS exposure or augmenting antioxidant defenses may be alternative therapeutic approaches for atopic dermatitis.
Antioxidants ; Comet Assay ; Dermatitis, Atopic* ; DNA ; DNA Damage ; Flow Cytometry ; Granulocytes ; Humans ; Lipid Peroxidation ; Lymphocytes ; Malondialdehyde ; Oxidation-Reduction ; Oxidative Stress ; Plasma ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; Reverse Transcription ; Superoxide Dismutase

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The aim of this study was to determine the clinical performances of noninvasive serum markers for the prediction of liver fibrosis in chronic viral liver diseases. METHODS: We analyzed a total of 225 patients with chronic viral liver diseases (180 with hepatitis B virus, 43 with hepatitis C virus, and 2 with hepatitis B+C virus) who underwent a liver biopsy procedure at the Hanyang University Guri Hospital between March 2002 and February 2007. Serum was also obtained at the time of liver biopsy. Liver fibrosis was staged according to the scoring system proposed by the Korean Study Group for the Pathology of Digestive Diseases. Various noninvasive serum markers were evaluated, including the aspartate aminotransferase (AST)/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ratio (AAR), age-platelet (AP) index, AST/platelet ratio index (APRI), cirrhosis discriminant score (CDS), platelet count, hyaluronic acid (HA), and type IV collagen. RESULTS: There were 17, 40, 61, 74, and 33 patients at stages F0, F1, F2, F3, and F4, respectively. The overall diagnostic accuracies of each marker, as determined by the area under receiver operating characteristics curves, were APRI=0.822, CDS=0.776, platelet count=0.773, AP index=0.756, HA=0.749, type IV collagen=0.718, and AAR=0.642 for predicting significant fibrosis (> or =F2); and CDS=0.835, platelet count=0.795, AP index=0.794, HA=0.766, AAR=0.711, type IV collagen=0.697, and APRI=0.691 for predicting extensive fibrosis (> or =F3). CONCLUSIONS: All noninvasive serum markers evaluated in this study were useful for predicting significant or extensive liver fibrosis in chronic viral liver diseases. In particular, APRI was most useful for the prediction of significant fibrosis, and CDS was most useful for the prediction of extensive fibrosis.
Adult ; Alanine Transaminase/blood ; Area Under Curve ; Aspartate Aminotransferases/blood ; Biological Markers/blood ; Collagen Type IV ; Female ; Hepatitis B, Chronic/*complications ; Hepatitis C, Chronic/*complications ; Humans ; Hyaluronic Acid/blood ; Liver Cirrhosis/*diagnosis/virology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Platelet Count ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Severity of Illness Index

OBJECTIVES: This study is to investigate the hypothesis that schizophrenic patients have difficulty in inferring mental state of others. METHODS: Twenty schizophrenic patients and twenty normal subjects were administered to the Cartoon Task required inferring the character's intention in a given context. RESULTS: The schizophrenic patients showed a statistically significant impairment in the Cartoon Task. Both groups chose the card depicting a frequent everyday action significantly more rather than the similar card to the last picture in each story for wrong answers. CONCLUSION: These preliminary results suggest that schizophrenia is associated with a specific deficit of the cognitive ability referred to as social cognition, and this deficit can be detected not only in the acute phase as found in previous research studies, but also in remission. Also when subjects fail to appreciate what is going on in the minds of other people, they seem to rely on a socially familiar experience.
Cognition* ; Humans ; Intention ; Schizophrenia*

No abstract available.
Esophageal Neoplasms* ; Radiotherapy*