• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.71-82
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• 2020

Nigeria Copyright Commission is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring adherence to the copyright law in Nigeria. However, it has been observed in the last decade that copyright right issue is still rampant in Nigeria. Therefore, this study analyzed cases that the Commission in involved in between years 2008 to 2018. The study adopted citation analysis. The study collected data from three selected law reports, which include Intellectual Property Law Reports, Nigerian Weekly Law Reports and Nigeria Law Intellectual Property Watch. It was found that Nigerian Law Intellectual Property Watch has the highest number of reports of cases involving Nigerian Copyright Commission while none was reported by Nigerian Weekly Law Reports. It was also found that most of the cases handled by the Commission were on copyright infringement. The study concludes that Nigerian Copyright Commission has been paying credible attention to issue that surrounds software infringement but there has been little attention paid to book piracy. Moreover, it was established that the poor attention given to book piracy may entrench the publication of pirated copy and would subsequently lead to poor library service provision at the long run.

• Molecular Medicine Reports
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.3767-3774
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• 2019

The contractility of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) controls the lumen diameter of vessels, thus serving a role in regulating blood pressure and organ blood flow. Although arginases are known to have numerous effects in the biological activities of VSMCs, the effects of arginase II on the constriction of VSMCs has not yet been investigated. When conducting a natural products screen for an inhibitor against arginase, the present study identified that a relatively high concentration of resveratrol (RSV) exhibited arginase inhibitory activity. Therefore, the present study investigated whether RSV could regulate VSMCs contractions and the underlying mechanism. Arginase inhibition by RSV led to an increase in the concentration of the substrate L-Arg and an accompanying increase in the cytosol Ca2+ concentration [(Ca2+)c] in VSMCs. The increased [Ca2+]c induced by RSV and L-Arg treatments resulted in CaMKII-dependent MLC20 phosphorylation. The effects of RSV on VSMCs were maintained even when VSMCs were pre-treated with sirtinol, an inhibitor of Sirt proteins. In a vascular tension assay with de-endothelialized aortic vessels, vasoconstrictor responses, which were measured using phenylephrine (PE), were significantly enhanced in the RSV- and L-Arg-treated vessels. Therefore, although arginase inhibition has exhibited beneficial effects in various diseases, care is required when considering administration of an arginase inhibitor to patients with vessels endothelial dysfunction as RSV can induce vessel contraction.

• Molecular Medicine Reports
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.1569-1574
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• 2019

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs; butyrate, propionate and acetate) are metabolites derived from the gut microbiota via dietary fiber fermentation. In colon cancer, treatment with SCFAs, mainly butyrate and propionate, suppresses cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Furthermore, although sodium butyrate is known to induce cell apoptosis in lung cancer, the anticancer effects of sodium propionate (SP) on lung cancer are not well understood. In the present study, SP treatment induced cell cycle arrest, especially in the G2/M phase, and cell apoptosis in the H1299 and H1703 lung cancer cell lines. As determined by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and western blotting, Survivin and p21 expression levels were significantly affected by SP treatment, suggesting that SP treatment suppressed cell proliferation in these lung cancer cell lines. Thus, it was proposed that the SP-mediated regulation of Survivin and p21 in lung cancer may be applicable to lung cancer therapy.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.71-86
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess the quality of case reports from the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Korean Medicine. Methods: Case reports were selected from the Obstetrics and Gynecology of Korean Medicine from January 2015 to March 2019, by utilizing Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System (OASIS). The quality of the reports were reviewed based on the Consensus-based Clinical Case Reporting Guideline Development (CARE) guideline. Results: Total of 41 case reports were finally selected for the assessment. 69.23% of the case reports included necessary information based on the CARE guideline but the rest of the reports did not. More than 50% of the reports were missing data regarding 'Diagnostic challenges', 'Intervention adherence and tolerability', 'Adverse and unanticipated events', or 'Patient perspective or experience', and 'Informed consent'. Also, the reports did not include 'Key word', 'timeline'. Conclusions: Case reports from the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Korean Medicine have important role in women. Efforts are needed to improve the quality of the case reports as well as to develop reporting guidelines for the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Korean Medicine.

• Molecular Medicine Reports
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.1911-1918
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• 2019

Traditional herbal medicines are being increasingly used worldwide to treat cancer. Radix Sophorae Flavescentis (RSF) is a Chinese herb, which has numerous pharmacological properties, including anti-tumour effects. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms underlying RSF-induced apoptosis in human gastric cancer cells (AGS cells). We found that RSF treatment (20-200 ㎍/ml) inhibited the proliferation of AGS cells and increased the sub-G1 phase ratio. RSF-induced cell death was associated with the downregulation of BCl-2 and upregulation of Bax. In addition to increasing the expression levels of apoptosis-mediating surface antigen FAS and Fas ligand, RSF also activated caspase-3; however, mitogen-activated protein kinase appeared to inhibit RSF-induced cell death. RSF also led to an increased production of reactive oxygen species. Based on these results, we propose that RSF could be a potential therapeutic agent for gastric cancer.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.17-34
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• 2024

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the quality of case reports published in the Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology from April 2019 to February 2024, compared with January 2015 to March 2019. Methods: Case reports were selected by searching from archive on the website of society of the Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology. The quality of the case reports were assessed based on CAse REport (CARE) guideline. Results: A total of 30 case reports was finally included for the assessment. Overall quality of reporting for case reports published from April 2019 to February 2024 was improved compared to one of previous study. However, the 4 items of CARE guidelines with an unreported rate of 50% or more - patient's perspective on interventions (96.67%), diagnostic challenges (93.33%), intervention adherence and tolerability (93.33%), adverse events (56.67%) - are items that require active description in future case reports. In addition, Keyword and timeline have more than 50% reported to be 'Not-sufficient' in both previous and present studies. So active efforts by researchers are needed to include 'Case report (or Case study)' in keywords, and to include intervention by period, symptom changes in a timeline. Conclusions: Despite the overall improvement in the quality of reporting in the Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology, efforts to improve the quality of case reports should be continued.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.224-232
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of the case reports in the Journal of Acupuncture Research (JAR). All case reports were retrieved from November 2017 to June 2020. There were 19 case reports included in this assessment based on the case report (CARE) guidelines and case report and standards for reporting interventions in clinical trials of acupuncture (STRICTA) guidelines. The overall quality of reporting was relatively high (83.08% on Case Report guidelines and 77.78% on Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture guidelines), but several crucial items remained substantially underreported, such as identifying as a case report (keywords), patient information and perspective, clinical findings, diagnostic assessment, and intervention information. In 18 out of 19 included case reports of acupuncture-related interventions, several items remained considerably underreported such as acupuncture regimen variation, depth of needle insertion, response sought, and experience of acupuncturists. In the classification by disease, condition, or syndrome, 13 out of 19 included case reports were for musculoskeletal disorders (68.4%), which is the main clinical medical field of Korean medicine services. The results of this study may help develop more appropriate reporting guidelines for case reports published in JAR.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.214-225
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• 2018

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze case reports on and to study Korean medicine treatments of facial palsy. Methods: Studies published after 2000 were selected by searching for the terms "facial palsy" and "Guanwasa" in four databases and case reports using Korean medicine moderating variables were extracted by two individual researchers. Results: The House Brackmann (H-B) Scale (23 times, 65.7%), and Yanagihara Grading Scale (Y-system) (22 times, 62.8%) were used to assess facial palsy. All case reports used acupuncture, while 19 case reports (51.3%) used electro-acupuncture, and 8 case reports (21.6%) used pharmacopuncture. Main meridian points used were ST6, ST4, GB14, TE23, LI20, BL2. Thirty-two case reports used herbal medicine (86.4%) and both Ligigeopoong-san, Bojunglkgi-tang were used frequently. Conclusion: To treat facial palsy, acupuncture was mainly used in conjunction with electro-acupuncture and pharmacopuncture. Most case reports also used herbal medicine.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.338-345
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to analyze science fields and content elements of the science reports in a web portal site of Republic of Korea in view of scientific literacy. The main results of the analysis on the 679 reports sampled in a year are as follows. First, 506 reports in 46 fields were identified. Reports about technology and earth science occupies 16% respectively, and life science occupies 13%, medical science 4%, chemistry, company, others 3% and physics 1%. Almost reports show technology as associate field. Second, the frequency rate of reports including scientific literacy content elements is 52%. Reports related to 'physics' and 'chemistry' as dominant fields show relatively high rate in scientific literacy elements. The element, 'social context' is included in about 96% of the reports. Both 'data and statistics' and 'application' show relatively low rate and large gaps according to dominant fields. A few concluding remarks and proposals follow from these results. First, as almost science reports show the nature of integrated science, scientific literacy acquisition through science reports in internet requires the integrated scientific view. Especially most science reports includes the contents related to technology or medical science, so the point of view in the science-technological literacy is required. Second, the scientific literacy content elements in reports show various rates according to dominant fields. Therefore, science reports need to complement the deficient content elements to carry out the role of science reports as scientific literacy sources.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.10
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• pp.137-145
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• 2022

This study aims to test the information content of sustainability reports issued by the most significant telecommunications companies operating in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Stc, Zain, and Mobily), and their compatibility with the national sustainability standards issued by the Ministry of Commerce in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in light of the Kingdom's vision 2030, and its impact on the stock exchange indices of these companies. The event study methodology was used to study the impact of publishing sustainability reports on stock prices and the trading volume of these companies' shares in the Saudi stock market during the period from (October 2020 to March 2021). The results indicate a significant impact of the information contained in the sustainability reports on stock prices and trading volume in the stock market, and the importance of directing the company's management towards more disclosure of information about sustainability in its environmental, social, and economic aspects instead of focusing only on information related to the financial performance and economic activity of the company. This encourages the listed companies to disclose the sustainability of the financial reports and standardize the form in which these disclosures are prepared.