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Long-term endurance exercise could increase activity of parasympathetic nervous and decrease activity of sympathetic nervous at rest. However, previous studies all focused on the effect of endurance training on heart rate variability (HRV) for athletes or sedentary subjects. In Taiwan, elementary school teachers teaching and processing the children's and administrative problems always stand and walk. They will sit down only when they review and correct the students' home work. Thus, the goal of this study was to elucidate the beneficial effect of moderate intensity exercise on relieving mental load of elementary school teachers. There were 20 participants in the exercise group and another 20 participants in the nonexercise group. The exercising teachers performed 12 weeks of moderate intensity exercise training for an average of 30 minutes per day, 3 times per week. HRV was measured before and after the 4th, 6th, and 12th weeks. The time and frequency domain parameters of HRV all had significant increases between the beginning and after 12 weeks of training. However, the time and frequency domain parameters of HRV in the nonexercise group had significant decreases between the beginning and after 12 weeks of training. The long-term moderate exercises can relieve mental load of elementary school teachers. Moreover, age was the considerable factor affecting HRV in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Taiwanese government has actively proposed numerous policies in response to problems encountered by distant-water fisheries. However, an indicator framework for evaluating the performance of distant-water fishery policies does not exist. Therefore, this study established an indicator framework to evaluate the performance of the policies regarding the Taiwanese distant-water fishery. Based on a literature review and current fishery policies, we proposed 61 indicators. Three rounds of questionnaires using the Modified Delphi method were conducted that involved experts from industry, the government, and academia and 43 policy indicators were selected in the ecological, economic, social, and institutional dimensions according to the results. Because of limited data access, 30 indicators were selected as the final indicators. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to analyze the weight value of each indicator before the indicators were aggregated. Finally, relevant indicators were used to analyze the performance of distant-water fishery policies. The results indicated that ecological policies performed exceptionally, achieving the policy goals of establishing a biological database, practically developing fishery resources, strengthening observation systems, and conducting international scientific research exchanges. The effects of the economic policies were not significant, indicating that the performance of this policy in promoting the marketing of distant-water fish catches and relevant fishery costs and subsidies require further improvement. Additionally, the effects of the social policies were not significant, suggesting that the performance of this policy in cultivating fishery experts and enhancing fisherman requires strengthening. Finally, the institutional policies achieved the goals of adjusting the structure of the distant-water fishery, expanding international cooperation, and maintaining regulations regarding international waters, thereby indicating that the institutional policy performance was optimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People use aromatherapy to relieve the symptoms of physical and psychological stress. However, previous studies have not precisely clarified a scientific basis for the beneficial effects of aromatherapy. Therefore, the overall purpose of this study was to elucidate the beneficial effect of aromatherapy in relieving work-related stress. Twenty-nine elementary school teachers from Taiwan participated in this study. The experimental procedures comprised 2 phases. First, we verified the effect of aromatherapy by conducting 2 blind tests. We used natural bergamot essential oil extracted from plants and synthesized a chemical essential oil as the placebo to do the aromatherapy. Second, we analyzed the performance of the aromatherapy treatment on the teachers who had various workloads. We measured the teachers' heart rate variability to evaluate their autonomic nervous system activity. The results show that only the natural bergamot essential oil had an effect and that the aromatherapy treatment relieved work-related stress of teachers with various workloads. However, the aromatherapy treatment had a weak effect on young teachers who had a heavy workload. Moreover, the aromatherapy treatment exhibited no effect on teachers who belong to the abnormal body mass index subgroup having a heavy workload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents letters on infectious diseases in the June 2002 issue of the periodical 'Emerging Infectious Diseases.' Evidence of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis in Greece; Facts on a hantavirus infection with marked sinus bradycardia in Taiwan.