• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.261-270
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• 2022

Background: The rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM) is a critical region for the management of nociception. The RVM is also involved in learning and memory processes due to its relationship with the hippocampus. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the molecular mechanisms behind orexin-A signaling in the RVM and hippocampus's effects on capsaicin-induced pulpal nociception and cognitive impairments in rats. Methods: Capsaicin (100 g) was applied intradentally to male Wistar rats to induce inflammatory pulpal nociception. Orexin-A and an orexin-1 receptor antagonist (SB-334867) were then microinjected into the RVM. Immunoblotting and immunofluorescence staining were used to check the levels of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the RVM and hippocampus. Results: Interdental capsaicin treatment resulted in nociceptive responses as well as a reduction in spatial learning and memory. Additionally, it resulted in decreased BDNF and increased COX-2 expression levels. Orexin-A administration (50 pmol/1 µL/rat) could reverse such molecular changes. SB-334867 microinjection (80 nM/1 µL/rat) suppressed orexin's effects. Conclusions: Orexin-A signaling in the RVM and hippocampus modulates capsaicin-induced pulpal nociception in male rats by increasing BDNF expression and decreasing COX-2 expression.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.357-365
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• 2023

Objectives: Since stroke is a serious health issue, novel therapeutic strategies are required. In a mouse model of ischemic stroke, this study analyzed the potential of electroacupuncture (EA) and tenuigenin (TE) to improve the efficacy of human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) transplantation. Methods: Middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) with reperfusion was used to generate ischemic stroke. Forty-eight male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into five groups: control, MCAO-operated, MCAO-EA, MCAO-TE, or MCAO + EA + TE. Subsequently, hMSCs were transplanted into the ischemic region and EA, TE, or the combination was administered. Behavior assessments and immunohistochemistry were conducted to evaluate motor and cognitive recovery and hMSCs survival, migration, and differentiation. Results: The combined treatment of EA and TE exhibited enhanced hMSCs survival, migration and differentiation into neural cell lineages while suppressing astrocyte formation. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated increased neurogenesis through hMSCs transplantation in the ischemic brain. Immediate behavioral improvements were not significantly different between groups, but there was a gradual recovery in motor and cognitive function over time. Conclusion: These findings highlight the potential of EA and TE co-treatment as a therapeutic strategy for ischemic stroke, opening avenues for further research to optimize treatment protocols and elucidate underlying mechanisms.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.47-80
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• 2024

Purpose With the rapid evolution of the OTT platform, this study addresses a notable gap in the existing literature by examining the impact of celebrity involvement in OTT contents on the intention to visit the country. We explore the intricate mechanisms through which the audience's sense of telepresence, facilitated by OTT technology, and parasocial relationships with celebirities contribute to the formation of the national image and, consequently, influence the intention to visit the country. Design/methodology/approach This study applied Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using survey data from 222 participants. Findings Our findings reveal a positive effect of celebrity involvement on both telepresence and parasocial relationship. Additionally, we observe a positive relationship between telepresence and parasocial relationship. The study further highlights the impact of these factors on the cognitive and affective national images. The cognitive and affective national images, in turn, positively influence the overall national image, ultimately impacting the intention to visit the country. This research contributes to the understanding of the interplay between psychological factors related to viewer-celebrity relationships and the technical characteristics of OTT contents in shaping national images and travel intentions.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.129-139
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• 2016

Exercise increases the expression and interaction of major neurotrophic factors such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) at both central and peripheral tissues, which contributes to improved brain and neural plasticity and cognitive function. Previous findings have been to understand the effect of light or moderate intensity aerobic exercise on neurotrophic factors and cognitive function, not that of high intensity aerobic exercise. However, recent findings suggest that high intensity interval training is a safe, less time-consuming, efficient way to improve cardiorespiratory fitness and weight control, thus American College of Sport Medicine (ACSM)’s guidelines for exercise prescription for various adult populations also recommend the application of high intensity interval training to promote their overall health. High intensity interval training also enhances the expression of BDNF, IGF-1, and VEGF at the brain and peripheral tissues, which improves cognitive function. Increased frequency of intermittent hypoxia and increased usage of lactate as a supplementary metabolic resource at the brain and neural components are considered a putative physiological mechanism by which high intensity interval training improves neurotrophic factors and cognitive function. Therefore, future studies are required to understand how increased hypoxia and lactate usage leads to the improvement of neurotrophic factors and what the related biological mechanisms are. In addition, by comparing with the iso-caloric moderate continuous exercise, the superiority of high intensity interval training on the expression of neurotrophic factors and cognitive function should be demonstrated by associated future studies.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.207-218
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• 2022

This study, to confirm the mediating effect of knee pain on cognitive functions and depression in older adults, and as an interdisciplinary research between the physical and psychological mechanisms, confirmed the identifying group differences by gender, age, and educational attainment of older adults, and aimed to research the improvement of cognitive functions, which is a main factor of dementia's risk prediction. The analysis data was from the 8th Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA) in 2020, and the research model was verified using Process macro and model #4. The main analysis results are as follows. First, depression partially mediation effect of knee pain on cognitive functions. Second, the mediation effect of depression by gender was significant, but the direct effect in the male older adults group was twice that in the female older adults; the indirect effect did not vary significantly based on gender. Third, the mediating effect of depression by age was relatively greater in the old-old aged group than in the young-old aged one. Fourth, as for the mediating effect of depression according to the classification of educational attainment, the mediating effect was not significant in the group with a college degree or higher education but was significant in the remaining three sub-groups. Based on the results, this study makes implications for the need for active intervention strategies to improve cognitive functions, focusing on group differences by gender, age, and educational attainment in the management of knee pain and depression.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2024

Cognitive reserve (CR) is a concept that can explain the discrepancies between the pathologic burden of the disease and clinical manifestations. It refers to the individual susceptibility to age-related brain changes and pathologies related to Alzheimer's disease, thus recognized as a factor affecting the trajectories of the disease. The purpose of this study was to explore the current states of clinical studies on neural substrates of CR in Alzheimer's disease using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We searched for clinical studies on CR using fMRI in the Pubmed, Cochrane library, RISS, KISS and ScienceON on August 14, 2023. Once the online search was finished, studies were selected manually by the inclusion criteria. Finally, we analyzed the characteristics of selected articles and reviewed the neural substrates of CR. Total thirty-four studies were included in this study. As surrogate markers of CR, not only education and occupational complexity, but also composite score and questionnaire-based method, which cover various areas of life, were mainly used. The most utilized methods in resting-state fMRI were independent component analysis, seed-based analysis, and graph theory analysis. Through the analysis, we demonstrated that neuroimaging techniques could capture the neural substrates associated with cognitive reserve. Moreover, functional connectivity of brain regions centered on prefrontal and parietal cortex and network areas such as default mode network showed a significant correlation with CR, which indicated a significant association with cognitive performance. CR may induce differential effects according to the disease status. We hope that this perspective on cognitive reserve would be helpful when conducting clinical researches on the mechanisms of traditional Korean medicine for Alzheimer's disease in the future.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.1091-1097
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• 2015

Internet-of-Things (IoT) becomes one of the most promising future paradigms, which foresees enormous amounts of interoperable things and heterogeneous services. The goal of IoT is to enable all things connected and brings all kinds information and services to people. However, such a great deal of information may lead to cognitive overload or restrain in productivity of people. Thus, it is a necessity to build intelligent mechanisms to assist people in accessing the information or services they needed in a proactive manner. Most of previous related mechanisms are built on well-defined web services and lack of consideration of constrained resources. This paper suggests a services composition method by adapting a hierarchical model, which is a graph-based model composed of four layers: Context Layer, Event Layer, Service Layer and Device Layer. With a such multi-layer graph, service composition can be achieved by the iteration of layer by layer. Then, to evaluate the effectiveness of this proposed hierarchical model, a real-life emergency response dataset is applied and the experimental results are composed with the general probabilistic method and indicate that the proposed method is help for compositing multiple services while considering given context and constrained resources.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.106-114
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• 2020

Purpose: This study was performed to measure the influence of premenstrual syndrome coping strategies and food cravings on premenstrual syndrome symptoms among female college students. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was done with the participation of 509 female college students in D city. Data were analyzed using a t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and Hierarchical multiple regression. Results: The average scores for PMS coping mechanisms, food cravings, and premenstrual syndrome symptoms were 1.58, 2.32, and 2.82, respectively. There were significant differences in PMS symptoms according to food, menarcheal age, menstrual amount, menstrual pain and whether their mother or sister has dysmenorrhea. The factors influencing premenstrual syndrome symptoms of female college students were identified as avoidance (β=-.16, p<.001), menstrual cycle specific (β=-.11, p=.013), and cognitive restraint on eating (β=.13, p=.026). This factor explained 35% of female college students' premenstrual syndrome symptoms. Conclusion: Therefore, it is necessary to take appropriate stress coping measures for the subjects.

• The Korean Journal of Legal Medicine
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.146-152
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• 2018

We investigated the neural correlates of accurate eyewitness memory retrieval using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. We analyzed oxygenated hemoglobin ($HbO_2$) concentration in the prefrontal cortex during eyewitness memory retrieval task and examined regional $HbO_2$ differences between observed objects (target) and unobserved objects (lure). We found that target objects elicited increased activation in the bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, which is known for monitoring retrieval processing via bottom-up attentional processing. Our results suggest bottom-up attentional mechanisms could be different during accurate eyewitness memory retrieval. These findings indicate that investigating retrieval mechanisms using functional near-infrared spectroscopy might be useful for establishing an accurate eyewitness recognition model.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.59-66
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• 2024

The mature Bombyx mori silkworm is recognized as a rich source of several nutrients. A unique steaming process has been developed to enhance the palatability of Bombyx mori silkworm and make it more convenient to consume. Additionally, it has also been freeze-dried into a powder form, which is recognized as a nutritional supplement with many health benefits. Steamed and Freeze-dried Mature Silkworm Powder (SMSP) is said to offer a wide range of benefits, including longevity, improved athletic performance, prevention of alcohol-induced liver fibrosis or tumors, amelioration of fatty liver, prevention of peptic ulcers, regulation of melanin production, and mitigation of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases by improving cognitive function. The nutritional composition of SMSP is particularly high in glycine, alanine and serine. This review aims to summarize the molecular mechanisms underlying the diverse effects induced by these key components of SMSP. Such elucidation will enhance the credibility of future studies on SMSP, which will require more comprehensive analyses. It appears that SMSP represents a natural health supplement that could have a positive impact on global human health while increasing income.