• BMB Reports
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.205-212
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• 2022

Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is a debilitating chronic disorder characterized by suprapubic pain and urinary symptoms such as urgency, nocturia, and frequency. The prevalence of IC/BPS is increasing as diagnostic criteria become more comprehensive. Conventional pharmacotherapy against IC/BPS has shown suboptimal effects, and consequently, patients with end-stage IC/BPS are subjected to surgery. The novel treatment strategies should have two main functions, anti-inflammatory action and the regeneration of glycosaminoglycan and urothelium layers. Stem cell therapy has been shown to have dual functions. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a promising therapeutic option for IC/BPS, but they come with several shortcomings, such as immune activation and tumorigenicity. MSC-derived extracellular vesicles (MSC-EVs) hold numerous therapeutic cargos and are thus a viable cell-free therapeutic option. In this review, we provide a brief overview of IC/BPS pathophysiology and limitations of the MSC-based therapies. Then we provide a detailed explanation and discussion of therapeutic applications of EVs in IC/BPS as well as the possible mechanisms. We believe our review will give an insight into the strengths and drawbacks of EV-mediated IC/BPS therapy and will provide a basis for further development.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.36-44
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• 2024

Identifying plant species and diseases is crucial for maintaining biodiversity and achieving optimal crop yields, making it a topic of significant practical importance. Recent studies have extended plant disease recognition from traditional closed-set scenarios to open-set environments, where the goal is to reject samples that do not belong to known categories. However, in open-world tasks, it is essential not only to define unknown samples as "unknown" but also to classify them further. This task assumes that images and labels of known categories are available and that samples of unknown categories can be accessed. The model classifies unknown samples by learning the prior knowledge of known categories. To the best of our knowledge, there is no existing research on this topic in plant-related recognition tasks. To address this gap, this paper utilizes knowledge distillation to model the category space relationships between known and unknown categories. Specifically, we identify similarities between different species or diseases. By leveraging a fine-tuned model on known categories, we generate pseudo-labels for unknown categories. Additionally, we enhance the baseline method's performance by using a larger pre-trained model, dino-v2. We evaluate the effectiveness of our method on the large plant specimen dataset Herbarium 19 and the disease dataset Plant Village. Notably, our method outperforms the baseline by 1% to 20% in terms of accuracy for novel category classification. We believe this study will contribute to the community.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.163-171
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• 2014

Epidemic models are used to analyze the spreading of epidemic diseases, estimate public health needs, and assess the effectiveness of mitigation strategies. Modeling scope of an epidemic model ranges from the regional scale to national and global scale. Most of the epidemic models developed in Korea are at the national scale using the equation-based model. While these models are useful for designing and evaluating national public health policies, they do not provide sufficient details. As an alternative, individual-based models at the regional scale are often used to describe disease spreading, so that various mitigation strategies can be designed and tested. This paper presents an individual-based epidemic spreading model at regional scale. This model incorporates 2005 census data to build the synthetic population in the model representing Daejeon in 2005. The model's capability is demonstrated by an example where we assess the effectiveness of several mitigation strategies using the model.

• Korean Journal of Exercise Nutrition
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.17-23
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• 2021

[Purpose] This study aimed to investigate the effect of education based on the health belief model on the physical activity of the staff of the University of Medical Sciences. [Methods] This semi-experimental study was conducted on 130 university staff aged 25-50 years from the Hamadan University of Medical Sciences. Inclusion criteria were having at least 1 year of work experience, lack of acute and chronic physical and mental illnesses, and not using drugs that affect physical activity. The samples were randomly divided into two groups. The experimental group received three training sessions based on the health belief model. Before and 2 months after training, the control and experimental groups were evaluated via the following questionnaires: (1) demographic information questionnaire, (2) Health Belief Model Questionnaire, and (3) International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Finally, data were analyzed statistically. [Results] The training process resulted in a significant increase in the mean scores of the health belief model constructs in the experimental group, but changes in the control group were not significant. Self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of physical activity. [Conclusion] The health belief model is a useful model for improving individuals' understanding of the benefits of physical activity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1657-1660
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• 2016

Prion diseases are incurable neurodegenerative disorders. Our previous study demonstrated that polylysine was effective in prolonging the incubation period in a rodent model and in alleviating the scrapie prion protein (PrP^Sc) burden in the brain at the terminal stage of the disease. Here, we report that intraperitoneal administration of polylysine suppresses the accumulation of prions in the spleen during the early stages of the disease. This study supports the congruence of PrP^Sc inhibition by polylysine in both the spleen and brain.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.243-251
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• 2016

Chicken not only serves as a high-protein source to humans, but it is also used as a suitable biomodel for increasing livestock productivity and studying human diseases. Chickens have numerous advantages as model organisms mainly because of they are relatively convenient to manage due to their small body size and short generational interval. In addition, they have a small genome size and numerous genes have biologically similar functions to those of human and livestock animals. In this review, we investigated the chicken biomodel for human disease research and the use of this model for increasing livestock productivity. This summary could provide useful and basic information for further development of strategies for enhancing livestock production and human disease studies.

• BMB Reports
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.3-4
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• 2018

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a debilitating disorder resulting from loss of dopamine neurons. In dopamine deficient state, the basal ganglia increases inhibitory synaptic outputs to the thalamus. This increased inhibition by the basal ganglia output is known to reduce firing rate of thalamic neurons that relay motor signals to the motor cortex. This 'rate model' suggests that the reduced excitability of thalamic neurons is the key for inducing motor abnormalities in PD patients. We reveal that in response to inhibition, thalamic neurons generate rebound firing at the end of inhibition. This rebound firing increases motor cortical activity and induces muscular responses that triggers Parkinsonian motor dysfunction. Genetic and optogenetic intervention of the rebound firing prevent motor dysfunction in a mouse model of PD. Our results suggest that inhibitory synaptic mechanism mediates motor dysfunction by generating rebound excitability in the thalamocortical pathway.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.430-441
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• 2018

The adverse health impact of air pollution is becoming more serious. The purpose of this study is twofold: One is to analyze the effect of air pollution and temperatures on human health by analyzing the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease in Seoul, Korea; the other is to determine what impact the location of a monitoring site has on the results of a health study. For this latter purpose, air pollution and temperature monitors are sited at three locations termed green, public, and residential. Then, a decision tree model is used to analyze factors linked with deaths occurring at each monitoring site. The results show that the environmental temperatures before death and the $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations on the day of death are highly linked with the number of deaths regardless of the monitoring location. However, results are most accurate with residential data. The results of this study can be used as base data for a similar analysis and ultimately, as a guide to minimize the health impact of air pollution.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1795-1804
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• 2004

This research investigated the effect of the Chaenomelis fructus(CMF) on Alzheimer's disease. The effects of the CMF extract on the behavior in the Morris water maze experiment; the expression of IL-1β, TNF-α, ROS on the microglial cell; IL-1β mRNA, TNF-α mRNA, CD68/GFAP and MDA on the brain tissue; the infarction area of the hippocampus, and brain tissue injury in the mice with Alzheimer's disease induced by βA were investigated. The CMF extract group showed a significant inhibitory effect on the memory deficit on the mice with Alzheimer's disease induced by βA in the Morris water maze experiment. The CMF extract group suppressed the over-expression of IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-1β and TNF-α mRNA, ROS, MDA, CD68/GFAP in the mice with Alzheimer's disease induced by βA. The CMF extract reduced the infarction area of hippocampus, and controlled the injury of brain tissue in the mice with Alzheimer's disease induced by [3A. This study suggest that CMF may be effective for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.261-273
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is a chronic liver disease that affects the drinking behavior is to identify the factors. The subjects of the study was diagnosed with chronic liver disease outpatient visit were studied in 120 patients. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS WIN 18.0. Drinking behavior of chronic liver disease to determine the factors influencing the results of the multiple regression analysis, the regression model was found to be significant(F=8.58, p<.001), drinking behavior of chronic liver disease a major contributor to the drinking habits(${\beta}$ = -.29, p = .004)was found in, followed by drinking motives(${\beta}$ = .20, p = .044), drinking refusal self-efficacy(${\beta}$ = -.17, p = .037), after which the diagnosis of the disease(${\beta}$ = .15, p = .041), respectively. These variables showed explanatory power of 44.1%. Drinking behavior is a serious health problem in patients with chronic liver disease. The factors that influence drinking behavior by considering the management of chronic liver disease drinking continued to provide information and education is needed abstinence.