This study was to investigate the housewives' purchase behaviors on the environment-friendly agricultural products (EFAP) by survey in Daejeon area housewives. 390 questionnaires were used and analysed. Most of the subjects were female (92.6%) distributed evenly in their 40's (55.4%), and graduated from high school (43.6%) or college (36.4%). Subjects' occupation was most housewives (64.1%) and 77.4% of the subjects had monthly family income of 2 million won or more. 76.9% of the subjects had purchased EFAP already. The reason of purchasing EFAP was mainly "good for health" (80.3%), and reason for non-purchasing was "high prices" (28%) or "not so trustworthy" (25.6%). The most purchasing frequency was "once a week" (29%). 46.7% of the subjects spent 20% of their agricultural product cost for EFAP and 38.7% of them spent less than 30,000 won per month for EFAP. On checking of EFAP labeling, the housewives scored 3.59 for the validate date, 3.25 for the place of origin, 2.8 for the quality certification mark by 4-point Likert scale. 65.1% of the subject had intention to increase purchasing of EFAP in future. To promote the consumption of EFAP, the improvement factors were price-cutting (47.9%), trust on producers (18.2%) and quality betterment (17.7%). Accordingly, the consumers prefer EFAP for wellbeing health of families; however, they hesitate to buy due to their high price and the low reliability on producers of EFAP. Thus the producers and the related organization of EFAP should contrive proper countermeasures to increase consumer's satisfaction level on their credibility and price of EFAP.
Certification ; Female ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Intention ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; Occupations ; Ophthalmoplegia ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of squatting with different foot positions on the muscle activation of the vastus medialis oblique (VMO) and vastus lateralis (VL) muscles in subjects with genu varum. METHODS: Thirty four subjects participated in this study. Surface electromyography was used to measure the muscle activation of the VMO and VL muscles at the knee angles (15°, 60°) at three foot positions (internal rotation, neutral position, external rotation) during squatting. RESULTS: Muscle activation differences at different knee angles and foot positions differed significantly between the VMO and VL muscles in both the varus and normal groups. In addition, there was a significant difference according to the knee angles with the foot in external rotation in the VMO and VL ratio. In the varus group, however, the VMO and VL ratio were significantly different only with the feet in internal rotation. In the muscle activation changes of the knee angle differences in the foot position, there was no significant difference in the varus group, but both the VMO and VL muscles were significant different in the normal group. CONCLUSION: In both groups, regardless of the foot position, muscle activation of the VMO and VL muscles increased with increasing knee flexion angle. In the normal group, when squatting with the feet in external rotation, the VMO and VL muscles activations increased with increasing knee angle. In the varus group, however, the foot position did not affect the VMO or VL muscle activation. This study shows that subjects with genu varum and normal subjects have different VMO and VL muscle activation patterns during squat exercises.
Electromyography ; Exercise ; Foot ; Genu Varum ; Knee ; Muscles ; Quadriceps Muscle

This study was conducted to fine out the preventive effects of chitosan and chitosan oligomer on the disorders of hepatic functions and lipid metabolism induced by 2, 3, 7, 8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), using adult male rats (SD) for four weeks. Rats were fed chitosan (4%) or chitosan oligomer (4%) diets respectively before 3weeks of TCDD treatment (50 ug/kg BW) by intraperitoneal injection and then continually supplied these diets for one week until being sacrificed. The elevation of serum total and LDL cholesterol levels induced by TCDD treatment was significantly reduced in the rats fed chitosan diets. The increment of liver triglyceride levels caused by TCDD treatment was tended to suppress in all rats fed chitosan and chitosan oligomer diets. Fecal total lipid and cholesterol excretion were high levels in the rats fed chitosan diets. The hepatic cytosolic catalase activities significantly decreased by TCDD treatment appeared recovering trend by chitosan diets. In hepatic microsomal cytochrome p-450, NADPH cytochrome p-450 reductase, ethoxycoumarin-o-deethylase (ECOD) and benzphetamin N-demethylase (BPND), chitosan than chitosan oligomer diets apparently decreased the increasing levels by TCDD treatment. In histochemical observation, the fat droplets and apoptosis of hepatocytes by TCDD treatment were markedly alleviated by chitosan and chitosan oligomer diets. These results indicate that chitosan, more than chitosan oligomer can exert preventive effects on some disorders of hepatic functions and lipids accumulation by TCDD.
Adult ; Animals ; Apoptosis ; Catalase ; Chitosan* ; Cholesterol ; Cholesterol, LDL ; Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System ; Cytosol ; Diet ; Hepatocytes ; Humans ; Injections, Intraperitoneal ; Lipid Metabolism* ; Liver ; Male ; NADPH-Ferrihemoprotein Reductase ; Rats* ; Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin* ; Triglycerides

A variety of psychological and physical symptoms may appear in disaster victims. The type of disaster as well as individual factors could affect the pattern and severity of symptoms. Several reports have shown that fire survivors suffered from survivor guilt, re-experience, and fear of fire and burn scars associated with depressive symptoms. Inhalation burns are of special interest because of the possibility of delayed systemic complications. Large traffic accident causes more frequent and severe post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), particularly intrusive thoughts, compared to general road traffic accident. Traumatic brain injury and serious physical injuries could increase the PTSS expression. Considering that tragic collapse accidents occurred mainly as a result of careless construction, anger and mistrust are understandable. Legal disputes and compensation issues can provoke social conflict and prolonged suffering. Understanding the psychological characteristics and responses will be required in order to support the mental health of disaster victims.
Accidents, Traffic ; Anger ; Brain Injuries ; Burns ; Burns, Inhalation ; Cicatrix ; Compensation and Redress ; Depression ; Disaster Victims ; Disasters* ; Dissent and Disputes ; Fires ; Guilt ; Humans ; Mental Health ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic ; Survivors

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to investigate the pattern of stress coping strategies and the effects of stress coping strategies on quality of life in patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: Stress coping strategies and quality of life were examined using Ways of Coping Checklist and Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale for 98 patients with schizophrenia. Stress coping strategies were composed of problem-focused coping, social support seeking, emotion-focused coping, and wishful thinking. Among these, problem-focused coping and social support seeking were active coping strategies while emotion-focused coping and wishful thinking were passive coping strategies. Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI) were also administered. RESULTS: Active coping scores were higher than passive coping scores in patients with schizophrenia. Quality of life was higher in the active coping group compared to the passive coping group. Active coping usage was a significant predictor of higher quality of life even after controlling for gender, age, PANSS, and BDI scores. CONCLUSION: Patients with schizophrenia used more active coping strategies than passive coping strategies, which showed significant association with higher quality of life. A treatment program to provide education on use of active coping strategies in a proper and flexible way might contribute to enhanced quality of life in patients with schizophrenia.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Checklist ; Depression ; Education ; Humans ; Quality of Life* ; Schizophrenia* ; Stress, Psychological ; Thinking

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

No abstract available.
Humans ; Psychotic Disorders* ; Schizophrenia*

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is defined as any treatment and procedure associated with the handling of human oocytes, sperms or embryos for the purpose of establishing a pregnancy. As the use of ART has been dramatically increasing over 3 decades and the number of babies born by ART are increasing, it is important to consider perinatal outcomes of pregnancies with ART including structural abnormalities, growth and development, as well as the clinical pregnancy rate and the live-birth rate with regard to the parameters assessing the success of ART. Clinicians should be aware of maternal and perinatal outcomes in pregnancy with ART and infertile couples considering ART should be thoroughly counseled on these issues. In this article, the perinatal outcomes of pregnancy with ART will be reviewed.
Embryonic Structures ; Family Characteristics ; Fertilization in Vitro ; Growth and Development ; Humans ; Oocytes ; Pregnancy Rate ; Pregnancy* ; Reproductive Techniques, Assisted* ; Spermatozoa

This study investigated intake patterns of health functional foods (HFF) in elementary school children and requirements of their parents in the Daejeon area using a questionnaire by 432 parents. Participating parents were composed of female, 83.6% and male, 16.4%. Most of the parents were in their 40's (53.0%) and 30's (45.8%). 47.9% of the children were male and 52.1% were female. The school year of the children was distributed evenly, ranging from the first year to the sixth year. The intake rate of HFF for parents appeared to be 65.3% and for children it appeared to be 63.2%. The primary reason of using HFF to their child was 'For health promotion' (54.4%); the largest reason of non-using HFF was 'Do not feel necessity because is healthy' (48.8%). In regards to purchase place, 'Drugstore' was most selected by 26.1%, while the largest amount of purchase motive was 'Decided by oneself for children's health' (37.7%). The average expense per month was, 'Less than 50 thousand portion' (20.3%). The intake period, 'less than 6 months' was won' for 54.9%. For intake items, 'Vitamin supplementation products' was the largest portion' (20.3%) was indicated. The intake period, 'less than 6 months' was the most selected by 51.3%. Most people (66.7%) selected '1 kind' of intake item. As for intake effect, 45.4% claimed 'A little help'. In regard to experiencing side effects, 'Is not' was 92.7%, however, diarrhea, nettle rash, nausea etc. were a little. The biggest problem of HFF was 'Falsehood/exaggerative advertisement' as identified by 53.1%. For improvement of the HFF system was, 'Verify by more strict formality' as selected by 55.8%. In regards to experience of nutrition education on HFF, 'Is not' was most selected by 51.0%. The most desirous form of nutrition education was, 'Simple paper material' (31.3%). The most desirous content of nutrition education was, 'nutritional management of classified by life cycle' (37.2%). Therefore, HFF must be used properly to promote the health and growth development of children by acquiring scientific and reasonable information about the ability and usage of the food.
Child ; Diarrhea ; Exanthema ; Female ; Functional Food ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Male ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; Nausea ; Ophthalmoplegia ; Parents