OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of transduced tumor necrosis factor-a(TNF-a) gene expression on growth of human bladder tumor cell lines in vitro. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The complete cDNA of TNF-a was introduced to three human bladder tumor cell lines(F-24, J-82, HT-1197) using a retroviral vector, a recombinant form of Molony murine leukemia virus with TNF-a and Neo gene and transfected cells were selected by exposure to neomycin analog G418. Gene transfer and expression were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction(PCR) and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR)-Southern blotting. Cell growth was measured by MTT assay Result is Successful gene transfer and expression were confirmed in all three cell bladder tumor lines. Growth of transfected cells were compared with parental cell lines and no differences were found in all three cell lines(p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Expression of transduced TNF-t gene could not show any effect on growth of human bladder tumor cells in vitro.
Cell Line* ; DNA, Complementary ; Gene Expression* ; Genetic Therapy ; Humans* ; Leukemia Virus, Murine ; Necrosis ; Neomycin ; Parents ; Reverse Transcription ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha* ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms* ; Urinary Bladder* ; Zidovudine

OBJECTIVES: Psychiatry in North Korea is believed to seem very different from psychiatry in South Korea. However, there is nearly no information regarding psychiatry in North Korea until now. Our study aimed to get information about North Korean psychiatry. METHODS: Three North Korean defectors in South Korea, whose clinical experience as medical doctors in North Korea was over 10 years, were recruited. They underwent the semi-structured interview, content of which included the clinical experience with psychiatric patients, the details of psychiatry, the treatment of psychiatric patients, the stigma of mental illness, and the suicide, in North Korea. RESULTS: In North Korea, psychiatric department was called as 49th(pronounced as Sahsip-gu-ho in Korean). Only patients with vivid psychotic symptoms came to psychiatric department. Non-psychotic depression or anxiety disorders usually were not dealt in psychiatry. The etiology of mental illness seemed to be confined to biological factors including genetic predisposition. Psychosocial or psychodynamic factors as etiology of mental illness appeared to be ignored. Psychiatry was apparently separated from political or ideological issues. The mainstay of psychiatric treatment is the inpatient admission and out-of-date therapy such as insulin coma therapy. Stigma over mental illness was common in North Korea. Suicide is considered as a betrayal to his/her nation, and has been reported to be very rare. CONCLUSION: The situation of psychiatry in North Korea is largely different from that of South Korea. Although some aspects of North Korean psychiatry are similar to psychiatry in former socialist countries, North Korean psychiatry is considered to have also its unique characteristics.
Anxiety Disorders ; Biological Factors ; Convulsive Therapy ; Democratic People's Republic of Korea ; Depression ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Porphyrins ; Republic of Korea ; Suicide

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to describe mother's child-rearing attitudes and problem conduct of children as perceived by children and to examine correlation between maternal nurturing attitudes and child problem behavior. METHOD: The participants were 338 fifth and sixth graders who attended two randomly selected elementary schools in the city of G, Gangwon province. Child-rearing attitudes of the mother were rated on a 5-pointed scale that developed by Schaefer and added by Oh & Lee(1982). Problem conduct of children were rated on a 3-pointed scale of the K-YSR by Oh Kyung-Ja et al.(1997). The data were gathered from October 2 to October 28, 2004, and the collected data were analyzed with SPSS 10.0 program. RESULTS: For the children's perception of mother's child-rearing attitude, student had a relatively high mean scores of 3.70+/-0.44. Correlations between the mother's child-rearing attitude and general characteristics of the children showed statistically significantly different according to grade, father-mother relations, type of residence and extent to which father shared household chores. The mean score for problem conducts of children was 0.47+/-0.25.The average for their internal behavior problems was 0.52+/-0.33, and for external behavior problems was 0.44+/-0.24. There were statistically significantly differences in the behavior problem scores of the children according to the general characteristics of grade, education, occupation, mother-father relations, extent to which father shared in household chores and religion. As to correlation between mother's child-rearing attitude and their problem conduct, every type of attitude had a significantly moderate reverse correlation to every type of behavior problem of the children(r=-.431, p=.000). CONCLUSION: Mother's child-rearing attitudes might affect the problem conduct of children, and mother should try to treat their children with affection and respect, to maintain good relations with father, and to bring their children up coherently in an autonomous, permissive, positive and democratic manner.
Child* ; Education ; Family Characteristics ; Fathers ; Gangwon-do ; Humans ; Mothers ; Occupations ; Child Health

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the psychosocial factors and clinical symptoms related to the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) in 35 consecutive first-episode inpatients with schizophrenia. METHODS: Data from 35 schizophrenic patients were obtained from two general psychiatric inpatient units at a university medical center. These data included scores from Index of Social Position (ISP), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) as well as socio-demographic informations. RESULTS: Among socio-demographic variables, lower social position (r=.610, p<.001), male sex (r=.407, p=.015), and grew up in rural area (r=.335, p=.045) were significantly correlated with DUP. The interpersonal sensitivity of SCL-90-R was the only symptomatic variable significantly correlated with DUP (r=.379, p=.027). However, after controlling interactive effects of the variables, only lower social position and interpersonal sensitivity remained significant. Lower social position was more influential on DUP than interpersonal sensitivity in the multiple regression model. CONCLUSION: Both social and symptomatic factors independently influenced DUP in schizophrenic patients. Lower social position defined by education and occupation of patients or caretakers may reflect barriers to psychiatric services or poor identification of mental illness. This together with patients' subjective distress in interpersonal interactions may delay the intervention of psychiatric services.
Academic Medical Centers ; Education ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Male ; Occupations ; Psychology ; Psychotic Disorders* ; Schizophrenia*

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to determine ethnic difference in physical violence and to see if ethnicity is an independent predictor of violence by surveying eight Korean or Han ethnic elementary schools in Yanji city, China. A total of 2,316 school children from fourth through sixth grade participated the study. METHODS: Participants completed a questionnaire on sociodemographic background and experiences of physical violence during the previous year using the Conflict Tactics Scale. The history of physical violence was categorized as within the family, by peers, or by teachers. RESULTS: Han children reported significantly higher rates of physical abuse compared with Koreans (76.2% vs. 54.9%, chi2=116.12, df=1, p=<.001). Binary logistic regression analysis identified five risk factors for physical violence:(1) ethnic Han (odds ratio [OR]=3.01, 95% confidence interval [CI]=2.47-3.66), (2) boys (OR=2.76, 95% CI=2.28-3.36), (3) poor economic status (OR=1.69, 95% CI=1.17-2.42), (4) single or absent parents (OR=1.42, 95% CI=1.09-1.86), (5) interaction of fourth-graders with promotive or neutral opinions of corporal punishment (OR=2.41, 95% CI=1.86-3.13). Ethnicity remained an independent risk factor after other sociodemographic variables were controlled. CONCLUSION: These findings showed cross-cultural risk factors of child physical abuse, including ethnicity which previously identified as a factor in literature. This study particularly reports lower prevalence of physical violence in ethnic minority, Korean-Chinese, compared with the Han ethnic group. This result explained a special environment of Korean self-government district and the successful adaptation of the ethnic minority to the mainstream culture.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Child ; Child Abuse ; China ; Ethnic Groups ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Parents ; Prevalence* ; Punishment ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Risk Factors ; Violence*

In this paper, Acousto-Optical tomography is modeled by a linear integral equation and an inverse problem involving a diffusion equation in n-spatial dimensions. We make two-step mathematical model. First, we solve a linear integral equation. Assuming the optical energy fluence rate has been recovered from the previous equation, the absorption coefficient micro is then reconstructed by solving an inverse problem. Numerical experiments are presented for the case n=2. The traditional gradient descent method is used for the numerical simulations. The result of the gradient descent method produces the blurring effect. To get rid of the blurring effect, we suggest the total variation regularization for the minimization problem.
Absorption ; Diffusion ; Drug Combinations ; Models, Theoretical ; Piperonyl Butoxide ; Pyrethrins

The renin-angiotensin system plays an important role in renal growth and development. Exposure of the fetus or neonate to angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors increases mortality, growth retardation, and results in renal anomalies. This study was designed to investigate the effects of ACE inhibition in the neonatal rat on the expression of genes known to modulate renal cellular proliferation, cell interactions, and extracellular matrix. Newborn rat pups were treated with enalapril (30mg/ kg/day) or vehicle for 14 days, and kidneys were removed for determination of mRNA for transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF- B1) and prepro epidermal growth factor (EGF). Enalapril treatment resulted in 40Yo mortality by day 14 as well as reduced body and kidney weight (P<0.05 vs vehicle group). Also enalapril decreased renal TGF-Bl and EGF mRNA expression (P<0.05). These results indicate that ACE inhibition in the developing kidney reduces the renal expression of critical growth factors, which may account for renal growth impairment.
Angiotensins* ; Animals ; Cell Communication ; Cell Proliferation ; Enalapril ; Epidermal Growth Factor ; Extracellular Matrix ; Fetus ; Growth and Development ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Kidney* ; Mortality ; Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A* ; Rats* ; Renin-Angiotensin System ; RNA, Messenger ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1

The Illness Intrusiveness Rating Scale (IIRS) measures illness-induced disruptions to 13 domains of lifestyles, activities, and interests. A stable three-factor structure has been well documented; however, the cross-cultural validity of this scale needs to be tested. This study investigated the factor structure of the Korean version of IIRS in 712 outpatients at a university medical center. A predominant diagnosis of the patients was rheumatoid arthritis (47%). The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D), and Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) were also administered. Exploratory Principal Component Analysis identified a two-factor structure, "Relationships and Personal Development (RPD)" and "Instrumen-tal", accounting for 57% of the variance. Confirmatory analyses extracted an identical factor structure. However, a goodness-of-the fit test failed to support two-factor solution (X2 =138.2, df=43, p<.001). Two factors had high internal consistency (RPD, alpha=.89; Instrumental, alpha=.75) and significantly correlated with scores of HAQ (RPD, r=.53, p<.001; Instrumental, .r=44, p<.001) and CES-D (RPD, .r=55, p<.001; Instrumental, .r=43, p<.001). These findings supported construct validity of the Korean version of IIRS, but did not support cross-cultural equivalence of the factor structure.
Adult ; Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; *Cross-Cultural Comparison ; Factor Analysis, Statistical ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Reproducibility of Results ; *Sickness Impact Profile