Schizophrenia is a devastating mental illness that can lead to deterioration in the social and occupational functioning of affected individuals with a major cost to society. A wide range of studies suggest a genetic component to the inheritance of schizophrenia. The molecular genetic studies on schizophrenia have been actively performed since late 1980s. In linkage studies, no loci were replicated across studies and there were no loci surpassing genome-wide significance. Candidate gene association studies showed generally inconsistent results and there were no enrichment of smaller P-values. In the GWAS era, the community has coalesced into large international consortia. The largest schizophrenia GWAS to date is 50,000 samples and efforts are ongoing to accumulate 50,000 cases and 50,000 controls as part of 'PGC2' collaboration. With the limitation of GWAS results, several alternatives are being explored. In genotyping, the concepts of allelic spectrum including from common polygenic to rare penetrant variation are emerging. Phenotypes include all phenomena beyond DNA. The developments in transcriptomic & proteomic approach and intensive research on endophenotype will bring crucial insights into the nature of schizophrenia in the future. But there still remains our task about research on many factors including environment that influence gene expression (epigenetics), age, and gender.
Cooperative Behavior ; DNA ; Endophenotypes ; Epigenomics ; Gene Expression ; Genetic Association Studies ; Molecular Biology ; Phenotype ; Schizophrenia ; Wills

Recently, melatonergic agents have been gaining much interest in the treatment of mood disorders. The elucidation of the underlying biological mechanisms related to the melatonergic system in mood disorders is warranted to ensure the proper use of melatonergic agents. Changes of the melatonergic system have been investigated in several studies of patients with bipolar disorder (BP) and depression. Accumulating evidence has indicated that patients with BP might exhibit abnormal melatonin secretion patterns, increased light-induced melatonin suppression, altered pineal gland volume, genetically abnormal melatonin synthesis enzyme, and modified melatonin receptors. In this review, the findings of studies performed to explore the association between the melatonergic system and BP are discussed. Moreover, the interpretations and limitations of these findings are described.
Bipolar Disorder ; Depression ; Humans ; Melatonin ; Mood Disorders ; Pineal Gland ; Receptors, Melatonin

no abstract available.

The abnormalities caused by the melatonergic system have been associated with psychiatric disorders, such as Alzheimer’s dementia and schizophrenia, as well as with the pathogenesis of mood disorders. Abnormal melatonin secretion has been observed in the early phase of mood disorders in young patients and high-risk adults. This review summarizes and discusses the findings of studies that have investigated the melatonergic system in children, adolescents, and young adults with mood disorders. Furthermore, the factors associated with the changes caused by the melatonergic system during the early stage of mood disorders are evaluated.

The purpose of this study is to present a legal system in which information is actively collected and utilized to monitor the location and health of self-quarantined persons through IT, to identify loopholes in the law and regulatory system in view of data protection and utilization, and to propose a legislative solution for those loopholes. In Korea, the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act (“the Prevention Act”) regulates all matters related to the prevention and management of infectious diseases, including the use of information on self-quarantine apps. Article 42(2) of the Prevention Act states that local governments are authorized to collect the location and health information of a quarantined citizen; however, the law does not elaborate on how this information can be used and what other information can be used in combination with the collected information. Thus, the Personal Information Protection Act (“the Protection Act”), as a general privacy law, is applied supplementarily. However, since the Protection Act is very general and does not have accumulated cases, there is uncertainty about how governments can utilize the collected information. Therefore, it is necessary to consider a legislative solution that includes a direct and clear basis for the use of personal information collected under the Prevention Act in consideration of Korean privacy regulations.

Several studies have reported that melatonin may be effective in treating sleep problems in children and adolescents. However, evidence regarding the safety of melatonin use in children and adolescents in their growth and developmental stages is warranted. Therefore, we aimed to summarize the literature on the safety of melatonin use in children and adolescents with insomnia and sleep disturbances. According to existing evidence, there are no serious adverse effects of long-term melatonin use in children and adolescents. The common adverse effects reported in long-term studies are fatigue, somnolence, and mood swings. In addition, there is no evidence that long-term use of melatonin inhibits the natural secretion of melatonin. It is necessary to monitor potential drug interactions with medications such as inhibitors and enhancers of cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2). Furthermore, low CYP1A2 expression in young children requires proper dose adjustment. Although sufficient experience of melatonin use in children and adolescents has yet to be attained, accumulating evidence suggests that the use of melatonin in children and adolescents with sleep problems might be effective and tolerable. Considering the abuse or overdose risk of hypnotics or benzodiazepines, melatonin supplements may be a good therapeutic alternative. Future studies on the long-term safety of melatonin for physiological and mental function in children and adolescents are required to establish certainty about melatonin use in children and adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: To translate the English Qualiveen questionnaire which was developed to measure the specific impact of urinary problems on the quality of life of patients with neurogenic bladder into Korean and validate it. METHOD: First, we made the Korean version Qualiveen questionnaire through translation and cross-cultural adaptation followed by the international guideline. This process consisted of 6 steps including translation, reconciliation, back translation into English and debriefing. And then to assess the reliability and construct validity of the questionnaire, 32 patients with neurogenic bladder conducted the Korean Qualiveen questionnaire twice at an interval between three and four weeks. RESULTS: We translated and arbitrated a total of 151 questions. In step of the backward translation, we went through discussion and corrected 12 questions. We found out that 7 questions delivered inaccurate meanings or were unhandy items such as method of writing age or date in debriefing process. A reliability study revealed strong internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficients above 0.7 for all domains) and test-retest reliability (Pearson's coefficient range from 0.524 to 0.837). The sub-domain strongly correlated with each other (Pearson's coefficient range from 0.625 to 0.936) in the construct validity study. CONCLUSION: The Korean version of the Qualiveen Questionnaire was successfully translated and validated.
Humans ; Linguistics ; Quality of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Urinary Bladder, Neurogenic ; Writing

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of nursing students' belongingness and self-esteem on self-directed learning in clinical practice. METHODS: The participants were 163 senior nursing students. Using a structured-questionnaire, data were collected from September to October 2016. Data were analyzed using independent t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple linear regression. RESULTS: Self-directed learning in clinical practice had statistically significant correlation with belongingness (r=.47, p<.001) and self-esteem (r=.52, p<.001). Factors affecting self-directed learning were self-esteem (β=.38, p<.001), belongingness (β=.30, p<.001), and more than 5 members of clinical practice (β=.15, p=.017). These three variables explained 35% of self-directed learning. CONCLUSION: In order to enhance self-directed learning in clinical practice of nursing students, nursing schools should provide training to increase self-esteem in nursing students. In addition, an appropriate number of students should be considered, so that they can have a well-developed sense of belonging to clinical practice.
Humans ; Learning ; Linear Models ; Nursing ; Schools, Nursing ; Students, Nursing

Background: Locomotor activity in mice may have an ultradian rest-activity rhythm. However, to date, no study has shown how locomotor activity can be explained statistically using fitted cosine curves. Therefore, this study explored whether the ultradian rhythm of locomotor activity in mice could be analyzed using cosine fitting analysis. Methods: The locomotor activity of 20 male mice under a 12/12-hour dark/light cycle for 2 days was fitted to a cosine function to obtain the best fit. The mean absolute error (MAE) values were used to determine the explanatory power of the calculated cosine model for locomotor activity. The cosine fitting analysis was performed using R statistical software (version 4.1.1). Results: The mean MAE was 0.2944, whereas the mean MAE for integrating the individual analyses in the two experimental groups was 0.3284. The periods of the estimated ultradian rest-activity rhythm ranged from 1.602 to 4.168 hours. Conclusions These results suggest that locomotor activity data reflect an ultradian rhythm better than a circadian rhythm. Locomotor activity can be statistically fitted to a cosine curve under well-controlled conditions. In the future, it will be necessary to explore whether this cosine-fitting analysis can be used to analyze ultradian rhythms under different experimental conditions.

Objectives: ：This study was aimed to investigate whether 1) sexual dimorphism in subcortical gray matter volumes (GMV) and the length ratio between the second and fourth digits (2D:4D) would be found and 2) 2D:4D would have associated with subcortical GMV in healthy elderly people. Methods: ：Sixty-two females aged 70.3±6.3 (mean±SD) years and 23 males aged 70.4±4.9 years were recruited from the Dementia Clinic in the Pusan National University Hospital. The subjects with the clinical dementia rating scale-sum of boxes (CDR-SB) total score greater than 2.0, any psychiatric or neurological disease, or any pathologic lesion on brain MRI other than micro-angiopathy were excluded. The 2D:4D of the left and right hands were measured 3 times each. Volumetric segmentation of T1-weighted MRI scans was done by Freesurfer software (v7.1.1.1). Results: ：2D:4Ds of males were smaller than those of females significantly on repeated measures ANOVA. The males’ thalamus, putamen, hippocampus in both hemispheres and the right amygdala were larger than females’. These differences were not significant after controlling for age, education and total intracranial volume (ICV). In the females, the left 2D:4D was negatively correlated with the left hippocampal volume. In the males, 2D:4D was positively correlated with the volumes of ipsilateral or contralateral thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala and accumbens. These correlations were not significant after Bonferroni’s correction, except for the right accumbens. Conclusions ：Sexual dimorphism of 2D:4D is preserved in healthy elderly people. There is a significant correlation between the right 2D:4D and GMV of the accumbens in males.