• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.63 no.5
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• pp.1034-1063
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• 2021

The experiment was designed as a 3 × 3 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments, including (i) pomegranate peel (zero, 4%, and 8 percent), (ii) oxidized soybean oil (zero, 2%, and 4 percent), and (iii) alpha-tocopherol (zero and 200 mg/kg). Supplementation of 8% pomegranate peel in diets significantly decreased the growth performance of broiler chickens. The supplementation of 4% oxidized oil in diets significantly reduced body weight gain and Feed intake whole experimental period (p < 0.05). The results showed that supplementation of 4% pomegranate peel in the diet was associated with low aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase, and malondialdehyde (MDA). However, 4% pomegranate peel increased the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities. The supplemental 4% oxidized oil increased the serum AST, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and MDA concentrations. TAC, SOD, and Catalase (CAT) activities were affected by 4% oxidized oil and alpha-tocopherol. The use of oxidized oil and vitamin E decreased MDA concentration. The serum glucose and globulin concentrations were significantly lower in the 8% pomegranate peel. The results showed that supplementation with 4% pomegranate peel in diets reduced serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL). The inclusion of 4% oxidized oil in diets reduced serum glucose and increased the blood lipid concentration such as triglyceride, cholesterol and LDL. Vitamin E supplementation reduced the serum cholesterol and LDL concentrations. The use of 8% pomegranate peel reduced red blood cell (RBC), hemoglobin, and packed cell value (PCV). The results indicated that supplementation with 8% pomegranate peel and 4% oxidized oil in diets decreased the immunoglobulin concentration in broilers. In addition, it was found that the inclusion of 4% pomegranate peel in diets resulted in higher IgG, IgM and total immunoglobulin. Pomegranate peel supplementation significantly decreased meat MDA concentration. Supplementation of 4% oxidized oil increased MDA of meat (p < 0.05). Vitamin E supplementation (200 mg/kg) significantly decreased MDA of meat (p < 0.05). Consequently, the results of this experiment showed that supplementation with 4% pomegranate peel had beneficial effects on broiler chickens. It was also found that feeding 2% oxidized oil in diets had no adverse effect on broilers.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.49-70
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• 2021

Objectives : This study was conducted to approve the effectiveness and safety of herbal medicine on presbycusis with kidney deficiency. Methods : We searched randomized controlled trials(RCTs) on presbycusis patients diagnosed with kidney deficiency through 10 electronic databases from the start to Sep 7, 2021. Study collection and data extraction, and evaluation of risk of bias were conducted by two independent collaborator. The evaluation of the risk of bias in included RCTs was carried out by using Cochrane risk-of-bias tool. And the data synthesis was conducted by using Review Manager(RevMan, ver.5.4). Results : 1. The treatment group which used herbal medicine(HM) alone was more effective than the control group which used only western medicine(WM) on effective rate of hearing loss. 2. In 3 studies comparing the HM-WM combination treatment group with the control groups using the same WM treatment, the effective rate was statistically significantly higher in the HM-WM combination treatment group. 3. Of the 5 studies that reported adverse reactions, one study reported mild nausea and dizziness, but the difference between the HM treatment group and the WM control group was not statistically significant, and no side effects occurred in other 3 studies. 4. In studies comparing HM and WM, the HM treatment group improved hearing loss, whole blood viscosity, serum TNF-𝛼, IL-1𝛽, IL-6, and oxidative stress indicators better than the WM control group, and there was no significant difference. 5. In studies comparing the HM-WM treatment group with the WM control group, the severity of tinnitus, quality of life, and feelings of anxiety and depression were better in the treatment group than the control group. Conclusions : This study shows that the herbal medicine can improve symptoms of presbycusis with kidney deficiency.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.37-43
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• 2020

Phenylketonuria is the most prevalent disorder caused by an inborn error in aminoacid metabolism. It results from mutations in the phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) gene. If untreated or late treated, results in profound and irreversible mental disability. Newborn screening test identify patients with phenylketouria. The early initiation of a phenylalanine restricted diet very soon prevents most of the neuropsychiatric complications. However, the diet therapy is difficult to maintain and compliance is poor, especially in adolescents and adulthood. Since 2015, American Medical College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) recommended more strong restrictive diet therapy for target blood level of phenylalanine (<360 umol/L). For over four decades the only treatment was a very restrictive low phenylalanine diet. This changed in 2007 with the approval of cofactor therapy (Tetrahydrobiopterin, BH4) which is effective in up to 30% of patients. Data from controlled clinical trials with sapropterin dihydrochloride indicate a similar occurrence of all-cause adverse events with this treatment and placebo. Large neutral aminoacids (LNAA) competes with phenylalanine for transport across the blood-brain-barrier and have a beneficial effect on executive functioning. A new therapy has just been approved that can be effective in most patients with PAH deficiency regardless of their degree of enzyme deficiency or the severity of their phenotype. Phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL-PEG) was approved in the USA by FDA in May of 2018 for adult patients with uncontrolled blood phenylalanine concentrations on current treatment. Nucleic acid therapy (therapeutic mRNA or gene therapy) is likely to provide longer term solutions with few side effects.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.255-292
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• 2018

This paper evaluates the new food policy adopted by the European Union to enhance the food safety after the mad cow crisis occurred in 1990's. Newly introduced rules at the EU level are characterized by two features. Firstly, an important part of them have the form of Regulation which is a binding legislative to all member countries. Secondly, most of them are horizontally applied to the whole food industry, irrespective of their kinds of performance, hygiene or labelling. According to theoretical studies on this topic, any food safety regulation for solving adverse selection problem or reducing negative externality in food consumption should be fine-tuning depending on the concrete demand and costs conditions of the food sector concerned. In this theoretical perspective, the food safety laws introduced at EU level after mad cow crisis have been over-regulated for improving social welfare. The true motivation for the transfer of the policy competence on food safety to the Union level is political rather than economic. Our analysis with a political economic perspective shows that how the EU food regulations have been embraced not only by the governments of member countries, but also by diverse interest groups like food processor & distributors, consumers and agro-livestock groups, and that they have been used as protectionist purpose specially against non-member developing countries. Taking into account the fact that the basic aim to form the Union is to establish a single market to enhance economic efficiency at the Union level, the EU is required to adopt some policy actions to reduce negative effects of too restrictive food safety regulations.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1666-1689
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• 2021

The red line of Permanent Basic Farmland is the most important part in the "three-line" demarcation of China's national territorial development plan. The scientific and reasonable delineation of the red line is a major strategic measure being taken by China to improve its ability to safeguard the practical interests of farmers and guarantee national food security. The delineation of Permanent Basic Farmland zoning (DPBFZ) is essentially a multi-objective optimization problem. However, the traditional method of demarcation does not take into account the synergistic development goals of conservation of cultivated land utilization, ecological conservation, or urban expansion. Therefore, this research introduces the idea of artificial immune optimization and proposes a multi-objective model of DPBFZ red line delineation based on a clone selection algorithm. This research proposes an objective functional system consisting of these three sub-objectives: optimal quality of cropland, spatially concentrated distribution, and stability of cropland. It also takes into consideration constraints such as the red line of ecological protection, topography, and space for major development projects. The mathematical formal expressions for the objectives and constraints are given in the paper, and a multi-objective optimal decision model with multiple constraints for the DPBFZ problem is constructed based on the clone selection algorithm. An antibody coding scheme was designed according to the spatial pattern of DPBFZ zoning. In addition, the antibody-antigen affinity function, the clone mechanism, and mutation strategy were constructed and improved to solve the DPBFZ problem with a spatial optimization feature. Finally, Tongxu County in Henan province was selected as the study area, and a controlled experiment was set up according to different target preferences. The results show that the model proposed in this paper is operational in the work of delineating DPBFZ. It not only avoids the adverse effects of subjective factors in the delineation process but also provides multiple scenarios DPBFZ layouts for decision makers by adjusting the weighting of the objective function.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.49-60
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• 2021

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) practitioners play a very pivotal role in establishing EIA policies, and when implementing EIA environmental conflicts can be prevented and resolved by sharing information with stakeholders and coordinating opinions. For this reason, grasping the perceptions of stakeholders including practitioners about the overall system, such as EIA policies and implementation, can be helpful in setting improvement directions and policy directions for EIA. However, there is an insufficient information on the perception and understanding of stakeholders about the EIA system and operation currently in effect in Korea. Therefore, this study diagnoses operational and procedural problems for the EIA system, which is a decision-making tool and a precautionary technique that can minimize adverse effects through the environmental information analysis method, and improvement points and systems of the EIA system in the future. We tried to find a complement of an online survey of 37 questions,responses from 95 responses from stakeholders of EIA were summarized. Stakeholders were aware of the problems of the operation of the current system and the preparation of the evaluation form, and this was reflected. Period and cost of preparation of EIS (49%), the introduction of a new method (26%) and the items of collecting opinions and conflict management (41%), which showed high negative response rates (dissatisfied and very dissatisfied), are considered to be areas that we need to supplement further in the future. As society develops rapidly, the system needs to be supplemented accordingly, and policy improvement efforts are needed for items with high negative responses as a result of the survey.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.44-52
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• 2021

Background: Post-transplant immunosuppression with calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) is associated with kidney function impairment while mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors, such as everolimus, can be used for its renal-sparing effects. In this study, we compared the efficacy and safety of everolimus with low dose tacrolimus (EVR+Low TAC) and conventional dose tacrolimus (TAC) in liver transplantation recipients. Methods: Medical records of recipients who received liver transplantation at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital from January 1st 2009 to December 31st 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. Cohort entry date was defined as the day everolimus was initiated and tacrolimus dosage was reduced. All patients were followed up for 1 year. Indicator of efficacy was the incidence of rejection and safety was evaluated by incidence of drug adverse events including renal function. Results: Among 118 patients, there were 40 patients (33.9%) in EVR+Low TAC group. Incidence of rejection, including both biopsy proven acute rejection and clinical rejection, was similar in two groups [7.5% (n=3) vs. 6.4% (n=5), p=1.000]. Renal dysfunction was less frequent in EVR+Low TAC [17.5% (n=7) vs. 35.9% (n=28), p=0.038]. However, incidence rates of dyslipidemia, oral ulcer were more frequent in EVR+Low TAC [45.0% (n=18) vs. 21.8% (n=17), p=0.009; 15.0% (n=6) vs. 1.3% (n=1), p=0.006]. Conclusions: In terms of prevention of rejection, EVR+Low TAC was as effective as TAC and had renal-sparing effect but was associated with increased risk of dyslipidemia and oral ulcer. This study demonstrates that EVR+Low TAC could be an alternative to liver transplant recipients with nephrotoxicity after administration of conventional dose tacrolimus.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.60-66
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• 2021

As the concentration of nitrogen in the sewage flowing into the sewage treatment plant increases due to urbanization and industrialization, the degree of adverse effects such as eutrophication and toxicity to the aquatic ecosystem is also increasing. In order to treat sewage containing high concentration of nitrogen, various studies on the biological nitrogen removal process are being conducted. Existing biological nitrogen removal processes require significant costs for supplying oxygen and supplementing external carbon sources. In this respect, as a high-level nitrogen removal process with economic improvement is required, an anaerobic ammonium oxidation process (ANAMMOX), which is more efficient and economical than the existing nitrification and denitrification processes, has been proposed. The purpose of this study is to confirm the stability of the ANAMMOX process in the water treatment process and to derive the ratio of ammonia nitrogen (NH4+) to nitrite nitrogen (NO2-) for the implementation of the mainstream ANAMMOX process. A laboratory-scale Mainstream ANAMMOX reactor was operated by applying the ratio calculated based on the substrate ratio suggested in the previous study. In the initial range, the removal efficiency of NH4+ was 58~86%, and the average removal efficiency was 70%. In the advanced range, the removal efficiency of NH4+ was 94~99%, and the average removal efficiency was 95%. As a result of the study, as the NH4+/NO2- ratio increased, the stability of the mainstream ANAMMOX process was secured, and it was confirmed that the NH4+ removal efficiency and the total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency increased. As a result, the results of this study are expected to be used as basic data in the application of the ANAMMOX process in the mainstream.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.6_3
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• pp.1635-1641
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• 2020

Air pollution is one of the most severe threats to society globally due to the rapid expansion of urbanization and industrialization. Particularly, particulate matter (PM) pollution was recently designated as a social disaster by the Korean government because of increases in public concerns and the accumulation of scientific evidence that links high levels of PM2.5 (PM smaller than 2.5 ㎛ in diameter) to a long list of adverse health effects. Atmospheric PM concentrations can also affect the indoor PM levels to which people are exposed most of the time. Thus, understanding the characteristics of indoor and ambient PM pollution based on measurements, model simulations, risk assessments, and management technologies is inevitable in establishing effective policies to mitigate social, economic, and health costs incurred by PM pollution. In this special issue, we introduce several interesting studies concerning indoor and outdoor PM from the perspective of monitoring, assessment, and management being conducted by i-SEED (School of Integrated Science for Sustainable Earth & Environmental Disaster at Pukyong National University) and SPMC (School Particulate Matter Center for Energy and Environmental Harmonization). We expect that this special issue can improve our understanding of the current and future of indoor and outdoor PM pollution, integrating the results from interdisciplinary research groups from various academic fields.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.81-93
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• 2021

Objectives: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is condition of cognitive decline shown in transition from normal aging to dementia. Hominis placenta pharmacopuncture (HPP) is a treatment that combines effects of medication and acupuncture by injecting Hominis placenta into acupoints. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of HPP for MCI. Methods: This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, two-center clinical trial. Eligible patients were randomly allocated to either the HPP group or the placebo group. HPP or saline as placebo was administered to participants for eight weeks. Changes in symptoms were observed. The primary outcome was difference in mean change of Korean Version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-K) score between the HPP group and the placebo group. Cognitive function, overall status of mood and sleep, and quality of life (QoL) were also assessed. Safety assessment and economic analysis were then conducted. Results: Thirty participants were enrolled. One participant in the placebo group dropped out. The score of MoCA-K increased after treatment. Its mean change was smaller in the HPP group than in the control group. HPP ameliorated Global Deterioration Scale and Korean Dementia Rating Scale subtests for attention, organization, and memory compared to the placebo. However, none of them was significantly different between the two groups. Mood, sleep, and QoL all improved more in the HPP group than in the placebo group, although differences between the two groups were not statistically significant. There was no adverse event probably related to the drug. HPP treatment needed KRW 345,000 more than the placebo group in improving Geriatric Quality of Life scale-Dementia score by one point for one year. Conclusions: Although HPP treatment did not significantly improve cognition, it changed behavioral and psychological symptoms in MCI.