• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.1056-1071
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• 2023

This study aimed to investigate the quality and microbial population changes for 90 days under two fermentation conditions, outdoors and indoors (35℃), with starters (single or mixed) in soybean paste. Bacillus velezensis NY12-2 (S1), Debaryomyces hansenii D5-P5 (S2), Enterococcus faecium N78-11 (S3), and their mixtures (M) were used for the makjang fermentation. The content of amino-type nitrogen among the makjang samples was highly shown in the indoors, followed by M, S3, and S2. The glutamic and aspartic acid contents in the M sample fermented in the indoors showed the highest values of 867.42±77.27 and 243.20±15.79 mg/g, respectively. By the electronic tongue analysis, the M sample fermented in the indoors exhibited lower saltiness and higher umami than the others. Consequently, we expect that using mixed strains, such as Bacillus, Debaryomyces, and Enterococcus, under constant conditions showed potential to the quality improvement of soy products.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.48-58
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• 2024

Salmonella is a common food-borne intracellular bacterial pathogen that has triggered significant public health concerns. Salmonella hosts' genetic factors play a pivotal role in determining their susceptibility to the pathogen. Cysteine-rich intestinal protein 1 (CRIP1), a member of LIM/double zinc finger protein family, is widely expressed in humans, such as in the lungs, spleen, and especially the gut. Recently, CRIP1 has been reported as a key marker of several immune disorders; however, the effect of CRIP1 on bacterial infection remains unknown. We aimed to elucidate the relationship between Salmonella infection and CRIP1 gene deficiency, as Salmonella spp. is known to invade the Peyer's patches of the small intestine, where CRIP1 is highly expressed. We found that CRIP1-deficient conditions could not alter the characteristics of bone marrow-derived myeloid cells in terms of phagocytosis on macrophages and the activation of costimulatory molecules on dendritic cells using ex vivo differentiation. Moreover, flow cytometry data showed comparable levels of MHCII⁺CD11b⁺CD11c⁺ dendritic cells and MHCII⁺F4/80⁺CD11b⁺ macrophages between WT and CRIP1 knockout (KO) mice. Interestingly, the basal population of monocytes in the spleen and neutrophils in MLNs is more abundant in a steady state of CRIP1 KO mice than WT mice. Here, we demonstrated that the CRIP1 genetic factor plays dispensable roles in host susceptibility to Salmonella Typhimurium infections and the activation of myeloid cells. In addition, differential immune cell populations without antigen exposure in CRIP1 KO mice suggest that the regulation of CRIP1 expression may be a novel immunotherapeutic approach to various infectious diseases.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.129-138
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• 2023

Purpose: Cancer incidence is known to be higher in patients with inborn errors of immunity (IEI) compared to the general population in addition to traditionally well-known infection susceptibility. We aimed to investigate cancer occurrence in patients with IEI in a single center. Methods: Medical records of IEI patients treated at Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea were retrospectively reviewed from November 1994 to September 2023. Patients with IEI and cancer were identified. Results: Among 194 patients with IEI, seven patients (3.6%) were diagnosed with cancer. Five cases were lymphomas, 4 of which were Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated lymphomas. The remaining cases included gastric cancer and multiple myeloma. The median age at cancer diagnosis was 18 years (range, 1-75 years). Among patients with cancer, underlying IEIs included X-linked lymphoproliferative disease-1 (XLP-1, n=3), activated phosphoinositide 3-kinase delta syndrome (APDS, n=2), and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) haploinsufficiency (n=2). Seventy-five percent (3/4) of XLP-1 patients, 40.0% (2/5) of APDS patients, and 50.0% (2/4) of CTLA-4 haplo-insufficiency patients developed cancer. Patients with XLP-1 developed cancer at earlier age (median age 5 years) compared to those with APDS and CTLA-4 (P<0.001). One patient with APDS died during hematopoietic cell transplantation. Conclusions: Cancer occurred in 3.6% of IEI patients at a single center in Korea. In addition to infectious complications and inflammation, physicians caring for IEI patients should be aware of the potential risk of cancer, especially in association with EBV infection.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.44-53
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• 2024

Global interest in natural functional materials to strengthen human immunity is increasing due to the increase in immune-related diseases associated with COVID-19 and the aging population. In this study, we determined the potential therapeutic effect of Eleutherococcus senticosus stems on immune enhancement according to the cultivation region. The contents of eleutheroside B and E, which are chemical components of E. senticosus stems, were analyzed. We showed that the eleutheroside B content of E. senticosus stems in different cultivation regions ranged from 2.96±0.11 to 6.24±0.05 mg/g and from 1.11±0.05 to 2.11±0.03 mg/g in 70% ethanol and hot water extracts, respectively. The eleutheroside E content ranged from 4.93±0.20 to 10.79±0.03 mg/g and 1.75±0.14 to 3.64±0.05 mg/g in 70% ethanol and hot water extracts, respectively. In addition, the immunomodulatory effect of E. senticosus stems was evaluated using RAW 264.7 macrophages. The 70% ethanol extract of E. senticosus stems showed no cytotoxicity up to 200 ㎍/mL, and the hot water extract showed no cytotoxicity up to 500 ㎍/mL. Additionally, the E. senticosus stem extract significantly increased the production of nitric oxide and cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β) compared to their production in the control group. These results suggest that E. senticosus stem extracts are a potential functional food material and ingredient to enhance the immune response.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.183-200
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• 2024

Recently, with the MZ generation's entry into society and the social participation of the female population, conflicts are occurring between workplace groups that value WLB and existing groups that emphasize collaboration due to differences in work orientation. Public institutions and companies that utilize work-life balance support systems show differences in job Commitment depending on the nature of the work and the activation of the support system. Accordingly, it is necessary to verify the effectiveness of the WLB support system actually operated by the company and present universally valid standards. The purpose of this study is, first, to verify the effectiveness of the support system for work-life balance and to find practical consensus amid changes in policies and perceptions of the working environment. Second, the influence of work-life balance level and job immersion according to work characteristics was analyzed to verify the mutual influence in order to establish standards for WLB operation that reflects work characteristics. For the study, a 2X2 matrix model was used to analyze the impact of work-life balance and work characteristics on job commitment, and four hypotheses were established. First, analysis of the job involvement level of conflict-type group members, second, analysis of the job involvement level of leading group members, third, analysis of the job involvement level of agreeable group members, and fourth, analysis of the job involvement level of cooperative group members. To conduct this study, an online survey was conducted targeting employees working in public institutions and large corporations. The survey was conducted for a total of 9 days from October 23 to 31, 2023, and 163 people responded, and the analysis was based on a valid sample of 152 people, excluding 11 copies that were insincere responses or gave up midway. As a result of the study's hypothesis testing, first, the conflict type group was found to have the lowest level of job engagement at 1.43. Second, the proactive group showed the highest level of job engagement at 4.54. Third, the conformity group showed a slightly lower level of job involvement at 2.58. Fourth, the cooperative group showed a slightly higher level of job involvement at 3.80. The academic implications of the study are that it subdivides employees' personalities into factors based on the level of work-life balance and nature of work. The practical implications of the study are that it analyzes the effectiveness of WLB support systems operated by public institutions and large corporations by grouping them.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.102-108
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• 2020

Background: This study was performed to evaluate the effect of gastric cancer screening through analysis of screening-related data. Methods: We investigated claims data of gastric cancer from 2009 to 2015. We evaluated whether the screening was performed to prior to registration as patients with gastric cancer. The effect of gastric cancer screening was also analyzed by gender. Results: We collected total 196,293 patients with gastric cancer. 74% of them had previous experience of gastric cancer screening. In patients with screening, early gastric cancer was 33.4% and advanced gastric cancer was 17.3%. 22,548 (15.5%) patients were diagnosed with gastric cancer within 2 years after screening. In the case of patients without screening, early gastric cancer was 15.1% and advanced gastric cancer was 25.3%. In case of men, 76% of them confirmed gastric cancer through screening, and 70.2% of women confirmed the gastric cancer. In both men and women, the rate of early gastric cancer was higher among those with screening than those without screening. Conclusion: In this study, we were able to indirectly confirm the stage shift of gastric cancer screening. However, within 2 years after screening, not a few patients with gastric cancer were diagnosed. Therefore, more studies are warranted to in the future.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.212-227
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• 2000

This study was designed to testify the reliability and validation on the Korean version of the Social Adaptation Self-rating Scale(SASS) which was developed from Bose et al. for the evaluation of social motivation and behavior of depressed patients in 1997. Interests for the social world, those of social functioning, of patients were involved in the addition of new measure of disturbance. And those were distinct from abnormalities of thought, mood and symptoms of patients with major depression. As the previous reports there were several evidences that treatments may be less likely to be effective if the system they act on is dysfunctional. Thus, a better social situation favoured better outcome. As a matter of fact, however, those reports were developed in the course of the evaluation of interpersonal therapy(IPT) and cognitive therapy. Accordingly the conversed question -whether pharmacological therapy with antidepressants can impact on social functioning in addition to addressing the core features of illness- has been addressed. To date, anyhow, it is accepted that enhancement of social functioning may be a therapeutic principle in its own right and illness rarely divorced from social context. In terms of those concepts the introduction of an assessment of social functioning into pharmacotherapeutic studies of depression has been welcomed and might be a potent instrument for evaluating the relative pharmacoeconomic benefits of different treatments. Despite of many scales which were applied for the evaluation of symptoms in the patients with depression, however, the scale for the evaluation of social functiong has not been introduced in Korea yet. Thus, this study was designed to introduce the concepts of social functioning in the patients with depression and to testify the reliability and validation on Korean version of SASS. This Korean version of SASS was submitted to a reliability and validation procedure based on the data from healthy general population survey in 291 individuals and 40 patients with major depression. Cronbach a was 0.790 in total subjects group and the correlation of test-retest was statistically significant(y=0.653, p<0.0l). Thus, the Korean version of SASS might be shown to be valid and reliable. The results of multivariate analyses allowed the identification of 3 principle factors(factor 1 = intersts in social activities, factor 2 = active interpersonal relationship, factor 3 = selfesteem) in normal group, however, it could be counted as only one factor in the depression group because nearly total items of SASS were involved in factor 1. In the view of these results, the Korean version of SASS may be useful additional tool for the evaluation of social functioning in depression.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.83-90
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• 2008

Purpose: For the first time, a nationwide survey of the Patterns of Care Study(PCS) for the various radiotherapy treatments of esophageal cancer was carried out in South Korea. In order to observe the different parameters, as well as offer a solid cooperative system, we compared the Korean results with those observed in the United States(US) and Japan. Materials and Methods: Two hundreds forty-six esophageal cancer patients from 21 institutions were enrolled in the South Korean study. The patients received radiation theraphy(RT) from 1998 to 1999. In order to compare these results with those from the United States, a published study by Suntharalingam, which included 414 patients[treated by Radiotherapy(RT)] from 59 institutions between 1996 and 1999 was chosen. In order to compare the South Korean with the Japanese data, we choose two different studies. The results published by Gomi were selected as the surgery group, in which 220 esophageal cancer patients were analyzed from 76 facilities. The patients underwent surgery and received RT with or without chemotherapy between 1998 and 2001. The non-surgery group originated from a study by Murakami, in which 385 patients were treated either by RT alone or RT with chemotherapy, but no surgery, between 1999 and 2001. Results: The median age of enrolled patients was highest in the Japanese non-surgery group(71 years old). The gender ratio was approximately 9:1(male:female) in both the Korean and Japanese studies, whereas females made up 23.1% of the study population in the US study. Adenocarcinoma outnumbered squamous cell carcinoma in the US study, whereas squamous cell carcinoma was more prevalent both the Korean and Japanese studies(Korea 96.3%, Japan 98%). An esophagogram, endoscopy, and chest CT scan were the main modalities of diagnostic evaluation used in all three countries. The US and Japan used the abdominal CT scan more frequently than the abdominal ultrasonography. Radiotherapy alone treatment was most rarely used in the US study(9.5%), compared to the Korean(23.2%) and Japanese(39%) studies. The combination of the three modalities(Surgery+RT+Chemotherapy) was performed least often in Korea(11.8%) compared to the Japanese(49.5%) and US(32.8%) studies. Chemotherapy(89%) and chemotherapy with concurrent chemoradiotherapy(97%) was most frequently used in the US study. Fluorouracil(5-FU) and Cisplatin were the most preferred drug treatments used in all three countries. The median radiation dose was 50.4 Gy in the US study, as compared to 55.8 Gy in the Korean study regardless of whether an operation was performed. However, in Japan, different median doses were delivered for the surgery(48 Gy) and non-surgery groups(60 Gy). Conclusion: Although some aspects of the evaluation of esophageal cancer and its various treatment modalities were heterogeneous among the three countries surveyed, we found no remarkable differences in the RT dose or technique, which includes the number of portals and energy beams.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.89-99
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• 2011

Over the years Korean health care system has improved in delivery of quality care to the general population for many areas of the health problems. The system is now being recognized in the world as the most cost effective one. It is covered by the uniform national health insurance policy for which most people in Korea are mandatory policy holders. Genetic counseling service, however, which is well recognized as an integral part of clinical genetics service deals with diagnosis and management of genetic condition as well as genetic information presentation and family support, is yet to be delivered in comprehensive way for the patients and families in need. Two major obstacles in providing genetic counseling service in korean health care system are identified; One is the lack of recognition for the need for genetic counseling service as necessary service by the national health insurance. Genetic counseling consumes a significant time in delivery and the current very low-fee schedule for physician service makes it very difficult to provide meaningful service. Second is the critical shortage of qualified professionals in the field of medical genetics and genetic counseling who can provide the service of genetic counseling in clinical setting. However, recognition and understanding of the fact that the scope and role of genetic counseling is expanding in post genomic era of personalized medicine for delivery of quality health care, will lead to the efforts to overcome obstacles in providing genetic counseling service in korean health care system. Only concerted efforts from health care policy makers of government on clinical genetics service and genetic counseling for establishing adequate reimbursement coverage and professional communities for developing educational program and certification process for professional genetic counselors, are necessary for the delivery of much needed clinical genetic counseling service in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.50-59
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• 2019

Objectives : Many of the patients with type 2 diabetes are associated with sleep problems, and the rate of insomnia is known to be higher in the general population. The aims of this study were to know the frequency and clnical characteristics of insomnia, and related variables to insomnia in patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Methods : For 99 patients from 18 to 80 years of age (65 males and 34 females) with type 2 diabetes, interviews were performed. Total sleep time and sleep latency was evaluated. Insomnia was evaluated using the Korean Version of the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI-K). Severity of depressive symptoms were evaluted using the Korean version of the Hamilton Depression Scale (K-HDRM). According to the cutoff score of 15.5 on the ISI-K, subjects were divided into the group of type 2 diabetics with insomnia (N=34) and those without insomnia (N=65) at first, and then statistically analyzed. Results : TInsomnia could be found in 34.34% of type 2 diabetics. Type 2 diabetics with insomnia had significantly more single or divorced (respectively 11.8%, p<0.05), higher total scores of the K-HDRS ($11.76{\pm}5.52$, p<0.001), shorter total sleep time ($5.35{\pm}2.00hours$, p<0.001), and longer sleep latency ($50.29{\pm}33.80minutes$, p<0.001). The all item scores of the ISI-K in type 2 diabetics with insomnia were significantly higher than those in type 2 diabetics without insomnia, that is, total ($18.38{\pm}2.69$), A1 (Initial insomnia) ($2.97{\pm}0.76$), A2 (Middle insomnia) ($3.06{\pm}0.69$), A3 (Terminal insomnia) ($2.76{\pm}0.61$), B (Satisfaction) ($3.18{\pm}0.72$), C (Interference) ($2.09{\pm}0.97$), D (Noticeability) ($2.12{\pm}1.09$) and E (Distress) ($2.21{\pm}0.81$) (respectively p<0.001). Variables associated with insomnia in type 2 diabetics were as following. Age had significant negative correlation with A3 items of the ISI-K (${\beta}=-0.241$, p<0.05). Total scores of the K-HDRS had significant positive correlation, while total sleep time had significant negative correlation with all items of the ISI-K (respectively p<0.05). Sleep latency had significant positive correlation with total,, A1, B and E item scores of the ISI-K (respectively p<0.05). Conclusions : Insomnia was found in about 1/3 of type 2 diabetics. According to the presence of insomnia, clinical characteristics including sleep quality as well as quantity seemed to be different. Because depression seemed to be correlated with insomnia, clinicians should pay attention to early detection and intervention of depression among type 2 diabetics.