• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.30.1-30.13
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• 2023

Background: Dysmenorrhea and menstrual cycle changes occur in women working shifts. Circadian rhythm disruption and sleep disturbances associated with shift work leads to health problems. We identified chronotypes and the occurrence of insomnia among newly employed university hospital nurses and investigated the association of these factors with menstrual problems. Methods: We conducted pre-placement health examinations for shift workers using self-reported questionnaires between 2018 and 2020. A total of 463 nurses were included in the study. Sociodemographic data, shift work experience, and information on insomnia were collected from health examination data. In addition, details regarding chronotype, dysmenorrhea, irregular and abnormal menstrual cycles, amenorrhea, and contraceptive use were obtained from the questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to study the association between chronotype, insomnia, and menstrual problems after controlling for age, body mass index, contraceptive use, amenorrhea, and prior shift work. Results: The prevalence rates of dysmenorrhea, irregular menstrual cycles, and longer menstrual cycles were 23.8%, 14.9%, and 4.1%, respectively. The risk of dysmenorrhea increased in the evening-type (odds ratio [OR]: 3.209; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.685-6.113) and those with insomnia (OR: 1.871; 95% CI: 1.074-3.261). Additionally, the risk of an irregular menstrual cycle (OR: 2.698; 95% CI: 1.167-6.237) increased in the evening-type, and the risk of a longer menstrual cycle (OR: 4.008; 95% CI: 1.354-11.864) increased in individuals with insomnia. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that dysmenorrhea is promoted in the evening-type and insomnia individuals. There may be an increased risk of irregular menstrual cycles among evening-type nurses and an increased risk of longer menstrual cycles among those with insomnia. Therefore, factors such as evening-type and insomnia should be considered for the prevention of menstrual problems in women performing shift work.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.546-559
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• 2016

This study was conducted to analyze the relationship between sleep quality, stress response, physical activity and sleep hygiene in shift work nurses and identify factors influencing sleep quality. The participants were 168 shift nurses from university hospitals and general hospitals located in C city, Gyeongnam. Data were collected from March 25 to 31, 2016. The study instrument use to the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Stress Response Inventory, Korean version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form and Sleep Hygiene Scale. Date were analyzed by frequency, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation and hierarchical multiple regression using SPSS/win18.0. The sleep quality index was 7.35 (range 0-21), stress response was 2.20 (range 1-5), physical activity was 3986MET-min/week, and sleep hygiene was 2.73 (range 1-6 points). There were significant differences in sleep quality according to shift work experience, health status and circadian rhythm type. Factors influencing sleep quality included shift work experience, sleep hygiene, stress response and physical activity, which together explained 40% of the total variance of sleep quality. Therefore, it is recommended that sleep hygiene education be implemented as a strategy to reduce stress response, and that shift work nurses engage in a moderate level of physical activity to improve their sleep quality.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.103-109
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• 2020

Objectives: Using as a sleep evaluation tool the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), this paper studied the effects of earthing on the amount and quality of sleep by examining a patient population of people who used and did not use earthing mats and a group of general healthy people. Methods: From September to November 2019, 30 patients who voluntarily used an earthing mat, 40 patients who did not use an earthing mat, and 40 healthy people who did not use an earthing mat were selected. A questionnaire applying the PSQI (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) after being translated into Korean was distributed starting November 29, 2019 to 110 subjects. Out of them, 101 subjects who completed the questionnaire were examined. All statistics used SPSS 25.0. Results: The first overall score showed that all three groups had problems sleeping, with five points or more, but the general population had better sleep quality than the patient group. It also showed that the using matgroup had better quality of sleep than the ones that did not use the earthing mat In addition, the analysis of the third group through the variance analysis showed significance at >0.05 for the general population and the patient group. Based on this, a multi-comparison analysis of the third group showed significantly less than 0.05 in patients who do not use an earthing mat compared to the public. First of all, there are no statistically significant differences between the three groups in subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, and sleep time, but an analysis of multiple comparison analysis with the general population group showed that the quality of sleep was worse compared to those that used the mat. In addition, sleep efficiency, sleep disorder, sleeping pills, and daytime dysfunction were found to be less than >0.05 in the three groups. Conclusions: These results suggest that if you ground your body to Earth during sleep, the secretion of cortisol will decrease night levels, sync more with the natural 24-hour circulation rhythm profile, and that when you sleep, sleep is better and pain and stress are associated with the study. While the preceding study cannot confirm that contact with the ground affects the quality of sleep, it suggests that it is relevant as shown in this paper.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.270-276
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• 2020

Background: We investigated the impact of previous catheter ablation (CA) on the midterm outcomes of totally thoracoscopic ablation in patients with lone atrial fibrillation (AF). Methods: Between February 2012 and July 2018, 332 patients underwent totally thoracoscopic ablation for the treatment of AF (persistent AF; n=264, 80%). The patients were stratified into CA (n=47, 14%) and non-CA (nCA; n=285, 86%) groups according to their CA history. Results: All the baseline clinical characteristics and risk factors were similar between the groups except for age, percentage of male patients, prevalence of paroxysmal AF, prior percutaneous coronary intervention, and left atrial volume index (LAVI). No significant intergroup differences were observed in the incidence of early and late complications. At late follow-up, normal sinus rhythm was observed in 92% (43 of 47) of the patients in the CA group and 85% (242 of 285) of the patients in the nCA group (p=0.268). The rate of freedom from AF recurrence at 5 years was 55.3%±11.0% in the CA group, which was similar to that in the nCA group (55.7%±5.1%, p=0.690). In Cox regression analysis, preoperative brain natriuretic peptide levels and LAVI were associated with AF recurrence, but CA history was not significant. Conclusion: Totally thoracoscopic ablation was safe and effective in treating AF irrespective of CA history. A history of CA did not appear to affect the procedural complexity.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.333-342
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• 2001

Adriamycin is a commonly used chemotherapeutic agent for cancer, including acute leukemia, lymphoma, and a number of solid human tumors. However, recent studies have recognized severe cardiotoxicity after an acute dose, which are likely the result of generation of free radicals and lipid peroxidation. Therefore, the clinical uses of adriamycin have been limited. Melatonin, the pineal gland hormone known for its ability to modulate circardian rhythm, has recently been studied in its several functions, including cancer growth inhibition, stimulating the immune system, and acting as an antioxidant and radical scavenging effects. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of melatonin administration on adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity in rat. Heart slices were prepared using a Stadie-Riggs microtome for the measurement of malondialdehyde (MDA) content used as an index of lipid peroxidation and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release as an indicator of lethal cell injury. Serious adriamycin-induced lethality was observed in rat by a single intraperitoneal injection in a dose-dependent manner. A single injection of adriamycin (25 mg/kg, i.p.) induced a lethality rate of 86%, with melatonin (10 mg/kg s.c. for 6 days) treatment reducing the adriamycin-induced lethality rate to 20%. The severe body weight loss caused by adriamycin was also significantly attenuated by melatonin treatment. Treatment of melatonin marked reduced adriamycin-induced the levels of MDA formation and LDH release. A cell damage indicated by the loss of myofibrils, swelling of the mitochondria as well as cytoplasmic vacuolization was seen in adriamycin-treated group. Melatonin attenuated the adriamycin-induced structural alterations. These data provide evidence that melatonin prevents adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity and might serve as a combination with adriamycin to limit free radical-mediated cardiotoxicity.

• Journal of International Academy of Physical Therapy Research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.723-729
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between female college students' stress level and premenstrual syndrome so that it can provide baseline data on how to cope with the syndrome. The study subjects are 250 female college students in Gyungbook area. This study chose 199 appropriate subjects and collected data. As per general menstrual phases, this study investigated the age when one had her first period, regularity and duration of period, and amount of bleeding. It used a measurement tool to measure stress level and premenstrual syndrome. Most of the subjects experienced their first period before the age of 13. The menstrual period was irregular with the duration of less than 7 days. 123 subjects had normal amount of bleeding. 121 subjects were experiencing high level of stress over 2.4. The correlation between the level of stress and premenstrual syndrome factors showed significant static correlation for each factor. Especially, the correlation between digestive system and response of autonomic nervous system was .996 and negative emotion and behavioral change was .635, and negative emotion and pain was .614 which were relatively high. The regression analysis of factors of premenstrual syndrome depending on the subjects' stress level indicated that response of autonomic nervous system had the biggest effect in the low stress group while behavioral change, negative emotion, pain, decreased concentration, water congestion, response of autonomic nervous system, and skin change had the biggest effect in the high stress group with statistical significance. Based on the result, it can be said that higher premenstrual stress is closely related to the premenstrual syndrome one experiences for some female college students.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.61-70
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• 2012

The current study observes the durational interaction of tautosyllabic consonants and vowels in the word-initial position of English and Korean child-directed speech (CDS). The effect of phonological laryngeal contrasts in stops on the following vowel duration, and the effect of the intrinsic vowel duration on the release duration of preceding stops in addition to the acoustic realization of the contrastive segments are explored in different prosodic contexts - phrase-initial/medial, focal accented/non-focused - in a marked speech style of CDS. A trade-off relationship between Voice Onset Time (VOT), as consonant release duration, and voicing phonation time, as vowel duration, reported from adult-to-adult speech, and patterns of durational variability are investigated in CDS of two languages with different linguistic rhythms, under systematically controlled prosodic contexts. Speech data were collected from four native English mothers and four native Korean mothers who were talking to their one-word staged infants. In addition to the acoustic measurements, the transformed delta measure is employed as a variability index of individual tokens. Results confirm the durational correlation between prevocalic consonants and following vowels. The interaction is revealed in a compensatory pattern such as longer VOTs followed by shorter vowel durations in both languages. An asymmetry is found in CV interaction in that the effect of consonant on vowel duration is greater than the VOT differences induced by the vowel. Prosodic effects are found such that the acoustic difference is enhanced between the contrastive segments under focal accent, supporting the paradigmatic strengthening effect. Positional variation, however, does not show any systematic effects on the variations of the measured acoustic quantities. Overall vowel duration and syllable duration are longer in English tokens but involve less variability across the prosodic variations. The constancy of syllable duration, therefore, is not found to be more strongly sustained in Korean CDS. The stylistic variation is discussed in relation to the listener under linguistic development in CDS.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.227-236
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the sleep duration, social jetlag (SJL), and subjective sleep disturbance according to the individual chronotype in rotating shift nurses. Methods: A total of 344 rotating 3-shift nurses (mean age 28.67 years) were recruited at one university affiliated hospital. They completed the following questionnaires, which were used to assess their chronotype and sleep: the morningness-eveningness questionnaire (MEQ), self-reported sleep duration of work days (SDW_shift) and free days (SDF_shift) in each shift (day [D], evening [E], night [N]), and sleep disturbance (Insomnia severity index, ISI). SJL_shift was calculated as the difference in midsleep (MS=sleep onset+1/2 sleep duration) between work days (MSW) and free days (MSF). Results: Subjects were divided into 3 chronotype groups according to the MEQ; morning (MG, 4.4%) intermediate (IG, 57.8%), and evening groups (EG, 37.8%). SDW_D was shortest (4.68 hr) and SDF_E was longest (8.93 hr) in the EG. SJL_D was longest in the EG (3.77 hr), and SJL_N was longest in the MG (7.37 hr). The prevalence of sleep disturbance was 33.3% (MG), 29.6% (IG), and 40.0% (EG), respectively, without any statistical significance. Conclusion: In order to improve the sleep of shift workers, it is recommended that the evening chronotypes should reduce the day shifts and the morning chronotypes should reduce the night shifts. We also propose a study to determine whether these shift assignments can improve the sleep in shift nurses.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.2189-2201
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• 2024

Objective: Despite the considerable body of research on the effects of heat stress coupled with water scarcity (either through restriction or deprivation) on goats, aimed at enhancing their welfare, there remains a notable gap in the literature regarding the subsequent period following water restoration, during which the cumulative impact is fully alleviated. In response to this gap, we propose a strategy grounded in the assessment of body-thermal status to improve the welfare of heat-stressed and water-deprived goats. Specifically, our strategy seeks to determine the minimally required recovery interval necessary to completely mitigate the residual effects of water deprivation endured for a duration of 72 hours. Methods: Eight healthy Aardi bucks, aged 10 months and weighing 30 kg, were subjected to three distinct stages: euhydration, dehydration, and rehydration. Each stage spanned for 72 hours except for the rehydration stage, which was left unrestricted. Various meteorological, biophysiological, and thermophysiological measurements were subsequently recorded. Results: Exposure of heat-stressed goats, as indicated by the temperature-humidity index values, to a 72 hours deprivation period resulted in noticeable (p<0.05) alterations in their biophysiological (daily feed intake, body weight, and feces water content) and thermophysiological responses (core, rectal, skin, and surface temperatures, respiratory and heart rates, internal, external, and total body-thermal gradients, heat tolerance and adaptability coefficients, heterothermial total body-heat storage, and total water conservation). Remarkably, our findings demonstrate that all assessed variables, whether measured or estimated, returned to their baseline euhydration levels within 10 days of commencing the rehydration phase. Conclusion: In order to improve the welfare of heat-stressed and 72 hours water-deprived goats, it is imperative to allow a recovery period of no less than 10 days following the restoration of water access prior to initiating any subsequent experiments involving these animals. Such experiments, addressing these critical aspects, serve to advance our understanding of goat welfare and obviously hold promise for contributing to future food security and economic viability.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.34
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• pp.33.1-33.13
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• 2022

Background: Circadian rhythm disturbance caused by shift work has adverse effects on the metabolic homeostasis of the liver. Disruption of the metabolic homeostasis of the liver causes fat accumulation in the liver. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between shift work and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) among male workers in the steel manufacturing industry of Korea. Methods: Based on medical examination data collected in June 2020, 2,511 male subjects from one steel manufacturing company in Korea were selected in total. NAFLD was evaluated using abdominal ultrasound, which was performed by two experienced radiologists. The multinomial logistic regression analysis was performed by adjusting for age, physical activity, smoking history, alcohol consumption, body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure, blood glucose, lipidemia, liver function test, employment duration, and hepatotoxic materials exposure status. Results: Compared to daytime workers, the odds ratio (OR) of moderate-severe NAFLD in shift workers was 1.449 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.028-2.043). Compared to daytime workers, the ORs of moderate-severe NAFLD were significantly higher for the group that engaged in total shift work for more than 20 years (OR, 2.285; 95% CI, 1.051-4.970), the group that was not allowed to sleep during night shift work (OR, 1.463; 95% CI, 1.030-2.078), and the group that consumed food during night shift work (OR, 1.580; 95% CI, 1.093-2.284). Conclusions: There was a correlation between shift work and moderate-severe NAFLD in male steel manufacturing workers. There will be a need for more research related to the correlation of shift work with steatohepatitis and cirrhosis in the future.