• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.530-539
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• 2001

Background : Bronchial asthma is an inflammatory disease of the airways that is associated with airway remodeling. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent, multifunctional cytokine that contributes to angiogenesis and inflammation. Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) is a major proteolytic enzyme that in duces bronchial remodeling in asthma. However, there is no data available on the possible role of the VEGF or on the potential relationship between the VEGF and MMP-9 in acute asthma. Therefore, the VEGF was studied to determine whether or not it participates in airway inflammation during acute asthma. An additional aim of this study was to determine whether or not the VEGF levels correlated with the MMP-9 levels in the sputum of acute asthma patients. Methods: Both the VEGF and MMP-9 levels were measured by an enzyme immunoassay and zymographic analysis in the sputum of patients with either stable asthma or with acute asthma. The VEGF and MMP-9 levels were also evaluated during a spontaneous asthma attack. Results : The VEGF levels were significantly higher in the sputum of acute asthmatic patients than in either the stable patients the control subjects. The VEGF levels in the sputum during asthma exacerbation were significantly higher than those on the remission days, and those levels decreased after asthma therapy. In acute asthmatic patients, the VEGF levels in the sputum correlated with the number of neutrophils and eosinophils. In addition, a significant correlation was established between the VEGF and MMP-9 levels in the sputum. Conclusion : These results suggest that VEGF overproduction is associated with airway inflammation during acute asthma and is related to the MMP-9 function.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.501-509
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• 2012

The dietary intake of whole grains is known to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. In our previous study, hog millet (HM, $Panicum$ $miliaceum$ L.) water extract showed the highest anti-lipogenic activity among nine cereal types in 3T3-L1 cells. In this study, the effect of hog millet water extract on hepatic steatosis and lipid metabolism in mice fed a high fat diet was investigated. Mice were fed a normal-fat diet (ND), high-fat diet (HFD) or HFD containing 1% or 2% (w/w) HM for 7 weeks. Body weight and food intake were monitored during the study period. Insulin resistance by homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR), fasting lipid profile, hepatic fatty acid metabolism-related gene expression determined, and intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IGTT) were performed at the study's end. The results indicated that 1% and 2% HM diets effectively decreased liver weights, blood TG and T-cholesterol levels (p<0.05), while the HDL-cholesterol level was increased (p<0.05) compared to HFD-induced steatotsis mice. Hepatic lipogenic-related gene ($PPAR{\alpha}$, L-FABP, and SCD1) expressions decreased, whereas lipolysis- related gene (CPT1) expression increased in animals fed the 2% PME diet (p<0.05). In addition, mice fed 1% or 2% HM diet had markedly decreased IGTT and HOMA-IR, compared to the those of the HFD-induced hepatic steatosis control group (p<0.05). These results indicated that HM inhibited hepatic lipid accumulation by regulating fatty acid metabolism, and suggested that HM is useful in the chemoprevention or treatment of high fat-induced hepatic steatosis and hepatic steatosis-related disorders including hyperlipidemia, glucose sensitivity, and insulin resistance.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 2014

Objectives: Depression, sleep complaints and cognitive impairments are commonly observed in the elderly. Elderly subjects with depressive symptoms have been found to show both poor cognitive performances and sleep disturbances. However, the relationship between sleep complaints and cognitive dysfunction in elderly depression is not clear. The aim of this study is to identify the association between sleep disturbances and cognitive decline in late-life depression. Methods: A total of 282 elderly people who underwent nocturnal polysomnography in a sleep laboratory were enrolled in the study. The Korean version of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery developed by the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD-K) was applied to evaluate cognitive function. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the geriatric depression scale (GDS) and subjective sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburg sleep quality index (PSQI). Results: The control group ($GDS{\leq}9$) when compared with mild ($10{\leq}GDS{\leq}16$) and severe ($17{\leq}GDS$) depression groups, had significantly different scores in the Trail making test part B (TMT-B), Benton visual retention test part A (BVRT-A), and Stroop color and word test (SCWT)(all tests p<0.05). The PSQI score, REM sleep duration, apnea-hypopnea index and oxygen desaturation index were significantly different across the three groups (all indices, p<0.05). A stepwise multiple regression model showed that educational level, age and GDS score were predictive for both TMT-B time (adjusted $R^2$=35.6%, p<0.001) and BVRT-A score (adjusted $R^2$=28.3%, p<0.001). SCWT score was predicted by educational level, age, apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and GDS score (adjusted $R^2$=20.6%, p<0.001). Poor sleep quality and sleep structure alterations observed in depression did not have any significant effects on cognitive deterioration. Conclusion: Older adults with depressive symptoms showed mild sleep alterations and poor cognitive performances. However, we found no association between sleep disturbances (except sleep apnea) and cognitive difficulties in elderly subjects with depressive symptoms. It is possible that the impact of sleep disruptions on cognitive abilities was hindered by the confounding effect of age, education and depressive symptoms.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.79-95
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• 1998

The purpose of this study was to investigate the sanitation affairs of general restaurants. The questionnaire survey on the attitude and knowledge toward sanitation, the attitude for sanitary administration and the sanitary education was conducted against new 600 restaurateurs who were educated from June 20 to July 11, 1996, at the administration hall's division of Kyungsangbook-do in charge of food industry that offered regular sanitary education to new restaurateurs annually. And the visit survey on sanitary practice was also conducted over 93 restaurateurs who obtained the commercial license for food service business. The findings from the survey were as follows; In regard to food sanitation, some 87.1 to 88.3% got the right knowledge about the reason and precaution of food poisoning, food's frozen or cold-storage, and the disposal of products after expiration of validity term. But it was about 20.8% to 50.0% who knew right about major precaution, storage temperature in refrigerator, fermented milk product's storage temperature and validity term. There was therefore a necessity for education in food sanitation. 38.2% of the subjects placed an emphasis on sanitary storage of foodstuffs as the most important thing in sanitary management. 33.8% emphasized cooking sanitation. The environmental sanitation was counted as the most important thing by 19.2%, and personal sanitation of worker was counted by 8.8%. There was differences in what they thought the most important thing was, according to the respondent's educational level and cooker. 86.6% replied it necessary to improve the sanitary level. The respondents who were younger or had better educational level emphasized more the need for it. Concerning health examination, 90.2% replied it necessary. 81.4% answered the reason was because there was a potentiality Quests might be infected with contagious disease. 78.5% pointed the need for sanitary education, but respondents with higher educational level less emphasized its needs. As the reason for poor sanitation, restaurateur's poor awareness about it was most frequently pointed out, by 46.9%. Cooking sanitation was most frequently counted, by 38.5%, as the first thing to be improved. As the most critical point in sanitary education, 34.5% indicated food's sanitary Quality control 30.9% mentioned sanitary treatment of kitchen facilities and peripheral environment, and 27.1% emphasized the summary of the general food sanitation. 77.7% answered to correct immediately in case of violating the Food Hygiene Law, and 12.0% replied to correct in the same case if they would get the order from public official or administrative action would be taken. Respondents with higher educational level answered more to correct immediately. What they wanted the government office to do toward sanitary improvement was a fund aid an facilities and management which was pointed out by 38.9%, a periodical sanitary education by 26.3% and a on-the-spot guidance of sanitary officials by 22.3%. In view of the food service business's sanitary practice, the rate of wearing a sanitary clothes was 32.9% in city and 35.0% in county. The rate of hand-washing without soap or non-washing at cooking was 73.9%, 85%, respectively. The rate of personnel sanitation was 34.2% in city and 50.0% in county. These things indicated the sanitation was not well practiced. To improve the poor sanitary conditions of the food service businesses, it is recommended to offer institutional backing and financial aid from administrative office, and encourage restaurateurs to take pride in their job. and conduct the sanitary education effectively by sanitary education institution.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.129-155
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• 2008

The rate of antibiotics prescription for an acute airway infection significantly varies depending upon the diagnosis type, specialty, and the location of the hospital along with many other related factors. The objective of this study is to empirically investigate the possible relationship between the antibiotics prescription rates for an acute airway infection and the degree of competition in the hospital market regions of mainly the providers of primary medical care services such as clinics, internal medicines, pediatrics and otorhinolaryngology department. Using the data from Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) regarding the hospitals' antibiotics prescription rates for the acute airway infection and controlling for selected variables of demand and supply sectors, this study tries to figure out that the degree of competition in the hospital market, regardless of what type of competition indexes we employed, has a statistically significant effect on the variations of antibiotics prescription rate of the clinics in local areas. This result implies that as an economic consideration itself, the change in the degree of competition in the hospital market can play a crucial role influencing the treatment behaviors of the medical doctors. More specifically, this study reveals that as the degree of competition increases the antibiotics prescription rate goes up. This result means that if the market becomes more competitive in a specific region so that it might cause a reduction in doctor's income, doctors with rational decision-making process, recognize that the benefit created from inducing patients' seemingly unnecessary demand for medical care (income effect) would be higher than the costs associated with sustaining their targeted income (substitution effect). It is because that the doctors are more likely to prescribe antibiotics which create relatively higher margins than other medical care services in order to sustain their targeted income when the hospital market competition becomes tighter. Even though this study empirically confirms that antibiotics prescription can be affected by the economic incentives, it still raises following issues as limitations of the study: first issue is about the representativeness of the hospital regions segregated for this study, which might be weak in explaining whether these regions are mutually exclusive in reality. Patients actually consider the quality of services, transportation cost, time costs, and any other related factors choosing the doctors or hospitals, and in that sense, this study rules out 'border-crossing' in using the medical care services. Second issue arises in capturing the data of antibiotics prescription rate. Since we use the average rate for each medical institution, we cannot figure out the average rate for each patient so that we are not able to control for the variation of patients' medical conditions. It is because of the unavailability of data regarding each patient's medical condition from HIRA. Thirdly, since this study mainly analyzes the medical institutions providing primary care such as clinics, internal medicines, pediatrics, and otorhinolaryngology department, it is skeptical of whether those institutions can represent the hospital market in respective regions and truly reflect the degree of competition. It needs to extend the study areas and disease types as well as any micro data for future studies.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.278-283
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• 2013

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide and the number of women breast cancer patient was increased continuously. Most of breast cancer patient has suffered from unnecessary radiation exposure to heart, lung. Low radiation dose to the heart could lead to the worsening of preexisting cardiovascular lesions caused by radiation induced pneumonitis. Also, several statistical reports demonstrated that left-sided breast cancer patient showed higher mortality than right-sided breast cancer patient because of heart disease. In radiation therapy, Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) technique which the patient takes a deep inspiration and holds during treatment and could move the heart away from the chest wall and lung, has showed to lead to reduction in cardiac volume and to minimize the unnecessary radiation exposure to heart during treatment. In this study, we investigated the displacement of heart using DIBH CT data compared to free-breathing (FB) CT data and radiation exposure to heart. Treatment planning was performed on the computed tomography (CT) datasets of 10 patients who had received lumpectomy treatments. Heart, lung and both breasts were outlined. The prescribed dose was 50 Gy divided into 28 fractions. The dose distributions in all the plans were required to fulfill the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurement specifications that include 100% coverage of the CTV with ${\geq}95%$ of the prescribed dose and that the volume inside the CTV receiving >107% of the prescribed dose should be minimized. Scar boost irradiation was not performed in this study. Displacement of heart was measured by calculating the distance between center of heart and left breast. For the evaluation of radiation dose to heart, minimum, maximum and mean dose to heart were calculated. The present study demonstrates that cardiac dose during left-sided breast radiotherapy can be reduced by applying DIBH breathing control technique.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.131-136
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• 2013

The effects of fixed and variable relative humidity on fruiting body formation and characters of Pleurotus eryngii were investigated with normal and thinning treatment plots. In fixed relative humidity, as humidity was lower, period of harvest was longer as well as days for pinheading in the both of normal and thinning plots. In the normal plot, qualities of mushroom were 5.5, 5.8, and 6.3 and yield was 98.6 g per bottle for 90% relative humidity, it was best. In the thinning plot, qualities of mushroom were 7.7, 8.4, and 8.5 and yields were 102.1, 105.8, and 116.9 g at 70, 80, and 90% respectively. In variable relative humidity with a thinning plot, the yield of P. eryngii on condition I(>90% for 1 day ${\rightarrow}$ 85% until thinning(for about 11 days) ${\rightarrow}$ 80%) and III(>90% until pin-heading(about for a week) ${\rightarrow}$ 85% until thinning(about for 5 days) ${\rightarrow}$ 80%) were 85.5 and 87.8 g per bottle, and qualities were 7.8 and 8.0 respectively. For long shelf life and a cultural control of bacterial soft rot disease, the condition I will be more largely adopted by mushroom farmers.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.1149-1157
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• 2017

Inflammation is the first response of the immune system to infection or irritation in our body. The use of medicinal plants has been widely applied as an alternative source for drug development. One of marine natural resources, the anti-inflammatory effect of Ishige sinicola ethanol extract (ISEE), was evaluated by using LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cell and mice model. As a result, the production of nitric oxide (NO) and pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-$1{\beta}$, TNF-${\alpha}$) were inhibited with increasing concentration of ISEE without any cytotoxicity. Furthermore, ISEE suppressed the expression of not only inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-${\kappa}B$) p65, and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), including extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2, p38, and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in a dose-dependent manner. In mice ear edema test, the formation of edema was reduced at the highest dosage of ISEE and the reduction of the number of infiltrated mast cells was observed in histological analysis. These results indicate that ISEE has a potent anti-inflammatory activity and can be used as a pharmaceutical material for many kinds of inflammatory disease.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.99-112
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• 2000

This survey was conducted to assess the utilization of health center including health sub-center and community health post and the health service demand of residents in a urban and rural unified community. Officials in Up·Myun·Dong offices visited randomly sampled 4,027 households(4.6% of total households in unified City) which included 3,337 households in urban area(4.9% of total households) and 690 households in rural area(3.7% of total households) and interviewed with heads or housewives of the households in September, 1995. There were significant differences in health-related demographic characteristics including age-sex distribution, educational level, period of residence in the community and medical insurance status of the interviewees between urban and rural areas. Of the respondents, 64.8% in urban area and 55.6% in rural replied that they had utilized the health center in the past. The most common purpose for visiting the health center was to get vaccination in urban area and to get outpatient care in rural area. The top priority health center activity that needs to be reinforced was communicable disease control and over 90% of the respondents preferred to have mobile clinic and home health care service in were also highly demanded. Eighty-six percent of the urban respondents replied that a health sub-center must be established in urban area. In the rural area, 90.3% of the respondents replied that they wanted to maintain the health sub-center and 88.3% wanted to maintain the community health post. Along with the improvement of facilities and equipments of the health center by Rural Health Service Improvement Project, new health service programs must be developed to meet the demand of the community.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2003

Objectives: This study was performed to evaluate the pesticide exposure status and acute pesticide poisoning symtoms among agricultural workers at Gangwon-do province alpine area. Alpine area was defined as the area higher than 400m. Methods: We analyzed 257 interviwed questionnaire about pesticide exposure, acute pesticide poisoning symptoms and other variables. Results: The result was shown that agricultural workers at alpine area used more pesticide than general agricultural workers for annual usage days(35.9 days vs 14.4 days), daily usage hours(6.7 hrs vs 2.8hrs, p<0.05). But there was no difference between general and alpine agricultural worker's herbicide exposure. Moreover, the alpine agricultural worker's acute pesticide poisoning symtom score was higher than general agricultural worker's. These difference was also found at result of regression analysis, under control the age, sex, monthly income. Most frequently suffered symptom was headache and dermatological problems. The symptom prevalence of dermatological problem, headache, general weakness, eye irritation, nausea were higher among alpine agricultural workers than general agricultural workers. Conclusions: As a result, agricultural workers at alpine area were more exposed to pesticide and suffered from pesticide poisoning symptoms. To prevent the symptoms and disease from pesticide exposure among agricultural workers at alpine area, more research and political effort will be needed.