• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.198-210
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• 2012

Circadian rhythms govern a remarkable variety of metabolic and physiological functions. Accumulating epidemiological and genetic evidence indicates that the disruption of circadian rhythms might be directly linked to cancer. Intriguingly, several molecular gears constituting the clock machinery have been found to establish functional interplays with regulators of the cell cycle, and alterations in clock function could lead to aberrant cellular proliferation. In addition, connections between the circadian clock and cellular metabolism have been identified that are regulated by chromatin remodelling. This suggests that abnormal metabolism in cancer could also be a consequence of a disrupted circadian clock. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the molecular links that connect the circadian clock to the cell cycle and metabolism could provide therapeutic benefit against certain human neoplasias.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.239-245
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• 2002

Plasma melatonin, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and body temperature were measured simultaneously and continuously before and after the sleep-wake cycle was shifted in 4 healthy males and changes in the circadian rhythm itself and in the phase relationship among these circadian rhythms were determined. Normal sleep-wake cycle (sleep hours: 2300-0700) was delayed by 10 h (sleep hours: 0900-1700) during the experiment. Even after this shift the typical melatonin rhythm was maintained: low during daytime and high during night. The melatonin rhythm was gradually delayed day by day. The TSH rhythm was also maintained fundamentally during 3 consecutive days of altered sleep-wake cycle. The phase was also delayed gradually but remarkably. The daily rhythm of body temperature was changed by the alteration of sleep-wake cycle. The body temperature began to decrease at the similar clock time as in the control but the decline during night awake period was less steep and the lowered body temperature persisted during sleep. The hormonal profiles during the days of shifted sleep/wake cycle suggest that plasma melatonin and TSH rhythms are basically regulated by an endogenous biological clock. The parallel phase shift of melatonin and TSH upon the change in sleep-wake cycle suggests that a common unitary pacemaker probably regulates these two rhythms. The reversal phase relationship between body temperature and melatonin suggests that melatonin may have a hypothermic effect on body temperature. The altered body temperature rhythm suggests that the awake status during night may inhibit the circadian decrease in body temperature and that sleep sustains the lowered body temperature. It is probable but uncertain that there ave causal relationships among sleep, melatonin, TSH, and body temperature.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 2008

All the organisms on the earth are affected by the repeating signals from the ambient environment caused by the movements of the sun and the earth. Their physiological and behavioral activities such as reproduction, functional pathway of various molecules, and developmental stage, are reflected by the cyclicity whether it is daily(circadian) or annual rhythms. An essential function of circadian rhythms is to provide an internal estimate of the external local time, thereby allowing the organism to program its activities so that they occur at an appropriate time in the daily environment. Of many rhythmic patterns, the circadian rhythms are considered in this review, focusing on the limit cycle, which is a model to investigate the entrainment.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.102-109
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• 2024

Background: In today's modern world, longer working hours, shift work, and working at night have become major causes of the disruption of our natural circadian rhythms. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the type of shift work (rotating vs. fixed day), duty period (on-duty vs. off-duty), and working period within each shift (nighttime vs. daytime) on the circadian rhythm characteristics of nurses who provide direct patient care. Methods: This cross-sectional study used a purposive sampling method. Cosinor analysis was applied to analyze the actigraphy data of nurses providing direct patient care for seven consecutive days. The linear mixed effects model was then used to determine any variances between shift type, duty period, and working period within each shift for the nurses. Results: The mesor value did not differ according to nurses' shift type, duty period, and working period within each shift. The amplitude was statistically higher in on-duty nurses and in daytime working hours. The acrophase was significantly delayed in nighttime working hours. As well as nurses in rotating shift had experience. Conclusion: Our findings revealed that the peak activity of nurses occurs significantly later at night while working and nurses working during nighttime hours may have a weaker or less distinct circadian rhythm. Thus, this study suggests that limits be placed on the number of rotating nighttime shifts for nurses.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.5.1-5.4
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• 2009

This article is an addendum to the authors’ previous article (Kim, J. et al. (2008) Plant Cell 20, 307-319). The instrumentation and software described in this article were used to analyze the circadian leaf movement in the previous article. Here, we provide detailed and practical information on the instrumentation and the software. The source code of the LMA program is freely available from the authors. The circadian clock regulates a wide range of cyclic physiological responses with a 24 hour period in most organisms. Rhythmic leaf movement in plants is a typical robust manifestation of rhythms controlled by the circadian clock and has been used to monitor endogenous circadian clock activity. Here, we introduce a relatively easy, inexpensive, and simple approach for measuring leaf movement circadian rhythms using a USB-based web camera, public domain software and a Leaf Movement Assay (LMA) program. The LMA program is a semi-automated tool that enables the user to measure leaf lengths of individual Arabidopsis seedlings from a set of time-series images and generates a wave-form output for leaf rhythm. This is a useful and convenient tool for monitoring the status of a plant's circadian clock without an expensive commercial instrumentation and software.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.17.1-17.8
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• 2017

Somatostatin (SS) and growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) are primary factors regulating growth hormone (GH) secretion in the pituitary. To date, it remains unknown how this rhythm is controlled endogenously, although there must be coordination of circadian manners. Melatonin was the main regulator in biological rhythms, and its secretion has fluctuation by photic information. But relationship between melatonin and growth-related genes (ghrh and ss) is unclear. We investigated circadian rhythms of melatonin secretion, ghrh and ss expressions, and correlation between melatonin with growth-related genes in tiger puffer Takifugu rubripes. The melatonin secretion showed nocturnal rhythms under light and dark (LD) conditions. In constant light (LL) condition, melatonin secretion has similar patterns with LD conditions. ss1 mRNA was high during scotophase under LD conditions. But ss1 rhythms disappeared in LL conditions. Ghrh appeared opposite expression compared with melatonin levels or ss1 expression under LD and LL. In the results of the melatonin injection, ghrh and ss1 showed no significant expression compared with control groups. These results suggested that melatonin and growth-related genes have daily or circadian rhythms in the tiger puffer. Further, we need to know mechanisms of each ss and ghrh gene regulation.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2012

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the teleost hypothalamus contains a central circadian pacemaker, which adjusts circadian rhythms within the body to environmental light-dark cycles. It has been shown that exposure to darkness during the day causes phase shifts in circadian rhythms. In this study, we examined the effect of exposure to darkness on the mRNA expression levels of two circadian clock genes, namely, $Period2$ ($Per2$) and $Cryptochrome1$ ($Cry1$), and the rate-limiting enzyme in melatonin synthesis, arylalkylamine $N$-acetyltransferase-2 (Aanat2), in the pineal gland of olive flounder, $Paralichthys$ $olivaceus$. The expression of these genes showed circadian variations and was significantly higher during the dark phase. These changes may be involved in the mechanism of dark-induced phase shifts. Furthermore, this study suggests that olive flounder may be a teleost model to investigate the localization and function of circadian oscillators.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.319-328
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate circadian rhythms, learning flow, and fatigue of college students. The differences in learning flow and fatigue according to the type of circadian rhythms were also examined. The study used a descriptive survey research design. The convenience sample consisted of 224 college students from five universities. The data were collected from May to June in 2013 using the following instruments: Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire-Korean (MEQ-K), Flow State Scale, and Fatigue Assessment Inventory. The participants in the study were mostly put in neither-type (51.8%), and only 4.0% in morning-type. The morning-type students had higher learning flow scores and lower fatigue scores than the night-type students. The types of circadian rhythms measured by MEQ-K were compared to the subjective types of circadian rhythm which was based on the participants' self evaluation. There was a difference in the measured type and the subjective type in 32.1% of the participants. The findings of this study suggest that an intervention program to help college students accurately recognize their circadian rhythms might be effective in improving learning flow and decreasing fatigue.

• Proceedings of the KSCN Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.256-256
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• 2007

• BMB Reports
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• v.49 no.11
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• pp.587-589
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• 2016

The circadian clock system enables organisms to anticipate the rhythmic environmental changes and to manifest behavior and physiology at advantageous times of the day. Transcriptional/translational feedback loop (TTFL) is the basic feature of the eukaryotic circadian clock and is based on the rhythmic association of circadian transcriptional activator and repressor. In Drosophila, repression of dCLOCK/CYCLE (dCLK/CYC) mediated transcription by PERIOD (PER) is critical for inducing circadian rhythms of gene expression. Pacemaker neurons in the brain control specific circadian behaviors upon environmental timing cues such as light and temperature cycle. We show that amino acids 657-707 of dCLK are important for the transcriptional activation and the association with PER both in vitro and in vivo. Flies expressing dCLK lacking AA657-707 in $Clk^{out}$ genetic background, homologous to the mouse Clock allele where exon 19 region is deleted, display pacemaker-neuron-dependent perturbation of the molecular clockwork. The molecular rhythms in light-cycle-sensitive pacemaker neurons such as ventral lateral neurons ($LN_vs$) were significantly disrupted, but those in temperature-cycle-sensitive pacemaker neurons such as dorsal neurons (DNs) were robust. Our results suggest that the dCLK-controlled TTFL diversify in a pacemaker-neuron-dependent manner which may contribute to specific functions such as different sensitivities to entraining cues.