• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.29 no.11
• /
• pp.1273-1280
• /
• 2019

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of blindness in the elderly population, and damage to retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells due to oxidative stress contributes to the development of AMD. Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fischer is one of the most widely used herbal medicines for the treatment of various diseases in Asian countries. Although recent studies indicated that treatment with G. uralensis can protect cells from oxidative stress, its mechanisms in RPE cells remain unknown. We evaluated the effect of a G. uralensis ethanol extract (GU) on $H_2O_2$-induced oxidative injury in ARPE-19 RPE cells. The GU pretreatment attenuated reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation induced by $H_2O_2$, which was associated with induced expression of nuclear factor erythroid-derived-2-like 2 (Nrf2) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). GU also suppressed $H_2O_2$-induced DNA damage and mitochondrial dysfunction. The inhibitory effect of GU on $H_2O_2$-induced apoptosis was associated with the protection of caspase-3 activation. Overall, GU appeared to protect RPE cells from oxidative injury by inhibiting DNA damage and reducing apoptosis. Further studies are needed to determine the regulation of Nrf2-mediated HO-1 expression, but our results suggest the possibility of using GU to reduce the risk of AMD.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.135-154
• /
• 2020

This paper analyzes the 5,521 samples of the small and medium-sized businesses(SMBs) obtained from the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund. From January 2014 to September 2019, 85% of the SMBs have 5 or fewer full-time employees. The proportion of SMBs is overwhelmed by the elderly men, and most founders are the CEO. Also, about 87% of the workplace types are rented, while 64% of the CEO's residence types are owner-occupation. 47% of the financial grade score is less than 10 points out of 100 and 80% of SMBs have less than 200 million won of the loan guarantee. In particular, the total guarantee loan amount or the days of net guarantee have significantly positive relations with the working period of the CEO in the same industry, the number of employees, the operation period of SMBs, and the corporate business type. In the case of the financial grading score which has the highest weight in overall credit rating gets higher with the higher number of employees, the longer the operation period, and the corporate business type. However, the quantified non-financial grading score has no significant relationship with other explanatory variables, except for the corporate business type. This implies that a non-financial grade score is measured by other determinants that are not observed by the Korea credit guarantee fund. The pure non-financial grade score has positive relations with the working period of the CEO. Overall, this paper would help Korean SMBs upgrade their credit ratings and expand the money supply when there is no standardized credit rating model or no publicly available evaluation criteria for SMBs. We expect this paper provides important insights for further research and policy-makers for SMBs. In particular, to address the financial needs of thin-filers such as SMBs, technology-based financial services (TechFin) would use alternative data to evaluate the financial capabilities of thin-filers and to develop new financial services.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.60 no.2
• /
• pp.243-248
• /
• 2022

As the scope of use of portable and wearable electronic devices is expanding, the limitations of heavy and bulky solid-state batteries are being revealed. Given that, it is urgent to develop a small energy harvesting device that can partially share the role of a battery and the utilization of energy sources that are thrown away in daily life is becoming more important. Contact electrification, which generates electricity based on the coupling of the triboelectric effect and electrical induction when the two material surfaces are in contact and separated, can effectively harvest the physical and mechanical energy sources existing in the surrounding environment without going through a complicated intermediate process. Recently, the interest in the harvest and utilization of wind energy is growing since the wind is an infinitely ecofriendly energy source among the various environmental energy sources that exist in human surroundings. In this study, the optimization of the energy harvesting device for the effective harvest of wind energy based on the contact electrification was analyzed and then, the utilization strategy to maximize the utilization of the generated electricity was investigated. Natural wind based Fluttering TENG (NF-TENG) using fluttering film was developed, and design optimization was conducted. Moreover, the safe high voltage generation system was developed and a plan for application in the field requiring high voltage was proposed by highlighting the unique characteristics of TENG that generates low current and high voltage. In this respect, the result of this study demonstrates that a portable energy harvesting device based on the contact electrification shows great potential as a strategy to harvest wind energy thrown away in daily life and use it widely in fields requiring high voltage.

• Journal of the Korean Society of International Agriculture
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.475-484
• /
• 2011

International price of cereal has been dramatically increasing for the past few years. This price hike amplified the importance of food self-sufficiency in numerous countries due to the fact that food security is directly proportional to food self-sufficiency. In this study, we conducted a survey to provide useful information of Cambodia's agricultural environment to possible Korean agricultural investors and as to highlight Cambodia as a strong candidate for the establishment of Korea's foreign base for cereal production. The survey conducted includes information regarding Cambodia's agricultural environment and investment circumstances including the political, economical and other contributing factors affecting agricultural investment in Cambodia. Seventy percent of the Cambodia's total population engage in agriculture and this comprises about 30% of the country's GDP. This statistics reflects the possibility of Cambodia's poverty alleviation which proves that agriculture in Cambodia is the driving force for the improvement of the country's economy. In addition, low labor cost, fertile land, abundant water resources, like the Tonle sap lake and the Mekong river, and unreclaimed lands are the strong points that could attract agricultural investors to Cambodia. Poor infrastructure, irrigation systems, law reforms, including social and cultural differences may be the biggest setbacks for the acceleration of Cambodia's agriculture development. However, the Cambodian government is open and willing to make adjustments for Cambodia to be both foreign and domestic agricultural investor-friendly, expecting that it will boost its country's agricultural development. Making the best out of this opportunity, the coordination of KOICA with Korean agricultural investors in building infrastructures and with the help of the KOPIA program for the transfer of agricultural technology will benefit both countries and will play an important role in Cambodia's agriculture.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.187-201
• /
• 2024

Osteoporosis is a major health issue globally, often remaining undetected until a fracture occurs. To facilitate early detection, deep learning (DL) models were developed to classify osteoporosis using abdominal computed tomography (CT) scans. This study was conducted using retrospectively collected data from 3,012 contrast-enhanced abdominal CT scans. The DL models developed in this study were constructed for using image data, demographic/clinical information, and multi-modality data, respectively. Patients were categorized into the normal, osteopenia, and osteoporosis groups based on their T-scores, obtained from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, into normal, osteopenia, and osteoporosis groups. The models showed high accuracy and effectiveness, with the combined data model performing the best, achieving an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.94 and an accuracy of 0.80. The image-based model also performed well, while the demographic data model had lower accuracy and effectiveness. In addition, the DL model was interpreted by gradient-weighted class activation mapping (Grad-CAM) to highlight clinically relevant features in the images, revealing the femoral neck as a common site for fractures. The study shows that DL can accurately identify osteoporosis stages from clinical data, indicating the potential of abdominal CT scans in early osteoporosis detection and reducing fracture risks with prompt treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study was to look into the feasibility of site suitability focused on the potential for environmentally- and water-friendly recreation area development in a wide area(Nakdong River 35km) and to study new methods for providing basic data in regard to the recreation planning over a wide area as well as in application to other sites. The results of this study are as follows. Through classification by mesh method, the site of this study was classified into 42 grids, and by means of the analysis of evaluation indicators, 20 indicators were established and sorted into 4 types of significant recreation activity. According to the results of the analysis for each recreation activity type, there were 8 essentials for water-friendly recreation activity types based on water use while water-friendly recreation types for static activity included 12 sub-essentials. As a result of the first evaluation(the minimum required evaluation) by each classified grid, 32 of the 42 total grids were implemented by the minimum requirements. These grids were usually distributed evenly through the whole site. In terms of the second evaluation(specific site evaluation) results, 6 grids were highly suitable for recreational nature experiences and landscape ecological learning, 4 grids for developing water-friendly recreation for exercise, 1 grid for building water-friendly recreation based on water use, and 4 grids for planning water-friendly recreation for static activity. The results of the grid evaluation of this study could be extended to contiguous grids or reduced. Actual planning for a water-friendly recreation area must change the grid shape or size through boundary adjustments.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.380-391
• /
• 1993

The experimental study was made to propose the treatment method of wastewater in the high-density fish culture system. The BOD to COD ratios of effluents were almost same to 0.65 in the eel-farm, but were various in the farm rearing together with tilapia etc. A BOD rate curve of the eel-farm effluent could be described mathematically by the equation, $BODu=14.1(1-10^{-0.222t})+30.9(1-10^{-0.035(t-8)})$. Nitrification in Biological Fluidized Bed(BFB) system to treat the fish-farm wastewater could be reduce ammonium level up to $65{\sim}79\%$ when ammonium loading rates were between 0.014 and 0.075g $NH_4/g$ BVS-day. Nitrification efficiency was decreased by organic matters in the wastewater when ammonium loading was low(0.014 g $NH_4/g$ BVS-day). T-N removal ratios were decreased to increase loading in denitrification process, because of low C/N ratio. Based on much higher biological mass concentrations, BFB system takes many advantages of a practical viewpoint, such as stability of treatment efficiency and reduction of necessary site area for the facility, as compared with conventional treatment systems.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.111-118
• /
• 2015

Probiotic, prebiotic, and synbiotic substances as well as microorganisms were added to infant formula in an attempt to influence the intestinal microflora with an aim to stimulate the growth of lactic acid bacteria, especially bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. Over the last 10 years, new synbiotic infant formulas containing probiotics and prebiotics have been proposed in order to simulate the effect of breast-feeding on the intestinal microflora. Owing to their synergistic effect, the new synbiotics are expected to be more helpful than using probiotics and prebiotics individually. Maintenance of the viability of the probiotics during food processing and the passage through the gastrointestinal tract should be the most important consideration, since a sufficient number of bacteria ($10^8cfu/g$) should reach the intended location to have a positive effect on the host. Storage conditions and the processing technology used for the manufacture of products such as infant formula adversely affect the viability of the probiotics. When an appropriate and cost-effective microencapsulation methodology using the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status and substances with high biological value are developed, the quality of infant formulas would improve. The effect of probiotics may be called a double-effect, where one is an immunomodulatory effect, induced by live probiotics that advantageously alter the gastrointestinal microflora, and the other comprises anti-inflammatory responses elicited by dead cells. At present, a new terminology is required to define the dead microorganisms or crude microbial fractions that positively affect health. The term "paraprobiotics" (or ghost probiotics) has been proposed to define dead microbial cells (not damaged or broken) or crude cell extracts (i.e., cell extracts with complex chemical composition) that are beneficial to humans and animals when a sufficient amount is orally or topically administered. The fecal microflora of bottle-fed infants is altered when the milk-based infant formula is supplemented with probiotics or prebiotics. Thus, by increasing the proportion of beneficial bacteria such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli, prebiotics modify the fecal microbial composition and accordingly regulate the activity of the immune system. Therefore, considerable attention has been focused on the improvement of infant formula quality such that its beneficial effects are comparable to those of human milk, using prebiotics such as inulin and oligosaccharides and potential specific probiotics such as bifidobacteria, which selectively stimulate the proliferation of beneficial bacteria in the microflora and the indigenous intestinal metabolic activity of the microflora.

• Proceedings of The Korean Society of Health Promotion Conference
• /
• 2005.09a
• /
• pp.91-119
• /
• 2005

오타와 헌장에 따르면 건강증진은 건강형평성을 성취하는 것이다. 건강격차를 감소시키고, 모든 사람들이 건강잠재력을 달성할 수 있도록 동등한 기회와 자원이 제공되어야 한다. 또한 각 개인들은 자신의 건강에 대한 결정요인들에 대한 통제능력을 가져야 한다. 미국의 조기사망은 40%가 행동양식에 의하여, 30%가 유전적인 문제로, 15%가 사회적 환경에 의하여, 10%는 의료적 치료의 부족으로, 그리고 5%는 환경위해 물질에 대한 노출로 발생한다. 건강불평등을 발설시키는 사회적 요인으로는 경제적 요인을 들 수 있다. 이러한 요인으로 야기되는 건강불평등의 문제를 해결하여 건강형평성을 달성하기 위해서는 절대적 목표들과 평등관련 목표들이 모두 필요하다. 건강형평성은 인구집단의 건강과 함께 향상되는 것으로 나은 건강상태에 있는 사람들의 건강을 악화시키면서 건강형평성을 달성하는 것은 아니다. 각자의 관심이 형평성을 어떻게 규정하는가에 영향을 미친다. 혜택을 받은 사람들은 성과/투입의 정의를 선호하며, 소외계층은 똑같은 성과 또는 요구에 기반한 정의를 선호한다. Healthy People 2010은 미국의 국가적 예방체계를 의미하며, 가장 중요하며 예방 가능한 건강위협들을 파악하고 이러한 위협들을 감소하기 위한 목적들이 설정되어 있다. 궁극적인 목적은 건강한 삶의 질적인 면과 양적인 측면을 향상시키는 것이며, 건강불평등을 제거하는 것이다. 그러나 미국이 유럽의 국가들에 비해서 사회 프로그램에 대한 투자가 적은 이유는 재분배는 소수인종만을 위한 것이라는 믿음과, 우리는 개방되고 공정한 사회에 살고 있기 때문에 가난하다는 것은 가난한 사람들 자신들의 잘못으로 인한 것이라는 믿음 그리고 재분배를 방지하는 정치체계 때문이다. 국가기관인 CDC의 예방연구센터(Prevention Research Centers)는 지역사회 파트너들과 함께 건강증진, 질병예방, 그리고 질병과 상해로 인한 합병증을 관리하게 위한 효과적인 예방 전략을 개발하고 있다. 예방연구센터의 프로그램들은 지역사회 기반 참여연구와 소외된 계층에 중점을 두며, 다학제 간 접근방법을 활용하고, 교육기관, 공공보건기관 그리고 지역사회의 파트너들 간의 네트웍을 형성을 통한 협력관계를 강조하고 있다. 지역사회 위원회가 구성되어 있으며, 또한 근거중심 프로그램을 개발하고 있다. 이들은 건강 결정요인에 관한 연구, 형성적 연구, 개입 프로그램 및 프로그램의 확산에 관한 연구를 진행한다. UC Berkeley의 가족/지역사회 보건센터(Center for Family & Community Health)는 1993년에 설립되었다. 사업의 대상이 되는 주요 지역사회는 한국교민사회이며, 한국교민사회 자문위원회(Korean Community Advisory Board, KCAB)가 구성되어 있다. 1993년부터 2003년까지는 'Health is Strength' 사업이 시범연구사업으로 진행되었는데, 그 내용은 유방암과 자궁경부암 검진 프로그램이었다. 2003년부터 2009년까지 진행될 'Quitting is Winning'이라는 두 번째 시범연구사업은 남성들의 금연에 중점을 둔 사업이다. 'Health is Strength'는 아시아 보건서비스 및 한국교민사회 자문위원회가 함께 협력하여 진행된 사업으로, 주요 목표는 18세 이상 여성의 자궁암 조기 검진(Pap test)과 자가 유방검진 실천을 증가시키는 것이며, 50세 이상여성의 유방 임상검사와 유방 X선촬영 비율을 증가시키는 것이었다. 한 지역의 카운티에 거주하는 한국 여성들은 4년간의 개입프로그램의 대상이 되었으며, 이들을 대상으로 횡단적인 전화조사를 3번(사전, 중간, 사후)실시하였다. 개입 프로그램은 교회에서 워크샵 개최, Tell-A-Friend Form 작성하기, 포스터 및 책자 발행, 신문광고 등과 함께 자궁암 조기 검진(Pap test)과 유방 X선 촬영권을 무료로 제공하는 것으로 구성되었다. 'Quitting is Winning'은 지역사회 기반 참여 연구모형으로 한국교민사회 자문위원회는 흡연을 1순위의 사업으로 선정하였고, 근거에 기반한 금연 프로그램에 대한 연구들을 검토하여, 기존의 보편적 방법이 아닌 인터넷을 활용하는 프로그램을 진행하는 것으로 결정되었다. 이는 무작위 임상실험으로 연구대상으로 미국에 거주하는 한국인 남성흡연자 2300명을 모집하였다. 이들의 1/2은 실험군인 인터넷 프로그램 집단에, 또 다른 1/2은 대조군인 인쇄책자 집단에 무작위 할당되었다. 12개월 동안 11번의 진단이 인터넷을 통하여 진행되었으며, 참여와 참여유지에 대한 금전적인 보상이 제공되었다.

• Proceedings of The Korean Society of Health Promotion Conference
• /
• 2004.10a
• /
• pp.89-109
• /
• 2004

The Korean Government has produced the Health Plan 2010 aimed at setting up healthy Korea objectives, policies on preventing chronic diseases, reshaping the country's health and medical infrastructure. The policy goal targets the people's healthy life expectancy at 75 by 2010, and includes healthy life practice measures including health education, health improvement services, and disease management measures, in achieving the objectives. Also, the plan provides life cycle-based health improvement and disease prevention services, as well as pushes ahead with projects with greater ripple effects in each area. To this end, the government is simultaneously pushing to operate an experts-centered health promotion committee and establishing the infrastructure including the augmentation of national health improvement funds. Through its Health Plan 20 I 0, the Korean Government will exert efforts to achieve its policy objectives as addressed in the measures by enhancing the national potential health and providing systematic disease prevention services.