• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.196-204
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• 2009

This study was carried out to investigate the in vivo and in vitro inhibitory effect of a traditional herbal complex (HC) extract prepared from a mixture of four oriental herbs (Dioscorea Rhizoma, Glycine soja Sieb. et Zucc, Bombycis corpus, Fermented Glycine soja) that have been widely used for the treatment and prevention of diabetes mellitus on hyperglycemia. The water extract of HC showed potent inhibitory effect on $\alpha$-glucosidase with $IC_{50}$ value of 1.24 mg/mL. Additionally, the ethanol extract of HC was also found to exhibit significant inhibitory effect against protein tyrosine phosphatase $1{\beta}$ ($PTP1{\beta}$), which is known as a major regulator of both insulin and leptin signaling. In the $PTP1{\beta}$ inhibitory assay, the most active n-hexane fraction obtained from the ethanol extract of HC, was identified as a mixture of fatty acid derivatives by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In high-fat diet-low dose streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rat, the water extract of HC improved the oral glucose intolerance as compared with rosiglitazone. HC also caused a marked decrease of body weight and fasting blood glucose and a significant improvement on glucose tolerance in metabolic syndrome mice model. These findings support that this traditional HC may be useful in the control of blood glucose in diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.12
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• pp.1378-1384
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• 2005

Purpose : We hypothesized dexrazoxane(DXR) and pentoxifylline(PTX) may prevent myocardial damage in adriamycin(ADR)-induced cardiomyopathic rat model. We also investigated their effects on the myocardial apoptosis and fibrosis in ADR induced cardiomyopathy. Methods : The six-week old female Spregue-Dawley rats were divided into control group(CNT, n=4), ADR group(n=6), ADR+DXR group(DXR, n=5), ADR+PTX group(PTX, n=6), ADR+DXR+PTX group(DXPT, n=5). ADR(5 mg/week, twice) was administrated intravenously to rats except CNT group to induce cardiomyopathy. The PTX(50 mg/kg/day) was administered daily from day-0 to Day-21. The DXR(100 mg/kg) was administered 30 minutes before each ADR injection. On day 21, the rats were sacrificed and the degree of histopathologic changes of hypercontraction band necrosis, cytoplasmic vacuolar change and fibrosis were scored. Immunohistochemical staining for Bcl-2 expression and RT-PCR for $TNF-{\alpha}$ and CTGF were performed. Results : Histopathological scores of myocardial damage were significantly higher in ADR rats than CNT rats(P<0.05), and significantly lower in DXPT rats than ADR rats(P<0.01). Myocardial fibrosis was prevented in both PTX rats and DXPT rats. The expression of Bcl-2 was weaker in ADR rats than that in CNT rats(P<0.05), and stronger in both DXR and DXPT rats than that in ADR rats (P<0.05). $TNF-{\alpha}$ concentration of ADR rats was not different from that of treated groups. Conclusion : DXR prevented myocyte apoptosis with increased Bcl-2 expression, and PTX prevented myocardial fibrosis in ADR induced cardiomyopathic rats. The combination therapy of DXR and PTX showed prevention of cardiomyopathy in ADR induced cardiomyopathy rat model.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.73-96
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• 2013

ICAO's Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) was initially launched in January 1995, in response to widespread concerns about the adequacy of aviation safety oversight around the world. The recent reduction in aircraft accidents and effective role that is evaluated on the basis of these results, and in 2013 the existing 'snapshot approach' to 'regular monitoring system (USOAP-Continuous Monitoring Approach)' was converted to. ICAO aviation safety assessment of the state in today's international community 'aviation safety credibility' as objective indicators to judge the enormous impact on the aviation industry, the state is not satisfactory, especially if the results of the evaluation and expansion of code-share airline ban, reduced international air transit passengers, including premium increases business and economic penalties should. In addition, ICAO implementation of the existing laws and regulations(Prescriptive Approach), but based on the Risk-based prevention model, Proactive Approach introduced the concept of aviation safety system, including international aviation safety policy has been to switch paradigms. This new ICAO international aviation safety policy also applies to the Government of the Republic of Korea in line with the aviation safey policies have changed. In particular, the systematic implementation of safety management for the existing laws and regulations in the center of the safety oversight system of risk-based introduction of the concept of proactive safety management, and According to international standards ICAO aviation service providers operate their own Safety Management System was set out in Aviation Law ever. In addition, the aviation safety is at the center of the field of the safety of aircraft operations and maintenance for the promotion is promoting various safety policies. This new paradigm shift in the international aviation safety policy in line with our state in the international community with the most exemplary aviation safety system firmly established itself as a model, the Government will strengthen the competitiveness of our aviation plans to support. To do this, the government, airlines, aviation officials try all the practical effect would be expected.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.165-177
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficiency of senior welfare centers and the cause of differences among senior welfare centers in that regard, and to investigate influential factors for the differences in efficiency and the size of the influence of the factors. What methods would be effective at assessing the efficiency of senior welfare centers by taking into account their circumstances was reviewed, andpost-hoc analyses were made by using data envelopment analysis(DEA) and DAE/AP Modified prosthetic which were useful tools to evaluate relative efficiency. After 20 senior welfare centers located in Gyeonggi-do were selected, their yearly operating data of 2009 were utilized. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficiency of senior welfare centers. The evaluation data released by the Gyeonggi Welfare Foundation were analyzed by DEA, which is one of nonparametric statistics, and it was possible to obtain significant results on the regional operating efficiency of social welfare centers in 14 metropolitan cities and provinces, the causes and degree of their inefficiency and what areas one could refer to. As the data for the counties were utilized in this study, it's not quite possible to produce accurate results on the relative efficiency of senior welfare centers, but this study could be said to be of significance in that it suggested how to evaluate the overall operating efficiency of senior welfare centers in the counties involving the degree of their operating inefficiency, what improvements should be made and what reference groups there might be and provided information on the usefulness of the DEA model.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.215-223
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• 1999

Background: The replacement of the narrowed long-segment trachea with various prosthetic materials or tissue grafts remains a difficult and unsolved surgical problem. Homologous cryopreserved tracheal transplantation has been considered to treat the irreversibly-damaged organs, such as in the lung or heart transplantation and also to overcome the limited supply of donor organs. We examined the morphological changes and the immunosuppressive effects of the cryopreserved trachea after the heterotopic transplantation in the rats. Material and Method: Sixty tracheal segments harvested from 30 donor Wistar rats were heterotopically implanted into the peritoneal cavity of 20 recipient Wistar rats and 40 Sprague Dawley rats. The 60 recipient rats were divided into 6 groups(10 rats/ group). In groups I, II, and III, 30 tracheal segments were implanted immediately after the harvesting and in groups IV, V, and VI, the segments were implanted 28 days after the cryopreservation. Groups I and IV were Wistar syngeneic controls. Groups II and V were Sprague Dawley recipients receiving no immunosuppression and Groups III and VI, were Sprague Dawley recipients receiving immunosuppressive agents. At 28 days all rats were sacrificed and the tracheal segments were evaluated grossly and histologically. Result: Immunosuppression of the tracheal segments had a significant influence on the changes of the tracheal lumen and tracheal epithelial cells, irrespective of the cryopreservation of the trachea(p<0.001). In groups III and VI receiving immunosuppressive agents, the tracheal lumen was patent and the normal epithelial cells were observed, however in the other groups not receiving the immunosuppressive agents, there were almost luminal obliteration by the proliferation of the fibrous tissues and a loss of the epithelial cells, the findings were similar to those in the case of obliterative bronchiolitis after a lung and a heart-lung transplantation. Conclusion: With the appropriate immunosuppressive agents, the lumen and the respiratory epithelium of the transplanted tracheal segment were well preserved, even after the cryopreservation of the tracheal segment, which shows the possibility of the long-term preservation and homologous transplantation of the trachea. But fibroproliferative obliteration of the tracheal lumen and the loss of the normal respiratory epithelial cells, characteristic findings of obliterative bronchiolitis, were observed in the groups without the immunosuppression. This experiment using the rat trachea may be useful in studying the pathogenesis, treatment, and prevention of obliterative bronchiolitis after a lung and a heart-lung transplantation.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.105-130
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• 2007

Recently, there is a substantial interest in implementing Business Process Management System(BPMS) among enterprises with the purpose of business process innovation. BPMS redesigns and coordinates business processes in terms of both automated steps and human involvement in order to maximize the value of both involved people and systems. The reason why BPMS is getting attention from top managers is that it has the possibility to optimize the business processes by cycling the process of modeling, execution, monitoring, evaluation, and redesigning work processes. Thus, it has created high expectations about not only productivity improvement but also business process innovation. However. having an innovative nature, which is used for process innovation, BPMS implementation has great potential to stir up employee resistance. The analysis and the discussion about the prevention of the resistance against IS(Information Systems) is important because IS change the way people work and also alter the power structure within the organization, in general. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors that have an impact on the effective adoption of BPMS at the enterprise level. To find out these factors, this study considers two characteristics of BPMS: First. BPMS shares some characteristics with other enterprise-wide IS such as ERP. Second, it has special BPMS-specific characteristics. Due to the lack of previous research on BPMS adoption, interviews were carried out with IT-consultants and CIOs who conducted BPMS projects previously to find out BPMS-specific features that would make BPMS unique when compared to other enterprise-wide IS. As a result, the monitoring function was chosen as the main BPMS-specific factor. Thus, this paper reviewed studies both on enterprise-wide IS adoptions, which applied Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and secondly on computer based monitoring to find out factors that would influence the employees' perception on the monitoring function of BPMS. Based on the literature review, the study suggested three factors that would have an impact on the employee's perception of the monitoring function: fairness of enterprise evaluation system, fairness of the boss, and self-efficacy of their work. Three factors that would impact the enterprise-wide IS adoption were also set: the shared belief in the benefit of BPMS, training, and communication. Then, these factors were integrated with TAM. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses, out factors that would impact the employees' perception on the monitoring function of BPMS. Based on the literature review the study suggested three factors that would have an impact on the employee's perception of the monitoring function: fairness of enterprise evaluation system, fairness of the boss, and self-efficacy of their work. Three factors that would impact the enterprise-wide IS adoption were also set: the shared belief in the benefit of BPMS, training, and communication. Then, these factors were integrated with TAM. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses. The data analysis results showed that two among three monitoring function related factors - enterprise evaluation system and fairness of the boss - were significant. This implies that employees would worry less about the BPMS implementation as long as they perceive the monitoring results will be used fairly for their performance evaluation. However, employees' high self-efficacy on their job was not a significant factor in their perception of the usefulness of BPMS. This is related to cases that showed employees resisted against the information systems because they automated their works (Markus, 1983). One specific case was an electronic company, where the accounting department workers were requested to redefine their job because their working processes were automated due to BPMS implementation.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.299-304
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• 2014

The dose-response models are important for the quantitative microbiological risk assessment (QMRA) because they would enable prediction of infection risk to humans from foodborne pathogens. In this study, we performed a comprehensive literature review and meta-analysis to better quantify this association. The meta-analysis applied a final selection of 193 published papers for total 43 species foodborne disease pathogens (bacteria 26, virus 9, and parasite 8 species) which were identified and classified based on the dose-response models related to QMRA studies from PubMed, ScienceDirect database and internet websites during 1980-2012. The main search keywords used the combination "food", "foodborne disease pathogen", "dose-response model", and "quantitative microbiological risk assessment". The appropriate dose-response models for Campylobacter jejuni, pathogenic E. coli O157:H7 (EHEC / EPEC / ETEC), Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio cholera, Rota virus, and Cryptosporidium pavum were beta-poisson (${\alpha}=0.15$, ${\beta}=7.59$, fi = 0.72), beta-poisson (${\alpha}=0.49$, ${\beta}=1.81{\times}10^5$, fi = 0.67) / beta-poisson (${\alpha}=0.22$, ${\beta}=8.70{\times}10^3$, fi = 0.40) / beta-poisson (${\alpha}=0.18$, ${\beta}=8.60{\times}10^7$, fi = 0.60), exponential (r=$1.18{\times}10^{-10}$, fi = 0.14), beta-poisson (${\alpha}=0.11$, ${\beta}=6,097$, fi = 0.09), beta-poisson (${\alpha}=0.21$, ${\beta}=1,120$, fi = 0.15), exponential ($r=7.64{\times}10^{-8}$, fi = 1.00), betapoisson (${\alpha}=0.17$, ${\beta}=1.18{\times}10^5$, fi = 1.00), beta-poisson (${\alpha}=0.25$, ${\beta}=16.2$, fi = 0.57), exponential ($r=1.73{\times}10{-2}$, fi = 1.00), and exponential ($r=1.73{\times}10^{-2}$, fi = 0.17), respectively. Therefore, these results provide the preliminary data necessary for the development of foodborne pathogens QMRA.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2019

Purpose: We investigated the distribution and antimicrobial resistance of pneumococcal isolates from hospitalized children at Asan Medical Center for recent 4 years, and aimed to recommend proper choice of empirical antibiotics for pneumococcal infection. Methods: From March 2014 to May 2018, children admitted to Asan Medical Center Childrens' Hospital with pneumococcal infection were subjected for evaluation of minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) for ${\beta}-lactams$ and macrolide antibiotics. Patient's age, underlying disease, gender were retrospectively collected. Using Monte Carlo simulation model and MIC from our study, we predicted the rate of treatment success with amoxicillin treatment. Results: Sixty-three isolates were analyzed including 20.6% (n=13) of invasive isolates, and 79.4% (n=50) of non-invasive isolates; median age were 3.3 years old, and 87.3% of the pneumococcal infections occurred to children with underlying disease. Overall susceptibility rate was 49.2%, 68.2%, and 74.6% for amoxicillin, parenteral penicillin, and cefotaxime respectively. 23.8% and 9.5% of the isolates showed high resistance for amoxicillin, and cefotaxime. Only 4.8% (n=3) were susceptible to erythromycin. Monte Carlo simulation model revealed the likelihood of treatment success was 46.0% at the dosage of 90 mg/kg/day of amoxicillin. Conclusions: Recent pneumococcal isolates from pediatric patients with underlying disease revealed high resistance for amoxicillin and cefotaxime, and high resistance for erythromycin. Prudent choice of antibiotics based on the local data of resistance cannot be emphasized enough, especially in high risk patients with underlying disease, and timely vaccination should be implemented for prevention of the spread of resistant strains.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.25-32
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• 2021

In line with future changes in the marine environment, Aids to Navigation has been used in various fields and their use is increasing. The term "Aids to Navigation" means an aid to navigation prescribed by Ordinance of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries which shows navigating ships the position and direction of the ships, position of obstacles, etc. through lights, shapes, colors, sound, radio waves, etc. Also now the use of Aids to Navigation is transforming into a means of identifying and recording the marine weather environment by mounting various sensors and cameras. However, Aids to Navigation are mainly lost due to collisions with ships, and in particular, safety accidents occur because of poor observation visibility due to sea fog. The inflow of sea fog poses risks to ports and sea transportation, and it is not easy to predict sea fog because of the large difference in the possibility of occurrence depending on time and region. In addition, it is difficult to manage individually due to the features of Aids to Navigation distributed throughout the sea. To solve this problem, this paper aims to identify the marine weather environment by estimating sea fog level approximately with images taken by cameras mounted on Aids to Navigation and to resolve safety accidents caused by weather. Instead of optical and temperature sensors that are difficult to install and expensive to measure sea fog level, sea fog level is measured through the use of general images of cameras mounted on Aids to Navigation. Furthermore, as a prior study for real-time sea fog level estimation in various seas, the sea fog level criteria are presented using the Haze Model and Dark Channel Prior. A specific threshold value is set in the image through Dark Channel Prior(DCP), and based on this, the number of pixels without sea fog is found in the entire image to estimate the sea fog level. Experimental results demonstrate the possibility of estimating the sea fog level using synthetic haze image dataset and real haze image dataset.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.174-187
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• 2022

Purpose: This study was performed to evaluate an education program for housewives to reduce sodium intake based on the social cognitive theory. Methods: Housewives (n = 387) received 2 education sessions focused on food purchase and cooking, and completed a questionnaire on their perceptions of environmental, cognitive, and behavioral factors and the stages of behavioral change to reducing sodium intake both before and after the education program. Results: After the education program, the recognition of social efforts for sodium reduction and sodium labeling and experience with low-sodium products increased. Positive expectancies for the prevention of osteoporosis by the reduction of sodium were enhanced while the main barriers in practicing sodium reduction decreased, especially 'interrupting social relationships when dining with others', 'bad taste', 'preference for soup or stew', and 'limited knowledge and skills to practice'. In addition, cognition and nutrition knowledge related to reducing sodium intake were improved on all scores, but the effect on self-efficacy and dietary behavior was limited to only a few items. The percentage of participants in the pre-action stage (including pre-contemplation, contemplation, and preparation stages) for reducing sodium intake decreased from 43.2% before education to 21.5% after education, while that in the action stage increased from 19.6% before education to 43.5% after education (p < 0.001). The education program had the most significant impact on participants who were in the pre-action stage and showed improved scores in all sections. Conclusion: These results suggest that a customized education program for housewives could be an effective tool to reduce sodium intake by improving personal expectancies, cognition, and nutrition knowledge regarding sodium reduction and enabling a greater section of the population to move to the action stage of reducing sodium intake.