• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2013

Microglia play a role in maintaining and resolving brain tissue homeostasis. In pathological conditions, microglia release pro-inflammatory cytokines and cytotoxic factors, which aggravate the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. Autophagy pathway might be involved in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and cytotoxic factors in microglia, though details of the mechanism remain largely unknown. In the present study, we examined the role of the autophagy pathway in activated BV2 microglia cells. In BV2 cells, rapamycin treatment activated the formation of anti-LC3-labeled autophagosomes, whereas the ATG5 depletion using siRNA-ATG5 prevented the formation of LC3-labeled autophagosomes, indicating that BV2 cells exhibit an active classical autophagy system. When treated with LPS, BV2 cells expressed an increase of anti-LC3-labeled dots. The levels of LC3-labeled dots were not suppressed, instead tended to be enhanced, by the inhibition of the autophagy pathway with siRNA-ATG5 or wortmannin, suggesting that LPS-induced LC3-labeled dots in nature were distinct from the typical autophagosomes. The levels of LPS-induced expression of iNOS and IL6 were suppressed by treatment with rapamycin, and conversely, their expressions were enhanced by siRNA-ATG5 treatment. Moreover, the activation of the autophagy pathway using rapamycin inhibited cell death of LPS-stimulated microglia. These results suggest that although microglia possess a typical autophagy pathway, the glial cells express a non-typical autophagy pathway in response to LPS, and the activation of the autophagy pathway suppresses the expression of iNOS and IL6, and the cell death of LPS-stimulated microglia.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.49-58
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• 2019

There was a difference in recognition of chemical substances according to cognitive level of GHS, knowledge level of organic solvents and each department of workers. they were showed higher recognition of chemical substances by research group, partially group and good group. To identify the relationship between types of job classification(group of department, group of GHS cognitive level and group of organic solvents knowledge level) and the levels of recognition of chemical substances, a total of 153 workers in a small and medium business workplace. Descriptive statistics(SAS ver 9.2)was performed. the results of recognition of chemical substances were analyzed the mean and standard deviation by t-test, and anova, (P=0.05). These results In general, small- and medium-sized workplaces have low levels of GHS awareness and organic solvents knowledge. The perception of chemical substances according to the departments. In general, the demand for chemical substances education was highly suggested regardless of the job type. There was a significant difference in the perception of health, safety and practice according to the level of GHS cognitive, and a high perception in the incomplete group. There was not much difference in average awareness of health, safety and practice according to organic solvents knowledge level, but there was a high perception in good group. It is very important to regularly check the worker's perception of the workplace and identify problems with the work environment and improve the work environment. In addition, each department presents appropriate safety and health education such as chemical process safety, toxicity of chemical substances and human exposure. We also propose a chemical substances assessment and management plan that integrates safety and health.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 2021

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate functional disability for the elderly in rural Korea and to identify influencing factors of functional disability. Methods : The data were collected for 76 community-dwelling elderly in rural area and above 65 years. We assessed cognitive function, functional disability, depression using LACLS, WHODAS 2.0, SGDS-K. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics for general characteristics of subjects, Spearman's correlation among LACLS, SGDS-K, WHODAS 2.0, age, educational levels. And multiple regression was used to find influencing factors of functional disability. Results : As a result of this study, we identified that WHODAS 2.0 total score was 50.59, summary score was 9.94 and functional disability of the elderly in rural area is in the 70^th percentile. The highest level of disability occurred in areas related to 'life activities (household)', 'participation in society' and the lowest level of disability occured in areas of 'self-care', 'getting along with people'. Functional disability was significantly correlated with age (r=.398), cognitive function (r=-.547), depression (r=-.563) but not educational levels (r=-.215). Finally, we confirmed that depression (𝛽=.371), cognitive function (𝛽=-.263), widowed status (𝛽=.303), age (𝛽=.272), non-participation of community program (𝛽=.165) was significantly influencing factors of functional disability and the explanatory power of these factors was 52.80 %. Conclusion : This study revealed important factors of functional disability. Therefore, we need to consider these factors when we developed program related to health for the elderly (aged > 65 years) in rural Korea. Further, we need to standardize WHODAS 2.0 in order to enhance its applicability in clinical practices.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.24-34
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• 2023

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) at high concentrations induce oxidative stress, an imbalanced redox state that is a prevalent cause of neurodegenerative disorders. This study aimed to investigate the protective effect of Capsosiphon fulvescens (CF) extract on oxidative stress-induced impairment of cognitive function in models of neurodegenerative diseases. CF was extracted with subcritical water and several solvents and H₂O₂ (0.25 mM) or aluminum chloride (AlCl₃; 25 µM) as an inducer of ROS was treated in PC12 neuronal cells and zebrafish larvae. All statistical analyses were performed using one-way analysis of variance and Dunnett's test using GraphPad Prism. H₂O₂ and AlCl₃ were found to significantly induce ROS production in PC12 neuronal cells and zebrafish larvae. In addition, they strongly affected intracellular Ca²⁺ levels, antioxidant enzyme activity, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB) signaling, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, and hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. However, treatment of H₂O₂-induced PC12 cells or AlCl₃-induced zebrafish larvae with CF subcritical water extract at 90℃ and CF water extract effectively regulated excessive ROS production, intracellular Ca²⁺ levels, and mRNA expression of superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxide, glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta, β-amyloid, tau, AChE, BDNF, and TrkB. Our study suggested that CF extracts can be a potential source of nutraceuticals that can improve the impairment of cognitive function and synaptic plasticity by regulating ROS generation in neurodegenerative diseases.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.922-936
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) teaching strategy on cognitive levels, science concept understanding, argumentation and writing skills. 131 students attending to co-ed middle school were selected for the study and assigned to the experimental and comparative group. The teaching strategy using SWH was applied to the experimental group, while the traditional one led by teacher's lecturing was applied to the comparative group. The cognitive level test (SRT II) and baseline test were administered before the instruction period. The summary writing test and SRT II test were administered after instruction. The results showed that there was a significant difference between two groups in cognitive levels and science concept understanding, whole argumentation and writing skills. However, there was no significant difference in some argumentation components, including warrant, backing, qualifier, rebuttal, metacongnitive question. The results of this study showed the possibility of implementation of SWH in science classroom teaching.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.399-413
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• 1998

This study is based upon the survey for the GALT(Group Assessment of Logical Thinking) full version and short version used in the science education researches for investigating the cognitive levels of students in secondary schools. The main discussions include the annual trends of two GALT versions appeared in the research papers, the distributions of the students' cognitive levels obtained by two GALT versions, the purposes of the GALT used in the researches, and the results of two GALT versions applied to the same group of high school students. The summarized results are as follows. The frequency of the GALT short version used in the research papers has been increased recently relative to that of the full version. For the same grade students, the fraction of students in the formal operational cognitive level obtained from the GALT short version was always bigger than those obtained from the full version. The purposes of the GALT employed in the researches are classified into two groups. One group includes the papers in which the subjects were subgrouped into three cognitive levels from GALT results and it was used as an independent variable to analyze the dependent variable. In this case, the analyzed results might be altered depending on the version of GALT used. The other one includes the papers in which the GALT results were used as a covariable or the GALT scores were used directly without subgrouping the subjects by cognitive levels. For this group, the research results would not depend on the GALT version. When both of the GALT versions were tested on the same group of students with two months interval, the fraction of formal operational level obtained from the short version was bigger than that obtained from the full version.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.422-431
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• 2002

Because of the gap between the cognitive levels of the students and the curricular materials for the students to understand, the secondary school students feel science difficult and they get to avoid science as they go up to the higher grade. So it is absolutely needed to take the active measures to improve the cognitive development of the students through some special programs stimulating their cognitive process. This study investigated the effects of thinking science activity program devised for cognitive acceleration of the students. After implementing thinking science program to 181 7th grade students, the effectiveness of this program was examined through the analysis of covariance of both experimental and control groups. The result of the study showed that the cognitive level of the students in experiment group dealt with thinking science program was more accelerated than that of the students in control group who were just taught regular science curriculum. Especially, the effect was clear to the students in stages 1 and 2B. It was also found that the percentage of the students who promoted from concrete operational stage to formal operational stage was higher in experimental group than in control group. The results of the study implied that cognitive acceleration of the students might be possible through the specially designed materials such as thinking science program.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.402-411
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• 2017

To develop a more efficient computer-based empathy program that enables medical students to increase their empathy levels, and to test its applicability to medical students. We developed PACP (the Pain Assessment Computer Program) for measurement of medical students' levels of recognition of another's pain. An empathy questionnaire was administered to 145 medical students before and after the PACP. In the high empathy group, the scores for cognitive empathy increased significantly after completion of the PACP, while affective empathy scores showed no significant change. In contrast, in the low empathy group, both cognitive and affective empathy scores increased significantly after the PACP. The PACP effectively increased cognitive empathy for the high empathy group, and increased both cognitive and affective empathy, particularly for the low empathy group. Given the fact that existing empathy education programs are time-consuming and costly, and the demand for more efficient empathy education is high, the PACP as a useful tool can be applicable to medical students, particularly those with low empathy in order to enhance their empathic abilities within a short period of time.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.268-277
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• 2017

This study was performed to determine the level of physical health(ADL, IADL) and mental health (cognitive impairment, dementia) among centenarians and to find the related factors. The study subjects were 268 centenarians who received medical check-ups from the National Health Insurance Corporation during 2011-2014. From the results, the factors that significantly influenced the ADL of the study subjects were gender, residential area, IADL, cognitive impairment and dementia. ADL and cognitive impairment were selected as the influencing factors of IADL, smoking status, ADL and IADL were selected as the influencing factors of cognitive impairment, and gender and ADL were selected as the influencing factors of dementia. These results suggested that the levels of physical and mental health of the centenarians were significantly affected by socio-demographic characteristics and health-related variables. Especially, the levels of physical and mental health were decreased with the poor group of health-related variables such as smoking, alcohol drinking and regular exercise.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.199-207
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• 2018

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Fermented Laminaria japonica (FL), a type sea tangle used as a functional food ingredient, has been reported to possess cognitive improving properties that may aid in the treatment of common neurodegenerative disorders, such as dementia. MATERIALS/METHODS: We examined the effects of FL on scopolamine (Sco)- and ethanol (EtOH)-induced hippocampus-dependent memory impairment, using the Passive avoidance (PA) and Morris water maze (MWM) tests. To examine the underlying mechanisms associated with neuroprotective effects, we analyzed acetylcholine (ACh) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, brain tissue expression of muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR), cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) and extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2), and immunohistochemical analysis, in the hippocampus of mice, compared to current drug therapy intervention. Biochemical blood analysis was carried out to determine the effects of FL on alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), and triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC) levels. 7 groups (n = 10) consisted of a control (CON), 3 Sco-induced dementia and 3 EtOH-induced dementia groups, with both dementia group types containing an untreated group (Sco and EtOH); a positive control, orally administered donepezil (Dpz) (4mg/kg) (Sco + Dpz and EtOH + Dpz); and an FL (50 mg/kg) treatment group (Sco + FL50 and EtOH + FL50), orally administered over the 4-week experimental period. RESULTS: FL50 significantly reduced EtOH-induced increase in AST and ALT levels. FL50 treatment reduced EtOH-impaired step-through latency time in the PA test, and Sco- and EtOH-induced dementia escape latency times in the MWM test. Moreover, anticholinergic effects of Sco and EtOH on the brain were reversed by FL50, through the attenuation of AChE activity and elevation of ACh concentration. FL50 elevated ERK1/2 protein expression and increased p-CREB (ser133) in hippocampus brain tissue, according to Western blot and immunohistochemistry analysis, respectively. CONCLUSION: Overall, these results suggest that FL may be considered an efficacious intervention for Sco- and EtOH-induced dementia, in terms of reversing cognitive impairment and neuroplastic dysfunction.