• Title/Summary/Keyword: Health Stress

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Field Study For The Improvement of Medication System and Method for Inpatients at General Hospital (입원환자의 투약체계와 방법의 개선을 위한 현장연구)

  • Yoo, Hyung-Sook;Kuwan, Young-Mi;Song, Mi-Sook;Kim, Hyung-Ae;Park, Kyung-Sook
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.147-211
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    • 1995
  • Medication is a kind of medical service and a therapeutic nursing function which takes large portion of nursing service and requires complicated procedures. So many different medical personnel should be involved and cooporate each other in order to accomplish medication. Medication is also a vital nursing service, So nurse feels heavy responsibi lity in that she gives medication to the patient finally, so she has much responsibility if medication error is happened. Therefore it seems very important to clarify the problem of medication system and method, and find the subculture of medication situation because it may promote nursing productivity. The study was conducted to 1. Describe and interpret medication situation. 2. Find out the problem of medication system and method and on alternatives. 3. Compare the medication system and method of hospitals which are located in Seoul with object hospital Ethnographic methodology was used to study medication situation by doing participant observation and interview of health care personnel. Ten nurses and three nurse aids were interviewed. Two residents and internists, two phamacists and two accountants were also interviewed. Data was obtained and analized according to Developmental Research Sequence introduced by Spradly. On the basis of this data the results were as follows. 1. The overall flow of medication system was devided into six stage : first, checking doctor's order : second writing doctor's order, : third, transfering slip into the related departments such as account department, pharmacy : fourth, distribution of medication from pharmacy to unit : fifth, identifing medication by nurses : and finally, medicating to the patient. Behaviorors have been under a lot of stress in that they have to do much works, especially paperworks, So too much time were needed. They also have been suffered interpersonal conflicts among health care personnel and role conflicts in the process of doing medication service. 2. In the process of checking order, the problem was that too much time was required for checking order and paperwork. The more the order changes the more the paperwork is. Nurses have been suffering difficulties in calling internist in order to get bill. Even if writing down slip for medication order is doctor's job, Sometimes nurse has been expected to write slip by doctors or nurse would write slip beacuse of two much complexities and efforts for calling doctors. If the slip were incorrect, much time complicated procedures were more required for correcting it. So delay of administering drug would be resulted consequently. Drugs were delivered from pharmacy to units by delivery agent and phamacist. But because drugs were delivered without arranging room number of patient. Nurse should rearrange drugs in order of the room number So it had made waste time and effort, and Even when emergency drugs were needed, Prompt delivery of drug was not easy because of many reasons. For nurses, it took too long in the identification of the right drug. Actually nurses have heavy burden when medication error happens because nurse is the final actor who gives medication to the patient, So every three shift nurse ought to check drugs as soon as every shift begins. That's why it took too much time due to repeated confirming procedure. When nurses had to go patient room in order to give medications, there were difficulties in watching patient until the patient take medicine correctly. So it was impossible to check every patient wheather he took medicine or not especially in hectic situation. 3. There were many hospitals in Seoul which have similar medication system and method as object hospital according to the results of questionaire. This means that many hospitals have been suffering srimilar problems which were identified in object hospital. 4. Recommendations for promoting simplification of medication system and method were the following : Redesigning of slip from two pieces of paper into one : early discharge announcement system, and slip confirming through computer and controlling of period of prescreption from one day to two or three days : designing personal drug storage box for each patient and using it. If nurses follow the recommendations, they will make medication short & simple, and also have enough time of direct nursing care 5. Even though there were many difficulties in medicating patients. Medication itself has been considered as a caring among nurses because it makes rapport between nurse and patient. So nurses had better accept medication as a portion of nusing service not a original portion of phamacist. There are some limits in this research in terms of confining to only one unit of one hospital, and treating it especially in view of nurses' aspects, So further researchs should be continnued from various kmds of viewpoints of doctors, phamacists and so on. ${\cdot\cdot\cdot}$. Especially esthnographic study of computerized medication system and method seems to be followed.

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A Literal Study of Feature of the Preventive Medicine in Oriental Medical Science (한의(韓醫) 예방의학(豫防醫學)의 특징(特徵)에 관(關)한 문헌적(文獻的) 고찰(考察))

  • Lee Sang-Woon;Lee Sun-Dong
    • Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.85-104
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    • 1997
  • As the concern about health is increased, the importance of preventive medicine that prevent disease in advance to overcome boundary of disease remedy gets emphasized in the whole world. The fundamental thoughts of oriental medicine are the harmony between the human body and nature, the unified idea regarding mind in the same light with body, and the symmetry of the cosmo dual forces. And oriental medicine is a kind of study that has developed on the ground of prevention thought. from old days, it has been developed the preventive medicine at is called 'Yangseng(養生; recuperation)' etc. with the clinical medicine. The preventive medicine of oriental medicine was taking a serious of the first preventive medicine of an incurable disease thought and the prevention thought that belongs to the second and third preventive medicine is described through the whole oriental medicine. Also the clinical and preventive medicine to apply to the clinics have an in- separable relation. Therefore I inspected the part of the preventive medicine described in some oriental medicine books and studied the characteristics of preventive medicine of oriental medicine as follows; First, the preventive medicine of oriental medicine has the characteristics that is emphasized generally in the first preventive medicine and wholly it is composed in the system of the first, second and third preventive medicine. It has the presentative theory such as 'Jungkijonae sabulkaghan(正氣存內 邪不可干; If good energy is in body, a disease. dosen't occur)', 'Husajukpung Phijeyushi(虛邪賊風 避之有時; When e infectious disease like plague break out, they must avoid the place occurring the disease)', 'Chuninsangeung(天人相應; The harmony of nature and human)' etc.. This is intimately related to the incurable disease thought of the inside diameter and oriental medicine has pursued that. Second, due to the most prerequisite theory of disease production, the balanced condition of environment, the cause of a disease and host is called the health. As oriental medicine has the system of aetiology like that, we can see the host and environments are importance most of all. Namely we can think of the relation of host >> environment > the cause a disease Up to date Jungkijonae Sabulkaghan(正氣存內 邪不可干) that the most oriental medicine doctors have had a knowledge is not whole theory but a pan of oriental medicine science and it is included in oriental medicine theory to avoid infectious disease such as Husajukpung Phijeyushi(虛邪賊風 避之有時). Third, according to the natural result of the first and second contents, we can know that its characteristics stress the remedy without drugs. Because Jungkijonae Sabulkaghan(正氣存內 邪不可干), Husasukpung Phijeyushi(虛邪賊風 避之有時), and Chuninsangeung(天人相應) mean that they prevent disease in condition of freedom from ailment, We can prevent the disease production through the positive preventive methods such as exercise, spirit, food and innate prevention etc.. fourth, the preventive medicine of oriental medicine has developed with therapeutics and it contains all oriental medical methods such as host, environment, exercise, acupuncture and moxibustion, innate or postnatal methods. Also it is the general preventive medicine that has fundamental philosophy of oriental medicine; for examples, the unified idea, the harmony of nature and human, and the unity of mind and body. fifth, to develope the above scientific merit and special features, the preventive medicine of Oriental medicine must be objectified and reemergent stud? gets more and more essential from now on. Especially we need to have the scientific concern of Oriental medicine about the cause of a disease, environmental hygiene, industrial sanitation, and personal hygiene etc..

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A Comparative Analysis of News Frame on U. S. Beef Imports and Candlelight Vigils (미국산 수입쇠고기와 촛불시위 보도에 나타난 뉴스 프레임 비교 연구)

  • Im, Yang-June
    • Korean journal of communication and information
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    • v.46
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    • pp.108-147
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    • 2009
  • This study explores the news frames on the U. S. beef imports and candlelight vigils covered by the two national dailies such as ChosunIlbo and the Hankyoreh Shinmun; the KwangwonIlbo, a local daily. The news frames extracted based on the models of Iyengar(1987), Semetko & Valkenburg(2000) and other researchers are attribution of responsibility, economic sequences, protest against the authorities, national health and governmental public relations and so on. The result shows that the news reports are consisted of the straight news(75.9%), feature stories(11.7%) and editorials(6.3%). More specifically, there is a comparatively hight ratio of editorials(11.0%) for the ChosunIlbo, feature stories(20.9%) for the Hankyoreh, and the straight news(89.7%) for the KwangwonIlbo. In terms of the news frames stressed by the three dailies, the ChosunIlbo focuses and stresses on the national health(17.8%) and the attribution of responsibilities(10.6%). However, the Hankyoreh have a tendency to stress on the protest against the authorities(31.3%) and attribution of responsibilities(38.4%); the KwangwonIlbo, focuses on the protest against the authorities(38.4%) and the economic sequences(17.9%). Finally, in the case of the main characteristics of the dailies, the governmental public relations frame is found only on the ChosunIlbo that has a comparatively high ratio; the Hankyoreh also has a high ratio of the feature stories on the U. S. beef imports. Even thought the KwangwonIlbo has a high ratio of the economic sequence frame, the ratio of opinion pages, such as editorial and columns, the local newspaper has not spoken up for the potential economic crisis of the local Kwangwon province beef industry, mainly caused by the U. S. import beef.

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Workplace Friendship and Organizational Effectiveness of Dental Hygienists (치과의료기관 근무자들의 프렌드십과 조직효과성 관계 연구)

  • Yoo, Youngsuk;Seo, Youngjoon;Kim, Sungho
    • Journal of dental hygiene science
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    • v.12 no.6
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    • pp.644-651
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    • 2012
  • This study purports to measure the level of work friendship in dental clinic and examines the friendship's effect on the organizational effectiveness. Data were collected from workers who worked in dental clinic located in Seoul and Gyeonggi areas by self-administered questionnaires from early in October till lately in September, 2009 through direct interview and e-mail. Among 250 questionnaires, 240 responses were returned, and 17 copies with an inaccurate answer were excluded. Finally 223 responses were analyzed through SPSS program. The study revealed that the work friendship in dental clinic has enormous influence on job satisfaction, occupational commitment, intent to leave, stress etc. The results imply that the managers of the dental clinics need to create an organizational climate which emphasizes on a good relationship among members and have them take part in various committees or informal activities.

Analysis of News Agenda Using Text mining and Semantic Network Analysis: Focused on COVID-19 Emotions (텍스트 마이닝과 의미 네트워크 분석을 활용한 뉴스 의제 분석: 코로나 19 관련 감정을 중심으로)

  • Yoo, So-yeon;Lim, Gyoo-gun
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.47-64
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    • 2021
  • The global spread of COVID-19 around the world has not only affected many parts of our daily life but also has a huge impact on many areas, including the economy and society. As the number of confirmed cases and deaths increases, medical staff and the public are said to be experiencing psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, and stress. The collective tragedy that accompanies the epidemic raises fear and anxiety, which is known to cause enormous disruptions to the behavior and psychological well-being of many. Long-term negative emotions can reduce people's immunity and destroy their physical balance, so it is essential to understand the psychological state of COVID-19. This study suggests a method of monitoring medial news reflecting current days which requires striving not only for physical but also for psychological quarantine in the prolonged COVID-19 situation. Moreover, it is presented how an easier method of analyzing social media networks applies to those cases. The aim of this study is to assist health policymakers in fast and complex decision-making processes. News plays a major role in setting the policy agenda. Among various major media, news headlines are considered important in the field of communication science as a summary of the core content that the media wants to convey to the audiences who read it. News data used in this study was easily collected using "Bigkinds" that is created by integrating big data technology. With the collected news data, keywords were classified through text mining, and the relationship between words was visualized through semantic network analysis between keywords. Using the KrKwic program, a Korean semantic network analysis tool, text mining was performed and the frequency of words was calculated to easily identify keywords. The frequency of words appearing in keywords of articles related to COVID-19 emotions was checked and visualized in word cloud 'China', 'anxiety', 'situation', 'mind', 'social', and 'health' appeared high in relation to the emotions of COVID-19. In addition, UCINET, a specialized social network analysis program, was used to analyze connection centrality and cluster analysis, and a method of visualizing a graph using Net Draw was performed. As a result of analyzing the connection centrality between each data, it was found that the most central keywords in the keyword-centric network were 'psychology', 'COVID-19', 'blue', and 'anxiety'. The network of frequency of co-occurrence among the keywords appearing in the headlines of the news was visualized as a graph. The thickness of the line on the graph is proportional to the frequency of co-occurrence, and if the frequency of two words appearing at the same time is high, it is indicated by a thick line. It can be seen that the 'COVID-blue' pair is displayed in the boldest, and the 'COVID-emotion' and 'COVID-anxiety' pairs are displayed with a relatively thick line. 'Blue' related to COVID-19 is a word that means depression, and it was confirmed that COVID-19 and depression are keywords that should be of interest now. The research methodology used in this study has the convenience of being able to quickly measure social phenomena and changes while reducing costs. In this study, by analyzing news headlines, we were able to identify people's feelings and perceptions on issues related to COVID-19 depression, and identify the main agendas to be analyzed by deriving important keywords. By presenting and visualizing the subject and important keywords related to the COVID-19 emotion at a time, medical policy managers will be able to be provided a variety of perspectives when identifying and researching the regarding phenomenon. It is expected that it can help to use it as basic data for support, treatment and service development for psychological quarantine issues related to COVID-19.

Child Abuse Experience, perception of the Cause of the Child Abuse and Need for counseling among Day Care Center Teachers (어린이집 아동학대에 대한 보육교사의 경험, 인식 및 상담 요구도 실태조사)

  • Kyung-Sook Lee;Jin-Ah Park;Myung-Hee Choi
    • Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.227-252
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    • 2015
  • This study was intended to examine child abuse experience, response to child abuse, perception of the cause of child abuse, and need for counseling to prevent and eliminate child abuse among 514 day care center teachers across the country. First, 17.9% (92) of the teachers had experience of witnessing child abuse at day care centers. After such witness, the teachers mostly "paid attention to abused children and provided them with warm treatment" when they were abused by other teachers and "took no actions" when they were abused by directors of the day care centers. The biggest reason of not taking any actions was: they "had no authority to intervene in child care of other teachers" in case of child abuse by other teachers and "were afraid of responsibilities or roles that could be placed on them after reporting" in case of child abuse by day care center directors. Second, the biggest reason of child abuse by teachers was job stress followed by excessive work and mental health of teachers. Third, necessary actions when child abuse cases were found and confirmed were suspension of involved teachers and psychological evaluation for involved children and parents. Fourth, 88.9% (457) of the teachers responded that they would use an organization specialized in child abuse if such organization was built and that the organization would help them to decide on whether to report child abuse and prevention of and intervention in child abuse. They also said that such organization should be installed in the Counseling Center in the Comprehensive Child Care Support Center. Fifth, 95.3% (490) of the teachers answered professional counselors specialized in development and counseling of infants and toddlers were needed to address child abuse at day care centers. They demanded that such counselors should be able to administer psychological evaluation for young children and assess child abuse cases. Qualification of the counselors was at least college graduates who majored in psychology and child care, three to five years of experience in the field, and appropriate certificates or licenses. Finally, the teachers said that training and professional counseling about child abuse were required to prevent and eliminate child abuse at day care centers. Implications and follow-up studies were provided and suggested based on these findings.

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A Study on the Sasang Constitutional Distribution Among the People in the United States of America (북미지역주민(北美地域住民)의 사상체질(四象體質) 분포(分布)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究))

  • Koh, Byung-hee;Kim, Seon-ho;Park, Byung-gwan;Lavelle, Jonathan D;Tecun, Marianne;Anthony Jr., Ross;Hobbs, Ron;Zolli, Frank;Chin, Kyung-hee
    • Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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    • v.11 no.2
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    • pp.119-150
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    • 1999
  • In spite of recent remarkable recent development in both western and oriental medical sciences, there is still only a shallow understanding of individual differences for various prognoses of incurable diseases and immunopathy diseases. Nevertheless, the care, cure and prevention methods of Sasang Constitutional Medicine are broadly used as an effective treatment of incurable diseases like immunopathy diseases and stress-related diseases and diseases due to aging. In this sense, the establishment of classification norms is urgent and essential for the worldwide application of Sasang Constitutional Medicine(SCM). This study began with the confirmation process of whether Sasang Constitutional types exist in Americans. To accomodate for cultural differences, the distinguishing tool was readjusted so that Sasang Constitutional Types in Americans could be determined. Hence, the selected tool is the new QSCCII+, which is a newly revised English version of the QSCCII. QSCCII was made and standardized by Dept. of SCM in Kyung Hee Medical Center and Dr. Kim7). The evaluation methods of the old version were improved in the new QSCCII+ through necessary statistical manipulation. The original QSCCII was officially authorized by the Korean Society of Sasang Constitutional Medicine as the only computerized version of Sasang diagnostics. This study is the first attempt to design a new diagnostic tool for the classification of Sasang Constitutional types in North Americans with the revision of QSCCII. The subjects of this study were selected from the cooperative people among the students and staffs of the University of Bridgeport and the patients who visited the Clinic in the Health Science Center. This study takes for about 1 year from 1998. 8 to 1999. 8 The conclusions of the study can be summarized as follows: 1. Sasang constitutional types also exist in Americans. It can also naturally be inferred that Sasang Constitutional types exist in all human beings, for there are many different human races in America. 2. There are more So-Yang In's than any other types in American white people. This result confirms the hypothesis that there also exist Sasang Constitutional types in westerners. 3. The result of repetitive tests suggests that the new QSCCII+ is an effective diagnostic tool for westerners when we consider the constant diagnostic results of the QSCCII+. 4. Sasang Constitutional types exit in the sample group regardless of racial difference. 5. The question items that were not often checked by Americans need to be modified into more understandable expressions. 6. The standardization of diagnosis for Americans should be established by use of the QSCCII+ 7. It can be guessed that there are many Tae-yang In's among the 71 persons who could not be clearly classified by the QSCCII+. Due to the scarcity of Tae-yang-In in general, it is important to improve upon the discernability of the QSCC II+. 8. The results of the Sasang Constitutional distribution in North Americans are as follows: The percentage of So-yang In distribution in the sample group is 36.25%(87persons), that of Tae-eum In is 13.75%(33persons), and that of So-eum In is 20.41%(49persons).

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Immediate effects of cigarette smoking on exercise in young adult smokers (젊은 성인 흡연자에게 흡연이 운동능에 미치는 즉시효과)

  • Park, In Won;Koh, Hyung Ki;Kang, Yoon Jung;Choi, Jae Sun;Yoo, Jee Hoon;Shin, Jong Wook;Lim, Seong-Yong;Choi, Byoung Whui;Seo, Seung Cheon;Na, Moon Jun;Hue, Sung Ho
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.44 no.1
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    • pp.154-161
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    • 1997
  • Background : Although the long term adverse effects of cigarette smoking on health are well known, the acute possible detrimental effects of smoking on pulmonary or cardiovascular function, especially when these systems are stressed by the metabolic demands of exercise, have not been well studied The purpose of this study is to determine the acute action of cigarette smoking on cardiopulmonary function under stress. Method : Twenty -one healthy smoking subjects were studied. Before exrecise testing, history taking, physical examination and baseline studies, including CBC, chest PA, PFT and EKG, were done. The subjects performed an incremental bicycle exercise test to exhaustion on two occasions, one without smoking and the other after smoking 5 cigarettes/h for 2 hours. All indices of P.F.T. and bicycle ergometry were compared between before and after smoking. Results : 1. $VO_2$max and $O_2$ pulse showed significant decrease in smoking day. 2. Although there were no significant differences, anaerobic threshold showed a tendency of decrease and HRmax showed that of increase in smoking day. 3. P.F.T. and respiratory indices showed no significant change io smoking day. Conclusion : Cigarette smoking has immediate adverse effect, especially on the cardiovascular system rather than the respiratory system. These results would be due to the effect of elevated HbCO and/or impaired blood flow in response to the exercise stimulus.

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Effects of Various Light Sources on the Carotenoid and Glucosinolate Contents in Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis) (다양한 광원이 배추 내 Carotenoid와 Glucosinolate 함량에 미치는 영향)

  • Sung, Ho-Young;Jo, Lee-Kyeong;Chun, Jin-Hyuk;Woo, Hyun-Nyung;Kim, Sun-Ju
    • Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.79-86
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    • 2018
  • BACKGROUND: Chinese cabbage biosynthesizes various phytochemicals including carotenoids and glucosinolates. Environmental stress has a major effect on the growth and yields of vegetables, and can significantly affect nutritionally important phytochemicals. Phytochemicals of plants are influenced by light, temperature, carbon dioxide, and growing conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of various light sources on carotenoid and glucosinolate contents in Chinese cabbage. METHODS AND RESULTS: [Experiment I] Set the control (field control, FC) on the ground. Using acrylic sunlight, experiments were set up transparency box (field transparency, FT), red box (field red, FR) and blue box (field blue, FB). [Experiment II] Set the control (chamber control, CC) in the greenhouse. Using plant growth chamber with artificial light, experiments were set up LED red (chamber red, CR), LED blue (chamber blue, CB), LED mixed red+blue (chamber red+blue, CRB) and fluorescent (chamber fluorescent, CF). After plant growth, Chinese cabbage was harvested at 110 days after sowing (DAS). The status of plants growth (leaf length, width, fresh weight etc.) was immediately investigated. Carotenoid and GSL contents were analyzed by HPLC. [Experiment I] Results documented that the ranges of total carotenoid contents were 25.39 ~ 58.80 mg/kg dry wt for lutein, 0.84~ 4.22 mg/kg dry wt for zeaxanthin, and 3.85~18.71 mg/kg dry wt for ${\beta}$-carotene. Lutein was the highest for the content and the largest for the variation as well. [Experiment II] Results documented that the ranges of total carotenoid contents were 24.66~137.96 for lutein, 2.51~20.65 for zeaxanthin, and 8.40~49.80 mg/kg dry wt for ${\beta}$-carotene. The total carotenoid contents of CR (156.62) and CB (115.90) were 1.6~2.3 times larger than the other treatments, and ${\beta}$-carotene content was about twice as high as that of the other treatments on the CR (38.74 mg/kg dry wt.). [Experiment I] Total GSL content was the highest in FT (19.76) that was higher 1.7 times than the lowest treatment ($11.39{\mu}mol/g\;dry\;wt$.). [Experiment II] The total content of GSL was highest in CRB (4.19) and lowest in CF ($2.88{\mu}mol/g\;dry\;wt$.). In the CRB, total GSL contents ($4.19{\mu}mol/g\;dry\;wt$.) was the highest. CONCLUSION: Total and individual carotenoid and GSL contents in Chinese cabbage show significant differences under different light sources. Red and blue lights contribute to significant carotenoids expression and antioxidant activity for nutrition and health benefits. These results concluded that the introduction of varying lights affected the synthesis of important nutrient compounds in Chinese cabbage. It is predicted that the application of good light source enhances the accumulation of functional compounds.

The Analysis of Patients in Oral Medicine and the Evaluation of Oral Medicine as a Special Field (내원경로 분석을 통한 전문과목으로서의 구강내과의 역할)

  • Chung, Tae-Yong;Ryu, Ji-Won;Kang, Jin-Kyu;Ahn, Hyung-Joon;Choi, Jong-Hoon
    • Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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    • v.30 no.4
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    • pp.391-400
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    • 2005
  • Special Practitioner exists based on the need for special fields that are required to manage difficult patients with specialized skills distinguished from General practitioner. The purpose of dental specialist system is to manage patients who are not treatable by general practitioner by training doctors specializing in one specific field, thereby, enhancing health of the public. Oral Medicine deals with orofacial pain, oral soft tissue disease, forensic dentistry, oral diagnosis. In these days, living environments of city life bring about increase in stress which ultimately lead to increase in prevalence of temporomandibular disorder, oral soft tissue disease, neuropathies such as trigeminal neuralgia, and hence, the number of patients seeking help of those symptoms tend to increase. The purpose of this study was to analyze the rate of referrals and the routes of patients seeking help by investigating 3,707 patients who visited Department of Oral Medicine, College of Dentistry, Yonsei University, from August, 2004 to April, 2005. The results were as follows: 1. The types of disease referred to the Department of Oral Medicine were orofacial pain, oral soft tissue disease, forensic dentistry, oral diagnosis. 2. The rate of referrals was 58.51% which implies that more than half of the patients visiting the Department of Oral Medicine were referred. 3. The types of institution which made referrals were analyzed, and as a result, dental clinics made most of the referrals with the rate of 83.23%, while that from medical or oriental medical institutions was 16.78%. 4. Among the patients who visited the Department of Oral Medicine on their own, 30.52% gained the information about the Department of Oral Medicine from internet and mass media, and from neighbors. From the above results, most of the patients visiting the Department of Oral Medicine were found to be referred not only from the field of dentistry but also from the field of medicine. These suggest that Oral Medicine manages patients who are not treatable by general dental practitioners, and medical specialists tend to cooperate with the Department of Oral Medicine to manage diseases associated with Oral Medicine. Therefore, the role of Oral Medicine can be considered to be important as a special field, and the results of this study should be considered when working out a policy of Dental specialist system on demand and supply of residents in the future.