• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.721-728
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• 2011

This study investigates the users' perception of the importance and performance of National Recreation Forest Service Programs quality, forest environmental education and cultural benefits, with the aim of improving the level of service quality within the programs. An Important-Performance Analysis (IPA) was performed to determine significant patterns. The IPA results showed that most users' perceived as important how well the service programs performed to meet their expectations. The enclosed study finds, for example, users' answered that three factors which were less important to them were entrance fee, size of program center or facilities and amount of information. These factors performed poorly, and the program of guidance indicates the need for improvement of these factors. In addition, the finding also suggests how recreational service programs in the future can complement and improve what they offer. These are as follows. The process of preparation and content of the program order need to be effectively established. The Program Director needs to maintain a friendly attitude and must have ongoing training on how to provide effective programs. For programs to be enjoyable and satisfying for users, the location of the programs should provide a comfortable environment. Also, detailed program guidance is required for users' convenience. It is expected that the results of this study will be useful when ameliorating and establishing the marketing strategy of the National Recreation Forest Service Programs.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.69-74
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• 2014

The present study investigated the anti-obesity effects of Mycoleptodonoides aitchisonii (MA) in mice fed a high-fat (HF) diet. Two groups were fed either a normal control diet or an HF (45% kcal fat) diet for 12 weeks and three groups were fed an HF diet supplemented with powdered MA (MAP, 1%, 3%, and 5%) for 12 weeks. The anti-obesity effects of MAP supplementation on body weight, fat mass development, and lipid-related markers were assessed. Consumption of an HF diet resulted in increased body weight, serum lipids, relative adipose tissues weight, and liver fat accumulation. However, administration of MAP significantly decreased body weight gain, food intake, food efficiency ratio, hepatic cholesterol level, and adipose tissue weight in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, treatment with MAP significantly reduced the occurrence of fatty liver deposits and steatosis, and inhibited an HF diet-induced increase in adipocyte size. These results suggest that dietary supplementation with MAP exerts anti-obesity effects and indicate that MAP could be used as a functional food to control obesity.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.259-264
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• 2004

The present study describes the ameliorating effect of $Ca^{++}\;on\;Cd^{++}$ toxicity on the germination, early growth of mungbean seedlings, nitrogen assimilation enzyme. s-nitrate reductase (NR), nitrite reductase (NIR), anti-oxidant enzymes (POD, CAT and SOD) and on the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide and sulphydryls. $Cd^{++}$ inhibited seed germination and root and shoot length of seedlings. While NR activity was down- regulated, the activities of NIR, POD and SOD were up- regulated with $Cd^{++}$ treatment. $Cd^{++}$ treatment also increased the accumulation of sulphydryls and peroxides, which is reflective of increased thiol rich proteins and oxidative stress. $Ca^{++}$ reversed the toxic effects of $Cd^{++}$ on germination and on early growth of seedlings as well as on the enzyme activities, which were in turn differentially inhibited with a combined treatment with calcium specific chelator EGTA. The results indicate that the external application of $Ca^{++}$ may increase the tolerance capacity of plants to environmental pollutants by both up and down regulating metabolic activities. Abbreviations: $Cd^{++}= cadmium,\;Ca^{++} = calcium$, NR= nitrate reductase, NIR=nitrite reductase, POD = peroxidse, SOD= superoxide dismutase, CAT= catalase, EGTA= ethylene glycol-bis( $\beta-aminoethyl ether$)-N,N,N,N-tetraacetic acid.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.337-341
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• 2013

The effects of gypenosides (GPS) on electric footshock (EF)-induced acute stress in mice were investigated. Mice were treated orally with GPS (30-400 mg/kg) once a day for 5 days. After 2 days of GPS treatment, mice were exposed to EF stimuli (intensity, 2 mA; interval, 10 s; duration, 3 min) for acute stress for 3 days. Spontaneous locomotor activity was increased by acute EF stress, which was decreased by treatment with GPS (100 and 400 mg/kg). In addition, the increased levels of dopamine and serotonin by acute EF stress in the brain were reduced by treatment with GPS (100 and 400 mg/kg). The serum levels of corticosterone increased by acute EF stress were also reduced by GPS (100 and 400 mg/kg). These results suggest that GPS shows the ameliorating effects on acute EF stress by modulating the activity of dopaminergic and serotonergic neurons, and the serum levels of corticosterone. Clinical trials of GPS need to be conducted further so as to develop promising anti-stress agents.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.363-371
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• 2007

The methanol extract of the seed of Swietenia macrophylla (Meliaceae) seeds were investigated for its hypoglycaemic activity in normal and alloxan induced diabetic rats. Seed extract suspended in aqueous Tween 80 solution, the graded doses were administered to normal and experimental diabetic rats for 10 days. Fasting blood glucose levels, serum lipid profiles and changes in body weight were evaluated in normal rats while the hepatic marker enzymes and liver glycogen levels were evaluated additionally in diabetic rats. The diabetic groups treated with the seed extract were compared with standard drug glibenclamide. The findings showed the significant antidiabetic potential of the extract in ameliorating the diabetic conditions in diabetic rats. The extract also has hypoglycaemic action in normal rats. A toxicity study has been performed for the extract, which revealed that the extract is safe to use even at the doses of 3.2 mg/kg of body weight orally. The result from the present investigation indicates good correlation between the folk use and scientific investigation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.357-362
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• 2011

Air springs are prevalently used as suspension in train. However, air springs are seldom used in automobiles where they improve stability and comfort by enhancing the impact-relief, breaking, and cornering performance. Thus, this study proposed a new method to analyze air springs and obtained some reliable design parameter which can be utilized in vehicle suspension system in contrast to conventional method. Among air spring types of suspension, this study focused on sleeve type of air spring as an analysis model since it has potential for ameliorating the quality of automobiles, specifically in its stability and comfort improvement by decreasing the shock through rubber sleeve. As a methodology, this study used MARC, as a nonlinear finite element analysis program, in order to find out maximum stress and maximum strain depending on reinforcement cord's angle variation in sleeves. The properties were found through uniaxial tension and pure shear test, and they were developed using Ogden Foam which is an input program of MARC. As a result, the internal maximum stresses and deformation according to the changes of cord angle are obtained. Also, the results showed that the Young's modulus becomes smaller, then maximum stresses decrease. It is believed that these studies can be contributed in automobile suspension system.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.172-178
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• 2016

Using high-fat diet-induced obese (DIO) mice, the mechanism of anti-adiposity and anti-obesity actions produced by Inonotus obliquus water extract (IOE) was investigated. Significant reduction in body weight in DIO mice orally administrated with IOE for 8 weeks compared to IOE-non-treated control mice was observed, which was attributed to the reduction of epididymal and mesenteric adipose tissue, but not the liver and skeletal muscle. Adiponectin synthesis in epididymal adipose tissue (EAT) and AMPK phosphorylation in the liver were significantly increased in IOE-treated DIO mice. Gene expression analysis showed that IOE-treated DIO mice had higher expression levels of lipogenic genes in EAT and fatty-acid oxidative genes in the liver, but lower expression levels of hepatic pro-inflammatory cytokines compared to IOE-non-treated controls. Our findings confirm a therapeutic potential of Inonotus obliquus for reducing adiposity and ameliorating hyperlipidemia to treat metabolic disorders.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.471-476
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• 2006

Chongmyung-tang(CMT, 聰明湯), oriental herbal medicine which consists of Polygaglae Radix(遠志), Acori Graminei Rhizoma(石菖蒲) and Hoelen(白茯神) has effect on amnesia, dementia. In order to evaluate effect of CMT on memory and learning in mice, CMT extract was used for studies. This paper describes the effects of CMT extract on memory and learning processes by using the passive and active avoidance performance tests, novel object recognition task and water maze task. The CMT extract ameliorated the memory retrieval deficit induced by ethanol in the passive avoidance responses but did not affect ambulatory activity of normal mice. These results suggest that CMT has an ameliorating effect on memory retrieval impairment. CMT extract decreased spontaneous motor activity(SMA) in the latter sessions of memory registration in active avoidance responses. These results suggest that CMT has partly transquilizing or antianxiety effects. In novel object recognition task to measure visual recognition memory, CMT-administered mice enhanced in long term memory for 1-3 days. In water maze task to measure spatial learning, which requires the activation of NMDA receptors in the hippocampus, spatial learning in CMT-administered mice was faster than in wild-type mice. These results suggest that CMT enhances memory and activates NMDA receptors.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.5823-5828
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• 2015

Micronutrients in food have been found to have chemopreventive effects, supporting the conclusions from epidemiologie studies that consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables reduces cancer risk. The present study was carried out to evaluate the role of querctin (Q) and sodium gluconate (GNA) supplementation separately or in combination in ameliorating promotion of colon tumor development by dimethyl-hydrazine (DMH) in mice. Histopathological observation of colons in mice treated with DMH showed goblet cell dysplasia with inflammatory cell infiltration. This pathological finding was associated with significant alteration in oxidative stress markers in colon tissues and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels in plasma. Mice co-treated with GNA and Q showed mild changes of absorptive and goblet cells and inflammatory cell infiltration in lamina properia, with improvement in oxidative stress markers. In conclusion, findings of the present study indicate significant roles for reactive oxygen species (ROS) in pathogenesis of DMH-induced colon toxicity and initiation of colon cancer. Also, they suggest that Q, GNA or the combination of both have a positive beneficial effect against DMH induced colonic cancer induction in mice.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.253-259
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• 2015

Chronic low-grade inflammation is associated with obesity. This study investigated effect of high hydrostatic pressure extract of red ginseng (HRG) on inflammation in rats with high-fat (HF) diet induced obesity. Male, Sprague-Dawley rats (80~110 g) were randomly divided into two groups, and fed a 45% HF diet (HF) and a 45% HF diet containing 1.5% HRG (HF+HRG) for 14 weeks. At the end of the experiment, the serum leptin level was reduced by the HRG supplementation. The mRNA expression of genes related to adipogenesis including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma and adipocyte protein 2 was down-regulated in the white adipose tissue (WAT). The mRNA levels of major inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, and interleukin-6 were remarkably down-regulated by the HRG in WAT. These results suggest that HRG might be beneficial in ameliorating the inflammation-associated health complications by suppressing adipogenic and pro-inflammatory gene expression.