• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.319-332
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• 2009

The present study was performed to analyze the life style and eating behavior of stroke patients and to find the risk factors related to stroke incidence in Daegu and Gyeongbuk Province, Korea. The case subjects (n=100) were selected from newly diagnosed stroke patients at Kyungpook National University Hospital. The control subjects (n=150) were selected from community inhabitants who did not have stroke history and were sex and age-matched with the case subjects. The survey was conducted by individual interviews using questionnaires on the general characteristics, life-style, eating behavior, food intake frequency and food preference. The high body mass index, preexisting diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, stroke family history, smoking, overeating habit and high preference for sweet, greasy and meat foods appeared to be the risk factors for stroke incidence. On the other hand, the results suggest that life style of regular exercise and nonsmoking, food habits of green tea drinking and enough chewing, preference for Korean meal type, high intake frequency for legumes, vegetables, mushrooms, seaweeds, fishes and shell fishes, soy milk and green tea might be the protective factors for the stroke. Therefore, maintenance of healthy weight, the prevention and management of the deteriorative chronic diseases, change of life style and improvement of eating behaviors are considered to be important for stroke prevention.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.181-191
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• 2006

NFI-C null mice demonstrated aberrant odontoblast differentiation and thus abnormal dentin formation while other tissues/organs in the body, including ameloblasts, appear to be unaffected and normal. However little is known about the mechanism of NFI-C function in odontoblast differentiation and dentin formation. Odontoblasts are tall, highly polarized cells that are responsible for formation and maintenance of the predentin and dentin. An indication of their polarity is the acquisition of specialized intercellular junctions. As preodontoblasts differentiate into odontoblasts, they are Joined and attached at the apical end by well developed terminal webs of cytoskeletal actins, and associated tight as well as adherent njunctions. In this study, in order to investigate if disruption of the NFI-C gene interferes with formation of a specific or other structural proteins of the intercellular junctions, we examined morphological characteristic of the aberrant odontoblast in NFI-C null mice using light and electron microscope. In addition, we determined the expression of major structural proteins of intercellular junctions, ZO-1 and occludin, during the differentiation of odontoblasts using immunohitochemistry. The results were as follows : 1. In light microscopy, abnormal odontoblasts of incisors of the NFI-C null mice were round in shape, lost their polarity, and trapped in osteodentin-like mineralized tissue. Mutant molars have relatively normal crowns, but short and abnormal differentiating adontoblasts in root formation area. 2. Electron microscopy of abnormal odontoblasts revealed the dissociation of the round osteoblast-like cells, the loss of their cellular polarity, and the absence of an intercellular junctional complex known as the tight junctions. 3. A mutant incisor showed labeling for ZO-1 at the proximal and distal ends of secreting ameloblasts, while staining for ZO-1 was not observed in the abnormal odontoblasts. 4. A normal incisor showed immunoreactivity for occludin in the differentiating odontoblasts. However, staining for occludin was not observed in the abnormal odontoblasts of mutant incisor. These results suggest that NFI-C gene causes dissociation of odontoblast and thus abberant odontoblast differentiation and abnormal dentin formation by interfering with the formation of intercellular junctions.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.16-24
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• 2016

Background and Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is often undiagnosed but is an important risk factor affecting the health of an individual. The level of awareness of the illness among patients with OSA is low and is not correlated with severity of the illness. This study was conducted to compare awareness of OSA symptoms and illness between patients with OSA and simple snorers. Materials and Methods: Two hundred eighty-two patients who were suspected of having OSA participated in this study. All subjects underwent overnight polysomnography. Those with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ${\geq}5$ were classified as the OSA group, while those with an AHI < 5 were classified as the simple snoring group. A sleep questionnaire, which included items on awareness of the illness, OSA, and sleep symptoms, was administered to all subjects and their bed-partners. Results: Simple snorers were much more aware of their symptoms such as snoring, irregular breathing, and apnea than were patients with OSA. Bed-partners of simple snorers were also more aware of the participants' sleep symptoms than were partners of patients with OSA. However, the duration of OSA symptoms was longer in the OSA group. In the correlation analysis, the level of awareness of OSA symptoms was negatively correlated with AHI, age, body mass index, and Epworth Sleepiness Scale score. Among the sleep questionnaire and polysomnography results, only Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was positively correlated with level of awareness of OSA symptoms. The minority of the respondents had heard about the treatment methods of continuous positive airway pressure and oral appliance and preferred them as treatment options. Conclusion: This study suggests that simple snorers are more aware of their symptoms than are patients with OSA. A higher severity of OSA, represented by a higher AHI, is correlated with lower awareness of one's OSA symptoms.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.249-261
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• 2010

As consumers' concern for the environment has continued to increase, many firms have actively engaged in environmental marketing to achieve their objectives. However, consumers' high concerns about the environment are not always reflected in their purchasing behavior. This indicates the need for an in-depth understanding of the development of green consumption within the individual's belief system. In consideration of psychological approaches, a large body of research has examined the factors underlying ecologically conscious "green" consumer behavior and the interrelationships of these factors. However, most previous studies have concentrated on Western countries. Using a sample of Korean consumers, this study attempts to understand the basis of Korean green consumerism and find universal values that are cross-culturally important in guiding consumers' environmental attitudes and behaviors. To this end, this study relates Schwartz's 10 universal values (Schwartz 1992) to environmental behaviors in a hierarchical model of value-attitude-behavior. With reference to the value-attitude-behavior framework, the conceptual model developed for the study explains what motivations can be manifested in Korean consumers' environmental attitudes, and subsequently how the attitudes affect their green choices. Using the pattern of relationships among values that can be related to environmentalism, the first hypothesis holds that there would be particular relationships between motivational value types and environmental attitudes. Hypothesis 2 assumes that environmental attitudes predict environmental behaviors. On the basis of the claim that favorable attitudes toward the environment may be expressed in many different behaviors, the assumption is that consumers' favorable attitudes toward the environment would be linked to a variety of environmental behaviors because people with high environmental attitudes can be more interested in and knowledgeable about environmental actions. Consistent with H2, H3 hypothesizes that there would be a positive relationship between different types of environmental behavior. A total of 564 university students participated in the study. The sample included 308 men, 254 women, and two participants who did not indicate their gender. The average age of the participants was 22.5 years, with a range of 19 to 39. Regarding majors, special efforts were made to draw the participants from different departments of the university. Data were collected by a survey administered via self-completion questionnaires., which assessed the participants' value priorities, environmental attitudes, and behaviors. Path analysis conducted to test the proposed model found the overall fit to be ${\chi}^2$=72.01 (p=0.00), GFI=0.983, CFI=0.982, NFI=0.970, RMR=0.070, and REMSEA=0.050. Thus, most of the fit measures indicated a good fit of the model with the data, and a hierarchical relationship from values to environmental attitudes to environmental non-purchasing behavior to environmental purchasing behavior was confirmed. An assessment of all the predicted paths by path coefficients led to several major hypothesized effects being confirmed. Out of the ten value types, universalism and power were significantly but conversely related to environmental attitudes. In line with the other studies, these findings confirm that environmental attitudes are an important factor in leading to a variety of green behaviors. Finally, significant relationships were found between environmental purchasing and non-purchasing behaviors. The path analysis supported the idea that universalism values provide a motivation for Korean consumers' greenness and indirectly promote environmental acts through favorable attitudes toward the environment. Participants with high environmental attitudes were found to actively engage in diverse forms of green consumer behavior. This research provides an opportunity to examine cross-cultural differences with respect to values leading to environmentalism, and, further, to verify previous findings. The study also examined the attitude-behavior relationship with respect to three distinct types of environmental behaviors. The different strengths of paths between green attitudes and behaviors suggest that researchers should consider the specificity of behavior explained as an effort to improve the low attitude-behavior correlation. Finally, the findings here illustrate that with increased environmental concerns among people, they come to include more such behaviors in their green portfolios.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.42-53
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• 2017

One of the negative ecological effects following road construction is roadkill; animals die on the roads after being struck by vehicles. Roadkills have been a major concern in South Korea due to the large mountain areas in the country and have been mentioned as a causal factor for the decline in wildlife. Although snake roadkills frequently occur, as with mammals, birds, and amphibians, there are not many related studies done on snake roadkills. In this study, we determined snake roadkill patterns in the northeast part of South Korea including most of the Gangwon-do areas and parts of Gyeonggi-do, Chungcheongbuk-do, and Gyeongsangbuk-do by analyzing the snake roadkills found between May 2007 and Aug 2012. We identified a total of 155 roadkilled snakes from 10 different species. Red-sided water snake (Rhabdophis tigrinus), Red-tongue viper snake (Gloydius ussuriensis), Cat snake (Elaphe dione), Red-banded snake (Dinodon rufozonatus), and Viper snake (Gloydius brevicaudus) accounted for more than 90% of the total cases. It was found that more active forager snakes were killed than sit-and-wait foragers, more male snakes were killed than female snakes, and more adult snakes were killed than subadult snakes. The snake roadkill frequency was the highest in September between the altitudes of 200 and 400 m, and on roads between either a mountain and a body of water or between a mountain and a crop field. Our results are expected to enhance the understanding of snake roadkills in general and to determine the areas, specific sites and species for planning projects for snake roadkill reduction in the northeast of South Korea.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2006

There are various understandings how to define death. In the context of medicine, death is defined as the irreversible change of the tissue according to the cessation of circulation and respiration. According to the psychologists, a person need to accept the finiteness as a human being and remain conscious that the death is not avoidable. And they say if a person doesn't regard death as unavoidable reality of life he or she will not confront the humanistic death and after all will die like animals. In philosophy, death is viewed as an unwelcome reality in the end of the journey of life. Sociologists usually understand that the society is the organization composed with living persons and human beings which construct and transmit the culture from generation to generation between the both ends of life and death. In society, the generation is changed, maintained, and developed through the phenomenon of death. Although death of human being is natural event in society, the death of a specific person brings a sense of loss, crisis, and anxiety to the communities like family, regional society, nation, and the world. In this context, death is not confined to personal dimension and it can be regarded as a social problem. It is valuable to summarize the religious perspectives on the meaning of death for the better hospice care. In shamanism, there are basic idea that although the flesh of human being disappears, soul never die. If human dies, the flesh of human being disappears but soul never disappear and come back to the origin of soul as it is called chaos. So in shamanism, it is said that shaman can solve the mortified feeling, restore the broken harmony, send the soul to comfortable space- the origin, and guarantee the blessing of descendents. Buddhists regard the death as an essential component through the cycles of life. Through this cycle, human being exits as an endlessly transmigrating being and the death is just a restoration to the original status. In Confucianism, the view on the death based on the philosophy of the "Yin and Yang" and "Five elements". In Buddhist tradition, many believers said the philosophy of "Death is the same as life". Unlike usual thoughts that a god governs "life and death" and "fortune and misfortune", Confucianists deny the governance of a god and emphasize the natural orders in which every phenomenon in the world moves according to the principle. Confucianists understand the death as a natural order with this principle. In Confucianists' belief, the essence of human being remains in their own descendent's lives after the death of ancestor, so in Confucianism there is no concept of immortality of the soul. In the history of Christianity, death has been defined generally as the separation of the immortal soul from the mortal body. In the earlier days of Old Testament, the death is regarded as a disappearance of just a flesh and human never disappear and always live in the relationship with God. Later days in Old Testament, we can find the growing concern for the life after the death because of the entrance of the theodicy. In the New Testament, the death is not regarded as the normal process of the human life and regarded as the abnormal status in which death come to human because of sin as a decisive factor and it should be conquered. In fact, the most of us afraid death because not of the fear of death itself but of the sense of the emptiness and regrets. so many people often make the monument hoping to live forever. But Christian usually regard this behavior as a sinful act because human being usually think themselves as a master of their life and attempt to become immortal in this kind of trial mortal. But if we live with God, we cannot confront such a condition because we aware limits as a mortal human being and entrust everything on Him and want to live according to His guidance. Therefore, in the Christian tradition, the death is regarded as accomplishment of life, fruits of life, invitation to the eternal life, and the last stage of human growth. For human being, the death is the great step of maturation as a human in the final stage of life.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.493-502
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• 2012

The aim of this study was to investigate the oral health problems among type 2 diabetes patients and suggest basic data for the promotion of their body and oral health by emphasizing the correlation between hemoglobin A1c and subjective oral health status. For 174 patients with type 2 diabetes and who were older than 40 years old, the questionnaire and measurement of hemoglobin A1c were conducted from January 9, 2012 to March 9, 2012. The results of the study were as follows. 1. They tended to be most aware of the following; 'inflammation on the oral mucosa' and 'pain on the oral mucosa' among the symptoms of oral mucosa, 'gum bleeding when brushing teeth' among the symptoms of periodontal disease, and 'feels dry in general' among the symptoms of xerostomia. 2. The patients with longer duration of diabetes showed greater recognition with regards to the symptoms of oral mucosa disease, periodontal disease, and xerostomia (p<0.05). 3. The group with regular meal showed lower level of hemoglobin A1c (p<0.001). 4. The level of hemoglobin A1c was higher in the group that recognized 'burning sensation', 'gum bleeding', 'gum recession' and 'bad breath' (p<0.05) as well as in the group that responded 'get up at night to drink' among the symptoms of xerostomia (p<0.05). Especially the symptoms of periodontal disease were revealed to be a factor that showed the 3rd strongest correlation with hemoglobin A1c.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.101-112
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• 2011

Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine arterial stiffness levels as measured by brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) and to identify the association between arterial stiffness and inflammatory markers, in healthy adults over 50 years old. Methods: The study population consisted of 4617 persons over the age of 50 years who participated in the baseline survey of the Dong-gu Study, which was conducted in 2007 and 2008. Arterial stiffness was measured using baPWV. A multiple regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between conventional cardiovascular risk factors and inflammatory markers, including white blood cell (WBC) counts, high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT). Results: After adjustment for conventional cardiovascular risk factors including sex, age, smoking status, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, fasting glucose, hypertension or diabetic medication, total cholesterol, triglycerides, uric acid, and alanine aminotransferase, baPWV was significantly associated with WBC counts (${\beta}$=0.158, p<0.0001), hs-CRP (${\beta}$=0.244, p=0.026), and GGT (${\beta}$=0.003, p<0.0001). Conclusion: This study shows that arterial stiffness correlates with inflammatory markers. Arterial stiffness may be used as a composite risk factor to identify persons with higher risk for cardiovascular disease. Additionally, arterial stiffness may be a marker for future cardiovascular disease and a target for prevention.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.1078-1085
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• 2010

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) are bioaccumulative chemicals that are considered to be toxic contaminants based on several epidemiological studies. These chemicals in colostrum were investigated and estimated for their residual consistencies by maternal characteristics like parity and maternal ages. Test subjects were healthy primipara and multipara mothers with a mean age of 31.5 (S.D=3.6) in 2007. Seven isomers of PCDDs, 10 of PCDFs, 4 of non-orthopolychlorinated biphenyls(non-ortho PCBs) and 8 of mono-orthochlorinated polychlorinated biphenyls (mono-ortho PCBs) were analyzed by HRGC/HRMS. From the analyzed data, the mean level of total WHO-TEQs was 9.41 pg TEQ/g lipid, which is significantly lower than the level found in individuals from other countries. The main contributors to the total WHO-TEQs with increasing percentages were 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF, 1,2,3,7,8-PeCDD and 3,3',4,4',5-PCB (#126), and they accounted for more than 60% of the total WHO-TEQs. PCDFs concentrations and total WHO-TEQs were negatively associated with parity (p<0.05), and maternal age was positively associated with total WHO-TEQs (p<0.01). However, the associations with body mass index (BMI) and fish intake during pregnancy were not significant. These results were suggested that parity and maternal age are an important factor affecting the concentrations of PCDD/DFs and dl-PCBs in these specimens.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.65-77
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• 1986

To elucidate the effect of exercise on blood concentrations of ethanol, lactate and glucose in men who show facial flush after ethanol ingestion, 59 healthy male college students were studied. After 6 or more hours of fasting, the subjects were administered 3 ml of 25% ethanol solution(Soju) per liter of total body water. For control experiment Soju was replaced with the same dose of water. Exercise performed was vertical jumping on a rebounder for 3 min immediately after drinking. The subjects were classified into 6 groups: water ingestion(W), flushed (F) and non-flushed (N) groups after ethanol ingestion, water ingestion and exercise(WE), flushed(FE) and non-flushed (NE) groups after ethanol ingestion and exercise. Blood ethanol concentration in the exercise groups(NE, FE) was lower until 60 min after drinking than that in the non-exercise groups(N,F). Factor k representing the rate of ethanol absorption was markedly lower in the exercise groups than in the non-exercise groups. The flushed groups(F,FE) showed higher blood ethanol level than the non-flushed groups (N,NE) from 30 to 120 min after drinking. Blood lactate concentration in WE group was elevated immediately after exercise and returned to the resting level at 60 min after exercise. Ethanol increased blood lactate level from 30 to 120 min after ethanol drinking, Exercise after ethanol ingestion produced a sharp increase and then drop in blood lactate level which was stilled significantly higher than the resting level all the way through 120 min. Blood glucose concentration was decreased at 15 min after exercise. Ethanol-administered groups except F group showed a steady decrease in blood glucose level from 30 through 120 min. Heart rate was elevated by ethanol only in the flushed groups. Heart rate in F group was significantly increased at 4 min after ethanol and was maintained at high level until 120 min. In WE and NE groups, heart rate was significantly increased immediately after exercise and returned to the resting level at 60 min. The FE group, however, showed a consistently elevated heart rate throughout the 120-min experimental period. Taken together, the exercise alone produced a delayed ethanol absorption, a prompt increase in heart rate and blood lactate level and a decrease in blood glucose level early in the recovery period from exercise. After ethanol administration, blood lactate was elevated and blood glucose was lowered from 30 to 120 min. Flushed subjects showed rapid increase in heart rate after ethanol drinking and higher blood ethanol level than non-flushed ones from 30 to 120 min after drinking.