Polypharmacy, the concurrent use of multiple medicines, could increase the risk of kidney dysfunction among older adults because it likely burdens the aging kidneys to excrete multiple pharmaceutical ...ingredients and their metabolites. This study aimed to examine the relation between polypharmacy and kidney dysfunction among older patients. A nested case-control study was conducted using the National Health Insurance Service - Senior Cohort (NHIS-SC, 2009-2013), representative of the Korean senior population. It consisted of all health insurance claims linked to records of mandatory health examination. Kidney dysfunction was defined as having an eGFR lower than 60, with a decline rate of 10% or more compared to the baseline eGFR. Polypharmacy was defined based on daily counts of pharmaceutical ingredients during one year prior to the case's event date. It was classified into polypharmacy (five to 10 ingredients) and excessive polypharmacy (10 or more ingredients). After matching case and control groups based on a range of potential confounders, conditional logistic regression was performed incorporating adjustments on disease-specific, medication-specific, and lifestyle-related risk factors. The matching resulted in 14,577 pairs of cases and controls. Exposure to polypharmacy was significantly associated with increase in the risk of kidney dysfunction; i.e., crude model (polypharmacy: OR = 1.572, 95% CI = 1.492-1.656; excessive polypharmacy: OR = 2.069, 95% CI = 1.876-2.283) and risk adjustment model (polypharmacy: OR = 1.213, 95% CI = 1.139-1.292; excessive polypharmacy: OR = 1.461, 95% CI = 1.303-1.639). The significant associations were robust across different definitions of kidney dysfunction. These findings inform healthcare providers and policy makers of the importance of polypharmacy prevention to protect older adults from kidney dysfunction.
Social jetlag (SJL) refers to an asynchrony between one's chronotype and social working hours, which can be detrimental to health. The current SJL situation in shift nurses who work in dysregulation ...is poorly understood. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate SJL during night shifts and identify the predictors of sleep quality in rotating shift nurses. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018 on a sample of 132 shift-working nurses from two general hospitals in South Korea (the response rate was 88.8%). The SJL was measured with the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire, and sleep quality was measured with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Verran and Snyder-Halpern Sleep Scale. Data analysis was mainly based on a multiple regression, to identify SJL's influence on nurses' sleep quality. The average SJL during night shifts was 2 h and 3 min, and the average sleep duration during night shifts was 6 h 10 min. Multiple regression analysis revealed that SJL, day-shift fatigue, and sleep quality during night shifts affected nurses' sleep quality. These variables accounted for 24.7% of the variance in overall sleep quality. The study concluded that overall sleep quality can increase with decreasing day-shift fatigue, decreasing SJL, and increasing sleep quality on night shifts.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has been disrupting the daily lives of people across the world, causing a major concern for psychological well-being in children. This study aimed to examine (1) how life ...satisfaction and its potential predictors have been affected by the pandemic among school-aged children in Korea, and (2) which factors would predict their life satisfaction during the pandemic. We surveyed 166 fourth-graders in the Seoul metropolitan area to assess their psychological well-being and potentially related variables during the pandemic. The data were compared with those available from two pre-COVID-19 surveys, the 2018 Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (
= 1236) and the 2019 Korean Children and Youth Well-being Index Survey (
= 334). Higher levels of stress were observed in children during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the level of their life satisfaction remained unchanged when compared with data from the pre-COVID-19 surveys. The pandemic also affected peer relationship quality and susceptibility to smartphone addiction, but not perceived parenting style nor academic engagement. Interestingly, peer relationship quality no longer predicted life satisfaction during the pandemic; perceived parenting styles and parent-child conversation time predicted life satisfaction. The results suggest a central role of parent-child relationship in supporting the psychological well-being of school-aged children during the pandemic.
A microaerophilic Gram-stain-negative bacilliform bacterial strain, FB-5
T
, was isolated from activated sludge in Yokohama, Japan, that exhibited filamentous growth and formed a microtube (sheath). ...Cells were motile using a single polar flagellum. The optimum growth temperature and pH were 30 °C and 7.5, respectively. Strain FB-5
T
was catalase-negative. Peptides and amino acids were utilized as energy and carbon sources. Sugars and organic acids were not utilized. Vitamin B
12
enhanced the growth of strain FB-5
T
. Sulfur-dependent lithotrophic growth was possible. Major respiratory quinone was UQ-8. Major fatty acids were C
16:1
ω7 and C
16:0
. The genomic DNA G + C content was 69.16%. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene suggested that strain FB-5
T
belongs to the genus
Sphaerotilus
. The close relatives were
S. natans
subsup.
sulfidivorans
and
S. natans
subsup.
natans
with 98.0% and 97.8% similarity based on the 16S rRNA gene analysis, respectively. The genome size (6.06 Mbp) was larger than that (4.39–5.07 Mbp) of the
Sphaerotilus
strains. The AAI values against the related strains ranged from 71.0 to 72.5%. The range of ANI values was 81.7 − 82.5%. In addition to these distinguishable features of the genome, the core genome and dDDH analyses suggested that this strain is a novel member of the genus
Sphaerotilus
. Based on its physiological properties and genomic features, strain FB-5
T
is considered as a novel species of the genus
Sphaerotilus
, for which the name
S. microaerophilus
sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is FB-5
T
(= JCM 35424
T
= KACC 23146
T
).
Understanding how patient-physician communication affects patients' medication experience would help hypertensive patients maintain their regular long-term medication therapy. This study aimed to ...examine whether patient-physician communication (information and interpersonal treatment) affects patients' medication experience directly or indirectly through changing medication adherence for each of the two communication domains.
A self-administered cross-sectional survey was conducted for older patients who had visited a community senior center as a member. Two communication domains were assessed using two subscales of the Primary Care Assessment Survey. Medication adherence and experience were measured using the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale and a five-point Likert scale, respectively. Mediatory effects were assessed via Baron and Kenny's procedure and a Sobel test.
Patient-physician communication had a positive prediction on patients' medication experience (β=0.25,
=0.03), and this was fully mediated by medication adherence (
=3.62,
<0.001). Of the two components of patient-physician communication, only informative communication showed a mediatory effect (
=2.21,
=0.03).
Patient-physician communication, specifically informative communication, had the potential to improve patients' medication experience via changes in medication adherence. This finding can inform health care stakeholders of the mediatory role of medication adherence in ensuring favorable medication experience for older hypertensive patients by fostering informative patient-physician communication.
Objective: To evaluate the effect of different extracts of Diospyros lotus leaves in atopic dermatitis Methods: Diospyros lotus leaves were extracted in ethanol and treated with or without ...hydrochloric acid or α-rhamnosidase to obtain three different extracts-ethanol, acid-hydrolyzed, and enzyme-hydrolyzed leaf extracts of date plum. The myricitrin content in all samples was measured using HPLC analysis. In vitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of the extracts were determined by measuring DPPH radical scavenging activities and nitric oxide production in RAW264.7 cells, respectively. Seven-week-old male hairless mice were used to evaluate the anti-atopic dermatitis effects of three extracts in vivo. Splenocytes and mast cells were used to further determine the anti-atopic dermatitis effects of the major compound in the ethanol leaf extract. Results: Enzyme-hydrolyzed leaf extract showed significant in vitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, and attenuated atopic dermatitis-like skin symptoms and clinical signs more significantly than ethanol and acid-hydrolyzed leaf extracts in 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene and house dust mite antigen-treated hairless mice. Enzyme-hydrolyzed leaf extract also suppressed the serum level of immunoglobulin E, interleukin (IL)-4, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interferon (IFN)-γ, thymic stromal lymphopoietin, and thymus and activation-regulated chemokine in mice with atopic dermatitis. Furthermore, histological analysis revealed that enzyme-hydrolyzed leaf extract suppressed the increased epidermal thickness, dermal infiltration of inflammatory cells, and infiltration and degranulation of mast cells more markedly than the other two extracts in atopic dermatitis-like skin lesions. In addition, this extract effectively inhibited the production of IFN-γ, IL-4, and thymus and activation-regulated chemokine compared with the other two extracts in concanavalin A-stimulated splenocytes. Myricitrin, a major compound of enzyme-hydrolyzed leaf extract, suppressed atopic dermatitis biomarkers in stimulated mouse splenocytes and HMC-1 human mast cells.Conclusions: These results suggest that enzyme-hydrolyzed leaf extract might be a potential candidate to treat atopic dermatitis.
Synthetic MRI is a technique that synthesizes contrast‐weighted images from multicontrast MRI data. There have been advances in synthetic MRI since the technique was introduced. Although a number of ...synthetic MRI methods have been developed for quantifying one or more relaxometric parameters and for generating multiple contrast‐weighted images, this review focuses on several methods that quantify all three relaxometric parameters (T1, T2, and proton density) and produce multiple contrast‐weighted images. Acquisition, quantification, and image synthesis techniques are discussed for each method. We discuss the image quality and diagnostic accuracy of synthetic MRI methods and their clinical applications in neuroradiology. Based on this analysis, we highlight areas that need to be addressed for synthetic MRI to be widely implemented in the clinic.
Level of Evidence
5
Technical Efficacy Stage
1
Display omitted
•Facile, low-cost, and easy to operate method for the fabrication of mimetic Stenocara beetle’s back.•Controlling a Surface wettability by the silver nanoparticles on the zinc oxide ...nanowires.•Selectively synthesizing the silver nanoparticles and zinc oxide nanowires hierarchical nanostructure.•Efficient water collection by hydrophobic surface with patterned hydrophilic regions.•Application to multifunctional surface for water collection and desalination.
As water scarcity has become a major global problem, fog-harvesting technologies are considered an effective sustainable solution for water resources. Here, we report a novel approach to the fog-harvesting technology using zinc oxide-silver hierarchical nanostructures to mimic the Stenocara beetle’s back. Vertically aligned zinc oxide nanowires are first fabricated by a cost-effective and scalable hydrothermal method to produce a superhydrophilic surface. Silver nanoparticles are then selectively synthesized by an additional photo-induced synthetic process on the zinc oxide nanowire surfaces to form a hydrophobic surface using the hierarchical nanostructures. The fog-harvesting performance was investigated using an artificial fog flow and by measuring the amount of harvested water for efficient fog harvesting. On the superhydrophilic surface, although the water droplets immediately were captured, they formed a puddle at the bottom of the surface due to the high adhesion between water and the surface. In contrast, on the hydrophobic surface, the capturing rate was very low even though the water droplets easily rolled off the surface. Compared to the non-patterned surface, the captured water film on the patterned hydrophilic region grew rapidly into a spherical shape and separated from the surface due to the surrounding hydrophobic regions. As a result, the patterned surface with 0.5 mm pattern size afforded a higher fog collection rate of 1233 mg/h than those of the superhydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces of 1105 mg/h and 879 mg/h respectively.
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