• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.593-603
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• 2023

Background: Korean Red Ginseng is a major source of bioactive substances such as ginsenosides. Efficacy of red ginseng extract (RGE), which contains not only saponins but also various non-saponins, has long been studied. In the water-soluble component-rich fraction of RGE (WS), a byproduct generated in the process of extracting saponins from the RGE, we identified previously unidentified molecules and confirmed their efficacy. Methods: The RGE was prepared and used to produce WS, whose components were isolated sequentially according to their water affinity. The new compounds from WS were fractionized and structurally analyzed using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Physiological applicability was evaluated by verifying the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory efficacies of these compounds in vitro. Results: High-performance liquid chromatography confirmed that the obtained WS comprised 11 phenolic acid and flavonoid substances. Among four major compounds from fractions 1-4 (F1-4) of WS, two compounds from F3 and F4 were newly identified in red ginseng. The analysis results show that these compound molecules are member of the maltol-structure-based glucopyranose series, and F1 and F4 are particularly effective for decreasing oxidative stress levels and inhibiting nitric oxide secretion, interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that a few newly identified maltol derivatives, such as red ginseng-derived non-saponin in the WS, exhibit antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, making them viable candidates for application to pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and functional food materials.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.418-438
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• 2023

Objective: This study was conducted to review the effects of herbal medicine on respiratory diseases induced by the treatment of particulate matter in in vivo animal models. Methods: Literature searches were performed in seven databases (Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Library, KISS, KTKP, OASIS, and ScienceON). After the searched studies were screened based on the inclusion/exclusion criteria, the publication date, origin, used animals, induction of particulate matter models, herbal medicine used for intervention, study design, outcome measure, and results of studies were analyzed. Results: Among a total of 972 studies primarily searched, 34 studies were finally included in our study. Of this number, 29 studies induced animal models by using only particulate matter, and 5 studies induced animal models with respiratory diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, by using particulate matter and other materials. In the selected studies, the treatments of herbal medicine in particulate matter models suppressed oxidative stress and inflammation in lung tissue, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and blood as well as lung injury in histological analysis. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that herbal medicine is effective in treating respiratory diseases induced by particulate matter. These results are also expected to be useful data for designing further studies. However, more systematically designed in vivo studies related to particulate matter are needed.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.217-232
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• 2023

Numerous studies have been performed on the behavior of pile foundations in cold regions. This study first attempted to employ artificial neural networks (ANN) to predict pile-bearing capacity focusing on pile data recorded primarily on cold regions. As the ANN technique has disadvantages such as finding global minima or slower convergence rates, this study in the second phase deals with the development of an ANN-based predictive model improved with an Elephant herding optimizer (EHO), Dragonfly Algorithm (DA), Genetic Algorithm (GA), and Evolution Strategy (ES) methods for predicting the piles' bearing capacity. The network inputs included the pile geometrical features, pile area (m²), pile length (m), internal friction angle along the pile body and pile tip (Ø°), and effective vertical stress. The MLP model pile's output was the ultimate bearing capacity. A sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the optimum parameters to select the best predictive model. A trial-and-error technique was also used to find the optimum network architecture and the number of hidden nodes. According to the results, there is a good consistency between the pile-bearing DA-MLP-predicted capacities and the measured bearing capacities. Based on the R2 and determination coefficient as 0.90364 and 0.8643 for testing and training datasets, respectively, it is suggested that the DA-MLP model can be effectively implemented with higher reliability, efficiency, and practicability to predict the bearing capacity of piles.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.298-307
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• 2023

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to analyze the recent trends in patients with work-related musculoskeletal disorders in South Korea and to check the major results by reviewing the literature on the risk factors and prevalence of musculoskeletal diseases related to work. Methods: Industrial disaster data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor from 2012 to 2021 were used, and the literature was reviewed regarding risk factors for musculoskeletal diseases related to work using PubMed and RISS. Results: The trend of patients with work-related musculoskeletal disorders has increased overall since 2017 after declining until 2016, with a particularly notable increase in the average annual number of patients with physical burden work. The average annual rate per ten thousand people for patients with body burden work, non-accidental lower back pain, and carpal tunnel syndrome among work-related diseases was high in the mining industry. The average annual rate per ten thousand people for patients with accidental lower back pain was the highest in the fishing industry. Within the manufacturing field, it was the highest in the shipbuilding and ship repair industry. As a result of the literature review, the search rate for work-related musculoskeletal disease papers in unstructured work was high. In addition, physical stress factors were high among risk factors, and pain areas showed a high rate for the waist. Conclusion: Even after the institutional implementation of a hazard investigation system related to musculoskeletal diseases is implemented, the number of patients with occupational musculoskeletal disorders continues to increase. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct regular surveys and implement effective improvement activities for vulnerable industries or occupations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.26 no.6_3
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• pp.1297-1303
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• 2023

Research on enhancing the mechanical strength, lightweight properties, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity of composite materials by incorporating nano-materials is actively underway. Thermoplastic resins can change their form under heat, making them highly processable and recyclable. In this study, Polyamide-Nylon 6 (PA6), a thermoplastic resin, was utilized, and as reinforcing agents, fused carbon nano-materials (FCN) formed by structurally combining Carbon Nanotube(CNT) and Graphene were employed. Nano-materials often face challenges related to cohesion and dispersion. To address this issue, Silane functional groups were introduced to enhance the dispersion of FCN in PA6. The manufacturing conditions for the composite materials involved determining the use of a dispersant and varying FCN content at 0.05 wt%, 0.1 wt%, and 0.2 wt%. Tensile strength measurements were conducted, and FE-SEM analysis was performed on fracture surfaces. As a result of the tensile strength test, it was confirmed that compared to pure PA6, the strength of the polymer composite with a content of 0.05 wt% was improved by about 60%, for 0.1 wt%, about 65%, and for 0.2 wt%, the strength was improved by 50%. Also, when compared according to the content of FCN, the best strength value was shown when 0.1 wt% was added. The elastic modulus also showed an improvement of about 15% in the case of surface treatment compared to the case without surface treatment, and an improvement of about 70% compared to pure PA6. Through FE-SEM, it was confirmed that the matrix material and silane-modified nanomaterial improved the dispersibility and bonding strength of the interface, helping to support the load evenly and enabling effective stress transfer.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.87-94
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• 2007

Reuse of recycled aggregate from demolished concrete structure is beneficial and necessary from the viewpoint of environmental preservation and effective utilization of resources. The most important mechanical properties of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) are the compressive strength, the tensile and the flexural strengths, the bond strength and the elastic modulus of such concrete. In particular, the stress-strain relation and fracture process of RAC in compression is especially important in theoretical and numerical analysis as well as engineering design of RAC structures. In this paper, to clarify the characteristics of fracture process in RAC, acoustic emission(AE) method is applied to detect micro-cracking in concrete under compression. From AE parameters, it is found that cracking and fracture behaviors in recycled aggregate concrete fairly differ from that of normal and recycled sand concrete.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.18 no.2 s.92
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• pp.257-266
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• 2006

Flat-plate building systems are utilized extensively for construction of apartments, hotels and office buildings because of short construction period, low floor-to-floor height and flexibility in plan design. Recently, to increase lateral seismic resistance of flat-plate building systems, wall-columns are used frequently. Therefore, to estimate strength of flat-plate column connection accurately, the effect of column section shape on the behavior of flat-plate column connection should be considered properly, In the present study, a numerical analysis was performed for interior connections of continuous flat-plate to analyze the effect of column section shape. For the purpose, a computer program for nonlinear FE analysis was developed, and the validity was verified. Through the parametric study, the variations of shear stress distribution around the connection were investigated. According to the result of numerical analysis, as the length of the cross section of column in the direction of lateral load increases, the effective area and the maximum shear strength providing the torsional resistance decrease considerably. Therefore, these effects should be considered properly to estimate the strength of flat-plate connection accurately.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.68-73
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• 2016

Ammonia is very toxic, and causes neuronal damage via excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, and inflammation. Because the liver is the primary organ for ammonia metabolism, compromised liver function can result from inborn errors of metabolism. Measurement of blood ammonia has some limitations. Recently, several laboratories examined possible concurrent increases in plasma ammonia. However, the collection, handling, storage, and analysis of blood samples are all potential sources of error. For evaluation of rapidity and reliability of measurement of blood ammonia, the DRI-CHEM 100 (Fuji Film Co., Japan) and COBAS 8000 (Roche Diagnostic Ltd., Switzerland) analyzer were used for analysis of ammonia level values. The results of this study detected a high correlation between analyzer. Therefore, one-step measurement was suitable for ammonia analysis. After sampling of the ammonia in the time slot for measurement an increase to 46.5, 57.4, and 79.0 (${\mu}g/dL$) was observed at 30, 90, and 180 minutes. In addition, specific capacity of the ammonia, 7, 10, and 13 (${\mu}L$), was measured as 39, 46, and 43 (${\mu}g/dL$), respectively, and the FDC-100 analyzer was more effective in $10{\mu}L$ (p<0.001). In conclusion, the evaluated analysis may offer useful information for clinical application.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.277-288
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• 2015

This study aims to identify determinants affecting on geographic variations in the prevalence of arthritis in Korean women using data mining. Data from Korean Community Health Survey 2012 with 249 small districts were analyzed. Socio-demographic, health behavior and status, and morbidity status measures were analyzed using conventional regression model and convergence analysis method such as decision tree for convergence analysis. Rate of workers in agriculture, forestry, and fishing, salaried workers, persons higher than high school graduates, non-treatment of needing care, non-treatment of care because of economic reason, obesity, heavy drunkers, complaining persons of chewing difficulty, persons with experiencing depression, persons with perceiving stress, and persons with diagnosing hypertension and angina pectoris were variation determinants of prevalence of arthritis in 249 small districts and these districts were classified 10 area groups by decision tree model. Our finding suggest that the approach based characteristics by small area groups rather than national wide or individual level would be effective to reduce in variations of prevalence of arthritis.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.34-34
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• 2012

Heavy storms rainfall has caused many landslides and slope failures especially in the mountainous area of the world. Landslides and slope failures are common geologic hazards and posed serious threats and globally cause billions in monetary losses and thousands of casualies each year so that studies on slope stability and its failure mechanism under rainfall are being increasing attention of these days. Rainfall-induced slope failures are generally caused by the rise in ground water level, and increase in pore water pressures and seepage forces during periods of intense rainfall. The effective stress in the soil will be decreased due to the increased pore pressure, which thus reduces the soil shear strength, eventually resulting in slope failure. During the rainfall, a wetting front goes downward into the slope, resulting in a gradual increase of the water content and a decrease of the negative pore-water pressure. This negative pore-water pressure is referred to as matric suction when referenced to the pore air pressure that contributes to the stability of unsaturated soil slopes. Therefore, the importance is the study of saturated unsaturated soil behaviors in evaluation of slope stability under heavy rainfall condition. In an actual field, a series of failures may occur in a slope due to a rainfall event. So, this study attempts to develop a numerical model to investigate this failure mechanism. A two-dimensional seepage flow model coupled with a one-dimensional surface flow and erosion/deposition model is used for seepage analysis. It is necessary to identify either there is surface runoff produced or not in a soil slope during a rainfall event, while analyzing the seepage and stability of such slopes. Runoff produced by rainfall may result erosion/deposition process on the surface of the slope. The depth of runoff has vital role in the seepage process within the soil domain so that surface flow and erosion/deposition model computes the surface water head of the runoff produced by the rainfall, and erosion/deposition on the surface of the model slope. Pore water pressure and moisture content data obtained by the seepage flow model are then used to analyze the stability of the slope. Spencer method of slope stability analysis is incorporated into dynamic programming to locate the critical slip surface of a general slope.