• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.475-483
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• 1994

Background: N-acetylcysteine(ACE) is used both orally and intravenously in a variety of experimental pathologies resembling human disease states which exhibit endothelial toxicity as a result of oxidative stress, including acute pulmonary oxygen toxicity, septicemia and endotoxin shock. Despite these observations in vivo, it is not certain how this thiol drug produces its protective effects. ACE is a cysteine derivative which is able to direct1y react with oxygen radicals and may also act as a cysteine and glutathione(GSH) precursor following deacetylation. In this paper, we tried to know whether the therapeutic doses of ACE can modify the inflammatory function of the neutrophils and can increase the glutathione level of plasma in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) patients. In addition, the effect of ACE to the purified neutrophil in terms of superoxide release and glutathione synthesis were observed. Method: Firstly, we gave 600mg of ACE for seven days and compare the release of superoxide, luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence from the neutrophils, neutrophil chemotaxis, and plasma GSH levels before and after ACE treatment in COPD patients. Secondly, we observed the dose dependent effect of ACE to the purified neutrophil's superoxide release and GSH levels in vitro. Results: 1) Usual oral therapeutic doses(600mg per day) of ACE for seven days did affect neither on the neutrophil's superoxide release, chemiluminescence, chemotaxis, nor on the plasma GSH concentration in the COPD patients. 2) ACE decreases the purified neutrophil's superoxide release and increase the GSH production in dose dependent fashion in vitro. Conclusion: Despite the fact that oral ACE treatment did not affect on the neutrophil's inflammatory function and plasma GSH concentration in COPD patients in usual therapeutic doses, it decreases the superoxide release and increases the GSH production from the isolated neutrophils in high molar concentrations. These findings suggest that to obtain an antioxidative effects of ACE, it might be needed to increase the daily dosage of ACE or therapeutic duration or change the route of adminisration in COPD patients.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.71-96
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• 2011

Within the traditional medical delivery system, patients residing in medically vulnerable areas, those with body movement difficulties, and nursing facility residents have had limited access to good healthcare services. However, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides us with a convenient and useful means of overcoming distance and time constraints. ICT is integrated with biomedical science and technology in a way that offers a new high-quality medical service. As a result, rapid technological advancement is expected to play a pivotal role bringing about innovation in a wide range of medical service areas, such as medical management, testing, diagnosis, and treatment; offering new and improved healthcare services; and effecting dramatic changes in current medical services. The increase in aging population and chronic diseases has caused an increase in medical expenses. In response to the increasing demand for efficient healthcare services, a telehealth service based on ICT is being emphasized on a global level. Telehealth services have been implemented especially in pilot projects and system development and technological research. With the service about to be implemented in earnest, it is necessary to study its overall acceptance by consumers, which is expected to contribute to the development and activation of a variety of services. In this sense, the study aims at positively examining the structural relationship among the acceptance factors for telehealth services based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were collected by showing audiovisual material on telehealth services to online panels and requesting them to respond to a structured questionnaire sheet, which is known as the information acceleration method. Among the 1,165 adult respondents, 608 valid samples were finally chosen, while the remaining were excluded because of incomplete answers or allotted time overrun. In order to test the reliability and validity of the assessment scale items, we carried out reliability and factor analyses, and in order to explore the causal relation among potential variables, we conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using AMOS 7.0 and SPSS 17.0. The research outcomes are as follows. First, service quality, innovativeness of medical technology, and social influence were shown to affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the telehealth service, which was statistically significant, and the two factors had a positive impact on willingness to accept the telehealth service. In addition, social influence had a direct, significant effect on intention to use, which is paralleled by the TAM used in previous research on technology acceptance. This shows that the research model proposed in the study effectively explains the acceptance of the telehealth service. Second, the research model reveals that information privacy concerns had a insignificant impact on perceived ease of use of the telehealth service. From this, it can be gathered that the concerns over information protection and security are reduced further due to advancements in information technology compared to the initial period in the information technology industry, and thus the improvement in quality of medical services appeared to ensure that information privacy concerns did not act as a prohibiting factor in the acceptance of the telehealth service. Thus, if other factors have an enormous impact on ease of use and usefulness, concerns over these results in the initial period of technology acceptance may become irrelevant. However, it is clear that users' information privacy concerns, as other studies have revealed, is a major factor affecting technology acceptance. Thus, caution must be exercised while interpreting the result, and further study is required on the issue. Numerous information technologies with outstanding performance and innovativeness often attract few consumers. A revised bill for those urgently in need of telehealth services is about to be approved in the national assembly. As telemedicine is implemented between doctors and patients, a wide range of systems that will improve the quality of healthcare services will be designed. In this sense, the study on the consumer acceptance of telehealth services is meaningful and offers strong academic evidence. Based on the implications, it can be expected to contribute to the activation of telehealth services. Further study is needed to assess the acceptance factors for telehealth services, such as motivation to remain healthy, health care involvement, knowledge on health, and control of health-related behavior, in order to develop unique services according to the categorization of customers based on health factors. In addition, further study may focus on various theoretical cognitive behavior models other than the TAM, such as the health belief model.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 1988

As a method of utilization of sardine, the processing conditions of the sardine sauce extracts and the taste compounds of products were investigated. To prepare the sardine sauce extracts, chopped sardine was mixed with $1\%$, onion powder, $1\%$ garlic powder, $1\%$ red pepper powder, loft koji and $50\%$ water, and then hydrolyzed under different conditions of hydrolysis. The optimum conditions for hydrolysis were $55^{\circ}C$, 6 hours, pH 6.5-7.0. After hydrolysis, the hydrolysates were heated at $100^{\circ}C$ for 20 minutes with $5\%$ soybean protein isolate for inactivation of enzymes and improvement of bitter taste of the hydrolysates. Finally, $10\%$ salt was added to develop the characteristic taste of sauce extracts. The major taste compounds of the products were free amino acids, non-volatile organic acids and nucleotides and their related compounds. The major free amino acids in the products were arginine, histidine, lysine, glutamic acid, phenylalanine, leucine and alanine. The contents of these free amino acids were in the range of $68.2\%\;to\;69.9\%$ of the total free amino acids of products. The major non-volatile organic acids ill the products were lactic acid and $\alpha-ketoglutaric$ acid which occupied more than $95\%$ of total non-volatile organic acids. The contents of free amino acids, non-volatile organic acids and nucleotides and their related compounds were not changed during storage. Total creatinine, betaine and TMAO were seemed to act an auxiliary role in taste of the products. Judging from the results of chemical experiments and sensory evaluation, the product prepared with koji and soybean protein isolate was excellent as seasoning materials.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.19-36
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• 2013

Physiochemical characters of sea waters during summer flood- and winter dry-seasons and their spatial variations were investigated along the coastal area off the eastern South Sea, Korea. Using the hierarchical clustering method, in this study, we present comprehensive analyses of coastal waters masses and their seasonal variations. The results revealed that the coastal water of the study area was classified into six water masses (A to F). During summer season, the surface water was mainly occupied by the coastal pseudo-estuarine water (water mass B) with low salinity and high nutrients and the river-dominated coastal water (water mass C) with low nutrients, respectively. The bottom water was dominated by cold water (water mass D) with very low temperature, high salinity and high nutrients, compared to masses of surface water. Notably, the water mass B, with high concentrations of nutrients (silicate and nitrogen) and low salinity, which is strongly controlled by the water quality of river freshwater, seems to play an important role in controlling the water quality and further regulating physical processes on ecosystem in the eastern coastal area of South Sea. The water mass D (bottom cold water) coupled with a strong thermocline, which exists in near-bottom layer along the western margin of Korea Strait, has a low temperature, pH and DO, but abundant nutrients. This water mass disappears in winter owing to strong vertical mixing, and subsequently may act as a pool for nutrients during winter dry-season. On the other hand, vertically well-mixed water column during the winter season was typically occupied by the Tsushima (water mass E) and the coastal water (water mass F) with a development of coastal front formed in a transition zone between them. These winter water masses were characterized by low nutrient concentration and balance in N/P ratio, compared with summer season with high nutrient concentrations and strong N-limitation. Accordingly, the analysis of water masses will help one to better chemical and biological processes in coastal area. In most of the study area, characteristically, the growth of phytoplankton community is limited by nitrogen, which is clearly different with coastal environment of West Sea of Korea, with a relative lack of phosphorus. It showed the western and the southern coasts in Korea are substantially different from each other in environmental and ecological characteristics.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.441-448
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• 2015

This study aims to suggest a reasonable signal operation method for right-turn traffic management. It was found that the right-turn vehicle supplementary signal is currently operated without clear regulations or criteria. It was also analyzed that right-turn supplementary signals are used without consistency, there is a risk of traffic accidents due to the discordance between supplementary signals and traffic signals of forward vehicles, there is a lack of basis for prohibition of a right turn when right-turn vehicle's supplementary signal is red and the flashing red signal is used in a different sense from the law. In order to see the effect of the installed right-turn vehicle supplementary signals on traffic signal violation, a field investigation was conducted. As the result, there was a high proportion of signal violation on the approach lane with right-turn supplementary signals and this means that right-turn supplementary signals hardly influenced the reduction in proportion of signal violation during a right turn. Additionally, a survey was carried out to see if there were differences in driver's interpretation of traffic signals depending on the installation of right-turn supplementary signals. As the result of the survey, there were no differences in interpretation of traffic signals depending on the installation of right-turn supplementary signals or the types of right-turn supplementary signals. A right turn when the signal was red did not lead to serious traffic accidents, so it is thought that there should be a careful consideration of a total ban on a right turn when the signal is red, in order to prevent driver's confusion due to the change of the signal system. Unless there is a disturbance to cars and pedestrians after a temporary stop when the signal is red, there is a need to specify that vehicles must stop temporarily in the Road Traffic Act to facilitate a right turn. What this study finally suggested is to use tri-colored arrow signals for right-turn car supplementary signals to convey a signal to a driver clearly.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.389-396
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• 2014

The physiological properties of 70% ethanol extracts from Portulaca oleracea with different extraction methods (reflux extraction, RE; autoclave extraction, AE; low temperature high pressure extraction, LTPE) were investigated. The freeze-dried powder yields of RE, AE, and LTPE were 33.78%, 30.80%, and 11.05%, respectively. The color values of L and b were higher in LTPE, and the chroma values were higher in AE and LTPE compared to RE. The total polyphenolics and proanthocyanidin contents in LTPE were significantly higher than in other extracts. The amount of substances related to flavonoids contents was highest in RE (4.30 mg/g), followed by AE (4.06 mg/g), and LTPE (4.00 mg/g). DPPH radical scavenging ability with a concentration of 500 mg% (w/v) were in the following order; LTPE (88.87%)> RE (83.84%)> AE (80.67%). Further, the reducing power, ABTS radical scavenging ability, and nitrite scavenging activity was observed in the same tendency as seen with the DPPH radical scavenging ability. However, the ferrous ion chelating activity of RE (85.45%) and AE (83.88%) was significantly higher than that of LTPE (75.60%). ${\alpha}$-Glucosidase inhibitory activities of RE and LTPE with a concentration of 100 mg% were significantly higher than AE. Xanthine oxidase, and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activities of LTPE were higher than the other extracts. These results suggest that the extracts from Portulaca oleracea have the potential to act as functional materials, and components of Portulaca oleracea could be effective in the prevention of Alzheimer's disease, and may be used to develop various functional food products.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.101-115
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• 2000

This study aims to make a research on the secondary school education of geography and the system of teacher training in Belgium, focused on the case of Francophone Community. What has been made clear by this research can be summed up as follows. The first two years of the secondary school offer two hours of 'environment education', per week, which can be categorized into the learning of living geography, in that at this stage students learn how to observe the geographic phenomena in their daily life and pigeonhole them. The two years of the second stage of the secondary school offer one hour of 'world geography' which actually is focused on the district of Europe and Russia. The two years of the third stage of the secondary school offer an advanced course of geography which aims to teach systematically the physical geography and the human geography. A remarkable change in geographic education in Belgium is that in the wake of the Revision Act of the secondary school education, textbooks were replaced by other teaching manuals adapted to the regional condition by the teachers. This may result in a wide gap of achievements in geography according to the conditions of educational establishments. Another notable change is that the stress of geographic education tends to be placed on the ability of acquiring practical geographic knowledge rather than the geographic information itself. And it is also another marked tendency that most learning activities in geography class are conducted on the basis of student-centered and the method of investigation. Teachers of the lower secondary schools in Belgium are trained in the School of Education as multi-major teachers, such as a teacher for biology-chemistry-geography or a teacher for history-sociology-geography. Teachers of the higher secondary school education are trained in the Department of Teacher Education in universities as solo-major teachers in that they are required to know more deeply to teach an advanced course of geography in the higher secondary schools. To improve the teacher education many folds of policies are adopted. One is that many in-service teachers are officially put into services of guiding and teaching teacher training. Another is that faculty members in charge of teacher training course are trying to level up the qualifications of teachers by rigorous disciplining.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.485-491
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• 2010

A certified reference material (CRM) of KRISS 109-03-SSD was developed for the analysis of hazardous elements in soil. The target elements were As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Zn being regulated by the Soil Environment Conservation Act. Starting material was collected from tailing dump of an unworked tungsten mine at Sangdong (Gangwon-do, Korea). The starting material under-went through a series of fabricating process steps of screening, drying, grinding, sieving, blending, bottling, sterilization and was certified according to the ISO Guide 35. Isotope dilution-inductively coupled mass spectrometry (ID-ICP/MS) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) were used for the measurement. Homogeneity was tested according to ISO 13528 annex B. The certified values were determined using the results from two different methods or from two independent measurements using a method. Finally, certified values of seven elements of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc were determined. Mercury did not satisfied the criteria of homogeneity and the result would be provided for information only, together with iron and tungsten. It was also studied, the extractable fraction of elements by aqua regia according to the ISO 11466 protocol being frequently studied for the purpose of environmental monitoring. It was performed as a inter-laboratory study by 6 laboratories of a public institute and universities. Standard deviation among the laboratories was much bigger than the uncertainty of the certified value. The result of inter-laboratory study on the extractable fraction will be provided for information, only.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.851-859
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• 2008

To promote the adoption of healthier eating patterns, this study was aimed to develop and evaluate alternative front of pack nutrition signposting concepts. Based on previous research, we developed two signposting concepts, Multiple Traffic Light (MTL) and Multiple Traffic Light with % Daily Value (MTL-%DV). The signposts featured three key nutrients, total sugar, saturated fat, and sodium. Actual food packaging with no front of pack signposting (NoSP) was included in the evaluation to act as a benchmark against which to compare the performance of the different signposting options. Using an interviewer administered method, we assessed the degree of understanding and time to interpret on a total of 534 subjects (194 elementary, 108 middle, and 103 high schoolers, 128 adults). In the individual product evaluations, MTL (87.0%) obtained the highest level of correct responses, followed by MTL-%DV (83.1%) and NoSP (52.2%). Except for signposting concepts, age, gender and living area were not associated with the degree of correct responses in multivariate analyses. When used to compare products with different colors of nutrient contents, correct responses were more than 90% for MTL-%DV (91.5%) and MTL (90.3%). The middle and high schoolers revealed the lower likelihood of correct response compared to the other two groups. In case of comparing products with same colors of nutrient contents, the proportion of correct responses was the highest in NoSP (90%), followed by MTL%DV (77.4%) and MTL (48.5%). In terms of time to interpret, MTL-%DV and MTL performed better than NoSP in the individual product evaluation and the comparison of two products with different colors of nutrient contents. NoSP performed the best in the comparison of two products with same colors of nutrient contents. A majority of the participants preferred MTL-%DV (78%) most and thought it the most useful in helping them make healthier food choices. Based on these findings, MTL-%DV was considered to most closely meet the objectives of the initiatives.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.222-231
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• 2005

Most of the tailings have been left without any management in abandoned metalliferous mines and have become the main source of heavy metal contamination of agricultural soils and crops in the these areas. To compare of environmental assessment of heavy metals in tailings derived from various 25-metalliferous mines in Korea, 3 different analysis methods such as water soluble, 0.1 M-HCl extractable, and total acid digestion method (aqua regia) were used. The chemical composition of water soluble in mine tailing were in the order ${SO_4}^{2-}>Ca^{2+}>Mn^{2+},\;Na^+,\;Al^{3+}>Mg^{2+},\;Fe^{3+}>Cl^-$. Specially, pH, EC, ${SO_4}^{2-},\;and\;Ca^{2+}$ concentrations in tailing varied considerably among the different mines. The average total concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, and As in tailing were 31.8, 708, 4,961, 2,275 and 3,235 mg/kg, respectively. Specially, the contents of Cd, Zn and As were higher than those of countermeasure values for soil contamination (Cd : 4, Zn : 700 and As : 15 mg/kg in soil) by Soil Environmental Conservation Act in Korea. The rates of water soluble heavy metals to total contents in tailings were in the order Cd > Zn > Cu > Pb > As. The rates of 0.1M-HCl extractable Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, and As (1M-HCl) to total content were 17.4, 10.2, 6.5, 6.8 and 11.4% respectively. The enrichment factor of heavy metals in tailings were in the order As > Pb > Cd > Cu > Zn. The pollution index in tailing Au-Ag mine tailing were higher than those of other mine tailing. As a results of enrichment factor and pollution index for heavy metal contaminations in mine tailing of metalliferous mines, the main contaminants are mine waste materials including tailings.