• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.50 no.3
• /
• pp.333-348
• /
• 2020

Purpose: The present study investigated the association between nurse staffing and health outcomes among psychiatric inpatients in Korea by assessing National Health Insurance claims data. Methods: The dataset included 70,136 patients aged 19 years who were inpatients in psychiatric wards for at least two days in 2016 and treated for mental and behavioral disorders due to use of alcohol; schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders; and mood disorders across 453 hospitals. Nurse staffing levels were measured in three ways: registered nurse-to-inpatient ratio, registered nurse-to-adjusted inpatient ratio, and nursing staff-to-adjusted inpatient ratio. Patient outcomes included length of stay, readmission within 30 days, psychiatric emergency treatment, use of injected psycholeptics for chemical restraint, and hypnotics use. Relationships between nurse staffing levels and patient outcomes were analyzed considering both patient and system characteristics using multilevel modeling. Results: Multilevel analyses revealed that more inpatients per registered nurse, adjusted inpatients per registered nurse, and adjusted inpatients per nursing staff were associated with longer lengths of stay as well as a higher risk of readmission. More adjusted inpatients per registered nurse and adjusted inpatients per nursing staff were also associated with increased hypnotics use but a lower risk of psychiatric emergency treatment. Nurse staffing levels were not significantly associated with the use of injected psycholeptics for chemical restraint. Conclusion: Lower nurse staffing levels are associated with negative health outcomes of psychiatric inpatients. Policies for improving nurse staffing toward an optimal level should be enacted to facilitate better outcomes for psychiatric inpatients in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.569-577
• /
• 2015

The aim of this study is to qualitatively evaluate the cracking control effects of expansive concrete used in reinforced concrete building. The result of experiments in laboratory shows that autogenous shrinkage and drying shrinkage are suppressed by using expansive additive. The tensile stress-strength ratio is lower in expansive concrete than normal concrete under fully restrained condition. Compression stress could be effectively generated in early age in the walls in buildings by the use of expansive additive, and tensile stress due to drying shrinkage at later age eventually decreased. Additionally, visual observation at long-term ages shows that the cracking area of expansive concrete was approximately 35% of normal concrete, which confirms that the use of expansive additive reduces concrete cracking in reinforced concrete buildings.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.126-136
• /
• 1998

This study was designed to determine the effects of linoleic acid contents and $\omega$ 6/$\omega$3 ratios on the induction of gastric ulcer by water immersion and restraint stress. Sprague-Dawley rats were fed 5diets containing 7% fat(w/w) for 6weeks. These diet groups were Lh, Mh, Hh, Mm, Ml, : 3 different linoleic acid levels(0.3% of energy(L). 3.5(M), 10(H) and 3 different $\omega$6/$\omega$3 ratios (11(1), 33(m), 100(h) with beef tallow, sunflower or fish oil. The Lh group showed a significantly higher ulcer index (UI) than the Mh and Hh groups(p<0.05). At the same linoleic levels, the UI had no significant difference within the $\omega$6/$\omega$3 ratios. The Mh group showed significantly higher (p<0.05) PGE2 and TBX2 content than any other group. Pearson's correlation coeffcients between UI and PGE2 and TBX2 had a negatively significant correlation(p<0.05). Linoleic acid of gastric mucosal phospholipids was reflected by the diet, but was not significantly different. The most significant finding of this study is that not only the absolute amount of linoleic acid, but also the $\omega$6/$\omega$3 ratios are important factors for the prevention of gastric ulcer.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.331-338
• /
• 2011

Red ginseng (RG, the extract of Panax ginseng Meyer) has various biological and psychological activities and may also alleviate fatigue-related disorders. The present study was undertaken to evaluate what kind of fatigue red ginseng alleviate. Animals were orally administered with 50, 100, 200, 400 mg/kg of RG for 7 days. Before experiments were performed. Physiological stress (swimming, rotarod, and wire test) are behavioral parameters used to represent physical fatigue. Restraint stress and electric field test to a certain degree, induce psychological fatigue in animals. Plasma concentration of lactate and corticosterone (CORT) were also measured after these behavioral assays. RG supplementation (100 mg/kg) increased movement duration and rearing frequency of restrainted mice in comparison with control. 100 and 200 mg/kg of RG increased swimming time in cold water ($8{\pm}4^{\circ}C$) while at 100 mg/kg, RG increased electric field crossing over frequencies. 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg RG prolonged running time on the rotarod and at 100 mg/kg, it increased balancing time on the wire. RG at those doses also reduced falling frequencies. RG supplementation decreased plasma CORT levels, which was increased by stress. Lactate levels were not significantly altered. These results suggest that RG supplementation can alleviate more the damages induced by psychological than physical fatigue.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.315-319
• /
• 2009

Astragalus Membranaceus (AM) is a useful Korean herb that has been clinically prescribed for stress-related illness. The objective of the present study was to examine the anti-stress effects of AM on repeated stress-induced alterations of anxiety, learning and memory in rats. Restraint stress was administered for 14 days (2h/day) and AM (400mg/kg) given by oral administration, in the AM group, for the same period. Starting on the eighth day, the rats were tested for spatial memory on the Morris water maze test (MW) and for anxiety on the elevated plus maze (EPM). Changes of expression on immunohistochemistry were studied for cholineacetyl transferase (ChAT) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the brain. The results showed that the rats treated with AM had significantly reduced stress-induced deficits on learning and memory on the spatial memory tasks. In addition, the ChAT immunoreactivities were increased. In the EPM, treatment with AM increased the time spent in the open arms (p<0.001) compared to the control group. In addition, AM treatment also normalized increases of TH expression in the LC (p<0.001). In conclusion, administration of AM improved spatial learning and memory and reduced stress-induced anxiety. Thus, the present results suggest that AM is able to recover behavioral and neurochemical impairments induced by stress.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
• /
• v.14 no.6
• /
• pp.371-376
• /
• 2010

Glycyrrhizae radix (GR) is an herbal medicine that is commonly used in the East Asia for treating a variety of diseases, including stomach disorders. The objective of the present study was to examine the anti-stress effects of GR on repeated stress-induced alterations of anxiety, learning and memory in rats. Restraint stress was administered for 14 days (2 h/day) to the rats in the Control and GR groups (400 mg/kg/day, PO). Starting on the eighth day, the rats were tested for spatial memory on the Morris water maze test (MW) and for anxiety on the elevated plus maze (EPM). We studied the changes of the expressions of cholineacetyl transferase (ChAT) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the locus coerleus (LC) using immunohistochemistry. The results showed that the rats treated with GR had significantly reduced stress-induced deficits on their learning and memory on the spatial memory tasks. In addition, the ChAT immunoreactivities were increased. Gor the EPM, treatment with GR increased the time spent in the open arms (p<0.001) as compared to that of the control group. Moreover, GR treatment also normalized the increases of the TH expression in the LC (p<0.001). In conclusion, administration of GR improved spatial learning and memory and reduced stress-induced anxiety. Thus, the present results suggest that GR has the potential to attenuate the behavioral and neurochemical impairments caused by stress.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.62-73
• /
• 2016

Objectives: Dropout and weight regain are common problems in most obesity treatments. The purpose of this study was to review previously published study results of the predictive factors associated with dropout during weight loss treatment and weight loss maintenance after successful weight loss. Methods: Authors searched for the articles related to dropout and weight loss maintenance, published from 2007 to 2016 found on Pubmed, Scopus, RISS, and KISS. A total of 19 articles were finally selected. From the study results, unchangeable and changeable predictors were extracted, and these predictors were examined according to dropout and weight loss maintenance categories. Results: The unchangeable predictors of dropout were younger age, lower education level and female, whereas the changeable predictors of dropout were lower initial weight loss, symptoms of depression and body dissatisfaction. The strongest factor for predicting the dropout was initial weight loss. The unchangeable predictors of weight loss maintenance were old age, male and family history of obesity, whereas the changeable predictors of weight loss maintenance were regular exercise, dietary restraint, self-weighing and low depressive symptoms. Initial weight loss, depressive symptoms, body image, dietary restraint, physical activity, weight loss expectation and social support were considered to be dominant factors for weight loss treatments. Conclusions: Our review results suggest that unchangeable and changeable predictors of dropout and weight loss maintenance should be carefully examined during treatments of obesity.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
• /
• v.12 no.6
• /
• pp.1024-1029
• /
• 2009

According to increase of massive concrete structures, Thermal crack done by heat of hydration have been increased in a process of the execution. In case of a subway concrete box structure, thickness of structures are almost over 1 meter, and penetrating crack by external restraint takes a bad effect on the durability with a water leakage and deterioration in especially concrete wall. A try of shortening a constructing period often occurs as subway is generally constructed according to a road to decrease a traffic jam. The research proposes executing method by skipping one block as a plan of shortening a constructing period and investigate an influence on thermal cracking control. Additionally, sensitivity analysis is accomplished by changing a height of a concrete wall, and concrete placing and air temperature met with a field condition.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.9-17
• /
• 2018

With an aim of considering the warping restraint effect, the results of the comparative study for several cases on the correction of the warping functions for the theoretical analysis of composite thin-walled beams with chord wise asymmetric closed cross-sections are presented in this study. To solve this problem, it is necessary to correct the warping function so as to satisfy the warping equilibrium condition like 1) without moving the position of the pole, 2) with only modifying the shape function using the existing pole, and 3) with moving the position of the pole. The cross-sectional characteristics of the cases were compared with each other. Finally, the cases were compared in order to correct the warping functions. The case 2) was observed to be more speedy and simple in computation compared to others.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.113-116
• /
• 2009

A 4-year-old female reticulated giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata), at Seoul Zoo, Gwacheon, Korea had a male calf with no help of proper restraint devices. The mother giraffe was in a danger of dystocia more than 7 hours in labor after showing the calf's toe of the foreleg which protruded from her vulva. After tugging with a snare of rope on the metacarpal bone of the calf and pulling it, the other toe emerged. Finally, with two snares around each of metacarpal bones, the calf was completely pulled out by zoo staff. After parturition, the dam was in normal condition for taking care of the calf and her progesterone hormone had also dropped down to a normal pre-pregnancy.