PURPOSE: The pollen calendar is the simplest forecasting method for pollen concentrations. As pollen concentrations are liable to seasonal variations due to alterations in climate and land-use, it is necessary to update the pollen calendar using recent data. To attenuate the impact of considerable temporal and spatial variability in pollen concentrations on the pollen calendar, it is essential to employ a new methodology for its creation.METHODS: A pollen calendar was produced in Korea using data from recent observations, and a new method for creating the calendar was proposed, considering both risk levels and temporal resolution of pollen concentrations. A probability distribution was used for smoothing concentrations and determining risk levels. Airborne pollen grains were collected between 2007 and 2017 at 8 stations; 13 allergenic pollens, including those of alder, Japanese cedar, birch, hazelnut, oak, elm, pine, ginkgo, chestnut, grasses, ragweed, mugwort and Japanese hop, were identified from the collected grains.RESULTS: The concentrations of each pollen depend on locations and seasons due to large variability in species distribution and their environmental condition. In the descending order of concentration, pine, oak and Japanese hop pollens were found to be the most common in Korea. The pollen concentrations were high in spring and autumn, and those of oak and Japanese hop were probably the most common cause of allergy symptoms in spring and autumn, respectively. High Japanese cedar pollen counts were observed in Jeju, while moderate concentrations were in Jeonju, Gwangju and Busan.CONCLUSIONS: A new methodology for the creation of a pollen calendar was developed to attenuate the impact of large temporal and spatial variability in pollen concentrations. This revised calendar should be available to the public and allergic patients to prevent aggravation of pollen allergy.
Alnus ; Ambrosia ; Artemisia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Betula ; Busan ; Climate ; Corylus ; Cryptomeria ; Forecasting ; Ginkgo biloba ; Gwangju ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Jeollabuk-do ; Korea ; Methods ; Poaceae ; Pollen ; Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal ; Seasons

PURPOSE: The occurrence of pollen allergy is subject to exposure to pollen, which shows regional and temporal variations. We evaluated the changes in pollen counts and skin positivity rates for 6 years, and explored the correlation between their annual rates of change. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We assessed the number of pollen grains collected in Seoul, and retrospectively reviewed the results of 4442 skin-prick tests conducted at the Severance Hospital Allergy-Asthma Clinic from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2013. RESULTS: For 6 years, the mean monthly total pollen count showed two peaks, one in May and the other in September. Pollen count for grasses also showed the same trend. The pollen counts for trees, grasses, and weeds changed annually, but the changes were not significant. The annual skin positivity rates in response to pollen from grasses and weeds increased significantly over the 6 years. Among trees, the skin positivity rates in response to pollen from walnut, popular, elm, and alder significantly increased over the 6 years. Further, there was a significant correlation between the annual rate of change in pollen count and the rate of change in skin positivity rate for oak and hop Japanese. CONCLUSION: The pollen counts and skin positivity rates should be monitored, as they have changed annually. Oak and hop Japanese, which showed a significant correlation with the annual rate of change in pollen count and the rate of change in skin positivity rate over the 6 years may be considered the major allergens in Korea.
Allergens/*immunology ; Asthma/epidemiology/immunology ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity/*epidemiology ; Pollen/*immunology ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Retrospective Studies ; Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal ; *Skin Tests

PURPOSE: This study has a purpose to suggest research and intervention directions for health promoting behaviors (HPB) of the Korean middle-aged in the future. METHODS: Forty four articles on HPB of the Korean middle-aged were reviewed and analyzed. The articles analyzed are theses written for a doctoral or master's degree and published between 1995 and 2007. RESULTS: 1. As for the major characteristics of the subject groups, most of them were between 40 and 60 years old (61.4%), were females (79.5%), and resided in cities (84.1%). 2. The dependent variables adopted were physiological, psychological and cognitive factors (self-efficacy, knowledge of health management, etc.), HPB and factors related to Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP). 3. The average scores of HPLP were 1.57~3.08 on a 4-point scale. The highest score was observed in self-actualization, and the lowest score in exercise. 4. Self-efficacy, perceived health status and income had significant correlations with HPB. 5. In regression analysis, self-efficacy, self-esteem and perceived health status were the most powerful predictors. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to develop intervention tools for more diverse HPB of the Korean middle-aged. The interventions are recommended to focus on increasing exercise and to use strategies for improving self-efficacy and self-esteem.
Female ; Health Promotion* ; Humans ; Life Style

We have previously shown that the inhibition of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling induced endodermal gene expression in the animal cap and caused the expansion of the endodermal mass in Xenopus embryos. However, we still do not know whether or not the alteration of FGF signaling controls embryonic cell fate, or when FGF signal blocking is required for endoderm formation in Xenopus. Here, we show that FGF signal blocking in embryonic cells causes their descendants to move into the endodermal region and to express endodermal genes. It is also interesting that blocking FGF signaling between fertilization and embryonic stage 10.5 promotes endoderm formation, but persistent FGF signaling blocking after stage 10.5 restricts endoderm formation and differentiation.
Animals ; Endoderm/drug effects/embryology/*metabolism ; Fibroblast Growth Factors/antagonists & inhibitors/genetics/*physiology ; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/drug effects ; In Situ Hybridization ; Pyrroles/administration & dosage/pharmacology ; Receptors, Fibroblast Growth Factor/genetics/physiology ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Signal Transduction/drug effects ; Xenopus Proteins/antagonists & inhibitors/genetics/*physiology ; Xenopus laevis/embryology/genetics/*physiology

Homeodomain transcription factors functioning downstream of BMP ventral pathway have been reported to share similar domain of roles in mesoderm patterning along the dorsal-ventral axis. To elucidate the differential role of PV.1 in the aspect of relationship between dorsal and ventral region, we tried to screen PV.1- interacting proteins. Twenty-four PV.1-interacting proteins were identified by yeast two-hybrid screening. Xvent-2 and Xclaudin-6 among these, went under domain study. The C-terminus of PV.1, more specifically 197-241 region was found to interact with Xclaudin-6. Meanwhile Xvent-2 has mild affinity to overall C-terminal region of PV.1. At the same time it was found that Xvent-2 homodimerizes and also binds to Xclaudin-6.
Axis, Cervical Vertebra ; Mass Screening* ; Mesoderm ; Transcription Factors ; Xenopus laevis ; Yeasts

The heterodimeric c-Jun/c-Fos, an activator protein-1 (AP-1) has been implicated in mesoderm induction (Dong et al., 1996; Kim et al., 1998) whereas the homodimer of c-Jun was reported to be involved in neural inhibition during the early development of Xenopus embryos. During the early vertebrate development AP-1 involvement in the neural induction is still not clearly understood. We report here that AP-1 has a role in Zic3 expression, a critical proneural gene and a primary regulator of neural and neural crest development (Nakata et al., 1997; Nakata et al., 1998). AP-1 was able to induce the Zic3 gene in a dose dependent manner but other homo- or hetero-dimeric proteins, such as c-Jun/c-Jun, JunD/FosB or JunD/Fra-1 were not. The inhibition of AP-1 activity using morpholino antisenses of c-jun mRNAs blocked the Zic3 expression induced by activin. In addition, co-injection of c-jun mRNA rescued the down-regulated Zic3 expression. The promoter region of isolated Zic3 genomic DNA was found to possess several consensus-binding site of AP-1. Thus, in the functional assays, AP-1 could increase promoter activity of Zic3 gene. These findings suggest that proneural gene, Zic3 may be regulated by heterodimeric AP-1(c-Jun/c-Fos) and it may have a role in activin signaling for the regulation of neural specific gene, Zic3.
Activins/pharmacology/physiology ; Animals ; Base Sequence ; Binding Sites/genetics ; Consensus Sequence/genetics ; Dimerization ; Embryo, Nonmammalian/metabolism ; *Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental ; Homeodomain Proteins/*genetics ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Promoter Regions (Genetics)/genetics ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos/genetics/physiology ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-jun/genetics/physiology ; RNA, Antisense/genetics ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Transcription Factor AP-1/genetics/*physiology ; Transcription Factors/*genetics ; *Transcription, Genetic ; Up-Regulation ; Xenopus Proteins/*genetics ; Xenopus laevis/*embryology/*genetics

PURPOSE: This study aimed to develop a TES program to improve exercise capacity to promote patient compliance to the prescribed exercise, and to test the feasibility of the program. METHOD: The 8-week TES program consisted of three components : exercise training, self-efficacy enhancement and social support. Using the matching of gender, age, and the left ventricular ejection fraction, thirty one subjects were consecutively assigned to either TES group (n=15, 52+7 years) or Control group (n=16, 58+11 years) 3 weeks after MI. With the exception of exercise compliance (only after the TES program), the exercise capacity and exercise self-efficacy were both measured both before and after the 8-week TES program. RESULT: The VO2peak (p= .043), anaerobic threshold (p= .023) and exercise duration (p= .015) improved in TES group compared to Control group after 8 weeks. The cardiac exercise self-efficacy (p= .036) was significantly higher in TES group than Control group. There was a significant increase of exercise compliance(p= .005) in TES group compared to Control group. CONCLUSION: The 8-week TES program improved the exercise capacity, exercise self-efficacy and exercise compliance. A appropriately implemented TES program in cardiovascular nursing practice may promote healthy behavioral modification and, therefore, contributing to reduce the risk of mortality and morbidity in MI patients.
Anaerobic Threshold ; Cardiovascular Nursing ; Compliance ; Humans ; Methods ; Mortality ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Patient Compliance* ; Stroke Volume

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the nursing activities delineated by interview of nurses with those on nursing notes. METHOD: The participants of interview were 18 nurses working in medical and surgical units of a large hospital in Seoul. Each nurse was asked to choose one patient who demand most nursing care among her patients. The nurse was then interviewed to describe what her nursing activities for the patient was that day. The audio-taped interview was transcribed and the content was analyzed by researchers. Nursing notes of each nurses' patients were copied and the content analyzed by researchers. Finally, themes from the interview data and those from nursing notes were compared. RESULT: Activities related to emotional or psychological nursing, education for patient and families, and problem solving related to treatment or nursing procedure were most often omitted in nursing notes. Most of the documentation in nursing notes were related to physical condition of patients or physician's orders. Nurses described that they will do better recording if they were given less patient care responsibility, had better nursing knowledge, had better recording system, and received more training on nursing record. CONCLUSION: Nursing notes did not reflect nursing activities properly. Few independent nursing roles were documented in the nursing notes. Development of nursing education program and nursing record system is needed for improvement of nursing record.

PURPOSE: The objectives for this study were to identify the factors that correlate with appraisal of illness and to explore what variables are predictive of cancer patients primary caregivers' cognitive appraisal for stress. METHOD: The subjects were selected by convenient sampling and 130 caregivers who completed a questionnaire. Measures used in this study included the Family Inventory of Resources for Management, Social Support Index, Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scales and Family Coping Coherence Index. Pearson correlation was used to identify the relationship among factors and multiple regression was used to determine the individual and cumulative effect of potential predictors on the caregivers' appraisal. RESULTS: Patient's level of activity, severity of the disease, quality of relation between patient and caregiver, caregiver's subjective health status, economic status, family resources and coping were significantly correlated. Among the variables, coping, family resources, economic status and quality of relation between caregiver and patient predicted 49.2 percent of the variance in appraisal of caregivers' stress condition. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that coping mechanisms and family resources are important for positive appraisal. Nurses should provide adequate nursing care for the primary caregiver about professional care information and supportive counseling.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Caregivers* ; Counseling ; Humans ; Nursing Care ; Weights and Measures ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the level of intention to quit smoking and to identify factors influencing intention to quit among patients with coronary heart disease. Method: The subjects consisted of 80 male patients with coronary heart disease (angina pectoris, myocardial infarction) at three hospitals in Seoul. The data were collected with self reporting in a structured questionnaire. Stepwise multiple regression was used to identify predictors of intention to quit. Included variables were attitudes toward smoking cessation, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, usefulness of smoking cessation, and previous attempts to quit. RESULT: 1. The mean score for intention to quit was 11.1(+/-6.1) which was lower than median score of the scale. 2. There were significant correlations between the all predictive variables and the intention to quit(r=.24-.48, p<.05). 3. usefulness of smoking cessation, perceived behavioral control, and previous attempts to quit explained 34.6% of the variance for intention to quit. CONCLUSION: usefulness of smoking cessation, perceived behavioral control, and previous attempts to quit were identified as important variables in explaining the intention to quit smoking among patients with coronary heart disease. Thus, it is necessary to try to enhance this factors for increasing intention to quit among patients with coronary heart disease.
Coronary Disease* ; Humans ; Intention* ; Male ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Self Report ; Seoul ; Smoke* ; Smoking Cessation ; Smoking*