Eighteen commercial laver (Porphyra sp.) products were purchased from Korean market and were monitored for their microbial contamination, pre-decontamination, and luminescence properties. The laver samples showed considerable variation in their microbial contamination, from 10-10 7 CFU/g of total aerobic counts, <10-10 2 CFU/g of coliforms in 4 dried laver samples, and <10-10 6 CFU/g of yeasts and molds except in 3 samples. In addition, 10 2 CFU/g of Bacillus cereus was found in one sample. DEFT/APC analysis was suitable for demonstrating whether the samples were pre-decontaminated or not, with DEFT/APC values lower than 2.0 log for non-heated samples and 1.0-8.5 log for heatprocessed samples. In photostimulated luminescence (PSL) calibration, 15 samples irradiated at 1 kGy showed positive (irradiated) values more than 5000 PCs. Furthermore, thermoluminescence (TL) analysis by separating the marker minerals from samples revealed the potential to be employed in identifying irradiation status by determining 1

This study tries to identify experience of verbal abuse, emotional response, and ways to deal with verbal abuse against nurses in hospitals. Methods: This study was a descriptive research and conducted from April to July 2011. One hundred and seventeen nurses with over one-year experience in general wards were selected and evaluated. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, independent t-tests, and one-way ANOVA. Results: The nurses' experience rate of verbal abuse during the entire period of work in hospitals was 98.3%. The majority of the nurses were verbally abused by patients (70.9%), followed by patients' relatives (65.8%), physicians (61.5%), and coworkers (58.1%). Overall negative emotional response score of nurses after verbal abuse was 38.82±8.28. Ways to deal with verbal abuse were as follows: suppression was 74.4%, complaining of an injustice to close people, 67.5%, and ignoring, 43.6%. Conclusion: Nurses have significantly been exposed to verbal abuse while working in hospitals. Therefore, hospital managers and nurse managers are required to inform other staff and visitors in hospitals the real condition of verbal abuse against nurses and provide a safe work environment by developing the report and disposal system of verbal abuse.

The physiological activities of extracts from the leaf, stem, and fruit of Cudrania tricuspidata were investigated. The electron-donating ability (EDA) of the 70% (v/v) ethanolic extract of stem was 90.20%; this was the highest value of all the extracts tested and higher than the L-ascorbate solutions. The total polyphenol contents were the highest in the leaf extracts under all extraction conditions. Especially, 70% (v/v) methanolic extract of leaf contained the highest total polyphenol content of 224.48 mg%. SOD-like activity showed the highest activity in water extract of leaf at 64.53%. Tyrosinase-inhibitory activities were the most effective in all extracts of fruit. ACE inhibitory activities were the highest in water extract of fruit. Nitrite-scavenging abilities under acidic conditions (pH 1.2 and pH 3.0) were the most effective in all the extracts. The results of this study will be useful for understanding the physiological activities of Cudrania tricuspidata extracts.

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Eleven functional plant materials were identified via a literature search, and their antioxidant capacity and inhibitory effects on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide (NO) production in RAW264.7 cells were tested. Yields from hot water extracts of the materials were the highest (52.10%) in Lycii fructus, and the yields from Phellinus linteus were the lowest (5.7%). The yields of another were 14.50-42.47%. Total phenol and flavonoids contents were the highest in P. linteus. The EC50 values for DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activities were lower than 100 μg/ml for Salvia miltiorrhiza, whereas the values for P. linteus, Scutellaria baicalensis, and Paeonia lactiflora were 100-200 μg/ml. The EC50 value for the superoxide anion radical scavenging activity of all the extracts was higher than 300 μg/ml. P. linteus for the reducing power was shown the highest activity. Fe 2+ chelating activity was the highest in the Morus alba extract. In an MTT assay, the cell viability of the RAW264.7 LPS-exposed cells was above 80% in extracts of 50 μg/ml and above 77% in extracts of 100 μg/ml in all the plant materials except Acanthopanax sessiliflorum. NO production in the RAW264.7 LPS-exposed cells showed a 12-fold increase compared to the control. The NO production level of all the extracts was 6. 86-26.18 μM. Notably, 100 μg/ml of S. baicalensis extract showed a remarkable decrease in NO production (72%) compared with the control. The potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of S.baicalensis, P. linteus, S. miltiorrhiza, M. alba, and P. lactiflora suggest that they are potential candidates as functional materials.