• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.30 no.10
• /
• pp.835-843
• /
• 2020

Obesity, the world's leading metabolic disease, is a serious health problem in both industrialized and developing countries. Natural substances are of great interest in preventative medicine, especially in the field of metabolic syndromes-from insulin resistance to obesity and diabetes. In the present study, we investigated the effect of A. pullulans SM-2001 Extract (Polycan^®) on the adipocyte differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and the anti-obesity effect of 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Although β-glucan has been found to have health benefits in the regulation of the immune system and blood cholesterol levels, its role in obesity has not been fully investigated. Polycan^® suppressed lipid accumulation and glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH) activity without affecting cell viability in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and adipocytes. Polycan^® also inhibited cellular lipid accumulation through down-regulation of transcription factors, such as PPARγ and C/EBPα, and induced dose-dependent phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-a cellular energy sensor-while the total AMPK protein content remained unchanged. Taken together, this shows that the activation of AMPK by Polycan^® in adipocytes plays a critical role in Polycan^®-induced inhibition of adipocyte differentiation. Our results show that Polycan^® has an anti-obesity action in vitro, suggesting a potential novel preventative agent for obesity and other metabolic diseases.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.35-51
• /
• 2020

Objective : The purpose of this study was to develop and establish the preliminary validity of the Restaurant Accessibility and Task Evaluation Information Tool (RATE-IT), an electronic survey for evaluating restaurant accessibility for people with disabilities. Methods : A multi-phase method was used to develop and validate the RATE-IT. The taxonomy was developed in phase one, while the validity of the content was tested in phase two. Finally, the validity of the constructs was assessed in phase three. Results : The results indicated that appropriate items were included (relevance=0.99 and language level=0.99) and also supported that the RATE-IT evaluated the construct of restaurant accessibility (F=0.72, p=.40). When compared to a checklist of the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) for Buildings and Facilities questions, RATE-IT showed the potential to differentiate restaurants by their level of accessibility (p=.10). Further, the RATE-IT was also easy to use (p<.00), understandable (p<.00), and efficient (p<.00). Conclusion : RATE-IT shows a promising methodology and is strongly preferred by users.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.35-42
• /
• 2008

This survey was compared and analyzed about the primary factor that dental office's working environment effect on physical subjective symptom and based on self-filling survey, 656 dental hygienists on July through August 2006, and analyzed using descriptive statics, ANOVA and Multiple Regression Analysis. The result of satisfaction degree of hospital working environment was pretty low about office air condition. Most people have complained that office's air quality makes it difficult to their work and mentioned that they were sore and dull all over the back, shoulder, and neck. The odor is major factor to be satisfied with office environment. Proper ventilates the way open the window more often was essential to maintain fresh indoor air quality and keep the extraction materials by separator and sealing tightly for remove the odor. Other factors were temperature, lighting fixture, ventilation facilities, and freshness of air. Dental hygienist was unsatisfied with hospital air condition and this polluted air condition was the cause of physical subjective symptom in work place. Furthermore, this research would be applied for improvement of working environment by decreasing of indoor air pollution.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.607-618
• /
• 2017

Harmful air pollutants are exhausted from the various industrial facilities including the coal-fired thermal power plants and these substances affects on the human health as well as the nature environment. In particular, nitrogen oxides ($NO_x$) and sulfur dioxide ($SO_2$) are known to be causative substances to form fine particles ($PM_{2.5}$), which are also deleterious to human health. The integrated system composed of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) have been widely applied in order to control $NO_x$ and $SO_2$ emissions, resulting in high investment and operational costs, maintenance problems, and technical limitations. Recently, new technologies for the simultaneous removal of $NO_x$ and $SO_2$ from the flue gas, such as absorption, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), non-thermal plasma (NTP), and electron beam (EB), are investigated in order to replace current integrated systems. The proposed technologies are based on the oxidation of $NO_x$ and $SO_2$ to $HNO_3$ and $H_2SO_4$ by using strong aqueous oxidants or oxidative radicals, the absorption of $HNO_3$ and $H_2SO_4$ into water at the gas-liquid interface, and the neutralization with additive reagents. In this paper, we summarize the technical improvements of each simultaneous abatement processes and the future prospect of technologies for demonstrating large-scaled applications.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 1992

Since 1960's along with industrialization and urbanization, economic growth has been . achieved, however, at the same time, environmental condition has been seriously deteriorated. . Currently, volume of wastewater has been increasing at annual rate of 7% in sewage and 20% in industrial wastewater. However, the nation's sewage treatment serves only 33% of the municipal wastewater as of 1991. Major portion of air pollutants comes from combustion of oil and coal which comprise 81% of total energy use and emission gases from motor vehicles increasing at an accelerated rate. It is known that Korea generates the highest amount of waste per capta. Nevertheless, it is not sufficient to reduce the volume of waste by means of resources recovery and recycling. Recognizing the importance of global environmental problems such as ozone layer depletion, global warming and acid rain, international society has been making various efforts since the 1972 Stockholm conference. In particular, it is expected that the Rio conference which has adopted the Rio declaration and Agenda 21 will form a crucial turning point of the emerging new world order after the Cold War confrontation. To cope with such issues as domestic pollution and global environmental problems, the fundamental national policy aims at harmonizing "environmental protection and sustainable development". The Ministry of Environment has recently set up a mid-term comprehensive plan which includes annual targets for environmental protection. According to the government plan, gradual improvement of various environmental conditions and specific measures to achieve them is planned in time frame. Additional sewage treatment plants will be constructed in urban areas with the target to treat 65% of the nation's municipal sewage by 1996. Supply of clean fuels such as LNG will also be expanded starting from large cities as a cleaner substitute energy for coal and oil. In parallel with expansion of LNG, emphasis will be placed on installation of stack monitoring system. Due to the relatively limited land, government's basic policy for solid waste treatment is to develop large scale landfill facilities rather than small sized ones. Thirty three regional areas have been designated for the purpose of waste management. For each of these regions, big scale landfill site is going to be developed. To increase the rate of waste recycling the government is planning to reinforce separate collection system and to provide industries with economic incentives. As a part of meeting the changing situation on global environmental problems after UNCED, and accommodation regulatory measures stipulated in the global environmental conventions and protocols, national policy will try to alter industrial and economic structure so as to mitigate the increasing trends of energy consumption, by encouraging energy conservation and efficiency. In this regard, more attention will be given to the policy on the development of the cleaner technology. Ultimately, these policies and programs will contribute greatly to improving the current state of national public health.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.37-48
• /
• 1996

The purpose of this study is to provide the valuable basic information that helps set the advanced direction of study in environmental pollution in the future. It classifies and analyzes 6, 531 papers according to their years, fields, and contents from 1962 to 1993 in Korea through Chunrian, a PC communication network, National Environment Research Institute(1989) in Seoul. Classifying papers by their fields, this study shows 19.6%(1, 281 papers) of total papers on water pollution, on which most emphasis was placed in the studies, 17.2%(1, 121 papers) on general remarks, 14.6%(952 papers) on environmental ecology, and 13.6%(891 papers) on air pollution. Classifying papers by their contents, this study tells us that the survey of state and evaluation of pollution degree took 28%(1, 829 papers) of total papers, and it seemed the most active study was carried out on this content. It then shows us that the treatment technology and mechanism shared 17.5%(1, 144 papers), and facilities and design took 1.9%(127 papers) which needed more studies in the future. As for the trends of study, the papers published until 1979 show that the water pollution accounted for 28.9% of total studies, on which the greatest emphasis was placed, while the papers in 1990s tell us that general remarks 34.7%, air pollution 14.9%, and water pollution 14.1%. It also shows that treatment technology and mechanism has had more importance since 1980s in water pollution, noise and vibration, waste materials, human wastes, and radioactive pollution. However, in sea pollution, policy and standard rather than treatment technology or method of measurement and analysis has been considered a more important one in 1990s. Analyzing the studies on general remarks, it tell us that the paper on environmental act, which were frequently conducted, accounted for 33.3% until 1979, while the papers on the environmental policy, in which the highest interest was kept, accounted 34.6% in 1990s. This study concludes that most papers had examined the survey on status and evaluation of pollution degree before 1980, while studies on solving the problems of environmental pollution have had more importance in the 1980s and 1990s. Therefore, in the future, more studies should be conducted actively on policy development to solve the problems of environment pollution as well as on encouragement of environmental consciousness.

• Child Health Nursing Research
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.434-450
• /
• 2001

This study is designed to understand the meaning and nature of raising children with cerebral palsy. It researches the experience of mothers of schoolchildren with cerebral palsy by the research method of hermeneutic phenomenology. The study was conducted from November 10, 1999 to December 20, 2000. When children with cerebral palsy usually show symptoms in the early stage of cerebral palsy, mothers do not take children to a doctor for diagnosis. And, most of mothers have a difficult time to accept the reality; they usually respond to the initial diagnosis with shock, reproach, and deny. When mothers start recognizing the reality, they consider that their children have cerebral palsy due to the their mismanagement during pregnancy, delivery, nursing, and initial treatment. They shelter their children from view and feel guilty that they cannot afford to try folk remedies for their children. As time passes, mothers face conflicts between families in diverse ways. Families put the blame on genetic effects. Mothers-in-law give their daughters-in-law a hard time, husbands shift the responsibility of raising children onto their wives, and trouble arises between families-in-law and mothers native families. When children grow up, it is physically difficult for mothers to take care their children. In addition, they suffer from all the troubles in family due to childrens handicap. Mothers try the diverse methods of bringing up children. However, they start getting tired of raising children as they experience failures and financial difficulties. Mothers feel collapsed recalling the ways of raising children. They feel anxiety, miserable, lonely, and worrying when they think how children would attend school, make friends, and live in the future. In this stage, mothers do their best to raise their children with hope. They tend to compare their children with others without handicap and spend money and time in attempting all the treatments. When mothers and children join the society at school, they find that the society does not understand disabled people, teachers show inconsiderate attitude, friends avoid them, and children hardly follow classes. Such experiences make mothers feel angry and frustrated. However, when children adapt to school, mothers see the possibility that children could accomplish schoolwork. They appreciate teachers help and others consideration. Mothers place appropriate expectations on their children and help them to prepare for the future. I would make following suggestions based on the results. 1. As a primary basic course of rehabilitation nursing intervention, solution-centered nursing intervention system should be developed. The intervention needs to be based on the understanding of mothers, who raise children with cerebral palsy, through in-depth interview. 2. Advance researches on the development of individual nursing intervention should be conducted. Individual nursing intervention needs to prevent and release actual pain focusing on mothers raising children with cerebral palsy. 3. Integrated curriculum that help children with cerebral palsy lead a normal school life with ordinary children should be developed. 4. Basic research on using of facilities and effective application of service volunteer to help children with cerebral palsy in school needs to be conducted.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.97-105
• /
• 2017

Objectives: To evaluate sleep characteristics and factors associated with sleep disturbance in schizophrenia patients with concurrent active psychotic symptoms and insomnia. Methods: Schizophrenia patients with insomnia and active psychotic symptoms (n = 63) were recruited from community-based mental rehabilitative facilities. Sleep scales such as the Korean version of the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI-K) and the Korean Version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI-K) were evaluated and those with ISI-K >15 were included in the study. Psychotic, anxiety and depressive symptoms were rated with the Brief Psychotic Rating Scale (BPRS), the Korean Version of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (K-ASI), and the Korean Version of the Beck Depression Inventory-I (K-BDI), respectively. Pearson correlation analyses were performed between the sociodemographic data, ISI-K and PSQI-K. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to investigate the factors which affected the ISI-K and PSQI-K. Results: The mean ISI-K and PSQI-K scores were $18.1{\pm}2.6$ and $12.0{\pm}2.2$, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis showed a negative correlation between age of onset and ISI-K score and positive correlations between BRPS and PSQI-K scores and between K-ASI and both ISI-K and PSQI-K scores. Multiple regression analyses for both ISI-K and PSQI-K with K-ASI, age of onset, and BPRS as covariates revealed K-ASI as the only significant remaining factor. Conclusion: Our study suggests that anxiety symptoms are associated with insomnia symptoms in schizophrenia patients regardless of depressive or psychotic symptoms.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.14
• /
• pp.5889-5897
• /
• 2015

Background: The performance of combined testing visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and cervical cytology tests might differ from one setting to another. The average estimate of the testing accuracy across studies is informative, but no meta-analysis has been carried out to assess this combined method. Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the average sensitivity and specificity of the combined VIA and cervical cytology tests for the detection of cervical precancerous lesions. Materials and Methods: We conducted a systematic review and a meta-analysis, according to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Review of Diagnostic Test Accuracy. We considered two cases. In the either-positive result case, a positive result implies positivity in at least one of the tests. A negative result implies negativity in both tests. In the both-positive case, a positive result implies having both tests positive. Eligible studies were identified using Pubmed, Embase, Website of Science, CINHAL and COCRANE databases. True positive, false positive, false negative and true negative values were extracted. Estimates of sensitivity and specificity, positive and negative likelihood (LR) and diagnostic odds ratios (DOR) were pooled using a hierarchical random effect model. Hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristics (HSROC) were generated and heterogeneity was verified through covariates potentially influencing the diagnostic odds ratio. Findings: Nine studies fulfilled inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. Pooled estimates of the sensitivities of the combined tests in either-positive and both-positive cases were 0.87 (95% CI: 0.83-0.90) and 0.38 (95% CI: 0.29-0.48), respectively. Corresponding specificities were 0.79 (95% CI: 0.63-0.89) and 0.98 (95% CI: 0.96-0.99) respectively. The DORs of the combined tests in either-positive or both-positive result cases were 27.7 (95% CI: 12.5-61.5) and 52 (95% CI: 22.1-122.2), respectively. When including only articles without partial verification bias and also a high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia as a threshold of the disease, DOR of combined test in both-positive result cases remained the highest. However, DORs decreased to 12.1 (95% CI: 6.05-24.1) and 13.8 (95% CI: 7.92-23.9) in studies without partial verification bias for the combined tests in the either-positive and both-positive result cases, respectively. The screener, the place of study and the size of the population significantly influenced the DOR of combined tests in the both-positive result case in restriction analyses that considered only articles with CIN2+ as disease threshold. Conclusions: The combined test in the either-positive result case has a high sensitivity, but a low specificity. These results suggest that the combined test should be considered in developing countries as a primary screening test if facilities exist to confirm, through colposcopy and biopsy, a positive result.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.384-391
• /
• 2020

An annual average of more than 100 casualties occur on construction sites designated by the occupational safety and health law despite the safety assessment regulations from Korea Occupational Safety & Health Agency. Even if those sites involve more harmful or hazardous work than other sites, the result creates doubt regarding the effectiveness of the safety assessment regulations. The safety of construction sites is difficult to maintain continuously and instantly because ofthe variability in the construction industry despite inspecting workers, equipment, and facilities by managers. Many discussions on how to utilize BIM have been made to improve the productivity of construction projects, and BIM-based modeling and simulation would bring many benefits to safety. This study examined the hindrance factors of field utilization of the safety assessment regulations through a research literature survey, disaster situation analysis and questionnaire, and suggests the necessity of the application of BIM that enhances the effectiveness of safety assessment regulations by identifying the relationship between the hindrance factors and the function of BIM.