• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제60권5호
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• pp.554-563
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• 2006

Background: PM is known to induce various pulmonary diseases, including asthma, cancer, fibrosis and chronic bronchitis. Despite the epidemiological evidence the pathogenesis of PM-related pulmonary diseases is unclear. Methods: This study examined the effects of PM exposure on the secretion of $TNF-{\alpha}$ and $IL-1{\beta}$ in the cultured alveolar macrophages. The cultured primary alveolar macrophages were treated with the medium, PM ($5{\sim}20{\mu}g/cm^2$), LPS (5ng/ml), and PM with LPS for 24h and 48h respectively. ELISA was used to assay the secreted $TNF-{\alpha}$ and $IL-{\beta}$ in the culture medium. Western blotting was used to identify and determine the level of proteins isolated from the culture cells. The cells cultured in the $Lab-Tek^{(R)}$ chamber slides were stained with immunocytochemical stains. Results: PM induced $TNF-{\alpha}$ and $IL-1{\beta}$ secretion in the culturing alveolar macrophages, collected from the SPF and inflammatory rats. However, the effects were only dose-dependent in the inflammatory macrophages. When the cells were co-treated with PM and LPS, there was a significant synergistic effect compared with the LPS in the both cell types. Conclusion: PM might be play an important role in the induction and/or potentiation of various lung diseases by oversecretion of $TNF-{\alpha}$ and $IL-1{\beta}$.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• 제7권3호
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• pp.147-152
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to examine how dental-care institutions responded to discontented customers and how much they provided grievance service and tried not to displease customers. After a survey was conducted on dental-care institutions from January 20 through February 20, 2007, the answer sheets from 206 respondents were analyzed with SPSS WIN 12.0 program, except four incomplete ones. The findings of the study were as follows: 1. 32.5 percent of the respondents were aware of grievance service, and 64.6 percent actually provided no grievance service. 94.7 percent had ever met customers who made a complaint. 2. The most common grievance of medical consumers was that it took long time to receive treatment and to wait for it. The second most dominant complaint was that the treatment they received was beyond the coverage of health-care insurance(30.6%). An insufficient medical explanation was the third most common grievance(6.3%), followed by excessive medical bills(5.8%). The most dominant number of monthly grievance case was one to ten(91.3%). As for how customers voiced their complaints, the largest number of customers talked employees about that in person(88.2%), and dental hygienists were mainly identified as a person who handled their grievance(56.8%). Concerning how the dental-care institutions responded to complaining customers, the largest number of the institutions took an immediate action(34.5%), and the second largest group took a measure after investigating the disposition of discontented patients(30.0%). The third greatest group just made an excuse(11.1%), and the fourth greatest group directed active efforts into taking care of complaining customers by offering grievance service (7.0%). 3. The dental-care institutions got a mean of 3.02 in grievance handling. The institutions that dental hygienists were in charge of grievance handling statistically significantly better responded to discontented customers than the others that receptionists were in charge of that(p < .01). The institutions that had no monthly grievance cases took care of discontented customers statistically significantly better than the institutions that faced one to ten grievance cases or 11 or more cases (p < .05). 4. The dental-care institutions got a mean of 2.59 in providing service of preventing customers from being dissatisfied. The institutions located in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi province provided statistically significantly better service of that kind than the others located in the other regions(p < .01). And the dental-care institutions that dental hygienists were in charge of grievance handling offered statistically significantly better service of that kind than the dental-care institutions that receptionists were in charge of it(p < .05).