• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.398-407
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• 2020

The inhibitory effect on α-glucosidase, a marker of postprandial hyperglycemia, and angiotensinconverting enzyme (ACE), a marker of hypertension, was analyzed using non-fermented green tea and three different types of fermented tea, which are popular beverages in modern life. Green tea was mixed with trace amounts of vanadate (50 ㎍/mL), which has insulin-mimetic effects, to investigate the synergistic effect of vanadate on the inhibition of α-glucosidase. The concentration of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and caffeine was also checked. The extracts of green tea and fermented teas showed clear inhibition on α-glucosidase, which caused a decrease in the postprandial glucose levels. The inhibitory effect was most prominent in the 20% fermented tea. Trace amounts of vanadate (50 ㎍/mL)-mixed green tea extract had twice the inhibitory effect on α-glucosidase than the pure tea extract. All teas showed inhibitory effects on ACE. Among those, the effect was most prominent in green tea, which had higher concentrations of EGCG. In contrast, the postprandial glucose-lowering effect and ACE inhibition of the fermented teas, which have a lower level of EGCG, was attributed to some other different functional substances.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.1031-1039
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• 2022

As one of the hydrological factors closely related to landslides, precipitation indirectly affects slope stability by generating external forces. Groundwater level fluctuations have attracted more attention lately as factors that directly affect slope stability have become more prominent. Therefore, this study attempted to analyze the relationship between variables through changes in precipitation, groundwater levels, and land displacement. A time series-based analysis was conducted using satellite-based precipitation and point-based groundwater levels in conjunction with the PSInSAR technique to simulate land displacement in urban and mountainous areas. There was a sharp rise in groundwater levels in both urban and mountain areas during heavy rainfall, and a continuous decrease in urban areas when rainfall was low. 6 mm of displacements was observed in the mountainous area as a results of soil outflow from the topsoil layer, which was accompanied by an increased groundwater level. Meanwhile, different results were found in urban area. In response to the rise in groundwater level, the land displacement increases due to the expansion of soil skeletons, while the decrease seems to be attributed to anthropogenic influences. Overall, there was no consistent relationship between groundwater levels and land displacement, which appears to be caused by factors other than hydrological factors. Additional consideration of environmental factors could contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between the two factors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.305-310
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• 2004

The present study was aimed at investigating effects of chicory inulin and three kinds of oligosaccharides on lipid metabolism in rats fed a high-cholesterol diet. Nine Sprague-Dawley male rats weighing, about 190g were given one of five experimental diets, which were basal cholesterol diet (Control) isomaltooligosaccharide diet (IMO), Iructooligosaccharide diet (FO), chicory inulooligosaccharide diet (CIO) and chicory inulin diet (CI) for 5 weeks. In the oligosaccharide and inulin diets, 6% was added at the expense of sucrose. Rats were pair-fed to the intake of FO group which consumed the least amount, and their feces were collected during the last 4 days. Body weight gain was lower in Fo and CI groups compared with the Control group. Plasma glucose levels of FO and CIO groups were lower and plasma triglyceride concentrations of FO, CIO, and CI groups were lower than those of IMO group. Plasma cholesterol concentration did not differ among groups. Relative liver weight was lower in CIO group. Hepatic triglyceride and cholesterol did not differ among. groups. Fecal excretion of neutral steroid and bile acid were not different among groups, but fecal triglyceride excretion was significantly increased in FO and CI groups compared with the Control group. In conclusion, supplementation of oligosaccharides and chicory inulin at 6% of diets showed no significant hypolipidemic effect in rats fed a high cholesterol diet.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.573-579
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• 2002

Background: In this study, the role and the surgical outcome of the modified Blalock-Taussig shunt in the treatment of the infants with cyanotic complex congenital heart diseases were investigated. Material and Method: Over the last 12 years, 105 modified BT shunts were performed in 100 infants. Postoperative course, shunt patency rate, complications, mortality and its risk factors were reviewed restrospectively. Result: The mean age at operation was 43.0$\pm$36.6 days. Sex ratio was 60:40(M:F). The postoperative oxygen saturations were lowest after mean duration of 11 hours after the shunt procedure. The operative mortality was 8%(8) with 3 late deaths. Causes of operative death included failure of maintenance of minimum oxygenation during the procedure(2), immediate postoperative shunt occlusion(2), respiratory failure(2), low cardiac output due to heart failure and pericardial effusion(2) and sepsis(2). Late deaths resulted from acute cardiac arrest during the follow up cardiac catheterization, hypoxic myocardial failure, and arrhythmia. Year of surgery, shunt size, age at operation, and complexity of the anomalies were not the risk factors for mortality. Six month shunt patency rate was 97% and overall patency rate was 96%. Postoperative complications comprised of shunt occlusion(6), phrenic nerve palsy(3), and wound infection(2). Conclusion: We demonstrated that modified Blalock-Taussig shunt was a useful tool to palliate the infants with complex cyanotic heart disease in whom early complete repair was not feasible with acceptable mortality and patency rate. An adequate postoperative management and a meticulous surgical technique may be key factors for the better results.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.129-139
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• 2003

Purpose: The aim of the study was to evaluate the long-term outcome of glycogen storage disease (GSD) type 1 with particular reference to hepatic adenoma and hepatocellular carcinoma, and to analyze risk factors affecting the development of hepatic adenoma in GSD type 1. Methods: Forty-three GSD type 1 patients (31 males and 12 females, mean age $13.9{\pm}6.4$ years) were analyzed retrospectively. Hepatic adenoma was detected on abdominal USG and diagnosed on histologic examination. Clinical profiles were compared between patients with hepatic adenoma (n=16) and age-matched controls without hepatic adenoma (n=16). Results: 1) Of 43 GSD type 1 patients, 16 (37.2%) had hepatic adeoma. Hepatic adenoma was detected at the age of mean $14.2{\pm}4.1$ years (range: 7.9~25.7 years). Fourteen (87.5%) adenomas were multiple at detection. 2) Comparison of the clinical profiles between adenoma group and non-adenoma group revealed that age at first introduction of uncooked cornstarch treatment was significantly late in adenoma group compared with non-adenoma group ($9.1{\pm}5.2$ years vs. $3.0{\pm}1.8$ years, p=0.003). Portocaval shunt surgery was performed in 11 (68.8%) patients in adenoma group and 3 (18.8%) in non-adenoma group (p=0.004). Hepatic adenoma developed mean $5.8{\pm}4.2$ years after shunt operation. 3) One patient was diagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma at the age of 25.7 years. Conclusion: Hepatic adenoma is an important late complication of GSD type 1 with the risk of malignant transformation. Early introduction of cornstarch therapy with strict metabolic control is needed to prevent the development of hepatic adenoma in GSD type 1.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.38 no.5 s.250
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• pp.335-348
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• 2005

Background: This retrospective review examines the preoperative condition, postoperative course, mortality and cause of death for the patients who underwent modified Blalock-Taussig shunt for complex congenital heart defects in early infancy. Material and Method: Fifty eight patients underwent modified Blalock-Taussig shunts from January 2000 to November 2003. The mean age at operation was $23.1\pm16.2$ days ($5\~81\;days$), and the mean body weight was $3.4\pm0.7\;kg\;(2.1\~4.3\;kg)$. Indications for surgery were pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect in 12 cases, pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum in 17, single ventricle (SV) in 18, and hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) in 11. Total anomalous pulmonary venous return (TAPVR) was associated with SV in 4 cases. Result: There were 11 ($19.0\%$) early, and 5 ($10.6\%$) late deaths. Causes of early death included low cardiac output in 9, arrhythmia in 1, and multiorgan failure in 1. Late deaths resulted from pneumonia in 2, hypoxia in 1, and sepsis in 1. Risk factors influencing mortality were preoperative pulmonary hypertension, metabolic acidosis, use of cardiopulmonary bypass, HLHS and TAPVR. Twenty four patients ($41.4\%$) had hemodynamic instability during the 48 postoperative-hours. Six patients underwent shunt revision for occlusion, and 1 shunt division for pulmonary overflow. Conclusion: Modified Blalock-Taussig shunt for complex congenital heart defects in early infancy had satisfactory results except in high risk groups. Many patients had early postoperative hemodynamic instability, which means that continuous close observation and management are mandatory in this period. Aggressive management may appear warranted based on understanding of hemodynamic changes for high risk groups.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.1332-1344
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• 2004

Upon development of information super-highway and multimedia-related technoiogies in recent years, more efficient technologies to transmit, store and retrieve the multimedia data are required. Among such technologies, firstly, it is common that the semantic-based image retrieval is annotated separately in order to give certain meanings to the image data and the low-level property information that include information about color, texture, and shape Despite the fact that the semantic-based information retrieval has been made by utilizing such vocabulary dictionary as the key words that given, however it brings about a problem that has not yet freed from the limit of the existing keyword-based text information retrieval. The second problem is that it reveals a decreased retrieval performance in the content-based image retrieval system, and is difficult to separate the object from the image that has complex background, and also is difficult to extract an area due to excessive division of those regions. Further, it is difficult to separate the objects from the image that possesses multiple objects in complex scene. To solve the problems, in this paper, I established a content-based retrieval system that can be processed in 5 different steps. The most critical process of those 5 steps is that among RGB images, the one that has the largest and the smallest background are to be extracted. Particularly. I propose the method that extracts the subject as well as the background by using an Image, which has the largest background. Also, to solve the second problem, I propose the method in which multiple objects are separated using RGB channel selection techniques having optimized the excessive division of area by utilizing Watermerge's threshold value with the object separation using the method of RGB channels separation. The tests proved that the methods proposed by me were superior to the existing methods in terms of retrieval performances insomuch as to replace those methods that developed for the purpose of retrieving those complex objects that used to be difficult to retrieve up until now.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.583-591
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• 1997

The functional derangement of skeletal muscles which may be attributed to chronic hypoxia has been accepted as a possible mechanism of exercise impairment in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The metabolic changes in skeletal muscle in patients with COPD are characterized by impaired oxidative phosphorylation, early activation of anaerobic glycolysis and excessive lactate and hydrogen ion production with exercise. But the cause of exercise limitation in patients with chronic lung disease without hypoxia has not been known. In order to evaluate the change in the skeletal muscle metabolism as a possible cause of the exercise limitation in chronic lung disease patients without hypoxia, we compared the muscular metabolic data of seven male patients which had been derived from noninvasive $^{31}P$ magnetic resonance spectroscopy(MRS) with those of five age-matched normal male control persons. $^{31}P$ MRS was studied during the sustained isometric contraction of the dominant forearm flexor muscles up to the exhaustion state and the recovery period. Maximal voluntary contraction(MVC) force of the muscle was measured before the isometric exercise, and the 30% of MVC force was constantly loaded to each patient during the isometric exercise. There were no differences of intracellular pH (pHi) and inorganic phosphate/phosphocreatine(Pi/PCr) at baseline, exhaustion state and recovery period between two groups. But pHi during the exercise was lower in patients group than the control group (p < 0.05). Pi/PCr during the exercise did not show significant difference between two groups. These results suggest that the exercise limitation in chronic lung disease patients without hypoxia also could be attributed to the abnormalities in the skeletal muscle metabolism.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.11
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• pp.1-27
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• 1969

More than thirty kinds of sea food pickles have been eaten in Korea. Out of these salted yellow tail pickle, salted clam pickle, salted oyster pickle, and salted cuttlefish pickle were employed for the analysis of their components, identification of main fermenting microbes, and determination of enzyme characteristics concerned. Also studied was the effect of enzymic action of microbes, which are concerned with the fermenting of pickles, on the production of flavorous 5'-mononucleotides and amino acids. The results are summarized as follows: 1. Microflora observed in the pickles are: (a) Total count of viable cells after 1-2 months of pickling was found to be $10^7$ and that after 6 months decreased to $10^4$. (b) Microbial occurence in the early stage of pickling was observed to be 10-20% Micrococcus spp., 10-20% Brevibacterium spp., 0-30% Sarcina spp., 20-30% Leuconostoc spp., ca 30% Bacillus spp., 0-10% Pseudomonas spp., 0-10% Flavobacterium spp., and 0-20% yeast. (c) Following the early stage of pickling, mainly halophilic bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Pediococcus halophilus and Sarcina litoralis, were found to exhibit an effect on the fermentation of pickle and their enzyme activities were in direct concern in fermentation of pickles. (d) Among the bacteria participating in the fermentation, Sarcina litoralis 8-14 and 8-16 strains were in need of high nutritional requirement and the former was grown only in the presence of purine, pyrimidine and cystine and the latter purine, pyrimidine and glutamic acid. 2. Enzyme characteristics studied in relation to the raw materials and the concerned microbes isolated are as follows: (a) A small amount of protease was found in the raw materials and 30-60% decrease in protease activity was demonstrated at 7% salt concentration. (b) Protease activity of halophilic bacteria, Bacillus subtilis 7-6, 11-1, 3-6 and 9-4 strains, in the complete media decreased by 10-30% at the 7% salt concentration and that of Sarcina litoralis 8-14 and 8-16 strains decreased by 10-20%. (c) Proteins in the raw materials were found to be hydrolyzed to yield free amino acids by protease in the fermenting microbes. (d) No accumulation of flavorous 5'-mononucleotides was demonstrated because RNA-depolymerase in the raw materials and the pickles tended to decompose RNA into nucleoside and phosphoric acid. (e) The enzyme produced in Bacillus subtilis 3-6 strain isolated from the salted clam pickles, was ascertained to be 5'-phosphodiesterase because of its ability to decompose RNA and thus accumulating 5'-mononucleotide. (f) It was demonstrated that the activity of phosphodiesterase in Bacillus subtilis 3-6 strain was enhanced by some components in the corn steep liquor and salted clam pickle. The enzyme activity was found to decrease by 10-30% and 40-60% at the salt concentration of 10% and 20%, respectively. 3. Quantitative data for free amino acids in the pickles are as follows: (a) Amounts of acidic amino acids such as glutamic and aspartic acids in salted clam pickle, were observed to be 2-10 times other pickles and it is considered that the abundance in these amino acids may contribute significantly to the specific flavor of this food. (b) Large amounts of basic amino acids such as arginine and histidine were found to occur in salted yellow tail pickle. (c) It is much interesting that in the salted cuttlefish pickle the contents of sulfur-containing amino acids were exceedingly high compared with those of others: cystine was found to be 17-130 times and methionine, 7-19 times. (d) In the salted oyster pickle a high content of some essential amino acids such as lysine, threonine, isoleucine and leucine, was demonstrated and a specific flavor of the pickle was ascribed to the sweet amino acids. Contents of alanine and glycine in the salted oyster pickle were 4 and 3-14 times as much as those of the others respectively. 4. Analytical data for 5'-mononucleotides in the pickles are as follows: (a) 5'-Adenylic acid and 3'-adenylic acid were found in large amounts in the salted yellow tail pickle and 5'-inosinic acid in lesser amount. (b) 5'-Adenylic acid, especially 3'-adenylic acid predominated in amount in the salted oyster pickle over that in the other pickles. (c) The salted cuttlefish pickle was found to contain only 5'-adenylic acid and 3'-adenylic acid. It has become evident from the above fact that clam and the invertebrate lack of adenylic deaminase and contain high content of adenylic acid. Thus, they were demonstrated to be the AMP-type. (d) 5'-Inosinic acid was contained in the salted yellow tail pickle in a significant concentration, and it might be considered to be IMP-type. 5. Comparative data for flavor with regard to the flavorous amino acids and the contents of 5'-mononucleotides are: (a) A specific flavor of salted yellow tail pickle was ascribed to the abundance in glutamic acid and aspartic acid, and to the existence of a small amount of flavorous 5'-inosinic acid. The combined effect of these components was belived to exhibit a synergistic action in producing a specific fiavor to the pickle. (b) A specific flavor of salted clam pickle has been demonstrated to be attributable to the richness in glutamic acid and aspartic acid rather than to that of 5'-mononucleotides.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.151-162
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• 1984

The mechanism of the contractile response of longitudial muscle of rabbit ileum to substance P (SP) has been investigated. The contractions in rabbit ileum under various conditions were recorded isometrically The following results were obtained. 1) The contractions by SP increased according to concentrations. SP·induced contraction was not sustained but faded rapidly at $10^{-7}M$. The response to the commutative addition of SP was decreased in comparison to the response to separate administration of each concentration . 2) The response to $10^{-8}M$ SP after 5 min application cf $10^{-7}M$ SP was increased with increasing the time interval between the administration of $10^{-7}$ and $10^{-8}M$ SP. 3) The treatment of rabbit ileum by $10^{-7}M$ SP for 5 min didn't decrease the response to $10^{-6}M$ acetylcholine. 4) $10^{-6}M$ atropine had no effect of the contractile response to $10^{-7}M$ SP. The response to $10^{-7}M$ SP was normal or subnormal in the presence of 3 mM tetraethylammonium(TEA). 5) 100k solution, $10^{-4}M$ ouabain, and Na-free solution inhibited the response to $10^{-8}M$ SP and 3 mM TEA completely, and to $10^{-7}M$ SP incompletely. 3 mM TEA induced a considerable contraction in K-free solution, but $10^{-8}M$ SP didn't induce the contraction. $10^{-6}M$ norepinephrine decreased the contractile responses to SP and TEA. 6) The contractile response to $10^{-7}M$ SP was dependent on the extracellular $Ca^{2+}$ concentrations to 1.8 mM. 7) The contractile response to $10^{-7}M$ SP remained 15% of the maximal response after bathing the ileum in a Ca-free solution for 2.5 min. 8) The responsiveness to SP was completely lost within 10 min of bathing in Ca-free solution, but was restored by the exposure to $Ca^{2+}$. The restorative effect of $Ca^{2+}$ depended on the concentration of $Ca^{2+}$, and on time for which the tissue exposed to this $Ca^{2+}$ concentration. These results suggest that there are two mechanisms of the action by which the low concentrations of substance P causes the contraction of intestinal smooth muscle: the reduction of K conductance and a mechanism dependent on the extracellular $Ca^{2+}$, and that high concentration of SP may elicit a contraction by releasing $Ca^{2+}$ from an intracellular store, which is not as sensitive to removal of extracellular $Ca^{2+}$ or as easily accessible to EGTA as the extracellular space of the muscle. The location of this store is not known; it may be associated with the internal side of the cell membrane.