PURPOSE: The study was done to explore variations in physiologic parameters of the stratum corneum (SC) of the dorsal hand and cord area during early days of life in high-risk newborns. METHODS: In this longitudinal study, a total of 77 high-risk newborns were assessed for pH, temperature and hydration of the SC of the dorsal hand and the cord area on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th days of life. RESULTS: Results showed that an acid mantle (AM) was formed in 57.1% for dorsal hand and 35.1% for cord area, implying significant delay regardless of decrease in pH (F=103.60, p<.001), and hydration (F=4.00, p=.003) across days in both areas. Peripheral hypothermia with low hydration level was also observed in both areas. There was a positive relation between hydration and temperature (.14 Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology ; Birth Weight ; Body Water ; Epidermis/drug effects/*physiology ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Infant, Newborn ; Longitudinal Studies ; Male ; Temperature ; Time Factors ; Umbilical Cord/drug effects/*physiology

In this study, we analyzed the healthcare system of North Korea using Kleczkowski's model which categorizes national healthcare infrastructure into five components: health resources, organization, healthcare delivery system, economic support, and management. It was found that the healthcare system in North Korea, which provides clinical medicine, Koryo medicine and preventive medicine, is constituted of a physician system of independent geographic sectors and centralized delivery system while maintaining free universal health coverage. These systems are all managed by the government and the People's Committee Party. However, North Korea has been confronted with severe economic difficulties since the 1990s, such that we question whether the healthcare system has been able to function properly despite of the lack of resources in general throughout the country.
Clinical Medicine ; Collodion ; Delivery of Health Care ; Democratic People's Republic of Korea ; Health Resources ; Preventive Medicine

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to examine the effects of simulation education integrated with problem based learning (SIM-PBL) on clinical competency and self-efficacy in post operation nursing care for children. METHODS: This study was a quasi-experimental design. Thirty six students in the third year of a 4-year baccalaureate nursing program were recruited conveniently and assigned to the control or intervention groups using time difference. Students were all in a pediatric nursing clinical practicum. The control group received the regular clinical practicum in a hospital setting. For the intervention group, a SIM-PBL education replaced 150 minutes of their clinical practicum. RESULTS: The intervention group showed greater improvement in two areas of clinical competency compared with the control group; physical assessment (t=3.019, p=.005) and post operation advice (t=2.428, p=.021). However, no statistically significant differences in improvement in any areas of self-efficacy were found between two groups. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that the SIM-PBL education is effective in improving some areas of clinical competence, but not self-efficacy in post operation nursing care for children. Further study is needed to develop SIM-PBL programs for various clinical topics and evaluate the effectiveness on the learning outcomes.
Child ; Clinical Competence ; Education ; Humans ; Learning ; Nursing ; Nursing Care ; Pediatric Nursing ; Problem-Based Learning* ; Students, Nursing*

PET using FDG has been proposed as a functional whole body imaging modality that images various types of malignancies with relatively high sensitivity and specificity in a reasonably short time. It depicts a lesion based on abnormal glucose metabolism whereas CT as a high-resolution anatomical imaging detects malignant process mostly based on altered anatomy. PET / CT combines the advantages of PET and CT, and has a great value in early detection of disease, accurate staging or restaging, early assessment of treatment response, decision on therapeutic plans, and rapid localization of recurrence. Exact anatomical localization of a lesion with increased FDG uptake by CT is considered to be the most important factor that improves the diagnostic accuracy of PET / CT. So far, limited studies have been reported using PET / CT in comparison with PET only and mainly proved additional value of PET / CT in malignant tumors in which conventional PET already had advantages over anatomical imaging. PET / CT appears to have a promising role in the field of radiotherapy planning. Another potential of PET / CT would be in the evaluation of tumors with low FDG uptake by way of CT or new PET tracers. PET / CT is in the stage of its early infancy and further studies remain to be performed to establish applications of PET / CT in clinical oncology. In this review, we will discuss the principle of PET, the background of the emergency of PET / CT, advantages, pitfalls, and debates of PET / CT along with clinical applications and future perspectives of thereof.
Early Diagnosis ; Emergencies ; Glucose ; Medical Oncology ; Metabolism ; Positron-Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography* ; Radiotherapy ; Recurrence ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Whole Body Imaging

PET using FDG has been proposed as a functional whole body imaging modality that images various types of malignancies with relatively high sensitivity and specificity in a reasonably short time. It depicts a lesion based on abnormal glucose metabolism whereas CT as a high-resolution anatomical imaging detects malignant process mostly based on altered anatomy. PET / CT combines the advantages of PET and CT, and has a great value in early detection of disease, accurate staging or restaging, early assessment of treatment response, decision on therapeutic plans, and rapid localization of recurrence. Exact anatomical localization of a lesion with increased FDG uptake by CT is considered to be the most important factor that improves the diagnostic accuracy of PET / CT. So far, limited studies have been reported using PET / CT in comparison with PET only and mainly proved additional value of PET / CT in malignant tumors in which conventional PET already had advantages over anatomical imaging. PET / CT appears to have a promising role in the field of radiotherapy planning. Another potential of PET / CT would be in the evaluation of tumors with low FDG uptake by way of CT or new PET tracers. PET / CT is in the stage of its early infancy and further studies remain to be performed to establish applications of PET / CT in clinical oncology. In this review, we will discuss the principle of PET, the background of the emergency of PET / CT, advantages, pitfalls, and debates of PET / CT along with clinical applications and future perspectives of thereof.
Early Diagnosis ; Emergencies ; Glucose ; Medical Oncology ; Metabolism ; Positron-Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography* ; Radiotherapy ; Recurrence ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Whole Body Imaging

Some species of traditional herbal medicine has a history of use, most traditional natural herbs have been used for various diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. Among them, Passiflora incarnata L. is a traditional natural medicine, flowers as well as berries, roots, and leaves have been used as a medicine. It has been used as a natural medicine for the treatment of insomnia and anxiety for a longtime in Europe, and it has been used primarily for sedation tea in North America. Moreover, Passiflora incarnata L. is widely used anti-asthmatic, analgesic and sedation in Brazil. In other words, Passiflora incarnata L. has been used to treat a sedative, dysmenorrhea, insomnia, cancer, etc. in many countries. Present review of the plants showed a wide range of pharmacological activity in anxiolytic relax the clinical disease, such as anti-inflammatory, anxiety and antioxidant. In addition, Passiflora incarnata L. affects menopause symptoms such as vasomotor symptoms, insomnia, and depression. This review aims to provide the latest information on specific functional components of Passiflora incarnata L. especially the results of clinical trials will provide new insights into opportunities for the future development of natural medicines and doors will be used for purposes of analysis.
Anxiety ; Brazil ; Depression ; Dysmenorrhea ; Europe ; Female ; Flowers ; Fruit ; Herbal Medicine ; Hypertension ; Menopause ; North America ; Obesity ; Passiflora* ; Plant Extracts ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders ; Tea

The Jun activation-domain binding protein 1 (Jab1) recognize a potential coactivator of activator protein 1 (AP-1) such as c-fos, c-jun transcription factor and the fifth subunit of the COP9 signalosome complex. Also, Jab1 activate the c-jun gene resulted cell proliferation. Not only a powerful tumor suppressor but also regulator of apoptosis negative cdk inhibitor p27(kip1) are involved in the cell cycle. This is Jab1 and p27(kip1) interact with each other, Jab1 accelerate p27(kip1) from nuclear to cytoplasm through ubiquitin/proteasome pathway. However, information about the relationship between Jab1 and p27(kip1) is not known much. Taken together, the results of this study identify function and structure of Jab1 and p27(kip1) were described in a recent article on the basis of relevant. Besides Jab1 and p27(kip1) will organize the relationship between the disease and women.
Apoptosis ; Breast Neoplasms ; Carrier Proteins* ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Proliferation ; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p27 ; Cytoplasm ; Endometriosis ; Female ; Genes, jun ; Humans ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Transcription Factor AP-1 ; Transcription Factors

Various molecular targeted therapies and diagnostic modalities have been developed for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, HCC still remains a difficult malignancy to cure. Recently, the focus has shifted to cancer metabolism for the diagnosis and treatment of various cancers, including HCC. In addition to conventional diagnostics, the measurement of enhanced tumor cell metabolism using F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) for increased glycolysis or C-11 acetate for fatty acid synthesis by positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is well established for clinical management of HCC. Unlike tumors displaying the Warburg effect, HCCs vary substantially in terms of 18F-FDG uptake, which considerably reduces the sensitivity for tumor detection. Accordingly, C-11 acetate has been proposed as a complementary radiotracer for detecting tumors that are not identified by 18F-FDG. In addition to HCC diagnosis, since the degree of 18F-FDG uptake converted to standardized uptake value (SUV) correlates well with tumor aggressiveness, 18F-FDG PET/CT scans can predict patient outcomes such as treatment response and survival with an inverse relationship between SUV and survival. The loss of tumor suppressor genes or activation of oncogenes plays an important role in promoting HCC development, and might be involved in the “metabolic reprogramming” of cancer cells. Mutations in various genes such as TERT, CTNNB1, TP53, and Axin1 are responsible for the development of HCC. Some microRNAs (miRNAs) involved in cancer metabolism are deregulated in HCC, indicating that the modulation of genes/miRNAs might affect HCC growth or metastasis. In this review, we will discuss cancer metabolism as a mechanism for treatment resistance, as well as an attractive potential therapeutic target in HCC.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Diagnosis ; Drug Resistance ; Electrons ; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor ; Glycolysis ; Humans ; Metabolism* ; MicroRNAs ; Molecular Targeted Therapy ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Oncogenes ; Positron-Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography

The mechanism of chorea underlying nonketotic hyperglycemia was controversial. Serial follow up of brain MRI, 99mTc-ECD SPECT, and 18F-FDG PET in conjunction with clinical observation was done to clarify the pathologic localization. From the functional neuroimages, according to the clinical improvement, the relevant pathology was localized on the lentiform nucleus, mainly on the putamen. In caudate, the mismatch between glucose metabolism and blood flow was observed during and after choreoballistic movement which suggested an important cue to understand the pathogenesis of chorea.
Basal Ganglia* ; Brain ; Chorea ; Corpus Striatum ; Cues ; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Glucose ; Humans ; Hyperglycemia* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Metabolism ; Pathology* ; Putamen ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon

Postmenopausal women aged 50s generally experience gradual changes in body such as decline in antioxidant and estrogen levels as the body ages. To overcome these aging-associated changes, the needs for health functional foods are increasing. Dendropanax morbifera (DM) have antioxidant effects, anti-inflammatory against cancer cells, antidiabetic, and antiatherogenic effect which are associated with postmenopausal symptoms. We analyzed clinical effects of DM on aging-related symptoms by reporting their antioxidant, anticancer and inflammatory activity, etc. and their bioactivity. Data sources EMBASE, SCOPUS, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases were searched up to August 2016 for studies investigating medicinal plants in prevention and treatment of diabetes. The search terms were “Dendropanax morbifera”. The reference lists of articles were also reviewed for additional relevant studies. Extracts of DM have various efficacy such as antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory activity and anti-thrombotic effect.
Aging ; Antioxidants ; Estrogens ; Female ; Functional Food ; Humans ; Information Storage and Retrieval ; Menopause ; Plant Extracts ; Plants, Medicinal