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Participatory Action Oriented Training for Hospital Nurses (PAOTHN) Program to PreventMusculoskeletal Disorders: Jong-Eun LEE, et al. Johns Hopkins University, School of Nursing, USA-Objectives: The purpose of this study was to construct and test the feasibility and potential utility of a Participatory Action Oriented Training for Hospital Nurses (PAOTHN) program to prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The PAOTHN program emphasized the active participation of nurses, resulting in practical and low-cost solutions for improving their work environment by reducing risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders. Methods: The PAOTHN program was conducted in a hospital located in a suburb of Seoul, South Korea. Of the 24 units in the hospital, 16 units participated in the study. The main components of the intervention were a series of structured workshops, continuous technical assistance by the research team, and periodical forums for sharing "best practices" among the participants. Results: Through the workshops, head nurses of the participating units identified a total of 46 strategic (23 short-term and 23 long-term) plans for reducing musculoskeletal disorders risks across five dimensions: (1) patient care and treatment, (2) safe handling of drugs, medical devices, and equipment, (3) workstation design, (4) physical environment, and (5) welfare facilities and administration. Over the course of the year-long project, 18 of the suggested plans were completed, for an overall completion rate of 39.1%. Conclusions: The PAOTHN program was found to be feasible and potentially useful in reducing the musculoskeletal disorder risks faced by hospital nurses, and in identifying both risk factors and improvement Field Studyopportunities at the individual and organizational levels.

Purpose: Work-related anxiety and depression are frequent work-related mental health problems. In this study the relationship between workplace violence and work-related anxiety and/or depression among Korean employees was evaluated. Methods: Data were obtained from the Korean Working Condition Survey of 2006. Participants were 9,094 Korean workers aged 15-64 yr. Multiple logistic regression using SAS version 9.1 was used. Results: The incidence of work-related anxiety, work-related depression and workplace violence were 4.5%, 3.5%, and 1.8% respectively. When personal and occupational risk factors were adjusted, workplace violence was significantly associated with work-related anxiety and depression (OR for anxiety: 4.07, CI: 2.62-6.34; OR for depression: 4.60, CI: 2.92-7.25). Work-related anxiety was significantly related to type of employment, working period at present workplace, work time, shift work, job demand, and social support from superiors. Factors influencing work-related depression were gender, education, alcohol consumption, company size, type of employment, working period at present workplace, work time, shift work, and job demand. Conclusion: To promote psychological health in workers there is a need to develop work-related anxiety and depression prevention programs and to decrease in workplace violence. In developing these programs, consideration should be given to personal factors, working conditions, and psychosocial working environments.

Purpose: The suicide rate of adolescents in Korea is increasing annually. Therefore, this research was done to identify the suicide attempt rate of middle and high school students and to identify factors that influence suicidal attempts. Methods: The Korea Youth Health Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2007) was used as data. Discriminant analysis and logistic regression were performed to analyze the data depending on gender to consider the gender difference in assessing the influence of each independent variable on suicidal attempts. Results: Discriminant analysis according on gender showed that 13 factors correlated with suicidal attempts for boys, and 20 factors for girls. The most highly correlated factors were smoking, depression and inhalation experience. For inhalation experience, boys had 2.7 times higher possibility of suicide attempts (95% CI 1.8-3.0) and girls, a 2.4 times higher possibility (95% CI 1.7-3.5). Conclusion: The results of the study indicate a need to classify adolescents for expectation of suicide risk and high danger for suicidal attempts through, and introduce suicide prevention programs for these adolescents. In particular, it is necessary to start intervention with students who smoke, have sexual and inhalation experiences and high levels of depression.

The authors developed a stepwise exercise-incentive-based smoking cessation program as one of the workplace health promotion program. The aim of this study is to evaluate the program offered in an electronics company in Korea. A total of 109 electronics company employees were recruited. Participants were surveyed for smoking history, nicotine dependence, and job stress. They received smoking cessation education and were provided with a stepwise fitness center ticket. Of 109 participants, 58 (53.2%) successfully ceased smoking for 3 months. Significant differences between success and fail groups were apparent in cigarettes smoked per day (P = .002) and nicotine dependence score (P = .049). However, there was no significant difference in job stress between success and fail groups. Based on multiple logistic regression analysis, there were no identifiable factors associated with smoking cessation. In conclusion, a stepwise exercise-incentive-based smoking cessation program was highly effective when applied in a workplace setting.

The fungus Colletotrichum capsici was isolated from the diseased fruits of Chilli plant, Capsicum annuum. The isolated test fungus was identified by its morphological and molecular characteristic features. For the first time, the fungus was screened for the production of taxol on modified liquid medium. The presence of taxol was confirmed by the spectroscopic and chromatographic methods of analyses. The amount of taxol produced by this fungus was quantified by HPLC. The maximum amount of fungal taxol production was recorded as 687 μg/L. The production rate was 13 740‐fold higher than that, previously reported for the fungus Taxomyces andreanae. The extracted fungal taxol showed a strong cytotoxic activity in an in vitro culture of human cancer cells indicating that the increase in taxol concentration induces increased cell death. A PCR‐based screening for taxadiene synthase (ts), a unique gene in the formation of the taxane skeleton, confirmed the molecular blueprint for taxol biosynthesis. The results show that the fungus C. capsici is an excellent candidate for an alternate source of taxol supply and can serve as a potential species for genetic engineering to enhance the production of taxol to a higher level.

Let R = (−∞, ∞) and let Q ∈ C 2 : R → R + = [0, ∞) be an even function. Then in this paper we consider the infinite-finite range inequality, an estimate for the Christoffel function, and the Markov-Bernstein inequality with the exponential weights w (x)= |x| e −Q(x) , x ∈ R.

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