BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study is to prospectively compare and analyze the aerodynamic changes in the patients with thyroid cancer before and after surgery. Changes in vocal function before and after thyroidectomy were examined using aerodynamic and related assessments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty one patients were evaluated preoperatively, 5-7 days and 6-7 weeks postoperatively to assess aerodynamic outcomes after thyroidectomy. Glottal input power (GIP), glottal efficiency (GE) and maximum phonation time (MPT), were determined the time of before surgery, 5-7 days after surgery and 6-7 weeks after surgery. RESULTS: According to the comparison analysis of the three periods, GIP with /pi/ phonation was significantly reduced at time of 5-7 days and 6-7 weeks after surgery, but not in the /p(h)i /and /p'i/ phonations. GE was significantly reduced in the /pi/, /p(h)i/ and /p'i/ phonations at time of 5-7 days and 6-7 weeks after surgery. MPT was significantly reduced at time of 5-7 days after surgery significantly. CONCLUSION: Aerodynamic assessment showed systematic changes in vocal function associated with thyroidectomy. These results should be useful data for vocal management in individuals who have had thyroidectomy and for assessment of voice disorders in clinical settings.
Humans ; Phonation ; Prospective Studies ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; Thyroidectomy* ; Voice Disorders ; Voice*

Sex is an important factor in understanding the clinical presentation, management, and developmental trajectory of children with neuropsychiatric disorders. While much is known about the clinical and neurobehavioral profiles of males with neuropsychiatric disorders, surprisingly little is known about females in this respect. Animal models may provide detailed mechanistic information about sex differences in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in terms of manifestation, disease progression, and development of therapeutic options. This review aims to widen our understanding of the role of sex in autism spectrum disorder, by summarizing and comparing behavioral characteristics of animal models. Our current understanding of how differences emerge in boys and girls with neuropsychiatric disorders is limited: Information derived from animal studies will stimulate future research on the role of biological maturation rates, sex hormones, sex-selective protective (or aggravating) factors and psychosocial factors, which are essential to devise sex precision medicine and to improve diagnostic accuracy. Moreover, there is a strong need of novel strategies to elucidate the major mechanisms leading to sex-specific autism features, as well as novel models or methods to examine these sex differences.
Animals ; Autism Spectrum Disorder* ; Autistic Disorder* ; Child ; Disease Progression ; Female ; Gonadal Steroid Hormones ; Humans ; Male ; Models, Animal ; Precision Medicine ; Psychology ; Rodentia* ; Sex Characteristics

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the study was to analyze the contents and importance of clinical practicum education in adult health nursing.METHODS: This is a descriptive study using content analysis for identifying the items of clinical nursing checklists gathered from 13 university nursing programs accredited by Korean Accreditation Board of Nursing Education. Items in the checklist were standardized in accordance with the Nursing Intervention Classification (NIC) and categorized into simple-technical skill, complex-technical skill, and disease-specific care. The perceived significance of each item was examined by surveying nurses who in charge of nurse education from various clinical setting.RESULTS: A total of 182 items in the clinical practicum contents were analyzed, and the terminologies of each item were variously described among nursing schools. Fifty percent of the total items were categorized into simple-technical skill. In terms of clinical importance, expert validity results showed that nurses considered infection control, infection protection, and fall prevention as the most significant items, which was not the same as the most common items in the clinical nursing checklist.CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that standardized nursing terminologies are needed to describe a nursing practicum checklist. Clinical importance of each item in the checklist should be taken into consideration in developing a clinical nursing checklist to assist the students in achieving the competencies as a clinical nurse.
Accreditation ; Adult ; Checklist ; Classification ; Education ; Education, Nursing ; Humans ; Infection Control ; Nursing ; Preceptorship ; Schools, Nursing

BACKGROUND: Plasmapheresis has become an essential element of kidney transplantation (KT). In the present study, we report clinical outcomes of filtration plasmapheresis using continuous renal replacement therapy machines with a single filter for the first time in Korea. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed six patients who underwent filtration plasmapheresis for KT in our center; plasmapheresis was performed using the Plasmaflex (Baxter®) with a TPE 2000 filter set (Baxter®) in our hemodialysis unit. Five percent albumin was used as the replacement fluid, and intravenous immunoglobulin G was administered after each plasmapheresis session. The target preoperative ABO isoagglutinin titer was less than 1:8. RESULTS: Filtration plasmapheresis was performed in four patients for ABO-incompatible KT, one for antibody-mediated rejection after KT, and the last one for positive T cell crossmatch. Altogether, 46 sessions of plasmapheresis were performed. ABO isoagglutinin titers successfully declined to or below the target level in all patients, and all patients successfully received KT with no significant antibody titer rebound. Acute antibody-mediated rejection and positive T cell crossmatch were well treated with filtration plasmapheresis, and no patient required fresh frozen plasma infusion for coagulopathy. There were one episode of hypotension and three of hypocalcemia. No patients experienced bleeding, infection, or allergic reaction. CONCLUSION: Filtration plasmapheresis was effective and safe. Although our result is from a single center, our protocol appears to be promising.
Filtration* ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Hypocalcemia ; Hypotension ; Immunoglobulin G ; Kidney Transplantation* ; Kidney* ; Korea ; Plasma ; Plasmapheresis* ; Renal Dialysis ; Renal Replacement Therapy* ; Retrospective Studies

This study offers a comprehensive overview of brain organoids for researchers. It combines expert opinions with technical summaries on organoid definitions, characteristics, culture methods, and quality control. This approach aims to enhance the utilization of brain organoids in research. Brain organoids, as three-dimensional human cell models mimicking the nervous system, hold immense promise for studying the human brain. They offer advantages over traditional methods, replicating anatomical structures, physiological features, and complex neuronal networks. Additionally, brain organoids can model nervous system development and interactions between cell types and the microenvironment. By providing a foundation for utilizing the most human-relevant tissue models, this work empowers researchers to overcome limitations of two-dimensional cultures and conduct advanced disease modeling research.

Brain aging induces neuropsychological changes, such as decreased memory capacity, language ability, and attention; and is also associated with neurodegenerative diseases. However, most of the studies on brain aging are focused on neurons, while senescence in astrocytes has received less attention. Astrocytes constitute the majority of cell types in the brain and perform various functions in the brain such as supporting brain structures, regulating blood-brain barrier permeability, transmitter uptake and regulation, and immunity modulation. Recent studies have shown that SIRT1 and SIRT2 play certain roles in cellular senescence in peripheral systems. Both SIRT1 and SIRT2 inhibitors delay tumor growth in vivo without significant general toxicity. In this study, we investigated the role of tenovin-1, an inhibitor of SIRT1 and SIRT2, on rat primary astrocytes where we observed senescence and other functional changes. Cellular senescence usually is characterized by irreversible cell cycle arrest and induces senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) activity. Tenovin-1-treated astrocytes showed increased SA-β-gal-positive cell number, senescence-associated secretory phenotypes, including IL-6 and IL-1β, and cell cycle-related proteins like phospho-histone H3 and CDK2. Along with the molecular changes, tenovin-1 impaired the wound-healing activity of cultured primary astrocytes. These data suggest that tenovin-1 can induce cellular senescence in astrocytes possibly by inhibiting SIRT1 and SIRT2, which may play particular roles in brain aging and neurodegenerative conditions.
Aging ; Animals ; Astrocytes ; Blood-Brain Barrier ; Brain ; Cell Aging ; Cell Count ; Cell Cycle Checkpoints ; Interleukin-6 ; Language ; Memory ; Neurodegenerative Diseases ; Neurons ; Permeability ; Phenotype ; Rats ; Wound Healing

Sociability is the disposition to interact with one another. Rodents have a rich repertoire of social behaviors and demonstrate strong sociability. Various methods have been established to measure the sociability of rodents in simple and direct ways, which includes reciprocal social interaction, juvenile social play, and three-chamber social tests. There are possible confounding factors while performing some of these tasks, such as aggression, avoidance of interaction by the stimulus mouse, exposure to a new environment, and lengthy procedures. The present study devised a method to complement these shortcomings and measure sociability as a group in the home cage setting, which prevents group-housed mice from isolation or exposure to a new environment. The home cage social test can allow high-throughput screening of social behaviors in a short amount of time. We developed two types of home cage setup: a home cage social target interaction test that measures sociability by putting the wire cage in the center area of the cage and a home cage two-choice sociability and social preference test that measures both sociability or social preference by putting cage racks at opposite sides of the cage. Interestingly, our results showed that the two types of home cage setup that we used in this study can extract abnormal social behaviors in various animal models, similar to the three-chamber assay. Thus, this study establishes a new and effective method to measure sociability or social preference that could be a complementary assay to evaluate the social behavior of mice in various setup conditions.
Aggression ; Animals ; Complement System Proteins ; Interpersonal Relations ; Mass Screening ; Methods ; Mice ; Models, Animal ; Rodentia ; Social Behavior