• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.121-130
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• 2008

Purpose: This study was undertaken to identify stroke risk with risk factors and knowledge of stork in women with prehypertension. Methods: A total of 46 pre-hypertensive women in urban area aged 44.8 (SD 11.4) yr old in average were selected by a convenient sampling. Demographic data, risk factors, and knowledge of stroke were assessed through face to face interview. Stroke risk scores were calculated based on points given to age, systolic blood pressure, smoking, DM, and heart disease in Framingham stroke risk score. Data were analyzed by SPSS WIN 12.0 using descriptive statistics, two sample t-test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results: The mean systolic blood pressure of participants was 133.11 mmHg, and HDL cholesterol was lower than the recommended level, although rest of physiologic risk factors were within normal. Of the participants, 82% did not do regular physical activity and 75% did not control fat intake persistently. Mean stroke risk points and knowledge scores were 4.48 and 29.15, respectively, which were significantly different between women with and without persistent controlling fat intake. Conclusion: Results indicate stroke prevention intervention for prehypertensive women should address comprehensively modifying lifestyle as well as physiologic factors, and information focusing on stroke risk factors and warning symptoms.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2011

Objectives : The objective of this study is to assess the prevalence and risk factors of metabolic syndrome (MS) among inpatients with schizophrenia, and to compare with general population. Methods : Nine hundreds seventy inpatients were included to assess the prevalence of MS from two mental hospitals in Yong-in city. Assessment of MS was performed based on modified American Heart Association criteria with abdominal obesity threshold of 90cm for men, 85cm for women. Comparative analysis was performed using age- and gender matched sample from Korea Health and Nutritional Examination Survey III. For evaluating risk factors, analysis included 766 inpatients taking consistent medications at least for 30 days. Results : The prevalence of MS of inpatients with schizophrenia was 26.2%, in females it was 33.2%, compared to 20.2% in males(p < 0.001). Compared to general population, the prevalence of MS was significantly lower in male and higher in female patients. In terms of criteria prevalence, who met abdominal circumference criterion were more prevalent in patient group(p < 0.001). After multivariate analysis, female gender and old age remained as risk factors of MS. Conclusions : The prevalence of MS of inpatients with schizophrenia was 26.2% and significantly low compared to general population. Female gender and old age were risk factors of MS.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.179-184
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• 2016

Objectives This study was conducted to investigate the possibility of neurological soft signs as an endophenotype for schizophrenia by examining neurological soft signs in patients, their unaffected siblings and normal comparison subjects. Methods The study sample consisted of 32 patients, 25 of their unaffected siblings and 30 normal comparison subjects. Neurological soft signs were evaluated using the Cambridge Neurological Inventory Part 2. soft sign assessment. Results The patients were significantly more impaired than normal comparison subjects (p = 0.047) on primitive reflex. The patients were significantly more impaired than siblings (p = 0.004) and normal comparison subjects (p = 0.021) on motor coordination. The siblings performed better on sensory integration than the patients (p = 0.020) and normal comparison subjects (p = 0.036). Conclusions This study suggests that neurological soft signs might be a potential biomarker for schizophrenia, but might not be an endophenotype for schizophrenia.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.246-250
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• 2001

The dopamine D4 receptor gene has a hypervariable segment in the coding region characterized by a varying number of 48bp repeats in exon III of the gene. Varying the numbers of repeated segments may change the length, structure, and function of the receptor, which makes this gene a possible candidate for variations in dopamine-related behaviors, such as alcoholism and drug abuse. We evaluated the dopamine D4 receptor genotype in male alcoholics and normal controls. All alcoholics and controls were unrelated and from the Korean population. Genotype and allele frequencies in 67 alcoholics were compared to 67 controls who were free of alcohol abuse, substance abuse, and major mental illness. No association was found between the dopamine D4 receptor allele and alcoholism. This result indicate that there is no association of the dopamine D4 receptor with alcoholism in Korean. Further systemized investigation to determine the role of dopamine D4 receptor gene in alcoholism with a larger sample size will be required.

• Current Research on Agriculture and Life Sciences
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2013

The exposure of food to ionizing radiation has been recognized as a safe and effective mode of food preservation in more than 55 countries. The benefits include eradication of insect pests, inactivation of food pathogens, extension of shelf-life, and improvement in food hygiene. Regulatory authorities around the world have emphasized the implementation of various national and international regulations to facilitate trade and development of consumers' confidence in purchasing irradiated foods. Therefore, the need for reliable irradiation detection methods has increased to enforce these regulations. At present, a number of promising analytical approaches have been developed and evaluated. Moreover, about 10 European Standards have been adopted as General CODEX Alimentarius methods for the detection of irradiated foodstuffs. However, most of these methods demand relatively expensive equipment and prolonged sample preparation. Therefore, simple and cost-effective approaches would be advantageous for rapid screening of foodstuffs. The suspected samples need to be analyzed further with more validated techniques to confirm the screening results. In this review, existing screening methods (i.e. physical, chemical, and biological) for the identification of irradiated foods have been outlined along with their principles, scopes and limitations.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.115-126
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• 2004

The actinomycete strain PK-A41 was isolated from a soil sample from pepper fields in Ko-yang, Korea. The strain PK-A41 inhibited the mycelial growth of some plant pathogenic fungi and oomycete, Alternaria mali, Colletotrichum orbiculare, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici, Magnaporthe grisea, Rhizoctonia solani, and Phytophthora capsici. The presence of LL-diaminopi-melic acid in the cell wall extract and the nucleotide sequence of the 16S rDNA region of the strain PK-A41 was assigned to Streptomyces scabiei. Further morpho-logical, biochemical, and pathological analyses also confirmed the strain PK-A41 to be S. scabiei, which is pathogenic to potato tubers. The maximum antibiotic production of the strain PK-A41 was achieved when grown on the glycerol peptone broth (GPB) medium for 9 days.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.369-375
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• 2012

The current study was carried out to investigate the impact of extraction conditions on the free amino acid level and type in beef longissimus muscle. The sample blocks were chiller aged for 1 d and 7 d at $4^{\circ}C$. There are three homogenization speeds (11,000, 19,000 and 24,000 rpm) for bigger and two speeds (11,000 and 13,000 rpm) for smaller homogenizer's dispersing tools were used for evaluation. Results showed that chiller ageing greatly (p<0.05) increased extractable free amino acids, except cystine. Homogenization with the bigger dispersing tool at 24,000 rpm resulted in the highest free amino acid levels for both 1 and 7 d samples. Significant differences (p<0.05) in the mean values of most amino acids due to the effect of speed and interactions between ageing times. However, the speed effect and interaction between ageing with homogenization speed were not significant (p>0.05) for most of the amino acids except valine and isoleucine when using the smaller dispensing tools. The current data indicated that a standardized method for free amino acid types and levels of aged beef samples. In addition, the results also suggested that utilization of a big dispensing tool at high homogenization speed is a better condition for releasing free amino acid contents in beef samples.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.335-354
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• 2001

This study was designed to investigate biological activity of antler extract added medical plants. The scavenging activity of DPPH radical was low scavenging activity at 0.01% concentration. But in the 0.05% and higher concentration, electron donating ability(EDA) is above 50% except Kongindangagam(48.5%) and significantly good above 70% in the 4 extracts. Superoxide dismutase(SOD)-like activity was 44.3% and 45.1% extracts of Ohjayenjongwhangami and M(market sample), Inhibition of xanthine oxidase were above 50% at 0.5% concentration except Boshingiwhangwhangami and from 62.4% to 84.9% in the 4 extracts. Inhibition rate of boshingiwhangwhangami was hasty increased from 33.5% to 77.5% at 1.0% concentration and others the higher concentration, the more increasing inhibition. Angiotension I-converting enzyme(ACE) inhibitory activities were high activity all of extracts. In the 0.5% concentration, ACE inhibition was above 80%. Especially 0.01% concentration of M was presented 81.8%. The study which conducted to investigate the effect of feeding antler extract group for 50 days on sperm concentration, Ca contents of serum, kidney and femur in rats was higher than that saline group.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.356-362
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• 2009

The objective of this study was to investigate the biological activities of fermented mugworts and their effects on the lipid metabolism in hyperlipidemia-induced rats. The proximate compositions of two kinds of mugwort, Artemisia capillaris Thumberg and Artemisiae asiaticae Nakai, were compared before and after fermentation. In both types of mugwort crude protein and amino nitrogen contents markedly increased with fermentation. Thrombolytic activity determined from the size of the clear zone on a fibrin plate was higher for the Artemisiae asiaticae Nakai, especially in the fermented sample. Antioxidative activity according to DPPH(1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging effects was higher for Artemisia capillaris Thumberg but no significant differences were found between the samples after fermentation. The body weights of hyperlipidemia-induced rats that were fed the mugworts for 4 weeks were lower than those of the control group. In all the mugwort-fed rats serum total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels remarkably decreased. Furthermore the fermented mugworts were found to be more effective at decreasing triglyceride (TG) levels. It is also noteworthy that the highest HDL-cholesterol levels were observed in the rats treated with the fermented Artemisiae asiaticae Nakai. And fatty liver weights were higher in the rats fed Artemisia capillaris Thumberg. In conclusion the feeding of fermented Artemisiae asiaticae Nakai was effective for increasing thrombolytic activity and HDL-cholesterol levels as well as reducing TG levels in rats.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.285-290
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• 2003

An analytical method for the simultaneous determination of trace Ge, As and Se in biological samples by inductively coupled plasma/mass spectrometry has been investigated. The effects of added organic gas into the coolant argon gas on the analyte signal were studied to improve the detection limit, accuracy and precision. The addition of a small amount of methane (10 mL/min.) into the coolant gas channel improved the ionization of Ge, As and Se. The analytical sensitivity of the proposed Ar/CH₄system was superior by at least two-fold to that of the conventional Ar method. In the present method, the detection limits obtained for Ge, As and Se were 0.014, 0.012 and 0.064 ㎍/L, respectively. The analytical reliability of the proposed method was evaluated by analyzing the certified standard reference materials (SRM). Recoveries of 99.9% for Ge, 103% for As, 96.5% for Se were obtained for NIST SRM of freeze dried urine sample. The proposed method was also applied to the biological samples.