• The Korea Journal of Herbology
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.47-53
• /
• 2015

Objectives : This study was performed to investigate the anti-diabetic effect of the fruit extract of Lycium chinense Mill(Lycii Fructus, LF) on multiple low-dose streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.Methods : Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups; normal, STZ-control, Lycii Fructus extractorally administrated 300 ㎎/㎏ group (STZ-LF). Diabetes was induced in rats by consecutive injection of streptozotocin (STZ) at doses of 30 ㎎/㎏ for 5 days. After 4 weeks, all rats were sacrificed, Fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol (CHO), triglyceride (TG) and HDL-Cholesterol were measured in sera of rats. Histopathological changes of pancreas, kidney, liver and lung tissues were observed by microscope after H&E, Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) and Masson's trichrome staining. The changes of body weight, blood glucose, and food and water intake were also measured.Results : There were no differences in body, food intake and water intake in LF-administrated groups compared with STZ control group. However, LF extract significantly decreased the levels of serum glucose, CHO, TG and HDL-Cholesterol in diabetic rats. In histopathological analysis of kidney, liver and lung, LF-administrated groups showed the inhibition of morphological damage.Conclusions : These results suggest that LF have a biological action on multi low-dose STZ-induced diabetes in rats via decreasing the serum glucose, TG and TG levels and may protect the morphological changes of kidney, liver and lung.

• Speech Sciences
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.59-72
• /
• 2000

Vocal tract resonances are of paramount importance to voice sounds. Resonance frequencies determine vowel quality and the personal voice timber. The aim of this study was to make an effective diction program according to tuning formant frequencies by adjusting the vocal tract shape in professional voice users. Twelve male student singers and eleven female student singers participated in this study. The subjects repeated five simple vowels /a, e, i, o, u/ in normal speech and singing. The spoken vowels and sung vowels were measured by formant frequencies and the singer's formant frequencies using CSL and DSP Sona-Graph. Separately, Plot formants program was used to draw the vowel chart. The results were as follows. (1) Total formant frequencies of female singers were 11% higher than those of males singers in singing. (2) The F1 and F3 of sung vowels increased compared to F1 and F3 spoken vowels. However, The F2 of sung vowels decreased in comparison with F2 of spoken vowels. (3) Posterior vowel /u/ were moved anteriorly. This phenomenon seemed to be due to head voice singing training. (4) Singer's formant frequencies in student singers appeared according to the part: 2560 Hz for baritone, 2760 Hz for Tenor, 2821 Hz for Mezzo soprano and 3420 Hz for soprano.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.77-84
• /
• 2018

The identification of damping ratios in buildings is a well-known problem and appears to be of important and crucial interest in the safety and serviceability design. When compared to an estimation of the stiffness, i.e. natural frequency, and mass, the damping ratio is the most difficult quantity to determine. Many previous studies have examined the characteristics of damping ratios from ambient vibration, but the measurement time is roughly within 2 hours. In this paper, characteristics of damping ratios and natural frequencies of 4 story RC building were investigated using long-term ambient vibration. Free vibrations were obtained using random decrement technique, and damping ratios were evaluated by the envelop function, continuous wavelet transform, and logarithmic decrement. It was found that although the natural frequencies show little variations with time, the damping ratios show some variations with time and the largest variations found in the damping ratios obtained from the continuous wavelet transform. The damping ratios from the envelop function showed the smallest mean and standard deviation. And the probability distribution of damping ratios seems to follow the logarithmic normal distribution.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.75.1-75.1
• /
• 2012

Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxies are arguably the most important AGN subclass in investigating the origin of the black hole mass-galaxy stellar velocity dispersion (MBH-${\sigma}$) relation because of their high accretion rates close to the Eddington limit. Currently, it is still under discussion whether NLS1s are off from the local MBH-${\sigma}$ relation. We select a sample of 325 NLS1 at relatively low redshift (z<0.1) from the SDSS DR7 by constraining FWHM of $H{\beta}$ in the range of 800-2,200 km/s. Among them, we measured stellar velocity dispersion of 40 objects which show strong stellar absorption lines, e.g. Mg b triplet(${\sim}5175{\AA}$), Fe($5270{\AA}$). In contrast, the other 285 objects show too weak stellar absorption lines to measure velocity dispersion. Using the sample of 40 objects with stellar velocity dispersion measurements, we investigate whether NLS1s follow the same MBH-${\sigma}$ relation as normal galaxies and broad line AGNs. We also test the reliability of the width of narrow lines as a surrogate of stellar velocity dispersion by comparing directly measured stellar velocity dispersion with ${\sigma}$ inferred from [O III], [N II], [S II] line widths, respectively. We will discuss the connection between AGN activity in NLS1s and galaxy evolution based on these results.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.26 no.1E
• /
• pp.8-13
• /
• 2007

It has long been known that high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss (HFHL) can contribute to difficulty in speech understanding by elderly listeners. This study evaluated the relative contribution of HFHL and age to speech understanding. Subjects included adult middle-aged and old groups with normal hearing or with limited HFHL. The Hearing-in-Noise-Test (HINT) was used to measure speech perception performance in quiet and in noise. The middle-aged groups showed significant effects of HFHL for speech intelligibility in quiet and in noise, but the old groups showed the difference in quiet only due to high frequency hearing. The results suggest that HFHL may affect speech intelligibility differently with age and therefore hearing aid selection needs to take into account the influence of age.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.139-155
• /
• 2012

Serviceability rather than strength is the most critical design requirement for vibration-vulnerable floor constructions. Annoying vibrations due to normal walking activity have been observed more frequently on long-span lightweight floor systems in office and commercial retail buildings, raising the need for the development of floor vibration design procedures. This paper highlights some limitations of one of the most commonly used guidelines AISC/CISC DG11, and proposes improvements to this method. Design charts and approximate closed form formulas to estimate the walking response are developed in which various factors relating to the dynamic characteristics of both the floor and the excitation are considered. The accuracy of the proposed formulas and other proposals found in the literature is examined. The proposed modifications would be significant, especially with long-span floors where vibration levels may be underestimated by the current design procedure. The application of the proposed prediction method is illustrated by worked examples that reveal a good agreement with results obtained from finite element analyses and experiments. The presented work would enhance the accuracy and maintain the simplicity and convenience of the design guideline.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.45 no.2
• /
• pp.179-190
• /
• 2013

A station blackout experiment called SBO-01 was performed at the ATLAS facility. From the SBO-01 test, the station blackout scenario can be characterized into two typical phases: A first phase characterized by decay heat removal through secondary safety valves until the SG dryouts, and a second phase characterized by an energy release through a blowdown of the primary system after the SG dryouts. During the second phase, some physical phenomena of the change over a pressurizer function, i.e., the pressurizer being full before the POSRV $1^{st}$ opening and then its function being taken by the RV, and the termination of normal natural circulation flow were identified. Finally, a core heatup occurred at a low core water level, although under a significant amount of PZR inventory, whose drainage seemed to be hindered owing to the pressurizer function by the RV. The transient of SBO-01 is well reproduced in the calculation using the MARS code.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.41 no.6
• /
• pp.603-611
• /
• 2018

Triglyceride homeostasis is a key process of normal development and is essential for the maintenance of energy metabolism. Dysregulation of this process leads to metabolic disorders such as obesity and hyperlipidemia. Here, we report a novel function of the Drosophila flightless-I (fliI) gene in lipid metabolism. Drosophila fliI mutants were resistant to starvation and showed increased levels of triglycerides in the fat body and intestine, whereas fliI overexpression decreased triglyceride levels. These flies suffered from metabolic stress indicated by increased levels of trehalose in hemolymph and enhanced phosphorylation of eukaryotic initiation factor 2 alpha ($eIF2{\alpha}$). Moreover, upregulation of triglycerides via a knockdown of fliI was reversed by a knockdown of desat1 in the fat body of flies. These results indicate that fliI suppresses the expression of desat1, thereby inhibiting the development of obesity; fliI may, thus, serve as a novel therapeutic target in obesity and metabolic diseases.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.41-54
• /
• 2000

This study was undertaken to determine if Plantaginis Semen Herbal Acupuncture(PSA) has a protective effect against glycerol-induced acute renal failure in rats. Rats were dehydrated for 24hr and then injected with 8 ml/kg of $50\%$ glycerol, one-half of dose in each hindlimb muscle. In experiments for PSA effect, rats received 0.1 ml of PSA extraction in both sides of corresponding Shenso($BL_{23}$) of human body for 3 days after injection of glycerol. The experimental group were di vided into the Normal group, the Control group, the PSA group. Glycerol injection decreased glomerular filtration rate and increased urine volume, serum creatinine, BUN level and fractional excretion of glucose, $Na^+$, $K^+$ and $CI^-$. These result show that glycerol injection result in acute renal failure. PSA significantly increased glomerular filtration rate and significantly decreased serum creatinine, BUN level and fractional excretion of glucose, $Na^+$ and $CI^-$ as compared Control group. This suggests that PSA could be used in prevention and treatment of acute renalfailure. However, the precise mechanisms of PSA protection remain to be determined.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.41-59
• /
• 2006

Chronic liver diseases and hepatic cancer have been reported as 10% of cause of death in Koreans. Regardless of various causes, chronic liver disease accompanies commonly hepatic fibrosis. But still the mechanism of hepatic fibrosis remains poorly understood. Using the dimethylnitrosamine(DMN)-induced hepatic fibrosis rat model, We performed to evaluate the possible therapeutic effect of RIP(extracts of Phellodendron amurense and Patrinia scabiosaefolia) and to investigate the changes in referential connective tissue proteins($TGF-{\beta}_1$, ${\alpha}$-smooth muscle actin, and vimentin) as a marker of fibrogenesis. For these purposes, liver tissues were stained with H & E, and Azan staining for estimation of developing fibrosis. In the DMN-treated rat liver tissue, fibrosis were developed forming incomplete septal fibrosis. Whereas, in the RIP-treated rat liver tissues, the fibrosis were decreased recovering to normal morphology. The expressions of $TGF-{\beta}_1$, ${\alpha}$-smooth muscle actin($\alpha-SMA$), and vimetin were increased in the DMN-treated rat liver tissues, but decreased in the various areas of RIP-treated rat liver tissues. According to these results, RIP could be a possible therapeutic agent to reduce hepatic fibrosis, and the $TGF-{\beta}_1$, ${\alpha}$-SMA, and vimentin could be possible indicative markers of hepatic fibrosis development and recovery.