• Title/Summary/Keyword: Mixed Methods Research

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Antioxidant and α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Activities of the Extracts of Aster koraiensis Leaves (국내산 벌개미취 잎 추출물의 α-glucosidase 억제능 및 항산화 활성 평가)

  • Lee, Tae Gu;Hyun, Soo Wang;Lee, Ik Soo;Park, Bong Kyun;Kim, Jin Sook;Kim, Chan Sik
    • Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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    • v.26 no.5
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    • pp.382-390
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    • 2018
  • Background: The plant Aster koraiensis has long been used as an ingredient in folk medicine. It has been reported that Aster koraiensis extract (AKE) prevents the progression of diabetes-induced retinopathy and nephropathy. However, although these beneficial effects of AKE on diabetes complications have been identified, the antidiabetic effects of AKE have not yet been completely investigated and quantified. In the present study, the glucose-lowering and antioxidant effects of aqueous and ethanolic AKEs were evaluated. Methods and Results: The glucose-lowering effects of aqueous and ethanolic (30%-, 50%-, and 80%-ethanol) AKEs were investigated via ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibitory assays. The mode of inhibition by AKEs on ${\alpha}$-glucosidase was identified through kinetic analysis. The total antioxidant capacity of each of the 4 AKEs was evaluated by assessing their conversion rate of $Cu^{2+}$ to $Cu^+$. The content of chlorogenic acid and 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid, the bioactive compounds in AKE, in each extract were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The AKEs showed potent ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibitory activity with mixed inhibition mode, and significant antioxidant capacity. Conclusions: These results of this study suggested that the AKEs tested had ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibitory and antioxidant effects. Among the extracts, the 80% ethanol extract showed the most significant ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibitory activity, with a half maximal inhibitory concentration ($IC_{50}$ value) of $1.65{\pm}0.36mg/m{\ell}$ and a half maximal effective concentration ($EC_{50}$ value) for its antioxidant activity of $0.42{\pm}0.10mg/m{\ell}$. It can therefore be used as a source of therapeutic agents to treat diabetes patients.

Residue Patterns of Insecticide Flubendiamide by Varieties of Peaches (살충제 Flubendiamide의 복숭아 품종에 따른 잔류양상)

  • Kim, Hyo-Young;Hwang, Jeong-In;Lee, Eun-Hyang;Jeon, Young-Hwan;Kim, Ji-Hwan;Ahn, Ji-Woon;Park, Hyun-Ju;Chung, Chang-Kook;Kim, San-Yeong;Lee, Suk-Hee;Kim, Jang-Eok
    • Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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    • v.31 no.2
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    • pp.152-156
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    • 2012
  • BACKGROUND: This research has investigated the residue patterns of insecticide flubendiamide on three species of peaches with different surface forms, and the residue amounts of them when mixed with a spreader. METHODS AND RESULTS: Pesticide used for field application on peaches was 20% flubendiamide of suspension concentrate(SC) and was sprayed at a recommended rate. The residue amounts of flubendiamide in peach were analyzed by HPLC equipped with UV detector. After the observation with a microscope, the rank of fuzz amount on peach's surface was Kurakatawase, Wolmi in descending order and Cheonhong did not have any fuzz. The residue amounts of flubendiamide were 0.54 mg/kg for Kurakatawase, 0.43 mg/kg for Wolmi and 0.10 mg/kg for Cheonhong, respectively. When flubendiamide was used with a spreader, polyoxy ethylene methylpoly siloxane, the residue amount for Kurakatawase barely changed at 0.55 mg/kg regardless of mixing with a spreader, and at 0.53 mg/kg for Wolmi. In Cheonhong, the residue amount was 0.48 mg/kg, which increased by 4.8 times due to the use of a spreader. CONCLUSION: This result indicates that the residue amounts of flubendiamde were affected by the surface forms of peaches, and in the presence of a spreader the residue amount did not increase in fuzzy species, but was affected greatly for species without fuzz.

Study on the Thermal Characteristics of Concrete Using Micro Form Admixture (마이크로기포제를 사용한 콘크리트의 열적 특성에 관한 연구)

  • Park, Young Shin;Kim, Jung Ho;Jeon, Hyun Kyu;Seo, Chee Ho
    • Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.101-109
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    • 2013
  • Recently, it is certain that the increase of heating and cooling energy consumption by radical change in climate condition has caused serious problems related to environmental and energy concerns associated with increase of fossil fuel usage and carbon dioxide production as well as global warming. So, various actions to reduce greenhouse gas exhaustion and energy consumption have been prepared by world developed countries. Our government has also been trying to seek energy control methods for houses and buildings by proclaiming political polices on low-carbon green growth and construction and performance standards for environment-friendly housing. The energy consumption by buildings approximately reaches 25% of total korea energy consumption, and the increasing rate of energy consumption by buildings is stiffer than the rate by the other industries. The greatest part in the buildings of the energy consumption is building facade. While lots of research projects for reducing energy consumption of the facade have been conducted, but a few research projects on concrete comprising more than 70% of outsider of buildings has been tried. This research presents here a study to improve the insulation property of structural concrete formed by micro form admixture (MFA) with experimentally reviewing the physical, mechanical and thermal characteristics of the concrete. As the results of this experiment, in the case of concrete mixed with MFA, slump loss has been improved. As the mixing ratio of MFA increases, the compressive strength is decreased and thermal conductivity is increased. Also it was found that water-cement ratio increases, the compressive strength is decreased and thermal conductivity is increased. but, there was not big influence by the change of fine aggregate ratio.

Development of Forest Thinning Evaluation Factors using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP를 이용한 숲가꾸기 사업종별 평가지표 중요도 산정)

  • Park, Joowon;Cho, Seungwan;Jung, Geonhwi;Kim, Bomi;Woo, Heesung;Lee, Yohan
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.109 no.3
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    • pp.350-360
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    • 2020
  • The purpose of this study was to identify and prioritize the key indicators and drivers of forest thinning. The research for this study was designed in two-phases: 1) sequential, exploratory, mixed methods research that was initiated with a qualitative phase (Delphi technique), and 2) the quantitative phase (Analytic Hierarchy Process technique). Results indicated that management and planning were the most important factors in the first level of criteria among the "management and planning," "directing and monitoring," "supervision," and "quality of thinning work." On the sub-criteria level, "the quality of forest management planning" was indicated as the most important factor among the ten sub-criteria. Our results have shown that the developed forest thinning evaluation factors were a well-represented characteristic for a variety of forest thinning work in Korea.

A Study on Convergence Medical Efficacy of Native Chicken (재래닭의 의학적 효능 융복합연구)

  • Lee, Kang-Hyun;Park, Sang-Woo;Ji, Joong-Gu
    • Journal of Digital Convergence
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    • v.13 no.9
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    • pp.439-444
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    • 2015
  • This study analyzes the chicken-related prescription shown in the literature summarized by standing tradition deliberate aims to investigate the clinical efficacy of native chickens. Therefore, The old traditional medicine books of native chickens translate and organize the relevant prescriptions. The manuscript old documents is prescribed by the old central documents sourced directly from generation to generation descendants technical publishing contemporary situation sake of the development of this unique formulation not only contemporary who established himself through numerous trials and errors. Browse almost circular in traditional medicine prescription, which is scattered throughout the country is difficult, and because of the loss can not be confirmed even its existence. This study is to establish the analysis and separated by organized to establish a database on the basis of prescription and mixed herbs in a variety of functional foods developed through usability evaluation methods of treatment. Therefore, the management systems of native chickens related to lack of knowledge and information to foster the continued expansion and specialized training and knowledge of the future growth engine industry through the added value of cultural projects of national knowledge resources. Finally, convergence research and evaluate the usefulness of native chickens through interdisciplinary research systems, and practical measures of functional foods and alternative medicine are presented as well.

Towards a Knowledge Recipe for State Corporations in the Financial Sector in Kenya

  • Moturi, Humphrey;Kwanya, Tom;Chebon, Philemon
    • International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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    • v.10 no.3
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    • pp.33-50
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    • 2020
  • Knowledge recipes are packages of knowledge which arise from the process of combining the knowledge assets in the organization in distinctive ways. This involves converting them into useful outputs which are the ideal core competitive advantage enablers for companies. The major objective of this study was to propose a knowledge recipe for financial-sector state corporations in Kenya. The study adopted a convergent parallel mixed methods research design. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using questionnaires and key informant interviews. The target population of the study was 1574 respondents drawn from all financial state corporations. A multistage sampling technique was used for the study. The first phase involved purposive sampling of the organizations to be studied whereby the four state corporations namely: Capital Markets Authority, Competition Authority of Kenya, Kenya Investment Authority, and Kenya Revenue Authority were identified. The second phase entailed stratified sampling of the respondents in three strata namely senior management team, knowledge management team, and general staff. The authors used a census of all senior management team and knowledge management staff while a simple random sampling technique was used for the general staff. By use of the Krejcie and Morgan table, the actual sample size was 358 respondents from all the four organizations. Data were collected using questionnaires and interview schedules. The qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis while the quantitative data were analyzed by the use of Ms. Excel and VOSviewer and presented using pie charts, bar graphs, and tables. The response rate for this study was 257 (72%). The study revealed that while most employees in the financial sector organizations understand their knowledge needs, knowledge types, knowledge uses and knowledge gaps, they do not have a universal knowledge recipe to facilitate effective knowledge management in their organizations. Consequently, the authors propose a universal knowledge recipe for the state corporations in the financial sector in Kenya. The ingredients of the recipe are legal-knowledge (18%), financial knowledge (15%), administrative knowledge (11%), best practice (10%), lessons learnt (8%), human resource knowledge (8%), research and statistics knowledge (7%), product knowledge (6%), policy and procedure knowledge (5%), ICT knowledge (4%), investor knowledge (3%), markets knowledge (2%), general knowledge (2%) and regulatory framework knowledge (1%).

Does Market Competition Reduce Hospital Charges & LOS for the Degenerative Lumbar Spinal Disease?: A Two-point Cross Sectional Study (병원시장 경쟁이 퇴행성 요추질환 환자의 진료비 및 재원일수에 미치는 영향)

  • Lee, Joo Eun;Park, Eun-Cheol;Lee, Sang Gyu;Kim, Tae Hyun
    • Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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    • v.22 no.4
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    • pp.33-49
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    • 2017
  • Background: Health care utilizations and costs of the patients with degenerative lumbar spine disease in Korea increased dramatically. We analyzed whether hospital market competition is associated with charges and length of stay for patients with degenerative lumbar spine disease. Methods: We used Medical claims data of 2002 and 2010 from the nationwide representative sample of National Health Insurance Service of Korea. The study subjects were inpatients with degenerative lumbar spine disease (N=24,768) in 2002 and 2010. We employed a multilevel linear mixed model that included patient- and hospital-level variables in hierarchical data. Results: Higher hospital competition was associated with lower charges (${\beta}=57.5$, p<.0001 in 2002; ${\beta}=353.7$, p<.0001 in 2010) and shorter length of stay (${\beta}=0.3$, p<.0001 in 2002; ${\beta}=0.9$, p<.0001 in 2010) in both 2002 and 2010. Compared to 2002, the magnitude of such association became greater in 2010. However, subgroup analyses show that the influence of competition on charges and length of stay differed by hospital size. Conclusions: This study showed that hospital market structure (e.g., hospital competition) affects hospital efficiency (i.e., hospital charges and length of stay). It is necessary to continue to monitor how changing market structure influences hospital outcomes, including more detailed outcomes such as patient satisfaction.

Protective effects of Korean Red Ginseng against sub-acute immobilization stress-induced testicular damage in experimental rats

  • Lee, Sang-Ho;Choi, Kyung-Hwa;Cha, Kyu-Min;Hwang, Seock-Yeon;Park, Un-Kyu;Jeong, Min-Sik;Hong, Jae-Yup;Han, Chang-Kyun;In, Gyo;Kopalli, Spandana Rajendra;Kim, Si-Kwan
    • Journal of Ginseng Research
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    • v.43 no.1
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    • pp.125-134
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    • 2019
  • Background: Excessive stress causes varied physiological and psychological disorders including male reproductive problems. Here, we attempted to investigate the protective effects of Korean Red Ginseng (Panax ginseng Meyer; KRG) against sub-acute immobilization stress-induced testicular damage in experimental rats. Methods: Male rats (age, 4 wk; weight, 60-70 g) were divided into four groups (n = 8 in each group): normal control group, immobilization control group, immobilization group treated with 100 mg/kg of KRG daily, and immobilization group treated with 200 mg/kg of KRG daily. Normal control and immobilization control groups received vehicle only. KRG (100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg) was mixed in the standard diet powder and fed daily for 6 mo. Parameters such as organ weight, blood chemistry, sperm kinematic values, and expression levels of testicular-related molecules were measured using commercially available kits, Western blotting, and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Results: Data revealed that KRG restored the altered testis and epididymis weight in immobilization stress-induced rats significantly (p < 0.05). Further, KRG ameliorated the altered blood chemistry and sperm kinematic values when compared with the immobilization control group and attenuated the altered expression levels of spermatogenesis-related proteins (nectin-2, cAMP responsive element binding protein 1, and inhibin-${\alpha}$), sex hormone receptors (androgen receptor, luteinizing hormone receptor, and follicle-stimulating hormone receptor), and antioxidant-related enzymes (glutathione S-transferase m5, peroxiredoxin-4, and glutathione peroxidase 4) significantly in the testes of immobilization stress-induced rats. Conclusion: KRG protected immobilization stress-induced testicular damage and fertility factors in rats, thereby indicating its potential in the treatment of stress-related male sterility.

Genetic parameters of milk and lactation curve traits of dairy cattle from research farms in Thailand

  • Pangmao, Santi;Thomson, Peter C.;Khatkar, Mehar S.
    • Animal Bioscience
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    • v.35 no.10
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    • pp.1499-1511
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    • 2022
  • Objective: This study was aimed to estimate the genetic parameters, including genetic and phenotypic correlations, of milk yield, lactation curve traits and milk composition of Thai dairy cattle from three government research farms. Methods: The data of 25,789 test-day milk yield and milk composition records of 1,468 cattle from lactation 1 to 3 of Holstein Friesian (HF) and crossbred HF dairy cattle calved between 1990 and 2015 from three government research farms in Thailand were analysed. 305-day milk yield was estimated by the Wood model and a test interval method. The Wood model was used for estimating cumulative 305-day milk yield, peak milk yield, days to peak milk yield and persistency. Genetic parameters were estimated using linear mixed models with herd, breed group, year and season of calving as fixed effects, and animals linked to a pedigree as random effects, together with a residual error. Univariate models were used to estimate variance components, heritability, estimated breeding values (EBVs) and repeatability of each trait, while pairwise bivariate models were used to estimate covariance components and correlations between traits in the same lactation and in the same trait across lactations. Results: The heritability of 305-day milk yield, peak milk yield and protein percentage have moderate to high estimates ranging from 0.19 to 0.45 while days to peak milk yield, persistency and fat percentage have low heritability ranging from 0.08 to 0.14 in lactation 1 cows. Further, heritability of most traits considered was higher in lactation 1 compared with lactations 2 and 3. For cows in lactation 1, high genetic correlations were found between 305-day milk yield and peak milk yield (0.86±0.07) and days to peak milk yield and persistency (0.99±0.02) while estimates of genetic correlations between the remaining traits were imprecise due to the high standard errors. The genetic correlations within the traits across lactation were high. There was no consistent trend of EBVs for most traits in the first lactation over the study period. Conclusion: Both the Wood model and test interval method can be used for milk yield estimates in these herds. However, the Wood model has advantages over the test interval method as it can be fitted using fewer test-day records and the estimated model parameters can be used to derive estimates of other lactation curve parameters. Milk yield, peak milk yield and protein percentage can be improved by a selection and mating program while days to peak milk yield, persistency and fat percentage can be improved by including into a selection index.

A Study on Electrode Array for Measurement of Induced Polarization of Rock Samples (암석 시료의 유도분극 측정을 위한 전극배열 비교)

  • Man-ho Han;Jung-hwan Lee;Keun-Soo Lee;Myeong-Jong Yi
    • Tunnel and Underground Space
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    • v.33 no.6
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    • pp.483-494
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    • 2023
  • Measurement of the physical properties of rocks or minerals is an important factor in determining the distribution of the underground medium as well as mineral resource investigations. Resistivity and induced polarization, which are widely used in Korea, are methods for measuring electrical properties, which are representative properties of obtaining subsurface information. In order to precisely analyze the exploration data obtained from various sites, it is important to accurately measure the material properties. Electrical properties of rock is measured using two-electrode or four-electrode method. Compared to the four-electrode method, the two-electrode method is generally used because it is very easy to contact the sample and the electrode, but there is a problem in that the impedance of the electrode and the sample is measured together. In this study, the time-domain the induced polarization effects were measured using the 2-electrode method and the 4-electrode method for artificial samples mixed with graphite and cement having induced polarization characteristics, and the results were compared. Although the 4-electrode method has difficulties in installing potential electrodes, it was confirmed that it is effective in measuring electrical properties because it can reduce the problem caused by the impedance of potential electrodes compared to the 2-electrode method.