No abstract available.
Probiotics

Fear-related behaviors are rigidly controlled by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The mPFC is activated by the prosocial hormone oxytocin, which plays an important role in social buffering. We used a slice patch current-clamp recording in single- and pair-exposed rats who were subjected to electric shocks, to determine the cellular mechanism of the action of oxytocin in the mPFC under social buffering conditions. Pair-exposed rats showed a significant reduction in both freezing and passive avoidance behaviors compared to single-exposed rats. It was observed that input resistance in pyramidal neurons decreased in both single- and pair-exposed rats than naïve rats, but input resistance in interneurons increased in pair-exposed rats than single-exposed rats. We found that the number of action potential (AP) spikes in the mPFC pyramidal neurons decreased significantly in pair-exposed rats than in single-exposed rats. The pyramidal neurons in the mPFC were similarly regulated by oxytocin in singleand pair-exposed rats, while the number of AP spikes in interneurons by oxytocin decreased in single-exposed rats, but there was no significant change in pair-exposed rats. Therefore, our findings reveal that a decrease in mPFC pyramidal neuronal activity in pair-exposed rats through social interaction induces a reduction in fear-related behavior via obstruction of fear-memory formation; however, no such reduction was observed in single-exposed rats. Moreover, we suggest that the oxytocin-mediated decrease in neuronal activity in the mPFC could facilitate social buffering.

PURPOSE: This study was done to identify the effects and relationships of humor, job satisfaction, job stress and intent to turnover for nurses and suggest a theoretical structural path diagram among the variables. METHODS: Data were collected at 6 hospitals located in Seoul, and Gyeonggi Province, from June to September, 2010. Participants were 275 nurses. Data were analyzed using Amos 19.0 for Structural Equation Modeling. RESULTS: Humor had significant effects on job satisfaction (beta=.15, t=2.29, p=.022) and indirect effects on the intent to turnover in this model (chi2=44.18, df=23, RMSEA=0.05, TLI=0.97). But humor did not affect job stress unlike results of previous studies (t=-.02, p=.771). CONCLUSION: Humor may not affect job stress under the very stressful conditions of the health care environment. The model showed the effect of humor contributed to increases in job satisfaction but did not decrease job stress. Higher levels of job satisfaction could decrease the intent to turnover. Consequently, humor would be helpful in increasing job satisfaction to diminish nurse turnover. Further studies are suggested to investigate causal relationships among humor, burnout, and other emotional and organizational variables.
Delivery of Health Care ; Intention ; Job Satisfaction

PURPOSE: This study attempted to examine nursing students' self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, and self-efficacy, to identify factors affecting empathy. METHODS: A predictive correlational design was used. The participants in this study were nursing students from fours university of Korea. The questionnaires were administered to a convenience sample of 147 nursing students in the Republic of Korea. RESULTS: Mean item scores for self-esteem, interpersonal relationship, self-efficacy, and empathy were 3.83, 3.63, 3.30, and 3.44, respectively (possible range, 1–5). Empathy was correlated with self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, and self-efficacy. The multiple regression analysis revealed that 45.9% of the variance in empathy is attributable to gender, major satisfaction, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and interpersonal relationships. The most important factor interpersonal relationship explained. CONCLUSION: Improving nursing students' major satisfaction, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and interpersonal relationships are strategies that may foster empathy.
Empathy* ; Humans ; Korea ; Nursing* ; Republic of Korea ; Self Efficacy ; Students, Nursing

PURPOSE: This study attempted to examine the influence of resilience, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being on attitude to death. METHODS: A predictive correlational design was used. The participants were 184 nursing students from three universities of Korea. They responded to a self-report questionnaire, with items on demographics, resilience, life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and attitude to death. RESULTS: The mean score for attitude to death was 2.77±0.39 (range, 1–4), and a significant difference was observed depending on age, grade, and death-related education. Attitude to death was positively correlated with death-related education, resilience, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being. Results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that death-related education and psychological well-being were significant predictors of attitude to death, explaining 26.6% of the latter. The most important factor was psychological well-being. CONCLUSION: Although death-related education and psychological well-being are two of the most influential factors among nursing students, no more than 30.4% of this study’s participants received death-related education. Death-related education is necessary to help nursing students so that they can cope positively with stressful situations by finding positive meaning. It is necessary to develop a systematic curriculum so that these students can establish a positive attitude to death.
Attitude to Death ; Curriculum ; Demography ; Education ; Humans ; Korea ; Nursing ; Personal Satisfaction ; Students, Nursing

PURPOSE: This study attempted to examine the influence of resilience, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being on attitude to death. METHODS: A predictive correlational design was used. The participants were 184 nursing students from three universities of Korea. They responded to a self-report questionnaire, with items on demographics, resilience, life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and attitude to death. RESULTS: The mean score for attitude to death was 2.77±0.39 (range, 1–4), and a significant difference was observed depending on age, grade, and death-related education. Attitude to death was positively correlated with death-related education, resilience, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being. Results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that death-related education and psychological well-being were significant predictors of attitude to death, explaining 26.6% of the latter. The most important factor was psychological well-being. CONCLUSION Although death-related education and psychological well-being are two of the most influential factors among nursing students, no more than 30.4% of this study’s participants received death-related education. Death-related education is necessary to help nursing students so that they can cope positively with stressful situations by finding positive meaning. It is necessary to develop a systematic curriculum so that these students can establish a positive attitude to death.

Purpose: This study aims to identify the knowledge, risk perception, fear, self-efficacy, and preventive behaviors among nursing students, and factors influencing preventive behaviors on COVID-19. Methods: Data was collected from March, 2022 to May, 2022. The participants included 218 nursing students in their 3rd and 4th grade of three universities in two cities. Results: The knowledge of COVID-19 was 13.54 out of 15 points, risk perception was 4.83 out of 8 points, fear was 13.26 out of 35 points, self-efficacy was 19.96 out of 25 points, and preventive behaviors were 7.56 out of 9 points. The explanatory power of self efficacy (β = .21, p = .002), which affects preventive behaviors was 67.0%. Conclusion Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to develop a systematic nursing intervention that improves self-efficacy to improve preventive behaviors against COVID-19 among students. This study’s result can be used in the future to develop appropriate health policies and program to prevent emerging infectious diseases.

The National Health Information Portal (http://health.mw.go.kr), a collaborative project by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences, was officially launched in January 2011. In the modern society, the internet and smart phones have been flooded with health information, in addition to the information available through traditional media such as newspapers, television, and radio broadcasting. The Korean Medical Association and the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences have expanded their work in several directions, including a monitoring project to correct wrong health information that is commonly used. Nevertheless, they are confronted with the fundamental problem that they are unable to keep up with the speed of production and diffusion of health information in modern society. This initiative of the National Health Information Portal led by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences is significant in that anyone with internet access can easily find proven health information. Unlike existing health information, the National Health Information Portal is structured to help improve understanding by presenting a variety of materials, such as cartoons, pictures, photos, and videos, as compared to simple documents or texts. In addition, it is constructed with a feedback system so that the consumer of the health information can directly and easily access specific content. Furthermore, the National Health Information Portal continues to strive to provide practical contents with mobile services like smart phone applications. We expect the National Health Information Portal to make a contribution to the prevention and treatment of disease by reducing unnecessary medical expenditures, and providing quality health information to society.
Diffusion ; Health Expenditures ; Internet ; Periodicals ; Television

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) are specially manipulated cells from somatic cells by the introduction of four factors that are reprogrammed. The properties of iPSC are similar to embryonic stem cells (ESC) characteristic of self-renewal and pluripotency. The technology of reprogramming somatic cells to iPSC enables the generation of patient-specific cells that can be used as powerful tools for drug screening, in vitro models for human disease and autologous transplantation. The iPSC technology provides a priceless resource for regenerative medicine but there are still changing obstacles over the safety of iPSC in avoiding induction of tumorigenicity and maintaining high purity of re-differentiated cells from iPSC to produce more functional cells for cell therapy. A variety of methods to overcome the limitation of iPSC application applied in the clinical setting have been developed. In this review, we summarize the recent progress in iPSC generation and differentiation techniques to facilitate clinical application of iPSC with future potential in regenerative medicine.
Autografts ; Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy ; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical ; Embryonic Stem Cells ; Humans ; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells* ; Regenerative Medicine ; Stem Cells* ; Transplantation, Autologous

Autophagy is necessary for the degradation of long-lasting proteins and nonfunctional organelles, and is activated to promote cellular survival. However, overactivation of autophagy may deplete essential molecules and organelles responsible for cellular survival. Lifelong calorie restriction by 40% has been shown to increase the cardiac expression of autophagic markers, which suggests that it may have a cardioprotective effect by decreasing oxidative damage brought on by aging and cardiovascular diseases. Although cardiac autophagy is critical to regulating protein quality and maintaining cellular function and survival, increased or excessive autophagy may have deleterious effects on the heart under some circumstances, including pressure overload-induced heart failure. The importance of autophagy has been shown in nutrient supply and preservation of energy in times of limitation, such as ischemia. Some studies have suggested that a transition from obesity to metabolic syndrome may involve progressive changes in myocardial inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, fibrosis, apoptosis, and myocardial autophagy.
Aging ; Apoptosis ; Autophagy ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Fibrosis ; Heart ; Heart Failure ; Inflammation ; Ischemia ; Nutritional Status ; Obesity ; Organelles ; Proteins ; Starvation