BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Increasing evidence supports that psychological factors may be related to development of coronary artery disease (CAD). Although psychological well-being, ill-being, and control strategy factors may play a significant role in CAD, rarely have these factors been simultaneously examined previously. We assessed comprehensive psychological factors in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 85 ACS patients (56 unstable angina, 29 acute myocardial infarction; 52.6+/-10.2 years; M/F=68/17) and 63 healthy controls (48.7+/-6.7 years, M/F=43/20) were included. Socio-demographic information, levels of psychological maladjustment, such as anxiety, hostility, and job stress, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and primary and secondary control strategy use were collected through self-report questionnaires. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the ACS group and control group in levels of anxiety, hostility, and job stress. However, ACS patients had significantly lower scores on the general health perception and bodily pain subscales of HRQoL than the control group. The ACS group, as compared with the controls, tended to use primary control strategies more, although not reaching statistical significance by univariate analysis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis after adjusting age and gender identified the physical domain of HRQoL {odds ratio (OR)=0.40}, primary control strategy (OR=1.92), and secondary control strategy (OR=0.53) as independent predictors of ACS. CONCLUSION: Poor HRQoL and primary control strategy, proactive behaviors in achieving ones' goal, may act as risk factors for ACS, while secondary control strategy to conform to current situation may act as a protective factor for ACS.
Acute Coronary Syndrome* ; Angina, Unstable ; Anxiety ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Hostility ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Myocardial Infarction ; Psychology ; Quality of Life* ; Risk Factors* ; Stress, Psychological ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: Mid-sized hospital websites were assessed to examine how their attributes influence outcome indicators as a potential marketing strategy. Specifically, the website attributes considered were accessibility, content sufficiency, and layout design, while outcome indicators were evaluated, based on satisfaction with the website, intention to revisit the website, and intention to recommend the hospital. METHODS: Five representative websites were selected according to their ranks derived from major ranking sites. The diversity of the websites were emphasized. Then, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 74 respondents. Collected data was analyzed, using frequency, correlation, and repeated measures analysis of variance. RESULTS: All three attributes were related to satisfaction with the website; in addition, both content sufficiency and layout design were significantly related to the intention to revisit. As for the intention to recommend the hospital, only the content sufficiency was significant. In particular, the sufficiencies on 'disease or symptoms' and 'question and answer' were important to all three outcome indicators. CONCLUSION: The websites serve as a marketing tool in managing mid-sized hospitals. Well-designed websites containing sufficient contents facilitate visitor's satisfaction and intention to revisit the website, as well as furthering their intention to recommend the hospital.
Surveys and Questionnaires ; Hospital Administration ; Intention ; Internet ; Marketing ; Personal Satisfaction

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Many studies have reported no benefit of sound localization, but improved speech understanding in noise after treating patients with single-sided deafness (SSD). Furthermore, their performances provided a large individual difference. The present study aimed to measure the ability of speech perception and gap detection in noise for the SSD patients to better understand their hearing nature.
Deafness ; Hearing ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing Loss, Conductive ; Humans ; Individuality ; Noise ; Plastics ; Sample Size ; Signal-To-Noise Ratio ; Silver Sulfadiazine ; Sound Localization ; Speech Perception ; Young Adult

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of music training on the improvement of musical perception among hearing-impaired listeners using a systematic review and meta-analysis. Article search was conducted from five databases, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Web of Knowledge, CINAHL, and PubMed. A total of 186 participants from 10 studies investigating the music training effects on individuals fitted with hearing assistive devices and outcome measurements were included. The meta-analysis showed standardized mean difference as a measure of the effect size, in musical improvement between the preand post-training. Although the funnel plot yielded an asymmetrical graph, the Egger’s regression showed no significant publication bias. Interestingly, subgroup analysis showed that the training effect was greater in children than in adults. With a necessity of longer training period to significantly improve their musical perception, cochlear implant only users had better effect compared to bi-modal users with both cochlear implant and hearing aids. However, the difference in the training effect between the users with and without previous musical experience was nonsignificant. The present study concludes that auditory music training brings hearing-impaired listeners into better musical perception while informing that training effects differ depending on age, duration of the training, and the type of hearing device used.

The present study aimed to compare thresholds of directbone-conduction (BC direct) with those of behaviorally measured BC pure-tone audiometry(PTA) and objectively measured BC auditory brainstem response (ABR) to confirm the clinicalfeasibility of their relationships. Subjects and Methods: Young adults with normal hearingparticipated in the study to determine the thresholds from three measurements at four testingfrequencies. In the BC direct, the vibrator of a bone-anchored hearing aid softband wasplaced on the right mastoid of each subject. In both PTA and ABR, a B71 bone oscillatorwas placed on the subject’s right mastoid. While the subject’s thresholds of BC direct andBC PTA were determined with a clinically routine 5-dB step procedure, BC ABR was conductedto determine the individual’s hearing sensitivity by a peak V of the waveform usingtone-burst and click stimuli. Results: The BC direct showed a different pattern between lowand high frequencies. Precisely, its thresholds were 13.25 and 12.25 dB HL at 0.5 and 1kHz, respectively, but 19 and 19.75 dB HL at 2 and 4 kHz, respectively. A significant positivecorrelation existed between BC direct and PTA at 1 kHz, which was also correlated withABR. Conclusions: Based on the current data, the thresholds of BC direct were similar toBC PTA at low frequencies and BC ABR at high frequencies. The thresholds of BC directmight be predictable at approximately 5 dB higher (or lower) than that in PTA, although alarge data set is required for standardization. J Audiol Otol 2020;24(2):85-90

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is a lethal cancer type that is associated with multiple gene mutations in somatic cells. Genetically engineered mouse is hardly applicable for developing a pancreatic cancer model, and the xenograft model poses a limitation in the reflection of early stage pancreatic cancer. Thus, in vivo somatic cell gene engineering with clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats is drawing increasing attention for generating an animal model of pancreatic cancer. In this study, we selectedKras, Trp53, Ink4a, Smad4, and Brca2 as target genes, and applied Campylobacter jejuni Cas9 (CjCas9) andStreptococcus pyogens Cas9 (SpCas9) for developing pancreatic cancer using adeno associated virus (AAV) transduction. After confirming multifocal and diffuse transduction of AAV2, we generated SpCas9 overexpression mice, which exhibited high double-strand DNA breakage (DSB) in target genes and pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) lesions with two AAV transductions; however, wild-type (WT) mice with three AAV transductions did not develop PanIN. Furthermore, small-sized Cjcas9 was applied to WT mice with two AAV system, which, in addition, developed high extensive DSB and PanIN lesions. Histological changes and expression of cancer markers such as Ki67, cytokeratin, Mucin5a, alpha smooth muscle actin in duct and islet cells were observed. In addition, the study revealed several findings such as 1) multiple DSB potential of AAV-CjCas9, 2) peri-ductal lymphocyte infiltration, 3) multi-focal cancer marker expression, and 4) requirement of > 12 months for initiation of PanIN in AAV mediated targeting. In this study, we present a useful tool for in vivo cancer modeling that would be applicable for other disease models as well.