• Molecules and Cells
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• v.38 no.9
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• pp.796-805
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• 2015

Gintonin is a novel ginseng-derived lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) receptor ligand. Oral administration of gintonin ameliorates learning and memory dysfunctions in Alzheimer's disease (AD) animal models. The brain cholinergic system plays a key role in cognitive functions. The brains of AD patients show a reduction in acetylcholine concentration caused by cholinergic system impairments. However, little is known about the role of LPA in the cholinergic system. In this study, we used gintonin to investigate the effect of LPA receptor activation on the cholinergic system in vitro and in vivo using wild-type and AD animal models. Gintonin induced $[Ca^{2+}]_i $ transient in cultured mouse hippocampal neural progenitor cells (NPCs). Gintonin-mediated $[Ca^{2+}]_i $ transients were linked to stimulation of acetylcholine release through LPA receptor activation. Oral administration of gintonin-enriched fraction (25, 50, or 100 mg/kg, 3 weeks) significantly attenuated scopolamine-induced memory impairment. Oral administration of gintonin (25 or 50 mg/kg, 1 2 weeks) also significantly attenuated amyloid-${\beta}$ protein ($A{\beta}$)-induced cholinergic dysfunctions, such as decreased acetylcholine concentration, decreased choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity and immunoreactivity, and increased acetylcholine esterase (AChE) activity. In a transgenic AD mouse model, long-term oral administration of gintonin (25 or 50 mg/kg, 3 months) also attenuated AD-related cholinergic impairments. In this study, we showed that activation of G protein-coupled LPA receptors by gintonin is coupled to the regulation of cholinergic functions. Furthermore, this study showed that gintonin could be a novel agent for the restoration of cholinergic system damages due to $A{\beta}$ and could be utilized for AD prevention or therapy.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.240-251
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• 2000

This study was a preliminary study on the adolescent psychiatric patients that show the characteristics of peer group neglect or rejection. We divided the adolescent psychiatric patients(n=25) into neglect-reject group(n=15) and non-neglect group(n=10). Each patient answered 8 scales and several questions about general relationships with friends. And, both the score of each 8 scales and answer about qusetions were examined. Lastly, records of 5 cases from neglect-reject group were analyzed. The depression dimension score of SCL-90-R, anxiety dimension score of SCL-9O-R, paranoid dimension score of SCL-90-R, interaction anxiousness scale(IAS) score were significantly different between 2 groups. On the result of case analysis about 5 patients of neglect-reject group, the adolescent psychiatric patients had a tendency to be rejected or neglected in case of having developmental problems(for example, language development or cognitive impairment).

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.58-69
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• 2017

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly prevalent, impairing, and comorbid disorder that persists into adulthood. ADHD should be diagnosed in the same manner as other common adult mental health disorders. The three most important components in the comprehensive evaluation of patients with ADHD are the clinical interview, medical examination, and completion and scoring of behavior rating scales. The diagnostic evaluation of ADHD should include questions about the symptoms, family history, prior evaluation and treatment of ADHD, as well as other problems including alcohol and drug use. Screening interviews or rating scales, as well as interviews, should be used. When it is feasible, clinicians may wish to supplement these components of the evaluation with the objective assessments of the ADHD symptoms, such as through psychological tests. These tests are not essential to reaching a diagnosis, however, or to treatment planning, but may yield further information about the presence and severity of cognitive impairments that could be associated with some cases of ADHD. As comorbidity is the rule rather than the exception, clinicians should carefully screen for comorbid disorders as part of a comprehensive assessment of ADHD. To receive a diagnosis of ADHD, the person must be experiencing significant distress or impairment in his or her daily functioning, and must not meet the criteria for other mental disorders which might better account for the observed symptoms, such as mental retardation, autism or other pervasive developmental disorders, mood disorders and anxiety disorders. This report aims to suggest practice guidelines for the assessment and diagnosis of children, adolescents and adults with ADHD in Korea.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.85-89
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• 2019

Hyperornithinemia-hyperammonemia-homocitrullinuria (HHH) syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive urea cycle disorder. HHH is caused by a deficiency of the mitochondrial ornithine transporter protein, which is encoded by the solute carrier family 25, member 15 (SLC25A15) gene. Recently, government supported Korean newborn screening has been expanded to include a tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) measurement of ornithine level. We report a case of a neonate with HHH syndrome showing a normal MS/MS measurement of ornithine level. A female newborn was admitted to neonatal intensive unit due to familial history of HHH syndrome. Her parents were consanguineous Parkistani couple. The subject's older sister was diagnosed with HHH syndrome at age of 30 months based on altered mental status and liver dysfunction. Even though the subject displayed normal ammonia and ornithine levels based on MS/MS analysis, a molecular test confirmed the diagnosis of HHH syndrome. At 1 month of age, amino acid analysis of blood and urine showed high levels of ornithine and homocitrulline. After 11 months of follow up, she showed normal growth and development, whereas affected sister showed progressive cognitive impairment despite no further hyperammonemia after protein restriction and standard therapy. Our report is in agreement with a previous Canadian study, which showed that neonatal samples from HHH syndrome patients demonstrate normal ornithine levels despite having known mutations. Considering the delayed rise of ornithine in affected patients, genetic testing, and repetitive metabolic testing is needed to prevent patient loss in high risk patients.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.49-66
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• 2016

This study investigated the song-induced autobiographical memory of patients with early Alzheimer's Dementia (AD) by comparing the effects of patient-selected songs (M-AD) versus music therapist-selected songs (M-MT). A total of 19 patients with early AD participated in this study. In the M-AD and M-MT conditions, each participant listened to a song and was instructed to recall memory. The time to recall memory, the specificity of the memory, mood changes, and the type of recalled memory were measured. Perceived familiarity and preference of the used songs and association of the song with the recalled memory were also analyzed. The results of the study showed that the M-AD condition elicited more specific memory and positive mood change than the M-MT condition. In addition, AD patients reported a higher level of familiarity with and preference of songs in the M-AD condition, compared to the M-MT condition. These results indicate that patient-selected songs, which have a personal meaning to an individual, could be effectively used for intervening with memory of this population, which would support music therapists to make better decision with regard to song selection. Further studies would be needed to deepen the understanding of autobiographical memory in older population with cognitive impairment and to propose more effective music therapy strategies for intervening with memory.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.111-118
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• 2018

This study is a qualitative analysis that conducted a focus group interview to analyze the experiences of daily life of the elderly living alone and their chronic diseases management, and to explore the meaning, nature, and difficulties associated with. The subjects of this study were elder who lives alone without cognitive impairment and over 65-year-old. There were total 31 people and divided into 5 groups and they had 60 minutes interview. By this study, there were four themes of 'difficulties of daily life', 'suffering from chronic diseases', 'fear of the future', 'acceptance of life'. In conclusion, the elderly living alone felt difficulty in daily life due to physical aging and chronic illnesses, and they felt that they were accepting life at the same time while feeling the fear of the future situation. Therefore, in order to improve the life satisfaction and life quality of elderly people living alone, it is necessary to provide institutional devices that enable daily life such as meals and laundry to be maintained and to develop of an intervention program in order to maintain physical health. In addition, an intervention program should be developed to reduce the fear of future uncertainty and positively accommodate the life.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2005.12a
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• pp.87-94
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• 2005

Results from previous studies revealed that metal level in the body is related to certain types of diseases. For example. serum copper level with chronic heart failure, iron and transferrin in the blood serum with acute cerebral vascular diseases, Zn in the CNS, lead with neurotoxicity, hypertension, genetic damage, arsenic with cancer skin lesion, Al with neurobehavioral function (cognitive impairment and memory disorder), and etc. The rate of stroke has increased in recent years and several metals were found to be responsible for causing stroke. This study compared several blood metal concentrations between stroke and non-stroke patients. Patients with stroke (116 samples) and non-stroke (111 samples including lowback pain and others) participated in this study. Total of 227 blood samples were collected and participants completed questionnaires regarding age, gender, occupation, residence, alcohol, smoking, and etc. To be qualified into the stroke group, patients have never experienced stroke previously. Subjects only included ischemic stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage patients diagnosed by brain CT and brain MRI. Patients with high risk of metal exposure such as herbal intake and job related exposure were excluded. 10ml of blood samples were analyzed by ICP-MS method at the Center of Nature and Science at Sangji University. Metal geometric mean (SD) concentrations in blood of study subjects showed higher values, 2.64-36.12%, than WHO reference values in Mn, Ni, Hg, Se, and As. Metal concentration in blood of stroke patients non-adjusted for potential confounders was higher except for Hg and also higher except for Ni in adjusted for potential confounders. Co was significantly higher in stroke patients (p=0.002) than non-stroke patients adjusted for potential confounders. Regression coefficient values of stroke patients was 0.17-8.25 in each metals. Odd ratio of stroke patients had 0.96 (Ni)-2.68 (Co) compared to non-stroke cases. This result means that Co increase of 1 raises the risk ratio of stroke by 2.86 times. Based on the results, metal concentration in blood seems to affect incidence of stroke.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.524-537
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• 2017

This study examined the relationship between the sociodemographic characteristics, health related factors, physical functions (ADL, IADL), mental functions (CES-D, MMSE-K), oral health impact profile (OHIP-14), and the quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) for the elderly in long-term care facilities. The research was conducted in 602 facility allowance beneficiaries authorized to be eligible for long-term care in long-term care facilities through personal interviews using a structured questionnaire from May 1 to June 30, 2016. As a result, the quality of life was lower among females than males in the group receiving government subsidies than the group whose livelihood was maintained by themselves or their children, in the group with a longer period of care, in the drinking group than the non-drinking group, in the group with irregular exercise than the regular exercise, in the group with irregular meals than regular meals, in the group with poor subjective health conditions than good subjective health condition, in the group with a smaller number of daily toothbrushing, in the group with xerostomia than no xerostomia, in the group with a lower OHIP-14, in the group with a lower ADL and IADL, and in the group with a lower CES-D and MMSE-K. In particular, the quality of life was affected more by health-related factors and CES-D and MMSE-K than by other factors. Therefore, it is necessary to make efforts to prevent depression and cognitive impairment, including health-related behavior, with the objective of improving the quality of life for the elderly in long-term care facilities.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.21-36
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• 1996

This study was attempted to investigate reliability and validity of premenstrual assessment form(PAF). PAF was administered to 230 high school students who had reported premenstrual changes. PAF revealed considerable diversity in premenstrual symtom changes of the subjects. The items with most frequent reported premenstrual changes were 21 items out of 95. Cronbach's internal consistency was .95, and test-retest reliability was .80. Validity test was performed by constructional validation analysis. 8 factors(impulsive & unstable factor, depressive factor, withdrawal & social functioning impairment factor, anxiety & cognitive dysfunction factor, physiological factor, general discomfort factor, increased well-being factor, other factor) emerged at factor analysis. Each of them accounted for 33.97, 5.10, 3.70, 2.93, 2.64, 2.46, 2.12, 2.03 of total variance respectively. High school students experienced impulsive & unstable features of premenstrual symptoms more frequently. This study suggests PAF can be a reliable and valid tool as a initial screening and evaluation of premenstrual changes. finally, factor analysis result was compared with PAF typological categories.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.1384-1390
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• 2012

It is well known that the exercising and stimulating of fingers have an important bearing on the brain. We take note of the fact and develope a game device for improving one's health and brain ability in respect of the education and training. Especially, we develope the device focused on the balanced exercising of five finger for improving brain function. The game device is possible to used in two-ways, namely online and off-line mode. In online mode, the device is connected with other visual devices such as smart phone and smart TV and communicated with Bluetooth and it is used as a MMI(multi-modal interface) device. Whereas, in off-line mode the game device works independently and it makes possible to enjoy auditorial and tactual games without video images for promotion of brain activity and emotional cultivation. For certification of the device, we implement two games(a fishing game for off-line mode and a shooting game for online mode) for people of all age, especially good for the elderly. It is usable as a game device to offering the elderly a great help for preventing impairment of the cognitive functions.