• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 1998

Chronobiology is the area of medicine that is, how time-related event shape our daily biologic responses and apply to any aspect of medicine with regard to altering pathophysiology and treatment response. In mammals, there are several evidences that prove suprachiasmatic nuclei(SCN) is the major circadian pacemaker and the circadian rhythm influences so many biological aspects of an living organism such as rest-activity, thermoregulation, reproduction, and endocrine system. In case of human beings, there had been little information of circadian system. That may be due to the experimental, technical difficulties to study but also to the fact that human has the more complex environments that may alter the circadina rhythm like the artificial light, many socio-cultural aspects and so forth. However, several reports of these days indicate human's circadian system is composed of two or more circadian oscillators and SCN is the major circadian oscillator among them like the other mammals. Free-running circadinan period of mankind is about 24 hours rather than about 25 hours, and rest-activity rhythm is polymodal like other species. In addition to that, human may have capcities to change the circadian rhythm as the seasonal changes of daynight schedule. In this article, the author will summarize recent progress of anatomy and physiology of the circadian clock mechanism in humans.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.175-189
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• 1994

This study examined the daily rhythmic patterns of mood in shift workers. Ten rotating shift nurses (shift worker group) were matched with ten non-rotating student nurses (non - shift worker group) working under the same conditions at University Hospital. The subjects completed the Mood Adjective Checkist (MAC) every two or three hours from 6AM to 9-11 PM for six consecutive days. The MAC was constructed by Mansour and conversed the mood factors of Anger - Depression. Happiness, Mental, and Social. These data were analyzed by using Cosinor method. The results are summarized as follows : 1. There was no difference in mean scores for Anger - Depression, Happiness, Mental, and Social mood rhythm between the shift workers and the non - shift workers. 2. There was no difference in the amplitude of Anger - Depression, Happiness and Social mood between the two groups, but the shift workers had a higher amplitude of Mental mood. 3. The acrophases of the Anger - Depression mood were between 1:28 and 2:05, and those of Happiness, Social, and Mental mood were between 12:5 and 15:03 for both groups. There were no differences between the groups. 4. The number of the subjects with statistically significant mean cosinor rhythms for Anger-De-pression and Mental moods were higher in the shift workers than in the non-shift workers, but there were no differences between the shift workers and the non-shift workers in those of Happiness and Mental mood. This study showed that the mod manifested circadian periodicities, and a rapidly rotating shift system did not changed the circadian rhythm of mood. It is expected that this study will facilitate a better understanding of circadian rhythm in mood in the shiftworkers.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.483-494
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• 2007

Purpose: The objective of the study is to describe the experience of health care activities of the menopausal women through phenomenological methodology. Methods: Seven menopausal women participated in the study. Open in-depth interviews were used to collect data, and data were analyzed by the phenomenological methods suggested by Colaizzi. Results: The data were separated into 4 categories of uncomfortable life due to physical and emotional change, building consistency in daily life through regulating a routine rhythm, recovering normality, recovering stability, and 8 clusters of themes; securing regularity in daily life, securing availability in daily life, regulating through elimination and diminishment, regulating through supplementation, being patient and control self, expressing self, review the context and exchanging views, expending a world through one's faith. Conclusion: Participants accepted menopause not as a disease but as a natural course of life and realized that menopausal health problems could be naturally settled in general health care activities in daily life.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.1481-1498
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• 2014

Automated activity monitoring has become important in many applications. In particular, automated monitoring is an important issue in large-scale management of group-housed livestock because it can save a significant part of farm workers' time or minimize the damage caused by livestock problems. In this paper, we propose an automated solution for measuring the daily-life activities of pigs by using video data in order to manage the group-housed pigs. Especially, we focus on the circadian rhythm of group-housed pigs under windowless and 24-hour light-on conditions. Also, we derive a cost-effective solution within the acceptable range of quality for the activity monitoring application. From the experimental results with the video monitoring data obtained from two pig farms, we believe our method based on circadian rhythm can be applied for detecting management problems of group-housed pigs in a cost-effective way.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2010

Among the dogs boarding at an animal hospital, 10 dogs each were selected as a free boarding group and a kennel boarding group. Each group was further divided into 5 puppies and 5 mature dogs to examine the changes in their serum cortisol concentrations during boarding (5 days). We collected blood at day 8 and then analyzed the blood corpuscles, ran a biochemical serum test, and an additional urine test before boarding to check their health status. After collecting the dog's blood at 9:00 am, 3:00 pm, and 9:00 pm, we analyzed the cortisol concentration by the radioimmunoassay (RIA) method. The daily serum cortisol concentration at 9:00 am, 3:00 pm, and 9:00 pm, had a circadian rhythm during both the free and kennel boarding periods in both puppies and adults. Furthermore, the average daily serum cortisol concentration was significantly increased during the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd day after free boarding in the puppy group (P < 0.01). In adults from the free boarding group, the serum cortisol concentration dramatically increased on the 1st day (P < 0.01), as well as on the 2nd and 3rd day (P < 0.05). Interestingly, the average daily serum cortisol concentration was significantly increased on the 1st day after kennel boarding as well as during the entire period of kennel boarding in the puppy group (P < 0.05). In the adult kennel boarding group, serum cortisol concentration was significantly increased during the whole kennel boarding period (P < 0.01). An interesting result was that circadian rhythmicity in the sum of the daily serum cortisol concentrations was present in the free boarding group, but not in the kennel boarding group in both puppies and adults. In summary, cortisol was released depending on the degree of stress in free and kennel boarded dogs. Taken together, these results suggest that cortisol, a stress hormone, should be maintained at physiological concentrations in a circadian rhythm when the animals are hospitalized.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.36-40
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• 1989

The eels, Anguilla japonica, were reared in a tank with daily feeding for up to 97 days, and otoliths were regularly collected for the observation of their microstructures. Microscopic observation of the thin-sectioned otolith under dark field provided significant information on daily growth increments as well as the difference in visual contrast shown by the increments. Clearly defined elver mark formed during the metamorphosis from leptocephalus to the elver can be considered as the origin of the age for the sedentary yellow eel in continental water. The close correspondence between the number of increments outside elver mark and chronological age in days from the beginning of feeding indicates that increment deposition on a daily basis was initiated with the start of feeding for the sedentary yellow eel. Either 7 or 14 daily growth increments were grouped together into 2 alternative units, each distinguished by prominent checks or by visual contrast. The absence of any apparent environmental variations with 7 or 14 day period in the reared tank implies that the phase of the moon could be a zeitgeber for the endogenous rhythm.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.372-377
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• 2014

Being able to monitor the heart will allow the diagnosis of heart diseases for patients during daily activities, and the detection of burden on the heart during strenuous exercise. Furthermore, with the help of U-health technology, immediate medical action can be taken, in the case of abnormal symptoms of the heart in daily life. Therefore, it appears to be necessary to develop the corresponding technology to monitor the condition of the heart daily. In this study, a novel wearable smart system was proposed, to monitor the activity of the heart in daily life, and to further evaluate the rhythm of arrhythmia. The wearable system includes three modified bipolar conductive fiber electrodes in the chest part, which can resolve the reduction problem of the magnitude of the signal, by magnifying the signal and removing the noise, to obtain high affinity and validity for medical-type usage (<0.903%). The biological signal acquisition and data lines, and the signal processing engine and communication consist of a conductive ink, and the pic18 and ANT protocol nRF24AP2, respectively. The proposed algorithm was able to detect a strong ECG, signal and r-point passing over the noise. The confidence intervals were 96 %, which could satisfy the requirement to detect arrhythmia under the unconstrained conditions.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.26-31
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• 2017

Objectives A normal circadian rhythm of autonomic nervous system function stands for the daily change of sympathetic and parasympathetic modulation, which can be measured by heart rate variability (HRV). Generally, patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) are prone to sleep-wake cycle dysregulation, therefore, it may have an influence on the circadian rhythm of autonomic nervous system. This study was designed to interpret possible dysregulation of autonomic nervous system in ICU patients by using HRV. Methods HRV was assessed every 3 hours in 21 ICU patients during a 7-minute period. The statistical differences of HRV features between the morning (AM 6 : 00-PM 12 : 00), and the afternoon (PM 12 : 00-PM 18 : 00) periods were evaluated in time domain and frequency domain. Results Patients showed significantly increased normalized power of low frequencey (nLF), absolute power of low frequencey (LF)/absolute power of high frequencey (HF) in the afternoon period as compared to the morning period. However, normalized power of high frequency (nHF) was significantly decreased in the afternoon period. There was no statistically significant difference between the morning period and the afternoon period in the time domain analysis. Conclusions The increased sympathetic tone in the afternoon period supports possible dysregulation in the circadian rhythm of autonomic nervous system in ICU patients. Future studies can help to interpret the association between autonomic dysregulation and negative outcomes of ICU patients.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2020

Mobile digital devices are very familiar and useful devices in the daily life of modern people, and are used for various tasks such as communication, reading, writing, and playing media. As the use of mobile digital devices has become more prevalent, user time has also been increasing. In particular, the number of people who use digital devices before sleep is growing. The light pollution associated with these devices is classified into four categories: urban sky glow, glare, light trespass, and clutter. The pattern in which modern people use digital devices corresponds to light pollution caused by light trespass and clutter from light exposure to artificial light at night. The light pollution caused by digital devices can cause melatonin secretion suppression, delayed sleep onset, reduction of sleepiness before bedtime, and periodic rhythm and cognitive function disturbances. In addition, a study of children and adolescents showed there may be disturbances in the sleep-wake cycle and circadian rhythm, deterioration of sleep quality, and daytime fatigue due to light pollution caused by artificial light at night from mobile digital devices. A multi-faceted research effort is also necessary to investigate the healthy use of mobile digital devices based on research evidence and insights with an accurate evaluation of the influence of mobile digital devices as a form of light pollution.