• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.65-73
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• 2023

In this paper, we present an optimal control strategy to prevent the EMT process by downregulating the level of overexpressed β-catenin in the cytoplasm. To do this, we propose a mathematical model that expresses relationship between the Wnt signaling pathway and TGF-β in cancer cells. We also define an optimal control problem considering the side effects that occur simultaneously with the method for controlling the concentration of β-catenin. Finally numerical simulations show that treatment effect is quantitatively changes depending on the concentration of core proteins of the Wnt signaling pathway.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.66-73
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• 2002

The current health care system demands provisions for patient care in perspectives of a cost-effectiveness and patient satisfaction. Critical pathway implementation facilitates optimal sequencing and intervention timing of patient care, and makes medical team and patients participate in a treatment actively. In this study, a critical pathway was developed and implemented to patients with osmidrosis who undertake operation. Sixty patients were included in the study. The critical pathway was implemented for care of 26 patients while the traditional care was implemented for 34 patients. In the critical pathway implemented group, time needed for charting and unessential working was reduced. Mean time amount of time for patient nursing was increased. The critical pathway implementation is an effective method to utilize time of medical team. Also it increases the satisfaction index of patients and medical team simultaneously.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.156-167
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• 2000

Background: Emphasis in healthcare during the 1990s has been to provide both optimal wellness and function with quality in a Cost-effective manner. Critical pathway was developed to meet the need to guide clients along the continunm of care and to achieve continuity of care. The purpose of this study is to review and analyze articles related to the critical pathway that had developed and applied in Korea and abroad from 1995 to 1999. Methods: Total 39 studies were analyzed in terms of group of application, need of development, horizontal axis: time frame, vertical axis : items of care, task force team, identification of preliminary critical pathway, validation of preliminary critical pathway, types of final critical pathway, a person who coordinates and effects on critical pathway. Results: In the aspect of group of application, there were various diseases in the overseas than in Korea. In domestic and overseas, the horizontal axis included mainly the time from the start of hospitalization to discharge and vertical axis of the critical pathway included commonly the following nine items : tests, diet, medications, consultations, activity, assessments, treatments, education, discharge planning. Preliminary critical pathway was mainly drawn up through chart review in both. Types of final critical pathway were mostly for medical team use in Korea and were for medical team and patient use in abroad. A person who coordinates critical pathway was mostly nurse in abroad. There was positive effects on critical pathway in both. Conclusion: Staff education and information about critical pathway are needed to use it effectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.571-577
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• 2003

The intracellular metabolic fluxes can be calculated by metabolic flux analysis, which uses a stoichiometric model for the intracellulal reactions along with mass balances around the intracellular metabolites. In this study, metabolic flux analyses were carried out to estimate flux distributions for the maximum in silico yields of various metabolites in Escherichia coli. The maximum in silico yields of acetic acid and lactic acid were identical to their theoretical yields. On the other hand, the in silico yields of succinic acid and ethanol were only 83% and 6.5% of their theoretical yields, respectively. The lower in silico yield of succinic acid was found to be due to the insufficient reducing power. but this lower yield could be increased to its theoretical yield by supplying more reducing power. The maximum theoretical yield of ethanol could be achieved, when a reaction catalyzed by pyruvate decarboxylase was added in the metabolic network. Futhermore, optimal metabolic pathways for the production of various metabolites could be proposed, based on the results of metabolic flux analyses. In the case of succinic acid production, it was found that the pyruvate carboxylation pathway should be used for its optimal production in E. coli rather than the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylation pathway.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.649-663
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• 2022

The role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in diplopia is to diagnose various diseases that occur along the neural pathway governing eye movement. However, the lesions are frequently small and subtle and are therefore difficult to detect on MRI. This article presents representative cases of diseases that cause diplopia. The purpose of this article was to 1) describe the anatomy of the neural pathway governing eye movement, 2) recommend optimal MRI targets and protocols for the diagnosis of diseases causing diplopia, 3) correlate MRI findings with misalignment of the eyes (i.e., strabismus), and 4) help familiarize the reader with the imaging diagnosis of diplopia.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.30-34
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• 2005

Microarray technology makes it possible to measure the expressions of tens of thousands of genes simultaneously under various experimental conditions. Identifying differentially expressed genes in each single experimental condition is one of the most common first steps in microarray gene expression data analysis. Reasonable choices of thresholds for determining differentially expressed genes are used for the next-stap-analysis with suitable statistical significances. We present a supervised model for identifying DEGs using pathway information based on the global connectivity structure. Pathway information can be regarded as a collection of biological knowledge, thus we are trying to determine the optimal threshold so that the consequential connectivity structure can be the most compatible with the existing pathway information. The significant feature of our model is that it uses established knowledge as a reference to determine the direction of analyzing microarray dataset. In the most of previous work, only intrinsic information in the miroarray is used for the identifying DEGs. We hope that our proposed method could contribute to construct biologically meaningful structure from microarray datasets.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.183-188
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• 2021

In vitro maturation (IVM) of oocytes is the procedure where the immature oocytes are cultivated in a laboratory until they are mature. Since IVM oocytes generally have low developmental competence as compared to those matured in vivo, development of an optimal IVM culture system by fine-tuning culture conditions is crucial to maintain high quality. In-depth knowledge and a deep understanding of the in vivo physiology of oocyte maturation are pre-requisites to accomplish this. Within ovarian follicles, various signaling pathways that drive oocyte development and maturation regulate interaction between oocytes and surrounding somatic cells. This review discusses the sonic hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway, which has been demonstrated to be intimately involved in folliculogenesis and oocyte maturation. Advances in elucidating the role of the SHH signaling pathway in oocyte maturation will aid attempts to improve the current inferior in vitro oocyte maturation system.

• The Journal of Korea Assosiation for Disability and Oral Health
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.80-86
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• 2007

A critical pathway (CP) defines the optimal care process, sequencing and timing of intervention by multi-disciplinary health care teams for a particular diagnosis and procedure. It plays an important role as a cost-effective health care delivery system and a tool for quality control of medical and dental services by means of standardizing medical practices. The aim of this study is to investigate the satisfaction of patients and medical/dental staff after implementation of a critical pathway for dental treatment of disabled children under general anesthesia and its cost effectiveness. Ten patients who underwent dental treatment under general anesthesia were included in the CP group between August and December 2006. The pre-CP group included 20 patients who underwent the same procedure from February 2003. The satisfaction of parent of child patient and medical staff members were compared between two groups. The parents' satisfaction was significantly improved after the implementation of CP and medical/dental staff members were highly satisfied with the usefulness of the critical pathway. In conclusion, the critical pathway for the dental treatment of disabled treatment under general anesthesia can highly improve the satisfaction of parents and medical/ dental staff members.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.124-130
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• 2004

Microarray expression datasets are incessantly cumulated with the aid of recent technological advances. One of the first steps for analyzing these data under various experimental conditions is determining differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in each condition. Reasonable choices of thresholds for determining differentially expressed genes are used for the next -step-analysis with suitable statistical significances. We present a model for identifying DEGs using pathway information based on the global connectivity structure. Pathway information can be regarded as a collection of biological knowledge, thus we are tying to determine the optimal threshold so that the consequential connectivity structure can be the most compatible with the existing pathway information. The significant feature of our model is that it uses established knowledge as a reference to determine the direction of analyzing microarray dataset. In the most of previous work, only intrinsic information in the miroarray is used for the identifying DEGs. We hope that our proposed method could contribute to construct biologically meaningful network structure from microarray datasets.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.792-799
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• 2022

As a vital problem in reproductive health, recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) affects about 1% of women. We performed this study with an aim to explore the molecular mechanism of interleukin-23 (IL-23) and find optimal or effective methods to improve RSA. First, ELISA was applied to evaluate the expressions of IL-23 and its receptor in HTR-8/SVneo cells after IL-23 treatment. CCK-8, TUNEL, wound healing and transwell assays were employed to assess the proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion of HTR-8/SVneo cells, respectively. Additionally, the expressions of apoptosis-, migration-, epithelial-mesenchymal transition- (EMT-) and p38 MAPK signaling pathway-related proteins were measured by western blotting. To further investigate the relationship between IL-23 and p38 MAPK signaling pathway, HTR-8/SVneo cells were treated for 1 h with p38 MAPK inhibitor SB239063, followed by a series of cellular experiments on proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion, as aforementioned. The results showed that IL-23 and its receptors were greatly elevated in IL-23-treated HTR-8/SVneo cells. Additionally, IL-23 demonstrated suppressive effects on the proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion and EMT of IL-23-treated HTR-8/SVneo cells. More importantly, the molecular mechanism of IL-23 was revealed in this study; that is to say, IL-23 inhibited the proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion and EMT of IL-23-treated HTR-8/SVneo cells via activating p38 MAPK signaling pathway. In conclusion, IL-23 inhibits trophoblast proliferation, migration, and EMT via activating p38 MAPK signaling pathway, suggesting that IL-23 might be a novel target for the improvement of RSA.