• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.1314-1327
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• 2021

Bacillus is characterized by the formation of spores in harsh environments, which makes it suitable for use as a probiotic for feed because of thermostability and high survival rate, even under long-term storage. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Bacillus-based probiotics on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, intestinal morphology, immune response, and intestinal microbiota of weaned pigs. A total of 40 weaned pigs (7.01 ± 0.86 kg body weight [BW]; 28 d old) were randomly assigned to two treatments (4 pigs/pen; 5 replicates/treatment) in a randomized complete block design (block = BW and sex). The dietary treatment was either a typical nursery diet based on corn and soybean meal (CON) or CON supplemented with 0.01% probiotics containing a mixture of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis (PRO). Fecal samples were collected daily by rectal palpation for the last 3 days after a 4-day adaptation. Blood, ileal digesta, and intestinal tissue samples were collected from one pig in each pen at the respective time points. The PRO group did not affect the feed efficiency, but the average daily gain was significantly improved (p < 0.05). The PRO group showed a trend of improved crude protein digestibility (p < 0.10). The serum transforming growth factor-β1 level tended to be higher (p < 0.10) in the PRO group on days 7 and 14. There was no difference in phylum level of the intestinal microbiota, but there were differences in genus composition and proportions. However, β-diversity analysis showed no statistical differences between the CON and the PRO groups. Taken together, Bacillus-based probiotics had beneficial effects on the growth performance, immune system, and intestinal microbiota of weaned pigs, suggesting that Bacillus can be utilized as a functional probiotic for weaned pigs.

• Journal of Breast Disease
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.52-59
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• 2018

Purpose: This study aimed to determine whether clinicopathological factors are potentially associated with successful breast-conserving surgery (BCS) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and develop a nomogram for predicting successful BCS candidates, focusing on those who are diagnosed with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative tumors during the pre-NAC period. Methods: The training cohort included 239 patients with an HR-positive, HER2-negative tumor (${\geq}3cm$), and all of these patients had received NAC. Patients were excluded if they met any of the following criteria: diffuse, suspicious, malignant microcalcification (extent >4 cm); multicentric or multifocal breast cancer; inflammatory breast cancer; distant metastases at the time of diagnosis; excisional biopsy prior to NAC; and bilateral breast cancer. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the possible predictors of BCS eligibility after NAC, and the regression model was used to develop the predicting nomogram. This nomogram was built using the training cohort (n=239) and was later validated with an independent validation cohort (n=123). Results: Small tumor size (p<0.001) at initial diagnosis, long distance from the nipple (p=0.002), high body mass index (p=0.001), and weak positivity for progesterone receptor (p=0.037) were found to be four independent predictors of an increased probability of BCS after NAC; further, these variables were used as covariates in developing the nomogram. For the training and validation cohorts, the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve were 0.833 and 0.786, respectively; these values demonstrate the potential predictive power of this nomogram. Conclusion: This study established a new nomogram to predict successful BCS in patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. Given that chemotherapy is an option with unreliable outcomes for this subtype, this nomogram may be used to select patients for NAC followed by successful BCS.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.139-148
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• 2019

Purpose: Ulcerative colitis is a common inflammatory bowel disease. Prolonged colitis can be a risk factor for the development of colorectal cancer. Mulberry twig (MT, Sangzhi), a dry branch of Morus alba L., which is widely distributed throughout East Asia, has been shown to have anti-inflammatory activities in the cells. However, the effects of MT extracts on colitis in in vivo are limited. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of MT extracts in the dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced mouse colitis model. Methods: Six week-old, male ICR mice were divided into 3 groups: Control (n = 5), DSS (n = 7), and DSS+MT (n = 7) groups. Mice in the DSS and DSS+MT groups were administrated 3% DSS in drinking water for 5 days to induce colitis. At the same time, water extracts of MT (5 g/kg body weight/day) were orally administered to mice in the DSS+MT groups for 5 days. Results: The MT extracts significantly reduced the clinical and pathological characteristics of colitis. Disease activity index, mucosal thickness, and colonocyte proliferation were significantly reduced in the DSS+MT group compared with the DSS group. Furthermore, MT administration reduced the levels of plasma $TNF-{\alpha}$, IL-6, and the colonic myeloperoxidase activity as well as mRNA expression of $TNF-{\alpha}$, IL-6, Cox-2, and iNOS. Conclusion: Taken together, these results suggest that MT water extracts have potent anti-colitis activities in the mouse colitis model.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.447-454
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• 2019

Fat accumulation in adipocytes occurs through the process of adipogenesis in which preadipocytes differentiate into adipocytes. Obesity is a metabolic disorder caused by excessive accumulation of fat in the body, which increases the incidence of cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and various cancers. Recently, inhibition of adipocyte differentiation was shown to be a potential antiobesity strategy. In this study, the inhibitory effect of dichloromethane fractions from Illicium verum Hooker fil. water extract on the differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes to adipocytes was investigated. Dichloromethane fractions from I. verum Hooker fil. significantly inhibited adipocyte differentiation when applied during the adipocyte differentiation process, as assessed by measuring fat accumulation using Oil-red O staining. In addition, dichloromethane fractions from I. verum Hooker fil. reduced important adipogenic transcription factors, such as CCAAT/enhancer binding protein ${\alpha}$ ($C/EBP{\alpha}$), $C/EBP{\beta}$, and peroxisome proliferator activated receptor ${\gamma}$ ($PPAR{\gamma}$). The expression of FAS and LPL, which are terminal differentiation markers of mature adipocytes, was also reduced in the 3T3-L1 adipocytes treated with dichloromethane fractions from I. verum Hooker fil. In addition, the treatment significantly inhibited mitotic clonal expansion, which is essential for adipocyte differentiation, by arresting the G1 phase of the cell cycle. Taken together, these results suggest that dichloromethane fractions from I. verum Hooker fil. may be a natural material with antiobesity effects.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.390-408
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• 2019

Objectives: Several pattern diagnosis questionnaires have been developed to objectify the process of pattern diagnosis in Korean medicine. In this context, this study aimed to develop a food retention questionnaire for functional dyspepsia (FRQ-FD) by modifying the previously developed food retention questionnaire (FRQ) and to verify its reliability and validity. Furthermore, this study aimed to identify the optimal cut-off value of the FRQ-FD for standardization and use in clinical situations. Methods: To develop the FRQ-FD, we extracted the major symptoms of food retention pattern for functional dyspepsia from Chinese/Korean medicine textbooks and requested an importance survey from experts using the Delphi method. The first draft of the FRQ-FD was composed of 25 questions comprising 8 questions from the textbooks and the Delphi method and 17 questions from the FRQ already developed in 2013. To analyze its reliability, validity, and optimal cut-off value, 60 subjects were enrolled in this study from June 25 to August 13, 2018. Thirty patients were diagnosed as both functional dyspepsia and food retention pattern, and 30 healthy participants were not. All participants were requested to fill up the FRQ-FD, Stomach Qi Deficiency Questionnaire (SQDQ), Scale for Stomach Qi Deficiency pattern (SSQD), visual analog scale (VAS) for dyspepsia, Nepean Dyspepsia Index-Korean version (NDI-K), and functional dyspepsia-related quality of life (FD-QoL). Results: No statistically significant differences were found in sex distribution, age, and body mass index between the patient group and the control group. As five questions affected the reliability negatively and three questions affected the clinical validity negatively, we decided to exclude the eight questions upon further investigation. The Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficient of the revised FRQ-FD (17 items) was 0.899, and its clinical validity was verified. Construct validity was analyzed by factor analysis and produced five factors. Statistically significant positive correlations were found between the revised FRQ-FD and the other dyspepsia scales, namely, SQDQ, SSQD, VAS, NDI-K, and FD-QoL. VAS and NDI-K especially had strong positive correlations with FRQ-FD. Conclusions: The FRQ-FD developed in this study can provide fundamental reliability and validity for a pattern diagnosis questionnaire. FRQ-FD can help to diagnose food retention pattern in functional dyspepsia patients. Further studies are required to inspect several statistical factors.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 2019

Portulaca oleracea L. (PL) has been used in traditional medicine herb for treatment of various diseases, such as diarrhea, dysentery, and skin inflammation. Previous studies have shown that the PL regulates the inflammation by inhibition of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Although PL might have improvement effects of intestinal function and bioactive effects, there are not enough studies to demonstrate. This study investigated the effects of KDC16-2 on the improvement of intestinal function and anti-inflammatory effects in vivo and in vitro. The improvement effect of intestinal function was measured fecal amount, water content and intestinal transit rate in KDC16-2 treated ICR mice. As results, compared with the control group, the KDC16-2 group showed a significant increase in wet fecal weight, dry fecal weight and fecal water content. The intestinal transit rate of KDC16-2 group was significantly increased. Based on the results, KDC16-2 is considered to have effects on improving intestinal function. The effect of anti-inflammatory demonstrated by using dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis mice. The mice were administered 3% DSS along with KDC16-2 (100, 300 mg/kg) for 14 days. DSS-induced colitis mice were significantly ameliorated in KDC16-2 treated group, including body weight loss, colon length shortening, tight junction protein of colon and histological colon injury. The levels of inflammatory mediators (IgG2a, IgA, C-reactive protein and Myeloperoxidase) and pro-inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-${\alpha}$, Interleukin (IL)-6) which are involved in inflammatory responses were increased in the DSS-treated group as compared to those in the control group, and the levels were significantly decreased in the KDC16-2 groups. In addition, we investigated the impact of KDC16-2 on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory responses in J774A.1 cells. KDC16-2 inhibited production of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and reactive oxygen species (ROS). These results suggested that the KDC16-2 could effectively alleviate the dysfunction of intestinal and inflammatory mediators. Thus, these KDC16-2 can be potentially used as health functional food of intestinal.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.767-775
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• 2019

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of rapeseed and linseed oil supplementations on performance and meat quality of lambs. Methods: The experiment was conducted on 18 growing (100-day-old) lambs of $19.7{\pm}1.9kg$ live weight, assigned to 3 groups of 6 animals each. Control lambs were fed meadow hay and concentrate alone. Experimental animals additionally received rapeseed or linseed oils at a dose of 50 g/d. The lambs were slaughtered at an average body weight of $35.7{\pm}0.5kg$. Results: The dressing percentage was higher in lambs fed rapeseed oil. Total saturated fatty acids (SFA) and C15:0, C16:0, C17:0, C21:0, C24:0 were lower in longissimus dorsi muscle (MLD) in lambs fed linseed oil. Supplementation of diet with linseed oil decreased concentrations of total monounsaturated fatty acids and C16:1, C17:1, C18:1 cis-9 in MLD. The concentrations of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and C18:3 n-3, C20:5 n-3 in MLD were higher in lambs fed linseed oil than in other groups. Oils supplementation to diets resulted in increased concentration of C22:6 n-3 in MLD. The inclusion of linseed oil into the diet increased the contents of total PUFA, n-3 PUFA and C18:3 n-3, C20:5 n-3, C22:6 n-3 in semitendinosus muscle in comparison to control. A tendency towards a lower n:6/n:3 ratio in MLD was observed when lambs were supplemented linseed oil. Conclusion: The supplementation of linseed oil to diets seems to reduce the concentration of SFA and increase the concentration of n-3 PUFA. The n-6/n-3 ratio is an important nutritional factor, and its value has been favorably decreased below 2, thereby achieving an important target related to human health. Due to these changes carcass fatty acid profile was improved, and so enhanced lamb meat healthy properties.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.61-66
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• 2020

Recently, a variety of electric anesthetics devices have been developed and used in clinical practice to reduce the fatigue of the operator during local anesthesia for dental procedures and to compensate for the disadvantages of manual anesthesia device. In this electric anesthesia injection device, the accurate and constant delivery of pressure for drug infusion is a very important performance factor. In order to evaluate the accuracy of the transfer pressure, a small pressure gauge using a load cell is often used, but since the elastic body inside the load cell may not be able to accommodate a sufficient displacement, an error may occur when evaluating pressure performance. For these reasons, in this study, we proposed and evaluated a silicon-chrome steel (Si-Cr steel) spring jig that can accommodate relatively large displacements that can be used when evaluating the performance of a pressure-controlled pressure application device using a load cell type pressure gauge. As a result of the pressure transmissibility test and repeated measurement results using a commercial dental anesthesia injection device, a more stable result was obtained when using a spring jig, and it was confirmed that the frequency of abnormally high measurement was reduced.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.121-133
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• 2021

Suspended Solids (SS) generated in rivers are mainly introduced from non-point pollutants or appear naturally in the water body, and are an important water quality factor that may cause long-term water pollution by being deposited. However, the conventional method of measuring the concentration of suspended solids is labor-intensive, and it is difficult to obtain a vast amount of data via point measurement. Therefore, in this study, a model for measuring the concentration of suspended solids based on remote sensing in the Nakdong River was developed using Sentinel-2 data that provides high-resolution multi-spectral satellite images. The proposed model considers the spectral bands and band ratios of various wavelength bands using a machine learning model, Support Vector Regression (SVR), to overcome the limitation of the existing remote sensing-based regression equations. The optimal combination of variables was derived using the Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) and weight coefficients for each variable of SVR. The results show that the 705nm band belonging to the red-edge wavelength band was estimated as the most important spectral band, and the proposed SVR model produced the most accurate measurement compared with the previous regression equations. By using the RFE, the SVR model developed in this study reduces the variable dependence compared to the existing regression equations based on the single spectral band or band ratio and provides more accurate prediction of spatial distribution of suspended solids concentration.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.85-92
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• 2021

This study was conducted to identify the impact of adolescents' dietary behavior on their stress perception and provide basic data for education programs linked to customized nutrition education by gender. In this study, the 2019 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey was used, and a total of 57,303 middle·high school students were selected. Controlling adolescents' age, school record, economic status, residence type, subjective health and body type perception, and the dietary life variables designed with breakfast, fresh foods(fruit, vegetables, milk, water), processed foods(carbonate beverage, energy beverage, sweet beverage, fast food) were analyzed to have an effects on the stress recognition of adolescents. Breakfast had a negative(-) effect on stress perception in all genders of adolescents, and in the case of fresh food, water for boys and fruit for girls had the highest negative(-) effect on stress perception, and in the case of processed foods, energy drink was the dietary factor that had the highest positive(+) effect on adolescents' stress perception. These results suggest that it is necessary to develop a dietary education program tailored to the gender of adolescents to improve their stress perception, and to provide continuous guidance to form a healthy diet.