The impact of Value Incentive Program (VIP) on the quality of hospital care for acute stroke in Korea.

Objectives: This study aims to analyze the impact of Value Incentive Program (VIP) on the quality improvement of acute stroke care, and to determine the difference of effect by the size of hospitals.

Interventions: Adopting the VIP on the fifth acute stroke quality assessment.

Design/setting/participants: Using paired t-test and student t-test, we compared the quality assessment results of the third assessment, which was publicly reported without the VIP implementation and the fifth assessment, on which the VIP was applied.

Knowledge Level of Human Papillomavirus, Cervical Cancer and Vaccination Status among Mothers with Daughters in High School.

Purpose: The goal of this study was to examine knowledge level of human papillomavirus (HPV), cervical cancer, and vaccination status among Korean mothers' with a daughter in high school.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with a convenience sample of 234 Korean mothers.

Results: The mean score of HPV knowledge level was 4.

Women Religious and Married Women's Attitudes toward Menopause and Menopausal Symptoms.

Purpose: This study was done to extend the understanding and knowledge of menopause by comparing attitudes toward menopause and menopausal symptoms of women religious and married women.

Methods: The data were collected by self-report questionnaires from 126 women religious and 131 married women, between 40 and 59 years of age who lived in P city, D city and K province. A structured questionnaire was used which included demographic and health-related information, attitudes toward menopause, and menopausal symptoms.

[Effects of a cognitive-behavioral nursing intervention on anxiety and depression in women with breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy].

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of a cognitive-behavioral nursing intervention on anxiety and depression of patients with breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy.

Methods: A nonequivalent control group design was used for the study. The research participants were patients with breast cancer (N=71; experimental group=35, comparison group=36) who received radiotherapy at P university hospital.

Critical thinking and learning styles of nursing students at the Baccalaureate nursing program in Korea.

The purpose of this study is to examine the critical thinking dispositions and learning styles, as well as the relationships between critical thinking and learning styles of nursing students enrolled in Baccalaureate nursing programs in Korea. The convenient sample consisted of 724 students from five cities. The learning style inventory of Kolb (1976) and critical thinking disposition inventory of Rudd et al (2000) were used for collecting data.

Increase of collagen synthesis by obovatol through stimulation of the TGF-beta signaling and inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase in UVB-irradiated human fibroblast.

Background: Alterations of the extracellular matrix (ECM) is critical in the photo and age-damaged skin. Thus any compounds keep ECM can protected from photo and aged-damaged skin. ECM is predominantly composed of type I and type III collagens in the dermis.

Full developmental potential of mammalian preimplantation embryos is maintained after imaging using a spinning-disk confocal microscope.

Fluorescent live imaging of cells and embryos at subcellular resolution poses significant challenges for biologists due to morbidity and mortality ensuing from phototoxicity. Here we report the use of a spinning-disk confocal microscope to image mouse and bovine preimplantation embryos without impairing their developmental potential. We also present data indicating that this imaging technique does not affect the functionality of subcellular components as assessed by reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, caspase activity, and DNA integrity.

Attitude, beliefs, and intentions to care for SARS patients among Korean clinical nurses: an application of theory of planned behavior.

Purpose: This study examined Korean clinical nurses' intentions to care for SARS patients and identify determinants of the intentions. Theory of planned behavior was the framework to explain the intentions of Korean nurses for SARS patients care.

Methods: A convenient sample of six hundreds and seventy nine clinical nurses from four university-affiliated hospitals located in Seoul and in Kyung-gi province was used.

Neurotoxicity and behavioral deficits associated with Septin 5 accumulation in dopaminergic neurons.

Septin 5, a parkin substrate, is a vesicle- and membrane-associated protein that plays a significant role in inhibiting exocytosis. The regulatory function of Septin 5 in dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons of substantia nigra (SN), maintained at relatively low levels, has not yet been delineated. As loss of function mutations of parkin are the principal cause of a familial Parkinson's disease, a prevailing hypothesis is that the loss of parkin activity results in accumulation of Septin 5 which confers neuron-specific toxicity in SN-DAergic neurons.

Experimental strategy to identify genes susceptible to oxidative stress in nigral dopaminergic neurons.

Neuropathological evidence from both human and experimental models of Parkinson's disease (PD) firmly supports a significant role for oxidative stress (OS) in the death of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in substantia nigra. Largely unknown are the genes underlying selective susceptibility of nigral DA neuron to OS and how they effect nigral DA cell death. The major barriers to high-throughput identification of candidate genes are the paucity of nigral DA neurons as well as the dilution effect of non-DA cells both in primary cultures and brain tissues.

Oxidative stress regulated genes in nigral dopaminergic neuronal cells: correlation with the known pathology in Parkinson's disease.

Oxidative stress (OS) is a primary pathogenic mechanism of nigral dopaminergic (DA) cell death in Parkinson's disease (PD). Oxidative damage, Lewy body formation and decreased mitochondrial complex I activity are the consistent pathological findings in PD. In nigral DA neurons, however, it is unknown whether any gene expressional changes induced by OS contribute to the typical PD pathology.

Marked dopaminergic cell loss subsequent to developmental, intranigral expression of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor.

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) shows potent neuroprotective as well as neurorestorative actions on the adult neurons impacted in animal models of Parkinson's disease (PD). Long-term pharmaco-physiological effects of GDNF on developing dopaminergic (DA) neurons have not yet been explored because of technical difficulties in producing prolonged cell type-specific delivery of this neurotrophic factor in mammalian embryonic brain. The current studies used our previously characterized 9.