Human hairs have been known to be easily contaminated with microorganisms. This study was performed in order to measure what bacterial species and how much microorganisms contaminate human hairs in specific place. Virgin human hairs were left at 6 positions in inside corner and beside window in a laboratory for 7 days. The number of viable bacterial cells, which were determined by most probable number method, contaminating the human hairs was measured at a maximum of 10(6)/g hair and a minimum of 10(3)/g hair in inside corner and maximum of 10(6)/g hair and a minimum of 10(3)/g hair beside window. The bacterial cells-contaminating human hairs were observed via fluorescence light microscopy after 4',6-diamino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining. The bacterial community contaminating human hairs was analyzed via the thermal gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) technique, based on the diversity of the 16S-rDNA variable region. In total, approximately 20 bacterial species were detected from 12 groups of hair samples. In this study, general experimental methods-fluorescence staining, TGGE and MPN-were combined to develop new method for observation and estimation of bacteria contaminating human hairs.
Bacteria ; Electrophoresis ; Fluorescence ; Hair ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Light ; Microscopy ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; Ophthalmoplegia

Human hairs have been known to be easily contaminated with microorganisms. This study was performed in order to measure what bacterial species and how much microorganisms contaminate human hairs in specific place. Virgin human hairs were left at 6 positions in inside corner and beside window in a laboratory for 7 days. The number of viable bacterial cells, which were determined by most probable number method, contaminating the human hairs was measured at a maximum of 10(6)/g hair and a minimum of 10(3)/g hair in inside corner and maximum of 10(6)/g hair and a minimum of 10(3)/g hair beside window. The bacterial cells-contaminating human hairs were observed via fluorescence light microscopy after 4',6-diamino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining. The bacterial community contaminating human hairs was analyzed via the thermal gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) technique, based on the diversity of the 16S-rDNA variable region. In total, approximately 20 bacterial species were detected from 12 groups of hair samples. In this study, general experimental methods-fluorescence staining, TGGE and MPN-were combined to develop new method for observation and estimation of bacteria contaminating human hairs.
Bacteria ; Electrophoresis ; Fluorescence ; Hair ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Light ; Microscopy ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; Ophthalmoplegia

This study evaluated the correlation between serum uric acid level and the nutrients adequacy ratio (NAR) using data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2016∼2019. This is a cross-sectional study in which 6,579 Korean male adults were divided into quartiles according to their uric acid levels. All analyses were performed with adjusted age. Uric acid decreased as the age increased from the age group 19∼29 years to 30∼49 years and then to 50∼64 years. Interquartile results of serum uric acid levels showed that increases in the serum uric acid levels were associated with decreases in LDL-cholesterol (P＜0.01), triglycerides (P＜0.001), body weight (P＜0.001), waist circumference (P＜0.001), body mass index (P＜0.001), systolic blood pressure (SBP) (P＜0.001), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (P＜0.001). However, uric acid levels decreased with an increase in HDL cholesterol (P＜0.001). The analysis of the NARs according to the quartiles of serum uric acid levels in men showed that an increase in serum uric acid levels was associated with a decrease in the NAR levels of dietary fiber (P＜0.001), calcium (P＜0.001), and folic acid (P＜0.001).

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of an anti-smoking readership training program on the knowledge, attitude and practice in health managers and supervisors in the workplace. METHODS: We surveyed 482 health managers and supervisors in the workplace from April 2005 to September 2005. The questionnaire included whether or not a smoking cessation program was conducted in their workplace. We assessed before and after educations program about knowledge, attitude and practice for smoking cessation. The 10-hour education program included the benefit of quit smoking, the law for smoking restriction, cognitive therapy, stress management, nicotine addiction, replacement therapy, case study about workplace for anti-smoking policy and program. RESULTS: For the change in the mean scores of all items in knowledge, attitude and practice were significantly increased after the intervention. CONCLUSION: Even a short, 10-hour intervention course of anti-smoking leadership training program was effective for improving the knowledge, attitude, practice to quit smoking activity in workplace. Nevertheless, the program effectiveness would be increased by including a re-training course and website support.
Cognitive Therapy ; Education ; Health Promotion ; Jurisprudence ; Leadership* ; Nicotine ; Program Evaluation ; Questionnaires ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Smoking Cessation

OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to evaluate the level of job stress in subway workers and to determine the main factors that aggravated their PTSD(Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) symptom, which were due to having fallen under a train, and to verify the effectiveness of the intervention program. METHODS: The questionnaires utilized in the survey were composed of the Korean Occupational Stress Scale (the short form, 24 items), the depression scale, the coping scale II, the PTSD scale and the life style, health status and occupational properties. The intervention program for PTSD symptoms was executed for 18 subway operators who had experienced deadly accidents in their service from June 2004 to May 2006. The intervention programs included exercise, meditation and deep breathing for 8 weeks and a written message was sent twice per week. RESULTS: Compared with pre-intervention, the post-intervention group showed significantly lower scores for the KOSS, depressive symptom and the PTSD. CONCLUSION: This study showed the intervention program was effective to lower the job stress, the PTSD symptoms and depressive symptoms, and to improve the coping skills. It was suggested that the mental health promotion program should be implemented for subway workers to prevent occupational mental diseases.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Depression ; Humans ; Life Style ; Meditation ; Mental Health ; Questionnaires ; Railroads ; Respiration ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) treatments fail at least in 10-20% of patients. However, retreatment strategies after failure of initial treatment have not been established. This study was conducted to evaluate the eradication rate of retreatment choices. METHODS: Twenty-seven peptic ulcer patients who were retreated with OAC (omeprazole + amoxicillin + clarithromycin) or BMT (bismuth + metronidazole + tetracycline) after failure of BMT or OAC were included. Quadruple therapy (omeprazole + BMT) was also tried after failure of two successive triple therapies. Furthermore, the effect of resistance of metronidazole or clarithromycin on the eradication of H. pylori was evaluated. RESULTS: Among 13 patients who were retreated with OAC after failure of BMT regimen, H. pylori was eradicated in 10 patients (76.9%). Among 14 patients retreated with BMT after failure of OAC regimen, H. pylori was eradicated in 11 patients (78.6%). Resistance of H. pylori to metronidazole or clarithromycin decreased the efficacy of BMT or OAC, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Eradication regimen should be decided considering the resistance to H. pylori. However, in case of unknown state of resistance, OAC can be chosen if BMT fails. Similarly, BMT can be tried in cases that OAC therapy failed. After failures of both triple therapies, quadruple therapy can be tried as the next step.
Adult ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/*administration & dosage ; Anti-Ulcer Agents/*administration & dosage ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Helicobacter Infections/*drug therapy ; *Helicobacter pylori ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Peptic Ulcer/*drug therapy/microbiology ; Retreatment

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the distinctive features of bodily panic symptoms and the predisposing conditions in Korean patients with panic disorder. METHODS: This was a retrospective chart review study and the data were collected from twelve university-affiliated hospitals in Korea. The patients selected met the diagnostic criteria for panic disorder, were older than 20 years of age, and had initially visited a psychiatry department. The assessments included the chief complaints related to bodily panic symptoms, recent stressors, recent history of alcohol and sleep problems, and time to visit an outpatient clinic. RESULTS: A total of 814 participants were included in the study. The most commonly experienced symptoms were cardiovascular and respiratory symptoms, which were observed in 63.9% and 55.4% of participants, respectively. Just before the onset of a panic attack, 25.6% of participants experienced sleep-related problems. Episodic binge drinking was also frequently observed (13.2%) and was more prevalent in men than in women (22.6% vs. 4.9%, p<0.001). About 75% of participants experienced stressful life events just before panic onset. Work-related issues were more prevalent in men than in women (22.0% vs. 13.4%, p=0.001). Family-related issues (4.8% vs. 14.1%, p<0.001) and conflict with a spouse or partner (4.0% vs.11.7%, p<0.001) were more prominent in women than in men. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that cardiovascular symptoms are the most common bodily panic symptoms in Korean patients. Our results suggest that a substantial portion of the Korean patients experienced stressful life events, sleep problems, and/or episodic binge drinking just before the onset of panic disorder.

Background: Worldwide, sepsis is the leading cause of death in hospitals. If mortality rates in patients with sepsis can be predicted early, medical resources can be allocated efficiently. We constructed machine learning (ML) models to predict the mortality of patients with sepsis in a hospital emergency department. Methods: This study prospectively collected nationwide data from an ongoing multicenter cohort of patients with sepsis identified in the emergency department. Patients were enrolled from 19 hospitals between September 2019 and December 2020. For acquired data from 3,657 survivors and 1,455 deaths, six ML models (logistic regression, support vector machine, random forest, extreme gradient boosting [XGBoost], light gradient boosting machine, and categorical boosting [CatBoost]) were constructed using fivefold cross-validation to predict mortality. Through these models, 44 clinical variables measured on the day of admission were compared with six sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) components (PaO 2 /FIO 2 [PF], platelets (PLT), bilirubin, cardiovascular, Glasgow Coma Scale score, and creatinine).The confidence interval (CI) was obtained by performing 10,000 repeated measurements via random sampling of the test dataset. All results were explained and interpreted using Shapley’s additive explanations (SHAP). Results: Of the 5,112 participants, CatBoost exhibited the highest area under the curve (AUC) of 0.800 (95% CI, 0.756–0.840) using clinical variables. Using the SOFA components for the same patient, XGBoost exhibited the highest AUC of 0.678 (95% CI, 0.626–0.730). As interpreted by SHAP, albumin, lactate, blood urea nitrogen, and international normalization ratio were determined to significantly affect the results. Additionally, PF and PLTs in the SOFA component significantly influenced the prediction results. Conclusion Newly established ML-based models achieved good prediction of mortality in patients with sepsis. Using several clinical variables acquired at the baseline can provide more accurate results for early predictions than using SOFA components. Additionally, the impact of each variable was identified.