• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.20-25
• /
• 2015

Objectives: Recently, thread-embedding therapy (TET) has been widely applied in Korean medicine for cosmetic purposes such as reducing skin wrinkles. An inserted thread was reported to have induced continuous stimulation, followed by support for connective tissue regeneration. However, the potential role of TET in hair-growth has not yet been reported. Methods: We designed this study to evaluate whether TET has a hair-growth-promoting effect. C57 black 6 (C57BL/6) mice were divided into three groups: normal saline-treated, minoxidil-treated, and thread-embedded groups. Normal saline or 5% minoxidil was topically sprayed on the dorsal skin of the mice once a day for 16 days. Medical threads were embedded into the dorsal skin of the mice in a single application. Hair growth activity was evaluated by using dermoscopic and microscopic observations. Sections of the dorsal skin were stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Expressions of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), fibroblast growth factor-7 (FGF-7), and fibroblast growth factor-5 (FGF-5) were detected by using immunohistochemical staining. A reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis was adopted to measure the messenger RNA (mRNA) expressions of FGF-7 and FGF-5. Results: TET enhanced anagen development in the hair follicles of C57BL/6 mice. The expressions of BrdU and PCNA, both of which imply active cellular proliferation, were increased by using TET. Moreover, TET increased the expression of FGF-7, an anagen-inducing growth factor, while decreasing the expression of FGF-5, an anagen-cessation growth factor, both at the protein and the mRNA levels. Conclusion: TET enhanced hair re-growth in C57BL/6 mice. TET regulated the expressions of anagen-associated growth factors and activated the proliferation of hair follicular cells in depilated skin lesions. Considering its long-lasting effect, TET may be a good alternative therapeutic for the treatment of alopecia.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.16 no.9
• /
• pp.600-611
• /
• 2016

This study examined the impacts of types of titles of artworks, especially 'untitled', on audience reponse. Generally, naming can be a tool to represent characteristics of objects, affecting their market value and price. Since contemporary artworks are often untitled, this study aimed to investigate how naming 'untitled' would affect audience response. As the size of arts market increasing, how the audience, potential buyer of artworks, responds to artworks is important. Based on prior research, we hypothesized that the audience would have different level of understanding, attention, attractiveness and curiosity to untitled artworks, controlling other factors. In the regression results from the data of 305 respondents, we found that people had significantly lower level of understanding and attention on untitled artworks than on artworks of explanatory or associative titles. In addition, respondents showed significantly higher level of curiosity when the artwork was an painting. This study confirmed the assertions of prior research that titles are indeed important, and further implied that artwork creators should be more concerned on naming their artworks since titles as well as artworks themselves could actually affect audience response.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.663-669
• /
• 2005

The aim of this study was to investigate the ozone decay pattern for the effective application of ozone in drinking water treatment. In order to measure the ozone decomposition in water, ozone measuring instrument was developed with flow injection analysis (FIA) method. From the result of continuous residual ozone concentration in water, it was confirmed that the ozone decay pattern was divided with instantaneous ozone demand(I.D) and pseudo first-order rate($k_c$) phases, which were influenced by the variation of ozone dose. The empirical model obtained from I.D and $k_c$ values enabled us to predict the residual ozone concentration according to the reaction time, showing the high correlation between model and experimental values. The concentration of OH radical and $R__{ct}$ could be indirectly measured by OH radical probe compound. In both I.D and $k_c$ phases, the production pattern of OH radical could be observed, which was also affected by the variation of ozone dose. Finally, it was confirmed that the ozone consumption rate was varied according to the each drinking water treatment process and seasoning. Therefore, the optimum position and dosage of ozone have to be selected by considering various factors.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.103-115
• /
• 2011

Concrete slab curls and warps due to the uneven distribution of temperature and moisture and as the result, internal stress develops within the slab. Therefore, environmental loads must be considered in addition to the traffic loads to predict the lifespan of the concrete pavement more accurately. The strength of the concrete slab is gradually decreases to a certain level at which fatigue cracking is generated by the repetitive traffic and environmental loadings. In this study, a new fatigue regression model was developed based on the results from previously performed studies. To verify the model, another laboratory flexural fatigue test program which was not used in the model development, was conducted and compared with the predictions of other existing models. Each fatigue model was applied to analysis logic of cumulative fatigue damage of concrete pavement developed in the study. The sensitivity of cumulative fatigue damage calculated by each model was analyzed for the design factors such as slab thickness, joint spacing, complex modulus of subgrade reaction and the load transfer at joints. As the result, the model developed in this study could reflect environmental loading more reasonably by improving other existing models which consider R, minimum/maximum stress ratio.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.43-56
• /
• 2018

Vertical cutoff walls such as steel pipe sheet piles (SPSPs) have been commonly applied for the construction of the offshore waste landfill site. Because the SPSPs are sequentially installed by connecting their joints to those of adjacent piles, their mechanical stability should be ensured against the inherent external forces on the sea. The objective of this study is to evaluate the structural performances of the newly developed types of SPSP joint compared with those of other joint types. The problems of the traditional SPSP joints are investigated, and an advanced joint shape of SPSP, which is named double H with L-T (DHLT) joint, are designed for improving the constructability and maintenance. Full-scale models of the DHLT joint are manufactured, and then its joint areas are filled with grout material. After 28 days of curing time, compressive and tensile strength tests were performed on the joint models and the test results were compared with those of the traditional joints. Experimental results show that the structural capacities of the DHLT joint models are lower than those of traditional joints due to the influence of grout and steel members. In the cases of the compressive strength test, especially, bending occurs on steel H-beam with no distinct cracks in grout due to the asymmetrical structure of joint which has no reaction force. This study shows that the performance of the SPSP joint can be improved by considering the influence factors on the structural capacities estimated by the experimental tests.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.69 no.1
• /
• pp.24-30
• /
• 2010

Background: A novel 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus emerged and disseminated to all over the world. There are few reports on the clinical characteristics of patients with complications. We describe the clinical features of pneumonia in adult patients hospitalized, who have novel influenza infection. Methods: There were 43 adult patients enrolled into the study with pneumonia of 528 hospitalized patients confirmed influenza A (H1N1) virus infection by real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction testing, between 24 August 2009 and 31 January 2010. The clinical data of patients with pneumonia were collected retrospectively. Results: There were 22 of 43 (51.2%) influenza patients with pneumonia that had higher risk factors for complications. Compared to 28 patients with influenza A (H1N1) viral pneumonia and 15 patients, who had isolated bacteria from cultures, those with mixed viral and bacterial pneumonia were significantly more likely to have unilobar consolidations on chest radiographs (53.3 vs. 10.7%, p<0.01) and higher scores of pneumonia severity index (PSI; 90 [66~100] vs. 53 [28~90], p=0.04). Six patients required mechanical ventilation support in an Intensive Care Unit and were more likely to have dyspnea (83.3 vs. 29.3%, p=0.02) and low levels of $PaO_2$ (48.3 [37.0~70.5] vs 64.0 [60.0~74.5] mm Hg, p=0.02) and high levels of pneumonia severity index (PSI) score (108.0 [74.5~142.8] vs. 56.0 [40.5~91.0], p=0.03). Conclusion: The majority of pneumonia patients infected with novel influenza improved. Chest radiographic findings of unilobar consolidations suggest that mixed pneumonia is more likely. Initial dyspnea, hypoxemia, and high levels of PSI score are associated with undergoing mechanical ventilation support.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.610-618
• /
• 2008

It is not easy to compare the treatment processes and find an optimum operating condition by the experiments due to influent conditions, treatment processes, various operational conditions and complex factors in real wastewater treatment system and also need a lot of time and costs. In this paper, the activated sludge models are applied to four principal biological wastewater treatment processes, $A_2O$(anaerobic/anoxic/oxic process), Bardenpho(4 steps), VIP(Virginia Initiative Plant) and UCT(University of Cape Town), and are used to compare their environmental and economic assessment for four key processes. In order to evaluate each processes, a new assessment index which can compare the efficiency of treatment performances in various processes is proposed, which considers both environmental and economic cost. It shows that the proposed index can be used to select the optimum processes among the candidate treatment processes as well as to find the optimum condition in each process. And it can find the change of economic and environmental index under the changes of influent flowrate and aerobic reaction size and predict the optimum index under various operation conditions.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.227-232
• /
• 2002

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease characterized by diverse clinical manifestations and autoantibody production, which is known to be strongly influenced by genetic factors. Previous studies have revealed the associations of SLE with HLA class II alleles and antiphospholipid antibody system (anticardiolipin antibody (aCL) and anti-${\beta}_2$ glycoprotein I antibody (anti-${\beta}_2$ GPI)). Therefore, we studied the associations of HLA class II alleles with SLE and antiphospholipid antibody system. Methods: The genotyping for HLA-DRB1 and DQB1 alleles were performed in 61 SLE patients and 100 controls by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-sequence specific oligonucleotide probe method. ELISA tests for aCL and anti-${\beta}_2$ GPI were performed in 39 of the 61 SLE patients. The results were evaluated statistically by Chi-square test. Results: The frequencies of the HLA-$DRB1^*15$ and $DQB1^*06$ in SLE patients were significantly higher than those in controls. HLA-$DRB1^*12$ was significantly lower in SLE patients than controls. Nine of 39 patients were positive for aCL (IgG) and three were positive for aCL (IgM). One of 39 patients were positive for anti-${\beta}_2$ GPI (IgG) and none of them positive for anti-${\beta}_2$ GPI (IgM). Association of aCL with HLA class II alleles was not observed in our study. Conclusion: According to our results, it was found that HLA-$DRB1^*15$ and $DQB1^*06$ were associated with genetic susceptiblility and $DRB1^*12$ was associated with resistance to SLE in Korean population. No Association of aCL with HLA class II alleles was observed and the positive rate for anti-${\beta}_2$ GPI was very low.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.126-135
• /
• 2003

Background: One of the important factors in the prognosis of chronic hepatitis B patient is the degree of replication of hepatitis B virus (HBV). It has been known that HBV DNA polymerase plays the essential role in the replication of HBV. HBV DNA polymerase is composed of four domains, TP (Terminal protein), spacer, RT (Reverse transcriptase) and RNaseH. Among these domains, tyrosine, the $65^{th}$ residue of TP is an important residue in protein-priming reaction that initiates reverse transcription. If monoclonal antibody that recognizes around tyrosine residue were selected, it could be applied to further study of HBV replication. Methods: To produce TP-specific scFv (single-chain Fv) by phage display, mice were immunized using synthetic TP-peptide contains $57{\sim}80^{th}$ amino acid residues of TP domain. After isolation of mRNA of heavy-variable region ($V_H$) and light-chain variable region ($V_L$) from the spleen of the immunized mouse, DNA of $V_H$ and $V_L$ were obtained by RT-PCR and joined by a DNA linker encoding peptide (Gly4Ser)3 as a scFv DNA fragments. ScFv DNA fragments were cloned into a phagemid vector. scFv was expressed in E.coli TG1 as a fusion protein with E tag and phage gIII. To select the scFv that has specific affinity to TP-peptide from the phage-antibody library, we used two cycles of panning and colony lift assay. Results: The TP-peptide-specific scFv was isolated by selection process using TP-peptide as an antigen. Selected scFv had 30 kDa of protein size and its nucleotide sequences were analyzed. Indirect- and competitive-ELISA revealed that the selected scFv specifically recognized both TP-peptide and the HBV DNA polymerase. Conclusion: The scFv that recognizes the TP domain of the HBV DNA polymerase was isolated by phage display.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.167-181
• /
• 2007

Objectives: To evaluate expression of MIF mRNA, MIF, $TNF-{\alpha}$, $IL-6R-{\alpha}$, STAT-3, $NF-{\kappa}B$ p65, COX-2 and iNOS, MMP-9mRNA after injecting deer antler herbal acupuncture solution in a LPS rat model. Methods: The experiment was divided in category of the control group, RA group, and NA group. RA was induced in the mice via injecting 300ug/kg LPS. The deer antler herbal acupuncture solution 50ug/kg was applied on $ST_{35}$(犢鼻) and EX-LE201(內膝眼) for 19days from $3^{rd}$ day of RA inducement. Results: 1. In the deer antler herbal acupuncture solution treated RAW 264.7cell, the mRNA expression of cytokines, RA related inflammation factors, such as the MIF, COX- 2, iNOS, and MMP-g reduced concentration dependently. 2. In the deer antler herbal acupuncture treated mice's synovial membrane, decrease in the cell replication of synovial joint cells, regeneration of blood vessel, fibrosis and fibroblastic cells expansion were observed. 3. Positive reaction of RA-related cytokines MIF, $TNF-{\alpha}$, $IL-6R-{\alpha}$, STAT3, COX-2, iNOS, $NF-\;{\kappa}B$ p65, MMP-9 was reduced. Conclusion : On the basis of the results, it was concluded that deer antler herbal acupuncture extract has significant protecting ability against acute progressive RA by inhibiting the production of MIF, as a top in cytokines related to inflammation.