• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.52-62
• /
• 2006

In previous reports we demonstrated that ginsenosides, active ingredients of Panax ginseng, affect some subsets of voltage-dependent $Ca^{2+}$ channels in neuronal cells expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes. However, the major component(s) of ginseng that affect cloned $Ca^{2+}$ channel subtypes such as ${\alpha}_{1C}$(L)-, ${\alpha}_{1B}$(N)-, ${\alpha}_{1A}$(P/Q)-, ${\alpha}_{1E}$(R)- and ${\alpha}_{1G}$(T) have not been identified. Here, we used the two-microelectrode voltage clamp technique to characterize the effects of ginsenosides and ginsenoside metabolites on $Ba^{2+}$ currents ($I_{Ba}$) in Xenopus oocytes expressing five different $Ca^{2+}$ channel subtypes. Exposure to ginseng total saponins (GTS) induced voltage-dependent, dose-dependent and reversible inhibition of the five channel subtypes, with particularly strong inhibition of the ${\alpha}_{1G}$-type. Of the various ginsenosides, $Rb_1$, Rc, Re, Rf, $Rg_1$, $Rg_3$, and $Rh_2$, ginsenoside $Rg_3$ also inhibited all five channel subtypes and ginsenoside $Rh_2$ had most effect on the ${\alpha}_{1C}$- and ${\alpha}_{1E}$-type $Ca^{2+}$ channels. Compound K (CK), a protopanaxadiol ginsenoside metabolite, strongly inhibited only the ${\alpha}_{1G}$-type of $Ca^{2+}$ channel, whereas M4, a protopanaxatriol ginsenoside metabolite, had almost no effect on any of the channels. $Rg_3$, $Rh_2$, and CK shifted the steady-state activation curves but not the inactivation curves in the depolarizing direction in the ${\alpha}_{1B}$- and ${\alpha}_{1A}$-types. These results reveal that $Rg_3$, $Rh_2$ and CK are the major inhibitors of $Ca^{2+}$ channels in Panax ginseng, and that they show some $Ca^{2+}$ channel selectivity.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.212-217
• /
• 2011

Purpose: Since 2005, the Ministry of Health & Welfare has provided financial support to promote palliative care for terminal cancer patients. We analyzed how palliative care facilities used the funding between 2006 and 2010. Methods: Frequency analysis was conducted by the item of expenditure based on fiscal reports of the palliative care facilities. Linear regression analysis was performed to examine a trend over time. Kruskal-Wallis test and Wilcoxon rank-sum test were used to compare expenditure items, the number of provision of financial support and type of palliative care units. Results: About a half of the fund was spent to pay care givers salary, improve facilities and purchase equipment regardless of the year, the number of financial support provided or facility type. By year, the operation cost for palliative care program and the education cost for health care workers have significantly increased in linear regression analysis (P<0.01). However, the amount of financial support for the low income group has decreased over years (P=0.024). This trend was affected by evaluation criteria and weight. Conclusion: The government aid for palliative care units has been used to improve facilities and equipment. Moreover, desirable changes were noted such as a higher portion of expenses for program operation and care giver training to enhance the quality of care. However, the evaluation criteria need to be adjusted to prevent any further decrease in the support provided to the low income group.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.7-11
• /
• 1973

The authors identified eighty-eight Shigella cultures among about four thousands specimens collected from all over the country in 1972. Of eighty-eight cultures, seventy-seven cultures belonged to Shigella flexneri and eleven cultures to Shigella sonnei. None of cultures belonging to either subgroup A or C was detected in 1972. Of seventy-seven cultures of Shigella flexneri one was $B_{1b}$, fifty-six were $B_{2a}$, nine were $B_{3a}$, six were $B_{4a}$, three were By and one was each of $B_{3b}$ and $B_{3c}$. Of eleven cultures of Shigella sonnei seven cultures appeared to be phase I and the others phase II. Although there was quite a difference found in the incidence of isolating Shigella organisms between different areas as shown in Table 1, it would not be possible to understand that there might not have been the cases or carriers of Shigella in the areas where the organisms were not isolated in 1972. Concerning the biochemical properties it was not possible to compare the results obtained from the decarboxylase and dihydrolase tests with them obtained in previous years except that of lysine decarboxylase tests since they were not reported individually by the different serotypes in the previous reports. These results obtained in 1972 would be the data for the future comparison. In regards to the antibiotics-sensitivity of Shigella cultures the most of them showed sensitive results to nitrofurantoin, ampicillin, cephalosporin, gentamycin and geopen, and the majority of them appeared to be resistant to cloxacillin, tetracycline and streptomycin by means of the In Vitro tests.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.35 no.9
• /
• pp.1207-1214
• /
• 2006

The purposes of this study were to determine the estimated dietary fiber (DF) intakes per capita/day of Korean as of 2001 by age groups and sex, and to analyze the major food sources of DF using the data on per capita consumption of each food reported in the 2001 Reports of Korean National Nutrition Survey and the newly-established DF database. The mean daily intakes of DF of Korean increased with increasing age until 49 years and thereafter decreased with aging. The intakes of DF/1,000 kcal increased with increasing age until 64 years and thereafter decreased with aging. On the average, the Korean people under age of 49 did not meet adequate intake (AI) of DF (12 g/1,000 kcal) in Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) for the Koreans. The male people less satisfied the AI than the female did. The major food groups contributed to DF intakes of Korean adults were high in the order of vegetables, cereals, fruits, seasonings, legumes and seaweeds. Regardless of age and sex, vegetables, cereals and fruits were three major sources of DF for Koreans who obtained approximately 75% of DF from those sources. It has been shown that rice was the first single food source of DF intake for the age groups less than 12 years, however Kimchi was the first major source for all the age groups over 12 years. The infant and elderly groups obtained more DF from 10 major single food sources than the other age groups did. The results of the study revealed that the present levels of DF intakes of Korean in all age groups except the elderly group are insufficient to meet the AI for DF. Therefore the beneficial effects of DF on health and the increased consumption of DF from the variety of food sources should be emphasized through the continuous nutritional education.

• Journal of the Korean Child Neurology Society
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.215-220
• /
• 2018

Purpose: Few reports have described the prognostic factors affecting the occurrence of subsequent unprovoked seizure in patients who present with febrile seizure (FS) after 6 years of age. We investigated the prognostic factors affecting the development of unprovoked seizures after FS among patients from Jeju Island. Methods: We included patients who developed FS after 6 years of age, who presented to our outpatient clinic between January, 2011 and June, 2017. Clinical data were obtained through chart reviews and phone call interviews. We used logistic regression analysis to analyze the risk factors associated with the occurrence of subsequent unprovoked seizure. Results: Of the 895 patients who presented to our hospital due to their febrile seizure, 83 developed FS after 6 years of age. Among them, 3 patients were prescribed antiepileptic drugs before the onset of the unprovoked seizure, and 4 patients developed an unprovoked seizure before 6 years of age. Thus, overall, 76 patients were included in the study. 51 patients developed first FS before 6 years of age. In the remaining patients, the first FS developed after 6 years of age. The mean observational period since the last outpatient follow-up visit was 3.2 years (median 3.04 years, range: 1.42-4.71 years). Among them, 21% developed an unprovoked seizure. Logistic regression analysis showed that electroencephalographic (EEG) abnormalities served as an independent risk factor for a subsequent unprovoked seizure. Conclusion: EEG is the proper diagnostic tool to predict the risk of a subsequent unprovoked seizure in patients with FS after 6 years of age.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
• /
• v.31 no.1 s.49
• /
• pp.43-49
• /
• 2005

Recently, according as people who have sensitive skin increase, we've been giving more importance to the safety of cosmetics. Especially, preservative is known to be one of the main stimuli which cause side-effects of cosmetics. However, there have been few reports describing cell cytotoxicity, skin penetration, oil-aqueous phase partition, anti-microbial activity of preservatives and their correlation with skin irritation. The study is aimed to develop low irritable preservative system with phenoxyethanol, one of the most commonly used preservatives in cosmetics, considering various factors mentioned above. According to our results of cell cytotoxicity against human normal fibroblasts by means of MTT assay, phenoxyethanol showed the lowest cytotoxicity when compared to other preservatives tested (cytotoxicity: pro-pylparaben > butylparaben > ethylparaben > methylparaben > triclosan > phenoxyethanol), but human patch test for assessing shin primary irritation revealed that phenoxyethanol has higher skin irritation than methylparaben and triclosan. We performed in vitro skin penetration test using horizontal Franz diffusion cells with skin membrane prepared from hairless mouse (5 ${\~}$ 8 weeks, male) to evaluate the rate of skin penetration of preservatives. From the results, we found that the higher irritable property of phenoxyethanol in human skin correlates with its predominant permeability (skin penetration: phenoxyethanol > methylparaben > ethylparaben > propylparaben > butylfaraben > triclosan). Therefore, we made an effort to reduce skin permeability of phenoxyethanol and found that not only the rate of skin penetration of phenoxyethanol but also its skin irritation is dramatically reduced in formulas containing oils with low polarity. In the experiments to investigate the effect of oil polarity on the oil-aqueous phase partition of phenoxyethanol, more than $70\%$ of phenoxyethanol was partitioned in aqueous phase in formulas containing oils with low polarity, while about $70 {\~} 90\%$ of phenoxyethanol was partitioned in oil phase in formulas containing oils with high polarity. Also, in aqueous phase phenoxyethanol showed greater anti-microbial activity. Conclusively, it appears that we can develop less toxic preservative system with reduced use dosage of phenox-yethanol and its skin penetration by changing oil composition in formulas.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.208-216
• /
• 2016

Objectives : According to the recent Korean National Police Agency report, rape victims were 17.1%, but sexual molestation victims were more than the rape victims by 78.0%. Despite many international reports about the occurrence of severe psychiatric symptoms in sexual molestation victims, there is no domestic research. Therefore in this study, we investigated psychiatric symptoms of sexual molestation victims, and we also compared it with psychiatric symptoms in rape victims. Methods : 58 women who visited Busan Smile Center within 3months after sexual violence were the study subjects. Questionnaire about sociodemographic and sexual violence related characteristics were retrospectively investigated. Of the psychiatric symptoms, Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory(BAI) for severity of depression and anxiety, and Impact of Event Scale-Revised(IES-R) to check the presence of posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD) symptoms were used. Results : Of 58 sexual violence victims, sexual molestation victims were 36(62.1%) and rape victims were 22(37.9%). In sexual molestation victims, 80.6% had more than moderate severity of depression, 83.3% had more than moderate severity of anxiety, and 94.4% had significant scores at PTSD screening test. Compared with rape victims' psychiatric symptoms(each 95.5%, 95.5%, 95.5%) there were no significant difference. Conclusions : The majority of sexual molestation victims were also accompanied by depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms as rape victims. There results suggest that appropriate assessment and early treatment for psychiatric symptom must be made in the early stage of injury in sexual molestation victims.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.31 no.10
• /
• pp.885-897
• /
• 2021

Schisandrae Fructus (SF) and Corni Fructus (CF) have been used for a long time for the prevention and treatment of various diseases. Although reports have highlighted the possibility of inhibiting the onset and progression of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), studies on related mechanisms are still lacking. In this study, we investigated the potential of SF and CF in improving BPH by using a dihydrotestosterone (DHT)-induced in vitro BPH model using LNCaP prostate carcinoma cells. According to our results, water and ethanol extracts of SF and CF significantly inhibited the proliferation of LNCaP cells by DHT treatment and markedly downregulated the expression of DHT-induced BPH biomarkers and growth factors. They also regulated the expression of apoptosis regulatory factors and significantly reduced DHT-mediated oxidative stress. In addition, the protective effect on major factors involved in the pathogenesis of BPH was more effective in the ethanol extract treatment group than in the water extract group. Furthermore, the improvement effect on BPH was higher in the 1:1 combined treatment group than in the ethanol extract alone treatment group of SF and CF, and 60% ethanol extracts showed a better effect than 40% ethanol extracts. Therefore, our findings demonstrate that SF and CF can protect against BPH by preventing the hyperproliferation of prostate cells through the inhibition of the androgen signaling pathway, which was correlated with their antioxidant activities. Therefore, SF and CF extracts may be useful in the clinical treatment of BPH, and the combination of these two extracts can be synergistic.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.49 no.5
• /
• pp.79-96
• /
• 2021

Green infrastructure planning represents landscape planning measures to reduce particulate matter. This study aimed to derive factors that may be used in planning green infrastructure for particulate matter reduction using text mining techniques. A range of analyses were carried out by focusing on keywords such as 'particulate matter reduction plan' and 'green infrastructure planning elements'. The analyses included Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) analysis, centrality analysis, related word analysis, and topic modeling analysis. These analyses were carried out via text mining by collecting information on previous related research, policy reports, and laws. Initially, TF-IDF analysis results were used to classify major keywords relating to particulate matter and green infrastructure into three groups: (1) environmental issues (e.g., particulate matter, environment, carbon, and atmosphere), target spaces (e.g., urban, park, and local green space), and application methods (e.g., analysis, planning, evaluation, development, ecological aspect, policy management, technology, and resilience). Second, the centrality analysis results were found to be similar to those of TF-IDF; it was confirmed that the central connectors to the major keywords were 'Green New Deal' and 'Vacant land'. The results from the analysis of related words verified that planning green infrastructure for particulate matter reduction required planning forests and ventilation corridors. Additionally, moisture must be considered for microclimate control. It was also confirmed that utilizing vacant space, establishing mixed forests, introducing particulate matter reduction technology, and understanding the system may be important for the effective planning of green infrastructure. Topic analysis was used to classify the planning elements of green infrastructure based on ecological, technological, and social functions. The planning elements of ecological function were classified into morphological (e.g., urban forest, green space, wall greening) and functional aspects (e.g., climate control, carbon storage and absorption, provision of habitats, and biodiversity for wildlife). The planning elements of technical function were classified into various themes, including the disaster prevention functions of green infrastructure, buffer effects, stormwater management, water purification, and energy reduction. The planning elements of the social function were classified into themes such as community function, improving the health of users, and scenery improvement. These results suggest that green infrastructure planning for particulate matter reduction requires approaches related to key concepts, such as resilience and sustainability. In particular, there is a need to apply green infrastructure planning elements in order to reduce exposure to particulate matter.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.109-135
• /
• 2021

his study classified the development process of artificial intelligence (AI) speakers through analysis of the news text of artificial intelligence (AI) speakers shown in traditional news reports, and identified the characteristics of each product by period. The theoretical background used in the analysis are news frames and topic frames. As analysis methods, topic modeling and semantic network analysis using the LDA method were used. The research method was a content analysis method. From 2014 to 2019, 2710 news related to AI speakers were first collected, and secondly, topic frames were analyzed using Nodexl algorithm. The result of this study is that, first, the trend of topic frames by AI speaker provider type was different according to the characteristics of the four operators (communication service provider, online platform, OS provider, and IT device manufacturer). Specifically, online platform operators (Google, Naver, Amazon, Kakao) appeared as a frame that uses AI speakers as'search or input devices'. On the other hand, telecommunications operators (SKT, KT) showed prominent frames for IPTV, which is the parent company's flagship business, and 'auxiliary device' of the telecommunication business. Furthermore, the frame of "personalization of products and voice service" was remarkable for OS operators (MS, Apple), and the frame for IT device manufacturers (Samsung) was "Internet of Things (IoT) Integrated Intelligence System". The econd, result id that the trend of the topic frame by AI speaker development period (by year) showed a tendency to develop around AI technology in the first phase (2014-2016), and in the second phase (2017-2018), the social relationship between AI technology and users It was related to interaction, and in the third phase (2019), there was a trend of shifting from AI technology-centered to user-centered. As a result of QAP analysis, it was found that news frames by business operator and development period in AI speaker development are socially constituted by determinants of media discourse. The implication of this study was that the evolution of AI speakers was found by the characteristics of the parent company and the process of co-evolution due to interactions between users by business operator and development period. The implications of this study are that the results of this study are important indicators for predicting the future prospects of AI speakers and presenting directions accordingly.