• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.102-112
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• 2011

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of chronic exposure by welders to manganese (Mn) through an analysis of the degree of brain activity in different activities such as cognition and motor activities using the neuroimaging technique of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The neurotoxic effect that Mn has on the brain was examined as well as changes in the neuro-network in motor areas, and the usefulness of fMRI was evaluated as a tool to determine changes in brain function from occupational exposure to Mn. Methods: A survey was carried out from July 2010 to October 2010 targeting by means of a questionnaire 160 workers from the shipbuilding and other manufacturing industries. Among them, 14 welders with more than ten years of job-related exposure to Mn were recruited on a voluntary basis as an exposure group, and 13 workers from other manufacturing industries with corresponding gender and age were recruited as a control group. A questionnaire survey, a blood test, and an fMRI test were carried out with the study group as target. Results: Of 27 fMRI targets, blood Mn concentration of the exposure group was significantly higher than that of the control group (p<0.001), and Pallidal Index (PI) of the welder group was also significantly higher than that of the control group (p<0.001). As a result of the survey, the score of the exposure group in self-awareness of abnormal nerve symptoms and abnormal musculoskeletal symptoms was higher than those of the control group, and there was a significant difference between the two groups (p<0.05, respectively). In the correlation between PI and the results of blood tests, the correlation coefficient with blood Mn concentration was 0.893, revealing a significant amount of correlation (p<0.001). As for brain activity area within the control group, the right and the left areas of the superior frontal cortex showed significant activity, and the right area of superior parietal cortex, the left area of occipital cortex and cerebellum showed significant activity. Unlike the control group, the exposure group showed significant activity selectively on the right area of premotor cortex, at the center of supplementary motor area, and on the left side of superior temporal cortex. In the comparison of brain activity areas between the two groups, the exposure group showed a significantly higher activation state than did the control group in such areas as the right and the left superior parietal cortex, superior temporal cortex, and cerebellum including superior frontal cortex and the right area of premotor cortex. However, in nowhere did the control group show a more activated area than did the exposure group. Conclusions: Chronic exposure to Mn increased brain activity during implementation of hand motor tasks. In an identical task, activation increased in the premotor cortex, superior temporal cortex, and supplementary motor area. It was also discovered that brain activity increase in the frontal area and occipital area was more pronounced in the exposure group than in the control group. This result suggests that chronic exposure to Mn in the work environment affects brain activation neuro-networks.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.36-50
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• 2012

This study was carried out to find contradiction factors on laws for children's activity spaces and facilities and to suggest the rational options to control and manage those spaces and facilities by environmental and landscape planning methods. The results of this study are as follows: 1. The major laws related to the environmental safety for children's activity spaces are "Environmental Health Act (ERA)" for managing the environmental safety of children's activity spaces; "Safety Supervision Law of Children's Play Facilities(SSLCPF)" for the inspection and management for safety of children's play facilities; "Quality Management and Industrial Products Safety Management Law(QMIPSML)" for managing safety certification on children's play equipments. 2. The interior space such as "living room" by the Children's Welfare Law(CWL), "Children Park" by the Act on Urban Parks and Green Spaces(AUPGS), "classroom" on private educational institutes by the Act on Establishment and Operation Private Lesson and Training(AEOPLT) and "nursing room" of child care center smaller than $430m^2$ are needed to be managed as an activity space. 3. In order to reduce industrial burden in the production, establishment, construction, and operation and to minimize unwilling extra burden in the administration effort due to legally double regulate, it is necessary to mitigate the inspections on the equipment certificate from QMIPSML and overlapped or different factors and standards must be unified. With this study, the landscape domain could he enlarged from producing, import of play equipment and establishment, construction and operation of play facilities for a comprehensive range of activity spaces, and the landscape industry such as engineering industry, academic research, management, etc.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.162-168
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• 2012

Purpose: Teeth are generally exposed when people smiling. Moreover, the exposed teeth and soft tissue when smiling becomes an important guideline for esthetically prosthetic restoration. This research is to compare and find out differences of Korean young men's smile living in presence and twenty years ago. Materials and methods: Subjects, 100 young men (50 male and 50 female), were required about several aspects; normally developed physical condition, no psychological or genetic disorders, a fine face with no loss of teeth, no experience in orthodontic or prosthetic treatment, relatively normal occlusion, aged between 20-29. The photos of the subject at rest position and front face when fully smiled were taken three times. 100 photos (50 male and 50 female) were chosen at random from the 240 university students' smile photos taken by Yoon and his colleagues in 1991. By Hulsey's method of measuring smile, several factors; the change of upper lip curvature, the change of the relation between the upper lip and teeth, parallelism between Mx. incisor and lower lip, contact relation between Mx. incisor and lower lip and teeth displayed in a smile, were measured and analyzed. Meanwhile, ten dentists assessed aesthetic evaluation about men and women's smile for twice and recorded and compared smile score. The -test (P<.05) was used to compare the measured value. The difference of smile score was analyzed by t-test (P<.05). Results: The smile score calculated in 2011 (60.22) was higher than that of 1991 (52.80). Among five measurement categories, the noticeable difference was distinguished from two factors; the change of upper lip curvature and contact relation between Mx. incisor and lower lip. Conclusion: The Korean young men's smile has been considerably improved for twenty years. And it is found that the change of upper lip curvature plays an important role, that is, the smile formed with an ascended labial commissure has been increased significantly.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.661-672
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• 2006

This study was performed to compare the shear bond strength of AQ Bond $Plus^{TM}$ with AQ $Bond^{TM}$ and Single $Bond^{TM}$. Also by observing the fractured interface under scanning electro-microscope, the fracture pattern and the quality of hybrid layer were analyzed. The possibility of clinical application of all-in-one system which has an advantage to reduce chair time for children with difficult behavior pattern was evaluated, The results obtained are as follows ; 1. There was no significant difference between AQ $Bond^{TM}$ and AQ Bond $Plus^{TM}$ in shear bond strength and Single Bond showed the highest bond strength with statistical significant difference (p<0.05). 2. Adhesive fracture pattern was mainly observed in both enamel/dentin in AQ $Bond^{TM}$ and AQ Bond $Plus^{TM}$ group while Single Bond group showed equal numbers for cohesive and adhesive pattern. 3. Under scanning electro-microscope, resin tags observed in AQ $Bond^{TM}$ and AQ Bond $Plus^{TM}$ were very weak and tangled while strong and thick tags were shown with many lateral branches in Single Bond. Careful case selection and accurate clinical application is recommended when using AQ $Bond^{TM}$ and AQ Bond $Plus^{TM}$considering the result showing its weaker strength than Single $Bond^{TM}$.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 2003

This study evaluated the influence of chemomechanical caries removal agent $Carisolv^{TM}$(MediTeam, Sweden) for composite resin adhesion to sound human permanent and primary dentin. The buccal/labial surfaces of 80 permanent molars and 80 primary incisors were used. Four types of adhesives and one composite resin were used; AQ Bond(Sun Medical, Japan), Clearfil SE Bond(Kuraray, Japan), Single Bond(3M, USA), Scotchbond Multi-Purpose(3M, USA) and Z100(3M, USA). One drop of $Carisolv^{TM}$(MediTeam, Sweden) was pretreated on the dentin for 0 second(control) and 60 seconds. The specimens were thermocycled for 1,000 times in baths kept 5 degrees C and 55 degrees C with a 30 seconds dwell time. Shear bond strengths were tested and the data was statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA with subsequent post hoc Scheffe test at p<0.05. $Carisolv^{TM}$ treatment significantly decreased the shear bond strength. Shear bond strength of permanent dentin was significantly higher than that of primary dentin. Clearfil SE Bond treatment groups showed the highest shear bond strength and AQ Bond treatment groups showed the lowest shear bond strength.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.329-336
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• 2014

As an abiotic stress, chilling stress is one of the major factors limiting plant growth and increasing susceptibility to pathogens. Therefore, enhancing stress tolerance in plants is an important strategy for their survival under unfavorable environmental conditions. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of the exogenous application of salicylic acid (SA) or nitric oxide (NO) on chilling tolerance in pepper seedlings. Pepper (Capsicum annuum L. 'kidaemanbal') seedlings were grown under normal growing conditions ($20/25^{\circ}C$, 15 hours photoperiod, $145{\pm}5{\mu}mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$, fluorescence lamps) for 23 days after transplanting. The solution (3 mL) of 1 mM SA and 0.3 mM NO with surfactant triton 0.1% were sprayed two times a week, respectively. Right after the completion of chemical application, seedlings were subjected to chilling condition at $4^{\circ}C$ for 6 hours under dark condition and then the seedlings were recovered at the normal growing conditions for 2 days. In order to assess plant tolerance against chilling stress, growth characteristics, chlorophyll fluorescence (Fv/Fm), and membrane permeability were determined after chilling stress imposition. Total phenolic concentration and antioxidant capacity were measured during the whole experimental period. Disease incidence for pepper bacterial spot and wilt was also analyzed. Pepper seedlings treated with SA or NO were maintained similar dry mass ratio, while the value in control increased caused by chilling stress suggesting relatively more water loss in control plants. Electrolyte leakage of pepper seedlings treated with SA or NO was lower than that of control 2 days after chilling treatment. Fv/Fm rapidly decreased after chilling stress in control while the value of SA or NO was maintained about 0.8. SA increased higher total phenolic concentration and antioxidant capacity than NO and control during chemical treatment. In addition, increase in total phenolic concentration was observed after chilling stress in control and NO treatment. SA had an effect on the reduction of bacterial wilt in pepper seedlings. The results from this study revealed that pre-treatment with SA or NO using foliar spray was effective in chilling tolerance and the reduction of disease incidence in pepper seedlings.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.45-67
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• 2010

On July 21st in 2005, People's Bank of China (PBOC) turned the currency peg against the U.S. dollar into managed currency system based on a basket of unnamed currencies under China's exchanged rate regime. This change means that China's enterprises are not free from currency fluctuations. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relations between Renminbi fluctuations in the floating exchange rate and financial results of venture companies. The process and outcomes of this study are as follows, First, in order to measure the financial results of venture companies, I choose venture companies in Shandong Province listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) at random and several quarter financial sheets according to safety ratios, profitability ratios, growth ratios, activity ratios. Second, I arrange the daily Renminbi exchange rate data announced from July 21st, 2005 to December 31st, 2008 by PBOC into the quarterly data. Third, in order to confirm the relations between Renminbi fluctuations and financial results of venture companies, I carry out Pearson's correlation analysis. As a result, the revaluation of the Chinese Renminbi has weakly negative effects on debt ratio, total assets turnover ratio and equity turnover ratio in statistics. But the revaluation of the Chinese Renminbi is not related to other financial index in statistics. The result of this study is that the revaluation of the Chinese Renminbi has little influence on the export and import of Chinese venture companies and certifies the fact that Chinese venture companies have much foreign currency assets. In addition to avoid the currency exposure risk, this study shows the effective method about currency exposure risk which adjusts proportion of Renminbi to foreign currency.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2014

This study aims to evaluate the impact of varying exposure to dental amalgam on urinary mercury levels in children by measuring the number of amalgam-filled teeth and the variance of mercury concentration in urine over a period of 2 years. A total of 317 (male 158, female 159) elementary school children (1st~4th graders) attending 2 schools in urban regions participated in this study. At 6-month intervals, 4 oral examinations were conducted to check any variance in the conditions of dental caries and the status of dental fillings. Also, urine tests were conducted followed by a questionnaire survey. To elucidate the factors potentially affecting the mercury concentration in urine, t-test, ANOVA, chi-square test and a mixed model were used for the analysis. Regarding the status of dental fillings in line with examination time periods, deciduous teeth had more amalgam-filled surfaces than those filled with resin, whereas permanent teeth had more resin-filled surfaces than those filled with amalgam. A significant relevance was found between the exposure to dental amalgam and urinary mercury levels. Specifically, subjects whose teeth surfaces had been filled with dental amalgam showed higher urinary mercury levels than those who had no dental amalgam fillings. Based on the analysis using the mixed model, the increase in the number of teeth surfaces filled with amalgam was found to be the factor affecting the increase in urinary mercury levels. The urinary mercury levels were found to be highly associated with the exposure to dental amalgam. The more the teeth surfaces filled with amalgam, the higher the urinary mercury levels. Hence, even a trace of dental amalgam fillings can liberate mercury, affecting the variance in the urinary mercury levels. These findings suggest that some criteria or measures should be developed to minimize the exposure to dental amalgam. Moreover, relevant further studies are warranted.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.301-307
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• 2009

In the previous study, we evaluated and reported about the anti-oxidative activities of extract/fraction of Castanea crenata leaf. Extract/fraction of Castanea crenata leaf showed excellent free radical scavenging activity, cell protective activity and inhibitory activity on tyrosinase and elastase. In this study, in order to investigate the stability of cream containing 0.2 % Castanea crenata ethyl acetate fraction. pH, viscosity, and absorbance were measured under 4 different temperature ($4^{\circ}C$, $20^{\circ}C$, $37^{\circ}C$, $45^{\circ}C)$ and under the sun light at 2 weeks intervals for the 8 weeks. The variations on pH and viscosity of all experimental creams were similar to control cream. The absorbance variation of extract from experimental cream at 353 nm was in the order: under the sun > $45^{\circ}C$ > $37^{\circ}C$ > $20^{\circ}C$ > $4^{\circ}C$. It shows that ethyl acetate fraction in the cream can be oxidized under the sun. The bad smell and discoloration were not shown. Also, physical changes as creaming and cohesion were not shown. Also, transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and water contents in skin were measured. The cream containing Castanea cranata leaf extract was applied to the right lower arm. After 120 min, TEWL of parts was decreased as 29.7 % (experimental cream) and 5.4 % (control cream) respectively. And the water contents in skin were increased 22.6 % (experimental cream) and 24.7 % (control cream) respectively. It was confirmed that a cream containing ethyl acetate fraction of Castanea crenata leaf shows the superior moisturizing effect. The results showed that Castanea crenata leaf extract could be used as a new active ingredient for anti-aging cosmeceuticals.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.176-184
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• 2018

In the present study, we investigated the antioxidative properties, cellular protective effects and component analyses of 50% ethanol extract, ethyl acetate fraction and aglycone fraction obtained from Lysimachia christinae Hance (L. christinae Hance). In the evaluation of antioxidative properties, the free radical scavenging activities ($FSC_{50}$) of 50% ethanol extract, ethyl acetate fraction and aglycone fraction were 146.8, 22.2 and $27.2{\mu}g/mL$, respectively and total antioxidant capacities ($OSC_{50}$) were 29.3, 2.9 and $4.5{\mu}g/mL$, respectively. The ethyl acetate fraction showed the highest free radical scavenging activity and total antioxidant capacity. Also, the cellular protective effects (${\tau}_{50}$) of 50% ethanol extract, ethyl acetate fraction and aglycone fraction on $^1O_2$ induced photohemolysis of human erythrocytes were 26.9, 57.5 and 103.9 min at $5{\mu}g/mL$, respectively. In particular, ${\tau}_{50}$ of the aglycone fraction exhibited a higher cellular protective effect than that of (+)-${\alpha}$-tocopherol (37.7 min). The cell viability of the ethyl acetate fraction on the UVB-induced cell damage increased up to 90.1%. In addition, the ethyl acetate fraction ($5-25{\mu}g/mL$) showed cellular protective effects on the $H_2O_2-induced$ cell damages in a dose-dependent manner. TLC, HPLC, UV-vis spectroscopy and LC-MS were used to analyse components of the ethyl acetate fraction and the main components were quercetin, kaempferol and their glycosides. In conclusion, L. christinae Hance extract/fraction can function as antioxidants to protect the skin exposed to UV radiation and may also be used as a novel functional cosmetic material, for example, an antioxidant against skin photoaging.