• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.400-403
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• 2015

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: By the year 2050, thirty-eight percent of the Korean population will be over the age of 65. Health care costs for Koreans over age 65 reached 15.4 trillion Korean won in 2011, accounting for a third of the total health care costs for the population. Chronic degenerative diseases, including coronary heart disease (CHD), drive long-term health care costs at an alarming annual rate. In the elderly population, loss of independence is one of the main reasons for this increase in health care costs. Korean heath policies place a high priority on the prevention of CHD because it is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. SUBJECTS/METHODS: This evidence-based study aims to the estimate potential health care cost savings resulting from the daily intake of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation. Potential cost savings associated with a reduced risk of CHD and the medical costs potentially avoided through risk reduction, including hospitalizations and physician services, were estimated using a Congressional Budget Office cost accounting methodology. RESULTS: The estimate of the seven-year (2005-2011) net savings in medical costs resulting from a reduction in the incidence of CHD among the elderly population through the daily use of omega-3 fatty acids was approximately 210 billion Korean won. Approximately 92,997 hospitalizations due to CHD could be avoided over the seven years. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that omega-3 supplementation in older individuals may yield substantial cost-savings by reducing the risk of CHD. It should be noted that additional health and cost benefits need to be revisited and re-evaluated as more is known about possible data sources or as new data become available.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.249-255
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• 1996

In this paper, a in situ hybridization(ISH) has been used to investigate the yield of viral RNA expression from each organ tissues. It is studied to establish a rapidly, specific diagnostic method detecting rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus(RHDV) RNA in 10% formalin-fixed, paraffin-em-bedded tissues of naturally RHDV-infected rabbits using oligonucleotide probe to be made by RHDV total sequences. Biotin was used as the oligonucleotide probe marker. in situ hybridization is detected the virus genome in the cells and tissue as specifically compared with others nucleic acid hybridization method. All ISH procedure of RHDV were completed to Mi-croProbe$^{TM}$ capillary action system within 1-2 hours. In this report, RHDV was distributed widely in the cytoplasm of liver cell and the cortex of kidney but lung tissue and medulla of kidney were showed to positive reaction at locally. Although not entirely free of technical limitations, nucleic acid identification holds advantages over other diagnostic tests, including exquisite sensitivity, specificity, interchangeability and speed. It is expected that, in the immediate future viral nucleic acid detection will be a prominent part of the methods used in histopathology.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.714-720
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• 2012

With the help of information technology, it is the most important to collect clinical data correctly in clinical trials. For this, recently, in many pharmaceutical companies and Clinical Research Organizations (CRO) have tried to adopt an Electronic Case Report Form (eCRF) system. The eCRF system is a computerized system designed for collecting and managing clinical data in clinical trials. Although the eCRF is recognized as a significant system for clinical trials, until now there are no widely useable, due to the huge effort and expense at the initiatory stage of adopting eCRF system. In this study, we inquired the use of eCRF system developed for clinical trial at Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine. Especially, we focused on the time required for entering clinical data into the eCRF, hours of use, and the number of queries according to the time flow.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.366-374
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• 2013

Anti-diabetic activities of cultured mycelia from Ganoderma applanatum are being evaluated in this study. The OGTT and 4-weeks of repeated oral efficacy tests are conducted in mice at the doses of 0 (vehicle treatment), 25, 75 and 225 mg/kg/day, respectively. In human study, the test article was administered orally every day for 8-week at a dose of 1,500 mg/kg, tid and placebo group. The blood glucose levels (BGL) at 0.5 hour after treatment are significant decreased in all treatment groups of OGTT test. In the 4-week test, BGL of 75 and 225 mg/kg/day group is continuously decreased during all treatment periods and the BGL of 25 mg/kg/day group show decreasing trends at the final week, the pancreas weight of all treatment groups are being increased, and the Langerhans-islet numbers were increased at all treatment groups with a dose-response manner. There are no test article-related abnormal signs and the fasted blood glucose (FBG), postprandial blood glucose (PPG) and HbA1c are decreased significantly after 8-week treatments. These results that the cultured mycelia from Ganoderma applanatum could decrease BGL by protecting the degeneration of Langerhans islets.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.305-312
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• 2021

Background: Butterflies make an important part for plant-pollinator guild. These are nectar feeder or occasionally pollen feeder and thus proboscis of the butterfly species are considered as one of the most important variable in relation to the collection of food from plants. In butterfly-plant association, nectar source is principally determined by quality of nectar, corolla length, and nectar quantity. For the butterfly, nectar uptake is determined by proboscis length because flowers with long corolla restrict butterfly species containing shorter proboscis. Empirical studies proved that butterfly species with high wing loading visit clustered flowers and species with low wing loading confined their visit to solitary or less nectar rich flowers. The present study tries to investigate the flower preference of butterfly species from Lycaenidae family having very short proboscis, lower body length, lower body weight and wing span than the most species belonging from Nymphalidae, Pieridae, Papilionidae, and Hesperiidae. Results: Butterflies with shorter proboscis cannot access nectar from deeper flower. Although they mainly visit on less deeper flower to sucking nectar, butterflies with high wing loading visits clustered flowers to fulfill their energy requirements. In this study, we demonstrated flower choice of seven butterfly species belonging to Lycanidiae family. The proboscis length maintains a positive relationship with body length and body weight. Body length maintains a positive relationship with body weight and wing span. Wing span indicate a strong positive relationship with body weight. This study proved that these seven butterfly species namely Castalius rosimon (CRN), Taracus nara (TNA), Zizinia otis (ZOT), Zizula hylax (ZHY), Jamides celeno (JCE), Chilades laius (CLA), and Psuedozizeeria maha (PMA) visit frequently in Tridax procumbens (TPR), Ocimum americanum (OAM) and Syndrella nodiflora (SNO). The species do not visit Lantana camara (LCA) and Catharanthus roseus (CRO) plants. Conclusion: The present study proved that butterfly species visits frequently in Tridax procumbens (TPR), Ocimum americanum (OAM) but less frequently in Syndrella nodiflora (SNO). So, that study determined the butterfly species helps in pollination of these herbs that in turn helps the conservation of these butterfly species.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.688-693
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• 2002

Molecular chaperones prevent the misfolding of newly synthesized polypeptides in the cell. The coexpression of molecular chaperones could be expected to improve the production of soluble and active recombinant proteins. In this study, the effect of coexpression of E. coli GroEL/ES chaperone on the active production of Bacillus macerans cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) in E. coli was investigated. Two plasmids, pTCGT1 and pGro7 in which the cgt and the groEL/ES genes are under the control of 77 promoter and araB promoter, respectively, were co-transformed into E. coli. With a series of cultures of recombinant E. coli cells, the optimal concentrations of IPTG and L-arabinose were found be 1 mM and 0.3 mg/$m\ell$, respectively. When IPTG and L-arabinose were added at 0.8~1.0 $OD_{600}$ and 0.4~0.5 $OD_{600}$, active CGTase production was increased significantly. This coexpression condition resulted in 1.5-fold increased level of soluble CGTase (0.7~0.73 unit/$m\ell$), compared to the level of CGTase in the single expression (0.36~0.56 unit/$m\ell$). An SDS-PACE analysis revealed that about 33.6% of CGTase in the total CGTase protein was found in the soluble fraction by coexpression of GroEL/ES chaperone.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.236-246
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• 2014

Purpose: Walnut is known to have unique favorable fatty acids, phytochemicals, and other nutrient profiles. As a result, there has been growing interest in evaluation of its health benefit related to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although inverse associations of nut consumption and risk factors of cardiovascular disease have been reported in many epidemiological studies and qualitative reviews, few meta-analysis studies have been reported. This meta-analysis was conducted in order to evaluate the effect of a walnut-enhanced diet on CVD risk factors. Methods: We searched Pubmed, Cochrane, Science Direct, and KISS (Korean studies Information Service System) through July 2014. A random-effects meta-analysis was conducted on 17 trials reporting total cholesterol (TC), 14 trials reporting LDL cholesterol (LDL-C), 15 trials reporting HDL cholesterol (HDL-C), 17 trials reporting triglyceride (TG), and four trials reporting flow-mediated dilation (FMD). Results: In meta-analysis, intake of a walnut-enhanced diet resulted in significantly lowered TC, LDL-C, and TG by -0.124 mmol/l (95% CI, -0.209, -0.039; p = 0.004), -0.085 mmol/lL (95% CI, -0.167, -0.004; p = l0.039), and -0.080 mmol/l (95% CI, -0.155, -0.004; p = 0.039), respectively. The overall pooled estimate of the effect on FMD was +1.313% (95% CI, 0.744, 1.882, p = 0.000). HDL-C was not affected by walnut intake. No statistical heterogeneity was observed for any analysis. Results of funnel plots and Egger's regression suggested a low likelihood of publication bias in all biomarkers (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Findings of this meta-analysis provide consistent evidence that walnut-enhanced diet intake reduces the CVD risk factors.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.75-82
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• 2003

The cellular responses of RDX-degrading bacterium, Pseudomonas sp. HK-6 to explosive hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) were examined. Strain HK-6 grown at different RDX concentrations was found to demonstrate the survival rate in proportional to the rate of the stress shock proteins produced in this bacterium. Analysis of total cellular fatty acid acids showed that lipids 10:0 iso and 14:1 $\omega$5c/$\omega$5t increased approx three times in strain HK-6 grown on RDX media than TSA media. SDS-PAGE and Western blot using anti-DnaK and GroEL revealed that several stress shock proteins including 70 kDa DnaK and 60 kDa CroEL were newly synthesized in strain HK-6 exposed to different RDX concentrations in exponentially growing cultures. 2-D PAGE of soluble protein fractions from the culture of HK-6 exposed to RDX demonstrated that approximately 300 spots were observed on the silver stained gel ranging from pH 3 to pH 10. As a result, 10 spots were significantly induced and expressed in response to RDX. Scanning electron microscopy fur the cells treated with 0.135 mM RDX for 12 hrs showed the presence of perforations and irregular rod shapes with wrinkled surfaces.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.1165-1176
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• 2019

Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs), produced by Clostridium botulinum, are the most toxic substances known. However, the number of currently approved medical countermeasures for these toxins is very limited. Therefore, studies on therapeutic antitoxins are essential to prepare for toxin-related emergencies. Currently, more than 10,000 Halla horses, a crossbreed between the native Jeju and Thoroughbred horses, are being raised in Jeju Island of Korea. They can be used for equine antitoxin experiments and production of hyperimmune serum against BoNT/A1. Instead of the inactivated BoNT/A1 toxoid, Halla horse was immunized with the receptor-binding domain present in the C-terminus of heavy chain of BoNT/A1 (BoNT/A1-HCR) expressed in Escherichia coli. The anti-BoNT/A1-HCR antibody titer increased rapidly by week 4, and this level was maintained for several weeks after boosting immunization. Notably, $20{\mu}l$ of the week-24 BoNT/A1-HCR(-immunized) equine serum showed an in vitro neutralizing activity of over 8 international units (IU) of a reference equine antitoxin. Furthermore, $20{\mu}l$ of equine serum and $100{\mu}g$ of purified equine $F(ab^{\prime})_2$ showed 100% neutralization of 10,000 $LD_{50}$ in vivo. The results of this study shall contribute towards optimizing antitoxin production for BoNT/A1, which is essential for emergency preparedness and response.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.459-473
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• 2021

Purpose: Although numerous systematic reviews or meta-analysis have reported the hypotensive effects of garlic, the application of these results in the area of functional food is limited. This is because the trials used various garlic preparations and patients with differing hypertensive intensities. To validate the use of garlic powder as a blood pressure lowering functional food, we performed the current meta-analysis, focusing on the study of prehypertensive subjects. Methods: Literature search was carried out using various database up to July 2020, including PubMed, Cochrane, ScienceDirect and Korean studies Information Service System, and each study was screened by pre-stated inclusion/exclusion criteria. We identified nine trials that met the eligibility, of which two studies with moderate or high risk of bias were excluded. Results: Meta-analysis of the seven studies revealed that an intake of garlic powder significantly lowered the systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by -6.0 mmHg (95% confidence interval [CI], -11.2, -0.8; p = 0.025) and -2.7 mmHg (95% CI, -5.3, -0.1; p = 0.046), respectively. Shapes of the funnel plot for both SBP and DBP seemed symmetrical, and the Egger's regression revealed no publication bias. Moreover, duration of the intervention period was inversely associated with the pooled effects of garlic powder on SBP (p = 0.019) and DBP (p = 0.019), and this result was supported by the subgroup-analysis. The daily dose of garlic powder, baseline value of each biomarker, and subject number, did not moderate the effects on SBP and DBP. Conclusion: Results of the present meta-analysis indicate that garlic powder supplements are superior to placebo for improving the BP in prehypertensive individuals.