• 한국환경농학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.273-282
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• 2009

The transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) disease group are fatal neurodegenerative disorders affecting a wide range of hosts. The group includes kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, scrapie in sheep and goats and Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle. The exact nature of the infectious agent involved in the transmission of these diseases remains controversial. However, a central event in their pathogenesis is the accumulation in infected tissues of an abnormal form of a host-encoded protein, the prion protein (PrP). Whereas the normal cellular protein is fully sensitive to protease ($PrP^{sen}$), the disease-associated prion protein ($PrP^d$) is only partly degraded ($PrP^{res}$), its amino-terminal end being removed. BSE was first reported in the mid-80s in the UK. Ten years later, a new form of human prion disease, variant CJD (vCJD) developed in the wake of the BSE epidemic, and there is now strong scientific evidence that vCJD was initiated by the exposure of humans to BSE-infected tissues, thus indicating a zoonotic disease. However, the ban on the feeding of animal-derived proteins to ruminants, and the apparent lack of vertical transmission of BSE, have led to a decline in the incidence of the disease within cattle herd and therefore, an assumed decreased risk for human contacting vCJD. The origin of the original case(s) of BSE still remains an enigma even though three hypotheses have been raised. Hypotheses are i) sheep- or goat-derived scrapie-infected tissues included in meat and bone meal fed to cattle, ii) a previously undetected sporadic or genetic bovine TSE contaminating cattle feed or iii) originating from a human TSE through animal feed contaminated with human remains. A host cellular membrane protein ($PrP^C$), which is abundant in central nervous system tissue, appear to be conformationally altered in the diseased host into a prion protein ($PrP^{Sc}$). This $PrP^{Sc}$ is detergent insoluble and partially protease-resistant ($PrP^{res}$). The term $PrP^{res}$ is normally used to describe the protein detected after protease treatment, in techniques such as Western immunoblotting, and enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay using fresh/frozen tissue. Immunohistochemistry may performed with formalin-fixed tissues. Also, clinical signs of the BSE are one of the major diagnostic indicators. Recently, atypical forms (known as H- and L-type) of BSE have appeared in several European countries, Japan, Canada and the United States. An unusual case was also reported in a miniature zebu. The atypical BSE fall into two groups based on the relative molecular mass (Mm) of the unglycosylated $PrP^{res}$ band relative to that of classical BSE, one of the higher Mm (H-type) and the other lower (L-type). Both types have been detected worldwide as rare cases in older animals, at a low prevalence consistent with the possibility of sporadic forms of prion diseases in cattle. This raises the unwelcome possibility that vCJD could increase in the human population. Now, active surveillance program against BSE is going on in Korea. In regional veterinary service lab, ELISA is applied to screen the BSE in slaughter and confirmatory tests by Western immunoblotting and immunohistochemisty are carried out if there are positive or suspect in the screening test. Also, the ruminant feed ban is rigorously enforced. Removal of specified risk materials such as brain and spinal cord from cattle is mandatory process at slaughter to prevent the infected material from entering the human food chain.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.805-812
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• 1998

Background: Among the variety of opportunistic infections, pneumonia comprises the major morbidity in immunocompromised patients. Pneumocystis carnii pneumonia (PCP) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) pneumonia are common infectious illness of immunocompromised hosts. Although there are many reports regarding to the co-infection of PCP and CMV diagnosed by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid examination, the effects of CMV co-infection on the outcome of PCP is still controversial. The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the effects of CMV detected by BAL fluid examination on the clinical course of PCP in the immunocompromised patients other than human immunodeficiency virus infection. Method: Ten patients with PCP were enrolled and retrospective analysis of their medical records were done. HIV infected persons were excluded. The PCP was diagnosed by BAL fluid examination with Calcofluor-White staining. CMV was detected in BAL fluid by Shell-vial culture system. Chest radiographic findings were reviewed. We used Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney U test for statistical analysis of data. Results: The underlying disorders of patients were idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (n=1), renal transplantation (n=4), necrotizing vasculitis (n=l), systemic lupus erythematosus (n=1), brain tumor (n=1), chronic myelogenous leukemia (n=1), unidentified (n=1). There were no difference in clinical course, APACHE III score, arterial blood gas analysis, white blood cell count, lymphocyte count, serum albumin concentration, chest radiographic findings and mortality between patients with PCP alone (n=4) and those with CMV co-infection (n=6). Univariate analysis regarding to the factors that associated with mortality of PCP were revealed that the application of mechanical ventilation (p=0.028), the level of APACHE III score (p=0.018) and serum albumin concentration (p=0.048) were related to the mortality of patients with PCP. Conclusion: The clinical course of PCP patients co-infected by CMV were not different from PCP only patients. Instead, accompanied respiratory failure, high APACHE III score and poor nutritional status were associated with poor outcome of PCP.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.1234-1243
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• 2011

Liriope platyphylla has been used in oriental medicine as an effective medical plant to improve symptoms of cough, sputum production, neurodegenerative disorders, obesity and diabetes for long time. In order to investigate the effects of novel extracts on nerve growth factors (NGF)-stimulated neuritic outgrowth, the alteration of NGF expression and NGF receptor signaling pathway were detected in neuroblastoma cells and C57BL/6 mice. Of a total of 13 novel extracts, 4 extracts (LP-E, LP-M, LP-M50, LP2E17PJ) showed high viability on MTT assay. Also, all of these extracts induced NGF secretion and NGF mRNA expression in neuroblastoma cells. However, the NGF-induced neuritic outgrowth from PC12 cells was only stimulated by LP-E, LP-M and LP-M50. Furthermore, we selected LP-M as a best candidate, based on method and amounts of extraction, in order to verify its effect in mice. C57BL/6 mice were treated with 50 mg/kg of LP-M for 2 weeks and the effects on NGF regulation were analyzed with various methods. The expression of NGF mRNA was significantly increased in LP-M treated mice compared to vehicle treated mice. Also, the signaling pathway of p75NTR was inhibited in the cortex by LP-M treatment, with no change in the hippocampus of brain. However, the signaling pathway of TrkA was dramatically activated in only hippocampus via LP-M treatment. Therefore, these results suggest that the novel four extracts of L. platyphylla may contribute to the regulation of NGF expression and secretion in neuronal cells. LP-M was especially considered to be an excellent candidate for a neurodegenerative disease-therapeutic drug.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.61-67
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• 2019

Objective : This study aimed to investigate the general process from the symptom onset to the psychiatric treatment in Korean panic patients and the effect of improved public awareness on it. Methods : This study has a retrospective design. The subjects were the new patients with panic disorder who visited the psychiatric outpatient clinic in twelve university-affiliated hospitals all across Korea. The medical chart was reviewed retrospectively and the data were collected including chief complaints of symptoms, recent stressors, the time to visit the psychiatric outpatient clinic, and visit of other departments and diagnostic approaches for their symptoms. Results : A total of 814 participants were included in the study. The most common department other than psychiatry the panic patients visited were cardiology (28.3%), general internal medicine (16.0%) and neurology (11.4%). The most frequently used diagnostic tests were a echocardiography (17.9%), 24-hour Holter monitoring (11.2%), and brain MRI (8.2%). Only 37.3% of participants visited psychiatric clinic directly. About 80% of participants visited psychiatric department within 1 year after their first panic symptoms and it took $13.8{\pm}13.7weeks$ on average. Comparing before and after 2012, the number of participants increased who visit directly the psychiatric clinic without visiting other departments (p=0.002) and without visiting emergency room (p<0.001). Conclusions : Our results suggest that a substantial number of patients visit departments other than psychiatry when they experience first panic symptoms. However, most patients begin psychiatric treatment within 1 year after their first symptoms and the number of patient are increasing who visit psychiatric department directly without visiting other departments.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.37-52
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• 2020

Objective : This study was conducted to identify occupational therapists working in public health centers, the characteristics and actual conditions of occupational therapists in the community, and use them as basic data on occupational therapists in the community as of 2020. Methods : 77 questionnaires were replied by e-mail from OTs work at nationwide health public centers. Job characteristics and status were analysed by descriptive statistics and check correlation between job satisfaction and other factors. Results : Most survey respondents were female(77.9%) and 20-30(96.1%).. Some occupational therapists worked for dementia related team(72.7%) and others worked for like visiting care, health care, and rehabilitation center etc. Rate of experiences of public health center was 1-2 years(67.5%), the most common type of contract was flexible part-time worker(61%) and work intensity(94.8%) and satisfaction of work was very high(85.7%). The highest difficulty of their job was budget administrative work(26.7%) and of non-work difficulty was inequality under contracts(27.2%). They usually participated at dementia shelter, visiting OT, group OT. Difficulty of their job was high in budget administration, dementia shelters, and visiting work treatments. Goals of treatment were high in improvement of cognitive ability and, family support. Frequency of treatment was high in improvement of cognitive therapy, family support, and evaluation. Occupational therapy targets for health centers were dementia, the general elderly, and adult brain lesions, including those for ordinary people, psychiatric disorders and children. It was found that the primary occupations for evaluation were nurses (35.7%) and occupational therapists (33.7%), and that MMSE-DS, SGDS, and SMCQ were used a lot. Conclusion : This study could identify the job characteristics and status of community OTs. We hope that this result could be basic data for building expertise and role for community OTs in changing situations like community cares.

• Korean Journal of Health Psychology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.277-292
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• 2009

This study investigated the responses of the autonomic nervous system of individuals with Type D personality during an acute stressful situation. Twenty-three female students of Type D personality and 23 female students with non-Type D personality. Stroop Color-Word Task was used to induce a stressful situation, heart rate variability (HRV) was used to measure the responses of the autonomic nervous system during the baseline, acute stress, recovery periods. To analyze the data, the repeated measures analysis of variance was used to compare the autonomic nervous system of the Type D group to that of the non-Type D group. Regression analysis is used to determine if the Type D scale and stress vulnerability predicted the activities of the autonomic nervous system during the baseline period. The results of this study demonstrated that the Type D group's normalized low frequency (LF norm) and ratio of low frequency to high frequency (LF/HF ratio) were higher than those for the non-Type D group, while its normalized high frequency (HF norm) was lower than that for the non-Type D group in all three periods. There were no statistically significant differences among the three periods in terms of LF norm, HF norm, and LF/HF ratio in the Type D group. The study demonstrated that the total scores of the Type DS-14 and scores of social inhibition and negative affect were independent predictors of LF norm and HF norm during the baseline. The Type D group showed increased activation of the sympathetic nervous system and/or decreased activation of the parasympathetic nervous system. These results support the hypothesis that the Type D personality is vulnerable to the stress. Also, the highly activated sympathetic and/or lowly activated parasympathetic nervous systems, which were observed in the Type D group during the baseline, indicated that the Type D individual is susceptible to psychosomatic disorders.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.10-18
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• 2009

Purpose: We investigated quantification of dopaminergic transporter (DAT) and serotonergic transporter (SERT) on $^{123}I$-FP-CIT SPECT for differentiating between multiple systemic atrophy (MSA) and idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD). Materials and Methods: N-fluoropropyl-$2{\beta}$-carbomethoxy-$3{\beta}$-4-[$^{123}I$]-iodophenylnortropane SPECT ($^{123}I$-FP-CIT SPECT) was performed in 8 patients with MSA (mean age: $64.0{\pm}4.5yrs$, m:f=6:2), 13 with early IPD (mean age: $65.5{\pm}5.3yrs$, m:f=9:4), and 12 healthy controls (mean age: $63.3{\pm}5.7yrs$, m:f=8:4). Standard regions of interests (ROls) of striatum to evaluate DAT, and hypothalamus and midbrain for SERT were drawn on standard template images and applied to each image taken 4 hours after radiotracer injection. Striatal specific binding for DAT and hypothalamic and midbrain specific binding for SERT were calculated using region/reference ratio based on the transient equilibrium method. Group differences were tested using ANOVA with the postHoc analysis. Results: DAT in the whole striatum and striatal subregions were significantly decreased in both patient groups with MSA and early IPD, compared with healthy control (p<0.05 in all). In early IPD, a significant increase in the uptake ratio in anterior and posterior putamen and a trend of increase in caudate to putamen ratio was observed. In MSA, the decrease of DAT was accompanied with no difference in the striatal uptake pattern compared with healthy controls. Regarding the brain regions where $^{123}I$-FP-CIT binding was predominant by SERT, MSA patients showed a decrease in the binding of $^{123}I$-FP-CIT in the pons compared with controls as well as early IPD patients (MSA: $0.22{\pm}0.1$ healthy controls: $0.33{\pm}0.19$, IPD: $0.29{\pm}0.19$), however, it did not reach the statistical significance. Conclusion: In this study, the differential patterns in the reduction of DAT in the striatum and the reduction of pontine $^{123}I$-FP-CIT binding predominant by SERT could be observed in MSA patients on $^{123}I$-FP-CIT SPECT. We suggest that the quantification of SERT as well as DAT using $^{123}I$-FP-CIT SPECT is helpful to differentiate parkinsonian disorders in early stage.