• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.306-314
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• 2021

The application of organic fertilizer could be accompanied by potential hazards to soil and humans due to trace metals. Livestock manure compost·liquefied fertilizer is a well-established approach for the stabilization of nutrients and the reduction of pathogens and odors in manures, which can be evaluated as compost·liquefied. In this study, the livestock manure compost·liquefied fertilizers produced at 333 liquid manure public resource centers and liquid fertilizer distribution centers were collected from May to December 2019. The nutrient content (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), physicochemical properties, and heavy metal content were investigated. The livestock manure compost·liquefied fertilizer was measured using a mechanical maturity measurement device. The organic matter, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead, chromium, copper, nickel, zinc, E. coli (O157:H7), Salmonella, etc. of the livestock manure compost·liquefied fertilizers were analyzed. The average heavy metal content in the livestock manure compost·liquefied fertilizer was as follows: Cr 2.9 mg/kg (0.2~8.7 mg/kg), Cu 20.4 mg/kg (1.6~74.1 mg/kg), Ni 1.3 mg/kg (0.4~4.2 mg/kg), and Zn 79.8 mg/kg (3.0~340.7 mg/kg). Although large-scale organic fertilizer plants and resources recycling centers produce good organic (liquid) fertilizers with proper components, it is necessary to standardize livestock manure compost·liquefied fertilizer in order to facilitate efforts to turn livestock manure into useful resources.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.178-186
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• 2019

Background: Epidural steroid injections (ESIs) have been widely used in managing spinal pain. Dexamethasone has recently emerged as a useful drug in this setting, relative to particulate steroids, although the associated systemic effects have not been fully elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the incidences and types of systemic effects after fluoroscopically guided ESI with dexamethasone. Methods: This retrospective study included 888 ESIs with dexamethasone (fluoroscopically guided at the cervical and lumbosacral levels) performed on 825 patients during January to June 2017. Data regarding systemic effects were collected via telephone interviews using a standardized questionnaire at 2 weeks after the procedure. Data on patient demographic, clinical, and procedural characteristics were collected and analyzed to identify factors that were associated with systemic effects. All statistical analyses were performed using the chi-squared test. Results: Among the 825 patients, 40 patients (4.8%) experienced systemic effects during the 2-week follow-up period. The most common systemic effect was facial flushing (12 patients, 1.5%), which was followed by urticaria (7 patients, 0.8%) and insomnia (7 patients, 0.8%). A history of spine surgery was significantly associated with the occurrence of systemic effects (P = 0.036). Systemic effects were significantly more common for injections at the cervical level than at the lumbar level (P = 0.019). Conclusions: Approximately 4.8% of the patients who underwent ESI with dexamethasone experienced minor and transient systemic effects. These effects were more common in patients who had undergone a previous spine surgery or received a cervical ESI.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.264-270
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• 2019

Background: To develop a rabbit epidural steroid injection (ESI) model for analyzing steroid retention in the tissue, and to assess the difference in steroid retention in the model according to the location and time elapsed after ESI. Methods: Fluoroscopy-guided ESI was performed using the interlaminar approach between the lowest two lumbar segments in 13 female New Zealand white rabbits. Four rabbits were allocated to each of three different groups according to the time of sacrifice: 3, 7, and 15 days post-ESI; the remaining rabbit was sacrificed immediately post-ESI to obtain baseline data. After sacrifice, two segments were harvested: the lowest two lumbar vertebrae and another two lumbar vertebrae immediately above these. The residual steroid amount (RSA) and residual steroid concentration (RSC) in the collected spinal columns were analyzed. A linear mixed model was used to compare RSAs and RSCs between the injected and adjacent segments, and among the number of days until sacrifice; P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Both RSA and RSC of the injected segment were significantly higher than those of the adjacent segment (P < 0.001, both). The RSA and RSC significantly decreased over time (P = 0.009 and P = 0.016, respectively). Conclusions: The developed rabbit ESI model verified that significantly more steroid was retained at the injected segment than at the adjacent segment and the residual steroid decreased over time. This model could be useful not only for comparing current steroid medications, but also for developing new, better steroid formulations.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.666-675
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• 2019

Background: Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) has been widely used as an herbal medicine to normalize and strengthen body functions. Although many researchers have focused on the biological effects of KRG, more studies on the action mechanism of red ginseng are still needed. Previously, we investigated the proteomic changes of the rat spleen while searching for molecular signatures and the action mechanism of KRG. The proteomic analysis revealed that differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were involved in the increased immune response and phagocytosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the biological activities of KRG, especially the immune-enhancing response of KRG. Methods: Rats were divided into 4 groups: 0 (control group), 500, 1000, and 2000 mg/kg administration of KRG powder for 6 weeks, respectively. Isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation was performed with Q-Exactive LC-MS/MS to compare associated proteins between the groups. The putative DEPs were identified by a current UniProt rat protein database search and by the Gene Ontology annotations. Results: The DEPs appear to increase the innate and acquired immunity as well as immune cell movement. These results suggest that KRG can stimulate immune responses. This analysis refined our targets of interest to include the potential functions of KRG. Furthermore, we validated the potential molecular targets of the functions, representatively LCN2, CRAMP, and HLA-DQB1, by Western blotting. Conclusion: These results may provide molecular signature candidates to elucidate the mechanisms of the immune response by KRG. Here, we demonstrate a strategy of tissue proteomics for the discovery of the molecular function of KRG.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.81-86
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• 2011

The aqueous solution of Sunset Yellow-FCF (SY-FCF) began to show schlieren texture at room temperature when its concentration reaches 25 wt%. A further increase of the concentration of SY-FCF to 28 wt% resulted in a perfect nematic liquid crystal phase. However, more than 30 wt% of SY-FCF in aqueous solution was required to make an optically anisotropic film simply by shear coating. In our study, concentration of SY-FCF solution, coating speed, drying temperature, and relative humidity were considered as coating parameters affecting the preparation of optically anisotropic thin films. From analysis of variance analysis (ANOVA), the solution concentration was revealed as a main factor affecting the film thickness. The drying temperature and solution concentration were main factors affecting the transmittance of parallel direction ($T_o$). Especially, SY-FCF aqueous solution with high concentration induced a better alignment of LC columns and produced highly oriented anisotropic films. In this study, optically anisotropic films prepared by 33 wt% of SY-FCF in aqueous solution showed 89.7~98.7% of degree of polarization.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.179-202
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• 2016

This study analyses the effects of the major educational policies, focusing on the private tutoring prohibition policy(PTPP), on the intergenerational class mobility(ICM) by using Korea Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS) 1st-12th surveys. Because private tutoring(shadow education) can be effective for academic achievement of children of above middle classes that spend most private tutoring expenditure and have more information on education, the private tutoring prohibition policy can increase the intergenerational mobility. This study confirms this possibility. Even when the overlapping effect of the middle school equalization polity is controlled for, there is still high effect of the PTPP. We think that we still need to examine the level of intergenerational mobility with PTPP cohort with that of later cohorts in the future. We also emphasize the compositive effect of the several consistent policies such as middle school and high school equalization polices and the PTPP and length and continuity of the policies for the higher mobility.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.149-207
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• 2010

Written simultaneously with Prometheus Unbound, Shelley's "Julian & Maddalo" is a masterwork of dramatic poiesis, of doubling embedded in its couplets, dialogic debate on human nature and contrasted symbolic emblems. The emblems mirror each other and are themselves sites of generative paradox: the "heaven illumined" but "dreary tower" of the Maniac and the glorious sunsets on the "ever-shifting sand" of the Lido, a wasteland that is a place of self discovery but also of "abandonment" and barren mingling figured, inter alia, in its "amphibious weeds," a trope of the poem's personae. This essay also explores the poem's dramatic structure and various rhetorical devices, beginning with the Preface, a threshold of complex identity disguise that Shelley uses for veiled self-presentation, as in "Alastor," mirroring and literary references replete with nuanced ironies. I focus mainly on the complex figures of liminality Shelley uses to develop his own thoughts (as well as his ongoing debates with Byron) about man's potential for growth in thought, insight and empathy, in political reform and interpersonal and individual healing. Advancing Shelley's most optimistic ideas, Julian, escorted by Maddalo observes the Maniac, -- a living ruin whose pained eloquence reveals the link of eros to poiesis and the limits of the latter's ability to 'transform a world.' The Maniac is the core of muse-work (remembering, thinking and song) and Shelley presents him as its emblem. He also is prefigured in and reflects the quintessentially liminal Lido with its "barren embrace" of sea and land. Yet it is less the Maniac's feeling that his grief is "charactered in vain…on this unfeeling leaf" than Julian's rationales for leaving the site of pain that point to Shelley's final comment on poetry's transformative limits. As the primary haploids of the drama's meiosis re-combine and two of them, Maddalo and the maniac fall away, an analogy I briefly develop and embedded in the erotic dynamics of poiesis, Shelley suggests, as he did at the beginning of his poetic lyricism in "Alastor" and at its end in "the Triumph of Life"that images mislead and delude; that "the deep truth is imageless" and redemption is not in but beyond figuration.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.45-55
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• 2022

This study explores the issues of "eco-friendly consumption" through online media posts, and aims to identify changes in it. Total 6,812 blog posts on Naver, that included the words "eco-friendly consumption" and "eco-friendly lifestyle," published between 2005 and 2020, in five-year intervals, were analyzed. The results illustrated that consumption issues began with the identification of the causes of environmental problems however, "eco-friendly consumption" gradually gained importance, until it developed into preparing standards and alternatives for proper "eco-friendly consumption." In 2020, "eco-friendly consumption" values and ideal consumption practices were expanded into social movements. However, there is relatively little discussion on controlled and modest spending. Therefore, for the future direction of "eco-friendly consumption," it is necessary to thoroughly examine and highlight the agenda of controlled and modest living from a higher perspective.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.336-344
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• 2022

Background: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has prohibited epidural steroid injection (ESI) with particulate steroids. Thus, this study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of ESI with two nonparticulate steroids, dexamethasone and betamethasone. Methods: The eligible patients (n = 600) who received ESI (0 week) with dexamethasone (ESI-dexa) or betamethasone (ESI-beta) had follow-up visits at 2, 4, and 8 weeks with a phone interview at 12 weeks. The primary endpoint was the proportion of effective responders without pain or who were much improved at 2 weeks. The secondary endpoints were the proportion of crossover injections at 2 weeks; changes in the visual analog scale (VAS) and disability index scores at 2, 4, and 8 weeks; the number of additional ESIs in 12 weeks; the number of participants having spinal surgery, as well as the incidence of adverse events over the 12 weeks. Results: The proportion of effective responders at 2 weeks was not different between ESI-beta (72/216, 33.3%) and ESI-dexa (63/200, 31.5%; P = 0.670). Adverse events were more common with ESI-dexa (40/200, 20.0%) than with ESI-beta (24/216, 11.1%; P = 0.012). VAS scores decreased more with ESI-beta than with ESI-dexa at 2 weeks (difference, 0.35; P = 0.023) and 4 weeks (difference, 0.42; P = 0.011). The disability score improved significantly more with ESI-beta compared with ESI-dexa at 2 weeks (difference, 3.37; P = 0.009), 4 weeks (difference, 4.01; P = 0.002), and 8 weeks (difference, 3.54; P = 0.007). Conclusions: Betamethasone would be more appropriate for ESI.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.319-328
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• 2023

Background: Demyelination has been observed in neurological disorders, motivating researchers to search for components for enhancing remyelination. Previously we found that Rb1, a major ginsenoside in Korean Red Ginseng (KRG), enhances myelin formation. However, it has not been studied whether Rb1 or KRG function in remyelination after demyelination in vivo. Methods: Mice were fed 0.2% cuprizone-containing chow for 5 weeks and returned to normal chow with daily oral injection of vehicle, KRG, or Rb1 for 3 weeks. Brain sections were stained with luxol fast blue (LFB) staining or immunohistochemistry. Primary oligodendrocyte or astrocyte cultures were subject to normal or stress condition with KRG or Rb1 treatment to measure gene expressions of myelin, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, antioxidants and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). Results: Compared to the vehicle, KRG or Rb1 increased myelin levels at week 6.5 but not 8, when measured by the LFB⁺ or GST-pi⁺ area within the corpus callosum. The levels of oligodendrocyte precursor cells, astrocytes, and microglia were high at week 5, and reduced afterwards but not changed by KRG or Rb1. In primary oligodendrocyte cultures, KRG or Rb1 increased expression of myelin genes, ER stress markers, and antioxidants. Interestingly, under cuprizone treatment, elevated ER stress markers were counteracted by KRG or Rb1. Under rotenone treatment, reduced myelin gene expressions were recovered by Rb1. In primary astrocyte cultures, KRG or Rb1 decreased LIF expression. Conclusion: KRG and Rb1 may improve myelin regeneration during the remyelination phase in vivo, potentially by directly promoting myelin gene expression.