• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.97-104
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• 2019

Streptococcus iniae is a typical fish pathogen causing streptococcosis and it can also cause zoonotic infectious diseases. We studied S. iniae FP5228 isolated from infected olive flounder in Wando, Korea. In a study to find virulence factors in FP5228, we found that the number of live bacteria decreased dramatically in culture medium containing S. iniae FP5228 for more than 24 hr. This phenomenon was hypothesized to be related to Toxin ${\zeta}$ and Antitoxin ${\varepsilon}$ genes, components of the Toxin/ Antitoxin (TA) system on the 14 kb plasmid of FP5228. We used a protein overexpression system to identify it. The pBP1140 vector system was constructed to regulate the expression of Toxin ${\zeta}$ and Antitoxin ${\varepsilon}$ by IPTG and Arabinose. E. coli/pBP1140 strain grew slowly in early growth under toxin expression condition, and it was confirmed by microscopic observation that the strain became longer. S. iniae CK287, lacking a 14 kb plasmid of S. iniae FP5228 strain, was constructed. CK287 bacterial cells did not show rapid killing during culture, and the ability to produce biofilm was also decreased, and toxicity was weakened in cytotoxicity test and fish test. These results suggest that the TA system is involved in physiological regulation and expression of virulence factors in S. iniae FP5228.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1942-1949
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• 2019

Objective: Leukocyte cell-derived chemotaxin 2 (LECT2) is associated with several physiological processes including inflammation, tumorigenesis, and natural killer T cell generation. Chicken LECT2 (chLECT2) gene was originally identified as one of the differentially expressed genes in chicken kidney tissue, where the chickens were fed with different calcium doses. In this study, the molecular characteristics and gene expression of chLECT2 were analyzed under the stimulation of toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) ligand to understand the involvement of chLECT2 expression in chicken metabolic disorders. Methods: Amino acid sequence of LECT2 proteins from various species including fowl, fish, and mammal were retrieved from the Ensembl database and subjected to Insilco analyses. In addition, the time- and dose-dependent expression of chLECT2 was examined in DF-1 cells which were stimulated with polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (poly [I:C]), a TLR3 ligand. Further, to explore the transcription factors required for the transcription of chLECT2, DF-1 cells were treated with poly (I:C) in the presence or absence of the nuclear factor ${\kappa}B$ ($NF{\kappa}B$) and activated protein 1 (AP-1) inhibitors. Results: The amino acid sequence prediction of chLECT2 protein revealed that along with duck LECT2 (duLECT2), it has unique signal peptide different from other vertebrate orthologs, and only chLECT2 and duLECT2 have an additional 157 and 161 amino acids on their carboxyl terminus, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that chLECT2 is evolved from a common ancestor along with the actinopterygii hence, more closely related than to the mammals. Our quantitative polymerase chain reaction results showed that, the expression of chLECT2 was up-regulated significantly in DF-1 cells under the stimulation of poly (I:C) (p<0.05). However, in the presence of $NF{\kappa}B$ or AP-1 inhibitors, the expression of chLECT2 is suppressed suggesting that both $NF{\kappa}B$ and AP-1 transcription factors are required for the induction of chLECT2 expression. Conclusion: The present results suggest that chLECT2 gene might be a target gene of TLR3 signaling. For the future, the expression pattern or molecular mechanism of chLECT2 under stimulation of other innate immune receptors shall be studied. The protein function of chLECT2 will be more clearly understood if further investigation about the mechanism of LECT2 in TLR pathways is conducted.

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.117-134
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was designed to develop an questionnaire for healthy aging. The subjects of this study were total 335 people who participated in regular exercise and went to welfare centers in Seoul. The validity and reliability were tested for verifying the developed questionnaire for healthy aging. The data were collected between June 12, 2006 and October 27, 2006. The mean, standard deviation, kurtosis, skewness, reliability, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor were analyzed for statistical purpose using by SPSS-Win 12.0 program. The results were as follows; First, to obtain content validity, the results of previous research and the value system responses were submitted to a judgement group. Second, the results of the factor analysis of the 20 items making up the questionnaire were classified into the following 3 factors; physiological health(6 items), cognitive-mental health(6 items), social-support health(8 items). Third, the reliability of the questionnaire for healthy aging was 0.891(Cronbach's alpha). In the factor analysis Cronbach's alpha correlations for the 4 factors ranged from 0.642 to 0.885. Fourth, the results of confirmatory factor analysis, all the index values(NFI, RFI, CFI, Delta 2 IFI) were close to 1. Thus, this questionnaire demonstrated good reliability and validity and therefore it was an appropriate measurement of healthy aging.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.119-129
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• 2024

The cutaneous lymphatic system in humans plays a crucial role in draining interstitial fluid and activating the immune system. Environmental factors, such as ultraviolet light and natural aging, often affect structural changes of such lymphatic vessels, causing skin dysfunction. However, some limitations still exist because of no alternatives to animal testing. To better understand the skin lymphatic system, a biomimetic microfluidic platform, skin-lymph-on-a-chip, was fabricated to develop a novel in vitro skin lymphatic model of humans and to investigate the molecular and physiological changes involved in lymphangiogenesis, the formation of lymphatic vessels. Briefly, the platform involved co-culturing differentiated primary normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEKs) and dermal lymphatic endothelial cells (HDLECs) in vitro. Based on our system, Lymphanax^TM, which is a condensed Panax ginseng root extract obtained through thermal conversion for 21 days, was applied to evaluate the lymphangiogenic effect, and the changes in molecular factors were analyzed using a deep-learning-based algorithm. Lymphanax^TM promoted healthy lymphangiogenesis in skin-lymphon-a-chip and indirectly affected HDELCs as its components rarely penetrated differentiated NHEKs in the chip. Overall, this study provides a new perspective on Lymphanax^TM and its effects using an innovative in vitro system.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.121-131
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• 2024

Purpose : This study aimed to investigate the leisure satisfaction of participants in the Geod-Jyu walking program and to examine the relationship between health promotion behaviors and quality of life. In addition, we investigated the impact of leisure satisfaction with walking among program participants on health promotion behaviors and quality of life. By clarifying these relationships, we aimed to identify factors of leisure satisfaction with walking that could enhance participants' health promotion behaviors and quality of life. Methods : A survey was conducted among 301 participants enrolled in the Geod-Jyu walking program in Chungcheongnam-do, with 288 responses analyzed. Data analysis included Pearson's correlation, confirmatory factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis using SPSS 27.0. Result : Leisure satisfaction exhibited a positive correlation with health promotion behavior (r=.544, p<.01) and quality of life (r=.478, p<.01). Furthermore, health promotion behavior showed a positive correlation with quality of life (r=.636, p<.01). Leisure satisfaction positively influenced quality of life, with physiological satisfaction (β=.16, t=2.32) and relaxation satisfaction (β=.15, t=2.04) emerging as notable contributors. In addition, leisure satisfaction had a significant positive impact on health promotion behaviors, with psychological satisfaction (β=.24, t=3.09) and educational satisfaction (β=.20, t=3.09) playing key roles. Health promotion behavior had a positive impact on quality of life, with all sub variables exhibiting significant positive effects in the following order: self-actualization (β=.24, t=4.16), stress management (β=.22, t=3.97), exercise (β=.22, t=4.05), and health responsibility (β=.12, t=2.14). Conclusion : The findings indicate that factors related to physical and rest satisfaction, as well as health-promoting behaviors facilitated by walking, significantly affected the quality of life among Geod-Jyu participants. Thus, promoting leisure satisfaction and engaging in health-promoting activities through walking can enhance overall well-being. Encouraging participation in the Geod-Jyu walking program is critical for physical and psychological benefits, and for promoting healthier behaviors. Further development of Geod-Jyu is expected to enhance walking satisfaction, promote self-care skills for health management, and positively influence quality of life.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.128-137
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• 2024

This review discusses the pivotal role of vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF) in angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, vital processes influencing vascular permeability, endothelial cell recruitment, and the maintenance of tumor-associated blood and lymphatic vessels. VEGF exerts its effects through tyrosine-kinase receptors, VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2, and VEGFR-3. This VEGF-VEGFR system is central not only to cancer but also to diseases arising from abnormal blood vessel and lymphatic vessel formation. In the context of cancer, VEGF and its receptors are essential for the development of tumor-associated vessels, making them attractive targets for therapeutic intervention. Various approaches, such as anti-VEGF antibodies, receptor antagonists, and VEGF receptor function inhibitors, are being explored to interfere with tumor growth. However, the clinical efficacy of anti-angiogenic agents remains uncertain and necessitates further refinement. The article also highlights the physiological role of VEGFs, emphasizing their involvement in endothelial cell functions, survival, and vascular permeability. The identification of five distinct VEGFs in humans (VEGF-A, VEGF-B, VEGF-C, VEGF-D, and PLGF) is discussed, along with the classification of VEGFRs as typical receptor tyrosine kinases with distinct signaling systems. The family includes VEGFR-1 and VEGFR-2, crucial in tumor biology and angiogenesis, and VEGFR-3, specifically involved in lymphangiogenesis. Overall, this review has provided a comprehensive overview of VEGF and VEGFR, detailing their roles in various diseases, including cancer. This is expected to further facilitate the utilization of VEGF and VEGFR as therapeutic targets.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.218-222
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• 2006

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of climatic factors varied due to the type of plastic house, cultural season and location in the house on the growth of cucumber plants grown by nutrient solution. There were two growing periods, summer culture and retarding culture, two types of plastic houses, 1-2W type house and post-less house. Air temperature, relative humidity and amount of solar radiation in the plastic houses were measured. Also, dry weight of leaves and stems, plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf area per plant and fresh weight of fruits per plant were observed. Plant growth analysis were conducted and interrelationships between climatic factors and physiological characteristics were investigated. The results were as follows. There were no differences between the type of plastic houses in the average air temperature and average relative humidity in the plastic house, but amount of solar radiation in 1-2W type house was significantly higher than that of postless house. Daily cumulative solar radiation were highest in southwest side of 1-2W type house and northwest side of postless house. Plant height and number of leaves per plant were higher in summer culture than retarding culture, while leaf area per plant was higher in retarding culture than summer culture. Relative growth rate (RGR) showed highly significantly positive correlations with net assimilation rate (WAR) and leaf area ratio (LAR). Contribution of NAR to RGR was much higher than that of LAR. Crop growth rate (CGR) showed highly significantly positive correlations with leaf area index (LAI). It appeared that increase of LAI was important to increase productivity of cucumber. Average daily air temperature for the whole growing period showed highly significantly positive correlations with RGR and NAR. Furthermore, cumulative solar radiation for the whole growing period in retarded culture showed significantly positive correlation with RGR and NAR.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.358-371
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• 2020

As climate change is expected to lead to a severe reduction of biodiversity, studies to investigate the reasons for habitat loss, growth decline, and death of Korean fir (Abies koreana Wilson), endangered alpine/subalpine species in Korea, have been conducted for years but found no clear answer yet. This study reviewed previous studies on Korean fir published in the journals in the past 40 years, 1980 through 2020, into 10-year units, examined the study trend by period, region, and subject with a focus on ecological studies, and analyzed the study results. The ecological studies were categorized into evolutionary ecology, physiological ecology, population ecology, and landscape ecology. Based on the results, we suggested the required research fields in the future. We found a total of 73 papers published in the past 40 years and 48 (65.8%) of them published in the past 10 years. In terms of region, Mt. Halla accounted for the most as 41 papers were on it. In terms of ecological subjects, the physiological ecology accounted for the most with 38, and the evolutionary ecology accounted for the least with 10. The review of the study results showed that many studies identified water stress caused by the water resource imbalance due to temperature increase and spring precipitation reduction following climate change as the main reason for the decline and habitat loss of Korean fir. However, recent studies suggested other factors, such as soil environment, disturbing organisms, and climatic events. The cause of the decline and death of the Korean fir not yet being clearly identified is that most of the studies dealt with the basic content, were carried out intermittently, and were concentrated in some regions. Therefore, we need long-term studies with advanced technology in each study subject at a local scale to find the cause of Korean fir decline and present sustainable management and conservation. Moreover, it is necessary to extend our study subjects to ecosystem ecology and systems ecology to integrate the results from various study subjects for a comprehensive understanding of the reason for Korean fir declines. The results of comprehensive studies could provide clearer answers for Korean fir's declines and the alternatives of conservation management and practices.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.137-155
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of sex education on knowledge and attitude related to sex. The subjects were taken from by 199 students in 3 classes from 1st grade in H girl's junior high school as the study group, and 2 classes from 1st grade in S girl's junior high school as control group. During the survey period(September 21, 1998 to September 30, 1998), 6 times in terms of one-hour class for sex education were taught to the study group. A pre-test was executed on September 19, 1998 and the post-test on September 30. The findings were as follows. 1. According to the research, 20.1％ of the subjects have experienced sex education from parents and 89.9％ from teacher. They have mostly obtained the sex-related information from teachers(59.8％), following movie, radio, TV, or video tape(40.7％), friends(35.2％), reading materials such as books, cartoons, news papers and magazines(31.7％), parents(15.6％), siblings(7.0％), PC(1.5％) and telephone service(1.5％). 2. 27.1％ of the subjects reported that they had sex-related worry concerning from friendship with the opposite sex, following physiological phenomenon(31.5％), sex violence(11.1％), physical characteristics(7.4％), VD and contraception(5.6％), sexual impulse(5.6％), pregnancy and delivery(5.5％), and sexual behaviour(3.7％). The research showed that the adolescents usually solved their problems through the consultation with theifriends(44.4％). However, 16.7％ of the subjects were turned out not to request any solution. The other minor routes to settle their problems were written materials such as books, magazines(13.0％), parents(13.0％), movie, radio, TV, or video tape(5.5％), acquainted female elders(3.7％) and teachers(3.7％). 3. The most interesting part regarding sex was the friendship with the opposite sex(61.8％), following adolescent's emotion(55.8％), physiological differences between two genders(52.8％), AIDS(48.7％), VD(46.7％), pregnancy(45.2％), contraception(45.2％), abortion(41.7％), intercourse(41.7％), masturbation(41.2％), sex violence(41.2％) and genital structure and secondary sexual characteristics(28.6％). 4. In regard to characteristics of the subjects influencing sex-related knowledge, the higher educational career of mother, living with at least either parent and the experience of sex education by teachers were statistically significant factors(p〈0.05). 5. In regard to characteristics of the subjects influencing attitudes toward sex, the experience of sex education by parents or teachers was a statistically significant factor(p〈0.05). 6. The analysis of knowledge score comparing results before and after sex education showed that control group's score decreased from 12.5 to 12.44 while the study group's score increased from 12.33 to 21.31, which was statistically significant(p〈0.001). 7. The analysis of the attitude scores before and after sex education showed that the control group's score slightly increased from 55.57 to 56.36, while the study group's score increased from 54.79 to 61.95, which was statistically significant(p〈0.001). 8. The level of sex-related concerns of the study group after sex education marked both the increase in some items and the decrease in others. 9. Most instructive session among the sex education was the third “to be a good friend to the opposite sex”(27.0％).

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.5-12
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• 2004

I. Introduction : The constipation is one of the common gastrointestinal symptoms seen in the clinical practice. When people come to the clinic complaining of the constipation, it is generally one of the cases of infrequent, painful or difficult evacuation as well as the hardened feces and unsatisfactory evacuation sense. Since the constipation is heavily influenced by dietary habit as well as the social and medical environment, the diagnostic radiology is useful to establish the objective and standardized definition in consideration of those various factors before diagnosis and treatment of the constipation patient. This paper describes the study of such diagnosis. II. Main Subject : Testing of CTT (colon transit time) is key study of the colon performance. CTT is very helpful in classifying the pathologic physiological types and defining the treatment plan for the chronic constipation. The study methods include using the radipaque marker, multiple marker technique and scintigraphic measurement. The defecography is the functional radiologic examination a that provides not only the anatomical information of anorectal but also performance of the pelvic floor and rectal change during evacuation. Study of dynamic movement of the anorectal during evacuation is helpful for diagnosis and treatment planning as well as follow-up testing for the constipation patient. One of the issues essential for the case history is the thorough observation of whether the patient shows the psychic psychological symptoms such as the behavior disorder or emotional disturbance. In that case, the decision must be made whether or which type of medication is needed for such psychiatric problem. III. Conclusion : The main causes of the constipation are insufficient intake of fiber or liquid. The key objective of such tests is to check etiology of the constipation. In general, the radiological examination does not provde the colon or anorectal performance information. It is envisaged that this study will provide the information to decide the testing and treatment plans and predict the prognosis of the patient by classifying the pathologic physiological types.