• Applied Microscopy
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.89-99
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• 2010

Fibroblasts are the most common cells in connective tissue and are responsible for the synthesis of extracellular matrix components. The fibrosis associated with chronic inflammation and injury may contribute to cholangiocarcinoma pathogenesis, particularly through an increase in extracellular matrix components, which participate in the regulation of bile duct differentiation during development. Mitochondria produce ATP through oxidative metabolism to provide energy to the cell under physiological conditions. Also, mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress have been implicated in cellular senescence and aging. Alternations in mitochondrial structure and function are early events of programmed cell death or apoptosis and mitochondria appear to be a central regulator of apoptosis in most somatic cell. Clonorchis sinensis, one of the most important parasite of the human bile duct in East Asia, arouses epithelial hyperplasia and ductal fibrosis. Isolated fibroblast from the bile ducts of rats infected by C. sinensis showed increase of cytoplasmic process. In addition, decrease of cellular proliferation was observed in fibroblasts which was isolated from normal rat bile duct and then cultured in media containing C. sinensis excretory-secretory product. However, the effects of C. sinensis infection on the mitochondrial enzyme distribution is not clearly reported yet. Therefore, we investigated the structural change of C. sinensis infected bile duct and mitochondrial enzyme distribution of the cultured fibroblast isolated from the C. sinensis infected rat bile duct. As a result, C. sinensis infected SD rat bile ducts showed the features of chronic clonorchiasis, such as ductal connective and epithelial tissue dilatation, or ductal fibrosis. In addition, fibroblast in ductal connective tissue was damaged by physical effect of fibrotic tissue and chemical stimulation. Immunohistochemically detected mitochondrial electron transferase (ATPase, COXII, Porin) was decreased in C. sinensis infected rat bile duct and cultured fibroblast from infected rat bile duct. It can be hypothesized that the reason why number of electron transferase decrease in fibroblast isolated from the rat bile duct infected with C. sinensis is because dysfunction of electron transport system is occurred mitochondrial dysfunction, increase of ROS (reactive oxygen species) and apoptosis after chemical damage on the cell caused by C. sinensis infection. Overall, C. sinensis infection induces fibrotic change of ductal connective tissue, mutation of cellular metabolism in fibroblast and mitochondrial dysfunction. Consequently, ductal fibrosis inhibits fibroblast proliferation and decreases mitochondrial electron transferase on fibroblast cytoplasm. It was assumed that the structure of bile duct could not normalized and ductal fibrosis was maintained for a long period of time according to fibroblast metamorphosis and death induced by mitochondrial dysfunction.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.93-103
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• 2015

In this study, it has an intention of arranging an implication based on an effective introduction of a wage peak system in Japan to settle a mandatory retirement at sixty according to a legalization of retirement age at sixty smoothly. Institutionally, retirement age guaranteed type that reduces wage from certain period before retirement is of great importance. In Japan, mainly features the extension of retirement age that focus on keeping aged employment after retirement. In the introduction of the wage peak system, Korea attaches importance to the wage cost savings, but Japan puts emphasis on using aging workforce. Korea wants to promote the aged employment for retirement age at 60, whereas Japan actively push ahead with retirement age 65 and after that time. South Korea needs to reinforce the pensionable age and the connection though the extension of retirement age via the manpower utilization, employment promotion and the stability. It is necessary to prepare a institutional plan to try not to make a gap of the pensions by guaranteeing or extending the retirement age connect to the age of pensioners though the wage peak system. To activate the wage peak system, it is necessary to acknowledge a legal improvement that concedes rational changes such as the rule of employment. An active interpretation is needed currently though, it is more necessary to review the stipulation and the rational changes of the rule of employment that is established by a precedent like the Japanese legislation case. When a disadvantageous change of works rules is made, it is able to consider establishing the provision in the Act on age Discrimination Prohibition in Employment and Aged Employment Promotion, therefore it won't be able to apply the regulation in the rational criterion that satisfies the standards, rather than amending a Article 94 of the Labor Standards Act that makes accepting the approval of the majority of workers.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.105-138
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• 2009

Although the decline in fertility rate is generally observed along the history of economic development throughout the world, the continuing decline hitting below the replacement level in Korea over the recent years gathered serious social concerns on the ground that it accelerates the process of population aging. The total fertility rate in Koreareached 2.08 in 1983, and gradually fell to the levels of 1.08 in 2005 and 1.26 in 2007. The policy debate over the role of the government has been focused mainly on the level of theoretical discussion without substantial basis on firm empirical evidence and the determinants of fertility. The objective of the paper is to empirically investigate the fertility effect of the female wage, which is understood as one of the most important determinants of fertility in Koreasince 1980 focusing on one aspect of fertility, namely birth spacing. Using the Korean National Fertility Survey conducted in 2006, I estimate a duration model of first and second births taking into account individual heterogeneity, which turned out to be an important factor to control for. Compared with previous studies in the literature on the Korean fertility, the study has an advantage of using the complete pregnancy history of women in a more representative sample. Unlike the previous studies, the analysis also deals with the endogeneity of marriage by treating a certain age, rather than age at marriage, as the time in which a woman becomes exposed to the risk of pregnancy. The study shares the common problem in the literature on birth spacing of lacking relevant wage information for respondents in a retrospective survey. I estimate the wage series as a function of the basic characteristics using the annual Wage Structure Survey from 1980 to 2005, which is considered as a nationally representative sample for wage information of employees. The results suggest that the increase in female wage by 10 percent leads to a decrease in second birth hazard by 0.56~0.92 percentage points and that the increase in spouse's wage by the equal amount is accompanied by the increase in second birth hazard by 0.36~1.13 percentage points. These estimates are more precisely estimated and of smaller magnitude than those presented by the previous studies. The results are robust to the different specifications of the wage equation. The simulation analysis based on the predicted values shows that about 17% of the change in the second birth hazard over the period 1980 to 2005 was due to the change in the female wage. Although there is some limitation in data, the results can be viewed as one estimate of the role of female wage on the recent fertility decline in Korea. The question raised by the paper is not a normative one of whether a government should promote childbearing but a positive one thatexplains fertility decline. Therefore, if there is a wide consensus on promoting childbearing, the finding suggests that the policies designed to reduce the opportunity cost of women in the labor market would be effective. The recent movement of implementing a wide range of family-friendly policies including child care support, maternity leave, parental leave and tax benefit in developed countries should be understood in this context.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2020

This study analyzed the components contained in the pine needles of first and second-year-olds to analyze the factors that the in vivo content of inorganic elements affects the sex determination of pine trees. In response, the plan for pine tree plant and maintenance was intended to be presented in consideration of the reproductive environment and physiological characteristics. The results are as follows. First, last year, when there were many encyclopedias, the analyzed N(%) content was found to be high. The nitrogen content of the previous year's soil was found to affect the production of the spheres the following year. This is believed to be possible to reduce the rate of Pine pollen produced in the new plant in the following year through a dispute over quality consumption in the spring of the previous year. Second, the weapons elements involved in the Pine cones and the generation of the Pine pollen in the new plant appeared to be P(%), K(%), Ca(%), and Fe(%). However, the nutrients from the previous year's leaves of Ca(%) and Fe(%) were found to have a low influence on the sex determination of first-year pine trees. Because Ca(%) and Fe(%) are not able to move nutrients accumulated in aging organs due to the nature of the components, feeding nutrients in the fall when the growth of the previous year's branches is reduced is expected to affect oral generation. Third, pine trees are extremely positive and Pine pollen is related to the time of the northeast wind. Therefore, it is believed that it would be good to be located in the northern direction, where the sunlight is good, in an outdoor space. In addition, it is important to use vaginal consumer products in spring and carry out a quarrel involving Mg and Fe during fall to reduce the effect of the Pine pollen, which is an outdoor plant. This is an important part of maintaining and managing pine trees in outdoor spaces as well as the sex determination of pine trees. This study suggested that plant planning, which derives the correlation between pine inorganic element content on sexual determination and takes into account the physiological characteristics of pine trees, is an important issue in the creation of outdoor space. Follow-up research on other factors affecting pine tree sex determination is expected.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.149-163
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• 2016

Seafarers are an essential resource in maritime industries, which provide navigation skills, vessel maneuvering skills and fishing skills in the fishery industry. They also work as a driving force in pilotage, port operation, vessel traffic service, and marine safety. Other areas in maritime services, which rely on seafarer include safety management of ships, supervisory activities, and maritime accident assessment. In these ways, Korean seafarers have contributed to the growth of Korean economy. However, there have been issues of high separation rate, shortage of supply, multi-nationality, multiplicity of culture caused by employment of foreign seafarers, and aging. The present paper finds that maritime officers and fishery officers demonstrate differences in the statistics of on-board job taking and separation: the separation rate of fishery officers is higher than that of maritime officers. The existing data and statistics by the Korea Seafarer's Welfare & Employment Center could be improved by changing its structure from time series to panel data. The Korea Seafarer's Welfare & Employment Center is the ideal institution for collecting the panel data, as it has already accumulated and published relevant statistics regarding seafarer. The basic design method of the panel data is to adopt and improve it by including the information on ratings of maritime and fishery industries, ranks in a ship, personal information, family life, and career goal. Panel data are useful in short- and long-term forecasts of supply of Korean seafarers; demand evaluation of education, training, and reeducation of the seafarers; demographical dynamic analysis on Korean seafarers; inducement policy of long-term on board job taking in harmony with man-power demands in marine industries such as pilotage service; implementation of job attractiveness policy on Korean seafarers; and employment stabilization of Korean seafarers.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 2005

Objectives: Much attention has been paid to sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) in the elderly because of its high prevalence. It is expected that SAS in the elderly has both similarities and differences compared to SAS in the young or middle-aged populations. The aim of this study was to elucidate the characteristics and consequences of SAS in the elderly. Methods: In this study we included 210 young or middle-aged adults between 23 and 59 years (20 women and 190 men) and 65 older adults between 60 and 83 years of age (16 women and 49 men). Respiratory disturbance indices (RDIs) of the study subjects were more than 5 in an overnight polysomnography. They completed the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Informations about body mass index (BMI), neck, waist, and hip measurements, and blood pressure were obtained. Results: No difference was observed between older adults with SAS (older SAS) and adults aged under 60 with SAS (SAS aged under 60) in RDI, apnea index, % time of oxygen saturation less than 90%, and PSQI. Obstructive apnea index and oxygen desaturation index (ODI) were lower in older SAS. Compared to SAS aged under 60, lowest oxygen saturation and central apnea index were higher in older SAS, but they were statistically not significant. BMI and neck circumference were significantly lower in older SAS compared to SAS aged under 60. Diastolic blood pressure was lower in older SAS compared to SAS aged under 60 with no difference in systolic blood pressure. Older SAS showed lower scores in ESS than SAS aged under 60. Significant correlation was observed between RDI and BMI in SAS aged under 60, but not in the case of older SAS. The relationships between RDI and neck circumference, systolic and diastolic pressure, and ESS were similar. Conclusions: The elderly with SAS were not over-weight and there was no relationship between body weight and the severity of SAS. Also, the behavioral and cardiovascular effects of SAS were not marked in the elderly, which might be partly explained by decreased ODI and relatively higher lowest oxygen saturation in older SAS. The normal aging process, aside from increased body weight, might contribute to the development of SAS in the elderly with modest complications.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.247-264
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• 2016

With the rapid acceleration of low-birth rate and population aging, the employment of the neglected groups of people including the middle aged class is a crucial issue in South Korea. In particular, in the 2010s, the number of the middle aged who want to find a new job after retirement age is significantly increasing with the arrival of the retirement time of the baby boom generation (born 1955-1963). Despite the importance of matching jobs to this emerging middle aged class, private job portals as well as the Korean government do not provide any online job service tailored for them. A gigantic amount of job information is available online; however, the current recruiting systems do not meet the demand of the middle aged class as their primary targets are young workers. We are in dire need of a specially designed recruiting system for the middle aged. Meanwhile, when users are searching the desired occupations on the Worknet website, provided by the Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor, users are experiencing discomfort to search for similar jobs because Worknet is providing filtered search results on the basis of exact matches of a preferred job code. Besides, according to our Worknet data analysis, only about 24% of job seekers had landed on a job position consistent with their initial preferred job code while the rest had landed on a position different from their initial preference. To improve the situation, particularly for the middle aged class, we investigate a soft job matching technique by performing the following: 1) we review a user behavior logs of Worknet, which is a public job recruiting system set up by the Korean government and point out key system design implications for the middle aged. Specifically, we analyze the job postings that include preferential tags for the middle aged in order to disclose what types of jobs are in favor of the middle aged; 2) we develope a new occupation classification scheme for the middle aged, Korea Occupation Classification for the Middle-aged (KOCM), based on the similarity between jobs by reorganizing and modifying a general occupation classification scheme. When viewed from the perspective of job placement, an occupation classification scheme is a way to connect the enterprises and job seekers and a basic mechanism for job placement. The key features of KOCM include establishing the Simple Labor category, which is the most requested category by enterprises; and 3) we design MOMA (Middle-aged Occupation Matching Algorithm), which is a hybrid job matching algorithm comprising constraint-based reasoning and case-based reasoning. MOMA incorporates KOCM to expand query to search similar jobs in the database. MOMA utilizes cosine similarity between user requirement and job posting to rank a set of postings in terms of preferred job code, salary, distance, and job type. The developed system using MOMA demonstrates about 20 times of improvement over the hard matching performance. In implementing the algorithm for a web-based application of recruiting system for the middle aged, we also considered the usability issue of making the system easier to use, which is especially important for this particular class of users. That is, we wanted to improve the usability of the system during the job search process for the middle aged users by asking to enter only a few simple and core pieces of information such as preferred job (job code), salary, and (allowable) distance to the working place, enabling the middle aged to find a job suitable to their needs efficiently. The Web site implemented with MOMA should be able to contribute to improving job search of the middle aged class. We also expect the overall approach to be applicable to other groups of people for the improvement of job matching results.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether 12-weeks of movement training would increase the psoas major cross-sectional area (CSA) in senior men and women. Fifty eight men and women aged 65 to 80 years old ($69.6{\pm}3.7$, 30 male, 28 female) were divided into a control (n=19) and exercise group (n=39). Subjects were assessed before and after the training program for stature, body mass, and magnetic resonance imaging of the psoas major and the quadriceps muscle. The experimental group performed exercises using machines designed to improve the movement of the hip at a frequency of twice every week, with a total of 23 trainings in 12-weeks. Magnetic resonance images of both thighs and the abdomen and psoas major were obtained, aimed at 50% of the length of the greater trochanter and the lower edge of the femur and between the fourth (L4) and fifth (L5) lumbars. A 9.4% increase in the psoas major CSA in the training group was observed. In the male and female breakdown, a 11.5% and 8.4% change was observed in males and females, respectively. In the quadriceps, there was no significant statistical improvement in either males or females. Furthermore, in the control group, there was no significant change seen in either the psoas major or the quadriceps. As a result of conducting training that enables upkeep of posture and smooth linkage of the lumbar spine, the pelvis and thighbone, the psoas major CSA of older adults were improved in a short period of time. For this reason, the possibility of improving the psoas CSA, which decreases remarkably with increased age, by improving the linkage of the body trunk is also suggested.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.422-431
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• 2019

Severe droughts in spring have occurred frequently in Korea in recent years, exerting a critical impact on corn yield. Therefore, it is necessary to find physiological and/or molecular indicators of the response to drought stress in maize plants. In this study, we investigated the effects of water-deficit stress on two Korean elite F₁ maize hybrids, Ilmichal and Gwangpyeongok, by withholding water for 10 days at tassel initiation. The water deficit drastically reduced the relative leaf water content, leaf number, leaf area, and stem length, leading to dry matter reduction. Moreover, it reduced the SPAD values and stomatal conductance of leaves in drought-stressed plants of both hybrids. Importantly, the number of leaves and SPAD value were non-destructive and easy to investigate in response to water-deficit stress, suggesting that they may be useful indicators for screening drought-tolerant genetic resources. We detected more than 100 spots that were differentially accumulated under drought stress. Of these spots, a total of 21 protein spots (≥1.5-fold) from drought-exposed maize leaves were successfully analyzed by MALDI-TOF-TOF mass spectrometry. Functional annotation using Gene Ontology analysis revealed that most of the identified proteins were involved in carbohydrate metabolism, stress response fatty acid catabolism, photosynthesis, energy metabolism, and transport. The protein expression levels were increased in both Ilmichal and Gwangpyeongok, except for triosephosphate isomerase, fructose-bisphosphate aldolase, and an uncharacterized protein. The lactoylglutathione lyase delta (3,5)-delta (2,4)-dienoyl-CoA isomerase was overexpressed in Gwangpyeongok only. The results obtained from this study suggest that the drought-specific genes may be useful as molecular markers for screening drought-tolerant maize genotypes.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.441-446
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• 1998

Purpose : The incidence of esophageal carcinoma is increasing. Radical surgery is the treatment of choice, but large proportion of the esophageal cancer patients are with unresectable disease at the time of initial diagnosis, so radiation therapy has been the major treatment modality. We carried out retrospective analysis to see the outcome and prognostic factors of radiation therapy alone for esophageal carcinoma. Methods and Materials : From June of 1979 through December 1992, 289 patients with esophageal carcinoma were treated with radiation therapy alone at Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Seoul National University Hospital. Of these patients, 84 patients were excluded as they were ineligible for the current analyses. Twenty-two patients had distant metastasis other than supraclavicular lymph node metastasis, 52 patients received less than 45 Gy, and 10 patient were lost from follow-up. Therefore 205 patients constituted the base population of this study. According to AJCC s1aging system, there were 2 patients with stage 1, 104 with stage IIA, 26 with stage IIB, 48 with stage III, and 25 with stage IV Radiation dose ranged from 4500 cGy to 6980 cGy with median dose of 5940 cGy. Follow-up period of the alive patients ranged from 77 to 180 months. Results : The Median survival period of all the patients was II months and the 2-, 5-, and 10-year overall survival rates were 22.4$\%$, 10.2$\%$ and 5.3$\%$, respectively. Most of the failures were local recurrences. Of 169 failures, 134 had local failure as a component and 111 had local recurrence only. The Lymph node was most common distant metastatic site and the next was the lung. The stage, T-stage, N-stage, functional status, tumor size, and aim of treatment were statistically significant prognostic factors for survival by univariate analyses. But only tumor size and N-stage were significant by multivariate analyses. Conclusion : We could get 10.2$\%$ of 5 year survival rate and 5.3$\%$ of 10 year survival rate with radiation therapy alone. The size of tumor and N-stage were statistically significant prognostic factors for survival on multivariate analyses.