• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.72-79
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• 2023

MRSA is Staphylococcus aureus resistant to β-lactam antibiotics, and is a worldwide infectious disease. Even with the discovery of new antibiotics, resistance develops rapidly, so new alternatives are needed. Jakyakgamcho-tang (JGT) is a combination of Jakyak and Gamcho, and has been mainly used as an antispasmodic and analgesic in oriental medicine. This study was conducted to find out whether there is an effect on MRSA in relation to the anti-inflammatory effect of JGT and the antibacterial effect of Jakyak and Gamcho found in previous studies. In this study, in order to investigate the antibacterial activity of JGT and the combined effect of existing antibiotics, after extracting JGT with 70% EtoH, the disc diffusion method, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), drug combination effect (FICI), and time-kill analysis (Time-kill assay), metabolic inhibition, Western blot and qRT-PCR analysis were used to confirm the antibacterial activity mechanism of MRSA of JGT. As a result of the experiment, all of MRSA showed antibacterial activity in JGT's disc diffusion method, and the MIC was 250-1000 ㎍/mL. When existing antibiotics and JGT were combined with drugs, most had synergy or partial synergy. In addition, it was confirmed that the degree of bacterial growth was suppressed over time when simultaneous administration for 24 hours. JGT showed a synergistic effect when administered together with the ATPase-inhibitor DCCD, suggesting that it affected the inhibition of ATPase. As a result of observing the expression of PBP2a, and hla protein in the JGT-treated group and the untreated control group through wstern blot, it was confirmed that the protein expression of the JGT-treated group was significantly suppressed, and the expression levels of mecA, mecR1 and hla genes were also suppressed during JGT treatment. was observed by qRT-PCR. Combining the results of the experiment, it can be seen that JGT has antibacterial activity in MRSA, and when combined with existing antibiotics, the effect was increased compared to treatment with the drug alone. This suggests that JGT can be an alternative to treatment for antibiotic resistance of MRSA.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.97-107
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• 2023

PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore the effect of applying elastic taping and passive stretching exercises simultaneously on the muscle tone of the upper trapezius. METHODS: Thirty healthy adults were randomly divided into two groups: the 'passive stretching exercise' group (n = 15) and the 'passive stretching exercise with elastic taping' group (n = 15). Muscle tone was measured using the MyotonPRO®. The muscle tension was measured immediately after the stretching exercises and taping intervention, and again 5 minutes after the intervention. RESULTS: Within each group, there was a significant reduction in muscle tone in the upper trapezius after treatment (p < .05). However, there was no significant difference in the muscle tone reduction between the groups (p > .05). Both experimental and control groups showed a significant decrease in muscle tone in both the upper trapezius muscles over time, i.e., immediately after treatment and five minutes later (p < .05). The main effect of time was identified in the repeated measures analysis, while there was no main effect attributed to the treatment method (group) (p < .05). CONCLUSION: The simultaneous application of stretching exercises and taping as an intervention to reduce muscle tension in the upper trapezius is still considered challenging and not yet widely regarded as an essential intervention method.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 2024

LS-RUG-com preparation in a complex extract from mixture of three natural plants. Rubus crataegifolius/unriped, Gardenia jasminoides and Ulmus marcrocarpa that have been widely used in traditional functional health food. This study was conducted to establish the HPLC analysis methods that can be used to establish quantitative analysis of R. crataegifolius, G. jasminoides and U. macrocarpa for standardization of LS-RUG-com preparations. HPLC analysis methods for simultaneous determination of ellagic acid and geniposide and single determination of catechin-7-O-β-D-apiofuranoside were established for the quality control of natural plants complex (LS-RUG-com). Validation of HPLC analysis were performed by checking specificity, accuracy, precision, limit of detection and quantitation, and linearity following ICH (International Council for Harmonisation) guideline. As the result of quantitative analysis, the contents of ellagic acid, geniposide and catechin-7-O-β-D-apiofuranoside in each plant extracts were 11.2 mg/g (ellagic acid) and 72 mg/g (geniposide) and 10.2 mg/g (catechin-7-O-β-D-apiofuranoside). The contents of ellagic acid, geniposide and catechin-7-O-β-D-apiofuranoside in LS-RUG-com were 4.62~6.82 mg/g (ellagic acid), 19.2~28.8 mg/g (geniposide) and 1.36~2.04 mg/g (catechin-7-O-β-D-apiofuranoside) respectively.

• Journal of Cerebrovascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.50-61
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• 2023

Objective: To describe the roadmapping technique and our three-year experience in the management of intracranial aneurysms in the hybrid operating room. Methods: We analyzed all patients who underwent surgical clipping for cerebral aneurysms with the roadmapping technique from January 2017 to September 2019. We report demographic, clinical, and morphological variables, as well as clinical and radiological outcomes. We further describe three illustrative cases of the technique. Results: A total of 13 patients were included, 9 of which (69.2%) presented with subarachnoid hemorrhage, with a total of 23 treated aneurysms. All patients were female, with a mean age of 47.7 years (range 31-63). All cases were anterior circulation aneurysms, the most frequent location being the ophthalmic segment of the internal carotid artery (ICA) in 11 cases (48%), followed by posterior communicating in 8 (36%), and ICA bifurcation in 2 (8%). Intraoperative clip repositioning was required in 9 aneurysms (36%) as a result of the roadmapping technique in the hybrid operating room. There were no residual aneurysms in our series, nor reported mortality. Conclusions: The roadmapping technique in the hybrid operating room offers a complementary tool for the adequate occlusion of complex intracranial aneurysms, as it provides a real time fluoroscopic-guided clipping technique, and clip repositioning is possible in a single surgical stage, whenever a residual portion of the aneurysm is identified. This technique also provides some advantages, such as immediate vasospasm identification and treatment with intra-arterial vasodilators, balloon proximal control for certain paraclinoid aneurysms, and simultaneous endovascular treatment in selected cases during a single stage.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.275-288
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• 2024

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of breathing techniques on trunk muscle activity and balance during Pilates reformer footwork exercises, comparing results both within and between groups before and after the intervention. Methods: Thirty-one adult women over the age of 20 were selected as subjects for this study. They were divided into a Pilates breathing group (n = 15) and a general breathing group (n = 16) using a randomized control group study design. A surface electromyogram was used to measure muscle activity within and between the groups before and after the reformer footwork exercise. Static balance measurements were taken while standing on two legs, and dynamic balance measurements were taken while standing on one leg. All measurements were taken three times, and the average values were used for analysis. Results: The results of the study showed that muscle activity increased with significant differences in the external oblique and transverse abdominal muscles after exercise in the pre-post comparison within the Pilates breathing group (p < 0.05). In the between-group comparison, there was a significant difference in the increase in muscle activity of the external oblique and transverse abdominal muscles in the Pilates breathing group (p < 0.05). In the pre-post comparison of static and dynamic balance within the Pilates breathing group, there was a significant increase (p < 0.05) after exercise. The Pilates breathing group also showed a significant increase even in the between-group comparison (p < 0.05). Conclusion: This study confirmed that reformer footwork exercise accompanied by Pilates breathing has positive effects on muscle activity and static balance ability of trunk muscles in adult women. Therefore, reformer footwork exercise accompanied by Pilates breathing can be presented as an effective exercise method to increase trunk stability and balance ability through the simultaneous activity of the trunk muscles.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.116-122
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• 2006

Purpose: To determine treatment policy for early stage endometrial carcinoma, we analyzed the results of postoperative radiotherapy. Materials and Methods: From Oct. 1994 to Aug. 2002, 42 patients with FIGO stage I endometrial carcinoma received postoperative radiotherapy. All patients received curative surgery and pelvic lymph node dissection was done in 25 patients. Based on the FIGO staging system, 3 were at stage IA, 21 were at stage IB and 18 were at stage IC. Histologically, there were 14 grade 1, 16 grade 2, and 12 grade 3. Nineteen patients received intracavitary brachytherapy and 23 patients did whole pelvic radiotherapy. The median period of follow-up was 41 months (22 to 100 months). Results: Five-year overall survival, disease-free survival, local control, and regional control rates of all patients were 85.0%, 87.9%, 100%, and 97.5%, respectively. All failures were distant metastases in 5 patients and two patients had simultaneous regional recurrences. There was no intrapelvic failure in patients who received intracavitary radiotherapy. Grade 3 chronic complications were found in 1 patient (4.3%), who received whole pelvic radiotherapy. Conclusion: We achieved high rates of loco-regional control and survival by curative surgery and post-operative radiotherapy. However, we need to select the type of radiotherapy based on the risk factors for recurrence to reduce the treatment-related complication.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.217-232
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• 2018

Drought is a major obstacle to high agricultural productivity, worldwide. In drought, it is usually presented by the simultaneous action of high temperature and drying. Also there are negative effects of plant growth under drying conditions. In this study, the effect of Bacillus velezensis YP2 on plant growth-promotion and soil drying stress tolerance of kale plants, Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra Bailey, were investigated under two different conditions; greenhouse and field environments. Root colonization ability of B. velezensis YP2 was also analysed by using plating culture method. As a result of the greenhouse test, the YP2 strain significantly promoted the growth of kale seedlings in increasement of 26.7% of plant height and 142.2% of shoot fresh weight compared to control. B. velezensis YP2 have the mitigation effect of drying injury of kale by decreasing of 39.4% compared to control. In the field test, B. velezensis YP2 strain was also found to be effective for plant growth-promotion and mitigation of drying stress injury on kale plants. Especially, relative water contents (RWC; %) were higher in B. velezensis YP2 treated kales than in control at 7, 10, 14 day after non-watering. The root colonization ability of YP2 strain was continued at least for 21 days after soil drenching treatment of B. velezensis YP2. Our result suggested that enhancement of plant growth and drying injury reduction of kale plants were involved in kale root colonization by B. velezensis YP2, which might be contributed to increasing water availability of plants. Consequentially, the use of B. velezensis YP2 might be a beneficial influence for improving productivity of kale plants under drying stress conditions.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.569-576
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• 2003

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of microbial phytase (Natuphos$^{\circledR}$) supplementation, individually and in combination with carbohydrase enzyme complex (composed of enzymes targeted to SBM dietary components such as $\alpha$-galactosides and galactomannans; ENDO-POWER$^{\circledR}$) to corn-soy basis diet with low nutrient levels on growth performance and nutrient digestibility of growing pigs. A total of 48 crossbred weaned pigs (Landrace${\times}$Yorkshire${\times}$Duroc), 29.1$\pm$0.14 kg of initial body weight, were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments, based on weight and age, according to a Randomized Complete Block Design. There were three pens per treatment and 4 pigs per pen. The dietary treatments were 1) CON (control diet with 3,380 kcal/kg of metabolizable energy, 18.96% of crude protein, 1.10% of lysine, 0.75% of calcium and 0.35% of available phosphorus), 2) LP+NTPS (CON diet with 0.15% unit lower available P levels+0.1% phytase (500 FTU/kg; Natuphos$^{\circledR}$)), 3) LEL+ENP (CON diet with 3.0% unit lower ME and lysine levels + 0.1% carbohydrase enzyme complex (ENDO-POWER$^{\circledR}$), and 4) LPEL+ENZ (CON diet with 0.15% unit lower available P levels and 3.0% unit lower ME and lysine levels+0.1% ENDO-POWER$^{\circledR}$ and 0.1% Natuphos$^{\circledR}$ (500 FTU/kg). There was no significant difference (p〉0.05) in average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) among dietary treatments during the whole experimental period (0 to 4 weeks). Apparent digestibility of gross energy was greater in LP+NTPS and LPEL+ENZ groups than in the LEL+ENP (p<0.05). Apparent digestibility of phosphorus was greater in LP+NTPS than in LEL+ENP (p<0.05). Dry matter excretion was lowest in LPEL+ENZ and phosphorus excretion was lowest in LP+NTPS (p<0.05). Overall, pigs fed on LPEL+ENZ group tended to have better nutrient digestibility (dry matter, gross energy, crude protein and phosphorus) than pigs fed on control group. All dietary enzyme treatment groups showed lower feed cost/body weight gain of pigs than control group. In conclusion, the results from the present study suggest that the simultaneous inclusion of phytase and carbohydrase enzyme complex to diets is advantageous with respect to reducing nutrient excretion of growing pigs and may contribute to increased economic return when added to corn-soy based growing pig diets.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.1159-1165
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• 2006

Our preliminary study showed that genistein and daidzein improved blood glucose level in type 2 diabetic mice by enhancing the glucose and lipid metabolism. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether genistein and daidzein are associated with alterations in antioxidant defense mechanism of type 2 diabetic mice. Male C57BL/KsJ-db/db (db/db) mice and age-matched non-diabetic littermates (db/+) were used in this study. The db/db mice were divided into control, genistein (0.02%, w/w) and daidzein (0.02%, w/w) groups. The relative weights of liver, epididymal adipose tissue and perirenal adipose tissue were significantly higher in the db/db group than in the db/+ group, whereas heart weight was lower. The genistein and daidzein supplement did not affect the organ weights in db/db mice. The blood glucose level was positively correlated with superoxide dismutase (SOD, r=0.380, p<0.05) and catalase (CAT, r=0.345, p<0.05) activities and negatively correlated with glutathione peroxidase (GSH Px, r= 0.404, p<0.05) activity in erythrocyte. Therefore, the erythrocyte SOD and CAT activities were significantly elevated in the db/db group compared to the db/+ group and the GSH-Px activity was lowered. However, the supplementation of genistein and daidzein reversed erythrocyte CAT and GSH-Px activities in type 2 diabetic mice. In this current study, the SOD activities in liver, kidney and heart were significantly not different between the groups. The CAT and GSH-Px activities in liver and GSH-Px activity in kidney were significantly higher in the db/db group than in the db/+ group, while the CAT activity in kidney, CAT and GSH-Px activities in heart were lowered. The supplementation of genistein and daidzein significantly attenuated the changes of CAT and/or GSH-Px activities in liver and heart. The supplementation of genistein and daidzein elevated GSH levels in kidney and heart compared to the db/db control group. The lipid peroxide levels in liver, kidney and heart were significantly lowered in the genistein and daidzein supplemented groups compared to the db/db control group. These results suggest that genistein and daidzein might be beneficial for the prevention of type 2 diabetic complication via suppressing changes of antioxidant enzymes activities with simultaneous reduction of lipid peroxidation.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.485-495
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• 1998

Purpose : The major goal of the therapy in the soft tissue sarcoma is to control both local and distant tumor. However, the technique of obtaining local control has changed significantly over the past few decades from more aggressive surgery to combined therapy including conservative surgery and radiation and/or chemotherapy. We retrospectively analyzed the treatment results of the postoperative radiation therapy of soft tissue sarcoma and its prognostic factor. Materials and Methods : Between March 1983 and June 1994, 50 patients with soft tissue sarcoma were treated with surgery and postoperative radiation therapy at Kang-Nam St. Mary's hospital. Complete follow up was possible for all patients with median follow up duration 50 months (range 6-162 months). There were 28 male and 32 female patients. Their age ranged from 6 to 83 with a median of 44 years. Extremity (58$\%$) was the most frequent site of occurrence followed by trunk (20$\%$) and head and neck (12$\%$). Histologically malignant fibrous histiocytoma (23$\%$), liposarcoma (17$\%$), malignant schwannoma (12$\%$) constitute 52$\%$ of the patients. Daily radiation therapy designed to treat all areas at a risk for tumor spread upto dose of 4500-5000 cGy. A shrinking field technique was then used and total 55-65 Gy was delivered to tumor bed. Twenty-five patients (42$\%$) received chemotherapy with various regimen in the postoperative period. Results : Total 41 patients failed either with local recurrence or with distant metastasis. There were 29 patients (48$\%$) of local recurrence. Four patients (7$\%$) developed simultaneous local recurrence and distant metastasis and 8 patients (13$\%$) developed only distant metastasis. Local recurrence rate was rather higher than of other reported series. This study included patients of gross residual, recurrent cases after previous operation, trunk and head and neck Primary This feature is likely explanation for the decreased local control rate. Five of 29 Patients who failed only locally were salvaged by re-excision and/or re-irradiation and remained free of disease. Factors affecting local control include histologic type, grade, stage, extent of operation and surgical margin involvement, lymph node metastasis (p<0.05). All 21 patients who failed distantly are dead with progressive disease at the time of this report. Our overall survival results are similar to those of larger series. Actuarial 5 year overall survival and disease free survival were 60.4 $\%$, 30.6$\%$ respectively. Grade, stage (being close association with grade), residual disease (negative margin, microscopic, gross) were significant as a predictor of survival in our series (p<0.05). Conclusion : Combined surgery and postoperative radiation therapy obtained 5 year survival rate comparable to that of radical surgery.