ObjectiveTo prevent the occurrence of CV events such as MI and stroke among professional drivers in Korea, bus drivers were compared to other occupations through the Framingham risk scoring system (FRS) or metabolic syndrome (MS) of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment methods.MethodsIn October 2012, a health examination survey was conducted for 443 male bus drivers in a big city. Their CVD risk factors were compared to those of a ‘total employed’ (A group) and ‘crafts and machine operators’ (B group) extracted from Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES, 2010) data by using FRS and MS. We calculated proportions of the CVD risk factors distribution between bus drivers and the A, B groups by the bootstrapping method. The Odds ratio (OR) between CV event risk combining MS with CHD equivalent risk of FRS and occupational factors like shift patterns and professional driving duration/age ratios (PDAR) of bus drivers was calculated through multinominal logistic regression.ResultsThe proportion of BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 was 53.9% and waist circumference ≥ 90cm was 40.9% among bus drivers. Hypertension and MS prevalence of bus drivers was 53.3%, 49.9% which is higher than 17.6%, 22.6% in the A group and 19.7%, 23.8% in the B group respectively. OR of high CV event risk in alternate shift was 2.58 (95% CI 1.33~5.00) in comparison with double shift pattern and OR in PDAR ≥ 0.5 was 2.18 (95% CI 1.15~4.14).ConclusionMiddle aged male drivers in a big city of Korea stand a higher chance of developing CV event than other professions of the same age.

Oxidation of alcohols is an essential organic reaction, affording versatile carbonyl groups. To provide a sustainable solution for environmentally harmful traditional oxidation methods, the transition-metal catalyzed acceptor-free dehydrogenation of alcohols has attracted much attention. The widely used catalysts for the dehydrogenation reaction are based on precious metals, which are not economical and environmentally benign. We developed an operationally simple, economical, and environmentally benign acceptorless Fecatalyzed dehydrogenation of various secondary benzylic alcohols to afford the corresponding ketones and H 2 . A simple in situ mixture of readily available Fe(III) acetylacetonate, 1,10-phenanthroline, and K 2 CO 3 was identified as an active catalyst for this transformation.

The Transmissible Gastroenteritis Virus (TGEV) causes severe diarrhea and other symptoms which end up in death in young piglets. We have studied the protective effects of the probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum strain N4(Lp) which metabolic products were added to the swine testis (ST) cells with three different orders using MTT cell proliferation assay and CPE analysis. Metabolic products led to dose-dependent rescue of viability of infected cells in a certain order: pre-treatment, post-infection, co-incubation. Pre-treatment of cells with probiotic metabolic products reduced viral proliferation up to 78% at non-cytotoxic concentration 1/4 dilution. The viral yields in pretreatment groups were reduced by over three log10 units. Quantitative real-time PCR revealed the optimal inhibition of TGEV RNA replication was 24 h apply pretreatment way that up to 71% of N gene. Analysised the composition of metabolic products by GC-MS revealed the major component is sugars. Then Exopolysaccharides (EPS) was extracted and showed inhibition effect that co-incubation with TGEV.

No abstract

Previous epidemiological studies have reported persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and some nonpersistent pesticides and the risk of thyroid cancer. The aim of this study was to assess the association between exposure to POPs, pesticides, and thyroid cancer by carrying out a meta-analysis. Literature searches were performed using PubMed, Embase, and reference lists of relevant articles. Summary risk estimates for thyroid cancer were calculated using fixed-effects and random-effects models. In addition, several subgroup and sensitivity analyses were carried out. Fifteen studies were reviewed, and eight studies were included in the meta-analysis. Pesticide exposure showed positive, statistically significant associations with thyroid cancer [odds ratio (OR)=1.48, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.15–1.91, I 2=48%, P heterogenetiy=0.05]. After subgroup analysis, herbicide exposure (OR=3.00, 95% CI=1.38–6.54) and agricultural exposure to pesticides (OR=1.86, 95% CI=1.04–3.32) was associated with an increased risk of thyroid cancer. A sensitivity analysis showed that the results were robust. Exposure to pesticides was associated with an increased risk of thyroid cancer in this meta-analysis. Future studies should investigate exposure to POPs or pesticides with controls for potential confounders using biological samples.

Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) are similar coronaviruses, causing diseases characterized by vomiting, diarrhea, and death from severe dehydration in piglets. Thus, they have caused huge losses to the swine-breeding industry worldwide. Nowadays, they are easily transmitted among the continents via vehicles, equipment, and cargo. Both viruses establish an infection in porcine enterocytes in the small intestine, and their spike (S) proteins play a key role in the virus-cell binding process under unfavorable conditions when the intestine with a low pH is filled with a thick layer of mucus and proteases. Sialic acid, proteases, and low pH are three main inducers of coronavirus infection. However, the details of how sialic acid and low pH affect virus binding to the host cell are not determined, and the functions of the proteases are unknown. This review emphasizes the role of three factors in the invasion of TGEV and PEDV into porcine enterocytes and offers more insights into Alphacoronavirus infection in the intestinal environment.

For cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) systems, we propose a sphere phantom based method to estimate the full three-dimensional (3D) modulation transfer function (MTF). Methods: The FDK reconstruction of CBCT system in a local region was modeled by a triple convolution operator. Afterward, we calculated the directional projections of ideal and reconstructed sphere phantoms into a two-dimensional (2D) plane for multiple views. To estimate the projected 3D point spread function (PSF), we applied the 2D Richardson-Lucy deconvolution with Tikhonov-Miller (RL-TM). After estimating the projected 3D PSF from multiple views, the full 3D PSF was estimated by performing filtered backprojection. Then, the full 3D MTF was calculated by taking the modulus of the Fourier transform of the estimated 3D PSF. To validate the proposed method, we reconstructed sphere phantoms from simulation and experiment data. We simulated ideal 3D MTFs and compared them with the estimated 3D MTFs along the f z -, f x -, and f 45 -directions. The full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) and full-width at tenth-maximum (FWTM) values were compared between ideal and estimated 3D MTFs. Results: The estimated 3D MTFs from both the simulation and experiment results show qualitative similarity in their shapes with the ideal 3D MTFs; FWHM and FWTM results quantitatively show that the proposed method provides reliable estimation performance. In particular, the estimated 3D MTF in a missing cone region was correctly matched with the corresponding ideal 3D MTF. Conclusions: In this work, we proposed a full 3D MTF estimation method for CBCT systems. Based on the results, we believe that the proposed method can be used to evaluate the spatial resolution performance of CBCT systems.

ObjectivesThe job of firefighting can cause lumbar burden and low back pain. This study aimed to identify the association between age and lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration and whether the association differs between field and administrative (non-field) firefighters.MethodsSubjects were selected using a stratified random sampling method. Firefighters were stratified by geographic area, gender, age and type of job. First, 25 fire stations were randomly sampled considering regional distribution. Then firefighters were stratified by gender, age and their job and randomly selected among the strata. A questionnaire survey and MRI scans were performed, and then four radiologists used Pfirrmann classification methods to determine the grade of lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration.ResultsPfirrmann grade increased with lumbar intervertebral disc level. Analysis of covariance showed that age was significantly associated with lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration (p<0.05). The value of β (parameter estimate) was positive at all lumbar intervertebral disc levels and was higher in the field group than in the administrative group at each level. In logistic regression analysis, type of job was statistically significant only with regard to the L4–5 intervertebral disc (OR 3.498, 95% CI 1.241 to 9.860).ConclusionsLumbar intervertebral disc degeneration is associated with age, and field work such as firefighting, emergency and rescue may accelerate degeneration in the L4–5 intervertebral disc. The effects of field work on lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration were not clear in discs other than at the level L4–5.