• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.18
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• pp.7875-7878
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• 2014

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the awareness of breast cancer risk factors among female university students in 24 low, middle income and emerging economy countries. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 10,242 undergraduate university students (mean age 20.7, SD=2.9) from 25 universities in 24 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas. Using anonymous questionnaires the awareness of links between breast cancer and heredity, diet, overweight, exercise, alcohol use, smoking and stress was assessed. Results indicated that 35.4% of the women were not aware that any of these risk factors could influence breast cancer, 43.8% were aware of a genetic link, and only 12.5%, 10.9% and 10.6% correctly identified alcohol use, overweight and physical inactivity, respectively, as factors causing breast cancer. Moreover, 13.3% rated dietary fat and 11.5% fibre as influencing breast cancer; both low-fat and high-fibre diets may be weakly protective against breast cancer, and smoking (19.4%) and stress (13.5%), the most commonly chosen breast cancer lifestyle risk factors, have less clear impact on breast cancer. There were marked country differences, e.g., in regards of being aware of genetic causes of breast cancer risk in female students from Ivory Coast, India, Madagascar, Nigeria and Laos below 30% and female students from Pakistan, Singapore, Turkey, Grenada and Philippines 60 or more percent. This study provides insight in the breast cancer risk perception of young women, which can be utilized in breast cancer awareness and prevention programmes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.859-862
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• 2015

In view of funding crunches and inadequate manpower in cytology in developing countries like India, single lifetime screening for cervical cancer has been suggested. In this study, an attempt was made to cscreening to make it more effective for early detection. Cytological data were derived from the ongoing routine cervical cytology screening program for women attending Gynaecology Out Patient Department of Queen Mary's Hospital of K.G.Medical University, Lucknow, India during a span of 35 years (April 1971 - December 2005). Cervical smears in a total of 38,256 women were cytologically evaluated. The frequencies of squamous intraepithelial lesions of cervix (SIL) and carcinoma cervix were found to be 7.0% and 0.6%, respectively, in the series. Predisposing factors related to cervical carcinogenesis were analyzed in detail to establish the most vulnerable groups of women for single life time screening. The incidence of SIL and carcinoma cervix was found to be maximal in women above the age of 40 years irrespective of parity and in multiparous women (with three or more children) irrespective of age. The incidence of cervical cytopathologies was significantly higher in symptomatic women, the frequency of SIL being alarmingly higher in women complaining of contact bleeding and that of carcinoma cervix in older women with postmenopausal bleeding. It is consequently felt that single life time screening must include the three groups of women delineated above. Such selective screening appears to be the most economical, cost effective and feasible approach to affordably control the menace of cervical cancer in developing countries like India.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.397-406
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• 2014

Maize is a socioeconomically important crop in many countries. Recently, a high incidence of stalk rot disease has been reported in several maize fields in Gangwon province. In this report, we show that maize stalk rot is associated with the fungal pathogens Fusarium subglutinans and F. temperatum. Since no fungicides are available to control these pathogens on maize plants, we selected six fungicides (tebuconazole, difenoconazole, fluquinconazole, azoxystrobin, prochloraz and kresoxim-methyl) and examined their effectiveness against the two pathogens. The in vitro antifungal effects of the six fungicides on mycelial growth and colony formation were investigated. Based on the inhibition of mycelial growth, the most toxic fungicide was tebuconazole with 50% effective concentrations ($EC_{50}$) of < $0.1{\mu}g/ml$ and $EC_{90}$ values of $0.9{\mu}g/ml$ for both pathogens, while the least toxic fungicide was azoxystrobin with $EC_{50}$ values of 0.7 and $0.5{\mu}g/ml$ for F. subglutinans and F. temperatum, respectively, and $EC_{90}$ values of > $3,000{\mu}g/ml$ for both pathogens. Based on the inhibition of colony formation by the two pathogens, kresoxim-methyl was the most toxic fungicide with complete inhibition of colony formation at concentrations of 0.1 and $0.01{\mu}g/ml$ for F. subglutinans and F. temperatum, respectively, whereas azoxystrobin was the least toxic fungicide with complete inhibition of colony formation at concentrations > $3,000{\mu}g/ml$ for both pathogens.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 2022

Cordyceps militaris, a well-known traditional Chinese medicine, has multiple health-promoting effects. It is used as a herbal remedy and health food in Asian countries. Cultured mycelia are often used as a substitute for natural C. militaris. In the present study, the mycelia and fruiting bodies of artificially cultured C. militaris were analyzed using a metabolomics approach. The protein and crude fat contents of the mycelia were substantially higher than those of the fruiting bodies. The top three abundant amino acids in the mycelia were proline (3.9 g/100 g), aspartic acid (2.9 g/100 g), and glutamic acid (2.7 g/100 g). The carbohydrate content was similar in the fruiting bodies and mycelia. Analysis revealed that both the fruiting bodies and mycelia are rich in phenolic compounds and exhibit antioxidant activity. Further, six metabolites were significantly different between the mycelia and fruiting bodies. The levels of Ca, glucose, Mg, and Se were higher in the mycelia than in the fruiting bodies. In contrast, mannitol and Zn were more abundant in the fruiting bodies. The current study provides a comprehensive metabolic profile of the mycelia and fruiting bodies of artificially cultured C. militaris. Such an exercise is potentially important for understanding the metabolism of C. militaris and facilitating the use of cultured mycelia as a supplement to C. militaris fruiting bodies in traditional Chinese medicine.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 1971

Nutritional anemia is an important nutritional problem affecting large population groups in most developing countries. Nutritional anemia is caused by the absence of any dietary essential involed in hemoglobin formation or by poor absorption of these dietary components. The most likely causes are lack of dietary iron, and folate, vitamin $B_{12}$ and high qualify protein. Anemia is considered to be a late mainfeastation of nutritional deficiencies, and even mild anemia is not the earilest sign of such a deficiency. Therefore, the object of therapy is to correct underlying deficiency rather than merely its manifestation. Iron deficiency anemia is generally much the most common form of anemia. And it is very prevalent particularly in pregnant women and young children, especially under five year of life. According to the rapid growth rate of infants, dietary iron should he provided for infants over three months of age in adequate amounts for the synthesis of hemoglobin required by the increasing blood volume and for the demands of newly formed cells. The principal causes of iron deficiency anemia are an inadequate dietary iron content, interference with absorption of iron from the intestine, excessive losses of iron from the body, disturbance of iron metabolism by infection, and social and cultural environments. The present study is planned to obtain informations concerning nutritional anemia through anthropometric and biochemical determinations for the assessment of nutriture in pre-school children. Determination was taken in 226 pre-school children in ruraI arae in 1968, 122 pre-school children in 1970, and 1526 hospitalized pre-school children in 1970. The results of this study are as follows; (1) According to Iowa Malnutrition Borderline (85 percentile) for weight, the proportions of underweighed pre-school boys and girls in rural area were 47.2% and 46.2% in1968, and were 36.1% and 51.8% in 1970. According to Iowa Malnutrition Borderline for height, the proportions of underheight boys and girls in rural area were 30.5% and 33.7%, and were 26.2% and 21.8% in 1970. Malnutrition scores of underweight for height values of boys and girls in rural area were 19.3 and 17.3 in 1968, and the scores of boys and girls were 15.6 and 15.5 in 1970. (2) The mean hemoglobin values of boys and girls in rural area were $11.2{\pm}1.8g/100ml\;and\;11.4{\pm}1.6g/100ml$ in 1968. In 1970, the mean values of boys and girls in rural area were $11.3{\pm}1.3g/100ml\;and\;11.7{\pm}2.4g/100ml$. The mean hemoglobin values of hospitalized boys and girls were $11.9{\pm}2.2g/100ml\;and\;11.7{\pm}2.4g/100ml$ in 1970. It is found that 92 of 215 children (42.7%) in rural area had concentrations of hemoglobin less than 11.0g/100ml in 1968. In 1970, 55 of 121 children (45.4%) in rural area and 559 of 1526 hospitalized children (36.6%) had concentrations of hemoglobin less than 11.0g/100ml. (3) The mean hematocrit levels of hospitalized boys and girls were $35{\pm}26.8%\;and\;35.4{\pm}6.4%$ in 1970. And 443 of 1334 hospitalized children (33.2%) had hematocrit values below 33%. (4) The average mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration levels of hospitalized boys and girls were $32.4{\pm}2.2\;and\;32.3{\pm}2.2$ in 1970. And 1016 of 1352 hospitalized children (75.1%) had the mean corpuscular hemoglobin values below 34. (5) The mean iron values of young children in rural area and hospitalized children were $62.0{\pm}6.3{\mu}g/100ml\;and\;60.7{\pm}22.8{\mu}g/100ml$. The proportions of anemia cases below $50{\mu}g/100ml$ in rural area was 37.9%, and 34.3% in hospitalized children. (6) The mean total iron binding capacity of young children in rural area was $376{\pm}57.88{\mu}g/100ml,\;and\;342.2{\pm}6.15{\mu}g/100ml$ in hospitalized children. (7) The average transferrin saturation percentage of young children in rural area was $16.9{\pm}4.7%,\;and\;18.0{\pm}8.4%$ in hospitalized children. The proportions of anemia cases below 15% of young chi1dren in rural area and hospitalized children were 48.3% and 41.2%. Therefore, authors wish to recommend that the following further studies should be undertaken: (1) Standardization of simplied laboratory examination of nutritional anemia. (2) The prevalence of nutritional anemia and the requirements of iron, folate, and vitamin $B_{12}$ of pre-school children. (3) The content and absorption of iron in Korean food. (4) The pathogenesis of nutritional anemia and prevention of parasitic disease. (5) Maternal health and nutrition education.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.81-90
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• 2015

Purpose: Group A rotavirus (RV) is most common etiologic agent of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in children worldwide. Recently, vaccination has been introduced in several countries to reduce the disease burden caused by RV infections, but continuous surveillance of RV strains is necessary to detect the emergence of potential variants induced by vaccine-immune pressure. This study aimed to investigate the changing pattern of RV genotypes in children with AGE, following the introduction of vaccination in Korea. Methods: Genotyping of RVs by RT-PCR on the basis of VP7 and VP4 gene segment sequence was carried out on 201 rotavirus-positive stool samples, from children hospitalized with AGE between August 2009 and June 2013. We have directly sequenced PCR products and analyzed the phylogenetic tree. Results: The most prevalent G genotype was G9 (33.3%), followed by G1 (22.4%), G3 (15.9%), G2 (6.0%), G4 (3.0%), G10 (1.5%), and mixed G-type (15.4%), with some nontypeable cases (2.5%). The detected P genotypes were P[4] (45.3%), P[8] (43.8%), mixed P-type (10.4 %), and P[2] (0.5%). The G9P[4] genotype was predominantly observed in hospitalized cases in Seoul in 2010/2011, however G1P[8] has been re-emerged as the predominant genotype in the following season (P =0.004). Conclusions: It seems that the periodic fluctuation in predominance of the G1, G3, and G9 strains occurred in Korea during 2009-2013, following the introduction of RV vaccination.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.477-481
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• 2015

Giardia is a major public health concern and considered as reemerging in industrialized countries. The present study investigated the prevalence of giardiosis in 202 sheltered dogs using PCR. The infection rate was 33.2% (67/202); Gyeongsangbuk-do and Daejeon showed 25.7% (39/152, P<0.0001) and 56% (28/50), respectively. The prevalence of infected female dogs (46.7%, P<0.001) was higher than in male dogs (21.8%). A higher prevalence (43.5%, P<0.0001) was observed in mixed breed dogs than purebred (14.1%). Although most of the fecal samples collected were from dogs of ${\geq}1$ year of age which showed only 27.4% positive rate, 61.8% (P<0.001) of the total samples collected from young animals (<1 year of age) were positive for G. intestinalis. A significantly higher prevalence in symptomatic dogs (60.8%, P<0.0001) was observed than in asymptomatic dogs (23.8%). Furthermore, the analysis of nucleotide sequences of the samples revealed that G. intestinalis Assemblages A and C were found in the feces of dogs from Gyeongsangbuk-do and Daejeon. Since G. intestinalis Assemblage A has been known to infect humans, our results suggest that dogs can act as an important reservoir of giardiosis in Korea. Hence, hygienic management should be given to prevent possible transmission to humans.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.387-391
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• 2008

Green tea is popular plants in Asian countries and has become more widespread in western countries due to its taste characteristics and health benefits. Apart from green tea leafs, however, the use of root and seed of green tea tree has not intensively been investigated yet. In this study, the contents of mineral, vitamin, total amino acid, free amino acid, and total polyphenol (catechin, caffeic acid, and chlorogenic acid) of the root and seed of green tea tree were analyzed for the development of healthy foods. For minerals, potassium contents were 1,052 and 1,480 mg/100g-dry weight of root and seed, respectively. The order of mineral contents were as follows: K > P > Ca > Mg > Na > Fe > Mn > Zn > Cu in root and K > P > Na > Ca > Mg > Mn > Fe > Cu > Zn in seed. For vitamins, vitamin C contents were 5.72 and 6.05 mg/100g-dry weight of root and seed, respectively. The presence of more various kinds of vitamins were observed in seed than in root. For total amino acids, the contents were 1,651 and 4,335 mg/100g-dry weight of root and seed, respectively. The total amino acid contents of seed and root were higher than those in commercial green tea products. Especially the phenylalanine contents were 16 and 139 mg/100g-dry weight of root and seed, respectively whereas phenylalanine was not found in commercial green tea products. Concerning free amino acids, the bitter tasting amino acids such as arginine, valine and tryptophan were more abundant in root and the sweet tasting ones such as glutamic acid, alanine, aspartic acid, and serine were more abundant in seed. The total polyphenol contents were 237 and 81 mg/100g-dry weight of root and seed, respectively. The polyphenol contents in root were three times higher than that in seed so root may be a better source for antioxidant ingredients than seed. Among many polyphenols, catechin, caffeic acid, and chlorogenic acid were the top three major components.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.25-35
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• 2011

In order to reduce Green House Gas(GHG) reduction in the road freight sector and thus establish green logistics, running efficiency of goods vehicles is of paramount importance. Providing effective transportation infrastructure can contribute to achieve the green logistics by reducing empty running of heavy goods vehicles and van, increasing the average payload on the vehicle, and shifting the transportation mode. In order to reduce the environmental impact from the road freight sector, it is essential to quantify the amount of environmental loading from the sector. However, any systematic survey on the environmental loading from the logistics companies has not been carried out in Korea. In this study, the environmental index for the road freight sector is defined as the amount of $CO_2$ emission per ton km generated from goods vehicles. The computational analysis shows that the average $CO_2$ emission per ton km generated by the logistics companies in Korea is $363g-CO_2/ton{\cdot}km$. Compared to UK (=$130g-CO_2/ton{\cdot}km$) and France (=$97g-CO_2/ton{\cdot}km$), the efficiency of logistics in Korea is 2.8 and 3.7 times as low as in the advanced countries. It also indicates that the main reasons for the low efficiency are mainly due to the high rate of empty operation of goods vehicles and the low payload.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1285-1295
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• 2017

Chrysanthemum boreale Makino is widely distributed in Korea, China, Japan and Southeast Asian countries. C. boreale is one of the herbs used for treating various inflammatory diseases in oriental medicine. The present study was conducted to identify biologically active compounds from the leaves and stems of C. boreale. We isolated two sesquiterpene sactones from the leaves and stems of C. boreale using silica gel column chromatography and recyclic high perfomance liquid chromatography. The lactones were characterized by their spectroscopic data (NMR, IR, MASS). These compounds were subjected to Farnesyl Protein Transferase (FPTase) inhibition, Nitric Oxide (NO) release inhibition and apoptosis inhibition. The structur of the following isolated compound were elucidated 8,10-${\small{O}$-Acetyl-2-methoxy-10-hydroxy-3,11(13)-guaiadiene-12,6-olide and 4,10-dihydroxy-8-${\small{O}$-Acetyl-2,11(13)-guaiadiene-12,6-olide. In the NO release inhibition assay, compound 2 showed strong activities, with an $IC_{50}$ value of $7{\mu}g/mL$, whereas compound 1 did not exhibit significant activity with an $IC_{50}$ value of over $14{\mu}g/mL$ against murine macrophage.