• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.6-10
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• 2008

This study investigated the effect of long-term administration of pioglitazone on the pharmacokinetics of verapamil in rats. Pharmacokinetic parameters of verapamil were determined after oral administration of verapamil (9 mg/kg) in rats coadministered pioglitazone (0.5 mg/kg) or pretreated with pioglitazone (0.5 mg/kg) for 3 and 9 days. Compared to oral control group, the presence of pioglitazone significantly (p<0.05) increased the area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) of verapamil by 48.6% (coad), 61.1% (3 days) and 56.5% (9 days), and the peak concentration($C_{max}$) by 65.1% (coad), 76.8% (3 days) and 66.4% (9 days). The absolute bioavailability (AB%) of verapamil was significantly (p<0.05) higher by 6.2% (coad), 6.7% (3 days), 6.5% (9 days) compared to control (4.2%), and presence of pioglitazone was no significant change in the terminal half-life ($t_{1/2}$) and the time to reach the peak concentration($T_{max}$) of verapamil. Our results indicate that pioglitazone significantly enhanced oral bioavailability of verapamil in rats, implying that presence of pioglitazone could be effective to inhibit the CYP3A4-mediated metabolism of verapamil in the intestine. Drug interactions should be considered in the clinical setting when verapamil is coadministrated with pioglitazone.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.88-95
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine nursing students' attitude toward death and perception on hospice care. Methods: The survey was performed on 103 nursing students in one university in Goseong-gun, Gangwon-do. The data were collected by questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Regarding the attitude toward death, 90.3% of the students had thought about death. They worried about sense of loss and sadness due to parting with family (31.1%). About half (51.5%) of the students considered death as a final process of the life. With regard to the perception of hospice, 92.2% of the students heard about hospice through books or nursing classes (65.0%). Public institutions running by government was considered to the students as the best hospice management institution (44.7%). The students thought a ideal model of hospice setting in Korea was hospital or institution specialized with hospice care (51.5%). They considered the barriers to effective hospice care in Korea was the lack of the public consensus on the need for hospice program (35.9%). The average perceptions about the purpose of hospice care was 4.33 whereas the average of the need of hospice care was 3.85. Conclusion: The findings of the study provide the basis for expanding nursing practice and education related to hospice care.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.58-65
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• 2006

Since the development of sophisticated molecular carriers such as octereotides for peptide receptor targeting and monoclonal antibodies against various antigens associated with specific tumor types, radionuclide therapy (RNT) employing open sources of therapeutic agents is promising modality for treatment of tumors. furthermore, the emerging of new therapeutic regimes and new approaches for tumor treatment using radionuclide are anticipated in near future. In targeted radiotherapy using peptides and other receptor based tarrier molecules, the use of radionuclide with high specific activity in formulating the radiopharmaceutical is essential in order to deliver sufficient number of radionuclides to the target site without saturating the target. In order to develop effective radiopharmaceuticals for therapeutic applications, it is crucial to carefully consider the choice of appropriate radionuclides as well as the tarrier moiety with suitable pharmacokinetic properties that could result in good in vivo localization and desired excretion. Up to date, only a limited number of radionuclides have been applied in radiopharmaceutical development due to the constraints in compliance with their physical half-life, decay characteristics, cost and availability in therapeutic applications. In this review article, we intend to provide with the improved understanding of the factors of importance of appropriate radionuclide for therapy with respect to their physical properties and therapeutic applications.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.21
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• pp.139-164
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• 2010

Sung Yung Shin was adopted as a Korean infant to an American family. She is now one of the most important writers in Asian American literary field. This paper analyzes the characteristics of her literature, focusing on Skirt full of Black (poetry)and Cooper's Lesson(children's book). Sun Yung Shin uses collage in Skirt full of Black as an effective rhetorical device because it can express her experience as an adopted other in the multicultural American society. She rewrites the fairy tale of Swan Prince in the viewpoint of silence. For a yellow Asian adopted woman, speaking is suppressed. In the end, the attempt to escape from silence is the writer's resisting activity, and the rewriting of the tale is her questioning in place of the princess. I analyses Cooper's Lesson in the viewpoint of transcultural assimilation. Cooper's lesson is accomplished not by his white father but by a Korean settler, Mr. Lee. Cooper's family is a hybrid composed of white American father, Korean mother, and their half son. So this family has many complicated difficulties, though it's small. Mr. Lee who accepted a new language to establish a new identity teaches Cooper the importance of cultural assimilation, which is not a one-sided integration to dominant culture but an intercultural communion while sustaining each culture's singularity. Cooper learns that he should live in an harmonious and balanced life in a multi-cultural society while keeping his own subjective point of view.

• Journal of the Korean society of biological therapies in psychiatry
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.142-155
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• 2018

Insomnia in patients with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation(HSCT) has been underdiagnosed and undertreated. This study reviewed the frequency, characteristics, physical and psychological effects, and treatments of insomnia in HSCT patients to highlight clinical importance in this specialized population. Furthermore, the authors intended to suggest a model that would conceptualize insomnia in the context of HSCT. In the pre-transplant period, about half of patients with HSCT suffered from sleep disturbance. A substantial number of patients experienced distressing insomnia during the HSCT procedure and recovered to the level of the pre-transplant period. However, sleep disruption could be a chronic symptom in HSCT survivors and could negatively impact quality of control, cancer-related fatigue(CRF), immune function, and psychological distress. The 3P's model(Predisposing, Precipitating, Perpetuating) explains insomnia in cancer population and could be also relevant to HSCT patients with specific consideration of CRF, graft-versus-host diseases, specific properties of hematological disease, and protective isolated milieu. Effective treatment of insomnia in HSCT includes non-pharmacological(e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy, environmental modification) and pharmacological interventions. The decision of pharmacological treatment should be based on the issue of safety due to high risk of potential drug-drug interactions. Screening, treatment, and further research of insomnia in HSCT patients using validated subjective and/or objective measures are warranted.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.164-170
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• 2021

Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) have emerged as large-scale energy storage systems (ESS) due to their advantages such as low cross-contamination, long life, and flexible design. However, Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in the negative half-cell causes a harmful influence on the performance of the VRFB by consuming current. Moreover, HER hinders V²⁺/V³⁺ redox reaction between electrode and electrolyte by forming a bubble. To address the HER problem, carbon nanotube/graphite felt electrode (CNT/GF) with oxygen functional groups was synthesized through the hydrothermal method in the H₂SO₄ + HNO₃ (3:1) mixed acid solution. These oxygen functional groups on the CNT/GF succeed in suppressing the HER and improving charge transfer for V²⁺/V³⁺ redox reaction. As a result, the oxygen functional group applied electrode exhibited a low overpotential of 0.395 V for V²⁺/V³⁺ redox reaction. Hence, this work could offer a new strategy to design and synthesize effective electrodes for HER suppression and improving the energy density of VRFB.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.3017-3026
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• 2022

The ¹³¹Cs radioisotope with a short half-life time and high average radiation energy can treat the cancer effectively in prostate brachytherapy. The typical ¹³¹Cs production processes have a separation step of the cesium from ¹³¹Ba to obtain a high specific radioactivity. Herein, we suggested a novel ¹³¹Cs separation method based on the Ba²⁺ adsorption of alginate beads. It is necessary to reduce the affinity of alginate beads to cesium ions for a high production yield. The carboxyl group of the alginate beads was replaced by a sulfonate group to reduce the cesium affinity while reinforcing their affinity to barium ions. The modified beads exhibited superior Ba²⁺ adsorption performances to native beads. In the fixed-bed column tests, the saturation time and adsorption capacity could be estimated with the Yoon-Nelson model in various injection flow rates and initial concentrations. In terms of the Cs elution, the modified alginate showed better performance (i.e., an elution over 88%) than the native alginate (i.e., an elution below 10%), indicating that the functional group modification was effective in reducing the affinity to cesium ions. Therefore, the separation of cesium from the barium using the modified alginate is expected to be an additional option to produce ¹³¹Cs.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2006

Possible application of hurdle technology extention of shelf-life of fresh-cut apples was investigated by evaluating various hurdle factors known to be effective microbial growth inhibitors and their synergistic effects. Fresh-cut apples treated with chitooligosaccharide or grapefruit seed extract (GSE) showed higher microbial counts than those treated with distilled water during latter half of storage period, and at high concentrations. Citric and malic acids showed similar results, although microbial counts of fresh-cut apples treated with 0.75% or higher concentration of citric acid increased at 4 days of storage at $18^{\circ}C$, indicating malic acid is more effective than all hurdles tested for controlling microbial growth. Using ascorbic acid and calcium chloride as additional hurdles to control browning and softening, minimum and maximum compositions of dipping solution were: 0.25 : 0.5 : 0.25% and 0.75 : 1.0 : 0.75% malic acid: ascorbic acid: calcium chloride, respectively.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.389-397
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• 2015

This study investigated the effects of Perilla frutescens var. acuta water extract (WEP) on the shelf life and physicochemical qualities of cooked beef patties. The WEP contained phenolic compounds (80.65 mg gallic acid equivalents/g) and had half-maximal effective concentrations of 0.437 and 4.509 mg/mL for scavenging of DPPH and ABTS⁺ radicals, respectively. Treatment with 0.6% WEP inhibited the growth of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (p<0.05). Based on the result of the antioxidative potential and antimicrobial potential of WEP, beef patties were prepared with three treatment groups: (1) beef patties without added antioxidant (control); (2) beef patties with 0.02% ʟ-ascorbic acid (BAA); and (3) beef patties with 0.6% WEP (BWEP). The pH and cooking loss of BWEP were lower and higher than those in the control, respectively (p<0.05). When cooked beef patties were stored for 21 d at 4℃, the total number of aerobic bacteria in BWEP was lower than those in the control on all days except day 14 (p<0.05). The TBARS values in BWEP were lower than those of controls on days 7, 14, and 21 (p<0.05). Compared to control and BAA, BWEP had lower L* and b* values and higher a* values throughout the storage period (p<0.05). Except on day 0, acceptability was higher in BWEP than in control and BAA (p<0.05). According to results, WEP can be used as a natural ingredient that improves the shelf life and sensorial qualities of meat products.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.413-425
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• 2011

Purpose: This study conducted a survey on the elderly with physical debilities, who are in a medically vulnerable social class, to examine closely their demo-sociological characteristics, unmet needs, dental states, and living qualities and satisfaction levels relating to oral health and social supports to them, and also to prepare the basis for effective public medical policies and health improvement programs aimed at improving the quality of life for the elderly with physical debilities. Methods: Twenty-two elderly care facilities within Jeju Special Self-Government Province participated in the survey. Between 11 January and 5 March 2010, a total of 250 elderly persons(65 and over) with physical debilities were interviewed and their dental health was checked. Results: The results of the survey are as follows. The need for social support for dental care of the elderly with physical debilities was high in the medical institution-supported service (49.6%). The unmet needs for physical care were high in bathing (49.6%) and using public transportation (71.6%). More than half of these surveyed had ten or fewer teeth. The survey found that 31.6% of the participants experienced problems eating, due to poor dental health. Concerning quality of life, 30.5% of those surveyed experienced physical pain. Conclusion: In summary, the ages of the survey participants directly relates to the degree of behavioral debility experienced. The more debility a participant exhibits, the greater is the need for social support and dental care. The dental health of a participant directly relates to a higher quality of life. Good dental health of a participant translate to better quality of life. In light of the fact that the elderly with physical debilities suffer from a lack of accessibility to medical care and worse oral health than do other elderly persons, it is essential to increase accessibility to medical institutions that can provide such services as door to door dental care. Current insurance policies, funding for denture insurance, and free denture and denture-upgrade programs desperately need to be expanded. Therefore, to improve effectively the quality of life for the elderly with physical debilities civil dental medical resources should be encouraged to provide inclusive and prevention-focused medical care. In the public domain, door to door dental care services and cooperation with civil dental care resources need to be improved to increase impartial accessibility to dental medical institutions.