PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine gender differences in attitudes towards sleeping in separate rooms (SSR) a means of dealing with marital conflict and to explore the reasons why participants agreed or disagreed with SSR. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Research participants were 616 married people (300 men, 316 women) aged 30 to 89 years and currently lived with their spouses in the same house. They were asked to assess their attitudes towards SSR using a Likert scale from 0 (strongly disagree) to 10 (strongly agree). Two separate SSR questions were given to them: one for the respondents themselves and the other for couples in general. RESULTS: There were significant gender differences in attitudes towards SSR. Men generally disagreed with SSR, with a negligible difference between the two separate SSR cases (p>.05). However, women agreed with SSR, especially with the question about the respondents themselves (p<.01). The most frequent reason from agreeing with SSR was to alleviate conflict, while the most frequent reason for disagreeing was related to sexual issues, which showed significant gender differences. CONCLUSIONS: Gender differences in attitudes towards the SSR were found, and the differences were examined in the context of social exchange theory. The limitation of this study was that the sexual interactive and communicative patterns of the couples who were sleeping in separate rooms were not explored.
Aged ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Family Characteristics ; Family Conflict ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Spouses

Human behaviors are related to either life or death instincts. A sexual instinct or sex drive is an indispensable element to both procreation and recreation. Instead of enjoying sexual expression to the full, people control or suppress the sexual expression only inside their conjugal relations as they were educated or cultivated. However, the suppression of sexual gratification leads to various kinds of substitute gratification. In other words, people want more sexual expression as a reaction against suppression. Due to suppression, the strength of the sexual instinct probably varies in each individual. In the traditional society, the sexual instinct is very powerful in men and comparatively weak in women. Both social constructionism and essentialism are rival approaches to the gender differences, but Baumeister introduced four theories about cultural suppression of female sexuality. According to him, most research findings fit the female conspiracy theory a little better than the other theories. While Baumeister pointed out that a woman's sex drive naturally fluctuates over the years, he proposed that the female drive is more malleable than the male drive in response to socio-cultural and situational factors.
Female ; Humans ; Instinct ; Male ; Recreation ; Sexuality

Human behaviors are related to either life or death instincts. A sexual instinct or sex drive is an indispensable element to both procreation and recreation. Instead of enjoying sexual expression to the full, people control or suppress the sexual expression only inside their conjugal relations as they were educated or cultivated. However, the suppression of sexual gratification leads to various kinds of substitute gratification. In other words, people want more sexual expression as a reaction against suppression. Due to suppression, the strength of the sexual instinct probably varies in each individual. In the traditional society, the sexual instinct is very powerful in men and comparatively weak in women. Both social constructionism and essentialism are rival approaches to the gender differences, but Baumeister introduced four theories about cultural suppression of female sexuality. According to him, most research findings fit the female conspiracy theory a little better than the other theories. While Baumeister pointed out that a woman's sex drive naturally fluctuates over the years, he proposed that the female drive is more malleable than the male drive in response to socio-cultural and situational factors.
Female ; Humans ; Instinct ; Male ; Recreation ; Sexuality

Along with the advances in medical technology and the economic development, more terminally ill patients are receiving hospice and palliative care services. Moreover, hospice and palliative care clinicians have been showing considerable interest in studies that aim to improve the quality of said care for patients and their families. Meanwhile, after the government has strengthened its policy to protect research participants, the institutional review boards (IRBs) are more closely examining various ethical issues related to patients' vulnerability when reviewing protocols for hospice and palliative care research. However, terminally ill patients should be provided with guaranteed qualities of hospice and palliative care to improve and maintain their quality of life. To that end, support should be provided for efforts to conduct ethical and safe studies with hospice and palliative care patients. Thus, this review paper proposes ethical guidelines for hospice and palliative care research. The guidelines could be appropriately used as a reference for researchers who should prepare for ethically safe and scientifically valued research protocols and the IRBs that will review the protocols.
Economic Development ; Ethics ; Ethics Committees, Research ; Hospice Care ; Hospices ; Human Experimentation ; Humans ; Palliative Care ; Patient Rights ; Quality of Life ; Terminally Ill

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been investigated as therapeutic agents for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Stimulation of MSCs with pro-inflammatory cytokines is an approach to enhance their immunomodulatory effects. However, further investigation is required to support their application in immune-mediated disorders and companion animals. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the therapeutic effect of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-stimulated feline adipose tissue-derived MSCs (fAT-MSCs) in a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis mouse model. Methods: Colitis mice was made by drinking water with 3% DSS and fAT-MSCs were injected intraperitoneally. Colons were collected on day 10. The severity of the disease was evaluated and compared. Raw 264.7 cells were cultured with the conditioned medium to determine the mechanism, using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: TNF-α-stimulated fAT-MSCs more improved severity of DSS-induced colitis in disease activity, colon length, histologic score, and inflammatory cytokine. In sectionized colon tissues, the group comprising TNF-α-stimulated fAT-MSCs had higher proportion of CD11b + CD206 + macrophages than in the other groups. In vitro, TNF-α-stimulation increased cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2 ) secretion from fAT-MSCs. The conditioned medium from TNF-α-stimulated fAT-MSCs enhanced the expression of interleukin-10 and arginase-1 in LPS-activated Raw 264.7 cells. Conclusions These results represent that TNF-α-stimulated fat-mscs ameliorate the inflamed colon more effectively. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the effectiveness was interlinked with the COX-2/PGE2 pathway.