• Women's Health Nursing
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.217-230
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• 1998

The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to define the relationship between the experience of Sanhuujori, Korean traditional non-professional postpartal care after delivery and abortion and present health status of chronic arthritis female patient who visited to outpatient clinic of rheumatic internal medicine at a hospital located in Seoul, Korea. A convenience sample of 64 women who orally agreed to be a participant and data were collected form October 1996 to May, 1997 for sis months by way of interview with semistructured questionnaire. The data were analyzed by the SPSS pc program using t-test, ANOVA and Scheffe test as a post hoc and Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The results of the study were as follows ; Mean age of participants was 53.2 years and mean number of children was 3.1. Mean frequency of abortion was 2.1 times per woman. Seventy four percentage of respondents did not have Sanhujori after abortion. The mean period of Sanhujori after delivery was 17.7, 15.2, 13.8 days from the first child to third child and shorter than that of general woman such as 20.0, 19.0, 17.3 days in the previous study. On the subjective evaluation of whether the women did Sanhujori well or not, the rate of 'did Sanhujori wrongly' was the highest rank in each child where as general woman 'did Sanhujori well' at the first child, 'moderate' at the second and third child and 'did Sanhujori wrongly' at the 4th and fifth child. The health status implies both subjective health status women perceived and the rate of complaints of physical symptom distress women are experiencing presently. The respondents of 82.5% perceived them as unhealthy or sick and 68.9% of women complained more than two symptoms. Mean number of physical symptom distress women complained was 2.33. The main sites of physical symptom distress were upper & lower extremities 69.1% including knee and hand, whole body 19.1%, neck 3.7%, waist & shoulders 2.7% respectively. The characteristics of the symptoms were mostly pain 60%, swelling 19.8%, rigidity & deformity 7.9% respectively, sensation of heat 6.8% and weakness 1.7%. Women perceived the etiology of the chronic arthritis as stress 25.8%, 'did Sanhujori wrongly' & overwork 23.4% respectively, genetic 12.9%, malnutrition, 4.8%, and aging process 3.2%. There were significant positive correlation between subjective health status and the period of Sanhujori after delivery of the second child(r=-0.22) and negative correlation with the number of child at the level of 5% of significance statistically(r=0.27). There were significant negative correlation between the rate of complaints of physical symptom distress and the subjective evaluation whether she did Sanhujori well or not at the level of 5% of significance statistically(r=-0.23). And the rate of complaints of physical symptom distress in the group of women who experienced abortion was significantly higher than that of women who did not experience it at the level of 5% significance statistically(t=2.00) In conclusion, this finding reconfirmed the possible relationship between health status of chronic arthritis female patient and the experience of Sanhujori after delivery & abortion. It provides a challenge to the professional care givers to research further on the effects of Sanhujori on the health status, health recovery after abortion or delivery from the various aspects through the crosssectional and longitudinal research for the refinement of the reality of not only as cultural phenomenon but as conceptual model for the appropriateness of intervention and quality of care for desirable health outcomes.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.111-132
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• 1999

This correlational descriptive study sought to define the relationship between the experience of Sanhujori, Korean tradition non-professional postpartal care after delivery and abortion and present physical symptom distress of arthritis female who visited to outpatient clinic of rheumatic internal medicine at three hospital located in Seoul, Pusan, Chongju, Korea. Data from a convenience sample of 98 women who orally agreed to be respondent were collected from September 1, 1998 to October 31, 1998 for two months by way of interview with semi-structured questionnaire. Data analysis consisted of frequency, percentage, mean, S. D., Pearson Correlation Coefficient, t-test, ANOVA and Scheffe test as a post hoc by SPSS. The results of the study were as follows ; Mean age of participants as 52.8 years and mean number of children 3.3. Mean frequency of child birth was 3.1 times per woman, 67.4% of respondents had menopause, 57.0% did not have Sunhujori after abortion. The health status implies the subjective health status women perceived, which came from the three points of view of the present, comparative with other of same age and changed after delivery. The respondents of 76.1% perceived them as unhealthy and the main sites of physical symptom distress were upper & lower extremities including knee and hand 34.8%, shoulder 26.5%, waist 22.4%. Women perceived the etiology of the arthritis as 'did Sanhujori wrongly' 36.7%, 'aging process' 24.5%, 'stress' 16.3%, 'overwork' 15.3%, 'Immunocompromize' & 'physical constitution' 7.1% respectively, 'character' 3.1%, 'genetic' 2.0%, 'malnutrition' 1.0%. The mean period of Sanhujori after delivery was 20.4 at the first child and 18.1 at the second child. The higher frequency of child birth, the shorter period of Sanhujori. For the subjective evaluation of whether the women did Sanhujori well or not, the rate of 'did Sanhujori well' was the highest rank in the first child and the rate of 'did not particularly Sanhujori well' was the highest rank in the last child. There was a significant positive correlation between physical function disability and rheumatoid arthritis symptom at the level of 1% of significance statistically(r=.406). And a positive correlation between physical function disability and Sanhubyung symptom at the level of 5% of significance statistically(r=.224). There was a significant positive correlation among rheumatoid arthritis symptom, Sanhubyung symptom and menopause symptom at the level of 1%-5% of significance statistically. Most of all, the correlation between Sanhubyung symptom and menopause symptom was the higher than others. There was a negative correlation between the present physical symptom distress and experience of Sanhujori(r=.-130), however it was not significant statistically. However, there was a positive correlation between subjective health status and experience of Sanhujori at the level of 1% of significance statistically(r=.328). In conclusion, this finding reconfirmed the positive relationship between the perceived health status and experience of Sanhujori after delivery among women of arthritis. It provides a challenge to the professional care givers to study further on the effects of Sanhuiori after abortion or delivery on the physical symptom distress from the variouis aspects through the cross-sectional and longitudinal research. The strategy for the development of the appropriate intervention for primary prevention of sequele after childbirth and quality of care for desirable health outcomes for postpartal women with considering deeply on the relationship between women's health and postapartal care.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제45권12호
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• pp.1577-1584
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• 2002

Purpose : Airway inflammation is considered to be a characteristic feature of asthma, and eosinophils are recognized as the most important inflammatory cells. This study aims to assess the importance of blood eosinophil count and serum eosinophil cationic protein(ECP) levels as a noninvasive marker of bronchial hyperresponsiveness(BHR) in children with suspected asthma. Methods : This study used data from 87 subjects with asthma-like symptoms(6-18 years old). The $FEV_1$ and provocative concentration producing a 20% fall in $FEV_1(PC_{20})$ on methacholin inhalation challenge test were measured. Four groups were classified based on $PC_{20}$[Group I : <2 mg/mL; Group II : 2-8 mg/mL; Group III : 8-18 mg/mL; Group IV : (18 mg/mL], and blood eosinophil count and serum ECP levels were analyzed. In addition, subjects were classified based on the cutoff value of $PC_{20}$(BHR positive group : <18 mg/mL; BHR negative group : (18 mg/mL). Then blood eosinophil count and serum ECP level were compared between these two groups. Results : Likelihood ratio test for trends revealed a significant association between the blood eosinophil count or serum ECP level, and the degree of BHR as measured by methacholine $PC_{20}$. Blood eosinophil count or serum ECP level was significantly higher in the BHR(+) group than in the BHR(-) group. Blood eosinophil count had a positive correlation with serum ECP level. Conclusion : Blood eosinophil count and serum ECP level may be a useful non-invasive clinical marker of BHR in subjects with suspected asthma. This supports the hypothesis that BHR in asthma is a consequence of airway eosinophilic inflammation.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제53권4호
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• pp.481-487
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• 2010

Purpose: Recently many studies show early exposure during childhood growth to endotoxin (lipopolysaccharides, LPS) and/or early exposure to allergens exhibit important role in development of allergy including bronchial asthma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of endotoxin and allergen exposure in early life via the airways in the pathogenesis of allergic airways inflammation and airway hyperresposiveness (AHR) in mouse model of asthma. Methods: Less than one week-old Balb/c mice was used. Groups of mice were received either a single intranasal instillation of sterile physiologic saline, 1% ovalbumin (OVA), LPS or $1.0{\mu}g$ LPS in 1% OVA. On 35th day, these animals were sensitized with 1% OVA for 10 consecutive days via the airways. Animals were challenged with ovalbumin for 3 days on 55th days, and airway inflammation, hyperresponsiveness, and cytokine expression were assessed. Measurements of airway function were obtained in unrestrained animals, using whole-body plethysmography. Airway responsiveness was expressed in terms of % enhanced pause (Penh) increase from baseline to aerosolized methacholine. Lung eosinophilia, serum OVA-IgE and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid cytokine levels were also assessed. ANOVA was used to determine the levels of difference between all groups. Comparisons for all pairs were performed by Tukey-Kramer honest significant difference test; $P$ values for significance were set to 0.05. Results: Sensitized and challenged mice with OVA showed significant airway eosinophilia and heightened responsiveness to methacholine. Early life exposure of OVA and/or LPS via the airway prevented both development of AHR as well as bronchoalveolar lavage fluid eosinophilia. Exposure with OVA or LPS also resulted in suppression of interleukin (IL)-4, 5 production in BAL fluid and OVA specific IgE in blood. Conclusion: These results indicate that antigen and/or LPS exposure in the early life results in inhibition of allergic responses to OVA in this mouse model of astham. Our data show that early life exposure with OVA and/or LPS may have a protective role in the development of allergic airway inflammation and development of allergen-induced airway responses in mouse model of asthma.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.63-104
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• 2011

The study examines the relationships among employee's goal orientation, IT personnel competency, personal effectiveness. The goal orientation includes learning goal orientation, performance approach goal orientation, and performance avoid goal orientation. Personal effectiveness consists of personal work satisfaction and personal work performance. In general, IT personnel competency refers to IT expert's skills, expertise, and knowledge required to perform IT activities in organizations. However, due to the advent of the internet and the generalization of IT, IT personnel competency turns out to be an important competency of technological experts as well as employees in organizations. While the competency of IT itself is important, the appropriate harmony between IT personnel's business capability and technological capability enhances the value of human resources and thus provides organizations with sustainable competitive advantages. The rapid pace of organization change places increased pressure on employees to continually update their skills and adapt their behavior to new organizational realities. This challenge raises a number of important questions concerning organizational behavior? Why do some employees display remarkable flexibility in their behavioral responses to changes in the organization, whereas others firmly resist change or experience great stress when faced with the need to alter behavior? Why do some employees continually strive to improve themselves over their life span, whereas others are content to forge through life using the same basic knowledge and skills? Why do some employees throw themselves enthusiastically into challenging tasks, whereas others avoid challenging tasks? The goal orientation proposed by organizational psychology provides at least a partial answer to these questions. Goal orientations refer to stable personally characteristics fostered by "self-theories" about the nature and development of attributes (such as intelligence, personality, abilities, and skills) people have. Self-theories are one's beliefs and goal orientations are achievement motivation revealed in seeking goals in accordance with one's beliefs. The goal orientations include learning goal orientation, performance approach goal orientation, and performance avoid goal orientation. Specifically, a learning goal orientation refers to a preference to develop the self by acquiring new skills, mastering new situations, and improving one's competence. A performance approach goal orientation refers to a preference to demonstrate and validate the adequacy of one's competence by seeking favorable judgments and avoiding negative judgments. A performance avoid goal orientation refers to a preference to avoid the disproving of one's competence and to avoid negative judgements about it, while focusing on performance. And the study also examines the moderating role of work career of employees to investigate the difference in the relationship between IT personnel competency and personal effectiveness. The study analyzes the collected data using PASW 18.0 and and PLS(Partial Least Square). The study also uses PLS bootstrapping algorithm (sample size: 500) to test research hypotheses. The result shows that the influences of both a learning goal orientation (${\beta}$ = 0.301, t = 3.822, P < 0.000) and a performance approach goal orientation (${\beta}$ = 0.224, t = 2.710, P < 0.01) on IT personnel competency are positively significant, while the influence of a performance avoid goal orientation(${\beta}$ = -0.142, t = 2.398, p < 0.05) on IT personnel competency is negatively significant. The result indicates that employees differ in their psychological and behavioral responses according to the goal orientation of employees. The result also shows that the impact of a IT personnel competency on both personal work satisfaction(${\beta}$ = 0.395, t = 4.897, P < 0.000) and personal work performance(${\beta}$ = 0.575, t = 12.800, P < 0.000) is positively significant. And the impact of personal work satisfaction(${\beta}$ = 0.148, t = 2.432, p < 0.05) on personal work performance is positively significant. Finally, the impacts of control variables (gender, age, type of industry, position, work career) on the relationships between IT personnel competency and personal effectiveness(personal work satisfaction work performance) are partly significant. In addition, the study uses PLS algorithm to find out a GoF(global criterion of goodness of fit) of the exploratory research model which includes a mediating variable, IT personnel competency. The result of analysis shows that the value of GoF is 0.45 above GoFlarge(0.36). Therefore, the research model turns out be good. In addition, the study performs a Sobel Test to find out the statistical significance of the mediating variable, IT personnel competency, which is already turned out to have the mediating effect in the research model using PLS. The result of a Sobel Test shows that the values of Z are all significant statistically (above 1.96 and below -1.96) and indicates that IT personnel competency plays a mediating role in the research model. At the present day, most employees are universally afraid of organizational changes and resistant to them in organizations in which the acceptance and learning of a new information technology or information system is particularly required. The problem is due' to increasing a feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty in improving past practices in accordance with new organizational changes. It is not always possible for employees with positive attitudes to perform their works suitable to organizational goals. Therefore, organizations need to identify what kinds of goal-oriented minds employees have, motivate them to do self-directed learning, and provide them with organizational environment to enhance positive aspects in their works. Thus, the study provides researchers and practitioners with a matter of primary interest in goal orientation and IT personnel competency, of which they have been unaware until very recently. Some academic and practical implications and limitations arisen in the course of the research, and suggestions for future research directions are also discussed.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제22권3호
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• pp.53-74
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• 2012

A challenge in fostering virtual communities is the continuous supply of knowledge, namely members' willingness to contribute knowledge to their communities. Previous research argues that giving away knowledge eventually causes the possessors of that knowledge to lose their unique value to others, benefiting all except the contributor. Furthermore, communication within virtual communities involves a large number of participants with different social backgrounds and perspectives. The establishment of mutual understanding to comprehend conversations and foster knowledge contribution in virtual communities is inevitably more difficult than face-to-face communication in a small group. In spite of these arguments, evidence suggests that individuals in virtual communities do engage in social behaviors such as knowledge contribution. It is important to understand why individuals provide their valuable knowledge to other community members without a guarantee of returns. In virtual communities, knowledge is inherently rooted in individual members' experiences and expertise. This personal nature of knowledge requires social interactions between virtual community members for knowledge transfer. This study employs the social capital theory in order to account for interpersonal relationship factors and identity theory for individual and group factors that may affect knowledge contribution. First, social capital is the relationship capital which is embedded within the relationships among the participants in a network and available for use when it is needed. Social capital is a productive resource, facilitating individuals' actions for attainment. Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1997) identify three dimensions of social capital and explain theoretically how these dimensions affect the exchange of knowledge. Thus, social capital would be relevant to knowledge contribution in virtual communities. Second, existing research has addressed the importance of identity in facilitating knowledge contribution in a virtual context. Identity in virtual communities has been described as playing a vital role in the establishment of personal reputations and in the recognition of others. For instance, reputation systems that rate participants in terms of the quality of their contributions provide a readily available inventory of experts to knowledge seekers. Despite the growing interest in identities, however, there is little empirical research about how identities in the communities influence knowledge contribution. Therefore, the goal of this study is to better understand knowledge contribution by examining the roles of social capital and identity in virtual communities. Based on a theoretical framework of social capital and identity theory, we develop and test a theoretical model and evaluate our hypotheses. Specifically, we propose three variables such as cohesiveness, reciprocity, and commitment, referring to the social capital theory, as antecedents of knowledge contribution in virtual communities. We further posit that members with a strong identity (self-presentation and group identification) contribute more knowledge to virtual communities. We conducted a field study in order to validate our research model. We collected data from 192 members of virtual communities and used the PLS method to analyse the data. The tests of the measurement model confirm that our data set has appropriate discriminant and convergent validity. The results of testing the structural model show that cohesion, reciprocity, and self-presentation significantly influence knowledge contribution, while commitment and group identification do not significantly influence knowledge contribution. Our findings on cohesion and reciprocity are consistent with the previous literature. Contrary to our expectations, commitment did not significantly affect knowledge contribution in virtual communities. This result may be due to the fact that knowledge contribution was voluntary in the virtual communities in our sample. Another plausible explanation for this result may be the self-selection bias for the survey respondents, who are more likely to contribute their knowledge to virtual communities. The relationship between self-presentation and knowledge contribution was found to be significant in virtual communities, supporting the results of prior literature. Group identification did not significantly affect knowledge contribution in this study, inconsistent with the wealth of research that identifies group identification as an important factor for knowledge sharing. This conflicting result calls for future research that examines the role of group identification in knowledge contribution in virtual communities. This study makes a contribution to theory development in the area of knowledge management in general and virtual communities in particular. For practice, the results of this study identify the circumstances under which individual factors would be effective for motivating knowledge contribution to virtual communities.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• 제38권3호
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• pp.213-223
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• 2011

This study was conducted to test the efficacy of plum (Prunus mume) and red ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A Meyer) marc as stress inhibitors under heat stress and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge in broilers by investigating their effects on blood biochemical parameters, immunoglobulin concentration and splenic cytokine mRNA expressions. A total of one hundred ninety-two 1-d-old male broiler chicks (Ross 308) were divided into 2 stress conditions (heat and LPS) experiments. Each experiment was divided into 4 treatment groups with 8 replicates of 3 birds in each group. NC (negative control, no immune substances), PC (positive control, 25 ppm ${\beta}$-glucan), PM (1% plum marc) and RGM (3% red ginseng marc) treatments were administered with respective substance through water supplementation. During heat stress, The Ca/Mg ratio in PM and RGM was significantly decreased in comparison with that of NC (P<0.05). The immunoglobulin M was significantly lower in PM than in NC (P<0.05). Expression patterns of splenic cytokine mRNAs (IL-1, IL-2 and IL-6) were similar over the treatment. Expression rates of IL-1 and IL-2 in PM were significantly decreased in comparison with NC. Also, expression rates of IL-1, IL-2 and IL-6 were significantly lower in RGM than in NC (P<0.05). In conclusion, the dietary supplementation of plum and red ginseng marc improved coping ability to heat stress by preventing Ca/Mg ratio increment and by inhibiting inflammatory response in broiler chicks. However, it is necessary to determine optimal dietary level of red ginseng marc for improving growth performances in broiler chickens. These results suggest the possibility that plum and red ginseng marc could be used as the stress inhibitor under heat stress and inflammatory response in broiler chicks.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.11-20
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• 1993

To study the immune responses of the japanese eel. Anguilla japonica, fish were injected intraperitoneally with several types of Edwardsiella tarda antigen, i. e., FKC(formalin killed cells), HKC(heat killed cells) or LPS(lipopolysaccharide), and the changes of immunocytes numbers, phagocytosis and agglutination titre in the peripheral blood of the fish were investigated. The number of lymphocytes in the peripheral blood of eels were decreased until 6 hours after injection, and then were turn to normal levels after 24 hours of injection. However, the level were slightly increased and were remained after 24 hours. The number of neutrophils of FKC, HKC or LPS injected fish were the highest at 12 hours after injection and were decreased slowly after that. Three weeks after the injections, the agglutination of antibody titre of all immunized groups were reached at 128 and were remained this level thereafter. However 6 weeks after the injections, that in HKC injected fish were dropped the level up to 4. Fish were injected with LPS and the blood from the fish were bled after 12 hours. Then the blood were incubated with E. tarda. Six hours after incubation, the phagocytic index was reached the highest level, 28.3. One week after the LPS injection, the blood were again bled and incubated with E. tarda. The phagocytic index at this time was 3.9. The phagocytic indexes of the fish injected with FKC and HKC, treted as same LPS injected fish as above, were 18.8 and 10.7, respectively. The phagocytic index of the control fish was 1.2. The antibacterial activities of normal antiserum against E. tarda were shown for both FKC and LPS injected fish, but not for HKC injected fish. The RPS(relative percentage of survival) of HKC, FKC and LPS injected fish in the challenge test were 10%, 20% and 30%, respectively. These results suggest that the effect of protection of the eel which were injected with antigen were varied with the method of preparation of the antigen.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• 제19권4호
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• pp.247-253
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• 2006

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of ${\beta}-1,3$ glucan on growth and immune responses in juvenile olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus fed the white fish meal based diets for 6 weeks. Five experimental diets supplemented with ${\beta}-1,3$ glucan at 0, 0.01, 0.025, 0.05, 0.1 % (Control, $G_{0.01},\;G_{0.025},\;G_{0.05}\;and\;G_{0.1}$, respectively) of diet on a dry-matter basis. Five experimental diets were formulated to be isonitrogenous and isocaloric to contain 50.0% crude protein and 16.7 kJ available energy $g^{-1}$. Fish averaging $3.2{\pm}0.1\;g\;(mean{\pm}SD)$ were randomly distributed in each aquarium as triplicate groups of 15 fish. Weight gain (WG, %), specific growth rate (SGR, %), and feed efficiency (FE, %) of fish fed $G_{0.1}$ diet were found significantly higher than those of fish fed Control, $G_{0.01},\;G_{0.025}\;and\;G_{0.05}$ diets (P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference among the fish fed control, $G_{0.01},\;G_{0.025}$. Chemiluminescent responses (CL) of fish fed $G_{0.1}$ diet were significantly higher than those of fish fed the other diets. Serum lysozyme activities of fish fed $G_{0.05}$ and $G_{0.1}$ diets were higher than those of fish fed control, $G_{0.025}$ and $G_{0.05}$ diets. Fish fed $G_{0.1}$ diet showed a significantly lower cumulative mortality than did fish fed control diet throughout the challenge test (P<0.05). These results suggested that based on growth rate, feed efficiency, non-specific immunity and protection against microbial infections the optimum dietary ${\beta}-1,3$ gulcan could be greater than 0.05% but less than 1.0% in juvenile olive flounder, Paralichthys oilvaceus.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제52권7호
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• pp.811-817
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• 2009

Purpose : Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are used as first-line agents for the treatment of persistent asthma; however, their use is accompanied by apprehension of potential systemic adverse effects. This study aimed to assess the effects of ICS on bone mineral density (BMD) and bone metabolism in children with asthma. Methods : From February 2008 to September 2008, 26 asthmatic children treated with ICS (ICS group), 15 asthmatic children treated with leukotriene receptor antagonist (LTRA) (LTRA group), and 30 healthy children (Control group) were selected from the Korea University Anam Hospital. BMD and serum bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BALP) levels were measured. The asthmatic children underwent spirometry and methacholine bronchial challenge test. Results : There were no significant differences in BMD in the lumbar spine (P=0.254) and proximal femur (P=0.297) among the 3 groups. The serum BALP levels were significantly higher in both the ICS (P=0.017) and LTRA (P=0.025) groups than in the Control group. None of the parameters pertaining to ICS use, such as the mean daily dose during the last 6 months, the total cumulative dose, duration of use, and age of commencement of use, showed significant correlations with BMD (P>0.05 for all parameters). Conclusions : We demonstrated that a low dose of ICS does not exert any significant adverse effect on bone metabolism in asthmatic children. These findings support the current recommendations with regard to the use of ICS for asthmatic children.