A Study on Nursing Students' Knowledge, Attitude, and Educational Needs for Brain-Death Organ Transplantation and Donation and Intent to Donate Organs.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify the knowledge, attitude, educational needs, and will of nursing students on organ donation from brain-dead donors. METHODS: Data were collected by using a 40-item questionnaire to measure knowledge, attitude, educational needs, and will for organ donation of 215 nursing college students in one university in Dangjin city from May 11 to May 31, 2017. The data were analyzed using SPSS 22 program (Data Solution Inc, Seoul). RESULTS: In the general characteristics, 85.1% of the subjects did not receive education on donation, and 99.5% of the subjects responded that education is needed. The desired methods of education were special lecture in school (55.3%), "webtoons" on the Internet (19.5%), formal curriculum (15.8%). Points to improve to increase brain-death organ transplantation and donation included "active publicity through pan-national campaign activities" (56.3%), "respecting prior consent from brain-dead donors" (21.9%), and "encouragement and increased support for organ donors" (12.1%). There was a significant difference in knowledge according to will for organ donation (t = 3.29, P = .001) and consent to brain-death organ donation in family members (t = 3.29, P = .001). There was a statistically significant positive correlation between attitude and knowledge of the subjects regarding brain-death organ donation. CONCLUSION: The knowledge, attitude, educational need, and will for organ donation of nursing students revealed in this study will be used as basic data to provide systematic transplant education including contents about organ transplantation in the regular nursing curriculum in the future. It will contribute to the activation of organ donation.

First Report of Aecidium magnatum Anamorph of Uromyces acuminatus Causing Rust on Viburnum sargentii in Korea.

Viburnum sargentii Koehne belongs to the family Caprifoliaceae. It is a deciduous shrub that grows in wet mountainous area in Korea, Japan, and China. On July 2011, rust symptoms were observed on V. sargentii Koehne in Balwang mountain, Gangwon Province, Korea, at an altitude of 1,450 meters. The specimen was coded as DUCC506 and used to study in detail. Rust symptoms were present on leaves, floral axes, and petioles. The infected lesions slightly swelled and leaflets and leaves were distorted. These caused sharp bends in the petioles and wart-like galls on twigs. Defoliation and deflowering could result when infection was severe. The first symptom was small and pale yellow spots on the upper surfaces of the leaves. As the spots increased in size, they turned brown and tanned. Bright orange or yellow powdery masses of spores were produced in tiny cup-like structures that appeared on the undersurfaces of leaves and the surface of floral axes and petioles. Aecia were gregarious, cupulate, yellowish, and erumpent with a peridium having a lacerate, somewhat recurved margin. Peridial cells were hyaline to whitish, rhomboidal, 18 to 25 (avg. 21.5) × 15 to 20 (avg. 18) µm, smooth to finely verrucose, and not observed in aecial stage on floral axes and petioles. Aeciospores were globose to ellipsoid, 14 to 16 (avg. 15.4) × 15 to 16.5 (avg. 16) µm, hyaline to yellowish, with many verrucose surface and hyaline walls. These morphological properties correspond to the aecial stage of Uromyces acuminatus (1,4). From extracted genomic DNA, the D1 and D2 region of 28S ribosomal DNA was amplified with LROR (5'- ACCCGCTGAACTTAAGC-3') and LR4 (5'-ACCAGAGTTTCCTCTGG- 3') primer set. The 28S rDNA sequence of DUCC506 was deposited in GenBank DNA database under accession number KC570451. A nucleotide sequence similarity search through BLAST in the GenBank database revealed that the DUCC506's 28S rDNA shared 98% (607/622) similarity with that of U. acuminatus LD1005 (GU058004). Aecidium magnatum Arthur is the anamorph of U. acuminatus (2). Aecial and telial hosts of U. acuminatus belong to several families of Angiosperms and Spartina spp., respectively. No telial host was found near the infected aecial host V. sargentii. These morphological and molecular results support the morphological data to identify DUCC506 specimen is A. magnatum. To our knowledge, this is the first report of rust caused by A. magnatum on V. sargentii in Korea or elsewhere in the world. Rust caused by A. viburni was reported on V. sargentii in Korea without any morphological description (3). Peoples in Asia are interested in this host plant as it is used for ornamental and medicinal purpose. Therefore, our report would be useful information for the management of V. sargentii. References: (1) G. B. Cummins. The Rust Fungi of Cereals, Grasses and Bamboos. Springer-Verlag, New York, 1971. (2) D. F. Farr et al. Fungi on Plants and Plant Products in the United States. Page 1009. American Phytopathological Society Press, St. Paul, MN, 1989. (3) C. J. Kim. Kor. J. Micorbiol. 1:51, 1963. (4) H. Y. Yun et al. Plant Dis. 94:279, 2010.

A study on knowledge and attitude toward brain death and organ retrieval among health care professionals in Korea.

PURPOSE: The practice of retrieving vital organs from brain-dead donors is legally and medically accepted in Korea, but health care professionals' beliefs and opinions regarding these matters have not been sufficiently explored. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of health care professionals to the concepts of brain death and organ retrieval. METHODS: Data were collected using a 41-item questionnaire during a week in June 2011. Sixty-one doctors and 109 nurses from five hospitals with more than 2000 beds in Seoul, Korea, participated in the survey. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 17.0 (SPSS Inc. Chicago, Illinois, USA). RESULTS: There were statistically significant differences in the scores on knowledge according to marital status (P = .001) education level (P = .019), whether the participants were informed about organ donation from a brain-dead donor (P = .002), and the participant's experience managing potential brain-dead patients (P = .037). There were statistically significant differences in the scores on the attitude according to gender (P < .001), age (P < .001), marital status (P < .001), education level (P = .003), job position (P < .001), and the participant's experience referring brain-dead patients to the hospital-based organ procurement organization (P = .001). Significantly, attitude's positively correlated with knowledge about brain-dead organ donation (P < .001). CONCLUSION: Compared with previous studies, the knowledge and attitudes of health care professionals' regarding brain death and organ retrieval were not improved. There are passive attitudes to brain death and organ retrieval. More research must be performed to promote knowledge and understanding toward brain death and organ retrieval among health care professionals.

Does video-assisted minilaparotomy surgical living donor nephrectomy satisfy donors?

PURPOSE: Video-assisted minilaparotomy surgical (VAMS) nephrectomy is believed to provide better cosmetic outcomes than open-donor nephrectomy in healthy donors. However, the results of a few studies have influenced the opinion of donors on their physical appearance. This study investigated the satisfaction of donors after a VAMS living donor nephrectomy. METHODS: Donors who underwent VAMS living donor nephrectomy between 2009 and 2011 were requested to fill out a body image questionnaire. This questionnaire consisted of three subscales: body image scale (BS), confidence in surgery scale (CS), and hospital experience scale (HS). A total of 20 VAMS living nephrectomy donors completed the questionnaire. RESULTS: The study included 3 male and 17 female donors of overall mean age of 38.7 ± 12.4 years. Eight donors were unmarried (40.0%), 11 were married (55.0%), and 1 was divorced. The mean follow-up was 7.9 ± 4.5 months. The mean BS, CS, and HS scores were 41.6 ± 5.3, 21.85 ± 8.3, and 13.9 ± 2.2, corresponding to perfect scores of 50, 30, and 20, respectively. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that VAMS nephrectomy donors tended to be pleased with their body image, operation, and hospital experiences.

Hinnavin I, an antibacterial peptide from cabbage butterfly, Artogeia rapae.

We have previously isolated four antibacterial peptides from the immune haemolymph of the fifth instar larvae of cabbage butterfly, Artogeia rapae [Yoe, S. M., Bang, I. S., Kang, C. S., and Kim, H. J. (1996) Mol. Cells 6, 609-614]. They were induced by live, nonpathogenic gram negative bacteria. One of these novel antibacterial peptides was named hinnavin I. Hinnavin I is heat stable; its activity was retained after 60 min incubation at 100 degrees C, being effective against gram negative and/or gram positive bacteria. Hinnavin I and lysozyme II showed a powerful synergistic effect on the inhibition of bacterial growth. Amino acid composition was analyzed and the molecular weight was determined to be 4,139.94+/-10.91 Da by the ESI mass spectrometer. To elucidate the primary structure of hinnavin I, the amino acid sequence of this peptide was determined by N-terminal sequencing techniques. The amino-terminal half of the molecule was rich in charged amino acids and was hydrophilic, whereas the carboxyl-terminal half was hydrophobic.

Partial purification and characterization of PAF acetylhydrolase in human amniotic fluid.

Platelet-activating factor (PAF) acetylhydrolase, which removes the acetyl moiety at thesn-2 position, has been found in human amniotic fluid. We purified this enzyme by ammonium sulfate precipitation, and sequential use of DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B, hydroxyapatite, chelating-Sepharose, and Mono Q column chromatographies. This enzyme exhibited broad pH optima and was unaffected by EDTA. Partially purified enzyme had a molecular weight of approximately 34 kDa on SDS-PAGE. In addition, the enzyme activity was inhibited by either diisopropylfluorophosphate(DFP) orp-bromophenacylbromide (p-BPB), suggesting that this enzyme possesses active serine and histidine residues. The enzyme showed similar activity towards PAF and oxidatively modified phosphatidylcholine, but didn't hydrolyze phosphatidylcholine or phosphatidylethanolamine with a long chain fatty acyl group atsn-2 position.