• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• 제42권3호
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• pp.298-303
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• 2018

Background: Panax ginseng is one of the most commonly used medicinal herbs worldwide for a variety of therapeutic properties including neurocognitive effects. Ginsenoside Rg1 is one of the most abundant active chemical constituents of this herb with known neuroprotective, anxiolytic, and cognition improving effects. Methods: We investigated the effects of Rg1 on the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a key brain region involved in cognition, information processing, working memory, and decision making. In this study, the effects of systemic administration of Rg1 (1 mg/kg, 3 mg/kg, or 10 mg/kg) on (1) spontaneous firing of the medial prefrontal cortical neurons and (2) long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampal-medial prefrontal cortical (HP-mPFC) pathway were investigated in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Results: The spontaneous neuronal activity of approximately 50% the recorded pyramidal cells in the mPFC was suppressed by Rg1. In addition, Rg1 attenuated LTP in the HP-mPFC pathway. These effects were not dose-dependent. Conclusion: This report suggests that acute treatment of Rg1 impairs LTP in the HP-mPFC pathway, perhaps by suppressing the firing of a subset of mPFC neurons that may contribute to the neurocognitive effects of Rg1.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제30권2호
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• pp.209-219
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• 2022

The determination for bearing capacity of precast nodular piles is conventionally time-consuming and high-cost by using numerous experiments and empirical methods. This study proposes an intelligent method to evaluate the bearing capacity and shaft resistance of the nodular piles with high efficiency based on long short-term memory (LSTM) approach. A series of field tests are first designed to measure the axial force, shaft resistance and displacement of the combined nodular piles under different loadings, in comparison with the single pre-stressed high-strength concrete piles. The test results confirm that the combined nodular piles could provide larger ultimate bearing capacity (more than 100%) than the single pre-stressed high-strength concrete piles. Both the LSTM-based method and empirical methods are used to calculate the shift resistance of the combined nodular piles. The results show that the LSTM-based method has a high-precision estimation on shaft resistance, not only for the ultimate load but also for the working load.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• 제48권3호
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• pp.245-252
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• 2024

Ginseng is a traditional herbal medicine used for prevention and treatment of various diseases as a tonic. Recent scientific cohort studies on life prolongation with ginseng consumption support this record, as those who consumed ginseng for more than 5 years had reduced mortality and cognitive decline compared to those who did not. Clinical studies have also shown that acute or long-term intake of ginseng total extract improves acute working memory performance or cognitive function in healthy individuals and those with subjective memory impairment (SMI), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or early Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia who are taking AD medication(s). Ginseng contains various components ranging from classical ginsenosides and polysaccharides to more recently described gintonin. However, it is unclear which ginseng component(s) might be the main candidate that contribute to memory or cognitive improvements or prevent cognitive decline in older individuals. This review describes recent clinical contributors to ginseng components in clinical tests and introduces emerging evidence that ginseng components could be novel candidates for cognitive improvement in older individuals, as ginseng components improve SMI cognition and exhibits add-on effects when coadministered with early AD dementia drugs. The mechanism behind the beneficial effects of ginseng components and how it improves cognition are presented. Additionally, this review shows how ginseng components can contribute to SMI, MCI, or early AD dementia when used as a supplementary food and/or medicine, and proposes a novel combination therapy of current AD medicines with ginseng component(s).

• 인지과학
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• 제27권2호
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• pp.159-219
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• 2016

수학적 사고력은 STEM(science, technology, engineering, mathematics) 분야에서의 학업적인 성취와 과학기술의 혁신에서 중요한 역할을 하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 학제 간 연구 분야인 수 인지(numerical cognition) 및 수학적 인지와 관련된 최근의 인지신경학적 연구 결과들을 종합하여 개관하였다. 첫째로 수학적 사고의 기초가 되는 뇌 기제의 위치와 정보처리 메커니즘을 확인하였다. 수학적 사고는 영역 특정적(domain specific)인 기능인 수 감각과 시공간적 능력뿐만 아니라 영역 일반적(domain general)인 기능인 언어, 장기기억, 작업 기억(working memory) 등을 기초로 하며 이를 토대로 추상화, 추론 등의 고차원적인 사고를 한다. 이 중에서 수 감각과 시공간적 능력은 두정엽(parietal lobe)을 기반으로 한다. 두 번째로는 수학적 사고 능력에서 관찰되는 개인 차이에 대하여 고찰하였다. 특히 수학 영재들의 신경학적인 특성을 신경망 효율성(neural efficiency)의 관점에서 고찰해 보았다. 그 결과 높은 지능이란 두뇌가 얼마나 많이 일하느냐가 아니라 얼마나 효율적으로 일하는가에 달렸다는 사실을 확인하였다. 수학 영재들의 또 다른 특성은 좌반구와 우반구 간의 연결과 반구 내에서 전두엽과 두정엽의 연결이 뛰어나다는 사실이다. 세 번째로는 학습과 훈련, 그리고 성장에 따른 변화 및 발전에 대한 분석이다. 개인이 성장하며, 수학 학습과 훈련을 하게 될 때 이에 따라 두뇌 피질에서도 변화가 반영되어 나타난다. 그 변화를 피질에서의 활성화 수준의 변화, 재분배, 구조적 변화라는 관점에서 해석하였다. 이 중에서 구조적 변화는 결국 신경 가소성(neural plasticity)을 의미한다. 마지막으로 수학적 창의성은 수학적 지식(개념)을 기초로 하여 수학적 개념들을 결합하는 단계가 요구되며, 그 후 결합된 개념들 중에서 심미적인 선택을 통해 수학적 발명(발견)으로 연결된다. 전문성이 높아질수록 결합과 선택이라는 두 단계가 더욱 중요해진다.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.341-346
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• 2008

백삼과 홍삼추출물 투여가 scopolamine으로 기억을 손상시킨 실험동물의 학습수행 개선과 뇌조직의 AChE 억제 및 ACh 함량을 평가하여 다음과 같은 결론을 얻었다. 1. 백삼과 홍삼추출물(200 mg/kg, p.o.) 투여는 scopolamine (2 mg/kg, i.p.)으로 유발된 기억손상 동물모델의 Morris water maze 시험에서 tacrine 투여군과 대조군처럼 인지훈련이 반복될수록 escape latency 시간이 현저히 감소하였다. probe test에서도 scopolamine 투여군보다 유의적으로 감소하여 인삼추출물이 장기기억(Long-term memory)과 working memory의 개선에 효과가 있음을 확인하였다. 2. Y-maze test를 통한 실험동물의 자발적 변동행동력은 실험군간 차이가 없었으며, 총 출입회수도 차이가 없어 인삼추출물은 실험동물의 일반적 운동성에 영향을 주지 않았다. 3. 해마조직의 AChE 활성은 인삼추출물 군에서 감소하는 경향을 보였으나 유의적 차이는 없었다. 대뇌피질과 혈청 AChE 활성은 홍삼추출물 투여군에서 유의적으로 감소하였다. 4. 인삼추출물 투여군의 뇌조직 ACh 함량은 대뇌피질과 해마조직에서 scopolamine 투여군보다 증가하는 경향을 보였으나 그룹간의 유의적인 차이는 없었다. 5. 이를 통하여 볼 때 인삼추출물 특히 홍삼추출물은 장기기억 활성촉진, AChE 억제, ACh 활성촉진으로 콜린성 신경계를 자극하여 기억 및 학습증진에 매우 효과적으로 작용하는 항치매 물질로 사료된다.

• 국제학술발표논문집
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• The 9th International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• pp.877-885
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• 2022

Vision-based activity recognition has been widely attempted at construction sites to estimate productivity and enhance workers' health and safety. Previous studies have focused on extracting an individual worker's postural information from sequential image frames for activity recognition. However, various trades of workers perform different tasks with similar postural patterns, which degrades the performance of activity recognition based on postural information. To this end, this research exploited a concept of human-object interaction, the interaction between a worker and their surrounding objects, considering the fact that trade workers interact with a specific object (e.g., working tools or construction materials) relevant to their trades. This research developed an approach to understand the context from sequential image frames based on four features: posture, object, spatial features, and temporal feature. Both posture and object features were used to analyze the interaction between the worker and the target object, and the other two features were used to detect movements from the entire region of image frames in both temporal and spatial domains. The developed approach used convolutional neural networks (CNN) for feature extractors and activity classifiers and long short-term memory (LSTM) was also used as an activity classifier. The developed approach provided an average accuracy of 85.96% for classifying 12 target construction tasks performed by two trades of workers, which was higher than two benchmark models. This experimental result indicated that integrating a concept of the human-object interaction offers great benefits in activity recognition when various trade workers coexist in a scene.